String Quartet Tribute to Pixies

Tribute to Pixies (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 5, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vitamin Records
• ASIN: B0002Y4TRY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,680 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars better than expected, February 19, 2005

By 

Matt Albertsen (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: String Quartet Tribute to Pixies (Audio CD)

Before this album, I had never bought a String Quartet tribute album and tended to overlook them as I normally do with tribute albums. I had been familiar with them through their full album tribute of Radiohead's OK Computer, which I've heard and was very impressed by. However I still never bought anything by them as from observation they seem to pay tribute to both some of the best artists in this generation (The Smiths, The Cure, Radiohead, Sonic Youth, and Elliott Smith for example), yet also some of the worst (Simple Plan, Godsmack, P.O.D., Linkin Park, etc. etc. etc.) That made me feel less able to judge them as a whole.

However when I saw this album in a store, with the Pixies being my favorite band, I bought it without hesitation and listened to it immediately when I got home. After my initial listen I found the album to be very interesting and enjoyable. The songs they selected (mostly from Surfer Rosa and Doolittle) are all for the majority the best known Pixies songs that you'd find on either on of the best of compilations or hear at one of the reunion shows. The only exception to that is the presence of "Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons" from Trompe le Monde. This will stick out jarringly in the track listing to any non casual listener of the Pixies. However, it transforms very well into a classical piece and I would include it along with "Debaser", "Where is My Mind?", and "Velouria" as the best covers on the album.

On the opposite, this album does have its share of negatives, and it's unfortunate that most of them are from sloppy errors not within the music, but on the packaging. First off the track listing displayed on the back cover and 2 times in the booklet is wrong. I assume this has to do with a last minute change to the track listing after the packaging has been printed. Whatever the case may be (being too cheap to reprint it?), this error is very unprofessional. Also on the back cover, the album description states "as virtuous string players cut to the edgy essence of 'Bone Machine' when Bone Machine isn't even on the album. Besides those frustrating and unforgivable errors, my only complaint musically is that the original track by the quartet on this album "Burned for Good" while good in it's own right simply doesn't fit in here, and lessens the feeling of the album as a whole. These "original compositions" appear to be on every quartet release, so I guess it's just something that the band enjoys to do regardless of the result. Another semi-complaint is that there aren't more songs from albums besides Surfer Rosa and Doolittle or songs that are lesser known but favorites of devoted fans. "Levitate Me" would have been great in my opinion in this classical form. As well as "Is She Weird?", "No. 13 Baby", and "Into the White". So in summary I say that no matter if you're a new or casual Pixies fan with the Wave of Mutilation compilation as your first Pixies release, or a hardcore Pixies fan and you don't completely hate classical music, I think you will enjoy this album.

Here's the correct track listing...
1. Here Comes Your Man [Doolittle]
2. Gigantic [Surfer Rosa]
3. Caribou [Come on Pilgrim]
4. Debaser [Doolittle]
5. Cactus [Surfer Rosa]
6. Velouria [Bossanova]
7. Gouge Away [Doolittle]
8. Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons [Trompe le Monde]
9. Wave of Mutilation [Doolittle]
10. Monkey Gone to Heaven [Doolittle]
11. Where is my Mind? [Surfer Rosa]
12. Burned for Good (original composition)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for people who like the pixies and string quartets, January 24, 2005

By 

R. Buchanan "happyrobot" (Brooklyn NY!) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: String Quartet Tribute to Pixies (Audio CD)

I heard this on KCRW the other day - it was the arrangement for 'Here comes you man' and it was great fun. This album has lots of swell possibilities.

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best string quartet tribute albums out there, January 17, 2010

By 

D. Burke (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: String Quartet Tribute to Pixies (Audio CD)

A lot of the String Quartet Tribute albums aren't very good in my opinion. This one is excellent! The arrangements are really well done, and the performers are great. The copy I have has mislabeled the tracks, but if you know the songs, you'll figure it out.