One of the greatest bands in the history of the galaxy is touring Australia next year to play one of the greatest albums ever recorded, hands down, in its entirety.
The Pixies will be playing their 1989 album Doolittle all the way through in one of those inspired classic album tours, like Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation tour last year. The tour is scheduled for March.
For the uninitiated, the Pixies hail from Boston, Massachusetts and recorded two of the most influential records of the late 1980s - their debut Surfer Rosa and their master work Doolittle, the impossibly catchy first single from which, Here Comes Your Man, is embedded above for your listening pleasure.
The cynically-minded might deride the Pixies as the quintessential uni band - their lyrics feature heaps of Spanish, a generous amount of profanity, and in the opening track on Doolittle, Debaser, there’s a reasonably pretentious reference to Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel’s surrealist film Un Chien Andalou - but they are impossible to dismiss because their songs are just so damned good.
They are one of those rare bands that is very much the sum of its parts and could not function, at all, with any change to its line-up. Hollering lead singer Black Francis’s vocals are complemented by the sweetness and breathiness of the voice of Kim Deal (who went on to form The Breeders, who you might know from their hit Cannonball), Joey Santiago is like an indie version of Angus Young in that his guitar work is so clean, no squeaky fret sounds, just massively loud breaks and then total pin-drop silence, and drummer David Lovering, well I can’t really think of anything to say about him other than he’s an awesomely good drummer, and works as a magician in his spare time.
A few Pixies facts. Kurt Cobain said that without the Pixies there would have been no Nirvana. He credits them with pioneering what he called the “loud quiet loud” genre of independent rock music, something which Kurt, God rest his soul, took to an even more ear-splitting level on Bleach and Nevermind.
In fact there’s a good doco about the band called Loud Quiet Loud - here’s the first five minutes of it.
In the final scene of the (awesome) movie Fight Club, when Tyler Durden and Marla Singer hold hands in the office tower as they watch the city’s skyline explode with terrorist bombs, the song that’s playing is Where is My Mind? off Surfer Rosa.
Legendary producer Steve Albini - of the influential (and unlistenable) punk band Big Black - also described the Pixies as the hardest drinking band in rock, which given how many musicians he’s worked with is quite the compliment.
The Pixies only recorded four albums and the last one, Trompe Le Monde, is pretty forgettable, so unlike getting into The Stones or Dylan, immersing yourself in The Pixies is a low-cost, high-return, three-LP proposition starting with Surfer Rosa, the almost faultless Doolittle, and their summery/surfie third record Bossanova, which sounds like it was written to be listened to in Australia on a stinking January day.
You should also buy the albums Pod and Last Splash by The Breeders, Kim Deal’s band with her sister Kelly.
Doolittle really does stand out though, it’s one of the few records which gives you something new every time you hear it. My list of favourite tracks on it changes often but when I cranked the headphones up to 11 last night and lay on the floor it was Hey and Gouge Away which won, even though they’re on the arguably weaker second side of the record. The most popular tracks on it are Debaser, Here Comes Your Man, Wave of Mutilation (of which there’s a great surf version) and the second single Monkey Gone to Heaven.
For more details I think Kathy McCabe has a story with dates and ticket details in today’s News Limited papers; but the tour was confirmed yesterday so it’s in for March. Google it. I’ll be the middle-aged guy who’s close to but not actually in the mosh pit, not with this dodgy knee and all, pretending that it’s 1989.
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