SURF'S UP
by Perry Stern
Music Express #152, October 1990.
Transcribed by C. Gourraud for
Alec Eiffel
BLACK FRANCIS, AKA CHARLES THOMPSON OR, IF YOU PREFER, BIG CADDY DADDY, IS THE
SINGER AND PRINCIPAL SONGWRITER FOR THE PIXIES, WHOSE NEW " BOSSANOVA " ALBUM
PICKS UP WHERE " SURFER ROSA " AND " DOOLITTLE " LEFT OFF. CHARLES CLAIMS THAT
HIS MYSTERIOUSLY OBSCURE LYRICS ARE JUST AUTOMATIC WRITING, WITH NO PARTICULAR
SIGNIFICANCE. BUT SURELY ALL THOSE SURFING MOTIFS HAVE TO ADD UP TO SOMETHING
MORE THAN A HILL OF MEXICAN BEANS...
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The trap has been set. The surroundings are pastoral, or as pastoral as you can
get in the heart of downtown London. Black Francis and I are sitting on a bench
in a tiny parkette called Sussex Gardens, surrounded by lunching secretaries,
thirsty pigeons and lost tourists. Unfortunately for them, there's no time to
offer courteous directions - I have bigger fish to fry, having decided to catch
Black Francis in a lie.
For four years now, since the inception of the Pixies, Black Francis, the
group's leader/singer/principal songwriter, has been arguing that his lyrics -
generally obscure, often indecipherable - really have no significance
whatsoever. " It's automatic writing, " he's argued "just stuff I've thrown
together to fit the rhyme scheme. the words just sounded good together. "
Bunk, I say.
How could this band, certainly one of the most important to rise out of the
American indie scene in the last five years, NOT have something important to
say? Surely there's something deep and spiritual to be found in songs like "
River Euphrates " and " Where Is My Mind " from the SURFER ROSA album (1988), or
" Monkey Gone To Heaven ", " Debaser " and " Wave Of Mutilation " from last
year's acclaimed DOOLITTLE LP. If he's not lying, Francis must at least be
DISSEMBLING. And while we're at it, his name isn't Black, or even Francis, for
that matter, but Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV. Everyone calls him
Charles.
Walking from his hotel to the parkette, Charles is beeing endearing, making a
combative approach difficult. He does seem a bit world-weary; there is a
certain amount of comic sarcasm to most of his observations. Plainly articulate
and well-read, he nonetheless regularly lapses into an " aw shucks " rural
speech pattern, trading " them " for " those " and dropping the odd " ain't "
into his otherwise grammatically correct conversation.
With his roundish frame, well-worn flannel shirt, ripped jeans and sunny
disposition, 25-year-old Charles is decrying the impossibility of finding decent
Mexican food anywhere in Europe. " They just can't seem to get the HANG of it,
" he concludes, shaking his head in disbelief. " It must be too simple for
them. " Coming as it does from a man who takes his refritos seriously (he named
his publishing company Rice And Beans Music), there is a deep sense of tragedy
into this revelation. " One day, " he says, " I think I'll open my own Mexican
restaurant. Maybe here. Or in Holland. One day. "
Charles has just completed a six-week vacation, his first since forming the
Pixies four years ago (that's not counting his cross-country move from Boston to
Los Angeles last winter, however). He's been motoring through Europe with his
girlfriend Jean, seeing the sights, doing the odd interview in advance of the
group's European tour and searching for that ever-elusive perfect
Euro-enchilada. He also has a new album, BOSSANOVA, to talk about.
BOSSANOVA picks up the Pixies' tale where the acclaimed DOOLITTLE left off.
Over the years the group has evolved from the early, abrasive ferocity of their
initial rough demo tape (so enthusiastically received by U.K. indie label 4AD
that it was released, untouched, as their debut release, COME ON PILGRIM)
through an art/trash novelty of their first full length album, SURFER ROSA, and
on the refined, Velvety pop of DOOLITTLE. The Pixies are obviously advanced,
but some would argue that they've mellowed, and that they've sold out to
commercialism.
" That's what I don't get, " Charles exclaims in response. " So many people
comment on the drastic changes between this record and the last one. And they
really aren't listening, because to me it's the same 'old shit, ' sort of.
There are certain things that have changed, but those are obvious - like having
more money to spend on your record, so your 'production values' get a little more
sophisticated. But it's the same TYPE of material. "
" It's as though we were this 'crazy, hardcore, wacky band' before, and now
we're a 'pop band,'and that's so untrue, " he argues, his exasperation barely
contained. " There are songs on this record that are WAY harder than anything
we've done before, and some stuff that's way poppier. Like them mellow surf
songs [BOSSANOVA is liberally sprinkled with them]. That ain't Top 40! They're
different - I'm not saying they're ORIGINAL, but they're different. "
And he's right - nothing the group did before BOSSANOVA had the wistful quality
of " Ana " or the dreaminess of " Havalina " (except perhaps " La La Love You
"), and these are certainly not tracks destined for the pop charts. But on the
other hand, much of what gave DOOLITTLE its impeccable undergroung credibility -
the painfully screeched vocals, the hectic rythms - has been discarded on
BOSSANOVA.
" We got rid of some of the quirkier, faster numbers, " Charles concedes. " I
don't scream as much, but that was okay with me - I wanted to do that; I get
tired of hearing it. If I could really scream it out, like Henri Rollins, then
I would do it more, probably. "
"I can scream pretty good now, " he adds with a comic defensiveness, " better
than I could two years ago [and he proves that on BOSSANOVA's incomprehensible
'Rock Music']. But I remember hearing tapes of live shows, where I scream even
more, and it sounds so annoying, hearing this yap, yap, yapping all night. So
I'm trying to sing a little more. After all, we are a BAND and I AM a singer.
"
This final remark triggers an angry reaction in Charles. " There was a f**king
review in f**king Melody Maker [of the first BOSSANOVA single, 'Velouria']
- 'Sounds like someone's been taking singing lessons,' he quotes angrily. " Like,
motherf**king A! I am the singer. Who do sing SONGS. It's like I never sang
before; like I was - I don't know - reading PROSE on my previous records and now
I sing. EXCUUUUUUSE me for singing, " he concludes in his best Steve Martin
impression. " Talk about not letting me STANDARD! "
When Charles is talking about " standards, " this is what he means: " I want
rules; I want standards, " he says. " Even in heavy metal music and rap music,
things are standard, and that's what keeps them all together. Guitar, bass,
drums, vocals - that's standard. Thirty-five or 40 minutes on a record - that's
standard, although that's changing because of CDs. "
" But, " he adds, " even as stylistic as we are our territory is wide open.
It's not like we're the Ramones or some band that's rigid, almost
one-dimensional. I wish I WAS in a band like that! I wish I was in a band like
The Ramones that could be totally in character all the time. Like Batman,
always in character. "
But there is a certain ragamuffin non-image image to the Pixies. On stage
they're a pretty flat-footed crew, avoiding eye contact with the audience and
eschewing any clothing that is even remotely fashionable. Of their stage
presence, Charles simply states, " Believe me, if we could come up with a good
show - a good angle and costumes - I suppose we'd do it. But what are we gonna
do? It's all been done before. And I can't think of anything good or new at the
moment. So we just go up there in our flannel shirts and be one of those 'indie
American band that don't give a shit.' "
" But yes, I DO give a shit, " he exclaims, throwing up his hands in mock
despair. " I'm sorry but I just don't know what to WEAR! "
In the past, Charles has often referred to unwritten rules about what a Pixies
song is and how it should be played. Those rules are unwritten because they're
nearly impossible to articulate. Ideally, a Pixie song lasts a little more than
two minutes (" it's more satisfyin', I'm telling you. ") Its backbeat, provided
by drummer David Lovering and bassist Kim Deal, will, in its pace and phrasing,
somehow reflect the emotion conveyed in Charles' vocals with shifting rythms at
least once during the course of the song. Joey Santiago's guitar playing is
perhaps the most essential and identifiable component of the Pixies. Off-key,
off-kilter, Santiago noodles around the melody, often shadowing the vocal line
and then breaking off on the finger-flying,ear-splitting tangent.
The vocals will be predictably unpredictable. Considering how limited his range
is, though, Charles gets a lot of mileage out of his pipes. Since contributing
to last year's Neil Young tribute album, THE BRIDGE (covering " Winterlong "), a
definite Youngian phrasing has appeared in Charles' softer, almost falsetto
vocals. (Another Young track, " I've been Waiting For You, " sung by Deal,
appears on the 4-track " Velouria " single.) Then there's those damned elusive
lyrics...
If there is a certain standardization in the Pixies' music, remember that until
Kim formed the Breeders late last year, this is the only band that any of the
members have been part of. Charles brings that point up a lot. " How could we
change? " he asks. " We haven't been around long enough to say, 'Ok let's
really do something DIFFERENT.' Different? We're still trying to figure out if
we like these big new Marshall amps we bought. Different? We're just starting
to know how to play our guitars and get into it. We're just starting to dig and
PLAY. "
But if the Pixies should break up tomorrow, Charles has no fear that any of the
members will become destitute. " Joey is a guitar GOD, " he estimates, " Dave's
an amazing drummer, better than he was three years ago. Kim's got a solo record
[POD] that made it to the national British charts. This is our first band.
There's been none of the waiting around, gruelling tours, trying out different
record companies and managers. How many bands do other people go through before
they're finally in THE band? We're in it already, and we don't even know what
happened! "
What happened was that sometime between the release of SURFER ROSA and
DOOLITTLE, the Pixies became the darlings of the British musical press. In an
oddly symbiotic way - almost like an exchange program - just as British indie
bands are revered here, U.S. indie bands are revered over there. " It almost
seems that way, " Charles agrees. "[In England] the hip, underground bands, at
least until recently, were bands like Soundgarden, Dinosaur Jr., the Pixies,
Sonic Youth, all that stuff. And then [in the U.S.], 75 per cent of what they
play in alternative radio is English. It's kinda weird how it flip-flops like
that. But we're pretty much as big now in America as here. There's just not as
many national music magazines that would write about us. "
While the Pixies have been able to rely on media sycophants to trumpet their
praises in Europe, it's video that has most effectively spread their name across
their homeland. This, according to Charles, is not necessarily a good thing.
While the Pixies have made videos in the past for " Here Comes Your Man " and "
Monkey Gone To Heaven, " Charles has, at least at press time, refused to make
any for BOSSANOVA. And while that decision separates the Pixies from the hordes
of bands that spend thousands of dollars in a medium they are generally
ill-suited to, it also diminishes the impact of a record's release. Already
it's caused a problem for the band. As 'Velouria ' inevitably rose up the U.K.
pop charts during the summer, a much coveted spot on the TV program TOP OF THE
POPS was denied the band because of a BBC rule that states only singles with
videos can be performed on the show. Besides, Charles confesses, MTV actually
saved his sorry butt last year.
" I'm telling you man, " Charles begin, " I was driving from El Paso in my car.
I have this big yellow Cadillac that I bought - my first car. So I'm going
through El Paso, it's like two in the morning, and the Border Patrol sees the
Massachussetts license plates. I also had a CB installed in Memphis so we could
talk to truckers. My handle was gonna be Big Caddy Daddy, but I never actually
used it. They stopped me and they assumed drugs because we were coming to the
border and we had out of state tags and CB radio, and the car was riding low. I
also had a Mexican pinata that was, believe it or not, from Boston that I was
supposed to give to my nephews, but it broke and I still had it in the trunk. "
" So they KNEW I'd been to Mexico, " he laughs, shaking his head, and it was
like, 'No man, I SWEAR. I'm actually moving from Boston!' And then one of the
cops says [mimmicking a redneck], 'Say, I know you, you're in the Pixies! I
seen you on MTV!' The next thing I knew they were taking polaroids of me
holding their shotguns and stuff. Just 'cause of TV. "
Charles' insistence that he wants to confine himself to a single artistic
medium, and that his lyrics just don't matter, brings up a question about his
litterary aspirations. He has been heard to say that he might contribute
something to a book of poems by indie musicians. If words mean as little to him
as he claims, why would he consider publishing his work as poetry?
" Oh yeah, " he recalls. " I was asked, but I wouldn't do poetry. " Does he
really not pay attention to the lyrics he'll be condemned to sing over and over
into perpetuity?
Charles shrugs as he reaches into an envelope he's been carrying and pulls out
the lyrics sheet for BOSSANOVA. " This one ['The Thing'] is a sonnet: this is
haiku, " he claims, pointing to the three-line stanzas of 'Hang Wire'. " I'm
always playing stupid games like that. See 'Ana'? It's like anaGRAM. "
" S.U.R.F.E.R., " he spells out, pointing to the first letter of each line in
the song. " It's a matter of needing lyrics really fast because they're setting
up the vocal mikes, and you'd better get the song done or it's gonna be an
instrumental! "
What about " Dig For Fire, " the place Charles says he'll retire to one day?
" Oh, it's all nonsense, " he says, " a bad Talking Heads imitation. Just like
any other cool rock'n roll song or pop song, the CONTENT isn't what hits you. I
mean, what the hell is 'London Calling'? I don't know anything about stupid
English punk politics, but 'London Calling' sounds TOTALLY great. That's all it
is. Gosh, I'm so tired of people referring to me as hopelessly obscure. I
mean, pick up a Beatles album - come on! Who knows what those songs were about?
Nobody knows. "
P.S.
