It's not a coincidence that their relatively cultish career (at least in the US; they were pretty huge in the UK) coincided precisely with what may have been the nadir of American pop,
sez you!
― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 October 2011 22:14 (twelve years ago) link
Says me, yeah, Not one, not two, not three, but four number one Paula Abdul singles!
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 24 October 2011 22:15 (twelve years ago) link
Four!
two of which were terrific!
― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 October 2011 22:16 (twelve years ago) link
One with an animated cat!
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 24 October 2011 22:16 (twelve years ago) link
(was that a terrific one?)
two steps forward
― do not wake the dragon (DJP), Monday, 24 October 2011 22:16 (twelve years ago) link
there's a great outtake of black francis/kim deal doing "opposites attract"
― tylerw, Monday, 24 October 2011 22:16 (twelve years ago) link
I think my challop-meter is on the fritz.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 24 October 2011 22:17 (twelve years ago) link
people would have really understood the subversive current of that song if they'd gone with the original name of MC Shit Snatch
― do not wake the dragon (DJP), Monday, 24 October 2011 22:18 (twelve years ago) link
Also: the Brit charts were not by any stretch at their nadir.
― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 October 2011 22:18 (twelve years ago) link
I said American pop, dude. No broadening the pool.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 24 October 2011 22:19 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1W6-ErrHls
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 24 October 2011 22:21 (twelve years ago) link
Actually, that one's OK. Sounds like Cheap Trick.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 24 October 2011 22:22 (twelve years ago) link
Exactly. There's far worse examples.
Anyway, the Pixies song I'm always in the mood to play is "Hey."
― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 October 2011 22:25 (twelve years ago) link
woops -- I meant "Tame."
― tylerw, Monday, October 24, 2011 6:16 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
are you fucking with me?
― frankly bringing dragons into this equation is wrong (rustic italian flatbread), Monday, 24 October 2011 22:30 (twelve years ago) link
ha, yes
― tylerw, Monday, 24 October 2011 22:31 (twelve years ago) link
but can't you just hear it
oh dammit, I was going to rickroll
― do not wake the dragon (DJP), Monday, 24 October 2011 22:31 (twelve years ago) link
is she weird is she wackcuz OPP-O-SITTES AT-TRACT!
― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 October 2011 22:33 (twelve years ago) link
I first heard the Pixies well after they broke up. I think I was 15, which means it was '96; I had to search them out, which I did because they were constantly being mentiomed in Nirvana and Breeders articles. My grandma took me on a shopping spree and I had her buy me Bossanova on cassette, mostly because of some derogatory comment on a review of Last Splash about how "No Aloha" sounded like an outtake from that album. I instantly loved Bossanova and a few weeks later the school druggie approached me asking to borrow it. He had a copy of Doolittle (one of maybe five irl ppl I've met that were into the Pixies; we're actually still good friends) which he lent me. I wasn't as big a fan of that one, though I like it more now.
But it wasn't long after that that I somehow procured Surfer Rosa on CD, and THAT hooled me. Still one of my all-time favourite albums...
― ge0rge (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 01:32 (twelve years ago) link
Hooled = hooked
― ge0rge (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 01:33 (twelve years ago) link
I love reading vintage ILM threads like this front-to-back, it's like examining the rings of a redwood trunk
― the jazz zinger (s1ocki), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 02:35 (twelve years ago) link
"Every cute girl knew the Pixies" is totally OTM, and I initially was persuaded to like them by a cute girlfriend. Trompe Le Monde was where they lost the cute girls, and is probably the only album of theirs that I still play from time to time. Wasn't there an indie-schmindie song back in the 90's where someone (probably female) was berated for liking the Pixies? Dead Milkmen? Or someone else?
― dlp9001, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 02:47 (twelve years ago) link
Ok, now I'm going crazy trying to remember that song. I think there was a lyric like, "You love the Pixies!" but I may be making that up....
― dlp9001, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 03:00 (twelve years ago) link
Now I'm thinking it was, "You like the Pixies," and maybe it was an Irish/Scottish band. Fuck, this is killing me....
― dlp9001, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 03:12 (twelve years ago) link
sounds like Noise Addict/Ben Lee imho
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 03:15 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7BE6t2CxYs
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 03:18 (twelve years ago) link
I think that may be it. Unless I can remember something else, I'm going to go with it.
― dlp9001, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 03:20 (twelve years ago) link
I'm sure I didn't know any cute girls who liked the Pixies until I started hanging out in the outloud room.
― ge0rge (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 03:37 (twelve years ago) link
Are you thinking of Pop Queen by Ben Lee, that has the line "you love the Pixies" in it?
― The Eyeball Of Hull (Colonel Poo), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 09:37 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, that's it, thanks! (Though I was probably kind of mushing that together with the other video in my memory). I should probably go back and listen to that Ben Lee album again, 'cause it's sounding pretty good in these videos...
Anyway, I definitely remember Pixies as having slightly surprising girl appeal in the early 90's.
― dlp9001, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 12:34 (twelve years ago) link
What's so surprising about it? It's not like Killdozer or something.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 14:02 (twelve years ago) link
Not exaggerating in the slightest, 95% of my female friends in high school and college were Pixies fans. Not just "I like that one song" but fans. To this day that is probably still true, but only 3-4 of them went to the reunion tour.
― Art Arfons (La Lechera), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 14:14 (twelve years ago) link
Well, them's the advantage of growing up middle of nowhere, I guess...
I always thought starting a Pixies cover band and playing high school dances would be a fun way to earn money.
― ge0rge (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 15:01 (twelve years ago) link
This thread is making me want to listen to "No. 13 Baby" on repeat. That song is my jam!
― ge0rge (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 15:22 (twelve years ago) link
Lots of people are mentioning Nirvana, but I checked out the Pixies because Blur used to talk about them a lot too! Possible girl connection? *shrug* They have catchy songs, we like catchy songs.
― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 15:24 (twelve years ago) link
xp - well, not only that, but i also think it's a certain age of person (at least in my case with my friends, see also example above) i went to high school 89-93 -- in the beginning the 80s were still happening and by the end everyone -- eeeeveryone, not just the weirdos -- was playing nirvana at their graduation bonfires and whatnotdifferent times. my friends who liked pixies were identifying as not-casual-nirvana people too.
― Art Arfons (La Lechera), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 15:27 (twelve years ago) link
They have catchy songs and KIM DEAL who is awesome.
And I reached them by going "hey I like Belly, I should check out this Breeders band" / "hey I like the Breeders, I should check out this Pixies band", which I guess is a pretty girl-friendly route for those of us catching up after the event, too.
I mean I sort of want to be all "can't girls just like bands too w/o it being a thing which needs special underlining and explanation" but on the other hand I do admit that sometimes it seems more unusual than maybe it should
(paragraph of inept sociology on this point removed on realising it was half nonsense and half tautology)
― how do i shot slime mould voltron form (a passing spacecadet), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 15:46 (twelve years ago) link
xp see LL, that's part of it; I knew LOTS of not-casual-Nirvana fans (tho most of them were metalheads)
― ge0rge (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 15:53 (twelve years ago) link
never knew any girls into the Pixies until I got to college (ie after they broke up). got Doolittle when it came out, worked backwards from there. Didn't really like Bossanova apart from a couple songs, and never listened to Trompe Le Monde. nowadays... it's weird, I enjoy their stuff when I hear it but I am never really in the mood for it, I don't put it on. They were fun but they were not emotionally engaging really, definitely very heavy on the irony.
― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 15:55 (twelve years ago) link
Feel like I have more of an attachment to the Breeder's Last Splash tbh - Black Francis' writing seems very opaque and gimmicky, very much a constructed "act" that doesn't require any emotional engagement.
― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 15:56 (twelve years ago) link
^ OTM, except I'd replace Last Splash with Pod.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:00 (twelve years ago) link
i don't know whether it's totally my own imagination, but i identified heavily w/ a lot of black francis' songs because they seemed to capture a distinctly southern california experience, which is where i grew up. which i know is weird -- they're thought of as a boston band, i guess. but he grew up out there and there are some tunes that just *sound* like socal to me.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:03 (twelve years ago) link
I can see that (surfers + pollution = yep that's socal all right!) but there's sort of nothing there to identify with...? like there's no emotional content to Black Francis' writing, his songs have this odd POV that is bereft of thoughts and feelings and is more just a surrealist cascade of imagery. it's like he's more of a medium than a human being.
― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
Do you have a similar problem with poetry, Shakey?
― he carried yellow flowers (DJP), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:16 (twelve years ago) link
There is definitely a fondness for schlocky B-movie sci-fi and horror imagery that runs through those Black Francis lyrics. At the time, it seemed like a cool, absurdist gesture - but it's also kind of emotionally cold. Even when imitating the Pixies, Kurt Cobain wasn't capable of being as emotionally distant as Black Francis, which is partly why Nirvana lyrics seem more meaningful to me now, even though they traffic in similar kinds of absurd imagery.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:17 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, i mean, he's definitely not a "confessional" writer, but there's an overarching persona that i can vibe with. or at least i did as a teen. "i live cement, i hate this street!"
― tylerw, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:18 (twelve years ago) link
I think their emotional content is p radical--they might be darker than Nirvana--but I think it's heavily refracted through surrealism, and only sometimes through irony.
I mean, these are fun and catchy songs but their main engine is an aggressive negativity esp. towards the self, so I can see how that approaches irony but not the usual sense of the word...
― ge0rge (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:19 (twelve years ago) link