Growing Up With The Pixies
I have been a Pixies fan since the late eighties. I am referring here of course to the band and not the small magical people. This was the group that provided much of the soundtrack for my entry into adulthood and beyond. The first Pixies’ album I listened to was Doolittle, and this is without doubt the most played collection of songs to ever pass my eardrums. The album blew me away from the beginning.
My first taste of the Pixies was hearing ‘Monkey Gone to Heaven’ on the Dave Fanning radio show in Ireland – I had never heard anything like it and loved it at first listen. For years I had been fuming about my bad-luck in missing out on punk by being born too late, yet here was music that was made for my generation. It was like I had found my voice. I was to play this album at least once a day for the next six years, and it still gives me pleasure now.
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Dolittle Did a Lot
There were just so many great songs on the Pixies album Doolittle. I loved all their other stuff which came before and after this one, but Doolittle will always have a special place in my heart. There just isn’t one bad track to be found on this album. I started listening to the band at around the same time that I was moving away from my home in Dublin to go live in England. In the late eighties there were hardly any job prospects back in Ireland, so I left with the rest.
I moved to England on my own with only the Pixies album Doolittle playing on my walkman to keep me company- they made me feel brave. I spent the next few years partying hard with alcohol and drugs and the Pixies provided much of the soundtrack for this. Many a night I would be lying in bed with some strange girl I’d just met and insisting that she listen to one more Pixies song before I let her sleep. “Hey, been trying to meet you”. My increasing dependence to alcohol made my life deteriorate to such a level that I ended up homeless on the streets of London and for a while there was no more Pixies.
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Pixies in Thailand
Now years later I am living in Thailand and still listening to the Pixies. I could be there number one fan here. I recently saw a documentary about them called, Loud Quiet Loud – A Film About the Pixies
Update: I never thought it would happen but the pixies have released a new song. Here is the video to prove it:
They are letting fans download this song for free from their website.
It would be icing on the cake if they released an album soon.
Great band Paul.
Surfer Rosa’s ‘Gigantic’ and ‘Where is my mind’! I was more into their first two releases!
You have good taste Camille.
Never listened to the Pixies (*allow the shock to wear off*) but I’m always on the look out for good music so I’ll check them out.
But I’m curious. When you listen to them now, how does it make you feel? There are certain soundtracks to specific moments in our lives. Songs that take us back to high school or albums that we played on the way to a job we hated or whatever. And since this was such an intense time…is it not a negative association?
Or does it not make you reminisce very much?
Hi Lani, you are right. If there is a song that I haven’t heard for a long time then it will bring up strong memories of the past. A lot of music though, I listen to all time so it gets associated with new memories. This is quite nice because it means that music that once may have had negative associations can have new positive associations.
The Pixies are quite grungy; I hope you like them. I suggest ‘where is my mind’ as a good introduction. Even though they are from the US they were probably more popular in Europe. Nirvana claim to have gotten their inspiration from the Pixies.
Hi Lani, you are right. If there is a song that I haven’t heard for a long time then it will bring up strong memories of the past. A lot of music I listen to all time so it gets associated with new memories. This is quite nice because it means that music that once may have had negative associations can have new positive associations.
The Pixies are quite grungy; I hope you like them. I suggest ‘where is my mind’ as a good introduction. Even though they are from the US they were probably more popular in Europe. Nirvana claim to have gotten their inspiration from the Pixies.
How about Buffalow Tom, Butthole Surfers, Buzzcoscks, Damned, Can (fantstic German band!), Dinosour Jr, Feelies, Fugazi, Garbage Husker Du, Morphine, Mudhoney, Pavement, Ramones, screaming trees, Smashing Pumpkins, Television, Wire amongst others ring a bell?
You name some top bands there Camille. I particularly like Pavement, Husker Du, and the Smashing Pumkins.
Check out Can, they’ve been an inspiration for a lot of the bands mentioned, a great start will be ‘Monster Movie’.
I’ve worked with Grant Hart after Husker Du’s split, he’s very nice person and an interesting character, to say the least! He knows a thing or two about addictions as well.
I’ve never heard of Can but I’ll check them out.
I think a lot of these bands are fueled on drug and alcohol addiction. It’s probably why the split up; addiction is so distructive.
Intolerance has to be one of my favourite ablbums of all time.
The pixies are my favorite band, my 5 year old know most of the words to the tracks on doolittle
Hi Paul,
Besides ego, drugs and alcohol have made their share of victims in many ways in the music industry!
Unfortunately addiction and self-obsession often go hand in hand. Alcohol and drugs has destroyed so many talented people – it is sad.
I have all their albums. Class act.
Hi patrick, they are a great band for sure. They influenced a lot of bands that came later like Nirvana.