alright, I'll admit it -- I've never been a crazy pixies fan... there are days i can handle frank black yelling at me, there are days i can't... my lord jce, however, really is a quite (for him) obsessive pixies fan -- someone who actually thinks it's insanely amusing for frank black to yell at him... so i decided to listen to this album with him -- so perhaps i could figure out why i was so atypical of my generation/unforgivably uncool and couldn't just get with the pixies program already... along the way he reminded me that 'where is my mind?' ends the "greatest movie ever" -- to the lord, this would be "fight club"... why the man just really doesn't like chuck palahniuk is beyond me... and, yeah, i've decided that the things that annoy me about the pixies still annoy me -- they're fine in the background for me, or with the odd song here or there, but on the whole, just not me... when you hear people bloody yelling for no reason at you all day, listening to a short, balding fat man do the same, it's just not worth it... and it reminds me a bit of the sketch on 'extras' where david bowie sings about the sad little fat man to ricky gervais...
so does it stand up? should it have been in the top 10? of course... my nirvana rant is coming later, but suffice it to say for now that it would take someone totally tone deaf and without any activity in the frontal cortex to not recognise the screamingly (pun intended) obvious -- quiet/loud/quiet was NOT some evidence of the genius of kurt cobain... it was ripped straight off of this album without shame... is that a bad thing? no, it's a rock music thing -- so keep your purity rings to yourselves, because everyone's been ripping everyone else off since the dawn of time... it also, shockingly, doesn't sound particularly dated to me -- i listen to the "indie" station (whatever that means -- i have no other descriptor) riding into work and back every day, and nothing on here would sound out of place on that station... now, that's not to say that i wouldn't say something like, 'shut the bloody fuck up, you screaming, yelling prick' at the radio and turn it over... don't get me wrong... but i get why it's important... it is important -- but i still don't like it... sorry -- i'll just take my place up at the head of the terminally uncool line and be happy with it...
The Pixies are a band a both hated and loved at different points in time. I bought one album at Rock Island Music - for those who wondered what happened to the owner - he's at DNJournal.com and schmoozes with the internet's bazillionaires.
ReplyDeleteThat said - the album is like it should be when it comes to the Pixies - short. It's not their best but it's hard to define what that even means. It's no Doolittle, and it's no Come On Pilgrim, I guess? Something nice about a band that uses bass, guitar, drums, and just makes something a little North of Punk for those of us who don't want to go that far.
Cactus is a great song (mutilated by Bowie on Heathen) and Where Is My Mind? is the perfect complement to the ending of Fight Club..