Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies (Paperback)

~ (Author), Caryn Ganz (Author), Chas Banks (Foreword) "Kim Deal and David Lovering were born in 1961, one year before the first audio cassette became commercially available and three years before the Beatles..." (more)
Key Phrases: Throwing Muses, Surfer Rosa, Fort Apache (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

It’s the 1980s and the rock landscape is littered with massive hair, synthesizers, and monster riffs, but there is an alternative being born in the sleepy East of America—we just don’t know it yet.
Before the Internet, MTV, and iPods provided far-off music fans with information and communities—and before Nirvana—kids across the world grew up in relative isolation, dependent on mix tapes and self-created art to slowly spread scenes and trends. It was under these conditions that four young musicians found one another in Boston, Massachusetts, and started a band called Pixies.
During their initial seven-year career, Pixies would play some of Europe’s most gigantic festivals, keep the press guessing, and cultivate a fervid international fan base hungry for more and more of their unique surf punk. The band worked fast, cranking out four albums at a breakneck pace, but ultimately pressures and personality clashes took their toll: Pixies broke up just as bands were singing their praises as the rock’n’roll innovators.
For twelve years, a Pixies reunion seemed impossible, but a sudden announcement in 2004 proclaimed the unthinkable—Pixies were getting back together. Their extremely successful reunion tour finally gave the group something they’d always lacked in their homeland: proof that their bone-rattling music had left an indelible impact.
Fool the World tells Pixies’ story in the words of those who lived it, from the band members to studio owners, from A&R executives, producers, and visual artists who worked with them to admirers of their music, such as Bono, PJ Harvey, Beck, and Perry Farrell. With new cartoons by Trompe Le Monde illustrator Steven Appleby, Fool the World is a complete journey through the life, death, and rebirth of one of the most influential bands of all time.

www.fooltheworldbook.com

About the Author

Josh Frank is a pop culture dramatist. A director, producer, and writer of plays and books, he currently has a number of projects in development. He is twenty-nine years old and lives between Austin, Texas and New York City.

Caryn Ganz is an associate editor at Spin magazine. Her writing has also appeared in the New York Post, Entertainment Weekly, Seattle Weekly, and Mixte. She lives in Manhattan.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (March 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312340079
• ISBN-13: 978-0312340070
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #42,277 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a relief, February 16, 2006

By	Gabbylilt "Gabby" (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) - See all my reviews

While attempting to finish reading the abysmal Gigantic by John Mendelssohn I was overjoyed to find this book available - in Australia no less. It is all I hoped it would be.

Before starting the book I was worried that despite my love for the Pixies it might be a slightly boring read. Having read and loved Please Kill Me, my rock story scale had been set quite high for gapping pits of agony - but I needn't have worried. This is a great story. The most unlikely words to find in a rock biography were used - charming, high work ethic, normal and they just endeared the members of the Pixies to me all the more.

Interviewees Chas Banks, Joe Harvard, James Iha, Ivo Watts- Russell and Gary Smith, amongst many others, offer their insight to the band and help produce a vivid picture of their history.

I have listened to the Pixies on average at least once a week for the past 18 years - not that I don't listen to other things as well, its just that nothing else fills certain niches in my heart and soul like they do - and to discover that the people making the music are people that I would enjoy having in my living room is an absolute joy.

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fooling around is good for the soul., July 31, 2006

By	Diane (Hamilton, Canada) - See all my reviews

Fool the World is an excellent account of the birth, death and reincarnation of a band called The Pixies. A band that is one of the most important and influential yet underated bands in the history of rock n roll. Without the Pixies there would be no Nirvana, no White Stripes, no Screamo. For better or for worse they are a band that you need to know about and understand. The way that Fool the World is put together is brilliant. Interview segments from people like Courtney Love, J. Mascis, as well as band members themselves add the colour to the picture. There is also a directory of who's who for easy reference. Who else but someone who was there could remember a quote like "Fist I'm going to piss like a race horse and then dance like a black woman." The old magazine interviews with producer Steve Albini were wonderful to read. The fact that Kristin Hersh was dying to get the Pixies onto 4AD because she felt lonely being the only Yank on a Brit label is hilarious and finding out,in his own words, that Ivo Watts-Russell signed certain bands after being stuck in traffic with their tape is genius. Who would know those things except people that were there when it happend. Music fans, Pixies fans, and fans of pop culture check out this book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nearly perfect, September 6, 2006

By	P. Benedict (Twin Cities, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book's strengths far outweight its weaknesses. True, the flow is somewhat disjointed, Throwing Muses and its members get too much coverage, and the copy editing is somewhat sloppy. Nonetheless, the depth of Pixies coverage is amazing. I've been listening to them since Surfer Rosa came out, but they've always been an inscrutable band lyrically, musically, and in interviews. Frank's collection opens the curtain, and gives us a peek into the life and history of a band.

I enjoyed this book immensely.