Pixies Mixtape

I'm back from Melbourne (which was amazing!), and so I'm revved up and eager to start contributing some more playlists. First up, something appropriately raucous and energetic: Pixies.

I was leafing through a copy of '1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die' in Wellington Library this afternoon, and as far as I could tell, every Pixies album was featured (except for possibly Trompe Le Monde, which I feel has always been unduly overshadowed by its older brothers). In a similar vein, I made a Pixies mixtape some weeks back, for which I tried to borrow a little from each one of their albums in succession - even grabbing the great version of 'Hey' featured on the Live at the BBC compilation - so as to illustrate the consistently impressive genius of the alternative Boston four-piece.

Sticking to this site's standard 45-minute 'mixtape' motif, the Pixies nonetheless have ample time to knock out as many as 20 songs, such is the lightning-fast delivery and frenetic fury with which they pound the listeners' ears. Incidentally, this is one of my favourite traits of Black Francis' songwriting; his insistence that a 2-minute track has no less force than a song twice that length (a philosophy about composition he drew, I gather, from Buddy Holly). As you'd expect, the songs featured here also showcase his music's other instantly notable characteristic: visceral and often graphic lyrics portraying sex, violence, abduction, rape, incest, and the supernatural, among other bedtime-reading topics.

A few notes about the selected songs: firstly, I kicked off the mix with 'I'm Amazed', which, aside from being one of my favourites from the back-catalogue of Pixies' disjointed songbook, is also recognisable for its eccentric opening skit ("All I know is that there were rumours..."), something which seems to work equally well as an introduction as it does a mid-album intermission. Following that, the playlist visits several of the band's heaviest numbers ('Rock Music', 'Planet of Sound', 'Tame', 'Something Against You'), interspersed with some cooler breathers (the introductory and final verses to 'Mr. Grieves' and 'Havalina' being the notable rest-periods); my attempt at doing Francis' loud-quiet-louder dynamic some justice.

Finally, I noticed that the songs on this mixtape seemed to come together much more naturally than the tracks on some of my other playlists do. Maybe it's a testament to the unique style of Pixies that means that their songs just sound right at home alongside one another, regardless of whatever album they originally called home, but whatever the reason, it's definitely a lot of fun to listen to.

1. I'm Amazed (Surfer Rosa)
2. Cecilia Ann (Bossanova)
3. Dead (Doolittle)
4. The Holiday Song (Come On Pilgrim EP)
5. Isla de Encanta (Come On Pilgrim EP)
6. Rock Music (Bossanova)
7. Mr. Grieves (Doolittle)
8. Allison (Bossanova)
9. Planet of Sound (Trompe Le Monde)
10. Tame (Doolittle)
11. Wave of Mutilation (Doolittle)
12. River Euphrates (Surfer Rosa)
13. I Bleed (Doolittle)
14. Where is My Mind? (Surfer Rosa)
15. Havalina (Bossanova)
16. Debaser (Doolittle)
17. I've Been Tired (Come On Pilgrim EP)
18. Hey [live] (Pixies at the BBC)
19. Something Against You (Surfer Rosa)
20. Nimrod's Son (Come On Pilgrim EP)