the pixies

first off; whats with the name? i mean the pixies? isn't that like some kind of fairy? if i am going to make that kind of music i wouldn't even dream about it. after a few spins of their albums though it makes perfect sense. after all joey santiago had the same reservations until he found out that pixies were actually evil and mischevious in their own way. after getting over the hangup of their choosen moniker, there remains the music.

i first heard the pixies in a british made documentary about music in the mid-80's following the demise of the widely appreciated demigods, the smiths. in it were mention of bands like the fall, the stone roses, throwing muses and of course a certain mr. charles thompson and his fellow bostonians. there was a small snippet of the band's no-budget video for 'here comes your man'. it was funny as hell seeing the band subverting the whole concept of lip-syncing by keeping their mouths wide open throughout the whole video while playing their respective instruments. the song just got lodged into my brain and refused to leave. after a few years i manage to get hold of a copy of 'doolittle' but during the intervening time i had also armed myself with the history of the band from various magazines. i played the cd but had to skip immediately to 'here comes your man' because i just couldn't get my head around the racket that was coming out of the speakers. on initial impact i was stunned. there was nothing to grasp on to. guitar chords just tumbled and tripped over each other and the screeching! what the hell! there was nothing like 'here comes the man' elsewhere on the album! i was literally thrown out to sea during a force ten gale.

for the next few days i was annoyed at myself for having wasted hard earned cash on a lemon. what were these people talking about? these guys are awful! with my tail between my legs i clung stubbornly to the one and only track i could listen to putting it endlessly on repeat. this went on for a while until one lazy sunday afternoon when i decided that enough was enough. i will spin the entire cd for once. my life changed that afternoon. once i was inducted into the secret society of the pixies there was no turning back. everything else just sounded so dated following 'doolittle'. nothing came close. absolutely no one was worthy of licking the sweat off the back of frank black's neck.

since their acrimonious breakup, there is a void that nobody has managed to fill. they are a one off in the annals of popular music. when they reunited briefly in 2004 their shows sold out in seconds. the diehard fans came out in droves but surprisingly there were also those who could not have been more than ten when they ran rings around the competition. rumor of an album of new material abounds but this has yet to materialise. until then we wait with bated breath.