The Pixies (DVD)

I was a little hesitant to buy this DVD since the Pixies have always had a certain aura of mystery about them, at least to me anyways. You rarely see pictures of them anywhere, and information about the band was generally hard to come by for a long time, considering that they were only together for 5 years or so and never really had much commercial success. Suddenly, with the new Pixies reunion and subsequent “re-marketing” of the band, there has been a plethora of new merchandise finding its way onto store shelves and a real surge of exposure for them. In a way, it has changed the whole feeling of the band, but I can’t say they don’t deserve all the newfound interest. It’s always seemed that the Pixies were an acquired taste, and it only took North American audiences 15 years to catch on.

While they never did sell many records, the Pixies influence has undeniably been felt in the music world. You can draw a direct correlation between them and Nirvana, as Kurt Cobain was a huge Pixies fan and many people have noted that Smells Like Teen Spirit is a borderline Pixies rip-off. This new DVD is perhaps the most intimate look at the band that has ever been available, so it’s a perfect time for people to discover this long underrated rock foursome.

The main subject of this DVD is the live concert from Town & Country Club in London from 1988. The time of this particular tour was right after the release of Surfer Rosa and captures the band early on at what may have been the most exciting point in their career. They look incredibly young and are clearly having a lot of fun on stage, something that apparently wasn’t seen much during their later tours. The selection of songs is great, from well known favourites like “Where Is My Mind?”, “The Holiday Song” and “Gigantic” to more raw, anguished scorchers like “Something Against You” and their cover of The Beatles’ “Wild Honey Pie”.

It really would have been nice to get a taste of the band’s later material as well, but what can you do? I usually prefer live video compilations that compile songs from different concerts as it can get monotonous after a while watching an entire set from the same camera angles on the same stage. It’s a poor substitute for actually being at the show, let’s put it that way. Still, the video quality and the sound quality are fantastic on this DVD… even a Dolby 5.1 mix is included. The camera work is well done and the annoying “shaky” effects are kept to a minimum. You can’t ask for much better than that.

To sweeten the deal, the other features on the DVD are more than just second-rate filler.

All 7 of their music videos are included. They are admittedly a little sketchy, but there’s something about them that captures that uncompromising and unpredictable energy that the Pixies were known for. If you’ve seen the two videos that were included on the CD-ROM for the Pixies B-sides album, the additional videos on this collection aren’t any better in terms of quality. Although some of them do convey the abstract and generally weird nature of the band, they also (like many videos from the 80’s) seem pretty cheesy by today’s standards because they fiddle with low grade video effects. The video for “Velouria” deserves mention as it is possibly one of the worst and simulataneously best music videos I’ve ever seen. It is a single 3 minute long shot of the band running across some rocks in slow motion set to the soundtrack of the song. Utterly inexplicable, and yet… so very Pixies. On the other hand, the video for “Alec Eiffel” (with the band performing amidst a wind tunnel) or “Dig For Fire/Allison” (featuring the members riding in motorcycle sidecars to a stadium gig) aside from the grainy film quality are still interesting and passable nowadays.

The “On The Road” 30 minute featurette contains behind the scenes stuff with the band on tour in Europe. It has bits and pieces of them travelling, talking, rehearsing and playing throughout many cities. It was all filmed by crew member Myles Mangino, giving it a very personal home video feel at times. Interesting viewing.

“Gouge”, on the other hand, is a 50 minute documentary boasting interviews with a ton of big name artists (most of which are British, proving once again how much more of an effect the Pixies had in Europe). People like Thom Yorke, David Bowie, PJ Harvey, Bono and members of Bush, Blur, Travis and much more all confess their love of the Pixies — not in a kiss-ass kind of way but rather with an honest attempt to deduce what it was about the band that made them so special. Most agree that the band defies categorization and had a ton of talent, but they each had their own favourite Pixies moments and personal observations about the band. It was also brought up that they invented the whole “soft to loud” dynamic that so many bands use nowadays.

One annoying thing about this segment is that they mix in large amounts of footage from the same concert found elsewhere on the DVD. It would have been nice to get some different recordings to go with the documentary, or even to just omit them entirely. Still there are a lot of cool tidbits found in here. There are clips of recent interviews with the band members (although Kim Deal is notably absent) which do add to an understanding of their history. Although it does lift the veil of mystery from the band to a certain extent, in the end I think it gives a greater appreciation for them.

If you’re a Pixies fan you won’t be disappointed with this DVD collection. The price is pretty reasonable and the full concert alone makes it worthwhile, but there’s enough cool extra content to make it something you’ll be watching over and over again for years to come. — Sean