I've always had a strange relationship with Pixies. It started back when I was at college - my friend Guy was shocked that I'd never listened to the band so lent me two of their albums, Surfer Rosa and Trompe Le Monde. I listened to them but just didn't get it - the songs felt scrappy and inconsistent and it just wasn't doing anything for me at the time. I got a similar feeling from them to the one I got from Sonic Youth, who also had the ability to write incredible songs but surround them with weird, strange songs (Wish Fulfilment vs the rest of Dirty, for example). At the time I chalked it up to them being what I called a "guitarist's band", along with Sonic Youth (partly because Guy played the guitar and really liked both bands); I assumed that if you played the guitar you got a lot more out of the band. I have no idea if that was true or not.
Over the years I kept finding that people whose music taste I really respected had a lot of love for Pixies - there was no denying that a lot of people had a lot of time for them. Some years later I ended up going to Southside Festival in Germany where Pixies were playing (with the classic line-up). I was mostly there because Faith No More were playing one of their first reunion shows (and it was incredible) and because Nine Inch Nails were doing their "last ever" tour and I wanted to see them one last time (and they were also great). As an aside, I also really enjoyed seeing Moby (unexpectedly), The Mars Volta and German band Die Arzte (who, apparently, every teenager in Germany is a fan of for at least a a short while - I've never seen a crowd go so mad for a band. It was quite the spectacle). Anyway, I was hugely impressed by how great Pixies were live. In that setting the songs worked perfectly, even the strange ones I can't get into on record. Of course the hits were huge, but I remember really enjoying the whole thing, far more than I ever expected.
Fast forward another six years and I finally buy some music by the band (I actually have a couple of Frank Black solo cds, but they don't count) in the form of their best-of LP. It seemed like the right starting point, although given that I've not since bought any more of their music, it might also be the end point. Even when listening to a collection of their best songs, I still get those same feelings I had ~15 years ago - there's something unpleasantly raw and jarring (qualities I usually enjoy) to a lot of the songs. What I can now see that I couldn't back then is that amongst those sounds, there are truly excellent moments and some huge hits. Monkey Gone to Heaven is a great example, overall the song doesn't do much for me, but when Frank sings "then devil is 6 / then the devil is 6" I'm floored every time. It almost goes without saying that songs like Caribou, Debaser, Here Comes Your Man and Where is My Mind? (which I think I heard for the first time as the ending to Fight Club) are all huge songs. A lot of the rest just doesn't grab me.
I'm very aware that sometime you have to be in the right time and place to appreciate certain music. 17 years old and at college, it turns out, wasn't the time or the place for me to be getting into Pixies or Sonic Youth. In all honesty, I'm not sure I've reached that point yet. Maybe I'll just never really get those bands. What I will say about the Pixies though, is that on the 21st of June in 2009, for an hour I was absolutely amazed by them and their music and really felt like I got it. It's a shame that that feeling has passed, but I'm glad I had it for a short while.
Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 23
Cost: £17 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 04/03/15
Colour: Orange
Etching: none
mp3s: no
