The Atlantic - Latest Comments in When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

DeepKarma — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:53:03 -0000

All right...taking this thread off track. I absolutely love The Pixies. The raw emotion of the lyrics, vocal and instrumental performances is staggering. It pisses me off that I didn't catch on to them until after the break-up. If you're drawn to the Pixie's overwhelming intensity, might I suggest you check out The Thermals. Especially '04's Fuckin A and '06's The Body, The Blood, The Machine. Heavy on the religious imagery with plenty of punk overdrive.

Here's Your Future is in my all-time Top 10. Not that that means anything to anyone here. I'm just sayin.

Another reason to like the band? From Wikipedia:

"The band turned down a $50,000 offer for the right to use their song "It's Trivia" (from More Parts Per Million) in a Hummer commercial. Harris commented on the decision in a February 2006 asap article: "We thought about it for about 15 seconds, maybe...it was a really easy decision. How could we go on after soundtracking Hummer? It's just so evil."

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

BreakerBaker — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:56:51 -0000

No, you're right. I more or less mean the earliest one or two incarnations of the band. Pod and Last Splash are both pretty great. The early 90s had some pretty kickass bands with female frontpeople.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Craig — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:05:35 -0000

If you are a Pixies fan, you need to listen to Frank Black's cover of "Sugar Daddy" from Hedwig and the Angry Inch (one of my absolute favorite movies). It is one of the coolest and most incredibly intense recordings I have ever heard.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

chingona — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:37:59 -0000

And seconding Gang of Four as absolutely fantastic.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

chingona — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:36:39 -0000

I didn't mean to say that THE defining Pixies songs are covers. Just that those are two songs, that are covers, that are great Pixies songs and that are much more strongly associated with the Pixies than with the bands that first recorded them.

I kind of struggled with that word "defining." It wasn't exactly what I was getting at, but I couldn't think of a better one. I think that, after maybe Wave of Mutilation (which I think was on a movie soundtrack - Heathers?) those are among the better well-known Pixies songs.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

BreakerBaker — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:55:27 -0000

I've got lots of love for those guys. Maybe I should have included Bug, which fell inside the 88-89 spectrum. But You're Living All Over Me would have probably made it into the 1987 list.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Joe E Rosewater — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:06:49 -0000

I have no problem heaping credit upon The Pixies. But I think Husker Du needs more credit. The Pixies took what Husker Du was doing- blistering speed + abrasive guitars + primal screams + melody- and catapulted it into a whole new galaxy. But Husker Du still did that formula a few years earlier, and they did it really well.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Todd — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:05:55 -0000

There is pretty much no significant memory of my teen through college years that doesn't have a Pixies soundtrack to it.

I disagree that the defining Pixies songs are covers. There are too many to mention them all, but just hearing the first few notes of 'Dig For Fire' still gives me the chills.

Not sure whether to be happy for you since you're on the verge of discovering all these great albums or sad because you've missed them up until now...

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Lee — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:18:21 -0000

They're playing live in DC at DAR Constitution Hall on 11/30- I'll be there, and I'll buy you a beer if I see you, TNC.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Andy — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:13:28 -0000

Random note: Surfer Rosa, great album cover or what?

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Andy — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:11:27 -0000

Ahh, the ever-chain-smoking-Deal-sisters. I saw them in ...'99 maybe? It was a pretty low quality show as I recall, no one looked like they gave a shit. Sure, that's the image, I get it, but man I'm glad it was a free show.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Andy — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:09:57 -0000

I happen to really like most of the Catholics stuff - I got my wife into the Pixies by taking her to a Catholics show in Santa Barbara in...2000 maybe? (That's also the show where we first heart the song Hum by the Sheila Divine, one of the first bands we really got into together...and a VERY COOL dead band).

They've got some songs that really stand on their own (St Francis Damn Disaster to name one) but mostly I found the albums really solid. It's just a different kind of music - if you're looking for the Pixies alt-rock, it's not really there. With the Catholics project you're getting quirky alt-country/folk/mellow rock.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Catfish Hunter — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:35:05 -0000

How about some love for Dinosaur Jr? 1987's You're Living All Over Me, for example.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Jamesetc — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:18:36 -0000

The Pixies should do a cover of Ambulance.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Stacy — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:03:11 -0000

No, but you can always look forward to your mid-life crisis in a few years!!

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

dwb — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:39:50 -0000

It's a Frank Black cover of a Beach Boys song.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

BreakerBaker — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:30:34 -0000

Is Hang on to Your Ego technically a Pixies cover or a Frank Black one? It's on Frank Black's eponymous solo record.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

BreakerBaker — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:12:06 -0000

I've seen that one. It was made a few years ago during the Pixies reunion tour. Pod and Last Splash are kind of like George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

BreakerBaker — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:00:37 -0000

I was going to say Nothing's Shocking, although for sentimental reasons I feel like I should include Lincoln by They Might Be Giants. Or maybe I only want to include them because my son can't get enough of the children's music they do nowadays and I can never get any of it out of my head.

As to hair metal, were I to include 1987 it would have been pretty difficult to avoid Appetite.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

chingona — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:28:47 -0000

Nearly a year of lurking and this is what gets me to sign up to comment. I don't really care if they were one of the most influential blah blah blah. They were one of the best. That's all I need to know. And they still don't get the recognition they deserve for it.

I was too young to ever have seen the Pixies live the first time around (one of the great misfortunes of my life), but I saw Frank Black twice at medium-size venues in Chicago and he was absolutely amazing. He's just an incredible performer who puts every bit of himself into it.

I saw the Pixies on their reunion tour in 2004, and even though part of me hated myself for going to what was obviously a ploy to capitalize on their post-breakup popularity with a younger generation, it was still pretty damn cool.

TV on the Radio's cover of Mr. Grieves is very good. It was that song that turned me on to TV on the Radio.

Worth noting, perhaps, that two great and defining Pixies songs are covers. Hang on to Your Ego is a Beach Boys cover and Head On is a Jesus and Mary Chain cover, and in both cases (in my humble opinion) the Pixies version is the better version.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

madchica — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:53:35 -0000

... then GOD is SEVEN, then GOD is SEVEN...

Wow, I'm trying to remember why I decided to grow up get married buy a house have a kid...

can't I be seventeen again?

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

FOARP — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:27:04 -0000

What can you say about musicians who have been so successfully covered by so many different bands? I guess they must have been pretty good song-writers. Personally, Placebo's version of Where Is My Mind? has the edge over the original, but that'snot to say that they don't both rock, and I don't particularly dig much of the rest of Placebo's stuff (except their covers that is).

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

FOARP — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:17:17 -0000

*Stupid Me-Firstism Alert*

I was into the Lips back in my first year of university back in '99 before Arcade Fire even started playing together. That summer I took a trip up to the Scottish Highlands, and Soft Bulletin was on continuous loop all the way - tall mountains, incredibly blue skies, long walks, and good times with friends and family - one of my happiest memories, and I think of it every time a song off that album plays.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

Erich — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:45:31 -0000

TNC, are you trying to confuse all us Atlantic blog readers into thinking Yglesias is still writing in this spot?! He used to post a Pixies YouTube like every week. Next thing we know, you'll be writing about mass transit and the NBA.

Re: When I First Got Into Arcade Fire...

DeMiurge — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:26:00 -0000

then the devil is six