Black Francis

[HERO]

Black Francis: Intuitive and Irrational type (Ne-dominant?)















http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_a...hp?name=Pixies

Robert Christgau:

Doolittle [4AD/Elektra, 1989]
They're in love and they don't know why--with rock and roll, which is heartening in a time when so many college dropouts have lost touch with the verities. You can tell from the bruising riffs, the rousing choruses, the cute little bass melodies, the solid if changeable beat. But not from any words they sing. They'll improve in direct relation to their improved contact with the outside world. Getting famous too fast could ruin them. B+

Trompe le Monde [4AD/Elektra, 1991]
Not as catchy from the git as Bossanova, which with eyeballs all over the cover and escape from terra firma all over the lyric sheet is risky if you want to get a rack jobber's attention or respect. But postpunk formalists-in-spite-of-themselves, a category that includes any consumer/tastemaker who's zoned in on 50 or a hundred relevant albums, would be fools to deny themselves the feast that awaits. These devilkins have the music down, and they never overstay their welcome. A-

Best of Pixies: Wave of Mutilation [4AD, 2004]
The title tune is the catchiest of the 23, but not by much: just one more piece of sensationalism, its fingernail grip on profundity pried away by the unpretentious business sense of a comeback-keyed one-disc best-of. Proudly it claims its central place in what boils down to an amusing and nearly flawless exercise in s&m bubblegum--and not a damn thing more. A


http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/black-francis

http://www.prefixmag.com/features/bl...terview/38224/

http://dag.wieers.com/debaser/docs/blackfra.php

[HERO]

‘I forgot about all laws and I forgot about the rain They were talking on the Nine and all across the Army band / Across the road, they were turning around and headed south with me / It got so crowded on the road, I started driving in the sand / My head was feeling scared, but my heart was feeling free / The desert turned to mud / It seems that everybody heard / Everybody was remembering to forget they had the chills / Then I heard the voices on a broadcast from up on the bird / They were getting interviewed by some good man whose name was Bill / I'm almost there to Vegas, where they're puttin' on a show / They've come so far, I've lived this long / At least I must just go and say, "Hello"’



“In the sleepy West/Of the wooded East/Is a valley full/Full o' pioneer / We're not just kids/To say the least / We got ideas/To us that's dear / Like capitalism / Like communism / Like lots of things you've heard about / And redneckers / They get us pissed / And stupid stuff / It makes us shout / Oh, dance with me / Oh, don't be shy . . . Oh, kiss the world / Oh, kiss the sky . . . Of the April birds / And the May bee / Oh, baby / It' s educational . . .”




- Robert Christgau:

http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_a...hp?name=Pixies

Bossanova [4AD/Elektra, 1990]
Though the words are less willful, they're still mostly indecipherable without the crib sheet and still mostly incomprehensible with it--leisure-class kiddies grasping at straws (or women: Black Francis has gone through three girlfriends by cut five) as the solar system bangs and whimpers to a halt. But these collegians are obscurantists no longer. Announcing their newfound religious faith with a surf-metal instrumental ("Cecilia Ann," who's not a girlfriend though Francis loves her best of all), they march out tunes so simple and confident and power riffs so grandly declamatory that you learn to understand the choruses by singing them. The beats are lively. The three-minute songs don't bash you over the head with their punk/pop brevity. Neither do the two-minute songs. If they weren't still a little gothic-surrealist they might even be too easy--but they ain't. A

[Radio]

Ne-ILE methinks.