what more can be said about the Pixies? these indie rockers revolutionized the alternative genre, and even thought they werent even around for a decade, they made more of a mark on music than some bands who have been together for 15+ years. their new DVD, which is self titled, contains a concert in London from 1988, all their videos, an on the road documentary, and a collection of interviews titled "Gouge".
Live:
an amazing live show. the set list was:
-holiday song
-nimrod's son
-bone machine
-levitate me
-ed is dead
-where is my mind?
-caribou
-something against you
-hey
-gigantic
-i've been tired
-vamos
-in heaven
-tony's theme
-wild honey pie
the highlights:
"holiday song" was the perfect song to open with. it starts quiet and then you hear the into acoustic riff that starts everything. "ed is dead" was very entertaining to watch, as black breaks a string on his acoustic, trades off to his telecaster, and then immediately breaks another string. in my opinion, the 2 major highlights were their performances of "hey" and "in heaven", as those are two of my favorite songs of theirs, and they were done great. it was also fun watching joey during the infamous "vamos" solo, in which he crashes his amp around to set off a reverb crash, plays using a beer can, and just does everything else to his guitar that will make noise. to close off, they covered "wild honey pie" in their own psychotic style.
i give this show a 10/10
Videos:
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Monkey Gone To Heaven- a black and white performance in a warehouse. its great for the first few viewings, but after youve seen it a few times, it gets old. 6/10.
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Here Comes Your Man- a great video. its all in a photo-shoot setting with a big colorful beach scene on wallpaper behind them. its very corny (on purpose) but great. 9/10
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Velouria- this was my first Pixies song, and this video does the song ZERO justice. all it is is 15 seconds of footage of the band members walking on rocks, but slowed down so it lasted the whole song. the end. this song deserves a REAL video. 1/10
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Dig For Fire/Allison- a double video. the "Dig For Fire" section has the band members suiting up is biker gear, and going down the freeway on motorcycles. then they reach their destination, and do a live performance (it really was live) of Allison in a baseball stadium. decent video, decent songs. 7/10
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Alec Eifel- this video features the members performing in a lab setting with a major fan blowing againt them, and a mad scientist-esq character in a lab. great song, video aint bad. 8/10
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Head On- their cover of the Jesus And Mary Chain song. its a performance videos, but it isnt boring like most. it features 12 cameras, 1 for each members legs, one for their torso, and one for their head, and it mixes the bodies up, etc. it gets a 8.5/10
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Debaser- a black and white / sepiatone compilation of different shots from a bunch of concerts and extra scenes thrown in, such as a weird dude tied to a chair with one of those cone-collars that dogs wear when they scratch too much. very cool video. 9/10.
On The Road:
some dude named Miles Mangino got to follow the pixies on their 1989 (or maybe it was '88?) european/north american tour. he got shots of studio sessions, the band in the tour bus, soundchecks, live shows, sight-seeing, downtime, and everything else. the thing i noticed though is that the camera almost never left Kim. he was obsessed with her. even when the other members were doing something possibly interesting, he would videotape Kim as she was videotaping the sights. it was kind of funny.
but all in all, this gets a 9/10, it was really interesting.
Gouge:
a collection of new interviews with all the band members (except Kim), other artists (including Thom Yorke, David Bowie, Bono Vox, and a lot more) it tells the story of how the band started, and the other artists talk about how much of an influence they had and all. David Bowie even said that the Pixies, in his mind, were the most thought-provoking band of the '80s, next to Sonic Youth. a great piece. 9.5/10
all-in-all, this is a few hours worth of great material. a MUST have for any long time fan, and great for any new fan of the Pixies. 9.5/10
