The
Pixies have released a new song, the first one in 9 years, and I gotta tell you, I don’t think it’s that great. I’m going to be be diplomatic here. Before I tell you all the reasons I don’t like it blah blah blah, let me preface this by saying the Pixies are one of my favorite bands of all time. They were the first concert I ever went to. I bought every single that came out and cherished every b side. So to say I don’t like a Pixies song; that is blasphemous in my house.
Talking about "Bagboy", Black Francis said:
The lyrics, coincidentally, were composed at a Starbucks Coffee in Harvard Square in Cambridge, about a hundred feet from where, 25 years ago, I composed some of the lyrics to an old Pixies song called ‘Break My Body.’ Twenty-five years later, some Starbucks in Harvard Square…I thought that was kind of interesting. The music for the song has been around for a few years. There are some demos I made with Joey and David a few years ago in Los Angeles, related to a film idea that still has yet to see the light of day, although work on the music continued. So a lot of the musical idea had been kicking around for awhile. It’s pretty simple, kind of a blues-based, two-note kind of thing, really.
Back to “Bagboy”, the new single from the Pixies.
Kim Deal made an announcement she was leaving the Pixies right before the new single came out. It was confirmed by
Black Francis that, although the back up vocals on the new song sound like Kim, it is actually not her. It’s some guy named
Jeremy Dubs, who is the lead singer of the
Bunnies, and apparently kind of sounds like a girl when he sings.
The song is repetitive, but in a kind of lazy way, like they didn’t make much of an effort in injecting any actual melody into the song. It’s incredibly straightforward, with a chanting rhythm and lyrics that aren’t that catchy. I think they might even be using a keyboard instead of a real bass, which I’m totally fine with, if it was actually a decent bass line. That being said, the chanting and spoken word vocal still lends that 80’s Pixies charm to it, which is probably it’s most redeeming quality.
I love the Pixies, and as much as I feel like I should, I do not enjoy writing a scathing review. I mean, we still have Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift to contend with. It just doesn’t seem fair to slam a
Pixies song when artists like these are out.
The track was recorded last October and produced by Gil Norton. You can listen and judge for yourself. The song is available for a free download on their website
HERE
By: Randy Nieto
