2019: July 13th - The Pixies: Tame

I may have made you wait longer than other folks would have to get to a track by The Pixies, here during my Frank Black Appreciation Week, but you knew I'd get there, right?

I won't lie, I thought about not posting any. I could fill a couple months posting beloved Black Francis songs and completely eschew his first major band, but then, well, I'd be lying to myself. It's weird; for some reason I have a bit of a grudge against the Pixies. I'm not sure when that happened, or why exactly. I think it's a combination of a few factors. Bear with me while I dig around in my mind and see if I can explain this, really more to myself than to you, but thanks for being here for me to bounce this stuff off, sometimes that just works better, talking out loud to someone else.

I'll never forget when Mr. Brown turned me onto The Pixies back in the mid-90s - he lent me Bossonova and it completely bowled me over. The first few tracks are epic, packed with that wonderful madness that Joey Santiago and Frank Black bring out in one another when things really get going. Then you get to Digging for Fire and Down to the Well, and they're so sweet and sugary, I was in love instantly.

I should specify that my introduction came well after the Pixies were over, and so at the same time Brown lent me Bossonova, he also lent me Frank Black's third solo album, The Cult of Ray. I loved that too, but it paled in comparison to how Bossonova made me feel. As I began to consume the other Pixies records, they became my band. Not just my band, but one of our bands - the music I shared with Brown and Sonny, my two best friends. Mr. Black and company were part of what seemed to us, a secret handshake. I didn't know anyone else who was into The Pixies, or Soul Coughing, to name two, and those bands became ours. This was while we were building our first band, Wink Lombardi and the Constellations, and it was an amazing time in my life. I'd just gotten out of a three-year, high school relationship, and I had amazing friends I saw every day. We'd play music, go to obscure diners for coffee and pie, stay up to all hours getting stoned and recording bizarre acoustic tracks, or noise sessions on my Tascam 4 Track. It was amazing. And The Pixies were one of the major soundtracks to that, so I'm protective of it, now, many years later.

I suppose that's another thing about The Pixies that I'm protective of - it can be hard for me to go back and really immerse myself in listening to these albums that I absolutely love because they trigger massive nostalgia pulses in me. And I guess I want that kept in its place. Couple with that the fact that directly after Cult of Ray, Frank Black formed The Catholics and began releasing albums that I actually got to see him play live, and that helped shape the next chapter of my life. Those Catholics records are HUGE to me.

So, I guess it's actually kind of obvious why I prefer Frank Black to the Pixies, and why, as much as I LOVE Indy Cindy, the first Pixies reunion album, I would rather Black keep moving forward than trying to go home again.

Anyway, every song on every Pixies album rules, but this is one today rules a little bit more than most.

**

Had The Horror Vision folks over last night and recorded a new episode that will hopefully be up later today or tomorrow. Our movie reaction for the episode? Possum. Here's the trailer:



**

Playlist from 7/12:

M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Motörhead - March or Die
Motörhead - Eponymous
Black Polygons - Lobélia
Boy Harsher - Careful
Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
Frank Black and the Catholics - Pistolero

**

No card today.