not crap. and i'm way into trompe le monde too.

That was an interesting read Jung.

crap

I exchanged tapes with a German pen pal and got into the Pixies, while they were still around, in like 7th grade--which was pretty pointless since I could've just bought their records here; but he wanted some stuff I had and blah blah blah.

Anyway, definitely NOT CRAP. Sure, I got into more "extreme" music too, but they were really inspiring at the time for kinda making a blueprint for semi-rudimentary music that was interesting and that you could learn to play quickly and start a band. I bought a bass, played along with Pixies records, and was playing with other people after like a month.

And they wrote a lot of good songs and I still like all of their records. Though I rarely listen to them any more.

I guess it might be cool to see them re-united, but I'm not going to go to any crazy lengths to see them. There are probably scores of thousands who care more than I do.

Still, NOT CRAP.

Make no mistake, once the next round of cash-grabbing bullshit is over, the untainted glory of the good albums (and two of them weren't up to much) will be crushed into the earth.

I don't begrudge them earning their living, but when it comes to them taking my money, I'm with Bill Hicks. Demand better from your heroes.

Fuck the fucking lot of them.


CRAP.

Angus Jung wrote:
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.).

Hey, that was me! I had a cool summer camp counsler when I was about thirteen who loaned me his Doolittle tape. I played the shit out of that tape for the whole damn month. It was catchy and weird. Since then I've found other things to listen to which are catchier and/or weirder and I mostly only enjoy hearing the Pixies when I'm drunk at a bar or something. But they did blow my mind open a little bit back in the day.

But I'm still gonna say CRAP. Fuck them and their reunion.

-C

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.

this is a good point

for example, i didn't really get into much of the seattle action when it was happening. very little of it truly resonated with me, and the bands that influenced it were all twice as good as their descendents. and the onslaught of indiscriminately made rock was truly brutal. i was surrounded. grunge or some even lamer variant of it was fuckin' inescapable in that town.

but i heard 'floyd the barber' off _bleach_ on the radio recently, and it sounded really good. i wasn't expecting it, i didn't have any reason to have any special reaction to it, and it sounded nice. i've had this same kind of experience with the odd mudhoney song as well.

i also heard some soundgarden song a couple weeks ago, but it still sounded hilariously bad

i liked _surfer rosa_ quite a bit when it very very first came out, but it wore off faster than a henna tattoo

The greatest band ever. Period.

I don't know how they did what they did. It was like this stuff came from no where. Rock music? With distorted guitars? What the?!?

I try to play Pixies songs on my guitar, but it's really hard. Does anyone have any tab? I'll trade you my Interpol tab for Pixies stuff. I'm so glad I can finally play Slow Hands. It took me a month of practice. Those 8th note sure are tricky, and they play so many of them, it makes me tired. Playing Nintendo for 15 years did not prepare me for that!

This is a tough vote for me. They wrote some catchy songs, and I still sort of enjoy all of their records, except maybe Trompe Le Monde.
But this whole post-breakup cult that has grown up around them seems totally silly. I find it hard to believe that any good bands were all that inspired by the Pixies. I don't know why anyone would look at them as some sort of historical touchstone.
Even so, pre-reunion I would have given them an unequivocal not crap. Post-reunion, I'm not so sure.
When a rock band dies, it should stay dead, unless the people in the band have a REASON to get back together. Money is not a reason. That nobody gives a fuck about your subsequent bands is not a reason.

A lot of people elevate the cultural importance of rock music, perhaps out of emotional attachment or a need to feel closer to history. Treating pop music with an air of inflated importance is like calling the Academy Awards "news."

But I'm only 23, so I'm just letting my ass do the talking here.

What, oh, the Pixies? Oh yeah, they rock. Not Crap.