Hot Press meets Pixies: Pt 2

As far as Hot Press was concerned it was love at first listen as our man Chris Donovan lavished superlatives on the Pixies 1987 debut mini-album, Come On Pilgrim.

“This is powerful and vital stuff; breathtakingly beautiful one moment, GBH violent the next and all underpinned by the sort of mutant surf guitar that the Beach Boys might have come up with if Charlie Manson had got his wish and been part of the band,” he purred. “They have it in them to become one of the most important bands of their generation.”
Released 22 months before Nirvana’s Bleach started causing rock ‘n’ roll ructions on the West Coast, Come On Pilgrim also made an immediate Pixies fan out of Chris’ Trinity Street colleague Graham Linehan.
Before reviewing 1990’s Bossanova, the Bostonians’ third album proper, the future Father Ted co-creator reflected of its predecessors: “Come On Pilgrim was the newborn monster flexing its muscles and making its first clumsily effective strikes. Surfer Rosa was a full-grown murderous brute running amok in an indiscriminate frenzy. A schizophrenic cunning emerged on Doolittle as the listener was subjected to a barrage of aural ambushes from instrumentation and arrangements that popped up mischievously from myriad hidden foxholes in the mix. An extraordinary album melding pulverising power with an unfettered spirit of adventure. Doolittle hit creative heights, which most acts never come within hailing distance of.”
As for the record he was being paid to write about, Graham credited it with “offering a vicarious escape to a parallel universe where none of the ‘normal’ values necessarily hold true. In the process the Pixies offer the key to a world alive with possibilities. Although they’re capable of raising a din to drown out a thousand Megadeths, they’re fundamentally a pop group. The Pixies are the greatest band in their world – the only band in their world. Enjoy!”
Among those who comprehensively did was Kurt Cobain who openly admitted that Nevermind was written under the influence of Surfer Rosa, and was so enamoured of Steve Albini’s production that he got him to do the honours on In Utero.
“When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band – or at least in a Pixies cover band,” he reflected. “We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.”
Messrs Donovan, Linehan and Cobain were among the millions of mourners when 1991’s Trompe Le Monde turned out to be the Mk. 1 Pixies’ last studio foray.
Although generally enamoured of the frantic 14 songs in fewer than 40 minutes affair – “Full of bracing and bleeding off-centre feedback… a clanking great noise of melodies with mud on their shoes”, he wrote – Bill Graham sounded a cautionary note at the end of his Hot Press review.
“Trompe Le Monde leaves you wondering where they go next if they’re not to become the collegiate alternative to Guns N’ Roses,” were his prophetic words.
Also concerned for their well-being was Stuart Clark of this parish who deemed the Pixies’ June 19, 1991 Point Depot gig to be, “An absolute turkey. The sound was muddier than a Sunday League footie pitch, and Kim Deal made some daft comment about machine-guns and Northern Ireland. Yuk! I wasn’t the only who didn’t bother waiting for the thoroughly undeserved encore.”
The “Pixies are no more” bomb was dropped by Black Francis in an early 1993 interview with BBC Radio 5. It was news to Joey Santiago who got a call afterwards from Black confirming his unilateral decision and Kim Deal and Dave Lovering who had to make do with a FAX.
It was to be a good few years before the Pixies commander-in-chief expanded on his decision to walk away just as it looked as if REM/U2-style global domination was within their grasp.
“I don’t regret leaving at all,” he told HP’s Colm O’Hare in 2001. “Obviously it wasn’t the best thing to do from the point of view of you guys. Back then all you wanted to do was to talk about the Pixies. Unfortunately, it’s all you’re still interested in talking about today. No, I’m just kidding. It was fun with the Pixies. We made five records, we did lots of gigs and plenty of tours. It was enough. I appreciate very much the patronage the band receives today and I hope it’ll be the same eventually with my solo stuff. But if not, then hey, that’s the cards you’re dealt with.”
2004 found the rechristened Frank Black in reflective and, to some degree, nostalgic mode.
“The Pixies weren’t big, it’s a myth,” he proffered. “We were in the right place at the right time and people thought we were pretty good, so we had a good little run there. Our fans were very zealous, especially over here. But people were always trying to push the Pixies to the next level – ‘it’s gonna be big, go on tour with U2, this is when you guys are gonna break’… I think we always had the sense that we’re very happy to have made some good records, and we’re making money, but we didn’t sell millions of records. And the way that bands are massive now, we weren’t in that category. Always a cult band. A successful cult band, but a cult band.
“I don’t think any of the music I’ve ever been associated with is mainstream music. Not that I’m avant-garde by any stretch of the imagination but it’s not for big, big audiences. I don’t know how to do that kinda thing. There’s a reason why bands sell millions of records and the bands that sell millions of records are not very eclectic sounding. They’re not that esoteric.
“I have no manifesto to the people,” he concluded. “I have no strong messages except… enjoy rock music with me!”
Rewinding a bit – that U2 support tour did happen in 1992 when the Pixies were part of the Zoo TV menagerie.
“Bono has always been very gracious over the years,” Frank noted. “He has frequently shown up at a gig and offered a ride on his airplane or whatever. All of them are really nice, typically Irish hospitable people. At the end of the day, even with all the politics and things they’re involved in, people like that are basically music geeks. They say things like, ‘Have you heard the new Scrubby Muffin record? And I’m like, ‘The What?’’ They’re more up on that sort of stuff than I am. I’ve found that with other big dudes like that, they’re just really into the music. They love it and that’s why they’re still doing it.”
Asked whether he remained in contact with his former bandmates, Frank revealed: “Mostly just in a business kind of sense. Like, do we have to fire someone that’s guarding our bank account? We were a band many years ago, and that was its own period and you move on in life. It’s hard, you know each other really well, but there’s not any reason for us to be married any more so let’s be done with it and move on. It’s not bad when you see each other, it’s nice, but there’s no reason.”
Responding to the latest spate of ‘Pixies to reform rumours’ a few months later, he said sarcastically: “We’re getting together to record a new double album of Latvian children’s lullabies, after which we’ll tour each and every country whose name begins with the letters ‘Cz’.”
Lucky old Czech Republic! It was a genuine surprise then in 2004 when the Pixies headed out on a major tour, which included a June double-header in the Phoenix Park with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
“A little thicker around the waistline maybe, but otherwise perfectly preserved, beamed down from Planet 1988,” cooed our Peter Murphy. “And your reporter, like the other few thousand in the front-pit, well, he’s having a moment. Their performance reconfirms the Pixies as rock ‘n’ roll’s great dimestore surrealists.”
As for whether the Pixies reunion had legs beyond this one tour, Joey Santiago told us: “I’ve got to be honest with you and tell you that we don’t know yet. We haven’t discussed anything together other than doing these shows.”
Having made further high-profile appearances at the likes of Lollapalooza, the Newport Folk Festival and Lansdowne Road with Kings Of Leon, the Pixies came off the road in 2007 with no indication as to whether the comeback had run its course.
The radio silence continued for almost a year until Kim Deal, promoting the new Breeders record, volunteered that: “The main reason we’re (Pixies) not doing anything at the moment is that things cycle out, and you don’t get asked again, honestly. And you don’t want to outstay your welcome. It’s like, ‘Well, we played there.’ You know, it would be cool to go to China, but I don’t think that’ll happen.”
There were times, noticably post-Surfer Rosa, when Black (all this name changing gets confusing!) looked like his heart really wasn’t in it anymore. While not quite in the Van Morrison category, he was known for not suffering fools gladly – especially journalistic ones who found themselves being given less and less access to the band.
He couldn’t have been less of a curmudgeon, though, in February 2008 when before treading the boards at Vicar St., a solo Frank played a guerilla gig on Stephen’s Green that ended with him and his Irish PR, Stevo Berube, being carted off by the Gardai.
“At first we thought we’d been arrested, but as we drove to Kevin Street station the mood lightened, and we escaped with a, ‘Don’t do it again!’” said the publicist.
Was the talent shaken?
“Yes,” Berube deadpanned, “but only because one old lady in the crowd thought he was James Blunt!”
First-hand confirmation that Frank was Black again came in December 2012 when Kodaline reported they’d been in the next-door studio to the Pixies at Rockfield in Wales.
“We could hear them jamming,” said singer Stephen Garrigan.
What did it sound like?
“Like Pixies! Over breakfast you’d hear the bass and drums rattling. Or you’d walk by them with a cup of tea and just go, ‘Alright, how you going?’ We met Frank Black properly one night. We were going over to see this massive reverb chamber they have at Rockfield and he just walked over to us in a pair of shorts and went, ‘Hey guys, what’s up?’ Legend!”
July 1 this year was a bittersweet day for Pixies fans. On the one hand, they woke up to find an invitation to download awesome new tune ‘Bagboy’ in their inbox, and on the other it was confirmed that Kim Deal had quit the band with Muffs and Pandoras woman Kim Shattuck coming in as her replacent.
Frank, Joey and Dave have subsequently said that Deal’s welcome back anytime she wants, but for the time being it seems she’s having more fun with The Breeders who’ve been doing brisk business on their own LSXX reunion trek.