Taking Sides Pixies vs. Nirvana

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expressive is probably a better word than breadth, you're right. and I will happily disagree with you re: Kurt's singing vs. Kim Deal's.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 5 January 2004 03:13 (twenty years ago) link

(hi! I'm an editor!)

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 5 January 2004 03:14 (twenty years ago) link

Fat guys who sing in falsetto about mutilation and aliens shit all over dead guys with long hair who shine about killing themselves (points for following through though). Oh, and that Dave Grohl. He sucks.

Why is it always Pixies vs. Nirvana with no mention of the Meat Puppets?

― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 5 January 2004 03:41 (twenty years ago) link

Because they don't sound anything alike.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 5 January 2004 03:50 (twenty years ago) link

Am I the only one here who thinks that the chorus of U-Mass sounds similar to Teen Spirit's? I'm sure it's just a coincidence though since their albums were released within a month of one another. But still!

― may pang (maypang), Monday, 5 January 2004 03:58 (twenty years ago) link

i think one of the only reasons i like the white stripes is cuz they remind me of the pixies. or at least when i first heard white blood cells and i was drunk in my apartment they sounded good in a pixiesish way. that part where the white stripes dude goes, "a man! There was a man!" or something like that in the middle of a song with that fake accent really reminded me of some pixies song and it was a good thing. i never listened to that album again, but it was nice while it lasted. whereas, i can't think of any band that sounded good while i was drunk that reminded me of nirvana. i do own a local h album that isn't half bad.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 5 January 2004 04:04 (twenty years ago) link

Well, being a huge Pixies AND Nirvana fan, I just HAD to put in my two cents worth. I don't think the two bands have much in common, really. The only song by the Pixies that really sounds anything like Nirvana is "Gigntic," and that's really only because of the soft/loud/soft dynamic. Both bands did have a knack for writing really catchy songs, though Nirvana was a bit more straightforward in their songwriting approach, while the Pixies were more quirky. Anyway, I like both bands a whole bunch and wouldn't take sides on either. Yes, I know I'm boring.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 5 January 2004 04:14 (twenty years ago) link

i can totally hear nirvana doing gigantic. in fact, it would have been a perfect nirvana song! they should have done some pixies stuff unplugged. it would have worked really well.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 5 January 2004 04:29 (twenty years ago) link

Most boring thread ever. Why did I read this? I vote for Pavement.

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Monday, 5 January 2004 05:50 (twenty years ago) link

I like Nirvana and I absolutely adore the Pixies, but I agree that this thread is unnecessary and pretty boring. I'm casting a second vote for Pavement.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Monday, 5 January 2004 06:20 (twenty years ago) link

why for do you then add to the boringness¿

re: singing voice.
i pick black because he had a shit singing voice.
he had a shit singing voice and he did his best with what he had, - his way of kind of talking + his screaming etc. was brilliant.
he gave f'ing 110% yeah¡

i'm glad black (as far as i know) didn't get into heroin, i'd hate to hear him sound constipated + fucked up like kurt.

+ kim,
kim just had a nice voice. nothing special.

― dyson (dyson), Monday, 5 January 2004 06:27 (twenty years ago) link

Obviously everyone's going to choose the Pixies, because it's a million times cooler to pick the one that hasn't gone diamond or been on the cover of Rolling Stone 8 or 9 times.

Actually, I just realized the ultra-cool answer to this is "neither."

― billstevejim, Monday, 5 January 2004 07:23 (twenty years ago) link

neither = pavement

― dyson (dyson), Monday, 5 January 2004 07:27 (twenty years ago) link

What a bunch of whining crybabies, if you don't like the thread don't read it! I think you can gather from the title what the thread is going to consist of. Then again I guess you are too cool to figure it out.

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Monday, 5 January 2004 12:11 (twenty years ago) link

I'm casting a second vote for
Pavement.

Ick. Whatever reservations I have about Nirvana, they were a thousand times better than the directionless, testicularly-challenged jumble of tune-free sounds that was Pavement.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 5 January 2004 12:44 (twenty years ago) link

The Pixies wrote catchy songs. Unfortunately, there isn't one Pixies album that doesn't float off somewhere after about 2/3 of the way through. Actually, the songs didn’t even tighten up until they were about through with Doolittle. I’ve got a Pixies mix somewhere that beats any of their records on any terms that you’d use to judge an album. In Utero on the other hand is basically flawless. But yeah, Pavement.

― danh, Monday, 5 January 2004 16:25 (twenty years ago) link

''Am I the only one here who thinks that the chorus of U-Mass sounds similar to Teen Spirit's? I'm sure it's just a coincidence though since their albums were released within a month of one another. But still!''

I thought kurt had ripped off the chorus from u-mass but I never bothered to check alb release dates. quite a coincidence.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 5 January 2004 22:29 (twenty years ago) link

im picking the pixes cause i guzzled beers with them once in a friends basement.

― kephm, Monday, 5 January 2004 22:41 (twenty years ago) link

You can call Pavement directionless (sort of) and without testicles - two qualities I like quite well thank you - but what do you mean by tuneless? I mean they have some great melodies 'off-kilter' as they may be. And by the time of CrookedRainx2 they had a genuine loping swing thing to 'em or something I forgot the word I was going to use. But anyway if anything is tuneless its a good chunk of Bleach, and most of Incesticide after the first 2 and discounting that other good one about brains.

Also excepting the ones on Unplugged Nivana did awful renditions of a lot of great songs. It is funny how much I like so many of the bands Kurt would name drop before he shot himself in the head much better than I like Nirvana. All thats left is some lingering nostalgia I have for the tape of Nevermind I used to like.

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 03:52 (twenty years ago) link

Ick. Whatever reservations I have about Nirvana, they were a thousand times better than the directionless, testicularly-challenged jumble of tune-free sounds that was Pavement.

-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), January 5th, 2004.

Ha! I love this. I also love Pavement, but this is very funny. And it wouldn't work without the "whatever reservations I have about Nirvana," clause. Very nice.

― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 04:29 (twenty years ago) link

I have tried, I really have, but I cannot like the Pixies. They say nothing to me, and they come across as smugly geeky rather than endearingly geeky.

― Clarke B., Tuesday, 6 January 2004 04:56 (twenty years ago) link

Nothing fades in the rear-view mirror quite like Pavement.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 05:04 (twenty years ago) link

I love the Pixies. Few bands bring a smile to my face like the Pixies.

Would people please stop talking about the whole teen-angst Nirvana thing. I am so sick of hearing about this. I'm so sick of looking at video footage of Kurt Cobain slumped over his guitar at some MTV unplugged thing. I wish he was still alive, so that he could get over himself. I wish his fans would please drop the Kurt Cobain as deity thing. blah blu baa!!!!

Anyways, yeah so the Pixies get my vote by a wide margin.

― Debito (Debito), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 09:40 (twenty years ago) link

pixies much better than nirvana. neither exactly set my world on fire, though.

― s n d, Tuesday, 6 January 2004 10:34 (twenty years ago) link

Pixies.

Is anyone trying to keep count?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 13:41 (twenty years ago) link

but what do you mean by tuneless?

As in: "lacking tunes", something they were guilty of.

Pavement sucked. There, I said it.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 13:42 (twenty years ago) link

Pixies. Yeah Nirvana was my doorway into hard rock but goddamn I'd much rather listen to goth/sci-fi bubblegum these days.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:36 (twenty years ago) link

if for no other reason than Manta Ray is stuck in my head.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:38 (twenty years ago) link

I'd much rather listen to goth/sci-fi bubblegum these days.

Please don't call the Pixies "Goth", Anthony. Just please don't do it.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:42 (twenty years ago) link

I'm not saying their goth in the bauhaus sense, Alex. But Doolittle could easily be described as "goth bubblegum."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:44 (twenty years ago) link

Based on sound, if not sight, natch.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:45 (twenty years ago) link

I don't know about that, Anthony. I think there's something inherently goth in being portly. Which FB is/was, even when he was BF.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:50 (twenty years ago) link

lots of dry ice in the "Monkey's Gone To Heaven" video too.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:56 (twenty years ago) link

and most of their album covers have a certain goth-aesthetic as well.
and most goths I know over 27 claim the pixies as their own.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:57 (twenty years ago) link

Nirvanites might be confused since the Replacements were better than the Pixies, and Nirvana ripped off the Replacements. But the Pixies were still better than Nirvana.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:58 (twenty years ago) link

of course they're wrong, in many, many ways.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:58 (twenty years ago) link

xpost

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:58 (twenty years ago) link

I'd definitely call them sci-fi bubblegum from Bossanova on though.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 18:59 (twenty years ago) link

and most of their album covers have a certain goth-aesthetic as well.

That's all 4AD's design wing, Envelope 23. The Pixies, meanwhile, were as "goth" as Creedence Clearwater Revival, fer chrissakes.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 19:01 (twenty years ago) link

I think they have a certain affinity with Goth. And CCR often referred to themselves as Swamp-Goth-Boogie.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 19:03 (twenty years ago) link

Nephilim = obscure Biblical reference.

Pixies songs = fill of obscure Biblical references.

QED!!!!!!!!!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 19:04 (twenty years ago) link

The Man-Ray and Eraserhead references were kinda Goth...

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 19:04 (twenty years ago) link

Pixies by a million miles.

When i first heard Teen Spirit the Pixies influence was unmistakeable.

Nirvana= one third Pixies, one third Replacements, one third Husker Du.

― Officer Pupp, Tuesday, 6 January 2004 20:22 (twenty years ago) link

"Nirvana= one third Pixies, one third Replacements, one third Husker Du.

-- Officer Pupp (officerpup...), January 6th, 2004."

BZZZZT.

Nirvana - two thirds Jesus Lizard, one third Sex Pistols.

― Stupid (Stupid), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 20:30 (twenty years ago) link

Nirvana= 2/3 poster boy+ 1/3 his death

― Flotsam of the Fishfolk (Flotsam of the Fishfolk), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 19:05 (twenty years ago) link

When i first heard Teen Spirit the Pixies influence was unmistakeable

Eh?? I just don't get it. Is it because of the quiet verse/loud chorus thing? But everybody does that! That's been going on since the sixties! Ever heard "What Is and What Should Never Be" by Led Zeppelin? Or "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night" by the Electric Prunes?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 19:17 (twenty years ago) link

I had never heard the Pixies when I first heard Nirvana, but that tight-beat and bassline with echoing slight guitar riff over it is way more "Gouge Away" than "What Is and What Should Never Be."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 19:27 (twenty years ago) link

That said the crown for most wonderful Pixies rip-off remains wholly on the head of Spoon's Telephono.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 19:28 (twenty years ago) link

.. Which almost surpasses any Pixies record..

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 19:48 (twenty years ago) link

Whoever upthread that said Nirvana were 1/3 the Pixies, 1/3 Husker Du, and 1/3 Replacements is pretty close to getting right nirvana's influnces, I think. They were really a synthesis of all the college rock and post-punk of the 80's, with some mainstream pop/rock sensibilities thrown in. The latter combined with the former is probably what made them huge.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 8 January 2004 07:40 (twenty years ago) link

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