The Best Pixies Post ever

I'd say chances are good that if you are looking at this blog, you are probably somewhat familiar with
indie-rock Gods the Pixies, one of those bands that was far more influential than actually popular, and their popularity wasn't all that low either. Originiating in the Boston area in the mid-1980's, the Pixies were vocalist/rhythem guitarist Frank Black (aka Black Francis), guitarist Joey Santiago, drummer David Lovering, and on the bass, Dayton Ohio's own Kim Deel.....you may not know this, but I participated in many a menange a trois with Kim and her twin sister Kelly.....oh wait, those were DREAMS......sorry.

The Pixies loud/soft, fast/slow dynamic was quite influential on a good bit of 1990's alt-rock.....in fact Kurt Cobain once stated that he was emulating the Pixies when he wrote "Smells Like Teen Spirit"....you can hear the Pixies fingerprints all over a LOT of more modern bands, but their work EASILLY stands on it's own.

1987's "Come On Pilgrim" got things started, a good collection of songs that would be a nice indicator of the better things to come.....it is a songwriting tour-de-force, two songs are partially in el espanol ("Vamos" and "Isle de Encanta"), we have incest numbers ("Nimrod's Son"), sexual tunes ("I've Been Tired"), and just plain wierd shit ("Ed Is Dead").......a solid 3.5 star album, and a perfect warm up for......

"Surfer Rosa" is one of the better albums from the decade of the 1980's, and is the Pixies' best work. Tons of great numbers, from "Bone Machine", "Where Is My Mind", to Deel's sweet vocals on a song which rumor has it she dedicated to yours truly ("Gigantic"....oh, wait, that may have been a dream as well), and best of all, perhaps MY favorite Pixies number, the way cool "River Euphrates". Classic album.

However, the arguement for "Surfer Rosa" as the Pixie's best work is not unanimous......many prefer
"Doolittle" and I wouldn't argue TOO much......another collection of great alt-pop stuff, "Wave of Mutilation", "Here Comes Your Man", "Monkey Gone to Heaven", and "Hey" standout, this is very nearly as strong a set as "Surfer Rosa" and as good a pair of back-to-back releases as nearly anyone has given us. If you are looking only for the "essentials", say, if this is your INTRODUCTION to the Pixies (and once again I'd be tempted to mock you and call you JUNIOR), these are the ones you want.

The 1980's turned to the 1990's, and the Pixies responded with "Bossanova". In light of the critical love of "Doolittle" and "Surfer Rosa", it is somewhat underappreciated, seemingly something of a conceptual affair having something to do with outer space or some such, the sound is a little weird (somewhat surf-inspired), but as usual, what makes for a good Pixie's album is great songs, and there are some of high quality here as well: "Blown Away" and "Rock Music" stand out among some others.

"Trompe Le Monde" is the fifth and final "proper" Pixies album, and they are one of those rare bands that NEVER released a truly "bad" album,merely less great ones.....this one is full of great tunes also, "Subbacultcha", "Motorway to Roswell", and the title track are all of regular Pixies standards.

OF course it wouldn't be our dear old "Growing Bored for a Living" if all we had were these easy to get studio discs, now would it? Ergo, we have a few more...."The Complete B Sides" has some fun and hard to find rare tracks, such as "Weird at My School" and "Into the White". The now out-of-print "Death to the Pixies" is a 2 disc set, the first being a sort of "best of" disc, while the second contains a partial live set from a concert recording of 9/25/90.....disc 1, obviously does us no good if we already have the Pixie's studio LP's, but disc 2 is invaluable as the Pixies were no joke on the stage either.

"The Pixies Live at the BBC" is a pretty easy one to find, but it's a good one too, a compilation of
various BBC appearances by the band.....then for a while they disbanded with Black doing work with The Catholics and Deel doing here thing with the Breeders......they got back together a couple of times in the 2000's actually, and I have a Winnepeg show from 2004, they run through a set of their best stuff with a surgeon's skill.....Deel left the band again, evidently for good this time, but as I understand it a replacement female bassist/vocali enlisted and the band still carries on. Contrary to my normal opinion on such things, I say good for them, they have given it a good run, really think there was a market for their weird "alternapop", a MASS market, which  don't think ever found them.

A really great band, in my eyes anyway. Nothing here too tremendously hard to locate save for perhaps the Winnepeg show, but good stuff nonetheless, and certainly would welcome any additional live Pixies any friends may wish to share.



TROMPE LE MONDE-01 Trompe Le Monde/02 Planet of Sound/03 Alec Eiffel/04 The Sad
Punk/05 Head On/06 U-Mass/07 Palace of the Brine/08 Letter to Memphis/09 Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons/10 Space (I Believe In)/11 Subbacultcha/12 Distance Equals Rate Times Time/13 Lovely Day/14 Motorway to Roswell/15 The Navajo Know

DEATH TO THE PIXIES DISC 1-01 Cecilia Ann/02 Planet of Sound/03 Tame/04 Here Comes Your Man/05 Debaser/06 Wave of Mutilation/07 Dig For Fire/08 Caribou/09 Holiday Song/10 Nimrod's Son/11 U-Mass/12 Bone Machine/13 Gigantic/14 Where Is My Mind/15 Velouria/16 Gouge Away/17 Monkey Gone to Heaven

DEATH TO THE PIXIES DISC 2-01 Debaser/02 Rock Music/03 Broken Face/04 Isla de Encanta/05 Hangwire/06 Dead/07 Into the White/08 Monkey Gone to Heaven/09 Gouge Away/10 Here Comes Your Man/11 Allison/12 Hey/13 Gigantic/14 Crackity Jones/15 Something Against You/16 Tame/17 Wave of Mutilation/18 Where Is My Mind/19 Ed Is Dead/20 Vamos/21 Tony's Theme

LIVE AT THE BBC-01 Wild Honey Pie/02 There Goes My Gun/03 Dead/04 Subbacultcha/05 Manta Ray/06 Is She Weird/07 Ana/08 Down to the Well/09 Wave of Mutilation/10 Letter to Memphis/11 Levitate Me/12 Caribou/13 Monkey Gone to Heaven/14 Hey/15 In Heaven (Lady In the Radiator Song)