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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
 Posted - 09/04/2009 : 08:35:50
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Rolling Stone.
Pixies' "Doolittle" Turns 20: Frank Black on
the Band's Return to the Road
Frontman on Kim Deal's quality control and flying first class
DAVID BROWNE Posted Sep 03, 2009 12:13 PM
For a band that went 11 years between live
performances, the Pixies are feeling awfully nostalgic
this fall. The gargantuan box set Minotaur (which
collects all their albums, plus extras like a concert
DVD, art work and other fan bait) is out next month,
and in November they're be celebrating the 20th
anniversary of their iconic Doolittle album by playing
the entire album all the way through on tour. We
checked in with Black Francis — or Frank Black, as
he's also known — about why the band is looking
back.
When did the Pixies start thinking about a Doolittle
tour?
There was some talk about doing it in London, but
we thought, "When you do that, it's sort of like
signifying you're officially retired." So we kind of
avoided that. We weren't even planning on doing it
this year. We got a call to open for Neil Young at the
Isle of Wight, and as soon as we said yes to that gig,
the phone wouldn't stop ringing. We wanted to do
some more shows, and it was a coincidence that it
was the 20th anniversary of Doolittle and also that
Minotaur was coming out. Someone said, "Hey, let's
do a Doolittle show!" We were kinda hesitant. We're
a little sensitive about milking the reunion thing to
death. We don't want to be seen as taking
advantage of all the good will. At the same time, we
are in show business and it is our right to go play —
at county fairs if we want to.
How much rehearsal will go into preparing for the
show?
The only songs we haven't played ever is "Silver,"
which was done in the studio during the mixing
period of the album. And we haven't played "There
Goes My Gun" in, like 14 years. But everything else
we've been more or less playing during the reunion
period. To flesh out the show, we're going to do all
the related B sides, five or six songs.
How difficult is it to recreate that music 20 years
later?
Well, fortunately, even at our most produced, say,
Bossanova or Trompe Le Monde, we kept the
arrangements simple enough that we could recreate
them live. There are a few overdubs on Doolittle, like
strings on one song, and I don't know what we're
going to do about that, but I don't think it's required.
It's not Sgt. Pepper. Two guitars, bass and drums will
suffice. Kim is the quality control. She goes, "No, no,
no — you don't strum it like that, you strum it like
this." She's very persnickety. Which is a delight. It
relieves the rest of us from having to do that.
Can you still do those screams "Debaser" and
"Tame"?
Oh yeah. It's actually easier.
Why is Doolittle your biggest album?
For people who wanted raw and primal, it fit the bill.
And for people who wanted it to be sonically full and
not haphazard sounding but sounding like it had real
vision, it satisfied those people. So it was twice as
many people. Before we recorded with Gil Norton, we
made a little demo and I remember lying on Joey
Santiago's living room floor in his apartment, going,
"Wow, we really did something special." And we
hadn't even made the record yet.
Do those kinds of memories come back when
you're playing the songs again?
That's a nice, romantic notion that might apply to
other people in the world, but it doesn't apply to me.
I could be thinking about anything. Mostly I'm tapping
into muscle memory. You're swinging your arm and
holding your finger in a certain position and putting
your voice in a certain position and you're trying to
emulate a recording you made a long time ago.
You're trying to find the right kind of nasal position so
your voice sounds right. You're trying to look like you
care. I'm not saying we don't care. We don't do a lot
of pandering. But we want to be respectful.
Why are so many bands doing these "album
concerts" now?
The music business is in flux so apparently lots of
people are out on the road now. Like my old man
used to say — he was in the bar business, and he
said the essence of what he did was to separate the
customer from as much of their money as he possibly
could. What's going to keep that customer sitting in
my bar for one more beer? That's what an artist's job
is at one point, beside the art part: How do I connect
with my patron? The obvious place is the concert
venue.
A lot of bands, from Steely Dan to Pixies, are
charging more for these shows than their regular
tours. What do you say to those kinds of grumbles?
People say, "Oh it's a money grab." But those
opinions are coming from people who aren't working
musicians. Musicians work really hard to get
wherever you can get. And for every time you get
paid a boatful of money, there's a hundred times you
were paid virtually nothing. It's like someone saying,
"You don't have the right to go up there on a stage
and sing your songs." My response would, be, "Go
fuck yourself." Are we making more money? Yeah. But
it's not because we're demanding more money. It's
because the patrons have converted other patrons.
We're going to fly first class and stay in a nice hotel
and people are gonna carry my guitars for me. Maybe
someone's who's really uptight and has as lot of
revolution in their soul might have a problem with
that. But I'm in fuckin' show business, man; I don't
work for the Peace Corps. I don't have anything
against people who work in the Peace Corps; God
bless ?em. But that's not what I do or who I am. It
has everything to do with entertainment and art and
show business.
How do you feel to have Doolittle considered on
the same level as Springsteen's Born to Run or Van
Morrison's Astral Weeks, which are both being
played resurrected in their entirety in concert?
What more does a musician want than to be in the
ranks of a certain club? We already are in a club to
some extent. But to be in a club of people who made
a record that was important? That's the whole
reason I'm doing this — because other people's
records were special to ME. Because Lust for Life or
the White Album or London Calling was important to
me. So, mission accomplished.
Photo: Martindale/Wireimage
Photo: Martindale/Wireimage
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matto
= Cult of Ray =
USA
954 Posts |
Posted - 09/04/2009 : 13:44:09
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thanks carl
brilliant
sminki pinki |
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fumanbru
* Dog in the Sand *
Canada
1462 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2009 : 00:52:27
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fantastic interview...this part is great....
A lot of bands, from Steely Dan to Pixies, are
charging more for these shows than their regular
tours. What do you say to those kinds of grumbles?
People say, "Oh it's a money grab." But those
opinions are coming from people who aren't working
musicians. Musicians work really hard to get
wherever you can get. And for every time you get
paid a boatful of money, there's a hundred times you
were paid virtually nothing. It's like someone saying,
"You don't have the right to go up there on a stage
and sing your songs." My response would, be, "Go
fuck yourself." Are we making more money? Yeah. But
it's not because we're demanding more money. It's
because the patrons have converted other patrons.
We're going to fly first class and stay in a nice hotel
and people are gonna carry my guitars for me. Maybe
someone's who's really uptight and has as lot of
revolution in their soul might have a problem with
that. But I'm in fuckin' show business, man; I don't
work for the Peace Corps. I don't have anything
against people who work in the Peace Corps; God
bless ?em. But that's not what I do or who I am. It
has everything to do with entertainment and art and
show business.
 "I joined the Cult of Frank/ cause I'm a real go-getter!"...long live snitz!! |
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Rolling Stone FB interview, Sep 03, 2009.
