Formed in
Boston in the latter half of the eighties, the Pixies have,
arguably, a bigger stamp on the last fifteen years of rock music than any other
band.
Their soft-loud dynamics, simple,
effective
basslines, screaming guitars, and melodic
know-how influenced
countless bands
in the early nineties, some worthy, some not.
Kurt Cobain claimed, at every possibly opportunity, that Nirvana were
nothing more than a Pixies rip-off.
The
Toadies
were a Pixies
ripoff, right down to the fucked-up lyrical matter and
unattractive female bass player.
Listen
to any of their albums today, and you’re bound to hear between 5 and 10 chord
sequences that have since been
beaten
into the ground by the band’s clueless, self-loathing followers.
The first ten seconds of “Debaser”
alone have probably launched the careers
of too many bands to reasonably count.
And yet, despite all this, the Pixies to this day remain
totally unique in the history of popular
music.
See, the
Pixies were one of the biggest contributing authors to the book of alternative
rock, but they had also had a ton of other
aspects which have yet to be imitated.
Sometimes these “other” aspects were downright annoying, yes, but they
help the Pixies stand out both from their contemporaries and their
followers. Black Francis spent part of
his college years in Puerto Rico, so he loved
surf-rock and weird Spanish music.
Bassist Kim Deal’s ethereal backing vocals provided an excellent contrast to Black’s often
incomprehensible (yet better than Geddy Lee!)
screeching about “slicing up eyeballs” (Black was, vocally, the singular
influence on Jack White, by the way).
They could alternately play fast and loose like punks, yelp like
possessed iguanas, and write melody lines the envy of most other bands to ever
grace this planet, and sometimes did all three in the same song. Black Francis has a ridiculous sense of humor
that, when it goes overboard, annoys the
living crap out of me, but when used in moderation proves goofy and
fun. Its absence from the band’s last
two records might be what makes most Pixies fans rate them lower than the
band’s first two, but, in my humble opinion, that is a total crock of
shit. I like both pairs just as
much! I even think Doolittle is obviously flawed in places! Ha!
But putting all this aside, they were one of the greatest indie-rock bands of all time, and all of their records, bar
possibly Bossanova,
are absolutely essential for the like
three fans of the genre who don’t already have them. If you hate smarmy college kids and get off
on Bob Seger records, though, you should probably
stay away.
Lineup! The baby-faced, chubby man turned to the side
in front is lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and possessor of a very boring name
Charles Thompson, who rechristened himself “Black Francis” before taking lead
of the Pixies, and re-rechristened himself “Frank Black” before going
solo. He’s basically the tyrant of the
group, and his Billy Corgan-esque creative control
helped contribute to the band’s early breakup, since bassist Kim Deal (far
right), a decent songwriter in her own right, was only able to convince Mr.
Francis to allow two of her
compositions on Pixies records (one of which blows!). The remaining two members are, on the left,
drummer David Lovering (oh my god is that Trevor Linden?!) and, next to him, lead
guitarist Joey Santiago. I don’t really
refer to either one of them much in the reviews, because drumming isn’t why you
buy Pixies albums and I never have any idea who of Joey and Black is playing
what guitar part in a given song, but they’re probably really nice guys, too.
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Midterms are...... OVER BABY! I OWNED those
bitches. Well not really, I've only gotten the marks back for one of
them which I'm proud to say was above the class average. Suckas! And I
even studied a chapter I didn't need to for that midterm (of course I
didn't know that, I'm no study freak).
