Don't feel bad for Kim Shattuck. After being brought in for the Pixies' tour as the best possible replacement for Kim Deal, Shattuck was ingloriously kicked out before she could put her prints on the band's new recordings. Pixies' loss, as Shattuck's comeback record with the Muffs wipes the floor with Black Francis and co.'s toothless Indie Cindy.
Kicking off the perfectly-titled Whoop Dee Doo, "Weird Boy Next Door" is as instant as anything the Muffs have recorded, or any rock music I heard in 2014. Pop-punk has been played out since Woodstock '94, but it's a blast to hear Shattuck play it louder and gnarlier than ever on an ode to someone she should probably stop thinking about.
Showing posts with label pixies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pixies. Show all posts
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Afghan Whigs, "Algiers"
Hear that, Pixies? This is how you make a comeback.
If the Afghan Whigs' upcoming album Do to the Beast is anywhere as good as their mind-blowing reunion shows, we're in for a keeper. Get over the ridiculous music video and enjoy "Algiers," in which Greg Dulli and the gang lift the classic "Be My Baby" drum opening ("Kick, kick-kick, snare," employed as deftly as any recent hip-hop sample) and decide that after years of avoiding alt-country, they're here to save it. Welcome back, Gentlemen.
If the Afghan Whigs' upcoming album Do to the Beast is anywhere as good as their mind-blowing reunion shows, we're in for a keeper. Get over the ridiculous music video and enjoy "Algiers," in which Greg Dulli and the gang lift the classic "Be My Baby" drum opening ("Kick, kick-kick, snare," employed as deftly as any recent hip-hop sample) and decide that after years of avoiding alt-country, they're here to save it. Welcome back, Gentlemen.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Halloween '13
No one has influenced my mix-making more than Ellen, who gave me first ever mix CD. For years, she made one mix every Halloween season, each of which soundtracked much of my high school and college years. Ellen's mixes were the first place that I heard Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Nina Simone, Joanna Newsom and others.
It's been a few years since she's made a Halloween mix, but I'm hoping to get her back into the habit this year.
Halloween '13
Ellen is also a big Fiona Apple and Jarvis Cocker fan, so I've included non-album tracks from both of them. I'm hoping she'll appreciate the cabin fever horror of "You're Crazy" and the beautifully bleak "Black Swan," and I'm pretty sure she'll find Danzig hilarious. But if she doesn't, she can always rock out to "Frankenstein."
It's been a few years since she's made a Halloween mix, but I'm hoping to get her back into the habit this year.
Halloween '13
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry"
- Daikaiju, "Attack of the Crab Women"
- Fantômas, "Night of the Hunter"
- Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs, "Lil' Red Riding Hood"
- Johnny Cash, "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky"
- My Bloody Valentine, "Feed Me With Your Kiss"
- Link Wray, "Jack the Ripper"
- Danzig, "Mother"
- Guns N' Roses, "You're Crazy"
- Screamin' Jay Hawkins, "Frenzy"
- Black Sabbath, "Supernaut"
- Jarvis Cocker & Beth Ditto, "Temptation"
- The Specials, "Ghost Town"
- Public Image Ltd., "Flowers of Romance"
- The Edgar Winter Group, "Frankenstein"
- The Five Blobs, "The Blob"
- Thom Yorke, "Black Swan"
- Fiona Apple, "Dull Tool"
- Bauhaus, "Bela Lugosi's Dead"
- Pixies, "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)"
Ellen is also a big Fiona Apple and Jarvis Cocker fan, so I've included non-album tracks from both of them. I'm hoping she'll appreciate the cabin fever horror of "You're Crazy" and the beautifully bleak "Black Swan," and I'm pretty sure she'll find Danzig hilarious. But if she doesn't, she can always rock out to "Frankenstein."
Monday, July 1, 2013
Why I'm Glad That Kim Deal Left the Pixies
The release of "Bagboy," the Pixies' first new song in nine years and their first startlingly good one in 22, will probably kick off a new set of gripes and sighs from fans still recovering from Kim Deal's announcement that she had left the band last month. It's always sad to see an excellent team split up, but in the curious case of the Pixies, it's also a relief.
It's hard to remember how mind-blowing it was when the Pixies reunited in 2004. Their influence and popularity had grown exponentially since their break-up, and most of us thought we'd never get a chance to see them. No former indie rock band sparked more of a will-they-or-won't-they debate--it seemed obvious that Pavement and Guided by Voices were coming back, while Hüsker Dü and the Smiths were always a lost cause. And as anyone who caught that first comeback tour can tell you, it was glorious. All the songs and insanity that a superfan could hope for.
But if the Pixies' legacy had grown in their absence, it seemed to diminish with every year that they spent touring without a new album. Here they are again, the Pixies, on another summer tour playing the old hits. A lot of people were fine with this, judging how how lucrative those tours have been. But I want to know that my favorite bands are pushing themselves artistically, and not just resting on their classics. Anything to show that they were an actual band again, not just a nostalgia act like the Eagles.
It's quite possible that a new Pixies album would not have been good. But it would have been better than nothing, which is what they were doing. The fact that they've finally released a new song now that Kim's left, and have promised to play new songs on their upcoming tour, makes me wonder if Kim was holding them back. Of course she was a crucial part of the band, but as "Bagboy" proves, Black Francis, David Lovering and Joey Santiago can be exciting without her. They even sound good enough to fool Rolling Stone and Pitchfork into mistakenly reporting that Deal appeared on "Bagboy" in their initial news stories. The Pixies are going to be fine.
Greg Kot once wrote of My Bloody Valentine (I can't find the exact quote) that when a band reunites, they get one comeback tour, a victory lap before they need to start releasing new material. The new stuff doesn't have to be great. The mediocre new Stooges album does nothing to diminish Raw Power or Fun House, much less their always-phenomenal live shows. If you're going to tour once and then stop, like At the Gates, then we're lucky that we got to see you again. If you're going to come back for good and release new albums, like Black Sabbath, then we're lucky that you're still a band. But don't just tour year after year without anything to show for it.
I hope that Kim's departure is the kick in the ass that the Pixies need right now, and "Bagboy" indicates that it is. Maybe Frank Black will release a great solo album, or maybe he'll record something new with his bandmates. He's made great records without Deal before, and anything that he writes is still worth a listen. Maybe Kim will do something cool with the Breeders. Maybe Kim Shattuck from the Muffs, Deal's replacement, will bring out something new in the Pixies. Maybe they'll all get back together again in ten years, and it'll be amazing again. But whatever they do, it has to be better than the past nine years of studio silence.
It's hard to remember how mind-blowing it was when the Pixies reunited in 2004. Their influence and popularity had grown exponentially since their break-up, and most of us thought we'd never get a chance to see them. No former indie rock band sparked more of a will-they-or-won't-they debate--it seemed obvious that Pavement and Guided by Voices were coming back, while Hüsker Dü and the Smiths were always a lost cause. And as anyone who caught that first comeback tour can tell you, it was glorious. All the songs and insanity that a superfan could hope for.
But if the Pixies' legacy had grown in their absence, it seemed to diminish with every year that they spent touring without a new album. Here they are again, the Pixies, on another summer tour playing the old hits. A lot of people were fine with this, judging how how lucrative those tours have been. But I want to know that my favorite bands are pushing themselves artistically, and not just resting on their classics. Anything to show that they were an actual band again, not just a nostalgia act like the Eagles.
It's quite possible that a new Pixies album would not have been good. But it would have been better than nothing, which is what they were doing. The fact that they've finally released a new song now that Kim's left, and have promised to play new songs on their upcoming tour, makes me wonder if Kim was holding them back. Of course she was a crucial part of the band, but as "Bagboy" proves, Black Francis, David Lovering and Joey Santiago can be exciting without her. They even sound good enough to fool Rolling Stone and Pitchfork into mistakenly reporting that Deal appeared on "Bagboy" in their initial news stories. The Pixies are going to be fine.
Greg Kot once wrote of My Bloody Valentine (I can't find the exact quote) that when a band reunites, they get one comeback tour, a victory lap before they need to start releasing new material. The new stuff doesn't have to be great. The mediocre new Stooges album does nothing to diminish Raw Power or Fun House, much less their always-phenomenal live shows. If you're going to tour once and then stop, like At the Gates, then we're lucky that we got to see you again. If you're going to come back for good and release new albums, like Black Sabbath, then we're lucky that you're still a band. But don't just tour year after year without anything to show for it.
I hope that Kim's departure is the kick in the ass that the Pixies need right now, and "Bagboy" indicates that it is. Maybe Frank Black will release a great solo album, or maybe he'll record something new with his bandmates. He's made great records without Deal before, and anything that he writes is still worth a listen. Maybe Kim will do something cool with the Breeders. Maybe Kim Shattuck from the Muffs, Deal's replacement, will bring out something new in the Pixies. Maybe they'll all get back together again in ten years, and it'll be amazing again. But whatever they do, it has to be better than the past nine years of studio silence.
Monday, December 24, 2012
13 Songs to Ring in 2013
Other than 666, no number is more metal than 13. Its bad luck powers are revealed in musical tributes from several respected metal bands, many of whom have stumbled in mediocre musical salutes to Jason Voorhees' signature number. Better to honor the new year with a drink at the Lucky 13 Saloon than a slog through Cruelty and the Beast.
Few songwriters have survived the 13 curse, and even fewer have done so with a reasonable amount of decibels. Here's a brief audio history of 13.
1. Anvil, "This is Thirteen"
Interestingly, this is where Anvil's luck started to change--thirteen albums into their career, when a coinciding documentary gave them by far the biggest success of their lives. All their talk of wizardry and superstition couldn't hold a candle to watching them get lost and broke in Europe.
2. Anthrax, "13"
What the hell is this? Basically a short exercise for Anthrax's rhythm section, and a reminder that Anthrax were the first good thrash metal band to be intentionally silly on record.
3. Black Flag, "Room 13"
"Keep me alive!" screams 20-year-old Henry Rollins, making that effort sound like a struggle for the last time in his career. "I need to hang on!" is the part that everyone remembers.
4. Cradle of Filth, "Thirteen Autumns and a Widow"
Cruelty and the Beast is often regarded as COF's peak, but even Cradle's best songs are better remembered than reheard. Throw it in the mix for the 13-year-old in all of us.
5. Danizg, "Thirteen"
Written by Danzig originally for Johnny Cash's best studio album, American Recordings. He didn't release his own version until years later on 6:66 Satan's Child. Cash's folky reading and Danzig's goth-blues version both hold up, although it's abundantly clear whom was doing the other one a favor.
6. Megadeth, "Thirteen"
By album number 13, there was no defense of Dave Mustaine's political or social positions, but also no doubt of his chops or longevity.
7. Mercyful Fate, "Thirteen Invitations"
Mercyful Fate's influence on metal was flourishing when they reunited for 1993's In the Shadows. The result suggested that they'd ignored the last ten years of black metal.
8. Motörhead, "Cat Scratch Fever"
"First time that I got it I was thirteen years old," Lemmy amends the lyric in Motörhead's take on Nugent's staple. "Ours knocked his out of the fucking loop--of course, nobody remembers ours," wrote Lemmy in his autobiography. He's half-right.
9. Pantera, "13 Steps to Nowhere"
Anselmo was a good sport to sacrifice his lyrics to a song where all anyone can pay attention to is the drumming. A lesser guitarist than Dimebag would be trampled, but even he knows better than to stand in the way of one of Vinnie Paul's greatest intros.
10. The Pixies, "No. 13 Baby"
Frank Black honors a girl with a special tattoo, who at least had the sense to get it somewhere she can cover up for job interviews.
11. Social Distortion, "Bad Luck"
"Thirteen's my lucky number," laments cowpunk hero Mike Ness in this gem from Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, years before another country crossover would make the same claim. Hey Taylor, is it too late for your to pick a tourmate for next year?
12. Suicidal Tendencies, "Emotion No. 13"
Lights...Camera...Revolution! completed ST's first transition from hardcore to metal, with hits like "You Can't Bring Me Down" and "Send Me Your Money," plus thrashing deep cuts like this one. If "Emotion No. 13" had been released today, it would have taken the e-word back from Chris Carrabba.
13. Venom, "13"
Not bad, actually, out of context with the 300 other Venom songs that sound exactly like it.
Few songwriters have survived the 13 curse, and even fewer have done so with a reasonable amount of decibels. Here's a brief audio history of 13.
1. Anvil, "This is Thirteen"
Interestingly, this is where Anvil's luck started to change--thirteen albums into their career, when a coinciding documentary gave them by far the biggest success of their lives. All their talk of wizardry and superstition couldn't hold a candle to watching them get lost and broke in Europe.
2. Anthrax, "13"
What the hell is this? Basically a short exercise for Anthrax's rhythm section, and a reminder that Anthrax were the first good thrash metal band to be intentionally silly on record.
3. Black Flag, "Room 13"
"Keep me alive!" screams 20-year-old Henry Rollins, making that effort sound like a struggle for the last time in his career. "I need to hang on!" is the part that everyone remembers.
4. Cradle of Filth, "Thirteen Autumns and a Widow"
Cruelty and the Beast is often regarded as COF's peak, but even Cradle's best songs are better remembered than reheard. Throw it in the mix for the 13-year-old in all of us.
5. Danizg, "Thirteen"
Written by Danzig originally for Johnny Cash's best studio album, American Recordings. He didn't release his own version until years later on 6:66 Satan's Child. Cash's folky reading and Danzig's goth-blues version both hold up, although it's abundantly clear whom was doing the other one a favor.
6. Megadeth, "Thirteen"
By album number 13, there was no defense of Dave Mustaine's political or social positions, but also no doubt of his chops or longevity.
7. Mercyful Fate, "Thirteen Invitations"
Mercyful Fate's influence on metal was flourishing when they reunited for 1993's In the Shadows. The result suggested that they'd ignored the last ten years of black metal.
8. Motörhead, "Cat Scratch Fever"
"First time that I got it I was thirteen years old," Lemmy amends the lyric in Motörhead's take on Nugent's staple. "Ours knocked his out of the fucking loop--of course, nobody remembers ours," wrote Lemmy in his autobiography. He's half-right.
9. Pantera, "13 Steps to Nowhere"
Anselmo was a good sport to sacrifice his lyrics to a song where all anyone can pay attention to is the drumming. A lesser guitarist than Dimebag would be trampled, but even he knows better than to stand in the way of one of Vinnie Paul's greatest intros.
10. The Pixies, "No. 13 Baby"
Frank Black honors a girl with a special tattoo, who at least had the sense to get it somewhere she can cover up for job interviews.
11. Social Distortion, "Bad Luck"
"Thirteen's my lucky number," laments cowpunk hero Mike Ness in this gem from Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, years before another country crossover would make the same claim. Hey Taylor, is it too late for your to pick a tourmate for next year?
12. Suicidal Tendencies, "Emotion No. 13"
Lights...Camera...Revolution! completed ST's first transition from hardcore to metal, with hits like "You Can't Bring Me Down" and "Send Me Your Money," plus thrashing deep cuts like this one. If "Emotion No. 13" had been released today, it would have taken the e-word back from Chris Carrabba.
13. Venom, "13"
Not bad, actually, out of context with the 300 other Venom songs that sound exactly like it.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Song of the Day: Refused, "New Noise"
Usually my take on band reunions is that you get one comeback tour before you need to start releasing new music. I'm happy with one extensive reunion tour (At the Gates, Faith No More), fine with bands releasing new music, no matter how bad (Stooges, New York Dolls) and disappointed when artists wade in year after year of nostalgia with no new product (Pixies, My Bloody Valentine). However, since the Refused's Williamsburg show was rained out and I couldn't get into their make up club show, I'd be OK with them stopping by New York again very soon.
Punk rock was on life support in 1998 when the Refused released The Shape of Punk to Come. There has never been a more aptly-titled record, both in defiantly sticking up for a dying genre and aligning their adventuresome tendencies with Ornette Coleman's. Five Swedish hardcore kids showed up to the Vans Warped Tour era with an actual punk record, one made good with the Sex Pistols' ideas not as much in sound or style as in innovation. 14 years later, it still sounds like The Shape of Punk to Come, a direction that punk music will take, but not for a long time.
"New Noise" may be the only song here that could have appeared on a Punk-O-Rama comp, but even at their tightest, the Refused sound unhinged. Blasts of proto-mathcore get thrown in with some Dischord-worthy melodies. If there were a verse-chorus-verse structure, it'd be compared to the Pixies, but instead it stands as one of the first glimpses of punk as something that jazzheads would play. Converge and the Dillinger Escape Plan would go on to fuse some of these ideas with metal, a genre already known for its musicianship, but with the Refused it's still strictly punk. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Punk rock was on life support in 1998 when the Refused released The Shape of Punk to Come. There has never been a more aptly-titled record, both in defiantly sticking up for a dying genre and aligning their adventuresome tendencies with Ornette Coleman's. Five Swedish hardcore kids showed up to the Vans Warped Tour era with an actual punk record, one made good with the Sex Pistols' ideas not as much in sound or style as in innovation. 14 years later, it still sounds like The Shape of Punk to Come, a direction that punk music will take, but not for a long time.
"New Noise" may be the only song here that could have appeared on a Punk-O-Rama comp, but even at their tightest, the Refused sound unhinged. Blasts of proto-mathcore get thrown in with some Dischord-worthy melodies. If there were a verse-chorus-verse structure, it'd be compared to the Pixies, but instead it stands as one of the first glimpses of punk as something that jazzheads would play. Converge and the Dillinger Escape Plan would go on to fuse some of these ideas with metal, a genre already known for its musicianship, but with the Refused it's still strictly punk. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
"There's nothing fucking 'mere' about drawing." --Albert Dorne
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