Band/artist - Pixies
Genre(s) - Alternative rock (back then that term meant something)
Origin - United States of America
Album - Surfer Rosa
Year of release - 1988
Before trying this album out I really only knew the Pixies' track Where Is My Mind?, which I've always found very depressing, so when I tried out this album for the very first time it turned out a bit different than I had in mind. I had always assumed them to be more post-punkish, and still have trouble labelling the band as alternative rock because the term is thrown around rather indiscriminately and "alternative" doesn't mean much anymore since the late nineties. Pixies sound like a gathering of damaged souls and deranged minds and the term rock just doesn't seem to do the results of this gathering justice. In any case, rock or otherwise, Surfer Rosa is a rusty, rickety rollercoaster of emotions - from soaring highs through sharp turns to extreme lows - taking full advantage of its uncompromisingly barren, skeletal production. Favourite songs of mine: the adrenaline-fueled Oh My Golly, spookily endearing Break My Body and of course still the haunting, manic-depressive Where Is My Mind? Which are yours?
- Bone machine
- Break my body
- Something against you
- Broken face
- Gigantic
- River Euphrates
- Where is my mind?
- Cactus
- Tony's theme
- Oh my golly!
- Vamos
- I'm amazed
- Brick is red
Who doesn't want to be as cool as Kim Deal!
ReplyDeleteI love this band. Wouldn't call them depressing but still. I'm so happy I've been able to see them live.
And I hate the label alternative rock, alternative to what? Britney spears is alternative to metallica...
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I used to think they'd be really depressive since I still think WIMM? is. But I was proved wrong. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's not a useful label at all, besides nowadays "alternative rock" is more mainstream than "non-alternative" rock so it totally lost its meaning anyway.
Strange, I never thought of where is my mind as depressing, maybe because I also always link it to the end of fight club, which is an awesome scene, those collapsing buildings with where is my mind on the background.
ReplyDeleteYeah, alternative is as useless as Indie!
I agree on that one, except that I do often use indie pop to make sure people don't think it's as shallow as the stuff you see in the top 40.
ReplyDeleteI can't really describe why but the song sounds so deeply hurt to me, so helpless. Haven't seen Fight Club, so I don't have that connection.
What (other) Pixies album is your favourite? I also have Doolittle, I believe, at least the one after SR, and it's a bit harder to get into it than this one.
Yeah, I like doolittle even more than surfer rosa. It's just such an awesome record, with some of my most favourite pixies songs on it (monkey gone to heaven, gouge away, etc).
ReplyDeleteYou really should see Fight Club, it's a cult classic.