The Savage Animal 01.18.12 The Videography of Pixies
Posted by Mikey MiGo on 01.18.2012
Do you remember any of the videos by the Pixies? In this edition of The Savage Animal, Mikey MiGo takes a look at the music videos of the Pixies. All of this, a Golden Globes ramble, a Rockstar Wrestling update, a review of the worst movie in years, and more!
The thing about the Golden Globes is that it brings on film AND TV… and lots of random celebrities making asses out of themselves as they take in too much booze and attention. It feels looser. It's like the IFC "Spirit Awards" without the pretentious messages crammed in. Most award shows are meaningless in the long run. The globes are often shunned by critics and the like, but it's all in good fun. It's entertainment. If it bothers you THAT MUCH then you really need better problems.
Ricky Gervais was the host again for the third time in a row. After two years of being "controversial", this third year was pretty tame. I'm sure there will be people who nitpick what he says and find things to complain about, but nothing seemed all that crazy. It's almost as if the celebrities sigh and just accept it begrudgingly. I like the guy, but you can tell he didn't give a damn this time around. Who can blame him? I WILL give him credit for being the only celebrity to call Johnny Depp out on his bullshit. Again, I love Depp's body of work but it seems like no one ever wants to go there. Gervais did.
I've seen just about all the TV shows nominated and an assload of TV shows that are better than most of the shows nominated. "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" is the best comedy on TV right now. "True Blood" is one of the best shows regardless of those who won't give it a chance because of Twilight making vampires lame. How did Steve Carrel not get a nomination for his last season on "The Office"? No love for "Community"? Nothing for Michael Pitt's work on "Boardwalk Empire"? Are we totally avoiding "Sons of Anarchy" too? There are PLENTY of quality shows that weren't nominated for awards. The movie stuff is a lot of the same. I've not seen The Artist or The Descendents or Hugo. I have seen Moneyball and I wasn't impressed all that much. Same with 50/50. It was okay, but not one of the best five or six movies of the year. The only movie I really liked out of the ones nominated was Midnight In Paris, which I think was the best movie of the year hands down. After that I'd say "Win, Win" and a few others that were snubbed. I really liked Bridesmaids too and it's cool to see it in the race, but I never would expect it to get any gold.
They gave awards to some people I enjoyed, some I expected to win, and some I don't like. It's like that for everyone. Everyone has opinions, but the truth of the matter is that this stuff is rarely about skill and talent and more so about favorites, profits, ratings, and trends. It's always "foreign" or "independent" or "feel-good happy racial relations" or "political drama". Not many of these movies are really "rewatchable" and don't see much attention too long after the awards. The Artist won as expected… Meryl Streep won again as you HAVE to always expect… George Clooney won… Octavia Spencer won… blah, blah, blah. If you've read ONE magazine about the award show or have been around for longer than five minutes than you expect all of this to happen. Nothing really surprising got to me. I've not seen "Homeland" yet, but I'll be watching it very soon. I've not seen "Boss" yet, but I have a hard time imagining Sideshow Bob being better than Buscemi or Cranston this past season. I liked Episodes, but Matt LeBlanc was NOT the best comedic actor on TV last year. Not by a long shot. Tina Fey didn't win in a year I'd say was 30 Rock's best. And for support, I was happy with Dinklage and Lange getting the weird looking trophy.
None of this really matters. It was a decent three hours of actors acting like real people and showing how obnoxious and phony they really are. This show is like a really well organized "Oscar pre-show" where they're kind enough to invite TV people to fill out the rest of the room. It's a month and a half until The Oscars and I got some catching up to do.
THE VIDEOGRAPHY OF PIXIES
90's Indie Rock Indie Videos…Every few weeks I take some time out to check out a band's entire videography. A lot of band's videos are disposable and forgotten, but there are some really good and artistic video collections out there. I've seen some really good bands have some really subpar videographies and I've seen some really shitty bands have a good collection of videos.
In May of 2009, I listened to the discography of the alt rock iconic band Pixies as part of the "First Impressions" series. It was decent enough, but in the past year and a half I've not really connected with their material. I get why they're popular and for sure I respect them. I'm happy to have listened to their work to expand my musical lexicon. A song or two has made its way into my normal rotation, but it just wasn't for me.
That said, I still don't think I remember ANY of their music videos. They have a good amount of them, but I can't think of any instances I've crossed paths with one. I'm sure I'll watch and one or more will hit and I'll be all "Oh! I DO remember this!"… but who knows.
Let's check out the videos of the Pixies…
"Monkey Gone to Heaven"
Album: "Doolittle"
Year: 1989
It's a slow motion black and white video. It shows the band performing in slow motion and then in I guess real time. Nothing too much happens here. The video fits the song's lo-fi attitude pretty well. There's really not much going, but I like the flow and the direction of the video fair enough. There's a flash of color about a minute and a half in that's surprising. It's a cool low budget video. Rating: 7.0
"Here Comes Your Man"
Album: "Doolittle"
Year: 1989
I expected videos to look more like this. The whole colorful post-80's/early-90's playful irony. This video reminds me of a lot of old videos. This video could have been an REM video and I think it might have been. It's sneaky like that. It has the same "roaming camera" feel as "Monkey Gone to Heaven", but it's a bit less abstract. Rating: 6.5
"Velouria"
Album: "Bossanova"
Year: 1990
It starts with the band going down some rocks in slow motion. A few minutes in…. the same thing. The band is slowly making their way towards the camera. Eventually they get to the camera and go past it. This ends up being the ENTIRE video. This video was "so indie". Whatever. Sometimes "art" just sucks. This video feels like it's being artsy in a seriously pretentious way. It's like one of those old Andy Warhol movies except… it's NOT an old Andy Warhol movie. Rating: 3.0
"Dig for Fire/Allison"
Album: "Bossanova"
Year: 1990
A two for one video! We start off with shots of getting dressed and ready. It's a neat collection of camera angles and well crafted shots. This leads to some washed out shots of people riding motorcycles. Eventually the band gets to a place where they have to walk up stairs and then into a stadium in Amsterdam where "Allison" is performed. That was a pretty cool idea. I'll give them that. This was "art" that you could say was ahead of its time. Rating: 8.0
"Alec Eiffel"
Album: "Trompe le Monde"
Year: 1991
The band plays with shades on as heavy wind blows at them. The gravitational pull of this video is really cool. THAT is one sentence I've never typed before. That right there get's them a few bonus points. It's still a very "dated" video. It feels like an early 90's video, but it's a good one. Rating: 7.0
"Head On"
Album: "Trompe le Monde"
Year: 1991
This "Jesus and Mary Chain" cover is pretty cool. The band is them playing in an isolated room. It's shot really nicely though. It's got a black ground and a darker look. It's calmer and doesn't have too many crazy shots. The magic here is the editing. Featuring the band in those weird cuts and squares ins really cool. I've never seem a video like this before, but it's pretty creative. THIS is the type of video I was expecting from the Pixies this whole time. I liked this video a lot. For an early 90's video is innovative as hell. Rating: 8.5
"Debaser"
Album: "Doolittle"
Year: 1997
The album was released damn near 10 years before this video so it's a little weird. This is considered the last "official video" of the Pixie's videography. You can tell this video was made a little more recent. It has better editing and has a "grunge" look. It takes a lot of old performance footage and mixes it in with some creative cuts and editing. I like it though. It's a well done video for one of the band's absolute best tracks. Rating: 8.0
VERDICT
I'm not going to lie. I was let down with this collection of videos. There are a few gems hidden here, but for the most part it was a pretty bland videography. A lot of them standing around and playing while the camera does the magic or sometimes lack there of. For a band that people consistently consider one of the most influential bands in indie, grunge, and art rock I expected more. I thought there would be more innovation and more creative video ideas. At one point it's like they're trying REALLY hard to be "unique" and their videos almost seemed like pretentious "fuck you's" to "the man" or something. I LOVE art and love when artists take chances, but there are some really groan-worthy moments here. I did like a few videos and will remember those. The rest will be forgotten by the time this column is posted.
ROCKSTAR WRESTLING UPDATE
Web Series Creator Shares The Preproduction Process.I'm not sure if many know this, but when I was 18 I started an independent promotion in northwest Indiana, basically "Chicagoland". We ran from 01 to 04. It was far from perfect, but it was "ours". We had tons of talent come in and out and some not so talented in and out. A lot of us learned as we went. We were the young asshole kids on "the scene" and we made a lot of very public and entertaining mistakes. Still, we put on a show. I'm happy to say that no matter how weird or bizarre things got, the paying fans were entertained. It started as a group of friends who did backyard wrestling. It was fairly organized for backyard wrestling, but it was still the exact stereotype you'd see on talk shows in the late 90's and early 00's during the "Attitude Era" rise. We hooked up with one of the better indie workers in the area at the time and he and a few other locals who training roots back to "Dick The Bruisers". For months, we'd all go to a small shitty garage in one of America's "most dangerous cities" and they'd train and learn their craft. We'd join up with another group of friends who experienced the same thing. Then one or two shows in we hooked up with ANOTHER group of friends with the same backyard-to-pro intentions. Again, they worked with the same guy and he helped get them ready. Over time, those who were meant to wrestle kept wrestling for as long as they were meant to wrestle. Some fell off quick and some got their name out there pretty far. The point is that, MEW booked trained wrestlers. Green? For-fucking-sure. Untrained? No. Did guys work without "proper gear"? All the time. Untrained? No. Did most of our roster look like teenage thugs and assholes? Yes, because most of our roster WAS teenage thugs and assholes. Untrained? No.
There is a certain person in the "Chicago scene" that had their first matches in MEW. I never had anything but nice things to say about this guy, but it seems like they're embarrassed to come from there. They seem to brush over it like it wasn't something beneath them and was just something in passing. They casually question if everyone was "trained", but the same guy who taught HIM how to bump trained and worked with the MEW guys for years before we booked him at 17. We gave him his first title, his first win, his first matches, and I thought was part of the "MEW family" at the time. But apparently a handful of "coast bookings" raises one's stakes so high their roots aren't good enough. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter. I still wish the guy the best, but I suppose I little taken back by how I've seen how much denial he had in that area. It has no effect on my day past the end of this paragraph.
It's 2012 now and Rockstar Wrestling is coming together VERY nicely. We're still looking to fill a roster spot or two in the wrestler side of casting, but we have some interesting prospects. We're at that point in preproduction where things are tightening up and we'll be getting closer to unleashing some more content and some solid date ranges on when to expect Rockstar Wrestling season one to debut.
If you've come this far, you might as well watch the video…
"GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE"
I just think this movie is going to suck to the point that it's going to be really enjoyable. For some weird reason I REALLY want to see this movie. It's like waiting to watch a train wreck with trains full of clowns, mimes, and Cirque du Soleil people on board. I don't want anyone to get hurt, but the colors and movement of said train wreck would be something only describable as beautiful. Yeah, I'm weird. But I'm NOT weird because I think this movie is going to suck. I think EVERYONE expects his movie to suck. I don't understand why they're making a sequel to begin with. I remember there were talks about someone else playing the character, but it's not the case. We still get the really awkward Nicolas Cage doing the "Ghost Rider/Johnny Blaze" character again. I love Nic Cage, but this role just doesn't suit him. I did find some merit in the first one. It had a little edge to it. The problem is that this sequel seems to be stripped down and involved a kid in the plot. This is NOT going to be good, but I want to see it to find out just how bad it's going to be. Yikes…
RANDOM MOVIE REVIEW
"BUCKY LARSON: BORN TO BE A STAR"
When I saw the trailer for this movie I knew I wouldn't like it. Something about the Adam Sandler "Superfriends" crew rubs me the wrong way. They have their highs and lows, but overall it feels like their coasting. The material of these movies are on the lame side. It's a combo of vulgar and silly that just comes off too Nickelback/domestic bottle for my tastes. I'm not a big Nick Swardson fan either. He's like a modern hipster version of Ed Grimley. It's just too much "shtick". So basically… I'm going into this movie being a dick. I'm negative and I don't expect much. Still, it's an hour and a half of my time. Despite the first few sentences of this proving otherwise, I do honestly tend to try to be optimistic. I don't want to sit there and hate what I'm watching. I'm always hoping to have my mind blown. That said, I'll at least be honest. This movie was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be, but better AND worse. "That's fucked up, Mike… that makes NO sense!" You're right hypothetical quote-man, but let me explain. The movie is about a naive weirdo from a small town. He's an over the top character, nerdy, awkward, and all that. He finds out his parents were porn stars so he decides to move to LA so he can follow their footsteps. Hilarity… never really ensued. He meets up with Christina Ricci, a dumb waitress that's way too sweet. Don Johnson, who is as unlikeable and a succubus of enjoyment as always. Stephen Dorff, who is everything I just typed about Don Johnson but at least seven times worse. All of the characters were shitty. The biggest issue with this movie is the third act, or whatever is there that resembles one. The movie's story builds up to a peak that is so anticlimactic that it's bothersome. It's like they were like "okay, let's stop writing now and wrap this up." I can shit on a movie and I'm not too much of a jerk to not appreciate a horrible movie. I am huge fan of "Freddy Got Fingered". This makes that look like "Inception". Everyone involved with this movie has done much better in much better movies. One bright spot was Kevin Nealon's crazy and angry for no good reason roommate character. It was the expected and easy porn jokes mixed in with some gross out humor. It doesn't come anywhere close to as funny and vulgar as Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "Orgazmo". In fact if you watch this movie and need to cleanse yourself from its badness or if you wanted to see it and need a replacement for the night then watch "Orgazmo" for the porn humor and "Grandmas Boy'" for the cast at their best. For the first time ever… F
THE BIG COMEDOWN
I have a lot on my plate right now. I'm managing, but there is a fair amount of work on my shoulders, pressure, and some upcoming mountains to climb. I'm managing. One thing I've been doing is trying to organize like a mofo. So because of that I've taken some time and plotted out my writing assignments and projects for the next month or two. Next week, it's "First Impression of The Rapture". I'm going to listen to their four albums for the first time and share my "expert" opinion. I've heard one or two songs of theirs and enjoyed them, but never a full album. I'm looking forward to it. After that I plan on looking at some of the current music videos out there. It should be fun. Until next time… Have a Great Week!
