The reunion of the Pixies has made everything old in their back catalog new again, including the 4AD concert film and documentary in which Thom Yorke of Radiohead is asked whether there could be another band like the Pixies. After a sighing pause, he replies, “Well, you’d have to be that good.” The latest in…
The Walkmen are either the culmination of a horde of bands or merely the most recently crossed intersection of them. Considering their estimable talent, the best hope for their fans is obviously the former. However, there is an extraordinary history of success and immediate self-destruction behind them (as disappointed fans of Jonathan Fire*Eater and the…
There are pairs of artists who, for certain stretches of their careers, have been difficult to fully separate: Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Bowie and Iggy, Duran Duran and Talk Talk, Aerosmith and Kiss. Whether deliberate or circumstantial, throughout most of the ’90s, Aphex Twin (literally) had one in Squarepusher. After a few EP’s on the…
Gross generalization: African films are about the simple, quotidian concerns of village communities or, to be blunt, the most boring of lives; their directors tend to bore audiences silly in hopes of creating psychological sympathy but instead send cinephiles screaming for the exits. Xiu Xiu takes a similar approach to making music about pain. Jamie…
