If all in all is true, won't you please run over me?

[vovat]

I saw a few seconds of a Bush speech, and he mentioned Kerry forgetting Poland again. Doesn't he know he's just adding fuel to a running Internet gag? {g}

I see that this page has links to the reviews of the two newest Fuzzy Warbles CDs on my blog. That's pretty cool.

Okay, I've had the chance to listen to both discs of Frank Black Francis, the newest Frank Black release, and I have some thoughts on it.


The first CD is made up of early demos of Pixies songs. They're just Frank with an acoustic guitar, and they're fairly rough, with Frank occasionally making vocal notes like "I'm singing the bass player's part" and "There's supposed to be a scream here." He also sings some short instrumental lines on "I've Been Tired," and the opening drum part to "Oh My Golly," which is amusing. The quality is surprisingly good, with "Isla De Encanta" actualy sounding a lot like the finished version. I wouldn't recommend these demos to anyone who isn't already familar with the songs, but for those of us who enjoy hearing how a song developed, they're nice to have. It's also the first real release of the song "Boom Chickaboom."

The second disc is, well, pretty darned weird. It's a CD of slow, stripped-down versions of Pixies songs, with brass and other musical effects added by the Two Pale Boys. Since I think a large part of what most people like about the Pixies is the relentless energy of their songs, a lot of these slowed-down versions come off as rather unsatisfying. I'm not very fond of the versions of "Nimrod's Son" and "Monkey Gone To Heaven," and the worst of all is the last track, an incredibly long take on "Planet Of Sound." While I like the faux-country guitar at the beginning of "Planet," the rest of the song is very repetitive. I sometimes get the feeling that repetition is a common crutch for people remixing or reworking songs. I guess it's fine when you're doing a remix of a song for, say, a dance club, where no one likely to pay any attention to the lyrics anyway, but it doesn't make for stuff that's much fun to listen to at home. And this take on "Planet" is certainly not a dance mix. On the other hand, I like the effects that are added to some of the songs, like the synthesized bells in "Levitate Me," and the fake violin on "Into The White." I also think the slow, brassy versions of "Velouria" and "Holiday Song" work pretty well, even if they're nowhere near as good as the originals.

I don't think I'll be listening to either disc of this release all that much, but it's an interesting concept, and good to have for when I might be in the mood for demos or weird reworkings.

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

I've been kinda wanting to pick this up (when I was at the record store yesterday, I didn't actually know it'd come out yet, heh), although the eCard or whatever that Spinart put out had Monkey Gone To Heaven (I think) as the backing track, and I really didn't like that much at all. And it made me think that if I were to get this disc, it'd be for the Pixies side, rather than the New Versions side.

I did like that they put out The Purple Tape finally, although I think it's too bad that they couldn't get the rights to Come On Pilgrim and just release it with the original running time, instead of a 10 dollar, 20 minute CD with the other tracks.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw that eCard, and I didn't care for that version of "Monkey," either. Fortunately, some of the other tracks on the second disc are better, although there's a similar idea behind all of them. Frank says in the liner notes that he did the disc of new versions because he didn't want to release JUST the demos to the public, which I guess is okay, but I wonder how much of the general public will like what he did to the songs on Disc 2.

And I agree that adding the Come On Pilgrim tracks to the purple tape would have been a good idea. I think some people tried to mix the two themselves to re-create the original purple tape, but the sound quality was so different that it didn't work very well.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- that's the problem... I remember when 4AD got the US rights back, they were going to remaster all the Pixies Albums and everything, maybe even with bonus tracks (At The BBC was rumored to have like, an additional 10-15, from what I'd heard and even seen on amazon, so it'd actually be somewhat more of a Not-Laughingly-Incomplete Document of the Pixies' BBC sessions), but then for some reason they decided not to, and basically issued them so the only difference is that on the back, instead of having an Elektra and 4AD logo, it's just got the 4AD one. Which is pretty weak -- this weekend I made a Pixies Mix CD for my friend who'd only heard the Bad Plus cover of "Velouria" but never the original, nor much Pixies at all, and I found that the stuff from, say, Purple or Death were much louder/better sounding than any of the stuff from the Actual Albums. Which sorta bummed me out.

Anyway, though, I'll probably pick up FBF pretty soon. Eventually, anyway. At least I know I'm not the only one less than enamoured with that Monkey.

[dave-noisy.livejournal.com]

hmmm..yeah...the first CD definitely isn't a 'repeater', but i like the second one enough that it'll fit in..sorta reminds me of the Tribute stuff, eh?

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

poland totally withdrew. what an asshat.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think his point was that they were there at the beginning. Of course, the fact that they left proves a more important point, doesn't it?