2016 will in fact be a huge year for Black Francis and the crew. A new album, "Head Carrier" due out in September and a world tour. I am crossing my fingers, hoping and praying that I will be able to see them on this tour.
I predict that "Head Carrier" (what a great title) is going to be a huge seller. Available on CD and 180 gram heavy weight black vinyl with a 24 page booklet with lyrics (and more) and the strangely engaging art work by Vaughan Oliver, the band's long time art director. There will also be a bundle of sorts featuring the deluxe box set with the T-shirt and special screen printed 12" x 12" record sleeve sized poster of the album artwork.
Track number 10 on the new album is Um Chagga Lagga. It is a mosh worthy kind of roots rocker and while it feels produced it is not overly so and has the raw stripped down earthy weirdness that is the Pixies. Other track titles (1) Head Carrier, (2) Classic Masher, (3) Baal's Back, (4) Might As Well Be Gone. (5) Oona, (6) Talent, (7) Tenement Song, (8) Bel Espirit, (9) All I Think About Now, (11) Plaster Of Paris, (12) All The Saints. I am already imagining what these songs will sound like, how they will effect me. "Oona".... hmmm, curious about that one and "Plaster Of Paris".... curious. Black Francis has one of those interesting writing filters or lack thereof and there is the allure for me. I have always gotten the sense that (like Bowie) he can on one hand make nonsense sound extremely deep and on the other can make deep things sound like nonsense. I like this "id" approach to song writing or at least that is what it has always felt like to me.
There is a kind of pathetic band of Pixies naysayers who don't seem to accept or get the bands trajectory. For them, the Pixies went away when Kim Deal and the boys (and Black Francis especially) parted company. I don't get this mentality but then that might be the wrong choice of words because for the naysayers it is more about their broken hearts and I understand that but Paz feels like part of a kind of Pixies rebirth to me. Read her "press release" comments:
"I was very nervous in the beginning when I went to that first rehearsal. There were these shoes I felt I had to fill and I tried to do the best I could for the fans, to make the live performances sound true to the originals. I spent three years learning to understand what being a Pixie meant, and now, my heart, spirit, and love for their music is embedded in me and I feel like I have become a Pixie. We had been more about the history of the Pixies but now, we are going forward."
Nice to hear her use the "we" world. The Pixies are whole again, Hell yeah- "Um Chagga Lagga" indeed.
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Robb Donker
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