PIXIES Poll: The best track on Trompe le Monde

I hated it when it came out. I suppose it's been long enough that it deserves another shot. I mean I absolutely love all their other stuff...

Ooh, I wonder. Did things start falling apart in the studio or on the tour that followed? xp

I can't really pick either, it's such a great record all around.

i think i'm the only one that picked trompe le monde. i love that song, though. it was between that and U-Mass.

I love that song too. Weird that it gets overlooked in discussions on the album, being the opener and all.

i do love this record -- probably as much as any Pixies record really. I went with Subbacultchah, which is awesome in about ten different ways. One of their most funny/disturbing lyrics ... "You know, when you grope for lunar!" interesting that the early versions of it include "Distance" as a chorus. They work better as separate songs ...

my first instinct was to go with "Sad Punk" but I'm gonna listen to this album again and get back to you guys...

Why
do cupids and
angels contin
ually haunt
her dreams
like mem
ories

^this is the album's peak

I love that song too. Weird that it gets overlooked in discussions on the album, being the opener and all.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, December 15, 2008 11:37 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The guitar shredding on the opener is part of why I love this album so much. It sounds like being shot into space.

Favourite Pixies album, and "Alec Eiffel" is probably my favourite Pixies song, so that would be a logical choice. Then again, I'm not sure this is an album for logical choices.

The title track is a great opener, and every time it cranks its way up to "this song is twice occurred / and now it's time to go away / on holiday" renews my conviction that this is my favourite album. "Letter to Memphis" is the song that's in my head for weeks after every time I play it. "Space" and "Subbacultcha" total this-is-what-the-Pixies-do (by which I probably just mean "shouty but cryptic") tracks and near-perfect at it. "The Sad Punk" is another contender for me... agh. Choices.

But probably Alec Eiffel, for the sheer rush of the choruses and the riff snaking dizzily round wordplay-packed lyrics.

Voted "Sad Punk" despite the lurking suspicion that "Motorway to Roswell" might turn into a personal favourite. But Sad Punk was my way into the album, and everytime I hear the last chorus, slowed way down with Joey playing those unfuckwithable guitar lines, I get that patented pop sugar-speed-dopamine rush all over again.

Plus I like that little gentle guitar coda: it reminds me of the BH Surfers' Sweet Loaf!

somebody! get over to sven's best band ever nominations thread and nominate the PIXIES!!! Do it for your school!!!

Subbacultcha!

does it make me lame that this was the first pixies album i ever heard? i got to the party pretty late, i suppose.

does it make me lame that this was the first pixies album i ever heard?

As long as it wasn't the first, last and only.

My first too! But I was only 17 in '91.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The only half-decent tracks on this are Alec Eiffel and planet of sound. Really poor album overall.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"Distance Equals Rate Times Time" – 1:24 1

Aww, this makes me sad, but I guess there really are a bunch of great songs here to vote for.

Alright, at least one vote per song!

Whoa, didn't expect Planet of Sound to be in the Top 3.

I'll start the next one of these after the new year, to ensure maximum participation.

it's disorienting to begin with a Kim Deal-sung track,
Is this true? Always sounded like francis to me.

Yeah, that's def. not Deal singing the first song.

it's Black Francis, I always thought.

yes

Yeah I always thought it was Charles as well.

Sorry I missed this poll, but I would've voted for Alec Eiffel so I'm glad it won. This might just be my favourite Pixies album, and they are my favourite band ever. Gonna listen to this today I think.

OK so this is sorta funny and awesome. Pixies on Letterman jamming out with Paul Shaffer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzuoXDC9ESw&eurl=http://www.facebook.com/profile.php%3Fid%3D1721915738%26ref%3Dnf&feature=player_embedded

it is so weird when they make bands do that.

i think there's a feelies clip of them playing with shaffer's band from around the same time

How awesome! Nice find! Great Keys Paul!

"Alec Eiffel" doesn't seem like that great of a song to me.

What was the great record that Black Francis bought which samples the song from Washington State?

we went to the store and bought something great
which samples this song from washington state
go
go little record go
it is named by
some guy named joe
and the words
are the letters of the words

Some cryptic clues here. Internet search doesn't turn anything up.

i can't believe palace of the brine got only one vote
i was bout to start a 'pollace of the brine'

I always hear Palace of the Brine and Letter to Memphis as two parts of the same song, and as much as I love Palace, Letter is a monster.

yeah, i do too! they're definitely nicely paired together ...

not to get all Paul is Dead but could it be:
band from Washington State = Nirvana
sampled =ripped off
by some guy named joe = Joey Santiago,the Pixies
?

it's a toy that he bought, not a record

what gives you that impression

Don't buy the Nirvana thing, since I don't think they sounded much like Pixies before Nevermind (which was released the same week as Trompe le Monde). Mr. Que's assertion is intriguing.

i think Black Francis explained it in an interview i read in magazine a long time ago--i think it was Musician magazine?

xpost
ok, yeah, that kind of blows out that theory.

i'm a little pissed at myself for missing this poll!

i've grown to fucking love the title track. tho i always jammed to UMass growing up

i got the impression that the little toy made a song when you pressed the button, and it's in the song after he sings that line

yeah there is a tinny little melody just there. nice! although shame the nirvana idea doesn't fly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd7tDdM709w

I feel stro-oh-oh-ong
I feel lucky

"Distance Equals Rate Times Time" – 1:24 1

this was me fwiw

Did Neil Tennant ever give The Icicle Works a bad review? Ian McNabb charmingly wished death on him on Twitter a few years ago

Besides, Alfred, I've seen others suggest that the album should have been sequenced differently.

Someone on Spectrum Culture apparently gave it a shot, shortening the album to 11 tracks. I don't think it's entirely an improvement, but opening with "Letter to Memphis" and closing with "Motorway to Roswell" is a pretty great idea. Something close to a swap of Sides A and B (save for "Letter to Memphis" and "Motorway to Roswell" which I'd keep at both ends) may be on the right track.

It's temping to cut it down to the 10 or 12 best cuts and make like a 25+ minute album as a throwback to some the super-short rock LP's of the '50s. The fact that most of the songs are so short even goes along with the concept.

(Black Francis: “A lot of the arrangements were pretty short, and Gil suggested we lengthen them...I went out, picked up a Buddy Holly record and played him one of the songs, which was about a minute and fourteen seconds. I said: ‘Gil, there you go. It doesn’t get any more classic than this rock n’ roll right here. Look how short these arrangements are.’ He decided not to fight me on that point...") FWIW, the only three Buddy Holly albums released in Holly's lifetime ran for 25:59, 24:35 and 25:06 respectively.

I absolutely never play the Pixies anymore -- if I ever did; I never warmed to them like I did the Breeders -- but this remains my go-to album.

one of my favorite album endings, actually. "Motorway to Roswell" so devastating that I need a weird coda to let the pressure off.

(and 2022 has been my year of crying to "Motorway")