The Pixies: what am I missing?

As much as I love the Pixies (and I love them quite a bit), they are very much an acquired taste. I know a lot of people who feel similar to the way you do about them, so ummm.... fair play, I guess?

I would say give Doolittle a listen first though. Surfer Rosa is their roughest album, Doolittle's got a bit more pop spunk to it.

"You had-ta been there" perhaps.

I'm in my 30's and all my friends loved The Pixies in High School (most of them have tired of them by now),
but they never grabbed me. I agree with most of what you say.

Have you heard the Bosa Nova album?
It's not often mentioned and more listenable, better produced (and less preciously off kilter) than the rest of their output.

Honestly? I'd start with Trompe Le Monde. I think it's their most accessible album. As Mr. Reed said, they are indeed an acquired taste, but TLM is their most rockin'-est.

Surfer Rosa is a gem, but probably the wrong place to start when trying to figure out The Pixies. If you're a rock guy, TLM is probably your best bet. Doolittle and Bossanova are poppier offerings. Bossanova is the overlooked Pixies album, but it's pretty solid.

That was my access, blind buy on friend's recommendation the week it was released (ah, the pre-internet college radio grapevine! I was usually late to the party on all this stuff). Entered into constant rotation. I eventually worked backward from there, and soon fell hard in love with all of it. Surfer Rosa? Man, there's hardly a second of it I don't love, self-aware preciousness and all.

Ah, man, how can you not like Tony's Theme?

Loved the Pixies and always felt that Surfer Rosa was their best album.

I think Surfer Rosa is a little harder to get into than some of their stuff. I disagree wholeheartedly with your take on Bone Machine, by the way - Black is a unique songwriter and I wouldn't call his quirks self-conscious. Anyway, I'd nab Doolittle first and then Bossanova. And move on from there. In my teens, I actually sold Bossanova back to the record store, so I've semi been where you are now - not really getting it. I regret that resell. It's an amazing CD, and contains Veloria, which is probably my favorite song by them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHhox...eature=related

The video probably won't sell you, however. It's a haunting song. I love Deal's vocals, especially here.

Someone played "Where is my mind" for me years and years ago, and I thought "wow, that's really good, I want to hear more." Ten to fifteen songs later, I concluded they hadn't made anything else I was likely to care for.

Whilst Surfer Rosa is my personal favourite of theirs, I'd agree with Nicholas and Kevin that Doolittle is probably the best starting place. It doesn't stray a million miles from the non-production of SR, but has a more accessible mix of pop, screaming and biblical metaphor. Depending on your taste, though, you might find the likes of "La La Love You" and "Here Comes Your Man" a bit twee.

Having said that, if Kim Deal's voice is part of what's turning you off, you might enjoy Bossanova or Trompe Le Monde more. Her presence is diminished to one word of backing vocals by the latter if memory serves. Both are a lot more polished production-wise than the earlier albums, but the songs are still mostly in and done in less than 3 minutes.

I'm a big Pixies fan, but I came to be one by increments. SURFER ROSA remains my favorite album of theirs, but there's a lot of quirk in their music.

When I saw them live a few years back, it all kind of clicked, though. Now I love everything.

The Pixies seem to fall under the same category as Sonic Youth for me. I am in total awe and have nothing but respect for their influence, but I couldn't class myself as a fan of either band

"Here Comes Your Man" is my all-time favorite Pixies song--I actually have it as a preset on my Sirius. I like some of the other stuff--Monkey Gone To Heaven and Where Is My Mind? for example--but I've never had the urge to go out and buy a Pixies CD.

Thank GOD I'm not the only one who doesn't worship at the Pixie altar. I don't mind them and I won't turn them off if someone is playing them, but I'd never classify myself as a fan. I just never 'got it', I guess.

It's funny, I got into The Pixies with Surfer Rosa, but I was in high school (and they had been broken up for years). I got so into the quirkyness (never thought of it as that, but it does make sense. Frank Black and TMBG are close friends after all) that I was almost turned off by the glossier stuff of Doolittle and TLM. Come On Pilgrim has some great stuff on it too.

The Pixies is one of the few bands where I don't feel bad reccomending a best-of album to the unitiated, mainly because Death to The Pixies is a GREAT best-of album. The second disk is an awesome live disk from late in their first go 'round. If it doesn't suck you in, well, they're probably not going to be your thing.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I've always enjoyed the faster cut of Wave Of Mutilation.

In my mid-20's I bought the Pixies greatest hits double disc CD. Its actually quite awesome. So I'd give that a whirl if you want to hear the good stuff.

Hey, at the very least you get my user title now!

I don't think this suggests you have bad taste, although being turned off by Kim Deal's voice might belong in DaveB's "suspect music" thread. The fact that you immediately dig Surfer Rosa's production and some of the more accessible songs means you probably just need to let the rest grow on you a little. You should definitely check out the rest of their very small catalogue--as much as I adore the "you fuckin' DIE!" chatter on Surfer Rosa, that kind of stuff isn't on any of their other albums.

The only thing I hate On Surfer Rosa is that "I was finishing her hardcore" chat. I really want to kill someone when I hear that. Great album otherwise.

Having mused on it, I'm actually wondering if The Pixies At the BBC might be a good recommendation if you like the sound of Surfer Rosa.

15 tracks from across their career with bare-bones production, including a Beatles cover and a song from out of Eraserhead. I love it.

I always loved the chatter, mainly because it's so awkward sounding for Black. It would suck if it was staged, because I always interpreted as a little bit of conversation Albini sneakily recorded between takes. I always imagine the rest of the band staring at Frank while he tries (unsuccesfully) to dig himself out of the hole that his inappropriate sentence had just dug.

I used to kinda like Sonic Youth, but then I saw them live and they were incredible. It was like a switch went off, and all of the sudden I "got it".

I'll second the love for Death to the Pixies. For a best-of, it's put together incredibly well, and the live recording is more inspired than some of the other live Pixies stuff I've heard.

I have always found it painfully terrible.
It used to make me want to punch my friends in the face.

I'm saying this as someone who started with Doolittle, so I may be biased, but you should start with Doolittle.

I love Surfer Rosa, but it's a little one-note. It really emphasizes the unorthodox song structures and the abrasiveness. I wonder if they chose these songs purposefully, knowing they'd be working with Albini, who tends to bring out the grit in the artists he produces. The Come On Pilgrim EP and some of the songs they'd written earlier, but would release later (like "Here Comes Your Man" and "U-Mass"), are pretty poppy.

Doolittle is the best combination of the weird, aggressive stuff and the more polished pop songs from later. If that album grabs you and you can get over Kim Deal's voice (I never thought I'd have to write that phrase), you should try Pod, the first Breeders album. It's very Pixies-like.

I do think some of this may be contextual. Everyone's ripped off the Pixies so thoroughly in the last couple decades that it's hard to appreciate how fresh they sounded at the time, especially to those of us who were old enough to be tired of FM radio rock, but too young to have gotten into punk and post-punk without the relatively accessible bridge that Doolittle provided.

Pixies aren't a best-of kind of band, IMO. All of their albums have separate identities, and it's worth your while to hear it all in context.

You know, I never quite got into Pod except for a couple of songs. I have no idea why--a Kim Deal/Tanya Donelly double-team ought to be my favorite thing ever. Off to the suspect taste thread I go.

Doolittle is definitely quintessential Pixies ("Debaser" if you really want to pin them down, I guess) even though they have four distinctly different-sounding albums. It's pretty fascinating to listen to them in order and hear the sound change as Deal becomes less and less involved. I guess she wasn't into songs about UFOs.

You honestly heard that as "finishing her hardcore?" What does that even mean?

No wonder you think it sounds contrived. He says "I was finishing her part for her." Of all the between-song banter on Surfer Rosa, that one sounds the most natural to me, since it's so awkward and dumb.

From what I've read, it was more that Black Francis wasn't into her being involved. He shut her out of the writing process. I forget if it was Bossa Nova or Trompe Le Monde, but on one album, they basically called her up last minute so that she could add her bass and vocal parts. She didn't even know they'd been recording.

But I don't think Deal's presence was that much of a factor in the sound evolving, aside from her lack of backing vocals on later albums. She wrote "Gigantic," but that was about it.

That makes me sad. I assumed she just became more interested in her own projects.

Still, their voices together are what make that band for me. I mean, I love Black's songwriting, but them singing together - when I finally got to hear them live during the reunion tour, it made me so damn happy. Thought I'd never hear them live. It meant a lot, for some reason. Does she sing backing vocals on Trompe? If so, she's barely there. I love that cd, but she is missed. I think Black even sings like her in some areas. Still, Alec Eiffel - one of my favorite endings in song.

For Slade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPqjXvnRFcM

If Black did freeze her out, it had to be nice revenge that The Breeders got so big. I've actually followed both of their post-Pixies careers, and have most of their output. Like DaveB, I love Pod. Most of Last Splash is good. Even Deal's one album with her side, side band The Amps is good. Black's solo stuff, especially Teenager of the Year, is worth picking up. And I love most of his stuff with the Catholics. If you do end up falling head over heels with the Pixies, there's just a weath of great stuff to grab. I have dreams for you, Slade!

Yeah, her voice is one of my favorite parts of their sound, too. It's just that she was never much of an active writer for the Pixies, so their evolution as a band had less to do with her creative input (or lack thereof) and more to do with Francis trying new styles. It just so happens that he decided some of these new styles didn't require as much of a Deal presence.

And then the rest of the band was shed as well.

In regards to the "What am I missing?" part of the title...I think it's harder to recognize or enjoy something when everyone is telling how great something that is an aquired taste is. Give it time to settle in, but if it doesn't work for you it may never.

Definitely. If you've been hearing how great something is for years, it's that much more likely you'll be disappointed. Sometimes, you have to distance yourself from the hype to enjoy it.

It literally took me years to warm up to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, and it was mainly because the critical accolades made it sound like this enormous masterpiece of modern music-making, and I heard something that didn't sound particularly ground-breaking. When I reset my expectations to match what's basically an excellent, quirky and ornate singer-songwriter pop album, it finally made sense to me.

My first Pixies exposure was on the Pump Up The Volume soundtrack. I went out and bought Doolittle, expecting the UK Surf version of Wave Of Mutilation. The album exceeded my expectations.

Surfer Rosa is pretty awesome, but my high opinion is largely based on discovering it when it's sound was new-ish, before it was emulated by so many other 90's bands.

C'mon man. Even my kids (5 and 3yrs) love it. Though, I had to use Audacity to edit out some of the choice lyrics.

Man, just thinking about the barely organized cacophony of the beginning of Bone Machine, I'm digging out Surfer Rosa tonight. When those buzzsaw guitar bends kicked in the first time I heard it, seeming out of time at first, then sinking in the groove, I knew that album was going to change a lot about how I listened to rock. Looking back at that statement, I know it reads very hyperbolic, but I mean every word of it.

The only backing vocals that are definitely Kim on Trompe is the word "Sun" on "Distance = Rate x Time", which is a shame because, as you say, the harmony between the two singers is one of the things that's so great and made them sound so unique in the first place.

Definitely agreeing with the love for Pod and for that matter, Black's Frank Black and as I've just noticed Kevin said, Teenager of the Year.

I like the Pixies quite a bit, but there are better rock bands from the 80s, such as Husker Du.

I think she also spits out a "black" during Subbacultcha.

These two bands, along with The Mats, pretty much make up the holy trinity of woefully underrated (at the time) modern rock goodness.

You're right! This thread inspired me to have a listen to the album this morning and I think she might also get to sing "spacious" a couple of times over the course of Space (I Believe In).

Underappreciated by the masses, but underrated? No way. All three were critics' darlings almost right out of the gate and had rabid, if small, fanbases.

As for Iron Maiden's post - while the Pixies grew out of the Husker Du guitar sound, to some extent, the two bands did totally different things tonally. Husker Du were very grounded in reality - personal, emotional stuff, aside from the odd experimental track like "How to Skin a Cat" and "The Baby Song." Also, their music, despite how abrasive it sounded, was typically pretty traditional in format. Lots of verse-chorus-verse stuff.

The Pixies were more playful in terms of lyric and form. It was more pop-naive, in some ways, which led to unusual compositions and more sonic variety, but still pop-friendlier - they're easier to initially get into for most people. Mould and Hart can be downers by comparison.

The Pixies are easy to get into, apart from Surfer Rosa...which is my favorite album of theirs'. Otherwise, their tunes are something I return to occasionally, but they are merely a good rock band with a strong, traditional sense of melody...which I think is why people move on from them so easily. I have more love for Pere Ubu. But I'm not sure a comparison is entirely fair...

Yes, perhaps underappreciated is a more accurate word.

I guess "rock" bands like the Pixies, Husker Du, and Pere Ubu are okay for the proles, but I really only listen to them when I'm drinking. When I'm in control of my faculties, I only listen to Japanese shōmyō, Hungarian blues, and shitty albums by otherwise-canonized bands, like the Clash's Cut the Crap and the Velvet Underground's Squeeze (and then I tell everyone that they're unrecognized masterpieces).

But, sure, carry on with your pop music, Pere Ubu guy.

Ha ha. The dutifully inform the young punks of the true brilliance of CUT THE CRAP game is always a good time. He he.

That's one of the funniest post I've ever read DaveB.

But Squeeze isn't as bad as its reputation.

I see what you're getting at, but the Pixies really are a better band when you're less sober. They are a good band otherwise, don't get me wrong! I'll take their pop music over most anything else out there (except The Smiths - love The Smiths) - but the more challenging music tends to be the most rewarding music. There isn't much else to an average Pixies song than the hook. And a well-executed hook is something to be appreciated. But it gets boring after a while. So I don't listen to the Pixies as often as when I discovered them.

There's nothing elite about it...unless you're the type to put on a record and not think your first impression of it could be incorrect. Like Trout Mask Replica. Took me a long time to enjoy that one.

It may not be elitist, exactly, but it's certainly overly simplistic to say that more challenging music tends to be most rewarding.

It's not challenging at all to appreciate most Elvis Costello albums on a first listen, but his stuff yields more and more upon further listens. The same can be said for all the best pop music.

I also think a lot of people mistake intentionally obtuse bullshit, outsider artist status, and musical naivete for "challenging," and we have this to thank for the gushing over Animal Collective, the fact that Wesley Willis actually has fans, and ongoing critical appreciation for the Moldy Peaches and the Shaggs.