Return of 'stupid little Boston band' the Pixies

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp

Frank Spignese / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

When the reunited Pixies took the stage at another rain-drenched Fuji Rock in summer 2004, one couldn't help but feel that the audience wasn't grasping the full significance of what was about to happen. The band was welcomed with the same respectful applause that had greeted P.J. Harvey and Lou Reed, but a far more monumental reception was deservedly in order.

The Pixies had gotten back together. Only Joe Strummer crawling out of his grave and reforming the Clash could have overshadowed this most unlikely of rock 'n' roll reconciliations. The animosity between lead man Frank Black and bassist Kim Deal is legendary. Black was on such bad terms with the rest of the Pixies at the end of their doomed 1992 tour that he broke up the band via fax.

At the peak of their fame, opening for U2 at stadiums across the United States and riding the about-to-break '90s grunge rock wave, they called it quits. They would never get a chance to reap the benefits of the music that they themselves had planted.

In Gouge, a recent Pixies documentary, David Bowie says that everyone who heard them back in those days day formed their own band. Bono goes on to claim that Black is one of the most gifted American songwriters of all time.

But where they really left their mark was on the alterative revolution that dominated '90s music. Everyone from Helmet to Blur aped a bit of the band's nerd-rock aura. Radiohead frontman Tom Yorke only agreed to play last year's Coachella Festival after learning that the Pixies were also on the bill. Most famously, Kurt Cobain confessed that "Smells Like Teen Spirit," with its quiet/loud, whisper/scream dynamic, was a complete Pixies rip-off.

This "stupid little band in Boston" (as Deal once referred to them) lay claim to something that few groups can: they invented their own genre. They made Pixies music. They mixed surf rock, Beatlesque harmonies and ear-bleeding thrash all inside head-spinning songs that were often over before you knew they had begun. This, coupled with Black wailing away about incest, UFOs, death, the Old Testament, masturbation and water pollution, made for one heady brew.

Those who missed out the first time around can see what all the fuss is about when they hit Japan next week. They're promoting a new live DVD, Pixies Sell Out, which finds them in fine form.

Rumors abound that they will soon be reentering the studio to record again. So far the only new material to come from the reunited Pixies has been a track on a Warren Zevon tribute album and a Deal song, recorded (but rejected) for the Shrek 2 soundtrack.

In an interview with Salon.com, Black spoke about not being able to milk the reunion meal ticket forever.

"What does a band do?" he asked. "They go out on tour and then if they feel they have to make it or continue to make their mark, they go and write music and record it. We're not really in that mode, because right now we're just playing the old songs and getting paid lots of money for it."

Their set at Fuji Rock was a ferocious affair, kicking off with a crushing version of "Bone Machine" and steamrolling forward nonstop. The majority of tunes came from their early classics, Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, but two fan faves from their later discs, "U-Mass" and "Velouria," were also rocked out.

Black looked a bit stockier and the detoxed Deal was without her trademark lit cigarette; otherwise they didn't appear much different than they did back in 1992.

They didn't move then and they don't move now. The Pixies don't have to, they just play.

One tangible difference was their easy air on stage. Deal was smiling from ear to ear the entire show, hamming it up with her old nemesis Black.

Guitarist Joy Santiago flubbed the beginning to "Debaser" and Black made a joke about it. A similar mistake made back in the early '90s would have been greeted with a hurled instrument.

The kinder, gentler Black verified the possibility of a new album in a recent interview with VH1.

"I haven't removed enough Kim Deal compositions yet" he half-joked. "We'll have a fight about that or something. And, of course, in the end I will dominate."

Pixies will play Dec. 3, 6 p.m. at Drum Logos in Fukuoka, (092) 714-0159; Dec. 4, 6 p.m. at Club Quattro in Hiroshima, (082) 249-3571; Dec. 5-6, 7 p.m. at Zepp in Tokyo, (03) 5466-0777; Dec. 8, 7 p.m. at Zepp in Osaka, (06) 6233-8888; Dec. 9, 7 p.m. at Zepp in Nagoya, (052) 320-9100