Schaal wrote:I ... can't really love "Trompe Le Monde".

Well, I'll give it a lovin' home.

'Trompe Le Monde' fuckin' storms. Aside from 'Surfer Rosa', it's the Pixies really burning full-tilt. Gives me the shivers.

Very much not crap, though I don't care for Trompe le Monde. Solo Frank Black does nothing for me, also.

I'd kill to hear the whole story behind the making of Surfer Rosa, not sure if anything spectacular happened, but it just seems that there's something there that'd be interesting to know.

Bernardo wrote:I don't care for Trompe le Monde.

I'd kill to hear the whole story behind the making of Surfer Rosa, not sure if anything spectacular happened, but it just seems that there's something there that'd be interesting to know.

Bernado, you should care! 'Trompe Le Monde' is misunderstood genius!

Alright, I'll quieten down now.

I do agree about the 'Surfer Rosa' story. Would love to hear the anecdote behind the "You fuckin' die!" altercation.

Rubby Chuckers wrote:

Bernardo wrote:I don't care for Trompe le Monde.

I'd kill to hear the whole story behind the making of Surfer Rosa, not sure if anything spectacular happened, but it just seems that there's something there that'd be interesting to know.

Bernado, you should care! 'Trompe Le Monde' is misunderstood genius!

Alright, I'll quieten down now.

I do agree about the 'Surfer Rosa' story. Would love to hear the anecdote behind the "You fuckin' die!" altercation.

The "you fuckin' die" altercation is pretty self-explanatory on the record... just an example of miscommunication via microphones and talkback switches. I don't think it's anything too deep.

black_bryson wrote:I think very few of us would be here if it weren't for Surfer Rosa. Even those of you who don’t like the Pixies have benefited from that record’s success.

That's pretty much exactly how I feel about Sonic Youth. I can't stand listening to them but a lot of my favorite bands can.

I like the Pixies, although, not a lot more than some other bands.

My personal experiences with the Pixies and their fans reveal a pretty interesting generational/cultural split.

When 'Surfer Rosa' came out I was active in the West Coast indie/postpunk/underground whatsis. To me and my pals, the Pixies were bullshit. Context had a lot to do with it. This was the heyday of AmRep, T+G, etc. Very good, loud, angry bands with crazy, pissed off vocalists were all around us. It seemed to us that the Pixies were trying to do a watered down, commercial, phony version of this sound. Charlie Pixie's yelping brought to mind the rage of a grad student being denied a time extension to finish his thesis. "Weak", "fake anger" "posers"... these things=Pixies. Various influential publications, in particular "Forced Exposure," supported this view as well (FE was based in the Boston area and were no doubt sick of the local hype). They had their rabid fans for sure, but we viewed them as similar to those who shit themselves over the Strokes today.

Then, over the past few yrs, I started observing a strange phenomenon. Almost every time I would meet people in their early to mid 20s who were fans of obscure rock music, these people would be absolutely Pixies-obsessed. I started to see this Pixies obsession a lot. Amongst many indie music fans in the generation or two after mine, the Pixies are more than a great band; they are some kind of godlike, omniscently influential musical axis on which vast amounts of subsequent music spins ("a lot of us wouldn't be here today if not for 'Surfer Rosa'"). What happened here? How did this band become such a touchstone for so many people too young to have even seen them play, or bought their records when they were new?

My only theory is that when these whippersnappers heard the band, without the existence of the context I talked about earlier, they heard a pop band. They heard what the Pixies really were, all along. And it was good. And it was easy to hear the influence in their other favorites (Modest Mouse, etc.).

I'm all for this. Hearing music stripped of its cultural context allows you to really 'hear' it. A lot of us can now, for example, really hear AC/DC, Zep, ZZ Top, now that it's no longer automatically associated with the hischool jock assholes we wanted to kill. I continue to hate the Pixies, but I approve of what has happened with them (not the inaccurate hyperbole re: their influence, but the fact that lots of younger people have discovered and love them).

Oh yeah- CRAP.

...

Jung,
thanks, I enjoyed that post. I guess Im one of those mid-20s dudes that discovered them after their prime-time. I don't think I've ever thought of them as being insanely influencial... just good and different. I can't think of any other bands that sound remotely like them from that time period, and that's why I got into them. Then again, my knowledge of obscure music from that era is below par.

mtar

Jung and I have sparred about this before in other forums, and while I certainly do not think they are the be all, end all of music others try to paint them as, I think they are damn fine pop music.

I got into the whole underground thing pretty late in life, they were on the way out when I discovered the world of music, so I never had the politics to go along with it.

I imagine, using that same analogy, the Strokes could be similarly revered, but i'm sure not, at that level.

God, i'd hope not.

-C.