Tag Archives: the pixies

Pointless Nostalgia: The Pixies on 120 Minutes, 1991

As I eluded to last week, when I found the bounty of Steampipe Alley tapes, I was looking for something else. That something else was an episode of MTV’s 120 Minutes from 1991 that featured an episode-long appearance by The Pixies, mere months before they broke up.

When this show aired, I did not actually have cable in my house. But my grandparents, who lived next door, did. So I would monopolize their VCR in the wee hours, taping either Mystery Science Theater 3000 or 120 Minutes. Despite being an MTV product, 120 Minutes was a pretty decent window into the amorphous world of “alternative” music back then, and also the only way that I could hear about new-ish stuff in the pre-internet days, since I lived nowhere near a cool records store.

This particular episode is an odd time capsule piece, because it comes from one of those in between periods of music. The indie music scene that launched The Pixies was largely dead. The Nirvana phenomenon had yet to begin, although it was just about to (the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” aired during this episode, and had just debuted a few weeks previous). So in most cases, alternative = British. By my rough estimate, 75 percent of all the videos that air in this episode come from English bands, most of them being shoegazer types like Ride, Curve, Lush, etc.

But my main reason in presenting these clips to you is not to highlight this very brief era. I’ve digitized them because they’re some of the most uncomfortable video you’ll ever see.

For one thing, The Pixies were already well immersed in the tensions that would doom the band. But rather than exercise that misery on each other, they aim it squarely at the show’s host, Dave Kendall. The poor man has to dig and scrape to get the most mundane answers out of them.

This first clip is benign enough. The band is introduced, and Frank Black talks briefly about the inspiration behind the “Here Come Your Man” video. But the fact that he’s wearing a panama hat and sunglasses for this interview should have thrown up some huge red flags. As should have Joey Santiago’s weird fuzzy hat.


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Holy Goddamn! 006: You Can’t Show Me Any Kind of Hell I Don’t Know Already

slater.jpgHoly Goddamn! is back for another action-packed episode. Sorry that this one’s a little later than usual. I’ve tried to adhere to my self-imposed every-other-week schedule, but some unforeseen issues have plagued the Scratchbomb Home Office of late–most of them not good, as chronicled here. As you’ll probably notice, these events, and my attempts to defy them, have greatly affected the song choices (as have my reflection on baseball seasons past and present).

In episode 006, I have a long chat about fantasy baseball with Skip “Wheels” Slater, a frequent Scratchbomb and Holy Goddamn! contributor. You’ll also hear some wise advice from Vin Scully, some more nostalgic sound bites, and a closing tune that’ll make you wanna run out in the street and punch somebody in the face.*

* Please don’t actually run out in the street and punch someone in the face. Unless they deserve it.

And please forgive the inclusion of a song from my old band. It just seemed to fit the flow and theme. I vow not to engage in such reflective narcissism again. Probably.

Holy Goddamn! 006 Setlist:

“Watch me paste…”/Intro
“Have you seen the schedule…”
Les Savy Fav, “The Year Before the Year 2000”, Let’s Stay Friends
Deefhoof, “Scream Team”, The Runners Four
Viva Voce, “Lesson #1”, The Heat Can Melt Your Brain
Vin Scully lectures on perspective, spring training, 1988
XTC, “No Language in Our Lungs”, Black Sea
The Pixies, “Down to the Well”, Emerson College radio, 1987
Bill Moss, “Number One”, Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label (v/a)
Interview with Skip “Wheels” Slater on fantasy baseball strategy
Elvis Costello, “Hand in Hand”, This Year’s Model
Jay Reatard, “I Know a Place”, Singles 06-07
The Replacements, “I’ll Buy”, Tim
“Someone’s rockin’ my dreamboat…”
Record Ignite!, “Chew You Up”, demo, 1999
“But we were winning!”
Vince Guaraldi, “Rain Rain Go Away”, The Charlie Brown Suite and Other Favorites
Ted Leo, “Rappaport’s Testament: I Never Gave Up”, Mo’ Livin’ EP