Add BookmarkFool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies
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 ... (show more)
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
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This turned out to be a better read than the author's intro suggested, I mean, a rock opera based on the story of the pixies? Where was this guys mind at? Alarm bells were certainly ringing at that point (and this wasn;t even a purchase from Tesco!!!).
I find it hard to explain how, what is essentially a collection of quotes or snippets from interviews can work as a book, but it simply does. I guess it does what it says on the cover, i.e. provides an oral history of the band.. People may ... (show more)
This turned out to be a better read than the author's intro suggested, I mean, a rock opera based on the story of the pixies? Where was this guys mind at? Alarm bells were certainly ringing at that point (and this wasn;t even a purchase from Tesco!!!).
I find it hard to explain how, what is essentially a collection of quotes or snippets from interviews can work as a book, but it simply does. I guess it does what it says on the cover, i.e. provides an oral history of the band.. People may find the way that the prose structure is frustratingly fractured as you start into the book, but as you read on, you accept the seeming randomness of the storyline, and start to love the conflicts and contradictions of what is written. The best example of this is the producer of the Pixies first album saying that he felt the band should have come back to him to record the second album as he had basically recorded it with his own money, and then 3 pages later, saying that he had no problem with the band going to another producer.
You really get a feel for the individual members of the band and the scene that was surrounding them from their formation through to present day. Is Black Francis really suck an arse, Kim Deal such a stoner and as for the other two complete space cadets ?(the drummer became a magician?), Well, read the book and find out.
On one negative note, I didn't really think it was necessary for the chapter on how much the Pixies influenced Nirvana. I don't think the Pixies need any validation other than the fact that their music still sounds great today! Also, if looking for something that goes into excruciating detail about the band, this isn't the book for you either. (show less)
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A great book that offers a lot of insight into the music scene of Boston in the mid to late eighties and more specifically The Pixies. A good read for those such as myself that are not too familiar with the back story regarding the band. Now I can listen to them and know the time frame and what was actually going on.
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