I want to have sex with a mutant Ibex.

'Rattle & Hum' came out the same year as 'Surfa Rosa'.
I wonder when Bono did get into the Pixies? S'pose I'll find out soon enough.

well, in '92, the pixies, until they imploded, were the opening act for u2 on the zoo tv tour. by all accounts, it was a disaster -- the band was fighting, they had sound problems, the fans didn't come in until they left the stage, etc. presumably, bono became a fan thereabouts.

oh, and the pixies are great, of course, and one of my ten or so favorite bands.

the pixies are the greatest band of the 80s. wait. late 80s? damnit. they sure are sumtin. does it matter that they're all i've been listening to lately? i cannot be impartial here. sorry.

they're terrible, i just hate them.

Bite me, Ethan. :)

I'm glad I got to catch them once live... opening show of the Trompe Le Monde U.S. tour at the Ventura Theatre in Ventura, CA. Almost...jeez.. maybe exactly 10 years ago to this day. Great show.. everyone was in a good move. Opening songs in this order.. "Rock Music", "Tame", "Planet of Sound".... christ.

MOOD.. not move.

and black francis', uh, downhill slide over the last decade or so is one of the saddest stories in modern pop...

The Pixies managed to reinvent punk rock and stay strange despite popularity. They're good.

Biggest regret of my life: missing the Pixies last ever UK gig because I had an English Lit GCSE the Monday after. I made a pigs ear of the exam and the Pixies split up less than a year later. I cried when I found out.

So, yeah, total fucking classic.

My reappraisal basically goes from regarding them as musical gods to regarding them as a really great band.

The only legitimate complaint about Pixies is that they never made a really incredible album. Surfer Rosa is totally overrated, probably their worst album, partly cos Albini's production ill-suits the band. If they had ended Doolittle right after "Monkey Gone To Heaven", that would be it, but the weak second half kills it for me. Trompe Le Monde has become the consensus pick around here and I don't really disagree, but it bogs and sags in the middle for me.

So I thought a best-of would be a good idea, but it turns out I'd much rather listen to *any* of the albums than Death To The Pixies. Something about the sequencing and selection on that one is really awful.

Anyhow Ethan has let his (justifiable) hatred of grunge blind himself to a great pop band. They're classic, a band that opened a lot of musical doorways for me and still remain highly listenable, and "Debaser" is one of the greatest songs of all time. That is all.

i've heard all the stuff you're talking about and i still hate them. and it's not because they're grunge.

I want a Pixies-hatred story out of you Ethan. Where were you when you first heard this band and realized how much you hated them?

ethanp23 (10:24 PM): grr ian is trying to make me say why i hate the pixies
MelCaramel (10:24 PM): haha, well say it
ethanp23 (10:24 PM): he is going to poke holes in my airtight pinefoxian reasons for this hatred
MelCaramel (10:24 PM): uh huh, as well he should
ethanp23 (10:24 PM): I HATE THE GUITAR ON EVERY FUCKING SONG THEY DID
ethanp23 (10:24 PM): it's just a horrible sound
ethanp23 (10:24 PM): it's like, indie metal
MelCaramel (10:24 PM): haha
ethanp23 (10:24 PM): i can't stand metal, why would i listen to some poser variation on it?
MelCaramel (10:25 PM): cos it sounds nothing like metal?
ethanp23 (10:25 PM): they're just ponderous
ethanp23 (10:25 PM): i hate them
ethanp23 (10:25 PM): and since when are you a nirvana fan?
MelCaramel (10:25 PM): Did I say I was?
ethanp23 (10:26 PM): you like the pixies = you dance on your bed to 'smells like teen spirit'

IBEX! I always wondered what Jet Black was saying there. Thank you.

"Want to stick my spear in a stingray's ear."

I knew you couldn't last two minutes without bringing Kurt into it!

But actually I agree. Pixies *are* metal a lot of the time, especially on Trompe Le Monde which is basically a big glossy metal record.

But they're pop-metal, not indie-metal. And that is why they are great.

Never saw them, but then again I admit, I've never been a huge FAN fan -- I've heard all the albums, enjoy them all, but can't claim to ever have been totally gripped and enthralled by them. Individual songs, yes. A homemade comp would do the trick. Hm...

ethanp23 (10:26 PM): you like the pixies = you dance on your bed to 'smells like teen spirit'

What utter bollocks. The Pixies were awesome and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is lumpen trash.

A homemade comp is def the way to go, DTTP's sequencing IS mighty suss. "Caribou" in particular is in the wrong place, and "Monkey Gone To Heaven" would be better at the beginning, not the end. I'd'a closed with "Debaser" because that just sums the band up in a blast of perfect pop. Or just listen to Doolittle, as it's the best album.

I'm glad I decided to go online before starting on Ethan's mix tape tonight. So much for including that Old Man's Child track.

I hated Trompe Le Monde the first time I listened to it because I was expecting it to be a great pop-metal, or at least some kind of metal, album. The closest I could see it coming was maybe some sort of postmodern George Thorogood. I put it away, deciding that college rockers can't get anything right, least of all pornography (ever looked at a copy of Nerve?) or metal. I gave it another chance some time later and realized that, very occasionally, college rockers can get college rock very very right. The coda to "Alec Eiffel" is some kind of buried-collective- unconscious melody.

I avoided ever even hearing the Pixies until second-year university because I assumed they were some boring alt-rock band responsible for everything on the 90s charts who were popular with Pavement fans. I sat through Doolittle and was struck by how grunge it wasn't (I think Jane's Addiction got shortchanged when credit was doled out for that one) and how immediately unique and exciting it was. With that opening demented-commercial riff and the possessed shrieking and the guitar dissonances spilling like primary-coloured paint dropped from 21st-storey balconies I was ready to be embraced by this version of party.

When I heard Bossanova I was thankful Doolittle was my introduction. "Velouria" alone, however, is the ultimate indie love song, with its giant sunflower guitars and flitting melodies.

I haven't heard Surfer Rosa.

'Surfer Rosa' + 'Last Splash' = desert island double

I used to hate the Pixies. Now I like them, but not enough to actually buy their output, just pirate the mp3s. If I see "Trompe Le Monde" for cheap I might pick it up. I hate Black Francis's vocal experimentation. Sure, it's varied and interesting, but I'd rather he stick to something that sounds good then trying out some new scream or whine on every tune.

Verdict: good band, but Frank Black, with or without the Catholics are far better. Their _Dog In The Sand_ is one of my favorite albums released this year.

up there with husker du, cure, and replacements as the holy 80s trinity. I mean, four leavred clover.

'Debaser' is the only constant at pissy indie clubs that doesn't make me want to gouge my own eyes out. Thus, instant classic status.

has anyone heard the latest Black Francis? It's the first one that's getting interesting reviews in a while.

Yeah, _Dog In The Sand_. It's grrrreat. Has a strong Stones/early 70s hard rock vibe, which might turn some people off, but as filtered through Francis/Frank's interesting and strange pop songwriting style.

New Frank Brank album = more interesting than anything since his first solo

Surfer Rosa = not overrated. A total blast of unhinged snotty-nosed Latino weirdout. 'Gigantic' a bit annoying though.

Doolittle = overrated. I think it's too long or something. I've heard 'Debaser' to often and 'Monkey's Gone To Heaven' is laboured. Still a great album though. And I like the second half a lot

Bossanova = about as good as Doolittle. 'Cecilia Ann', 'Rock Music', 'Velouria', 'Stormy Weather' and 'The Happening' among the best things they ever did. Mind you, 'Dig for Fire' is even worse than 'Monkey's Gone To Heaven'

Trompe Le Monde - never owned it but from what I've heard, this ILM 'it's their best album' thing revisionism is a load of rubbish.

Don't forget 'Come on Pilgrim' and 'Into The White' either.

Surfer Rosa is overrated. Frank Black's favourite topics in descending order of how convincing he is: sci-fi, Bible stories, sex, surfing. This is because you can imagine FB as, in descending order of credibility, a sci-fi goof, a Biblical prophet, a sex god, and a surfer.

So Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim = mostly sex with a bit of bible. Good but overrated.

Doolittle = mostly Bible with a bit of sex. Much better!

Bossanova = sci-fi fixation should clinch it but the surf fetish drags it down to their worst record.

Trompe Le Monde = sci-fi all the way pretty much i.e. GRATE.

I did prefer it when TLM was my private passion rather a consensus pick mind you.

surfer rosa/come on pilgrim are garbage. then they became a proper pop band and made three brilliant albums. i don't know where this idea of metal comes up. last splash is a pile of something, pod is a breathtaking record though. i am so not waiting for the new breeders album and haven't heard a frank record since the first solo one which was pretty likeable. pixies as ugliest band ever?

kim deal = megarowr and i am gay sorta so no not that ugly

interweb = entirely full of pirated mark s nme review of surfer rosa when "no one" had heard of them

I was both young and relentlessly unhip when they were around (not that that's changed), so I didn't hear them until I was 19. Hmmm - I wasn't blown away, but some of their songs I really like. It's hard for me to imagine how people could love them as deeply as they seem to do, but it probably has something to do with being into them while they were around. Is it me, or do they sound *incredibly* dated - not necessarily in a bad way, but DAMN.

i don't think they sound dated at all. maybe a little. they've certainly held up a lot better than their contemporaries, although a quick survey of the ameri-indie underground circa 88-91 would not prove that incredibly difficult.

i can sort of see how it's hard to see why people love them just so, especially given tom's piece on the b sides where he really nails the distinction that - more than any other "indie" or "college" band - they weren't really "about" anything. you can't project your relationship woes onto the pixies. which may be exactly why i love them so. i like sci-fi, the bible, and sex (surfing i'm fairly indifferent to, but i love surf music.) i like relationships, but i've always been fairly wary of the indie confessional dirge. the pixies have a plastique fantastique side which runs counter to the earthy, worn-levis superchunk/sebadoh version of indie rock. aka pop.

...which runs counter to the earthy, worn-levis superchunk/sebadoh version of indie rock.

Well yeah, I hate that sort of thing. They're a band that really appeal to me when someone describes them, but then when I hear them, I'm always a little let down - I want to like them a lot more than I do. Just having listened through some of 'Doolittle,' I think I realized my beef: there's a lot of things about their sound that I like, but none of them are "enough." They're poppy, but not poppy enough - the hooks don't quite cut it for me (save a few songs). They're noisy, but not enough. I don't think they should bury their songs in noise, but if only they could be a tad more bracing. Francis is strange, but not enough - his weirdoisms aren't all that convincing. Hmm, maybe I should keep trying, but there's so much I haven't heard, is it really worth the time?

Don't like the Pixies, never liked the Pixies. Annoying vocals are the key here for me, if Kim Deal had sung every song I might have thought they were at least halfway decent, but given that The Breeders albums always got super tired super quick I doubt even that (me and some friends actually refer to liking an album a lot the first time you listen to it and then being really bored with it thereafter as the Last Splash effect). The sound of the Pixies itself never really resonated with me either. I'd make typical complaints to a lot of other folks on this board, it just always struck me that at times they really desperately wanted to rock out, but it always came out so tepid instead. Not poppy enough to be pop and not rock enough to rock--just kinda blah. But that's really a secondary point. Frank Black's voice just bugs the fuck out of me.

kim deal = megarowr and i am gay sorta so no not that ugly

This is very very true. It is only one of the many reasons why the Pixies rule.

Isn't it time for a reappraisal of Bossanova BTW: I don't think it deserves its bad rep. A couple of surfing references can't cancel out the monstrous sci-fi angst-pop of the Happening just like that.

Yeah but "All Over The World" is a yawn. I've not listened to it for years. I will dig it up and report back.

Trompe Le Monde has become the consensus pick around here

Trompe Le Monde - never owned it but from what I've heard, this ILM 'it's their best album' thing revisionism is a load of rubbish

Well, I'm new here and I'm delighted if anyone thinks TLM is the best Pixies album, because I thought I was the only one. I've always thought of it as the musical equivalent of the Pocketeer's 'Steeplechase' game.* Sadly, on the C4 doco they kind of dissed it themselves.


* I realise that the circles titled 'people familiar with The Pixies' and 'people familiar with 1970's hand-held mechanical games' may have only a slim overlap on the Venn diagram.

Trompe Le Monde is great. Bossanova is the true weak link of all their full-length albums, and it's still damn good.