Pixies - EP 1

  On 9/10/2013 at 6:46 AM, J3FF3R00 said:

I never got Pavement.

i like Pavement actually but they are very much an acquired taste. The Pixies were great there's no doubt about that, but now... not so much.

here are a few of my favorite Pavement songs for the uninitiated.

  On 9/10/2013 at 6:17 AM, Candiru said:

Just to chime into that argument, Pixies were great because they had a rawness and some convicingly batshit tendencies, but also the excellent tunes to back it all up. Makes you all stabby for one song and all swooning on the next. Compare them to a band from that time like Pavement, and their legendary status should confuse no one. Unless you secretly hate your wife and it's coming out as "I hate the Pixies", then I see the motivation behind your posts, but other than that, there's no shame in being wrong.

I liked your post until you got all personal. What is with you people and ad hominem attacks? I love my wife (we've been happily together for 10 years), but we both work in a profession that requires blunt disagreement and we can express our views without "secretely hat[ing]" each other. Thanks for trying to be my therapist, though; I appreciate the effort. So I'll pretend that you didn't write that part, since the first part of your post was an OK attempt to explain why the Pixies were great.

Oh, and for the last time, I never said that I hate the Pixies. Jesus fucking Christ. I can't believe this is a subtlety that my fellow WATMMers are having a hard time with. ~ ("Band X is not great." <=> "I hate Band X.")

stahp! plez stahp!!!

  On 9/8/2013 at 6:18 AM, usagi said:

 

  On 9/8/2013 at 12:43 AM, zaphod said:

i'm scared

 

This. I don't think I'm going to click things

You're better off pretending this EP never happened.

Does the fact this is EP number 1 mean they're going to make more of them? There's only so much pretending I can do!

Yeah, things like this review is the reason I completely despise Pitchfork and I could never take it seriously. Burying Legends in the most pompous way just to make a statement. Sure, this ep is no Dootlittle and Pixies will most likely never repeat the glories of the past (who does?) but it definitely doesn't deserve a 1/10, I kind of have a hard time to find a record that does anyway.

Imo, it's a 6/10, I do like "Andro Queen" and I can't find many modern indie rock tracks as enjoyable as "Indie Cindy", pretty good tune.

But yeah, it's pitchfork we're dealing with, the same abomination of a site that has given 0.0 to Sonic Youth while treating people like Devendra Banhart like gods. Just watch how they will easily give their 9s and 10s to the next hip thing for September 2013... Fucking elitists...

i've personally never cared for pixies but i will readily acknowledge that their sound was not only innovative but ridiculously influential. it seems like the entire 90s "alternative" movement was just a bunch of bands responding to pixies. it's hard not to hear their influence on rock/indie music coming out even now, so many years later. it's quite uncanny, so few bands have this kind of impact imo

  On 9/10/2013 at 5:37 PM, Alcofribas said:

i've personally never cared for pixies but i will readily acknowledge that their sound was not only innovative but ridiculously influential. it seems like the entire 90s "alternative" movement was just a bunch of bands responding to pixies. it's hard not to hear their influence on rock/indie music coming out even now, so many years later. it's quite uncanny, so few bands have this kind of impact imo

That is a very fair point. But I would like to point out that great influence does not entail greatness itself. It is arguable that Madonna has had a huge impact on many of her followers (Britney, Miley Ray, etc.), but that doesn't mean she's great simpliciter. In fact, influence is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for greatness. Plenty of artists might be great and have no influence. I'll concede what you've said, but I still don't buy the claim that this fact makes them great. I should repeat, though, that I'm not hating on the Pixies. In fact, I'd choose listening to them over a wide range of music out there. I might even listen to this new thing (on the topic of this thread, I also think the Pitchfork review is an annoying piece of posturing). I just don't agree that influence or popularity is enough to make me change my mind about their greatness.

yeah let me say that I never clicked with the Pixies, but I understand why they're so highly praised.

I think they're one of those bands that you need to hear at the right time in your life. I was late to the party.

  On 9/10/2013 at 5:52 PM, apriorion said:

 

  On 9/10/2013 at 5:37 PM, Alcofribas said:

i've personally never cared for pixies but i will readily acknowledge that their sound was not only innovative but ridiculously influential. it seems like the entire 90s "alternative" movement was just a bunch of bands responding to pixies. it's hard not to hear their influence on rock/indie music coming out even now, so many years later. it's quite uncanny, so few bands have this kind of impact imo

That is a very fair point. But I would like to point out that great influence does not entail greatness itself. It is arguable that Madonna has had a huge impact on many of her followers (Britney, Miley Ray, etc.), but that doesn't mean she's great simpliciter. In fact, influence is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for greatness. Plenty of artists might be great and have no influence. I'll concede what you've said, but I still don't buy the claim that this fact makes them great. I should repeat, though, that I'm not hating on the Pixies. In fact, I'd choose listening to them over a wide range of music out there. I might even listen to this new thing (on the topic of this thread, I also think the Pitchfork review is an annoying piece of posturing). I just don't agree that influence or popularity is enough to make me change my mind about their greatness.

 

Out of curiosity, what makes MBV and Cocteau Twins great then?

  On 9/10/2013 at 6:08 PM, manmower said:

 

  On 9/10/2013 at 5:52 PM, apriorion said:

 

  On 9/10/2013 at 5:37 PM, Alcofribas said:

i've personally never cared for pixies but i will readily acknowledge that their sound was not only innovative but ridiculously influential. it seems like the entire 90s "alternative" movement was just a bunch of bands responding to pixies. it's hard not to hear their influence on rock/indie music coming out even now, so many years later. it's quite uncanny, so few bands have this kind of impact imo

That is a very fair point. But I would like to point out that great influence does not entail greatness itself. It is arguable that Madonna has had a huge impact on many of her followers (Britney, Miley Ray, etc.), but that doesn't mean she's great simpliciter. In fact, influence is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for greatness. Plenty of artists might be great and have no influence. I'll concede what you've said, but I still don't buy the claim that this fact makes them great. I should repeat, though, that I'm not hating on the Pixies. In fact, I'd choose listening to them over a wide range of music out there. I might even listen to this new thing (on the topic of this thread, I also think the Pitchfork review is an annoying piece of posturing). I just don't agree that influence or popularity is enough to make me change my mind about their greatness.

 

 

Out of curiosity, what makes MBV and Cocteau Twins great then?

 

Yeah I don't understand how a band could be objectively great. It will always come down to taste. WATMM should know this by now.

  On 9/10/2013 at 1:18 PM, apriorion said:

 

  On 9/10/2013 at 6:17 AM, Candiru said:

Just to chime into that argument, Pixies were great because they had a rawness and some convicingly batshit tendencies, but also the excellent tunes to back it all up. Makes you all stabby for one song and all swooning on the next. Compare them to a band from that time like Pavement, and their legendary status should confuse no one. Unless you secretly hate your wife and it's coming out as "I hate the Pixies", then I see the motivation behind your posts, but other than that, there's no shame in being wrong.

I liked your post until you got all personal. What is with you people and ad hominem attacks? I love my wife (we've been happily together for 10 years), but we both work in a profession that requires blunt disagreement and we can express our views without "secretely hat[ing]" each other. Thanks for trying to be my therapist, though; I appreciate the effort. So I'll pretend that you didn't write that part, since the first part of your post was an OK attempt to explain why the Pixies were great.

 

My apologies, did not mean to offend. I was in watmm messageboard snark-mode.

[brain]

switching

vacillating

between it's all just too late

grab the knife grab the knife

to even bother chiming in

but bothersome froth

of the everything open now now now

if it's all meaningless

and worthless

then nothing matters - so do everything

away and scheme

plot and falter

blah and plummet

it's all too late to even find you've missed the boat

you missed the f*cking harbour mate

ding the meter still ticks

say it

passenger

say it or just give the god damn freakin hell up

it's a shit ep

there

that wasn't too bad

got it all out, late, aborted, fantastic frying mess

it's shit

say it again

it's utter shitting shit

[brain-in]

  On 9/10/2013 at 3:40 PM, Timothy Forward said:

Does the fact this is EP number 1 mean they're going to make more of them? There's only so much pretending I can do!

Can't wait to hear their covers of Rpeg and Maphive 6.1, that would actually justify this garbage.

Regardless of Pixies being one of my top 10 favorite bands of all time this is just embarrassing. At least when Billy Corgan put out those 4-song "Teargarden" EPs the songs were so hilariously awful that they were worth listening to for fun. This stuff is so painfully pedestrian that it hurts, this honestly might be the greatest fall from grace I've ever seen from one of my favorite bands. It sounds exactly like the mountains of demos that got sent to me by third-rate indie startup bands when I worked at my college's radio station, I could imagine pretending to like this if my friends had written this but it's just sad this is coming from Frank Black. No wonder Kim Deal left in a hurry. Oh well, at least I always have this:

  On 9/13/2013 at 4:18 PM, Araungzeb said:

No wonder Kim Deal left in a hurry.

At which point the Pixies stopped being the Pixies to me anyway...

I saw their reunion tour in 2010 and they were still great. This is crap.

  Quote

I've thought carefully about it, so you shouldn't dismiss me with a "bro" move

 

So many lols

don't dismiss me with a bro move, bra

[youtubehd]msBbeo0SKHI[/youtubehd]

  On 9/15/2013 at 10:40 PM, zaphod said:

[youtubehd]msBbeo0SKHI[/youtubehd]

lolol one of the best things i've seen in a while, sometimes i forget how bad modern commercial culture is and then i get reminded in a fantastically entertaining way like this