Fans of Black Francis who plan to see the Pixies frontman’s solo-acoustic show in New York City next week who are older than 30 — and let’s face it, that’s a lot of us — might want to consider something they haven’t done in a couple decades: investing in a fake ID. Tickets are $15 cheaper for fans 30 and under.
The Pixies will be celebrated this fall in a brand new hardbound coffee-table book called “Pixies: A Visual History,” the first installment in a planned two-volume series designed to chronicle the legendary indie-rock act’s ascent, break-up, various solo projects and spin-off bands and, ultimately, its improbable reunion.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the release of the Pixies’ landmark Surfer Rosa, which, if we’re to count Come On Pilgrim as an EP or “mini-LP,” was the band’s true debut album, featuring the instant classics “Bone Machine,” “Gigantic” and “Where Is My Mind?”
This week’s new releases include the first new David Bowie album in a decade, a “lost album” from Duran Duran spinoff TV Mania, a 2CD set of Jellyfish instrumentals, a Pogues 2CD best-of, a Pixies radio broadcast from 1991 and a live Cabaret Voltaire DVD filmed in 1992.
The ‘Last Splash’-era lineup of The Breeders — Kim Deal, Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs, and Jim Macpherson — has reunited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that album and its breakout hit “Cannonball,” and will reissue the record in a deluxe edition and then perform it live on tour in the U.S. and Europe in 2013.
Last night at New York City’s Terminal 5, the reunited Dinosaur Jr celebrated the 25th anniversary of You’re Living All Over Me by playing the 1987 album in its entirety and then enlisting members of The Smiths, Pixies, Sonic Youth, The Replacements and The Melvins to help blast through a second, career-spanning set.
Seeing as today marks the 25th anniversary of the release of the Pixies’ ‘Come On Pilgrim,’ we’ll use this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind to spotlight the band with this 10-part, 25-minute playlist that highlights the interview segments and performances from the 1991 episode the band co-hosted with Dave Kendall.
For this week’s ’120 Minutes Rewind,’ we offer up a clip of unusually good video quality, a nine-minute reel from summer 1990 that saw Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore and drummer Steve Shelley sitting down to talk about the band’s just-released ‘Goo’ album with host Dave Kendall.
The series launched this summer, and, so far, titles are available on Joy Division/New Order, The Smiths, Cocteau Twins and David Bowie. Next month sees publication of a title on Kate Bush, with books due in spring and summer 2013 on Abba, My Bloody Valentine, Kraftwerk, PIxies, R.E.M. and Roxy Music.
Welcome to the Week in Rock, where we round up all of the headlines posted on this site over the past week. This edition includes items about The Fixx, Bob Mould, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Black Francis, Kristin Hersh, Sonic Youth, The Jam and more — plus a special mixtape.
Last Friday night, a group of Boston-bred artists gathered at the Pleasant Street Theater to throw a party in honor of the venue as it closes after 30 years. Among those performing: Pixies frontman Black Francis and Throwing Muses leader Kristin Hersh, who together performed the Pixies’ “Wave of Mutilation.”
This week’s installment of The Week in Rock features news about Pet Shop Boys, Elizabeth Fraser, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Peter Buck, The Birthday Party, Peter Murphy, Ministry, Morrissey, The Stone Roses, Dinsaur Jr, Robyn Hitchcock, The Jesus and Mary Chain and more.
We’ve got a rare double milestone today, as not one but two members of the Pixies — bassist Kim Deal and guitarist Joey Santiago — celebrate their birthdays (she’s 51 and he’s 47). We mark the occasion with this complete 29-song ‘Trompe le Monde’-era set filmed on June 26, 1991, in London.
This week’s Slicing Up Eyeballs headlines include news about The Cure, The Stone Roses, Pixies, The Cult, The Mission, Killing Joke, Bob Mould, Meat Puppets, Budgie, Morrissey, Dinosaur Jr, Madness, Sonic Youth, Peter Gabriel and PiL — plus our latest Auto Reverse mixtape for your downloading pleasure.
Last night, Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell may have revealed the Pixies are in the studio, replaying to a tweet from @leCultVult — ‘@perryfarrell back in the day the cool kids at my high school it was all about Jane’s Addiction and the Pixies’ — by writing, ‘Still is Pixies r recording.’
This month’s Auto Reverse mixtape includes brand-new music from Killing Joke, Paul Weller and The Stranglers, plus favorites old and new(ish) from The House of Love, New Order, Magazine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Kate Bush, The Psychedelic Furs and much more.
The Pixies have yet to record a new album since reuniting in 2004, but frontman Black Francis has been no stranger to the recording studio in those intervening years, and, in April, will release ‘Let the People Speak,’ his second effort with wife Violet Clark as the indie/electropop duo Grand Duchy.
One-man electropop outfit Cassettes Won’t Listen — aka Brooklyn’s Jason Drake, who last fall released his own version of Duran Duran’s ‘Ordinary World’ and has remade songs by The Cure and INXS — returns with another cover of an ’80s alt classic: the Pixies’ ‘Hey.’ Stream it here.
Well, here we are — the end of another calendar year, and time to see what folks have been reading on Slicing Up Eyeballs over the past 12 months. The verdict? A lot of Nirvana, U2, Pixies, Joy Division and The Cure, each of which scored multiple headlines in the year’s Top 20 list.
