Urban Hat€monger ?

I remember it well , it was the late summer of 1991.The Pixies had just released Trompe Le Monde and Kerrang magazine gave it a real slating saying that 'indie bands shouldn`t try to make metal albums' The same magazine has Jon Bon Jovi on the cover.Needless to say I never bothered buying Kerrang again after that.Although it wasn`t due to them slagging off the Pixes it was more a combination of all the awful bands they were raving about at the time.
It was a few years later that I got into the Pixes , maybe around 94/95 .Maybe it took me so long because I was disillusioned with American music at the time and with Britpop in full flow the only thing that seemed to come out of the U.S. was these horrible grunge bands.To be honest Kurt Cobains glowing praise of them put me off more than anything.Having said that I would go as far as saying that The Pixies are a huge influence on Britpop.The Pixies always had a lot of success in the UK in the late 80s, and you had people like Thom Yorke , Graham Coxon , Badly Drawn Boy , Damon Albarn & a whole host of people who would make British music great again in the 90s going to those gigs.
My love for the band started one day when I was browsing through my local record store with a few quid in my pocket with nothing much really grabbing my attention I found myself drawn to this album & Bossanova , more out of desperation than anything (I hated leaving empty handed back then) Took them home , realised how wrong i`d been about this band and was totally blown away. Needless to say Surfer Rosa & Trompe Le Monde were bought the following weekend.
I would tell you which songs are my favourites on this album , but thats impossible. This album basically has 15 singles on it. I can`t find one single weak point on it. The opening salvo of the first three songs , Debaser , Tame & Wave Of Mutilation ..... just WOW. Hearing those for the first time just stunned me. There is absolutley nobody on earth that you can compare the the Pixes to, they are totally unique. Nobody sounded like them in the past , nobody sounds like them now. Lets be honest how can you not enjoy a fat balding bloke in a pringle sweater screaming about slicing up eyeballs. But it`s not just that , it`s Joey Santiago`s surf guitar , And the legend that is Kim Deal who`s backing vocals I could happily listen to all day.It doesn`t matter what they try , whether it have a country flavour (Here Comes Your Man) , pure pop (La La Love You) loud shouty rock tunes (Tame , Dead) or ballads (Hey) they stamp their authority on every single tune and make them their own. You can tell a Pixies song the moment you hear one , shame there are not more bands that easily recognisable.
A totally totally unique band.

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