| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
dayanara
* Dog in the Sand *
Australia
1811 Posts |
 Posted - 08/07/2004 : 21:05:24
|
In tomorrow's (Sunday's) paper. You have to logon to view it, so I will now illegally cut/paste for those of you who don't feel like doing it. However, there are some cool audio clips of The Man along with the article on the website.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/arts/music/08PARE.html
The Pixies Get Their Act Together
By JON PARELES
Published: August 8, 2004
LONDON
MIDWAY through one of their four instantly sold-out concerts in June at the Brixton Academy in London, the reunited Pixies charged into "Monkey Gone to Heaven," a song about apocalypse and faith. The audience — some who had seen the Pixies between 1986 and 1992, and an equal contingent of younger fans getting their first glimpse — all knew what to do as Frank Black started to sing the song's reverse countdown: "If man is five/ Then the devil is six/ And if the devil is six/ Then God is seven.
At 39, he looked less like a rock star than ever: bald, portly, dressed in a shapeless T-shirt. He barely glanced at Kim Deal, 43, the band's bassist and occasional singer. Yet as he worked his way from a strangled, nasal whine to a shriek, the whole room sang along, and thousands of hands shot into the air with fingers raised on cue: five, six, seven. The crowd couldn't have been more enthusiastic if the song, released in 1989, were in the current Top 10.
The Pixies have been rapturously received since they started touring in April, and have been one of the few unqualified successes in a summer filled with foundering tours. Reunions are a staple in the concert business, as acts from Simon and Garfunkel to the Eagles to Duran Duran to the Sex Pistols periodically reappear. Affection for the oldies is one draw; so is the possibility that every reunion is the last chance to see a group. Nostalgia seems to peak after two decades, and lately the postpunk bands of the 1980's have been regrouping — among them, Mission of Burma, which sold out a club tour last year and went on to make a new album.
But the response to the Pixies reunion has been greater by orders of magnitude. It wasn't just the shows in smaller venues that sold so briskly; more than 50,000 tickets were snapped up for the Pixies' day at the Coachella festival, and theaters around the United States have quickly sold out for multiple dates. The Pixies were to perform at the New York stop of the Lollapalooza Festival this month, which had already sold 11,000 tickets when the entire tour was canceled. Instead, they will have New York dates on Dec. 12 and 13 at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Meanwhile, the company DiscLive has been offering instant live recordings of every concert by the reunited group. Those CD's, in numbered limited editions of 1,000 or 2,000, are selling out, too, and turning into instant collectors' items available for handsome mark-up on eBay.
Charles Michael Kittredge Thompson IV, a k a Frank Black, who called himself Black Francis on the Pixies' recordings, claimed to be unimpressed. Pixies audiences were enthusiastic for most of the group's initial career, he said. Now, he added, there are more curiosity-seekers. "I'm wondering if there's a large section of the audience that kind of isn't really getting it," he said. "That's good. It gives us an opportunity to preach to the still-not-converted."
It's an arty underdog's attitude that seems to be a holdover from the band's first time around. The Pixies, who got started in Boston in 1986, became hit-makers in England and Europe. Yet in the United States, they never quite broke out of the collegiate rock circuit, even after they were signed to a major label, Elektra. Those who discovered the Pixies have cherished their catalog ever since. When the band played Coachella on May 1, one visitor's license plate read, "DEBASR," for "Debaser," the Pixies song about (among other things) the Surrealist film "Un Chien Andalou."
Black Francis's songs for the Pixies were terse but wild-eyed. As he sang about the Bible, science fiction, incest or immigration, the music could sound like punk or country, surf-rock or metal. Joey Santiago's lead guitar laced the music with twangy little hooks or solos that threatened to skid right out of the song; Ms. Deal answered Black Francis's hopped-up vocals with calm, airy responses, and David Lovering's drums paced the music from brisk to quasi-Latin to booming. Quiet verses suddenly gave way to howling, stomping choruses — a tactic that would be commandeered by the Pixies' most influential and grateful fan, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.
The songs are full of musical and verbal non sequiturs, but skewed as they were, a decade and a half later they sound like irrepressible pop. And at a time when rock has grown sodden with earnestness and self-pity, the Pixies' songs sound like a corrective; they're smart, lightheaded, profound and comic, and they rock with a vengeance.
That was the idea from the beginning. "I got exposed to some Surrealist films of the 1920's and 30's and 40's or whatever in college, read a couple of articles, attended a couple of lectures," Mr. Thompson said in an interview between shows in London. "And I applied all of that in a really fumbly kind of way to having a rock band. It was going to be quirky but in a really simple, brief, swift fashion. It was like, `Oh yeah, I'm going to add something or I'm going to take something away so that it's a little bit lopsided or whatever.' Because when it's just a foursquare thing, it at least stands a 50-50 chance of being boring, cliché-ridden, heard-it-before. When you lop off one corner of it, well, I don't know if it's boring or not. But it's definitely something that you've not heard before.
"Now people pursue rock music, and they go, `I have something important to say, and here's what it is, and ooh, I'm singing it from my heart, too.' And it's all too serious. And people totally miss out. They totally miss the fun, Jabberwocky, fun-with-language, fun-with-poetry."
From the beginning, the Pixies were diligent. They practiced five hours a day, four days a week, in Mr. Lovering's garage. "We wouldn't be able to play if we didn't figure out what we were going to play," Ms. Deal recalled. "We could not jam. I still can't jam."
They invested $1,500 to make a demo tape that eventually yielded songs for the band's punk-flavored 1987 debut EP, "Come On Pilgrim." With the producer Gil Norton polishing their dynamics, the Pixies went on to make two indelible albums, "Surfer Rosa" (1988) and "Doolittle" (1989), and two solid ones, "Bossanova" (1990) and "Trompe le Monde" (1991). And they toured steadily for five years, from hole-in-the-wall punk clubs to European rock festivals.
The grind of traveling gradually frayed the band. "It's intense being on tour," Mr. Thompson said. "You're cooped up in a bus with a bunch of different personalities — people you know, people you don't know. You're on a weird time schedule. Sometimes there's a lot of drinking and drugs and all, sleep deprivation. It's kind of a weird situation."
By the end of a final tour, opening for U2 and facing audiences that barely knew them, Mr. Thompson was no longer speaking to Ms. Deal. In 1992, he dissolved the Pixies via faxes sent from his manager's office. "If I would have called a meeting or something, then it would have just kind of devolved into this big discussion," he said " `Oh, come on, Charles. Don't do this right now.' And I just wasn't up for that. I was just, like, I'm done. I'm done. Goodbye. There's no discussion, you know what I mean?"
Ms. Deal went on to start the Breeders, who had a million-selling album in 1993 with "Last Splash" but struggled to follow through. Mr. Thompson renamed himself Frank Black and started writing more straightforward songs than his Pixies material; Mr. Santiago worked on and off with Frank Black's bands and started a band called the Martinis with Mr. Lovering in the mid-90's. More recently, Mr. Lovering gave up drums and was scraping out a living as a magician until the call came to rejoin the Pixies. He still keeps a deck of cards close at hand and has sometimes been the Pixies' opening act. "I love the Pixies," he tells crowds who may not recognize his name. "I've been to every one of their shows."
The Pixies reunion, Mr. Thompson said, started as a joke. Or maybe it wasn't exactly a joke, but some combination of wish and strategy. He isn't about to say. But last July, while on tour with his own band, he was doing an interview on a London radio station when he was asked the question he had been asked in every interview he had given for the last 12 years: Would the Pixies ever reunite? And for the first time, he allowed that there just might be the possibility of a reunion.
The news zipped across the Internet to fans who had been waiting since the Pixies ended their six-year career in 1992, and anticipation started to build. Mr. Thompson had joked with the interviewer that the Pixies were still jamming and working on new songs, but he also said that any time he envisioned a Pixies reunion, it was like the classic anxiety dream of being unprepared in public. Still, in August he quietly held some strategy meetings with his manager and booking agent. He called Mr. Santiago, who called Ms. Deal. "I just went, `Oh really?' " Ms. Deal said. "But Joe was telling me, `This could be a change of school district for me. This is important to me.' And because of that I said I'd do it."
The band members, now in their 30's and 40's, are temperate on tour these days. Over dinner, Mr. Thompson and Ms. Deal drank nonalcoholic beer. In London, Mr. Santiago was joined by his pregnant wife, Linda, and his year-old daughter; Mr. Lovering played host to his parents.
The Pixies have recorded a new song together, written by Ms. Deal, called "Bam Thwok," which was originally written for the soundtrack to "Shrek 2." But the movie company chose a song by Counting Crows instead, and "Bam Thwok" ended up helping to inaugurate the European version of iTunes.
Marc Geiger of the William Morris Agency, the band's longtime agent, says he is hoping the Pixies will record a new album early next year. "I have thought of that concept, yes," Mr. Black said. "I wouldn't mind asking Tom Waits to produce us. Why not? I like the way his records sound."
But the band members are resolutely not looking ahead. They have kept the tour as familiar as possible; not just the songs but their business associates, lighting director and sound man are the same as they were the first time around. In Brixton, even the backstage caterer was the same as on the Pixies' last visit to the same theater in 1991.
"There's surprisingly little déjà vu on this tour," Mr. Thompson said. "It's more like just a continuation. It's like there's a bunch of songs. We played them to death in the late 80's and early 90's for a period of about five years. So, a bit of a long sabbatical. Now we're playing them again. And there really isn't any mystery."
Edit: Forgot to post the link! Doh!
|
Edited by - dayanara on 08/08/2004 10:46:25 |
|
|
Skatealex1
* Dog in the Sand *
1670 Posts |
Posted - 08/08/2004 : 00:12:25
|
This is gonna be my last post cause im flying to seattle and then alaska tommorow morning but if theyre recording next year that means chicknswithtwohead was saying bs that the cds been recorded already
The Truth Is Out There |
 |
|
|
theonecontender
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
565 Posts |
Posted - 08/08/2004 : 04:30:20
|
| Nice article. Is this the first post-reunion interview? perhaps.. |
|
|
|
Thomas
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1615 Posts |
Posted - 08/08/2004 : 05:54:15
|
Some great quotes for the Quotemaster's.
"Our Love is Rice and Beans and Horses Lard" |
|
|
|
TheCroutonFuton
- Mr. Setlists -
USA
1728 Posts |
Posted - 08/08/2004 : 10:57:40
|
Joey is so fucking suave. I wish I were him. Look at him...all suave-like. And that quote, "This could be a change of school district for me. This is important to me." He knows how to say things without sounding like he's begging. Plus he knows how to hypnotize a chicken...and that's always cool.
"Freedom is a state of mind and the condition and position of your ass. Free your mind and your ass will follow." - Funkadelic |
|
|
|
twist
- FB Fan -
USA
191 Posts |
Posted - 08/08/2004 : 10:58:14
|
quote:
Originally posted by dayanara
Marc Geiger of the William Morris Agency, the band's longtime agent, says he is hoping the Pixies will record a new album early next year. "I have thought of that concept, yes," Mr. Black said. "I wouldn't mind asking Tom Waits to produce us. Why not? I like the way his records sound."
I hope Tom Waits is as into this idea as a lot of us are, there is great logic in their collaberation. It's time for all frankblackians and/or pixielated to immerse in all things tomwaitsian if we haven't already. |
|
|
|
Alpha Soixante
- FB Fan -
Canada
129 Posts |
Posted - 08/08/2004 : 11:53:56
|
quote:
"Now people pursue rock music, and they go, `I have something important to say, and here's what it is, and ooh, I'm singing it from my heart, too.' And it's all too serious. And people totally miss out. They totally miss the fun, Jabberwocky, fun-with-language, fun-with-poetry."
I thought this was a lovely description. It drives me nuts when people describe the Pixies as angsty or whatever and totally miss their sense of humor. (In a way, Bam Thwok is quintessentially Pixies: "Bosses in offices on automatic drip"--that's Jabberwocky.)
Oh, and someone should totally start an email campaign to Waits, begging him to participate. I can't imagine what the Pixies would sound like with Waits at the helm, but I'm sure it would be utterly marvellous.
|
|
|
|
gzz
- FB Fan -
2 Posts |
Posted - 08/08/2004 : 14:42:05
|
quote:
Originally posted by dayanara
[quote]Originally posted by TheCroutonFuton
Joey is so fucking suave. I wish I were him. Look at him...all suave-like. And that quote, "This could be a change of school district for me. This is important to me." He knows how to say things without sounding like he's begging...
If you go to the Times website and listen to the audio of Kim talking about that, she says something like, "Oh, I really didn't want to do it at all, but then Joey called me and said he it was really important to him, it would be a change of school district, etc., then I said ok."
[/quote
On the audio???? |
|
|
|
The New Bolero
= Cult of Ray =
394 Posts |
Posted - 08/08/2004 : 18:57:05
|
So what if Kim didn't want to do it without a little arm twisting? Who cares? Frank didn't want to do it for a long time either, you know. I think more than a few of us are just going to have to get used to the notion that the four band members are seldom on the same page at the same time. Who says they have to be anyhow?
As for the audio excerpt, Kim must say "good will" four or five times. I enjoyed hearing her speaking such Bam Thwok-ese. |
|
|
|
offerw
* Dog in the Sand *
South Africa
1264 Posts |
Posted - 08/09/2004 : 01:15:04
|
Tom Waits producing the Pixies. It could be an incredible record. I would love to hear Frank and Kim singing with Tom Waits.
wilhelm |
|
|
|
whoreatthedoor
> Teenager of the Year <
Spain
2873 Posts |
Posted - 08/09/2004 : 04:00:52
|
quote:
Originally posted by TheCroutonFuton
Joey is so fucking suave. I wish I were him. Look at him...all suave-like. And that quote, "This could be a change of school district for me. This is important to me." He knows how to say things without sounding like he's begging. Plus he knows how to hypnotize a chicken...and that's always cool.
"Freedom is a state of mind and the condition and position of your ass. Free your mind and your ass will follow." - Funkadelic
He is for the first time the sexiest Pixie. I'm saying it through a male perspective, but I'm sure he is still pretty attractive. You know, in the first Pixies round, he looks like a little kid. Now he is in an older, wiser, but not slower version. 
 "Join the Cult of the whore at the door / And You'll find no answers, but real fun" |
Edited by - whoreatthedoor on 08/09/2004 23:58:17 |
|
|
|
Daisy Girl
~ Abstract Brain ~
Belize
5305 Posts |
Posted - 08/09/2004 : 19:56:17
|
nice article... nice photo...thanks for sharing  |
|
|
|
Surfer Rosa
> Teenager of the Year <
4209 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2004 : 05:15:33
|
quote:
Originally posted by whoreatthedoor
quote:
Originally posted by TheCroutonFuton
Joey is so fucking suave. I wish I were him. Look at him...all suave-like. And that quote, "This could be a change of school district for me. This is important to me." He knows how to say things without sounding like he's begging. Plus he knows how to hypnotize a chicken...and that's always cool.
"Freedom is a state of mind and the condition and position of your ass. Free your mind and your ass will follow." - Funkadelic
He is for the first time the sexiest Pixie. I'm saying it through a male perspective, but I'm sure he is still pretty attractive. You know, in the first Pixies round, he looks like a little kid. Now he is in an older, wiser, but not slower version.
"Join the Cult of the whore at the door / And You'll find no answers, but real fun"
I totally agree - Joey has truly erm blossomed and am feeling the same kinda love for Dave Lovering who I totally used to ignore. Both of them charmed me via the wonders of modern technology in the Gouge documentary on the DVD and no one can feel anything but love for Joey after seeing him do Vamos live.
|
|
|
|
tobafett
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1713 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2004 : 13:58:47
|
hey--
Dave shaved!
:)
|
|
|
|
Levitated
= Cult of Ray =
Chile
652 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2004 : 15:03:13
|
| and I thought that Kim had cut her hair. |
|
|
|
tobafett
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1713 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2004 : 15:52:39
|
Good eye, levitated...Kim's locks are def. a few inches shorter (since i saw her at coachella, anyway!)
:) |
Edited by - tobafett on 08/11/2004 15:53:36 |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
New York Times Article
