One of those bands that never really hit my radar until that Death To The Pixies compilation dropped in the late 90s, despite being a massive influence on the grunge-era acts I was listening to at the beginning of the decade. Strange, as I was definitely aware of them as I remember an older cousin getting Surfer Rosa for Christmas one year and the cover-art attracting the attention of my 12-year-old self.
Anyway, theyāre a 4 for me. Love them when I listen to them, but donāt feel the urge often enough. Didnāt actually mind that last reunion album. Felt like it had a little more of the bite of the earlier stuff. Agree that Indie Cindy and Head Carrier were weak though.
My introduction was also the Death to the Pixies compilation, which came out in my second year at university. I was immediately obsessed, and devoured everything released to that point (as did my dad).
In 1999 I went to see Frank Black at the Astoria 2, with my dad. It was one of our first gigs together.
Frank blasting through versions of Holiday Song and Wave of Mutilation, whilst jumping around with my dad, is one of my most joyous memories.
Very good, but another one of those seminal indie bands that donāt quite hit me like they did for others - Joy Division, The Smiths, Husker Du etc. Maybe just not that fussed with the 80s as a whole idk.
4/5, so many bangers but never listen to their full albums - one of the all time Greatest Hits albums too.
Have to highlight Trompe Le Monde here. Itās such a good album, really helped by the textures added by Eric Drew Feldman.
The run of āTrompe Le Mondeā through to āBird Dream Of The Olympus Monsā is absolutely perfect and the tracks afterwards, though theyāre a bit weirder, are as good as anything else on the album.
It was definitely time to wrap up after this album though, the rift between Frank Black and Kim Deal and become too great. Black was still mining songs from their initial demo (āSubbacultchaā and āDistance = Rate x Timeā) while Deal had already released Pod and was working on Last Splash.
They should have gone the Galaxie 500 way and never reformed and stayed hating each other. I would never have seen them but no great loss. At least they wouldnāt have made those shit recent albums.
5 based on their initial run. Everything after they reformed falls into my ānot the real Pixiesā box, so I donāt have to listen to/think about it