Taking Sides Pixies vs. Nirvana

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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

I can't believe Mr In NYC has managed to contribute to a thread discussing Nirvana's influences without feeling constrained to mention Killing Joke! (Is this a New Year's resolution or something Alex?)

Admittedly this isn't so much in evidence on the later albums but on Bleach it's pretty much undeniable.

Steve Jones / Sex Pistols had a fair bit of influence on the guitar sound on Nevermind too I reckon.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 8 January 2004 11:06 (twenty years ago) link

i saw killing joke supporting the pixies, if that helps mr in NYC.
about the pixies' influence on nevermind, i always thought the monkey picture on the back cover of nevermind was a tribute to bossanova (the pixies album, obv)

― joan vich (joan vich), Thursday, 8 January 2004 12:38 (twenty years ago) link

Well, I think everyone's tired of that particular debate, and since all living parties concerned have patched things up....what's the point in drumming it all up again?

The only good thing about the Joke supporting the Pixies is that ideally it turned a few spend-ready Pixies fans onto a superior band. Beyond that, the Pixies aren't fit to felch the cow-dung from between the treads of Killing Joke's collective Doc Martens.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 8 January 2004 13:24 (twenty years ago) link

No contest. Pixies by a mile. Can't stand Nirvbloodyvana.

― R t V (Jake Proudlock), Thursday, 15 January 2004 10:51 (twenty years ago) link

I was in a bit of a pissy mood when this one came around last time and cast a tongue in cheek vote for Pavement. Not surprisingly took a bit of shit for it. Anyway, in the spirit of reconcilliation my real answer is the Pixies.

Not trying to take things off topic or anything, but I did take issue with Alex's assertion that Pavement "sucked". I'm hardly impartial in that particular debate, being a pretty big fan of that band, but it did seem a little harsh and somewhat undeserved. It's fine to not like them, most people I know don't like Pavement, but I think you'd have a pretty hard time convincing most critics as well as music fans that they sucked.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Thursday, 15 January 2004 11:11 (twenty years ago) link

Don't take it personally, J-rock. It's just that I'm hard pressed to think of a more overrated/undertalented band than Pavement. I didn't say you couldn't listen to them, though. To each their own.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 15 January 2004 13:45 (twenty years ago) link

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