Your POLL's got a little machine: ILM Artist Poll #71 • Pixies (Voting Thread)

I think its similar to a lot of the 4ad stuff. I got some earlier Lush song names wrong as well, I think. I always thought their first record was called Sear when I was a kid. Maybe it was just me.

"What's your guys' philosophy of the world?" is what the interviewer asked the band in that clip up there, just so everyone's clear.

I have never voted in a poll before but may try to do this one tonight.

I used to have this idea that Velouria and Wave of Mutilation and River Euphrates were basically the same song. I'm not convinced by this any more.

BTW I had a tough decision between "rate songs by my 'objective' opinion of how amazing they are" vs. "rate songs by how deeply embedded into my sense of self they were between 1988 and 1993" and I went with the later, partly because I didn't have time to do a scientific re-listening to all the songs in the catalog. So my ballot is CoP/SR/Doolittle heavy, because those were the records I cared about most at the time. Hoping this poll will illuminate the later records for me.

River Euphrates = probably my #1

Oh man, this is going to be hard. Voted all Pixies off the iPod a long time ago so haven't heard a note in years, but listening to that clip of "Dead" above made me realize how many of their songs are hardwired into my amygdala. Will listen scientifically & vote from the guts.

I used to have this idea that Velouria and Wave of Mutilation and River Euphrates were basically the same song. I'm not convinced by this any more.

― Turtleneck Work Solutions (Nasty, Brutish & Short), sábado 18 de octubre de 2014 22:22 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They share the same backbone but the style is very different depending on the album. You can listen to the three in a row and note their evolution. surfer rosa is loose and unruly like a child, doolitle is more confident and lush and bossanova is more forlorn and fatalistic. It may sound like I'm on drugs but they capture the esence of each record and the stages of the band perfectly the "childhood" (river euphrates), the teen years (wave of mutilation) and adulthood (Velouria).

In an effort to be completely thorough before making my ballot, I'm listening to Indie Cindy again for the first time since it showed up earlier this year. These songs aren't as objectively horrible/bland as I remember them all being, but Charles Thompson is an old lazy man now who picks melodically low-hanging fruit rather than approaching songwriting from bizarre angles like he did in his youth.

Everything is still too long, though. Shortest thing is 3:11, which would be among the longer tracks on any previous Pixies album.

The problem I have with Indie Cindy is that it sounds like they're trying too hard to live up to their past output. They're not the type of band that should over-think things. Nobody was asking for a new album so they might as well just had fun with it.

I've given Bossanova a few listens and there's nothing there that'll make my ballot. Trompe le Monde is better but it's looking likely that my ballot will be all CoP/SR/D.

i was at a wedding over the weekend and managed to get my table debating he best pixies tracks.

Excellent work!

I've given Bossanova a few listens and there's nothing there that'll make my ballot.

― nate woolls, Monday, October 20, 2014 7:35 PM (1 hour ago)

Velouria!!

ffs. really.

Yeah Velouria is alright but there's 22 better songs on the other albums.

pixies + muffs might have worked out better if kim shattuck replaced frank black instead.

Bossanova is just not a very good album.

I disagree. I love it and never understood why people were disapointed by it. Maybe they expected something less polished but there isn't really a bad song on it and the first 8 are as solid as any of their best work.
To me it sounds a lot like what The Breeders would do later except better.

I hadn't heard Distance = Rate x Time in decades. That is a doozy! Holy cow

Voted. A Doolittle heavy but Bossanova and Trompe le Monde friendly ballot. One from Surfer Rosa. None from Come on Pilgrim.

I love Bossanova so much. It was my first Pixies and I bought it at the same time I got The Bends. You can hear where early Radiohead lifted from it.

Q: Kelley Deal 6000 for the side poll--I assume, nay?

bossnova is fine in isolation but listening to COP thru TLM back to back it was remarkable just how much worse than everything else it is.

Trompe le Monde - 9
Doolittle - 8
Surfer Rosa - 5

I've only listened to Come On, Pilgrim and Bossanova once each.

Giving Bossanova & Trompe le Monde one more listen this afternoon then putting my ballot together tonight. Expecting a lot of Surfer Rosa, a little of Doolittle and one or two from Come On Pilgrim.

Misheard lyrics that I only just got around to looking up:

Fall on your face in those bad shoes
Lion-O lockjaw
TAME!

COP 4
SR 6
D 8
B 1
TLM 3

pixies b-sides range from bad to mediocre without exception, i don't understand the tremendous appeal they apparently have

I like 'Into the White' and the two Neil Young covers a lot but they'd barely make my top 30 Pixies songs.

<3 "Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons"

I'm working my way though this based on how much I like these tunes right now, rather than what I liked >20 years ago. So, Debaser, which I loved, probably won't make the cut because I feel like I've heard it faaaaaaaaaar too many times.

At least we can all agree Doolitle is the tits, right?

I danced around it for a long time, but I finally made peace with the fact their most popular album (Doolittle) is also their best (Doolittle).

I think the most popular sales-wise is actually Surfer Rosa but I don't have the actual numbers. Just a wild guess.

Doolittle was a platinum album in the US (1m in sales), and only one of the others—Surfer Rosa—is even gold (500k in sales).

Did a quick research and no, you're right, Doolitle is the most popular one. Here's the sales figures according to SoundScan in 2004:

Come On Pilgrim: 144,598
Surfer Rosa: 458,491
Doolittle: 583,564
Bossanova: 215,217
Trompe Le Monde: 306,697
Complete B-Sides: 42,703
Live at the BBC: 49,308
Death To The Pixies: 146,012
Purple Tape: 30,212

Wikipedia actually gives Doolitle over 1,000,000 sales and Surfer over 500,000. Did Doolitle sold almost double that figure in this past decade?

I think SoundScan might have its numbers wrong, though.

Doolittle hit a million in November 1995. Surfer Rosa didn't go gold until April 2005.

http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH

That link lists that Doolitle hit Gold in 1995, not Platinum. It doesn't certificate it as Platinum yet.

Oh, you're right! I didn't even read all the way across. :D

Anyhow... your point stands, Doolitle is way more popular than Surfer Rosa. Had no idea.

Bossanova was a momentum killer for them. Strong record, but it didn't take them to the next level commercially.

Surfer Rosa picked up a lot of cache over time, but it wasn't a landmark record in any way in 1988. Doolittle had MTV video rotation, lots of college radio support and press fawning out the wazoo.

cache=cachet

I was expecting that the popularity of Where is My Mind through licensing in films, tv and ads would translate in higher sales. I was wrong.

I mean most people only know them because of that song, usually the best-known single is also on the best-selling album, nay?

lol I'm not trying to say it was a bad guess. Surfer Rosa is the Pixies album in the 21st century both in terms of respect and influence. It just wasn't seen as that at the time. (And I happen to still prefer Doolittle regardless.)

Surfer Rosa is the Pixies album in the 21st century in terms of boobs.

..I'm not merging things together

I hope the Vamos votes aren't split too much, that song deserves a top 10 place.

Oh damn, I may have to merge things on a case-by-case basis. I didn't think of there being two album versions of Vamos when I rattled off that declaration.

Was is she weird a single from Bossanova? I can't remember.It seems like the closest in terms of style to what came before.

never realized just how awesome that track is until i was listening to tracks for the poll! that and Levitate Me have been in my head for a week now.

42 is a great haul!

soooooo psyched for this

Hey Paul, Hey Paul, Hey Paul, let's have a POLL: ILM Artist Poll #69 • Pixies (results!)