Pixies - A Rough Guide

   From Wikipedia:
   "The Pixies are an American alternative rock band that formed in Boston
    in 1986... The band's style of alternative rock music is heavily
    influenced by punk and indie rock, and while highly melodic, is capable
    of being abrasive at the same time. Francis is the Pixies' primary
    songwriter and singer and has a distinctly desperate, yowling delivery.
    He has typically written cryptic songs about offbeat subjects, such as
    UFOs and surrealism. References to mental instability, violent Biblical
    imagery, and physical injury feature in many of the band's songs...
    Avowed fan Kurt Cobain's acknowledgement of the debt Nirvana owed to
    the Pixies."
     <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixies>

   The band is credited with perfecting the "loud/soft/loud" dynamic in
   alternative music.  A recent documentary about the band was titled
   "Loudquietloud".

   The band broke up in the early 1990s, but has recently reformed and
   embarked on a world tour.  A couple of the band members have had success
   outside the band.  Lead singer/songwriter Black Francis (aka Frank
   Black) has released several albums, both solo and with his new band the
   Catholics.  Kim Deal has had some hits with The Breeders, a band that
   includes her sister.

   The band's official web site:
     <http://www.pixiesmusic.com/>

   The links in the guide below are to YouTube movies.  If the links are
   blocked, you listen to samples of tracks via the album pages on All
   Music:
     <http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wifrxqr5ldhe~T2>

   The "rough guide" ...

   1. "Gigantic"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIu_b_fG_2g>
   The band's debut album, "Surfer Rosa", was released in 1988.  This was
   the only single taken from the album, and is one of the few songs where
   bassist Kim Deal sings lead vocals.  Unfortunately there is no official
   video.  This clip has the album version of the track with some
   interesting facts thrown in among the photos of the band.  For example,
   the real name of the lead singer is the very un-rock and roll sounding
   Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV.

   2. "Where Is My Mind?"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7sGp7Glxis>
   An aptly titled track, given the weird lyrics that feature in many of
   the band's songs.  This track also appears on the "Fight Club"
   soundtrack (1999).

   Other standout track from the band's debut album include the opener
   "Bone Machine" and "River Euphrates"

   3. "Debaser"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDw-hTuwcvA>
   This is an official video of the opening track from the band's second
   album, "Doolittle", released in 1989.  The song references a 1929
   surrealist film, "Un chien andalou" - for example, the lyric "slicing
   up eyeballs".

   The raw sound of the band's debut, produced by Steve Albini, made way
   for a more polished sound.  Gil Norton went on to produce the rest of
   the band's studio albums.

   4. "Here Comes Your Man"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvi4iA3PnKE>
   This is the first single from "Doolittle".  It's probably the first
   Pixies song I ever heard, when it was part of the test tape that was
   played repeatedly before Triple J started broadcasting officially in
   Adelaide in 1989.

   5. "Monkey Gone to Heaven"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R_-3w_Iwk0>
   The band's second single from "Doolittle".  A classic Pixies song.

   6. "Wave of Mutilation"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BihjWa47WuM>
   Another standout on "Doolittle", which is my favourite Pixies album.
   Other great songs include "Tame", "There Goes My Gun" and "Gouge Away".

   7. "Velouria"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHhox4_SeHQ>
   In 1990, the band released its third album, "Bossanova".  "Velouria",
   was the second single from the album.  This is the official video, but
   the sound quality not the best in this version.  It's a simple clip,
   featuring the band members climbing down a rock in extreme slow motion.

   8. "Dig for Fire"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2dBsBW9yjY>
   This was the first single from the album.  It's an okay song, but not
   the best on the album and a strange pick for a single in my opinion.

   9. "Down to the Well"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaIH6KcELns>
   One of my personal favourite songs from "Bossanova", featuring the
   classic loud/soft/loud dynamic.  Other solid songs on the album include
   the opener "Cecilia Ann" (a cover of a surf instrumental), the raucous
   "Rock Music", and "Is She Weird".

   10. "Planet of Sound"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvKCJDUBE2w>
   In 1991 the band released its fourth album in as many years, "Trompe le
   Monde".  Francis' obsession with UFOs is very prominent in the lyrics of
   many of the songs.  "Planet of Sound" song was released as a single in
   the UK.  This is a live version from the TV archives.

   11. "Head On"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F5TZ7z7tJs>
   The second single in the US was a cover of a Jesus and Mary Chain song.
   This is the official video clip, featuring a live version of the song.

   12. "Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nM-Xx4faZI>
   One of my fave tracks from "Trompe le Monde".  Other standout tracks
   include "Alec Eiffel" and the title track.  It was their last studio
   album.

   Bonus tracks...

   13. Pixies: "I Can't Forget"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sojmdvJQMx8>
   From the tribute to Leonard Cohen, "I'm Your Fan".

   14. Frank Black: "Los Angeles"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDVgfnyHP0c>

   15. The Breeders: "Cannonball" featuring Kim Deal
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AsId-qVIb4>

Another Quick Fix of Flicks, 15 August 2010

   You might want to turn the volume down for some of these.

   1. "Radiolab and NPR Present Words"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0HfwkArpvU>
   A clever montage.

   2. "Mad Men: The Carousel"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2bLNkCqpuY>
   "Mad Men" is a show about advertising people set in the early 1960s.
   It's well-written and a welcome departure from those endless crime-scene
   shows.  SBS (belatedly) starts showing Season 2 from tonight.  Here's a
   clip of a highlight from the end of Season 1.

   3. "Mad Men Opening Credits"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcRr-Fb5xQo>
   Not only a great show, but it also has one of my favourite opening
   credits from any TV series at the moment.  Cool music, too.

   4. "Simpsons parody of Mad Men"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcmM7Jh2Y3k>
   "The Simpsons" openers are probably my other favourite opening credits.

   5. Schumacher's pitstop from "Asterix at the Olympic Games"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfSWYxMqhAc>
   The rest of the movie was ok, but not great.  This bit was a highlight.
   Ferrari Formula 1 fans in particular will get a kick out of this.

   6. "Fishing for a goal"
     <http://blog.planetargon.com/entries/2010/7/28/fishing-for-a-goal>
   Elaborate, entertaining goal celebration.

   7. "Champion cardstacker builds capitol with 22,000 cards"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvLkjuYunRw>
   This guy has an interesting job.

   8. "World's Most Amazing Trick Shot!"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XTGBOKqccw>
   Uses billiard balls _and_ dominoes.

   9. "Amazing Amazon Box"
     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nv28lunRSY>
   I wonder if this happened naturally, or if it was staged?

   10. "Freakonomics, the movie"
     <http://devour.com/video/freakonomics-trailer/>
   For those who don't like reading books.  Hopefully it will get more
   people thinking about economics.

Mini-Reviews of Books Read, July 2010

   Mini-reviews of books I read last month...

   1. "Zodiac" by Neal Stephenson
     <http://www.amazon.com/Zodiac-Stephenson/dp/0802143156>

   This novel is described as an eco-triller: think Rainbow Warrior meets
   Bourne Identity.  Written by renowned cyberpunk author Neal Stephenson,
   perhaps it should be classed as enviropunk?  Our hero, Sangamon Taylor
   (S.T.), is a rogue chemist who works for environmental activists who
   expose pollution and other dirty deeds of big corporations.  He think
   he's found evidence of organochlorines dumped into the Boston harbour.
   Although they've been at the bottom of the harbour for years, the drums
   have only recently started leaking.  The company knew this would happen,
   and was secretly taking steps to clean up the mess before being found
   out.  An experimental program was started to genetically engineer super-
   bugs to consume the dioxins and convert them to safer compounds.
   Unfortunately, things don't go quite to plan, and it all starts getting
   messy.

   A pacy and enjoyable page-turner.  Like later, more well-known books by
   the author, there's exposition of some technical topics, in this case
   organic chemistry.  However, as a novel I don't think it stands up as
   well as against "Cryptonomicon", which is probably my favourite
   Stephenson novel.   Later stuff hasn't been as consistent, and tend to
   be overlong, like his most recent novel, "Anathem".  In that novel, I
   was intrigued by the set-up of another world and different way of life,
   but once the story moved to the real "action", I found it became tedious
   and lacked believability.  I might re-read the two classic cyberpunk
   novels which initially got me hooked on the author: "Snow Crash" and
   "The Diamond Age".  It will be interesting to see if they still stand
   up, or if they simply captured the spirit of the age.


   2. "Scale" by Will Self
     <http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scale-Self/dp/0146000315>

   This is a little collection of loosely-connected short stories.  The
   common theme, or perhaps more precisely, the common word, is "scale".
   In the title story the narrator is a man who confesses to having lost
   his sense of "scale".  Other stories mention the word in different
   senses, such as the scales of a frill-necked lizard, bathroom scales,
   and the ever-present issue of crusty scales on the inside a kettle.

   I found the stories slightly off-beat.  I might check out a more
   complete set of the author's short stories.


   3. "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami
     <http://www.amazon.com/Kafka-Shore-Murakami/dp/1400079276>

   Another solid, imaginative novel by one of my current favourite authors,
   Haruki Murakami.  There are two parallel story lines, which are resolved
   by the end of the novel.  One plot line follows the coming of age of a
   young Japanese boy, while the other follows an old man's final adventure.
   The boy, adopts the name "Kafka" and runs away from home.  His mission is
   to become "the world's toughest fifteen-year-old."  Nakata, the old man,
   was involved in a mysterious incident during World War II, when he
   suddenly lost consciousness along with his classmates while out on an
   excursion.  Unlike the others though, he lapsed into a coma and awoke to
   having lost the ability to read and write.  However, he seems to have
   picked up the ability to talk to cats, which allowed him to earn some
   extra money as a finder of lost cats.

   Like Murakami's other novels, music plays a part in the lives of the
   protagonists.  For example, a character is introduced to Beethoven early
   in the story and becomes obsessed with the man and his music.  The guy
   is fascinated by one piece in particular, the 40+ minute epic "Archduke"
   trio.  Other typical Murakami touches are present, such as supernatural
   abilities and otherwise ordinary-looking people inwardly living
   unconventional lives.


   4. "The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol" by Nikolai Gogol
     <http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Tales-Gogol/dp/0375706151>

   This is a collection of short stories by early-19th Century Russian
   author, Nikolai Gogol.  His writing is considered a pre-cursor to the
   works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Franz Kafka.

   The early stories are set in rural Ukraine, and many of the characters
   were superstitious people who fear witches and devils.  While these
   stories paint an interesting picture of life on the Russian frontier,
   they didn't really grab me.

   The later stories were set in the then Russian capital of St Petersburg,
   and I enjoyed these more.  A famous example is "The Nose", about a man
   whose nose decides to take off one morning and live a life of its own.
   Along with "The Overcoat", in which a character has a mean existence
   while dealing futilely with bureaucrats, is a fore-runner of some of
   Kafka's famous work almost a century later.  Soon I hope to read Gogol's
   classic novel, "Dead Souls".


   5. "Il tempo invecchia in fretta: Nove storie" by Antonio Tabucchi
     <http://www.amazon.com/Tempo-Invecchia-Fretta-Tabucchi/dp/B0033J788C>

   This is an intriguing collection of nine stories by Antonio Tabucchi,
   (who wrote "Pereira Sustains").  This collection's title roughly
   translates as "Time Ages Hastily", and the stories share the theme of
   the passing of time and how people struggle to deal with it.  The
   central characters in each of the stories has gone though difficult
   times, such as living in a police state, surviving a concentration camp,
   or restoring peace after war in the Balkans.

   One of my favourites was about a man recovering from his war-time
   injuries on a beach by the Adriatic Sea.  He has regular conversations
   with a young girl who is also holidaying there with her parents.  She's
   a bit of a naive idealist, while he cautions against ideals and what
   they can lead to.  Things lighten up when the man reveals he's studying
   cloud formations, and he teaches her how to predict the future from the
   formations.