somebody who knows something about the PIXIES and BLACK FRANCIS...

[SW33THAND5]

recommend me some stuff. i heard this song on the "zack and miri make a porno" soundtrack and thought that it killed...super late 70s rolling stones vibe goin on...


you tube link to HEY! --->
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=PIkWJZf33UY&feature=related


http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00355/F_200709_September0_355773a.jpg




or...is there any FRANK BLACK solo stuff thats better? i have not heard too much of their stuff... :munch

[TREV FLINT]

Frank Black has alot of material!! Great solo work and amazing work with the Catholics. He is such a good song writer. He always finds a way to capture a sneaky-not so obvious hook in just about every song. He also has great musicians on his albums.
Some albums that stand out in my mind are:

FRANK BLACK:

-Honeycomb
-fast man raider man
-teenager of the year

FRANK BLACK AND THE CATHOLICS:

-frank black and the catholics (self titled album-- A MUST HAVE!!)
-black letter days


ENJOY!!

[Elmer]

I can't speak to any Frank Black solo stuff, but "Hey" is off Doolittle, which IMO is a fantastic album.

[Beng2040]

both the pixies and frank's solo stuff are great. check out surfer rosa, doolittle, come on pilgrim and trompe le monde by the pixies. his self-titled first solo album, teenager of the year and frank black and the catholics are also great albums. lots of great music to check out by frank.

[rockinrob]

I think Doolittle is the Pixies most accessible album and a good place to start.

[billy budapest]

Death To The Pixies!

[JimmyR]

My faves are Surfa Rosa, Doolittle and Bossanova. I actually LOVE Bossanova even it's not their most highly regarded. I like it equally with Doolittle, then SR. One of the all time best bands ever.

[Red Suede]

Lyle Workman played some cool stuff on a couple of his albums, I think, "Teenager of the Year" and on "Frank Black and the Catholics". There's one song that came about when Lyle told me he was at Frank's house and one of the strings was out of tune on a guitar he picked up so Lyle wrote some chords around the detuned string instead of tuning it. Anybody else would have tuned up the guitar. Lyle's amazing. One of the albums he played on he told me Frank used whatever he happened to play and his solos were first take. Lyle's deadly and Frank's a great player and the nicest guy.

[SirFink]

"Hey" is one of the greatest songs ever written. It's on the Pixies' Doolittle, which is one of the greatest albums of the '80s. That record and Surfer Rosa are the two greatest Pixies records, and they both outshine Black's solo stuff.

[EL34]

"Hey" is one of the greatest songs ever written. It's on the Pixies' Doolittle, which is one of the greatest albums of the '80s. That record and Surfer Rosa are the two greatest Pixies records, and they both outshine Black's solo stuff.

+1. I've been a Pixies (and Frank Black) fan since '88, and Doolittle and Surfer-Rosa are still my faves.

If you are a hardcore fan, you should pick up the DVD of thier reunion concert...it includes an extra video of one of the Pixies very first gigs. Very cool!. :AOK

[pir8matt]

The Pixies are awesome! Definitely check out Doolittle (Pixies) and 'Teenager of the Year' (solo).

I liked 'Show me your tears', also, more recent FB and the Catholics album.

http://www.blackfrancis.net/webstore/images/smyt.jpg

[billywade]

Long time fan here. I saw the Pixies when "doolittle" came out (top ten favorite shows ever) and I've seen Frank (one time solo w/a tele and a deluxe reverb in a small room) a couple times. Surfer Rosa/Come on Pilgrim still stands the test of time. It's the blueprint for a lot of music of the last 20 years. Cobain admitted that he borrowed heavily from the Pixies.
If I could recommend only one though it would be Surfer Rosa/Come on Pilgrim. Not a bad song on there. The whole thing is on my Ipod.

[billywade]

"Men in Black" from his first or second solo record still plays great even today. I never understood why Frank/Pixies weren't huge as opposed to really popular.

[moj067]

I still play "Los Angeles" from his self titled album, cause it just plain kicks.
He's prolific for sure. I still go back to Frank and Bob Mould for original pre-grunge for lack of a better term.

[Jahn]

Hmm, something by the Pixies that has a porno retro vibe...guess this is the closest:

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=9IyC6BQqkms

[drive-south]

I saw the Pixies at the Newport Folk Festival a couple of years back. I was unfamilar with them but they were the headeliners at the Saturday show. My wife and I left during the third song. They were the worst live act I've seen, EVER!!

After an afternoon that included Bela Fleck, Richard Thompson, Del McCoury, the Brooks Bros, and Patty Griffin these guys were not even in the same league. Absolutely terrible.

Dont mean to offend any fans but I don't get the attraction at all. The Newport Folk Festival is for professionals. These guys weren't ready for an open mic night at Borders.

drive-south

[AL30]

Death To The Pixies!

Bingo !!

This is a greatest hits album of sorts and probably the best place to get introduced to the Pixies. It's a two disc set - the first disc is all studio tracks and the the second is a live show. Start here.

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Pixies-1987-1991/dp/B000002HR4

:AOK

AL

[PosterBoy]

"Men in Black" from his first or second solo record still plays great even today. I never understood why Frank/Pixies weren't huge as opposed to really popular.

The Pixies were THE indie band in the UK around 1989-1991. The sound track to a lot of good though blurry memories for me

[pir8matt]

I saw the Pixies at the Newport Folk Festival a couple of years back. I was unfamilar with them but they were the headeliners at the Saturday show. My wife and I left during the third song. They were the worst live act I've seen, EVER!!

After an afternoon that included Bela Fleck, Richard Thompson, Del McCoury, the Brooks Bros, and Patty Griffin these guys were not even in the same league. Absolutely terrible.

Dont mean to offend any fans but I don't get the attraction at all. The Newport Folk Festival is for professionals. These guys weren't ready for an open mic night at Borders.

drive-south

No offense taken here, but that sounds like the promoter did a bad job matching bands. The Pixies wouldn't sound right inbetween any of those acts.

I've seen them several times, both before and after the reunion and they were great. Their stuff is kind of abrasive so if you're not used to it, its probably not gonna sound great to someone live for a first listen. It ain't supposed to be E-Z listening.

[matte]

I saw the Pixies at the Newport Folk Festival a couple of years back. I was unfamilar with them but they were the headeliners at the Saturday show. My wife and I left during the third song. They were the worst live act I've seen, EVER!!

After an afternoon that included Bela Fleck, Richard Thompson, Del McCoury, the Brooks Bros, and Patty Griffin these guys were not even in the same league. Absolutely terrible.

Dont mean to offend any fans but I don't get the attraction at all. The Newport Folk Festival is for professionals. These guys weren't ready for an open mic night at Borders.

drive-southi can only hope that my music would elicit such a strong reaction. they must be doing something right.

[strata189]

i can only hope that my music would elicit such a strong reaction. they must be doing something right.


Can I get an amen!

Randall

[Jade]

To the OP, sorry I can't help you out with any suggestions, as I'm new to the Pixies myself.

Sorry to hijack your thread, but Here's a question for the Pixies fans...

I heard the song River Euphrates on net radio yesterday, and it really wasnt my kinda thing, I don't mean to say it sucked or anything like that, It's just not what I'd choose to listen to. So my question is, "Is that song fairly representitive of the Pixies' sound?", Or should I give a listen to some other tunes? Suggestions?

Thanks,
Jade

[pir8matt]

I heard the song River Euphrates on net radio yesterday, and it really wasnt my kinda thing, I don't mean to say it sucked or anything like that, It's just not what I'd choose to listen to. So my question is, "Is that song fairly representitive of the Pixies' sound?", Or should I give a listen to some other tunes? Suggestions?


I'd say River Euphrates definitely has a lot of the elements of Pixies stuff, but it's not their best song.

Check out "Monkey Gone to heaven", "Where is my mind", "Wave of Mutilation", "Debaser", "Hey".

Those are some of my top picks, I'm sure others have their own faves as well.

The Pixies 'sound' could be best be described as pioneering the 'soft-hard' changes that are so prevalent in a lot of modern rock (adopted by Nivana, Bush, many others..), where a relatively slow intro section dominated by vocals over bass transitions into 'heavy' sections with big guitars and faster drumming. Chroruses are virtually nonexistant in Pixies stuff. Instead of verse-chorus-verse, you get verse-verse-verse.

They were criticized early on for not really writing 'songs' at all in the traditional sense.

I personally thought a lot of their early stuff sounded a lot like the violent femmes, but they got away from that sound pretty quickly after their first album.

Interesting tidbit, Frank Black and J. Mascis attended UMASS at the same time, and met each other there, but never played music together. Apparently neither one thought much of the other but both went on to be indie-rock legends.

[Mudder]

Something interesting, most Pixies fans will say Trompe LeMonde and Bossanova weren't good, but that's compared to their earlier work. Still very good albums.

I'd go with the first 3, Come on Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa, and Doolittle, then see what you think.

[PosterBoy]

1st 3 do it for me after that it went a bit meh

I love Kim Deals vocal on River Euphrates

[daphil]

The "Wave of Mutilation" compilation is a good sampling of the Pixies.

HEY is awesome. I really dig the Pixies. Very abrasive yet musical.

[enocaster]

I would definitely NOT get a compilation. Start with Doolittle, work backward, then forward up through the solo stuff. It's an incredibly rewarding journey. :phones

[Mudder]

1st 3 do it for me after that it went a bit meh

I love Kim Deals vocal on River Euphrates
Gigantic is another great example of her vocals.

[jpastras]

First three records. Those records are why they were the most important band in college rock.

And, if you're a guitar tool like most everybody on this board, get "Frank Black and the Catholics" - the record with the indigenous individual with the spear on the cover. The songs are great, Lyle Workman plays raw-ass blues-punk guitar all over it (sounding like a cross between himself, Quine, and Llloyd) the songs are great, and the band sounds like they are playing absolutely live to a couple of tracks in stereo. Oh, and the songs are great. I wish I could write garage rock of such raw, affecting power. It is one of my favorite records ever.

[pistolsteve]

First three records.

And, if you're a guitar tool like most everybody on this board, get "Frank Black and the Catholics" - the record with the indigenous individual with the spear on the cover. The songs are great, Lyle Workman plays raw-ass blues-punk guitar all over it (sounding like a cross between himself, Quine, and Llloyd) the songs are great, and the band sounds like they are playing absolutely live to a couple of tracks in stereo. .

You're exactly right about the self-titled FB&theCs album. It was live to two-track. Very raw. And awesome.

Dog in the Sand is another fantastic FB&theCs album. Less raw than the self-titled Catholics debut; more like Teenager of the Year (which is one of my desert island albums).

After Dog in the Sand, I think Frank got a little too prolific. Came out with Black Letter Days and Devil's Workshop simultaneously. I think those two albums would have benefitted from being edited down to one solid album. I kind of lost interest for a while after my disappointment with those two albums, but his latest (or, latest as far as I know; Frank is so prolific he might have come out with 2 albums last month for all I know) EP titled Svn Fngrs is a return to form (he's also back to calling himself Black Francis). Svn Fngrs is a raw combination of Catholics and Pixies sounds. Very good.

As for Pixies albums, I see no point in choosing a top 2 or 3. There were only 5 studio releases (Come on Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, Bossa Nova and Trompe Le Monde), and they're all better than 90% of the rest of alt/college/indie rock's output. You can argue that Trompe Le Monde is the weakest of those 5, but I'd still take it over Nevermind.

Even the Pixies B-sides release is a great listen. The Spanish language version of the Yardbirds' "Evil-hearted You" is worth the price of the album.