Before telling you about this Documentary, let me first tell you of my love of The Pixies. I first got in to them around 3rd year at school when I heard the album “Doolittle”, all it took was the first bar of the song “Debasser” and I was hooked. The quiet verses, the loud chorus, Frank Black’s (Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV) undecypherable lyrics, Kim Deal’s thundering basslines, Joey Santiago’s weird Guitar sounds and David Lovering’s Pounding drum beats just spoke to me at that time in my life. I became friends with someone at school through a mutal love of the Pixies, bought the 2 previous albums to Doolittle, Come On Pilgrim and Surfa Rosa then the preceeding album Bossanova. I was so excited when Trompe Le Monde came out. Unfortuantely I was too young at the point to see them live (most gigs were all 18+ for those of young that are a tad young to remember the early 90’s). Then disaster, Frank decided to call it quits, the first the band new of this was when he announced it on a radio show. The rumours of the split werte down to Mr Black and Mrs Deal having “creative difficulties”, thus ended the band that influenced Nirvana and one of the greatest alternative bands (in my view) of all time……..

Or so we thought……

I was so excited in 2004 when I heard the rumours that the Pixies were reforming, it became my mission to see them. I actually bought a Neds in the park Weekend Camping ticket just to see them (I wasn’t really fussed about the rest of the weekend and was not camping under any circumstances) as that was the only tickets available. And by jings, was it worth it. Over 10 years in the waiting but they sounded as great as ever.

Skiv had complained that i was impossible to buy for at my birthday and had searched endlessly for a gift that just said “Edgy” to him. Unfortuantley he could not find a Klingon Battle Cruiser, so instead found out that loudQuietloud was showing at the GFT on 07/01/2007, bought me a ticket and also got me the DVD, what a guy!!!

Oh man, the band have not aged well!!! The documentary picks up from when the band have decided to reform and do what Joey Santiago fondly calls “The Pixies Sellout Tour”. All I can say is, man I felt so bad for David Lovering. Unlike the rest of the Band, he gave up music after the band split and became a Magician and spent the rest of his free time combing the beach with a metal detector. He is overjoyed at the news that the band are getting back togetherm then his father dies during the tour and we basically get to see a man fall apart, it starts of funny when you see his little “Quirks” at first, then the severity of what is happening to him kicks in, and I just couldn’t help but feel sorry for him!!!

Kim Deal has had a new lease of life, she has been “clean” for over a year now (although the drink and drugs have really taken their toll on her appearance) and despite nerves at first, soon settles back into the tunes.

Joey is clearly doing it for the money as he had just become a father again, but it becomes clear that he is really missing his family.

Frank Black is just Frank Black, seems to harbour a bit of a grudge that any of his solo work what over shadowed by the Pixies. Still has his whole them and us beliefs about the fans.

Although they talk of the “tension” that was apparent from when they first stepped back into the room together, I didn’t think it was that obvious. I thought the lack of communciation and what seemed like awkward silences were the bigger problem, but then it has always been that way with them, but live the communicate perfectly through the songs, always giving a tight, flawless performance, except for the Chicago show where Lovering continues to play the drums for an extra 3 minutes after the song is finished, rumoured to have happened because he was high and causes Frank Black to storm of stage, quickly followed by the rest of the band.

I liked this documentary in the same was i liked The Ramones documentary. Unlike the Metallica documentary, I felt the problems facing the band seemed more real and unlike Some Kind Of Monster didn’t have a whiney, arrogant smart arse drummer in it. It is great to see some of the old classic songs played live again and afterwards I had all my Pixies albums on my iPod playing on random in my car for the next few days.

It is a documentary worth checking out for any fans of music.

GI

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.