Music Review: Pixies EP1

Let me start off by saying there is Pixies music and there is Frank Black music. I love them both, but they are not the same thing (this could also be said about The Smiths music and Morrissey music.)

Pixies music is wild, weird, scary, off-beat, and usually hard to take in the first few listens. For the most part, Frank Black music is straight-ahead rock and roll, occasionally off-kilter, but much more 'normal' than Pixies stuff (a few notable exceptions: "Parry The Wind High Low" and the entire "Bluefinger" record.)

Which brings us to "EP1".

If this had been a Frank Black or even a Black Francis solo effort, I would have a very different opinion than I do.

But it's released as Pixies, my second-favorite band of all time (after the aforementioned Smiths.)

When I hit play on something called 'Pixies', I expect the elation and discomfort that I felt at my first listens of "Planet of Sound", "Tame", "The Happening", "River Euphrates" and all those masterpieces.

According to that measure, it's a mixed bag.

Since we're only talking about 4 songs, I'll break them down one by one.

"Andro Queen"

This is a really good Frank Black song. It would fit well on "Dog In The Sand". This does not seem like a Pixies song to me whatsoever. The singing is way too straight, there are no weird tempo changes, nothing really exciting. Just a Frank Black-style straightforward song. I would equate it to Frank's "The Swimmer".



"Another Toe In The Ocean"

Meh. This isn't even that good of a Frank Black song. Reminds me of the stuff from Frank Black and the Catholics (my least favorite Charles Thompson effort.) I hate to say it, but it's just kind of boring...and the lyrics are so-so.



"Indie Cindy"

This one definitely feels more Pixies-esque. Black Francis rattling off that Spanish and the weird changes definitely feels like old times. But where is the scream?



"What Goes Boom"

NOW we're talking. Pure, 100% awesome. This song makes sense as a natural follow-up to "Trompe Le Monde". If they put out an album of this stuff, I'd be there, there, there.



So, all-in-all not bad. It's great to have new Pixies stuff (and by the way, I loved "Bam Thwok"...one of my all-time favorite Pixies songs.) Hopefully they'll make more and hopefully it will be in the vein of "What Goes Boom".

And please bring back the scream. "TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMME!!!!!!"

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a tequila enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.

The 10 Greatest Screamers in Rock History

OK, first off - I'm not including bands that do nothing but scream. For one thing, I don't know that much about them and for another I don't think it's that powerful to just scream all the time. Chocolate cake is awesome until it's the only thing you're allowed to eat...then it gets old really fast.

Also, I don't claim that these are the only great screamers. These are just the best of the stuff that's on my iPod.

10. Bon Scott AC/DC Scott typically sounded like a barking dog when he sang (which would probably get him on this list anyway), but from time to time he'd really let loose like the way he sings the word "explode" at the end of "T.N.T.".

9. Joe Strummer The Clash A great gravelly voice at all times, Joe hit his screaming peak at the end of "Total Control" when he's just ad-libbing ("this is Joe speaking..."). Wild and genuine.

8. Paul McCartney The Beatles It's hard to believe that the baby-faced singer of "Michelle" could also belt out the wailing in "Helter Skelter", "Twist and Shout", and "Maybe I'm Amazed"...but wow.

7. Al Jourgensen Ministry Stigmata. 'Nuff said.

6. John Lydon PIL "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen"...textbook examples of screaming. But my favorite from the former Johnny Rotten is still "Public Image" from the PIL debut. Relentless guitar, relentless energy.

5. Prince Some people might be surprised to see the funk master on this list, but it's hard to find a wilder, more guttural primal scream than the ending of "Let's Go Crazy" when he yells Take Me Away. And the mind-blowing intensity at the end of "The Beautiful Ones".

4. Robert Plant Led Zeppelin One of the original greats. Sometimes he just belted it out from the get-go ("The Song Remains The Same") or performed that wonderful contrast between smooth crooning and screaming within the same song ("What Is And What Should Never Be", "I'm Gonna Crawl").

3. Janis Joplin If the only song she ever recorded was "Piece of My Heart", she would still be #3 on this list.

2. Jim Morrison The Doors Up until 1987, Morrison would have topped this list without equal (more on that in a second.) But no other singer in the history of rock has been so naturally smooth and Sinatra-esque, and then 5 seconds later release a deafening scream. And you didn't get the sense that he was showing off...Jim was just a raging storm with a cool veneer.

1. Black Francis Pixies There are no words to describe what Black Francis recorded on those first 5 Pixies albums. Wild, animalistic, primal, insane. He's been mimicked a million times since, but nothing can match the raw energy of "Tame", "Debaser", "Planet of Sound", etc. Stills gives me chills after all these years.

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Jeffrey Dale Starr is a whiskey enthusiast, oil painter, and owner of mobile software company Purple Falcon.