fuzzyraygun

Even though the Pixies themselves coined the phrase “Death to the Pixes” all of there fans thought that 12 years ago it had finally come to pass, but there I was sitting in the Greek Theatre on the UC Berkeley campus watching them kick out every favorite hit that I hold dear.

While they were not in top form like the last time I saw them in 1990, on the Bossanova tour, you just could not help but be in awe of one of your favorite bands of all time. Playing songs from “Come On Pilgrim” “Surfer Rosa” “Doolittle” and “Trompe le Monde” it was easy to see which ticketholders were the fans and which were the tourists. If you were bopping along to “subbaculcha” and “Ed is Dead” or maybe learned the spanish to “Vamos” you were with the former. If you were looking bored and confused until they played “Here comes your man” (which almost felt like the only odd song in the set) or “Velouria” you are with the latter.

While the whole set could have been louder. The only weakness would have been David Loverings drums. It just lacked the snap and some of the fills from the record. They all seemed a little rusty, but I don’t think that took away from the feeling that, FUCK I am watching the PIXIES.

So now they have spawned a whole new lot of teenage fans sporting black Pixies encrusted hoodies, and shouting “Death to the Pixies”, “Long live the Pixies”.

Got a nice email from the boys over at Failure (Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards) that they have come out with a CD/DVD combo of unreleased tracks and footage and you can find it for sale from the nice folks over at CDbaby.com

Here is a small list of the great stuff on it:

FAILURE – GOLDEN : Unreleased Sounds and Images.

The 2-disc package includes a DVD and audio CD.

DVD features:
– 40 Minute Documentary covering the Band’s entire history.
– Commentary by Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards.
– Slideshows featuring Recording, Touring, Concert, and Publicty Photos.
– Unreleased Songs and Extras.

CD includes:
11 Unreleased original songs by Failure:

1) Shrine (4 Track Demo)
2) Golden (4 Track Demo)
3) Pennies (4 Track Demo)
4) Petting the Carpet (Comfort Out Take)
5) Gone (4 Track Demo)
6) Mange (4 Track Demo)
7) Perfect Prisons (Rehearsal) Untitled (4 Track Demo)
9) Lucky Shoreline (4 Track Demo)
10) Wake Up (Fantastic Planet Out Take)
11) You’re Too Much (4 Track Demo)

Since I have just about everything else they have done, I might as well pick this one up too.

Well, we are back from New Zealand and my brain feels like yesterday… or maybe tomorrow, with an 18 hour time difference I am not so sure what time it is. You can check out some of my photos here.

We did lots of stuff, from snowboarding on a volcano to driving through their wine country, to soaking in sulphur baths and even going out on a Americas Cup boat.

I am sad about our geriatric goldfish. Alanna is very nice, I wish she would not get so sad. Jelly had a nice long life with a nice owner like her. She even kept one of her paintings behind the tank to give Jelly a nice scenic view.