The Pixies

I referred in an earlier post to my cousin Steve who has great taste in music. Well, theres another Steve with whom I shared much of my discovery of great music with.

That Steve was a friend I met in high school, he was a friend of a guy named Carl who sat in my science class and wore a Nirvana T-Shirt, so naturally we became pals. The three of us, Steve, Carl and I were pretty much unstoppable after that point. We hung out together, played in a band together, and I think just about every band I got into was a result of sitting at Carl's house and either watching hours of much music or dubbing cassettes from each other.

I don't exactly remember when I first heard of the Pixies.....I want to believe it was the "Here Comes Your Man" video and sadly all I remember is we thought Kim Deal was hot. Carl was really into them.....and Steve would flip through magazines and reference things like "did you know Kurt Cobain says Surfer Rosa is his favourite album of all time?"

In those days I got into bands largely because I fed off of those two guys' excitement. So for me, the Pixies were reasonably good, but the fact that Carl and Steve were so into it made me want to get into it too.

Years later, once my ipod became my best friend....I REALLY started to listen to those albums. Now I started to understand the genius. The songs were incredibly raw...gritty. Frank sung in spanish on many of the songs which I'm sure wasn't going to rocket those songs onto the radio. He sung about rape, murder, incest, sex....not exactly top 40 material. But it was unique.....something I was craving. I got particularly hooked on the tune "Dig For Fire"from Bossanova......which I played on repeat in the car until I could memorize it.

One day I was at the record store and there was a Live Pixies DVD sitting on the shelf, so I bought it. Took it home and watched it.....and that was the next obsession, to be watched over and over until my roomates were banging their heads off the wall.

Before I knew it the Pixies had announced the reunion tour and I had tickets for Voodoo Fest in New Orleans. Pixies, Sonic Youth, Beastie Boys, who could turn that down? Going to that show and seeing the massive crowds absolutely adoring them was in many ways surreal. Who were all these people? Where do they all come from? Nobody at my work has even heard of them....yet there are literally 50,000 people here screaming their lungs out and singing every word. Did Fight Club do this? I guess it was half people like me......."rediscoverers", and the other half people who were aware of the band in their heyday...."True Fans".

Just a month ago Steve sent me a Facebook message that The Pixies are playing Massey Hall in TO and he was picking up tickets. This will now be the 5th time I'll be seeing them live, and reunion tours are all too common these days. (Hell, Pavement reunited)

I read somewhere though that there are now legitimate talks that they want to get back into the studio. I had been hoping for some new material when they reunited 7 years ago....or had I? Are the Pixies nostalgia, or relevant? Should they be bringing out new material and potentially tarnish their legacy? It seems reasonable that they've done reunion shows for the past 7 years because the payload has been huge and the fans are hungry for it. But is writing new material crossing a line?

I think it is their past that raises that question. The famous stories of the feuding and fighting......the disagreements between Frank and Kim over who should write the songs.

At the end of the day.....its their legacy to lose or to maintain. Who am I or who is anyone to tell them making new material is a smart or stupid move? To me it is based on how long since their last release. 1991. They aren't even the same people anymore. How can a band that hasn't released new material since 1991 and has spent 7 years touring their "Hits" come out with new material that even stands a chance against their classic albums? And lets face it.....if that record isn't Damn good and resemble themselves 20 years younger, the backlash will be ugly.

The pressure must be unbearable and its why I don't think it will ever happen. I'm calling it now.......don't expect to see a new Pixies album any time soon. For now I guess we'll just have to reminisce in this video clip. Enjoy.