Its an ALL Pixies weekend bitches.

Its been a long time since I talked about music, at least a couple months.
A month or so ago I wrote up a post about Eric Clapton and my man love for him, but it got really pathetic, and not interesting, and lets be honest. Eric Clapton, while being a fucking rock god, is a pretty boring dude. So the post is still sitting in my outbox, waiting for me to come up with the correct adjectives to describe his guitar resplendence and neckbeard, while peppering in comments about Pattie Boyd being a homewrecker and a starfucker.
That said, fucking Layla probably has the best intro to a song I have ever heard. And even though he didn't sing in the original version of "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" with George Harrison, and his version is better, both fucking versions are bonnerriffic.

But that's not why we're here kiddo's. I want to talk about the Pixies. Never listened to them? Don't worry, its not that surprising.
There is two camps on this band. The camp that knows fuck all about them, then there is the fans and diehards that maintain that they are the one of the most influential bands as it relates to alternative music. I'd be in the second group. Kinda. I mean, they're in my Top Ten of all time, but I feel like a poser because I was late to the game.

I'm not going to go on and on about them, and why they are sploogetastic, but I will say this. If you haven't bought a Pixies CD, go do it. I'd recommend their greatest hits, but your really can't go wrong with any of their albums. Even though they only made 4. So give em a listen, and make up your own mind.



My top 10 Pixies Songs:
Alec Eiffel
Velouria
Wave of Mutilation (the UK Surf Version on "Pump Up the Volume" not the lesser version on Doolittle)
Dig For Fire
Where is My Mind (Yes, that vajtastic song at the end of Fight Club)
Debaser
Monkey Gone to Heaven
Allison (This is not because I've fallen in love with no more than 3 Allison's in my life, especially the one that owned The Vineyard in southern Illinois)
Hey
Nimrod's Son



This is what some people said about the Pixies:

I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it [smiles]. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band - or at least in a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard. (Kurt Cobain)

"When we started we wanted to sound like the Pixies" (Damon Albarn of Blur, speaking about their 1997 eponymous album, in Spin)

"My formative years were spent learning all the hot licks of the metal masters. Later on, I got turned onto people like the Pixies' Joey Santiago. I took that in, but it could only go so deep. I had already been molded. Hot licks are in my bones." (Rivers Cuomo again, in Guitar World, March 1997)

"When I heard the new Pixies record [Trompe Le Monde] I was kind of jealous. In its first four minutes the record lays out more ideas than some bands do in their careers. Pixies records are a big challenge. You've really got to dig in. a 6/8 break with a walkie-talkie? Critics might hone in on that, but I'm not sure if everyone gets it. And there's this great turn, a phrase, it's kind of like the "Popcorn" break, it just comes along at a perfect time." (Bob Mould in Musician)

I have to admit, I was way late to the bus on this one. I didn't start listening to The Pixies until the late fucking 90's. WELL after they broke up. Fuck, I almost started listening to them for the first time after they briefly got back together. That's how "out of the loop" I was on this one. But that's why I'm bringing them up, so you don't waste another day without their sonic goodness.

Don't waste anymore time. This is a great band. And somehow I'd like to make sweet sweet love to Kim Deal. So theres that.



Obscure facts about The Pixies:

• Lead singer Charles Thompson IV, has never went by his real name. He has either went with Black Francis, or Frank Black.
  
• Kim Deal, is the base player in the Pixies, but is the only one with commercial success outside of the band. She and her sister (Kelley Deal) formed The Breeders after the breakup of the Pixies. Yes, you've all heard of them. Think Cannonball.
• When forming the band Francis and guitar god Santiago put an ad in the paper looking for someone who listened to Peter, Paul and Mary, and punk group Husker Du. That's how they found Kim Deal.
• Steve Albini produced the most popular Pixie's album "Surfer Rosa". Steve Albini also produced many, many other alternative sounds such as Nirvana, PJ Harvey, The Stooges, and Bush. Oh yeah, he also worked with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant on "Walking into Clarksdale"
• Joey Santiago is the lead guitarist for the Pixies, and is vastly underrated. His guitar licks are well known for being substantive and melodic. You can see examples of this are in "Vamos", and "Holiday Song" Another tidbit about Santiago: He was born in the Philippines, than moved to the U.S. after Marcos declared marshall law when she couldn't find her pink and green stiletto pumps. (this last part is speculation on my part)
  
• David Lovering was the drummer for the Pixies, and was recruited when Kelly Deal (sister of Kim) Deal would not join the group. How did they find Lovering? He was at Kelly Deal's wedding, not in the wedding band, just at the fucking wedding. I've got ten bucks that says he crashed it.
  
• Lovering is also, easily the weirdest member of the Pixies. Which says something, when you consider that many of their lyrics contain references to bestiality, incest, and has numerous religious connotations. When the band broke up in 93, Lovering started doing magic and experimental science shows for a living. Rather than playing drums for the fucking Foo Fighters. That's right, this imbecile turned down the opportunity to play for the Foo Fighters. Clearly he's insane.
  
• As noted earlier in this post, there are two versions of Wave of Mutilation. One is on Doolittle, and the remade UK Surf version is found on the movie soundtrack "Pump up the Volume" (number 6 on my top 10 movie soundtracks list that I made up just for this post. It finished right after "Last Action Hero", and in front of "Beautiful Girls"), and "Complete B Sides" The UK Surf version was the first version I ever heard, and is the reason that I purchased Doolittle for the first time and subsequently fell in love with the band. Pump up the Volume also has a little ditty on it called "Everybody Knows" by Concrete Blond. This lead me to buy other music by Concrete Blond, which led me to find the song "Joey", and we all know that that song is titballs. This of course also allows me to name the 3 most underrated Christian Slater movies. 1. Kuffs 2. Pump Up the Volume 3. Gleaming the Cube
• A documentary was made when the Pixies reunited in 2004, called LoudQuietLoud. This is obviously a reference to the sounds emanated from the band, most notably lead singer Black Francis. This however was not the only documentary done on the Pixies, the other was creatively called "Pixies" Yeah, I know. Fucking Genius.
  
• The song Velouria was one of their biggest hits off of the album Bossanova, and was up for an award at "Top of the Pops" (which I'm assuming is some sort of award show in England). However, since people are stupid in England and more specifically at Top of the Pops, the song would not be considered for an award unless it had a video to go with it. So the Pixies did something that was genius. They taped themselves for twenty seconds in an abandoned quarry moving towards the camera, then they played it in slow motion for the entirity of the song Velouria and hence, they had met the requirements for making thier video. Unsurprisingly, they did not win. Here's the video, which is the most boring video in the entire universe.

Here is the video and song Debaser, which is one of the most popular songs by the band