| November 26th, 2004 04:30 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Pixels: DVD concert and documentary give band its due
By Larry Katz
Friday, November 26, 2004
From Jimi Hendrix to the Scissor Sisters, music history abounds with Americans who first found acclaim in England.
Boston's Pixies are at the tail end of the Reunion Tour of the Year. Twelve years after the band's breakup, Pixies are making it big in the U.S.A.
But back when the quartet was starting out in the late '80s, the nexus of Pixie worship was Britain. In ``Gouge,'' a documentary about the band that can be found on the ``Pixies'' DVD released earlier this year, British rock stars - and one very famous Irish one - compete to heap praise on the wonders of Pixies music.
``I found it just about the most compelling music, outside of Sonic Youth, in the entire '80s,'' says David Bowie.
``This is one of America's greatest ever songwriters,'' gushes U2's Bono about Pixies frontman Charles Thompson, formerly known as Black Francis and Frank Black, ``and this is one of America's greatest-ever bands.''
The effusive praise is echoed by a chorus including Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, PJ Harvey, Badly Drawn Boy and members of Blur and Travis. While Pixies had fans in the United States - Sonic Youth and Nirvana prominent among them - the group never sold many CDs here and stayed ensconced in the indie rock underground, well under the pop culture radar.
Until now. This is the Pixies' discovery year. After re-releasing the Pixies five albums, the band's longtime label, 4AD, has supplied an ideal entry point for newcomers with ``Wave of Mutilation - Best of Pixies,'' a 23-song, chronological CD summation of Pixiedom.
Longtime fans or newbies craving visuals will enjoy 4AD's ``Pixie'' DVD. In addition to the ``Gouge'' documentary, it includes a full 1988 concert shot in front of an enthusiastic English audience at London's Town and Country Club. (Excerpts from the same concert redundantly appear in ``Gouge.'') Clearly the Pixies were getting over on their musical muscle, not their fashion sense: Bassist Kim Deal, the closest Pixie to a sex symbol, wears a shapeless UCLA T-shirt and a just-got-out-of-bed non-hairdo.
The DVD also includes the band's seven low-budget videos, which are worth seeing once. That can't be said for ``On the Road,'' a good-natured but dull 40-minute home movie patched together from Pixies tours of Europe and America.
But no complaints. The live concert and ``Gouge'' are enough to make this a worthy DVD crash course in the great Boston band Bostonians hardly noticed.
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| November 26th, 2004 05:53 AM |
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| Jumacfly |
pixies were great live this year!!
and Frank Black is a genious IMHO, listen to "dog in the sand" and you weel hear some Jagger gems in his voice!!!
and let me say hi to one of their bigger fan : my dear Phog of course 
cheers
JU |
| November 26th, 2004 05:39 PM |
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| Dan |
I even liked "On The Road."
Kim Deal is the most beautiful and talented woman who has ever lived. |
| November 26th, 2004 05:50 PM |
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| Sir Stonesalot |
Dan...
FPM and I saw The Pixies back in the day...Doolittle times. Kim smoked an entire cigarette, down to the filter, without removing it from her mouth,...or having the ash fall off! One of the most amazing stage feats I've ever witnessed. She also had a dress on and could not have cared less that we were looking right up it. |
| November 26th, 2004 08:02 PM |
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| Phog |
JU,
Couldn't have said it better myself. The dvd in the above article is very interesting. There's also a proshot show from Brixton '91 that's damn fine. Snap 'em up!! |
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