loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies (2006)

The Pixies are a real phenomenon in the history of rock. While they were young in the 80s and beginning of the 90s they did not enjoy too much success, and it can be said that their legend and influence started to build only at the moment when they split. Twelve years later, in 2004 they decided to get back together after a series of individual failures that seemed to bring all of them on the brink of personal and financial bankruptcy. The film tells very little about their first period of activity and focuses on Act 2 of their career.It is not that it tells too much we do not know from the music of the group. The Pixies are great musicians, decent human being and poor communicators. We do not learn from the documentary too much about the sources of their music, we do not understand why despite the success of their second career and despite of them writing music for their individual careers there was and there is no new album since they reunited. We learn something about their personal lives, but frankly speaking what we hear is not interesting or revealing. Music remains the best part of this film.

The film kicks off with a quote from Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, about his famous song, Smells Like Teen Spirit: "I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies." As a tribute documentary, loudQUIETloud goes on to explore the Pixies strange career and provide some clues to why they have been so influential.The Pixies established themselves musically with deep contrasts, not just in volume (as the title suggests) but by combining many strange elements, melodic and abrasive, and cryptic lyrics - they are almost like a David Lynch rock experience (one of their songs is a cover from a song in Lynch's early Eraserhead). What made them extraordinary is that they disbanded just as they approached critical acclaim (within six years) and didn't reap the benefits of their popularity until they re-formed nearly twelve years later - at which point this movie begins.Tickets for their 2004 reunion tour sold out in four minutes, but the band members are no longer young. As the film develops we see some have families with small children, but they all have outside interests, musical or otherwise, and 'being the Pixies' is hardly something they identify with beyond a sense of responsibility to make sure the live performances go well. The detachment is so great that a struggling interviewer, asking an innocuous question about whether they will make another album, is nonplussed that the band really haven't considered the question one way or the other.Lead singer Frank Black ('Black Francis') is a bulky, almost intimidating figure with a shaven head, so it's something of a revelation to see him doing positive affirmations before bed, telling himself, "I am a nice person, people like me . . ." Bassist Kim Deal looks with surprise at the blisters on her fingers after the first concert - Frank reassures her they'll get better in about a week. Both of them continue working on their own material while on tour, Kim for the Breeders and Frank on his solo work. The band seem to accept that it is not in their natures to talk to each other much, even when they are getting on fine, but they seem more mature than the days of early acrimony where one or the other would unilaterally make public announcements of the band's imminent break-up.The sound and camera-work throughout is first rate, so if you like the Pixies even a little bit, this is a rare opportunity to experience them at their best. For those who have never heard of them, you might recall the song, 'Where Is My Mind?' as the exit music to the film Fight Club, or sections from their records 'Gigantic' and 'Hang Wire in the United States of Leland. For fans, the song listing taken from the credits includes: Where is My Mind, Hey, Here Comes Your Man, U-Mass, Caribou, Gouge Away, Nimrod's Son, In Heaven, Wave of Mutilation, Something Against You, Bone Machine, Cactus, Vamos, Monkey Gone to Heaven and also the Breeders song Iris.

This is like one of those longitudinal sociology studies. See Frank at 20 something - see Kim at 20 something - now see Frank at 41 etcetera.It seemed like during the reunion tour and all the way through the film that no band member had any real insights about what was going on. Perhaps some things are better felt than over analyzed.It was clear that lots of audiences really liked the reunion tour and that there is some "magic pixie dust" around the band. Even if it still seems a bit mysterious to outsiders.Music appears to be one of the few areas where you can relaunch a (product) band if they were ahead of their time / out of sync as Pixies seemed to be first time round.I enjoyed being able to check the phenomenon that was Pixies and see how things have changed / what might be different.I did see someone asking why there were no obvious outside commentators (pro & con) for the band. In my view that is what wikipedia and the web are good for and some of that can go on a DVD as a side bar.I think this film was good because it allowed us to get a glimpse into the music and the band without talking the subject to death.

I had the pleasure of attending the NYC premier of loudQUIETloud: a Film about the Pixies, at the Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006.The film documents the successful 2004 reunion of the Pixies and in the process gives the viewer a rare glimpse at the people behind the music.I am nearly 40 years old, and have been a Pixies fan for nearly half of that time. The thing that always struck me funny about being a Pixies fan is this: first, Pixies fans have an almost insane love of their music, and second, most fans have no idea of what the people in the band are like. This film does a great job in addressing both of these points.You get to watch as the band takes their first steps in the rehearsal studio, Kim Deal resorts to listening to her parts on an iPod to get the chord changes right, through their first live show in Minneapolis where the crowd goes absolutely wild. "Did you see that? Those people were freaking out! ", said Kim during a backstage break.The film goes on to show the band members in their day-to-day lives, Joey and Charles managing their careers and young families, Kim dealing with sobriety with the help of her twin sister Kellie, and Dave coping with his father's illness and death. All in all, they seem like four ordinary people. The thing that makes them extraordinary is when they take the stage together; something happens that I can best describe as magic. The concert footage in the film is beautifully shot, and the band sounds better than ever. The Pixies are older, wiser and a little rounder, but they still know how to blow the house away.The question of "are you going to record a new album" was posed to the band during the film and the answers were interesting. Charles said that he was still in the song writing business, and it sounded like he was open to a new album. He then went on to say that it would probably be best if they started over from scratch, maybe change their name to the "Vomit Squad" and start playing small clubs again, that would be the most honest way to do it.You know what? That sounds good to me. "I'll take four tickets for Vomit Squad's Upchuck world tour 2007, please."