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June 28, 2013 8:03 AM

Alt-rock stalwarts the Pixies have released their first new song in nine years, "Bagboy."

The song and accompanying video were posted on the Pixies' website today. In a statement to the press, lead singer Black Francis (aka Frank Black, aka Charles Thompson) also discussed the origins of the track. "Bagboy" is the first new music the band has recorded since 2004, when they released the single "Bam Thwok" and contributed a cover of "Ain't That Pretty at All" to a Warren Zevon tribute album.

The song comes just a few weeks after the announcement that Kim Deal is leaving the band. Deal was a founding member of the band and has toured with them since their 2004 reunion.

posted by Rangeboy (40 comments total)

This. Is. Awesome!
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:15 AM on June 28, 2013

Goddamn Pixies. This is awesome. My wife is going to get a kick out of this.

And today's her birthday! I'll be sure she sends them a thank-you note!
posted by grubi at 8:17 AM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oh weird, with the machine drums and anthem guitars. Sounds like Possum Dixon.

(I've come to realize that Kim's the best part of the Pixies, and am kinda glad she'll be making more Breeders music instead of more Pixies music, even though the Pixies were my favorite band for a looooooooong time. Sad I've never seen 'em, but it's always been logistically impossible.)
posted by klangklangston at 8:19 AM on June 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

And I like how it becomes more of a Pixies song as it goes on — it starts out as kind of oddly embarrassing, like they think they're doing something really forward and it still sounds like a throwback.
posted by klangklangston at 8:20 AM on June 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yeah, at this point in my life Breeders > Pixies. And even if that weren't true, I'd be happy that Kim is going to be spending more time with a band that actually releases albums with some regularity.
posted by koeselitz at 8:22 AM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

I love Kim but I'm pretty sure she was the one who didn't want to release more Pixies albums. Hence there being a release immediately after she left.
posted by frenetic at 8:23 AM on June 28, 2013

no.
posted by eyeballkid at 8:28 AM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

klangklangston: "I've come to realize that Kim's the best part of the Pixies,"

Which leads me to link to the best summarization of the Pixies ever.
posted by namewithoutwords at 8:30 AM on June 28, 2013 [5 favorites]

(though it's a mite better than "Bam Thwok" *shudder*)
posted by eyeballkid at 8:30 AM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is 70% vaguely embarrassing and 30% fucking great.
posted by naju at 8:33 AM on June 28, 2013 [6 favorites]

between this, the new NIN video (directed by David Lynch) and a new Mr. Oizo track (ft. Marilyn Manson)... I'm 15 again.
posted by raihan_ at 8:34 AM on June 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

My one time seeing the Pixies was when they played an all-acoustic set at the Newport Folk Festival, which actually turned out to be a really good show. I almost lost a foot because I insisted on standing the whole time even though my whole lower right leg was swollen to the size of a telephone pole after a yellowjacket sting, but it was worth it.
posted by invitapriore at 8:36 AM on June 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Richard Thompson played there too, now that I think of it! That was a good day.
posted by invitapriore at 8:37 AM on June 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

frenetic: “I love Kim but I'm pretty sure she was the one who didn't want to release more Pixies albums. Hence there being a release immediately after she left.”

And a wise decision that seems to have been, in my estimation. It must be really weird to still be in a once-groundbreaking band that has been reduced to a cover band of itself. Of course, I saw the Pixies do Come On Pilgrim live a few years ago, and it was pretty great. So they were a fine cover band of themselves. Still.
posted by koeselitz at 8:39 AM on June 28, 2013

Which leads me to link to the best summarization of the Pixies ever.

Chris Morris puts it into practice: Motherbanger
posted by permafrost at 8:44 AM on June 28, 2013 [7 favorites]

"UPDATE: Kim Deal is not on the track, a publicist confirms. Frank Black collaborator Jeremy Dubs played bass, and Joey Santiago, David Lovering, and Dubs did the backing vocals."
posted by naju at 9:01 AM on June 28, 2013

The loss of Kim is sad, but the fact that Pixies exist is a cause for celebration.

MotherBanger is fantastic!
posted by arcticseal at 9:04 AM on June 28, 2013

Oh weird, with the machine drums and anthem guitars. Sounds like Possum Dixon.

Good call
posted by snottydick at 9:14 AM on June 28, 2013

For my money, Liam Lynch has the best fake Pixies song.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:24 AM on June 28, 2013 [5 favorites]

I dunno, Bob Mould's Pixies homage/ripoff with Sugar is pretty good.
posted by Rangeboy at 9:35 AM on June 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Not to mention the major-key version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". In spite of Cobain famously calling the song a Pixies ripoff, I never really heard it until somebody made the digitally-transposed version.
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:42 AM on June 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Strange Interlude > Not to mention the major-key version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". In spite of Cobain famously calling the song a Pixies ripoff, I never really heard it until somebody made the digitally-transposed version.


That was ... wrong. Just wrong. Transposing it into a major key makes it sound almost happy.



I think someone said it already, but with this Pixies track (and now listening to Smells Like Teen Spirit), I'm feeling 16 all over again. "You'll think I'm dead, but I sail awaaaaaay on a wave of mutilation..."
posted by zooropa at 9:48 AM on June 28, 2013

There's a story about (Metallica's lead singer) James Hetfield hearing a Moby remix of their music, and reacting vicerally by ripping the CD player out of the wall, and hurling it off the tour bus.

Which is how I feel about this track.
posted by The River Ivel at 10:21 AM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

The best part of this song is the first "bag boys" bit where Jeremy Dubs sounds reminiscent of Kim Deal, before Black Francis comes back in sounding strained (and not in an intentional/conscious way). The second best part is the bit of screaming nearer to the end. Those parts are great but nothing special for the band. The rest of the song is really weak.

The way Black Francis sounds in this track does not leave me expecting to enjoy much if any of the album.
posted by mountmccabe at 10:45 AM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is 70% vaguely embarrassing and 30% fucking great.

I'm not sure I'd use those proportions (maybe 80/20 in favor of great), but isn't the tension between fucking great and embarrassing a big part of what has always fueled their music?

And I like how it becomes more of a Pixies song as it goes on

Which is to say, starts off as a Frank Black solo cut, then the rest of the band asserts itself as it goes on.

Thanks for posting this, Rangeboy. I've been thinking about the Pixies lately and listing to old tracks but hadn't really sought any news about them.
posted by aught at 10:59 AM on June 28, 2013

Sounds more like bad McLusky than Pixies.
posted by dobbs at 11:02 AM on June 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

Bad McLusky? You mean Future of the Left?
posted by klangklangston at 11:16 AM on June 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

They were so awful last I saw them live that I can't forgive them. It was beyond even Eagles-level phoning it in. They played "Wave of Mutilation" twice. TWICE. I scraped for a month and worked extra shifts to have the money and the time off to go see what had been my favorite band in the world and then they took a big steaming shit in my lap with a perfunctory hour-long set. They were practically looking at their watches onstage. I can forgive an off night, or sound problems, or maybe a cold had been going around. It happens. I can't forgive "we are just here for the paycheck, thanks, suckers." Fuck the Pixies.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:22 AM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Hmmm. They seem to have picked up a mild Soul Cough along the way.
posted by sourwookie at 12:36 PM on June 28, 2013

Well, that was disappointing.
posted by mrgrimm at 1:14 PM on June 28, 2013

I saw the Breeders last week, and it really drove home how much more I like them than Pixies overall. My favorite Pixies songs I really love, but after that I skip everything (on top of that, Kim's "Gigantic" might be my #1 Pixies song). I could listen to all of Last Splash on repeat for a while.

Also, I saw Kim at Heathrow a couple days later, looking for her gate.
posted by aaronetc at 2:48 PM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

They played "Wave of Mutilation" twice. TWICE.

They often would do the "UK Surf" & regular album versions in the same show. It's just part of the general setlist-humor they've always traded in, like the alphabetical sets of yore. When I saw them in '04 they, two separate times in the show, stopped at the break in one song, went into a second song, played that one through, and then instantly went back into the first song. Sorry if you saw a bad show but that kind of stuff is a feature not a bug.
posted by anazgnos at 4:04 PM on June 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Hmmm. They seem to have picked up a mild Soul Cough along the way.

It takes a Doughty soul indeed to make it through a bout with Soul Coughing.
posted by Strange Interlude at 4:43 PM on June 28, 2013

They were so awful last I saw them live that I can't forgive them.

I don't know when that was, but the Pixies were, to my mind, always an awful live band, and I saw them twice in their prime. Both gigs I went to, the opening band mopped the floor with them. Once it was Pere Ubu, so that's not surprising, but the other time it was My Dad is Dead--a one man band for chrissakes.
posted by dobbs at 5:39 PM on June 28, 2013

They were so awful last I saw them live that I can't forgive them.

Same here. It was like the band was now a factory producing songs that sounded exactly like the records with no passion whatsoever.

There are are 2 full length docs on YouTube (1), (2), the first of which I disagree with completely in that their later work wasn't very good, I thought it improved greatly.
posted by juiceCake at 9:27 PM on June 28, 2013

Expected to be disappointed. Was not disappointed. Not really getting the negative reaction to this. Sure, it's not the greatest Pixies song ever - that's a pretty tall order - but it has enough of what makes me like the Pixies to make me like it quite a lot.
posted by Decani at 2:10 AM on June 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

Does anyone else feel slightly squicked out by the video?
posted by Kitteh at 5:13 AM on June 29, 2013

Surely that's the point.
posted by Grangousier at 7:00 AM on June 29, 2013

Saw them in 2004 at Manhattan Center and what struck me was how bad the sound was for the opener -- Mission of Burma, for god's sake -- and how annoying it was when Thompson et al had hissy fits about two songs in. Sell the legend, cos' live wasn't all that.
posted by AJaffe at 7:00 PM on June 29, 2013

I live in a word where The Pixies have a new song, after they stopped being The Pixies.

That seems right.
posted by Mezentian at 7:01 AM on June 30, 2013 [1 favorite]