Latest / Barber Cuts: Beats and Bars / Doolittle - Pixies
Transcript
- 0:15Welcome to Barbara Cuts, Beats and bars.
- 0:17We're a father to daughter music podcast that slices into some of
- 0:20the greatest albums, one cut at a time.
- 0:22With no industry ties or formal training, just a shared love of
- 0:25music, we explore albums across genres, rating favorites and
- 0:30skips while digging into what makes each one iconic.
- 0:33I bring the beats. And I bring the bars and
- 0:36together we deliver real talk and fresh takes from both sides
- 0:39of the sound. Hey everybody, I'm Riley.
- 0:41And I'm Todd, and welcome to this week's edition episode.
- 0:44Always say edition episode of Barber Cuts.
- 0:48This week we are talking about the 1989 album, another 80s one.
- 0:54So all of a sudden we seem to be stuck in the 80s.
- 0:58Oh, Trats, But it's a different tangent.
- 1:02So 1989 here we go. Doolittle by the Pixies.
- 1:07And so I guess we can jump right into it.
- 1:10Riley, what are your least favorite songs from this album?
- 1:15I was about to do what I did that one time and start with my
- 1:18with my favorites again and then just get everyone confused.
- 1:24Anyway, my least favorites was probably.
- 1:31Least favourites was. Yep, I'm sticking with my
- 1:35grammar. OK, so I did not like the song A
- 1:41there's some vulgar language in there that's not the most
- 1:44pleasant to listen to. Besides that, I just I just I
- 1:48just didn't really like it that much.
- 1:52And then my other least favorite was probably like right next to
- 1:59it was sorry, I'm looking at them and I'm realizing that I
- 2:02only picked 1, so we're only gonna get one least.
- 2:10I only really had the one least favorite.
- 2:12I was trying to pick a different one.
- 2:14And then I couldn't pick 1. So it was just hey, I just don't
- 2:18like hey, OK. Pour hey.
- 2:21Yeah. Pour Hey, so you know one of the
- 2:25things with with hey, it wouldn't mind.
- 2:27But when it first started the beat, and you may not know this
- 2:31song, but go listen to it. The beat initially reminded me a
- 2:35beast of burden by The Rolling Stones.
- 2:38So I was like. But anyway, so my least
- 2:44favorite. I actually do have two because I
- 2:48followed the rules I saw. So one of them was I bleed and,
- 2:55and I think it was the IT was the double voices where I think
- 2:59she is, she is singing and the the guy is speaking singing.
- 3:10Sometimes it was rather strange to me and, and I, I don't think
- 3:16I ever recovered. That may be one of your
- 3:20favorites. The other one is Silver.
- 3:25And, and that was right after Hey and, and hey, at least for
- 3:30me, it, it fit the vibe, but silver just had a different vibe
- 3:36than the rest of the album had. So it, it, it felt out of place
- 3:41to me. So it gives off a eerie, you
- 3:45know, almost appropriate Halloween mystical sound to it
- 3:50with the voices. They're very melodic.
- 3:54And then it was a slide guitar, so there was never really
- 3:58anything hard. It was always moving up and down
- 4:03again, just gave an eerie kind of feel.
- 4:05So which is different than most every other song on there.
- 4:11So those were my least favorite. I love slide guitar.
- 4:17That's probably like I do. There is nothing.
- 4:20There's no better feeling to me than when a band walks on stage
- 4:25and they carry out a little slide guitar and I just get to
- 4:27watch someone play slide guitar for the night.
- 4:30It is so impressive and interesting to watch.
- 4:35Richie mentioned the coal miners when I went to their.
- 4:37I went to a music festival, the Moon River, hosted by Drew and
- 4:42Ellie Holcomb. I think someone's mentioned them
- 4:44somewhere somehow their one of their guys had a slide guitar
- 4:48and I was just watching it the entire time.
- 4:50Like completely entranced is. I didn't get a video of it
- 4:53'cause I was entranced. Yeah, so I'll put it in quote a
- 4:57a real slide guitar where they sit down and play it.
- 5:01Yeah. OK.
- 5:02Yeah, those are cool. Yeah, I know sometimes.
- 5:05I know sometimes like the finger long whatever it looks like,
- 5:09extra long thimble and where they're slide knit across a
- 5:13normal. Guitar he had, like the metal
- 5:15ball, yeah. And everything.
- 5:16Those are cool. Those are.
- 5:17Cool. It was.
- 5:18It was so impressive. And I don't even think, if I'm
- 5:21remembering correctly, this person was not actually a member
- 5:24of the band. He could just play the slide
- 5:27guitar and he took their pictures so he's their
- 5:29photographer and could play slide guitar.
- 5:32It's really cool. Yeah, it was.
- 5:37Right. So, favorite favorites?
- 5:39OK, so this album started off strong with me, with Debaser
- 5:45being one of my favorites. I mean, it's just classic alt
- 5:51rock. It's a great intro into what
- 5:54this album is and to who this band is.
- 5:58It's just a really good intro song to set the tone for the
- 6:02rest of the album. Yeah, that opening base is like,
- 6:06oh, this is good. Yeah, it and just like having a
- 6:10little bit of the girl sitting in the background like it, it's
- 6:14just it's the classic intro of the loud, soft, loud.
- 6:17They do that. It just, it encompasses
- 6:20everything that this band really is known for in one song, which
- 6:28I just really enjoyed and. Then before you move on, a
- 6:32little bit of trivia, because that's what maybe my part of
- 6:37this whole thing is. That song is based off of a 1929
- 6:41short film, but in the earliest version of the lyric, the vine
- 6:46was originally shed Apollo NIA, which is actually a reference to
- 6:52Purple Rain the movie. So it's neat to see.
- 6:56You know. Some various items connecting in
- 6:59the musical world with We just did Prince what, 2 weeks ago
- 7:03maybe? So neat to see those things
- 7:05connecting. So my next favorite, I just
- 7:10really enjoyed it was Monkey Gone to Heaven.
- 7:13Another classic alt rock, but the one that so first.
- 7:20I like that in this album or this song Monkeys gone to Heaven
- 7:25is like funny to hear it it most of their lyrics, and I can talk
- 7:32about that more later. Don't have that much to them.
- 7:36Most of their songs are just very repetitive lyrics and it's
- 7:39a lot more about like how they're saying it and that makes
- 7:43it interesting and not the actual lyrics themselves, which
- 7:47is really cool. But this one it, it's kind of
- 7:52the same thing. There's some like interesting
- 7:55parts, but to just like keep going.
- 7:57This monkey's gone to heaven is really funny to listen to.
- 8:00But the part that like really stuck this song for me is the
- 8:06part where he repeats if man is five, then the devil is 6, then
- 8:09God is 7. The way he sings that and it
- 8:13progressively gets more like screamy almost is so much fun to
- 8:18listen to you. And it just like scratches an
- 8:20itch for me. And which is again, I mean, that
- 8:25is like a classic trope in indie alt rock is like that
- 8:29progressively getting more screamy.
- 8:31But it just it worked really well in this song, and it just
- 8:35shows the emotion in the song without the lyrics necessarily
- 8:39backing it up, which is a very interesting way to get emotion,
- 8:45yeah, out of a song. Yeah, there are several biblical
- 8:49references throughout the throughout the album actually.
- 8:55So my one of my favorites actually carries that theme a
- 9:01little further. So one of mine is gouge away
- 9:06again, another great example of the loud, loud, quiet, loud.
- 9:12You've heard us talk about it on Nirvana and and this is really
- 9:16where they pulled it from. But the this one song actually
- 9:21like, because it's really a reverse on that loud, loud,
- 9:25quiet, loud or loud, soft, loud, because the first part is the
- 9:31loud part and the course is the where they get quiet and, and
- 9:36usually it's the other way around.
- 9:38Also love. They've got a a driving base
- 9:41that you can hear throughout the song.
- 9:43And this one, the biblical reference here, is it's inspired
- 9:47actually by the story of Samson and Delilah from the Bible.
- 9:54Which personal trivia used to be my favorite story of the Bible
- 9:59when we had a kid? Bible because I liked the hair
- 10:03and thought Delilah was pretty. And then I grew up and I read
- 10:06the story again. And very different.
- 10:10Yeah. You know the the the last verse
- 10:14there it says chained to the pillars, a three day party.
- 10:19I break the walls and kill us all with holy fingers.
- 10:23So you can you can see the reference there the the other
- 10:28one in that's large not on my list.
- 10:34But the other biblical reference there is dead, which was
- 10:39inspired by the David and Bathsheba story.
- 10:42And so toward the end, it has the line Uriah hit the crapper,
- 10:50which is unfortunately funny. But you know, the biblical
- 10:56story, Uriah is Bathsheba's husband and he's a soldier that
- 11:02David sends to the front line and actually hasn't killed.
- 11:06So your eye hit the crapper is Black Francis, who is the lead
- 11:11singer of the Pixies. His his way of interpreting
- 11:14that. So but yeah, that's but my other
- 11:19favorite song is Wave of Mutilation.
- 11:22And so I also really, really like Here Comes Your Man, and
- 11:28that is probably my favorite, but I didn't want to put it
- 11:33because it was my song of the week back on The White Stripes
- 11:37episode. So go listen to what I said
- 11:39about it on that episode. So I wanted to pick a different
- 11:43one. But Wave of Mutilation again,
- 11:45quiet first you hear the drum, the bass line shine through with
- 11:49the verse. The course really picks up with
- 11:52the repeat, you know, pounding of the of the snare drum.
- 11:58The lyrics, on the other hand, when I went back and looked at
- 12:01them like, OK, the lyrics are rather dark and inspired by
- 12:09during the time. Most of these I think were
- 12:12written in the late late 80s, maybe 8887, and the lyrics were
- 12:20inspired by news reports of Japanese businessmen committing
- 12:24murder suicides by driving their cars into the ocean.
- 12:27So yeah, lyrically a very deep song with dealing with self
- 12:32destruction and surrendering to the circumstances of the world.
- 12:36But as we see often with many songs, the lyrical meaning is
- 12:42juxtaposed with this. What upbeat, happy sounding
- 12:48music that you're like, oh, yeah, I can, I can beep out my
- 12:52head to this. And then you go figure out what
- 12:55it's talking about and read the lyrics.
- 12:57You're like, OK, that brings a slightly different meaning to
- 13:01it. So I guess it's down with
- 13:06favorites. Any any other thoughts about
- 13:08songs or we just want to talk about them?
- 13:11I guess we can talk about songs as we tell people why you should
- 13:16listen to this album. I am very biased because the why
- 13:24should you listen to this album? I mean, the Pixies are iconic.
- 13:31Whether or not you know of the Pixies, you know of the bands
- 13:35that they've inspired, like like Nirvana.
- 13:38I mean, they're considered founding fathers, founding
- 13:42members of the alt rock indie movement, which despite what I
- 13:47said, my favorite album was, I stand by that.
- 13:51But alt rock and indie tends to be my favorite genre.
- 13:54I love that type of music. And you mentioned Nirvana, some
- 13:58of the other bands that like are influenced by the Pixies and all
- 14:04these have specifically listed this album as well, which is
- 14:07even more impressive. Radiohead.
- 14:10Yep. Modest Mouse, Yep.
- 14:13Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer. So like those are some big name
- 14:17bands that. Yes, and.
- 14:20By this particular album. And let's not forget one of my
- 14:27favorite bands of all time is Cage the Elephant.
- 14:30Cage the Elephant has also directly cited this album as an
- 14:35inspiration. In fact, So I was listening to
- 14:39Baser is the first one that as soon as it come on, it made me
- 14:43think of early Cage songs. It was just like almost to AT
- 14:49and so I looked it up. I told you to listen to one of
- 14:52their songs or one of their albums.
- 14:55They actually got called like Pixies, like Pixies 2 point O
- 15:02like people thought that they were just directly trying to do
- 15:05the Pixies. And they've said like, I mean,
- 15:07that's kind of what we were trying to do.
- 15:09We were just trying to do the Pixies.
- 15:12And so after that, this isn't like Cage the Elephant episode.
- 15:16But after that, they did an interesting thing where they
- 15:19stopped listening to any music when they were recording and
- 15:22creating theirs so that they wouldn't get any outside and
- 15:26accidentally, like, RIP off someone.
- 15:28Yeah, when they were forming their ideas and getting their
- 15:30feet wet, they took a lot from the Pixies and the album Thank
- 15:38You, Happy Birthday, I think is the one that kind of gets called
- 15:41the Pixies, specifically a song called Aberdeen.
- 15:48But like, they just have inspired like everyone in the
- 15:54alt rock and indie scene, like they're like the higher ups in
- 16:00this field. And you can see why when you
- 16:06listen to it and hear all the different bits and pieces that
- 16:11different artists pull and take from it, like the loud, soft,
- 16:13loud, like the like dark lyrics to the happy beat and the
- 16:19repetitive lyrics and the screams and experimentation
- 16:24within it. And like all of this stuff.
- 16:27And you can be like, I recognize that from this, and I recognize
- 16:31that from this. And then you realize that you
- 16:34don't recognize it because it's from somewhere else, like from
- 16:37someone else before you recognize it because they
- 16:40inspired it. Yeah.
- 16:42And that's what's crazy. That's what's always cool to get
- 16:44in music, just kind of get closer to the front lines.
- 16:49Yeah. So that's, in my opinion, why
- 16:53you should go listen to it, is because it inspired some of the
- 16:57best music that's currently existing.
- 17:00True. Yeah, I agree with that.
- 17:02You know, the their first studio album is called Surfer Rosa and
- 17:07it's probably got their most well known song on it.
- 17:10Where is my mind? Most well known them at least
- 17:15all the cool kids. So, so yeah, someone didn't know
- 17:20who it was that should have known who it was, but that that
- 17:27is also because of you. Also like Cage the Elephant,
- 17:30they're also Speaking of Cage the Elephant.
- 17:32Where is My Mind? And songs like Ain't No Rest for
- 17:35the Wicked I thought were equivalent to Bohemian Rhapsody,
- 17:42Journey, that one song by Journey.
- 17:44Like, I thought everyone just knew these songs, like these
- 17:47were just a part of music for everyone.
- 17:50And then when I got to college, it started like talking to
- 17:53people about music. And I was like, oh, and
- 17:55obviously Ain't No Rest for the Wicked.
- 17:56And they're like, I've never heard that song.
- 17:58And we're like, yeah, you have. You just don't recognize it
- 18:01playing it. And they're like, no, I still
- 18:02don't recognize that song. And I'm like, my world is
- 18:05shattered. Yeah, so that one was a
- 18:08shattering event. Yeah, but that that was that
- 18:12song is how I actually got introduced to the Pixies.
- 18:14And when I was in college, a band called Three would actually
- 18:18play that song and a lot of their shows.
- 18:20So so, you know, grew to be introduced to him from there and
- 18:25and started going further. But you know the.
- 18:31So why do you listen to it? Yeah, we've already talked about
- 18:33it. Like Cobain said, this was
- 18:37Smells Like Teen Spirit. One of the biggest rock songs,
- 18:41maybe the biggest of the 90s, was Nirvana's attempt at writing
- 18:46a Pixie song. Like that's what they said it
- 18:50was. And so I.
- 18:51Think they also used the words like RIP off at some point.
- 18:54Yeah, like. So you know, it's it's it's just
- 18:57crazy, but you know, if if you like drums and bass lines, this
- 19:03is your album because of the loud, soft, loud, the drums and
- 19:07bass line. We've talked about this.
- 19:09Where was it Prince, where there was a missing bass line?
- 19:12And when doves cry. Well, when these verses or
- 19:16whatever, during the quiet parts of the songs you hear the drum
- 19:19in the bass keep going and oftentimes it's just a voice on
- 19:25top of it. And the while, you know, going
- 19:30back to where's My mind? Maybe the song they're best
- 19:33known for this is their second studio album.
- 19:36And it's probably what most people would say defines them as
- 19:40a band and, and just why it is. And so another analogy, if you
- 19:46like roller coasters and not the Kitty kind, but if you like true
- 19:53legit roller coasters, then this may be an album for you as well
- 19:58because it is a roller coaster of music.
- 20:02Which I do like roller coasters. Yes, and not always so roller
- 20:08coasters are a new thing for both.
- 20:10The Barber kids. But So what I mean by that?
- 20:15The styles of songs differ. So you've got pop, you got a
- 20:20random swing tempo a bit and Mr. Grieves.
- 20:26You got what seems like a punk and crockety Jones.
- 20:30La La Love you is a you know, sweet sounding like love song,
- 20:34just to name a few. You got tempos that bury often
- 20:38times the tempos, you know, the speed of the song.
- 20:42It speeds up and slows down across the album, but it does it
- 20:46within songs too, which is, which is crazy voices.
- 20:52You know, the the sound of their voices.
- 20:56You know, Black Francis is the main male singer, Kim Deal is
- 21:01the female. And so sometimes you have
- 21:05melodic voices, sometimes you have stressed voices, screaming
- 21:10voices spoken. And again, sometimes their
- 21:14shifts are in the middle of the song.
- 21:15So you never know what is actually going to come across,
- 21:20you know, the next beat. And, and that's what I mean by
- 21:23that roller coaster. You never know where the loop de
- 21:26loop or the big drop is about to happen.
- 21:30And so that's, that's really, it's a really neat thing that
- 21:33they've done throughout this album.
- 21:35Yeah, which is my favorite thing about the indie genre in general
- 21:42is it's such a wide genre and it's just considered Indian alt
- 21:48rock because like you can't fit it in anything else quite.
- 21:53And that's what's so fun. You never know what you're going
- 21:55to get. There's so much to explore with
- 21:57it in the genre that it's very hard to get bored of listening
- 22:01to it over and over again because it's just you.
- 22:05You pick up different things each time you listen to it, and
- 22:08something new surprises you and you forget that there's a big
- 22:12drop there that they start screaming out of nowhere and
- 22:15it's just so much fun. But I think something that I did
- 22:21want to mention with the female singer is we've talked about in
- 22:25another album, I think it was The White Stripes, where
- 22:30randomly bringing in like female singers can really be off
- 22:33putting to the song, especially in a barter album, cuz getting
- 22:38such a melodic voice come in is like very off putting.
- 22:43And I, I think it just works so well for the Pixies.
- 22:47It does like the and Debaser, the melodic singing of the
- 22:52Debaser of singing Debaser and Here Comes Your Man and Where is
- 22:57My Mind, Like all of these. I know that where is my mind?
- 23:01It's not this album. But still, her melodic voice
- 23:05works so well for the Pixies in a way that I think in other
- 23:10bands that we've seen, it hasn't worked super well.
- 23:13And I think that's also a testament to like how well the
- 23:18Pixies understood what they were doing and the experimentation
- 23:21that was going into it. Yeah, I agree.
- 23:24You know, and another, another bit of, of trivia.
- 23:27Kim Deal, the the female singer actually left the Pixies joined
- 23:32up with her twin sister to form the Breeders.
- 23:35And so the Breeders have a big super hit from the early 90s
- 23:39called Cannonball. You remember that one?
- 23:42No, I don't. Cannonball.
- 23:49That's a great. It's a good song and so, you
- 23:53know, playing into what alt rock and indie rock are really not
- 23:59even alt rock and indie rock, but alt and indie in any genre.
- 24:04So I'll, I'll clarify that all of those bands do this and, and
- 24:08the Pixies is, is no different with this album.
- 24:11These albums are made for the artist and the fans and they
- 24:15don't care if it gets radio play.
- 24:17They don't care if it blows up. You know, they they really do it
- 24:22for what they really want the music to be like.
- 24:25And they know that they've got fans that love it.
- 24:28And so that that's again, we've talked about it before about
- 24:32artists that, you know, quote UN quote sell out.
- 24:36That's that's not what this is at all.
- 24:39This is really that that alt and indie type of mentality.
- 24:44So, yeah. But it's a really good, you
- 24:49know, we, we have talked about the loud, soft, loud.
- 24:52We'll continue to talk about it through various bands that do
- 24:56it, you know, and, and again, there was there was some of that
- 25:00happening even before the Pixies, but the the Pixies
- 25:03really are credited with really popularizing it.
- 25:07So this this album, and I think maybe Tame is the is that the
- 25:12second one after? Because I got it up here.
- 25:15Yeah, the second song after Debaser.
- 25:18Tame has got maybe the most drastic shift between loud,
- 25:23loud, soft, loud. So to to really get an idea of,
- 25:27of, of what we're talking about. So any anything else about the
- 25:32album before I get to best beats I don't think.
- 25:36So. All right, so in that case,
- 25:38Riley, what's the what's the best bar, best lyric from the
- 25:42album? So as I mentioned before, they
- 25:47repeat a lot. But so the lyrics in this album
- 25:52are interesting, don't get me wrong, but there there's not
- 25:57that many to choose from because it's usually just very repeated
- 26:02throughout the song. If you don't know what I'm
- 26:04talking about, go listen to them or go read the lyrics would be
- 26:07the better way to do it because they say the lyrics so
- 26:11differently. So it sounds like they're
- 26:13singing something different, if that makes any sense.
- 26:16And then when you read the lyrics and you're like, oh,
- 26:18they've just repeated the same words for the past five minutes
- 26:21and you're like, ah, sick. That happened to me a few times
- 26:24where I was listening to it and I was listening to it closer and
- 26:27I was like, they haven't said anything new, but my brain is
- 26:29registering it as something new. So all I have to say, I do have
- 26:35favorite lyrics, it's just harder to pick out.
- 26:39My favorite lyrics were actually what you mentioned as the dark
- 26:42point was the Wave of Mutilation song, just because it is so
- 26:49juxtaposed and so like heavy that it kind of hits you and
- 26:54forces you to pay attention. I mean, the song starts with
- 26:57saying cease to resist giving my goodbye, driving my car into the
- 27:00ocean. You'll think I'm dead, but I
- 27:02sail away on a wave of mutilation.
- 27:06And it it just forces you to pay attention to anything that comes
- 27:10next. It's just very beautifully said.
- 27:16I always say that when I come to the lyrics as if they're not
- 27:18beautifully said. They're lyrics, they're going to
- 27:20be beautifully said. But anyway, it just forces you
- 27:24to pay attention to the song in a way that I think was I, I, I
- 27:30just guess what I'm trying to say is it it captured me most
- 27:33more than most other lyrics. Like it just forced my attention
- 27:36on it. The, the, you know, the cease to
- 27:39resist is from what I read, a call back to a Beach Boys lyric,
- 27:45which is a call back to a Charles Manson lyric or a poem.
- 27:50I think he, he had a lyric, The Beach Boys slightly redid it and
- 27:55then they're calling it back to there.
- 27:57But, you know, even speaking to those lyrics, you know, we
- 28:00talked about it's about driving a car into the ocean, which is
- 28:03what you just mentioned as the lyrics.
- 28:05You know, the, the next verse, not to mean a laugh, but it's
- 28:11just interesting the way the lyrics continue.
- 28:14I've kissed mermaids and rode the El Nino walk the sand with
- 28:18the crustacean. So I mean, he's even continuing
- 28:21like what happens after they've driven into the ocean?
- 28:25Yeah. I mean.
- 28:26Like there's again juxtapose, like there's some humor in that,
- 28:32but yet that's still dark in how they got to that point.
- 28:38Yeah. I think also something that's
- 28:40interesting with that song is like he's taking it even
- 28:44further, but it's taking it even further.
- 28:47He's saying like he didn't die, he's just on a new adventure.
- 28:52Yeah. And so like somehow there's like
- 28:54this kind of hopeful little message that's like, even
- 28:58through the pain, you're on this new little adventure and it's
- 29:01like, where did that come from? How did we get here?
- 29:04Yeah, And I, that's another great part of the song.
- 29:09But I just. I love the opening lyrics and
- 29:12how in your face and attention grabbing they really are.
- 29:16Meanwhile, you got people like me that are just be bopping
- 29:19right along because we're not paying attention to lyrics, you
- 29:23know, oblivious to the underlying message.
- 29:29So so my best beat for me and I think we may have swapped right.
- 29:36So your favorite, your best bar came from my favorite.
- 29:42Your favorite song was Monkey going to Heaven.
- 29:45So that's where my best beats coming from.
- 29:48There we go. Interesting how this has worked
- 29:50out. So it's actually the opening 30
- 29:54seconds of monkey gone to heaven.
- 29:57So it opens with loud drums, guitar, like all the
- 30:02instruments, like it just comes in hard, loud.
- 30:07And then very quickly it just all of that drops, goes to the
- 30:11lyric of there was a guy and it's not really song.
- 30:16It's more spoken like it's a weird thing.
- 30:21And then that's all he says. And then it goes to maybe like a
- 30:25drum and bass mini solo for a few seconds.
- 30:30And then it comes in with another lyric, same way spoken,
- 30:35an underwater guy who controlled the sea, Like, OK, you got me.
- 30:42And like you can clearly hear these like the sitting rock
- 30:45where sometimes you can't understand.
- 30:48I'm like, you know exactly what's saying.
- 30:51And then what's what's neat after this one is a cello
- 30:55actually joins in. So again, the lyric goes away,
- 30:58still the drum and bass, but a cello joins in.
- 31:02It was some real quick staccato notes that and then the cello,
- 31:09the lyrics come back in. You can hear the cello in the
- 31:11back start to play some really long notes with everything going
- 31:16on. And then you get the lyric that
- 31:18again very clear. You know, there was a guy, an
- 31:22underwater guy who controlled the sea.
- 31:25And then you get this got killed by 10,000,000 lbs of sludge from
- 31:30New York and New Jersey and then all of a sudden the loud kicks
- 31:34in for the course. The song continues.
- 31:38And like that opening is very well done musically, lyrically,
- 31:48and to me and you hopefully you'll agree it's a little 32nd
- 31:5432 seconds, maybe microcosm of the whole album, just all in
- 32:00there. There's so much going on in just
- 32:02a few seconds of of music because it comes in with a loud,
- 32:05then it goes soft, then you know, and then it comes back
- 32:08loud at the end that the lyrics that make you think but yet this
- 32:13interesting drum and bass line and then a cello that comes in
- 32:18which they don't use a lot of other instruments and other
- 32:21places. So that cello was a little bit
- 32:23surprising. But anyway, the as you go listen
- 32:28to Riley's favorite song, Listen paid really close attention to
- 32:33those first 30 seconds. That's my that's my best beat
- 32:36from the album Monkey. Call me, I think.
- 32:38I think the only way I can explain the Pixies is like
- 32:43they're almost like the alt version of the Beastie Boys who
- 32:52like don't mess around as like don't aren't as vulgar.
- 32:55I guess that's what I'm trying to say.
- 32:57Like you can tell they're just having fun.
- 33:00They're just doing what they want and like it.
- 33:03Almost like the Beastie Boys is famous for saying like they
- 33:06would pitch lines and if it didn't make someone laugh, it
- 33:08didn't get written down. It almost seems like they're
- 33:11doing that. But dude, that's sick.
- 33:14If they did something and it didn't get that reaction, it's
- 33:17like whatever. Everything they do is just
- 33:19trying to get a like that sounds cool, which is music, but it
- 33:24seems as if they were just having fun.
- 33:26We'll do it. And the insurance monkey gone to
- 33:28heaven. The great example of that
- 33:30because oh boy does it catch you off guard and drive in as well.
- 33:34And, and I think in, in like right after those 30 seconds is
- 33:39where it repeats like 4 times in a row.
- 33:42Monkey gone to heaven, monkey gone to heaven, Monkey go to
- 33:45heaven. Yeah, that's, that's the, I
- 33:48guess the chorus of where it's, you know, blows up fast and, and
- 33:52loud. So it's a, it's a, it's a good
- 33:55song. I really like that song too.
- 33:57So that being said, what are your ratings?
- 34:03So I really liked this album. I, I put it as a as a 9.5 just
- 34:10because my, my 10 so far it like other than the one that I chose
- 34:16is Arcade Fire and it's not quite there for me.
- 34:22Like Arcade Fire is like where I'm I'm putting in, you know,
- 34:25like if they can live up to that.
- 34:27But it itself, the album itself was not up there.
- 34:32Everything that it's inspired, which it even probably inspired
- 34:36Arcade Fire because Arcade Fire is indie.
- 34:38Whatever. There's nowhere this album
- 34:41doesn't reach. But I put it as a 9.5.
- 34:44I really enjoyed it. I knew about the Pixies.
- 34:47I hadn't listened to this album in total before, but I could
- 34:51listen to this album over and over and be happy with it.
- 34:55Minus just like sometimes the the fatigue of like being on a
- 35:00roller coaster and the unpredictable because that is
- 35:04real. I would say objectively, I would
- 35:06still give it a 99.5. I can't kind of I can't tell if
- 35:12like part of that is just because I'm going 9.5.
- 35:16I'd say 9.5 just because their techniques are what inspired
- 35:23like hundreds of thousands of artists.
- 35:25Not just like, oh, this sounds nice, but like the loud, soft,
- 35:28loud, the drums and bass, the doing their lyrics differently
- 35:34with the repetitiveness, the off guard, the like all of these
- 35:37things that they're like known for, they may not be known for,
- 35:42but like they're the ones who made it big, You know, I don't
- 35:45know if that made any sense cuz a lot of people don't credit the
- 35:48Pixies or they should credit the Pixies.
- 35:50That's the thing with the Pixies that they're upset about.
- 35:52I know, but like they have contributed so much like
- 35:58objectively and so it would be hard to rate it any lower than
- 36:04almost perfect simply because of how big they made everything
- 36:08they did. Yeah, I agree, Which ironically
- 36:11is why my objective rating is just like yours, 9.5.
- 36:16I chose the right one. Yeah, my personal ratings at a
- 36:19nine, so just a half step lower, but objectively at 9.5, like if
- 36:25the you know, Radiohead, Nirvana, yeah, I'll mention
- 36:30those two because again, you know, 90s, early 90s and 90s is
- 36:37really where where I fell in love with music.
- 36:41You know, you got you inspired Nirvana and Radiohead, who both
- 36:47have probably in the 90s. Both of them have two of the
- 36:51best albums of the 90s and like, OK, you've done something very
- 36:58good in in that. And even past then, sorry,
- 37:03you're gonna get bands that say they're inspired.
- 37:05This is going back to they don't get credited.
- 37:07Bands that say they're inspired by Nirvana and Radiohead and
- 37:11Cage and all these bands, most of the times the thing they're
- 37:14inspired by are what those bands directly credit to the Pixies.
- 37:18Yeah. So like it's, it's the more you
- 37:21look into it, the more you're just genuinely like the Pixies
- 37:24are everywhere without anyone knowing.
- 37:26Yeah, yeah. So we'll, we'll give you know,
- 37:30not that they care, because you know me, you and our three
- 37:34followers. Hey, we have like 20 now.
- 37:38Yes, we are growing. 20. Followers and, and all the other
- 37:41countries that are, that are joining the bandwagon.
- 37:45But yeah, so I mean, we'll, we'll give, we'll give the
- 37:48Pixies their due credit here and say, you know, it's, it's, it's
- 37:54worth a, it's worth a listen. And, and again, I'm going to
- 37:58admit like, you know, our, you know, our song taste.
- 38:01So, so obviously there's going to be some bias in there of, of
- 38:05what we like. And so you may not like that.
- 38:08So be aware I'm going into it, but there is a roller coaster of
- 38:13music that will happen in there. And so just keep listening and
- 38:17you'll find bits and pieces I think in this album that you may
- 38:20not like it overall, but you'll find places in it that you're
- 38:24like, oh, I really like that song.
- 38:26Or, you know, I really like these 3 or 4 songs because the
- 38:30songs can vary that much, which again is impressive to have a
- 38:37sound, but then to have so much of it sounds so different is,
- 38:43is, is really impressive. All right, so to get both of
- 38:49them, so 99.5 for me, 9 1/2's for Riley.
- 38:55So that takes us to song of the week.
- 38:58Riley, what was your song of the week?
- 39:00Three song of the week. Three Song of the Weeks.
- 39:03Three song of the week, so my first one, two of them we've
- 39:07already mentioned my first one was Aberdeen.
- 39:11Just because I love this this song.
- 39:14You can you can account for that, that I've always loved
- 39:17this song because I can't whenever him and I went to a
- 39:20cage the ping concert and he asked me what song I wanted to
- 39:24hear and it was Aberdeen and they didn't play Aberdeen, but
- 39:27Aberdeen is one of my favorite Cage songs.
- 39:31I love it and it's probably the one you can hear the Pixies
- 39:34influence on the most. It's it's just a really good
- 39:39song and incredible how much it does sound like Pixies after
- 39:43listening to it. But it just reminded me of that.
- 39:47The other one I listened to a lot this week was Where is My
- 39:50Mind? And also on your cage.
- 39:52When we went to the concert, I knew Riley's rule of not
- 39:58videoing and not taking pictures.
- 40:01So I I videoed and took videos of her.
- 40:05Not of her, but of the band. So.
- 40:07One of me. Yeah, one of you where I zoomed
- 40:09over and she was singing and dancing.
- 40:12But yeah, I did all the recordings so she could have
- 40:16longer clips of the concert. Yes, by Aberdeen.
- 40:21So then my other one was Where is My Mind?
- 40:24Just a great song that I often forget about, unfortunately.
- 40:31So when listening to the Pixies and album finishes and it just
- 40:34kind of goes on its own little ramble.
- 40:36Of course it plays Where is My Mind because it's so big and
- 40:41it's just a great reminder anytime I remember that song.
- 40:45So again. I'll I'll bring up the 90s.
- 40:47So you probably don't do this, but I do.
- 40:51And maybe a lot of people from the 90s that would hear this
- 40:53song. Do you know at the beginning
- 40:56goes stop? Elaborate and listen.
- 41:01Always without fail. Intention.
- 41:04I say collaborate and listen in my head.
- 41:07Did I just make you the proudest dad?
- 41:09If if you, if you do it when? Yes, you did because you knew
- 41:12where I was going. So, you know, there we go.
- 41:16Yeah, and then the other one, funnily enough, also starts with
- 41:20where is, but it's a newer song called Where is My Husband by
- 41:26Ray Funny funny name. It just came out September 19th,
- 41:33so not even a month old. It, it's huge, it's, it's
- 41:38getting a lot of traction, but I, I love riots and artists, but
- 41:43this is just such a fun song to listen to.
- 41:47It's very, it's, it's poppy. It's pretty poppy.
- 41:53She sings really fast. She has a very like jazzy voice.
- 41:56A lot of people say that she looks and acts and kind of sings
- 42:00very similar to Amy Winehouse. She has the big black hair, she
- 42:05has the mole. Like she just kind of fits the
- 42:08vibe of Amy Winehouse and she's just a lovely little character.
- 42:12And whereas my husband is just, it's such a fun song to listen
- 42:16to and has just been kind of capturing me the past week.
- 42:22Very good. So mine is Song of the week is
- 42:26also inspired by the Pixies. Funny how that works, but it's
- 42:32Rhinoceros from Gish, Smashing Pumpkins first album and so
- 42:40Gish, which very few people know about, often goes unnoticed by
- 42:45casual fans. Casual fan is going to say that
- 42:48Siamese Dream is the first Smashing Pumpkins album and then
- 42:53you can go all fanboy fangirl on them.
- 42:56Say no, it's not. And so Gish was released three
- 43:01months before 10 and four months before Never Mind.
- 43:06So that gives you a relation of you had a Smashing Pumpkins
- 43:09album 10 and then Never Mind. It's actually the same producer
- 43:14from Never Mind. But really like this album, this
- 43:18song, it's probably one of my favorite Smashing Pumpkins
- 43:22songs, but it's got a slow build up throughout.
- 43:26The song starts almost as a as a ballad and the song just kind of
- 43:32brings you into this dreamy world seemingly about just
- 43:37looking at some of the lyrics, some mystery girl.
- 43:41And again, this may take you back to some of the lyrics we
- 43:46talked about with the Pixies, some some dreamy mystery girl,
- 43:50an ice cream party that's being planned for June, and then
- 43:56mustard lies. So, you know, Yeah, OK.
- 44:01But the the first true notes of Hard Rock actually don't kick in
- 44:07until about 3 minutes into the song.
- 44:11And they really come in, you know, if you listen closely, you
- 44:15can almost tell that they're about to happen, but really
- 44:18unexpectedly. And then from then on out, you
- 44:20hear guitar. You hear repeated lyrics again.
- 44:26She knows is repeated over and over and over throughout the
- 44:30song again, leading to some mystery that I think the singer
- 44:36may have hoped would remain hidden.
- 44:38But he also then realizes that it's not because she knows.
- 44:43She knows. And then at 547 it's a shade
- 44:48over 6 minutes on. At 547, all the drums in, you
- 44:52think the song ends, but then there's about 45 seconds of
- 44:57various tracks of guitar reverb. So you know, sound coming back
- 45:04out of the speakers that were put together.
- 45:07That basically ends the song. So it's just a neat, neat way to
- 45:11do that. Another one that is that way
- 45:15that you'd have to you have to go to YouTube.
- 45:17If if you like that reverb, you have to go to YouTube and watch
- 45:20it, but drown also by Smashing Pumpkins, which probably is my
- 45:25favorite Smashing Pumpkins song. It's not available.
- 45:29The the extended version is not available on Spotify.
- 45:33It's off the single soundtrack, but you can go listen to it on
- 45:36Spotify and you can, sorry, you can listen to it on YouTube and
- 45:41find the extended version that's got maybe half the song and it's
- 45:44a 7 minute song where it's just playing almost reverb which is
- 45:50really cool so. Can can you can listeners guess
- 45:55if someone has maybe for someone in this zoom room to do that
- 45:59before yes or no? I see no hands going up so.
- 46:03If you guessed yes. Nobody knows what you're talking
- 46:05about, you know, But again, like Drown, yeah, so.
- 46:11So Drown the that band 3 from college, that was another one
- 46:18that they played and they would have the guitar going up to the
- 46:22speakers doing feedback and it. Which is so also so much fun to
- 46:26watch. Yeah.
- 46:27And artists do that anytime. Shout out to those guys.
- 46:32So I guess that's that's I guess that's it for the Pixies.
- 46:40Which brings us to our next album.
- 46:44Which boy are we going for a vibe shift 'cause our next album
- 46:48is Songs for Swinging Lovers by Frank Sinatra?
- 46:53Wow, get ready, that is a vibe switch.
- 46:58That is a shift Pixies to Frank Sinatra.
- 47:02Wow is an interesting choice by this album, by this list of
- 47:06ours, but we're doing it, so here we go.
- 47:10If you're a swinging lover or not.
- 47:12Frank Sinatra. Listen to this album Songs for
- 47:15swinging lovers. Yeah, Frank Sinatra.
- 47:18Well, enjoy Frank Sinatra. Go back and listen to some of
- 47:21the Pixies, maybe in between listening to Frank Sinatra.
- 47:25If you need a little Hard Rock, pick me up from from Old Frank.
- 47:30But until next time, I'm Todd. And I'm Riley, and this has been
- 47:34another episode of Barbara Cut.