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User:NBeddoe/Cut Ribbons

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Cut Ribbons
OriginLlanelli, Wales, United Kingdom
Genres
Years active2011–present
LabelsKissability
MembersAled Rees
Anna Griffiths
Shane Lee
Websitecutribbons.co.uk

Cut Ribbons are a British indie rock band formed in Llanelli, Carmarthensire in 2011.

Timeline

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Musical style

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The Pixies' musical style has been described as "an unorthodox marriage of surf music and punk rock, … characterized by Black's bristling lyrics and hackle-raising caterwaul, Kim Deal's whispered harmonies and waspy basslines, Joey Santiago's fragile guitar, and the persistent flush of David Lovering's drums."[1] The band's music incorporates extreme dynamic shifts; Francis explained in 1991, "Those are the two basic components of rock music […] the dreamy side and the rockin' side. It's always been either sweaty or laid back and cool. We do try to be dynamic, but it's dumbo dynamics, because we don't know how to do anything else. We can play loud or quiet—that's it".[2]

Influences

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The Pixies are influenced by a range of artists and genres; each member came from a different musical background. When he first started writing songs for the Pixies, Francis says he was listening to nothing but Hüsker Dü, Captain Beefheart, and Iggy Pop;[3] Other influences associated with Francis include The Gun Club[4] and The Cars.[5][6] During the making of Doolittle he was listening heavily to The Beatles' The White Album.[7] He has cited Buddy Holly as a model for his compressed songwriting.[8]

Santiago listened to 1970s and 1980s punk including Black Flag, as well as David Bowie.[9] Guitarists who influenced him include Jimi Hendrix, Les Paul, Wes Montgomery, and George Harrison.[10] Deal's musical background was folk music and country; she had formed a country-folk band with her sister in her teenage years, and played covers of artists such as The Everly Brothers and Hank Williams.[1] Other artists they listened to included XTC, Gang of Four and Elvis Costello.[11] Lovering is a fan of the band Rush.[1]

Other media such as film has had an impact on the Pixies; Francis cites surrealist films Eraserhead and Un chien andalou (as mentioned in "Debaser") as influences.[9] He has commented on these influences, saying he "didn't have the patience to sit around reading Surrealist novels", but found it easier to watch twenty-minute films.[12]

Songwriting and vocals

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Most of the Pixies' songs were composed and sung by Francis. Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine has described Francis's writing as containing "bizarre, fragmented lyrics about space, religion, sex, mutilation, and pop culture".[13] Biblical violence is a theme of Doolittle's "Dead" and "Gouge Away";[14][15] Francis told a Melody Maker interviewer, "It's all those characters in the Old Testament. I'm obsessed with them. Why it comes out so much I don't know."[16] He has described Come on Pilgrim's "Caribou" as being about reincarnation,[14] and extraterrestrial themes appear in a number of songs on Bossanova.[14]

Deal co-wrote Doolittle's "Silver" with Francis,[17] and they share lead harmony vocals on the track.[18] She also co-wrote and sang lead vocals on Surfer Rosa's "Gigantic",[19][20] and is the sole songwriter of the 2004 digital single "Bam Thwok".[11][21] She was credited as Mrs. John Murphy on the former composition[19]—at the time she was married and she used this name as an ironic feminist joke.[16] She also sang lead vocals on the song "Into the White" and the Neil Young cover "Winterlong", both B-sides.[22] Lovering sang lead vocals on Doolittle's "La La Love You"[17] and the B-side "Make Believe".[22]

Impact

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Although the Pixies produced relatively few albums, whose sales were modest, they influenced a number of bands associated with the alternative rock boom of the 1990s.[23][24] Gary Smith, who produced their Come On Pilgrim, commented on the band's influence on alternative rock and their legacy in 1997:[24]

I've heard it said about The Velvet Underground that while not a lot of people bought their albums, everyone who did started a band. I think this is largely true about the Pixies as well. Charles' secret weapon turned out to be not so secret and, sooner or later, all sorts of bands were exploiting the same strategy of wide dynamics. It became a kind of new pop formula and, within a short while, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was charging up the charts and even the members of Nirvana said later that it sounded for all the world like a Pixies song.

Sonically, the Pixies are credited with popularizing the extreme dynamics and stop-start timing that would become widespread in alternative rock; Pixies songs typically feature hushed, restrained verses, and explosive, wailing choruses.[25] Artists including David Bowie, Radiohead, PJ Harvey, U2, Nirvana, The Strokes, Weezer, Bush and Pavement have cited admiration of or influence by the Pixies.[26][27][28] Bono of U2 has called the Pixies "one of America's greatest bands ever",[27][29] and Radiohead's Thom Yorke has said that, while at school, "the Pixies had changed my life".[24] Bowie, whose own music had inspired Francis and Santiago while they were at university, has said that the Pixies made "just about the most compelling music of the entire 80s."[27]

One notable citation as an influence was by Kurt Cobain, on influencing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which he admitted was a conscious attempt to co-opt the Pixies' style. In a January 1994 interview with Rolling Stone, he said, "I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it [smiles]. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band—or at least in a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard."[24][30] Cobain cited Surfer Rosa as one of his main musical influences, and particularly admired the album's natural and powerful drum sounds—a result of Steve Albini's influence on the record. Albini later produced Nirvana's 1993 In Utero at the request of Cobain.[31]

Music videos and DVDs

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No music videos were released from Come on Pilgrim or Surfer Rosa, but from Doolittle onwards, the following videos were made: "Monkey Gone To Heaven", "Here Comes Your Man", "Velouria", "Dig For Fire", "Allison", "Alec Eiffel", "Head On", and "Debaser";[32] these were later released on the 2004 DVD Pixies.[32] Furthermore, a music video accompanied the release of their 2013 song, "Bagboy", as well an alternate video released on a later date. Videos have been made for all the songs in EP1. The videos for "Here Comes Your Man" and "Allison" were also released on The Complete 'B' Sides.[22]

By Bossanova, the band had developed a severe aversion to recording music videos, and Francis refused to lip-sync to them.[33] For example, in the "Here Comes Your Man" video, both Black and Deal open their mouths wide instead of mouthing their lyrics.[34] According to the record label this became one of the reasons that the Pixies never achieved major coverage on MTV.[33]

With Bossanova's release, 4AD hoped to get the Pixies chosen to perform their single "Velouria" on the BBC music programme Top of the Pops.[35] To this end, the band was pressured into producing a video for the song, and they made one cheaply with the band members filmed running down a quarry, shown in slow motion.[33][36] The group was ultimately not given a spot on the show.[36][37]

A 90-minute documentary called loudQUIETloud: a film about the Pixies directed by Steven Cantor and Matthew Galkin was released in 2006. The film documents their 2004 reunion and tour, and covers the years after the break-up.[38] In addition to Pixies and LoudQUIETloud, four other Pixies' DVDs were released between 2004 and 2006, all featuring concert performances: Live at the Town and Country Club 1988,[39] The Pixies—Sell Out,[27] The Pixies Acoustic: Live in Newport,[40] and The Pixies Club Date: Live at the Paradise in Boston.[41]

Discography

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Main article: Pixies discography

See also

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References

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  14. ^ a b c Spitz, Marc (September 2004). "Life to the Pixies". Spin.
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Bibliography

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Category:4AD artists Category:Alternative rock groups from Massachusetts Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1993 Category:Musical groups established in 1986 Category:Musical groups from Boston Category:Musical groups from Massachusetts Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2004 Category:Musical quartets Category:1986 establishments in Massachusetts Category:PIAS Recordings artists

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