Customer Reviews

Pixies (DVD)

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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After years of silence, the Pixies have been blasting through 2004 with a newfound interest in preserving their legacy and possibly even furthering it with their nonstop touring schedule. It goes without saying that the Pixies are an incredibly influential group and that Frank Black's songwriting was never as good as it was at the band's peak.

That said, despite it's highpoints, this DVD feels a bit like a missed opportunity. The only real point of interest for anyone other than Pixies fans is the terrific 'Gouge' documentary. Through interviews with all band members except for Kim Deal and a slew of rock critics and musicians such as David Bowie and Thom Yorke, it does a great job of explaining just why the Pixies were such an important band. The one complaint is that the documentary is filled out with performances from a concert which is available in its entirely elsewhere on the disc.

And it's a great concert from the Pixies earlier days. It would have been nice, though, if they could have also included another concert from later in the band's career. I would have liked to have been surprised with some rare performances, but admittedly, I have no idea how much footage the band actually has in the vault.

The behind the scenes, on the road footage is hardly essential viewing and is kind of boring unless after all these years your still obsessed with every bit of Pixies minutiae. Or Kim Deal, since she's featured more than anyone else.

Finally, there are the videos. While as a Pixies fan, it's nice to have them all, it's doubtful that anyone will be going back to rewatch them too often. They are incredibly low-budget and it shows. None of them are particularly memorable.

So for those who have yet to discover the Pixies, skip over the DVD for now and go straight to the CDs. For everyone else, this is worth checking out, even if a little more content would have been desirable.

The Pixies were and still are one of the greatest Rock bands of all time. They mixed a raw youthful punk sound, with latin flair, and some of the most derangued and beautiful lyrics ever written. They weren't a popular band during their time, but have since influenced everyone from Nirvana to Radiohead.

The DVD is actually more than I expected. I thought we'd get a standard set of videos with a bunch of old interviews and maybe a tiny bit of live stuff. Couldn't be more wrong.

The live show is priceless, and worth the cost of the DVD alone. It's an early show (Frank looks so young), and captures music ranging from "Pilgrim" all the way up to "Surfer Rosa". Raw, beautiful, rock your socks off stuff here. Just makes you want more.

The video section is pretty standard stuff, a collection of videos from back in the day. Nothing too special, but nice to have and see after all these years.

The documentary "On The Road" is a decent look back at backstage antics, roadtrips through Europe, etc, mixed with various clips of live footage. Decent, but nothing too spectacular.

The documentary "Gouge" on the other hand, is wonderful. Newer interviews with the band, and praising words from people such as David Bowie, Tom York, and Bono. This goes through all the Pixies releases, and puts everything into a nice perspective. The only omission from this is Kim Deal. She's nowhere to be found, and that's saddening. "Bass Goddess" she is called in this section, too bad she couldn't be included.

Overall this is a must for any Pixies hardcore fan, and also provides a nice glimpse into the band for any Newbie.

There is a lot that isn't needed here. Surfer Rosa and Doolittle say most of what I need to know about the Pixies, and I have little use for the music videos or the "On The Road" documentary. The latter is like a bad home movie, with glimpses of our heroes, but virtually no content. It was hard to force my way through it. Unlike some below, it didn't strike me as the "Kim Deal cam", though Kim was more talkative than the others when on camera. Similarly, the "Gouge" documentary, though far superior to the "On the Road" piece, is dispensable. There are famous British musicians making insightful comments about the music we loved 15 years ago, but this is vital music to listen to, not to analyze to death. David Bowie is remarkably articulate, PJ Harvey always good to hear from, but they, the rest of the musician/fans in this piece, and the Pixies themselves fail to say much you probably haven't already thought about the music.

It's the music itself, in the "Live" piece from 1988 that makes this DVD a good buy for the price. The Pixies are caught at their youthful peak in performances I'm glad to have on DVD, never having had the chance to see them back then, and fairly certain the reunion tour won't recapture the magic. Buy this if you want to see a great Pixies concert from their early days, and consider the rest icing.

The release of the Pixes DVD has to be,hands down,one of the most well-timed and serendipitous events in recent memory in the world of rock.

The band's old label,4AD, decides to release a second greatest hits CD along with the aforementioned DVD,meanwhile the rumor mill is churning about a Pixies reunion tour. Almost everyone unanimously decries"it'll never happen." Just weeks before the CD and DVD drop,the music world is cold-cocked with confirmation that the band is officially back together replete with a worldwide tour schedule. As a die-hard Pixies fan,even I thought the band would never re-unite because of the thick animosity between singer Black Francis and bassist Kim Deal. As of this writing,the Pixies are set to play FIVE nights here in Chicago. Talk about a strong comeback! I recieved this DVD as a birthday present and the only thing I keep saying to myself is"Wow!" It's great to see all those old videos again that I first saw in college,albeit now looking quaint compared to today's flashier,more bombastic fare. "Head On","Dig For Fire""Here Comes Your Man" and "Velouria"are so low budget,they're almost genius in thier minimalistic delivery("Velouria"has the band merely climbing down a quarry in slow motion,using a one camera shot whilst the song is playing. Nothing else.) Both "Debaser" and "Monkey Gone To Heaven"rely on concert footage,16mm film and artsy collages to fill out the content. "Alec Effiel"is the "slickest" and most rock star-ish video of the lot,utilizing both a wind machine and smoke machine to a quirky effect. Overall, they're all still interesting to watch after all these years,if you're a fan.

The live footage(the majority of the set list pinched from the "Surfer Rosa"album) is just sensational. The video quality is rather crisp for a DVD carrying footage and material(particularly the live stuff) from 15+ years ago,so DVD elitists should be satisfied. The sound quality(which I'm pretty sure was taken straight from the mixing board because it sounds brilliant!) has been remastered in 5.1 surround,putting my home theatre system through its paces,for sure. Even without the surround sound,the audio is good and should provide some nice output through any standard stereo TV. There are spots where the quality got a bit echoey but,for the most part,the sound has incredible muscle.

The BBC documentary"Gouge",featuring commentary from the band themselves(Kim is absent,for some reason),along with David Bowie,PJ Harvey,Radiohead,Blur,Bono from U2(who the Pixies opened for in '91),Big Black singer/"Surfer Rosa"producer Steve Albini and others is a nice little nugget that is chock full of yet more live footage and clips from thier videos. However,the admiration begins to get a bit tiresome almost to the point of sycophany,especially with Bono and the British journalists. One other caveat: why the hell does Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses,who were not only the Pixies' contemporaries and touring pals from almost the very beginning,but also labelmates on 4AD,gets only a couple of blurbs in? She's truly given a total "Yeah,whatever" in this doc and if you blink,you could very well miss her. And one would think that the producers would've tracked down and interviewed Tanya Donnelly,also of Throwing Muses and a founding member of Kim's post-Pixies band,the Breeders(Who,ironically,garnered the mainstream success with the "Last Splash"album that the Pixies never really achieved here in the States) It's strange that perhaps the people who had known them the longest and on a personal level gets short shrift,with the documentary relying more on the fawning adulation of musicians,many of whom have never even toured or met the Pixies. Regardless,this gets balanced out by the band's"aw,shucks" modesty,basically telling everyone,"it really wasn't that big a deal to us. We just liked playing out and having fun doing it." The doc also includes information on the band's notorious break-up,via fax,of all things. A must watch,to be sure.

The "On The Road"chapter is also a treat. This is the only part of the DVD where the video quality slips.Clearly filmed on VHS,it's a bit grainy and looks just like a home movie,of sorts. Still,it's totally forgivable as it shows our beloved foursome globetrotting from one gig to the next,being themselves and showing that these four truly were friends as well as co-workers. The footage has more live stuff,with a particulaly morose audience in Glastonbury,England,barely trying to enjoy the music. There's also sound checks,some sketchy footage of gigs from here in Chicago,Paris and Greece and cute one-liners from Kim Deal and David Lovering.

Again,if you're a die-hard Pixies fan,you can't truly claim as such until you get this DVD. The live concert alone guarantees its reply value a hundred-fold and the videos have a nostalgic charm that will bring you back to them,now and again.

Finally, a Pixies DVD, and man it is great!

It has four main parts, but first i must coment on the beggining. The band has really taken advantage of the DVD format here, and the opener and title screen are both great, with "vamos" rolling on while the band's logo is spinning around. On the title screen, there are four pictures of the band and they alternate and phase in and out of each other, it is really cool.

The first part is a live concert from 88, right before the realease od Doolittle. It is all Come on Pilgram/Surfer Rosa material except "hey" and a cover of "wild honey pie" that is hilarious. Good little concert, shows how slacker looking the bad was, but how amazing thier music is at the same time.(yeah, alot of this is repeated in the documentary. Didn't they have some other concert footage?)

The secnd part is the videos, and what great videos man. All of them are great in thier own way, though "here comes your man", "veloria" and "alec eiffel" are the funniest and most moving.

The third part is a behind the scenes at different concerts kind of thing, worth watching once just to see how cute Kim Deal is, man, i wanna meet a chick like her some day.

The forth and final thing is the documentary "Gouge", which is one of the best documentarys on a band i have ever seen. It's guest speakers are everyone from David Bowie, Thome Yorke, Gram Coxton, and Bono.(Bono?!? What the hell indeed!)Bowie especially is moving to hear, because you can tell that is one man who knows what he is talking about, especially when he coments about the great Sonic Youth. But man, this DVD is worth getting just for that documentary, what a band. 4 1/2 out of 5 stars, but i couldn't put that up above, so round up :)- Trevor e.y.

All I knew about the Pixies is that Kurt Cobain loved them and that they greatly influenced his music. Then in 2004 they reunited and I found out they were coming to my country, Slovenia. The tickets were sold out two months before the show. Everyone was excited. Of course, I had to learn more about them! I borrowed some stuff from a friend and heard a few of their "hits" - Where is My Mind?, Gigantic, Bone Machine, Caribou and Monkey Gone to Heaven. I liked them.

20th June 2004, the day of the concert. It's raining.
The tickets were sold out, so me and my friends went to stand in front of the Krizanke (ex-)monastery, where they performed. I recognized the five songs I'd heard before and was happy that I went, even though the weather was bad.

A few months later I saw this DVD in a second-hand shop. I didn't even know they had a DVD out. I bought it just to see how these guys look like when performing, since I could hear them live, but not see them.

MAN, was I blown away when I saw the concert!! This DVD instantly made me a Pixies fan. It's still my favourite music DVD.
Four casual looking people:
- a bit (now a lot) overweight vocalist/guitarist Frank Black aka Black Francis
- a Filipino lead guitarist, Joey Santiago
- the nicest woman in rock history, bassist/vocalist Kim Deal
- and the drummer, David Lovering
totally rocked my socks off (like Jack Black would say). Frank Black shocked me with his vocal (screaming) abilities, giving raw, wild energy to the songs, swinging an acoustic guitar during a song and accidentaly knocking off the microphone, but he also amazed me how he sang the softer, melodic stuff; Joey produced some wildest guitar sounds ever, attacking and shaking the guitar like an animal, rocking the amp, playing with his beer can...; David swinging high with his drumsticks; Kim keeping the groove with the simple bass lines, always smiling, and adding the magic with angel-like background vocals... WOW!

The music is still today after two decades totally unique, very catchy and melodic with both acoustic and heavy guitars and some cool effects.
Add some also totally unique and sometimes creepy lyrics by Frank Black and there you have it - the biggest underground band, a cult band, a band that influenced the most influental rock band of the 90's.

The concert alone is well worth the money, but there's also a lot of other goodies:
- the music videos
- a nice short documentary about the Pixies with interviews with famous people, including the bandmembers (except Kim)
- "on the road" footage, capturing some cool moments while on tour, including lots of songs on various festivals and other venues.

Defintely worth every penny if you like the Pixies, and of course, A MUST for real fans.

One more thing... if you're new to the Pixies, every song gets better and better each time you hear it, and you'll be changing your favourite song quite often. Which is a good thing - you won't get bored with the Pixies anytime soon.:)

I initially saw this played on the now defunct TRIO satellite channel. At the time, I owned a once played copy of Doolittle. After hearing all of the commentary on the importance of the Pixies to modern music, seeing the powerful (yet physically still) nature of their live performance, and seeing some of the music videos for the first time, I was convinced that Doolittle was worth a genuine try.

Yes, the Brits in "Gouge" do some kissing-up, but you can tell (they're not actors, after all), that it is truly sincere. Bowie and Bono, while neither one is half the artist of B.F., do seem especially informed and heart-felt in their analysis and praise. How humbling it must be to have so many renowned artists and journalists praise your work ! This is a good primer for further study of the band - it was for me.

I'm in a cover band (as David Bowie says in the DVD - everyone who's heard Pixies, forms a band), since I feel a strong urge to try to cover Pixies' music. The other members didn't know of their work, so I am going to use this DVD as a seminar on the Pixies' work. I watch it regularly, for personal inspiration - I can't get enough. Thom Yorke (of Radiohead) says that you must be "that good for a start" - we are going to give it a shot.

I was in high school when the more favored 3 CDs were published, but alas, was never exposed. A year and a half later, I am so glad that I saw, and now own this DVD - most importantly I "discovered" the greatness of Pixies. I even went to see them at a small local venue in June 2005 (got Kim's autograph!). I will be buying the "Sellout" DVD, when released in Oct2005. I feel that this is a very satisfying DVD, and a DEAL ( no pun intended) for the price of < $20 - a quarter what I paid for my wife and I to see them live.

By the way, to the author of one of these commentaries - the name of the album is SURFER Rosa, not SISTER Rosa - you seem like you know what you're talking about, bone machine head! LONG LIVE THE PIXIES ! ! !

A great DVD to have if you're a fan. It's wonderful to have all the music videos in one place. The concert is great and watching Charles accidentally knock down the mic while singing "In Heaven" reminded of why I love the band so much. The On-the-Road footage is fun to watch if you like watching surreal, yet boring vacation videos (which is fun for me). Unfortunately, the documentary - Gouge - is kind of lame. You'll learn some interesting things about the Pixies, but it isn't really comprehensive. You see a clip of their first gig, and then it cuts away. How about putting all the footage of the first gig on the DVD somewhere? That would've made my day. But that isn't a big deal - I really just wanted more about the band - straight from the source - but no, the majority of the documentary is all these musicians saying how "brilliant" the band is. It was as if the documentarians were more captivated by the more famous musicians than the Pixies themselves. If you want to listen to famous musicians reaffirm your belief that the Pixies are great, then this documentary is just what you need - if you want to learn about who the band members are, where they came from, and what inspired them - then look elsewhere. If you want to learn about their experiences with each album, songs that changed, songs that they decided not to use, what they thought about any particular songs - look elsewhere. The History Channel has documentaries about people that lived centuries ago that are more comprehensive than Gouge.

Bottom Line - Great DVD if you're a fan

...and the Pixies were a group of youngins having a good time playing music. No one outside the left-of-center had ever heard of these noiseaholics who just happened to not really care about what the Aqua Net militia and your Yanni loving dads thought. In the midst of being seen and classified by the Billboard masses, the Pixies fought every inch to be heard in what David Bowie describes as "sludge", cookie cutter garbage that cluttered the music landscape for much of the 80's and early 90's. Is this reminiscent of now?

This DVD exemplifies the Pixies righteously. It includes all of the Pixies videos, which were not even a fraction as memorable as the music itself, and a 1987 London performance in it's entirety that captures not only the Pixies in their glorious years, but as well proves that this group was more influential to early 90's music renaissance than any other band.

As well, the DVD includes a great documentary on the band with commentary from the likes of David Bowie and PJ Harvey. It wonderfully sums up the band's existence, and it also contains live clips from the accompanying live performance.

This DVD includes home video footage from the Pixies' tour as well, right before Doolittle was released. Most of this portion will mainly appeal to the more-than-casual Pixies fan.

All in all, this DVD is a good buy, roughly selling for $20.00. While a fun and engaging view for anyone who likes the Pixies, it also contains a great documentary for the casual fan that needs to be brought up to speed. Overall, very good.

Criticising a Pixies DVD is like telling a snail it is not fast enough. The Pixies were never about the promo vids or indeed visuals. Indeed they arse around on the official releases, as anyone can see.
But hey, this is the most inventive(in my mind) rock band ever to grace this planet and after a long wait,here is a DVD that gives as complete a record as you can get of their genius. Even today their music sounds like it is ahead of its time. The DVD is worth it for the live footage alone. The documentary Gouge is typical back slapping stuff, but hey why not. It is the unspoken stuff that is the most enlightening. The fact that the band are such down to earth ordinary bozos who have absolutely no idea how it is they came to make this beautiful racket. I was actually amazed that they had as much footage of the band as they had, knowing how camera shy they were. If you love the band this is an absolute must. If you don't, catch this, and learn. And then buy the albums.