No Filler Music Podcast - Loud-Quiet-Loud: How Pixies Ushered In A New Dynamic With Doolittle

Episode Date: October 11, 2021

Piggy-backing off our Talking Heads and Sonic Youth episodes, we explore another trailblazer of the alt-rock post-punk variety. When Pixies released Doolittle in 1989, they carried a confidence into t...he studio that was missing from their first record. With melodic, simple song structures and Black Francis' sporadic, neurotic outbursts sprinkled throughout the record, they created a new dynamic known as "loud-quiet-loud" that helped paved the way for grunge, and countless other indie alt rock bands that followed in their footsteps. Tracklist Pixies - Debaser Pixies - I Bleed Pixies - No 13 Baby Pixies - There Goes My Gun Pixies - Gouge Away This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Pantheon is a proud partner of AKG by Harman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:36 GFCI outlets. Register for free at Home Depot.com slash workshops. The Home Depot, how doers get more done. Doolittle, after Dr. Doolittle, the man who talks to the animals, we always take a lyric from one of the songs and use that for the title, like Soper was, like, come on building. They're all from the words. So in terms of an album, title is fairly abstract and meaningless. It's just a word from a song. And it's kind of nice to cute little word because it looks like the monkey's name is doodil. It's a cute little name for a cute little monkey. Actually, it's a dead monkey stuffed. It's cute in a way. And welcome back to No Filler. The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked
Starting point is 00:02:36 hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis. I got my brother Quentin with me, as always. And that was Mr. Charles Thompson the 4th, also known as Black Francis Q. Of the Pixies in 1989, on an interview for this Dutch TV show called On Rust, explaining that the name Doodlittle for this record has very little meaning behind it other than, you know, they put a monkey on the cover. Obviously, a nod to the song, Monkey Gone to Heaven, right? But I thought it was funny that he was like, oh, it's just a cute little monkey. But wait, the monkey's actually dead.
Starting point is 00:03:19 It's a dead monkey. It's a dead monkey. It's cute. Which is funny to me because I think that's a good way to explain the dichotomy of, like, his, that they're songs, you know, like the loud screaming and stuff that he will do sometimes. on top of these like otherwise kind of like poppy traditional sounding like rock song structures, you know? Dude, we're getting right into it, man.
Starting point is 00:03:44 I'm coming right into it. But you know what I'm saying? Like that's kind of like part of their deal, right? So like, oh, look at that. It's just a cute little monkey. Then you examine it a little bit closer and it's like, oh, it's a dead monkey. So anyway, we are talking about obviously the Pixie's second record, do little, came out in 1989. we're hot off the heels of our Sonic Youth episode a couple weeks back.
Starting point is 00:04:09 If you haven't listened to that, I highly encourage it. It's probably one of our best episodes. We had Mr. David Brown. I mean, all things to David Brown, right? That's why it's our best episode. All things are you. Yeah. Yeah, we had the opportunity to sit down with Rolling Stone senior writer, David Brown,
Starting point is 00:04:28 author of the Sonic Youth Biography, Goodbye, 20th Century. and we talked about all sorts of stuff, man. But I feel like Pixies is a great, great segue from Sonic Youth. Yeah. There's a lot of similarities in the sound. But, you know, I think Pixies took more of that, like, punk and aggressive sound with the way that Black Francis approached his singing style is very distinct. When we talk about bands that influence Grunge, like Sonic Youth and Pixies are too,
Starting point is 00:05:02 fans that come up quite a bit. Yeah, and what's interesting about Pixies, and I just revisited this album today. I hadn't listened to it in years, but again, we're covering Do Little, which came out in 89. And, yeah, the big difference that I heard with them is that they did, like, some of the songs almost sound like the more radio-friendly new wave. Yeah. but with that juxtaposed like harsh and raw almost screaming kind of vocal delivery that Black Francis brought to the table. And that's, yeah, dude, they're like, if you look at Sonic Youth and what they did and like the more no wave kind of movement from post-punk,
Starting point is 00:05:48 pixies found a way to like take the radio-friendly new wave sound and put a little more aggression on. on it, but still, I mean, it's still really accessible, you know? Yeah. Like, really different. It's interesting, you said New Wave, because the producer of this record, Gil Norton, was actually the producer of the Echo and the Bunny Man record, Ocean Rain. Yeah, and that was the more, like, poppy side of the coin that was coming out of, you know, like the arena rock of the 70s and the whole, you know, the movement.
Starting point is 00:06:26 behind like trying to reinvigorate rock, you know, like you had your no wave and your post-punk that was more like, I don't know, abrasive, you know, and like purposely different. And yeah, Pixies was riding that, that line, you know, yeah, in a really unique way. And yeah, I think what makes what makes Pixies, Pixies is his vocal delivery. and like he like grew up in a Pentecostal church and I feel like he brings like the energy of like a reverend on the pulpit you know screaming about stuff like to his vocal delivery which is what makes it so interesting and like specifically now you know they even are sort of he's sort of like modest about it trying to say that like it's like they invented this
Starting point is 00:07:20 but like the the loud quiet loud dynamic of a lot of their songs is sort of like referenced as like a massive, massive way that Pixies influenced a lot of the all rock and indie stuff that would come after it, you know, so. Another thing too is, you know, you've got his vocal delivery and then you've got Kim Deal, bass player, right? You've got her like monotone, like very similar to Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth. Something about the name, Kim.
Starting point is 00:07:52 Right. bass player. Yeah, dude. But I think that's the one two punch, dude. Yeah, you're right. Black Francis and his vocal delivery alongside Kim Deal and the way she delivers her vocals, man. It's just like, man, there's nothing like it. You know, she didn't really seem to have as much of a role out in the front of the group as Kim Gordon did with Sonic Youth.
Starting point is 00:08:15 Like, you know, her vocals aren't featured prominently as much as Kim Gordon's were on Sonic Youth, right? But she's still there, you know, doing this. sort of background stuff occasionally that does really sound like Kim Gordon. And speaking of similarities, you know, she had never played bass before before as well, which I think is kind of interesting. So lots of similarities. Yeah. And one more thing here before we jump into the record.
Starting point is 00:08:42 Charles references or he points to Sonic Youth as a as an influence. So he says that, you know, he listened to a lot of Lou Reed, Iggy Pop. Hushker do, which we talked about with David and Sonic Youth and Violent Fems. And then he says that they listen to a bunch of 60 stuff as well, like Donovan and the animals. Nice. So yeah, he has a pretty well-rounded list of influences that he brought in. He said that like when he was a kid, he wanted to try out country and rock and blues, punk rock, metal, hardware reggae. He literally just like listed every type of genre just about and like tried to write.
Starting point is 00:09:22 songs in each of those genres. And you can kind of hear that throughout this record. Like there's a lot of styles and genres that are getting blended. And they all sort of go through the pixies like, you know, funnel or whatever and come out the other end as a pixie song. Yeah. All right. Anyway.
Starting point is 00:09:37 So yeah, let's jump into it here, dude. Yeah, dude, this is the music heavy episode. Like, this is it as far as history goes. We're done. Yeah, there may be some little anecdotes here and there that I throw in. But for the most part, let's just dive right into the tunes here. Yeah, we got five. Five songs to cover.
Starting point is 00:09:53 Five songs. And we could do, we could have, this could have been like our second episode, because we've only done one before with, in rainbows, where we just played every song, you know? Because like every song is so great, dude, and so different. And definitely worth listening to on no filler. And a lot of them are under, under three minutes. You know, they're not very long.
Starting point is 00:10:15 Yeah, short and sweet. So let's just jump right into the first track, dude. Yeah. And this is how the record. starts and it's a great, great way to start a record. So technically this is not a single from the record. It did appear as a single for their greatest hits type CD that came out. We get a pass on that, dude. I don't think that counts as a single. Not technically an album single. So here we go. This is the first track. This song is called debaser. So he, you know, he sets the table
Starting point is 00:12:22 right there. Like, this is what you're getting into. This is the kind of, this is it. Kind of song you're going to hear. Yeah. But yeah, like, take away his vocals. And that song, the melody and stuff like that behind that, I think like you were saying, it's kind of like a kind of your more classic sounding 80s kind of. It's got the new wave. The new wave.
Starting point is 00:12:42 Riffs. Yeah. Yeah, dude. But that's what makes it so interesting is that his voice on top of that type of song, the really simple, straightforward song is just perfect. Like, it's the perfect combination. Yeah, man. And I love the way his vocals are recorded, like, while he's just, I mean, really, he's just screaming the word debaser over and over.
Starting point is 00:13:04 Yeah. You know, it sounds almost like he's in the next room over, just screaming it over and over. And then you've got Kim Deal, just very calmly saying it alongside him. Like, it's just so cool, dude. This has always been one of my favorite songs off of this record and one of my favorite pixie songs. Yeah, well, that's something that they, you know, the simplicity of the. songs like, you know, they said that they tried really hard during the rehearsal sessions and stuff, making the demos and whatnot, like when they were perfecting these songs to just,
Starting point is 00:13:37 like, distill them down into like the most simplest form. Because I think that's, that's what makes it work so well is just how simple, like, the template is, I guess, the, uh, the base of the song, you know, if you will. And then like what he does on top of it. Are you saying the bass of the song? Debaser. Talking about the debaser of the song. So, Q, do you know what this song is about? No, I want to know what that Spanish line is over and over.
Starting point is 00:14:05 Well, that is the name of the movie that he's talking about, Kew, got me a movie. Oh, okay. And he talks about slicing up eyeballs. Yeah, yeah. That is a reference to the movie of the name of that lyric that he's apparently mispronouncing, but I'm going to say like he said it, unchain andelugia. that is the name of this like French film from the 20s starring.
Starting point is 00:14:29 Well, how do you pronounce it correctly, try? I have no clue. I think I'm going to look that on. I like saying it like he says it Q. Anyway, but it's called In Chin and DeLu. He's kind of mispronouncing it like he's adding some player to it there. But anyway, apparently there's a scene in which this woman's eyes sliced open with a straight razor. Oh, wow.
Starting point is 00:14:50 It's an artsy French film. Anyway, so like he's literally just talking about this movie really. And so apparently, you know, ever since this song came out, like that movie is sort of this, you know, well-known film that people watch in college and art school and shit like that because, you know, you got to see the scene, right? You can't hear about slicing up eyeballs and not want to go see the scene that he's talking about. Anyway, I mean, I don't necessarily want to see it. Dude, tis the season. It's October. This is the time to watch horror movies, man. Sure.
Starting point is 00:15:26 Anyway, apparently Salvador Dali is featured in the film, which is kind of cool, right? Is he the one slicing up the eyeballs? I don't know. You know, I didn't actually look it up, Q. Okay. Anyway, so I wanted to talk about his approach to songwriting because when you know that his approach is music first, lyrics second, I think it's kind of interesting. because then it's more like, you know, what fits with this music, right, I guess, or just like more random. And anyway, there's a really interesting clip I'm going to play from this interview that I queued us in for the intro where he talks about this kind of stuff.
Starting point is 00:16:08 So here we go. I'm going to jump back into this interview. He's talking about his songwriting process. I do my lyrics at the very, very last minute. I'm more into making music and coming up with poetic structure. and accents and anti-exence. And then the lyrics come after, I make a big shape like this,
Starting point is 00:16:29 you know, and then I keep giving him more shape and shape and shape and shape. And then at the very end, when I need lyrics the day before I go sing in the studio, I take it out and I define it. And, you know, so I come up with the structure first. I think you're right, Que. I think he's a little full of himself here.
Starting point is 00:16:44 But I mean, that's what I said, behind the scenes, behind the scenes while I was playing. Anyway, if you're listening to what he's saying there, he focuses on the accents and the quiet parts while he's writing the song. He doesn't really know what the lyrics are going to be necessarily. The funny thing is I, that's how Nathan Forrester of Grass Fight, the band that I was in for half a second,
Starting point is 00:17:07 he would approach his songwriting the same way where he would, we would be working on songs and he wouldn't have the lyrics yet and he would just sort of like hum, you know, into the, make the sound that maybe would work for the melody. He wouldn't have the lyrics yet. Well, yeah. A lot of musicians go that route to. But that is cool that he said, like, a quiet part in the instrumentals that were, you know, being formed for the song would be, would translate to a quiet part in the way that he sings a line. Well, he's, yeah, and I think he's saying that he's actually trying to determine as he's writing a song, okay, this part's going to be, I'm going to be more quiet here.
Starting point is 00:17:44 I'm going to have some accent here that I add on. to the word and then you listen to the baser the the moments where he's like really screaming and emphasizing the word he may have already planned on doing that didn't really matter what the words were going to be right anyway the way that he kind of breaks it down um i i always like hearing you know the way that songwriters especially like when they're young like this guy it's like sometimes you wonder like how what's how does their brain work when they do this kind of stuff because you know he was tapping into something that was relatively at least different enough to make this record stand out with like the the way that he approached his vocals like what was going on in his mind you know i mean look at this baby face man
Starting point is 00:18:27 this guy is so young when he wrote this i wonder what he must have been in his 20s right anyway yeah yeah and the fact that it came out in 89 dude it's still kind of hard to believe let's jump to our next song here dude we're gonna just blow right through this So let's see I guess honorable mentions I almost had wave of mutilation as a pick for my son Is that one not a single? No, it's not.
Starting point is 00:18:52 So the single, let's talk about the singles. The singles are Here Comes Your Man and Monkey Gone to Heaven. I thought Wave of Mutilation was a single too. I would have put money on it. But we're going to jump to track four here and this song to me, dude,
Starting point is 00:19:07 this is like a grunge template, dude. Yeah, dude. Totally. You can hear so much of the of the grunge influence from this song. And again, 89. Just keep that in mind. This is before grunge hit. Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:19:21 It was right around the corner. All right. So this song is called I bleed. You can hear the influence that they had on so many bands in the 90s. And beyond, dude. And you can absolutely hear the influence that, like, violent fims had on them. it's the lazy vocal delivery where it's almost no singing involved, you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean.
Starting point is 00:21:38 Like he's just talking. And that's where that's where Kim, as the background singer of this song, like I love the way they do it because to me, I think she's providing some more of the singing melody type of yeah. And he's just like saying it, you know, kind of reminded me of, you know, we talked about talking heads. I guess that was two weeks ago, right? Three weeks ago.
Starting point is 00:21:58 Three weeks ago, yeah. And born under punches. which came out just about a decade prior to this. He was just sort of talking the lines, right? Yeah. Saying the lines. And then they had some vocalists in the background just sort of singing the melodies or something.
Starting point is 00:22:14 But what I liked about this was that like they were singing the same words together. But she was like singing them and he was like just speaking them, you know? And it just works really well in this song. Yeah. Dude, in verse two, like he's just having fun with it, man. When he's like, nobody knows. Now, to me, he's doing. and like nobody knows the trouble I see that that song.
Starting point is 00:22:35 Yeah. Doesn't it sound like that? Yes. The way he's doing it. I think that's what he's doing. They were the more like lighthearted side of the coin in the post-punk world. But then they were mixing in those like more standard kind of pop songs, you know, kind of structure that you'd hear from from the more like radio friendly New Wave stuff that was coming out in the 80s. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:59 I think they are like he's very playful and stuff with the way he. he delivers the lyrics and stuff, but the actual words and the themes that he sings about, he talks a lot about like religious, religious imagery and stuff like that, you know, things like drugs and, you know,
Starting point is 00:23:17 depression and all that kind of classic stuff, right? But it's always, you know, delivered in this kind of playful way like you're saying there. And yeah, that nobody knows lying is a perfect example of that. Yeah. You never know what you're going to get.
Starting point is 00:23:32 Like, you know, you have no clue what you're... From track to track, dude. Well, yeah, where he's going to take the vocals. There's actually a quote here from the producer, like I was saying, Gil Norton. He says, I always think of those sort of albums as a roller coaster ride. Once you got on it, you don't want to get off because it twists and turns in all these different directions. Ah, I love that. The perfect explanation of this record, too.
Starting point is 00:23:57 Yeah, perfect. Because there's so many different genres that you're going to hear. and then you're going to get the pixie stamp on it, you know. I'm shocked that it took us three years to talk about the pixies, man. Yeah. All right. Well, let's jump to the next track here, dude, since we're just rolling through it here. And we're going to talk about, we're going to jump down the record quite a bit to track 11.
Starting point is 00:24:22 And this song is called number 13 baby. You know what this reminds me of, dude. His lyrics. reminds me a lot of stuff dude but yeah you go ahead and then i'll tell you about what i think of i quoted from that interview with um i can't remember the name off the top of my head dude but the the singer in underworld when he was talking about how you know when they came back and did a hundred days off he started to kind of write songs kind of more in like a conversational way yeah like you know with just writing all the details of like the room that he's in or like the t-shirt that someone's
Starting point is 00:27:01 wearing in a conversation that he's having stuff like that where it's like really just the small little tiny details like that's I've always liked that about about pixie's music yeah this is um it's hard to know what this is about but in an interview an 89 interview with neme black Francis said, this is a collage of images of when I was growing up in L.A. Number 13 traditionally means bad luck, but in America, especially in the 60s, among bikers and Chicano's, the number 13th letter of the alphabet, M for marijuana. It's a really goofy subculture, but it's kind of funny, and even today you can see it spray painted on walls. The meter boys number 13. So it is about a Mexican girl or a Samoan girl, a boyish sexual adolescent collage of Southern California living.
Starting point is 00:27:54 That's, they go. Wow, dude. Learn something new every day, man. There you go. You heard it here first from Black Francis himself in 89. So yeah, he's singing from the perspective of himself as an adolescent boy saying to himself, you know, he wants one of those girls he sees on the street corner with the 13 tattooed on her body. On her tit. On her tit, specifically.
Starting point is 00:28:17 detailed not not worth overlooking so anyway um yeah so vocally i man i hear a lot of jack white in this you know how jack white does this quite a bit so there's got to be something to be said about jack white um being influenced by black francis perhaps well and the way that he sings yeah yeah and then let me let me let me hear it dude are you hearing early spoon as well Well, because I sure do. I didn't hear it, but I'm going to listen now for it, dude. Early. I'm talking, you know, their early EP's, telephone owns.
Starting point is 00:28:56 Like soft effects? Yeah, soft effects and telephono, big time. And I think this is just a couple years later is when I was going to say, like, yeah, it was around the same time. Yeah. Man. So anyway. Love it, dude.
Starting point is 00:29:08 That's what I'm saying, man. Like, they influenced so many bands. And I, dude, you know what? I also heard, I don't know if it was this one or the last song. I forgot to bring it up, but you can hear the Sonic Youth influence on him for sure. And the way that Thurston Moore sings, too. And that's something that comes up time and time again in David Brown's book on Sonic Youth. They were never going to make it on the radio, you know, like because of his singing voice.
Starting point is 00:29:38 Thurston's singing voice and Kim Gordon's. But there was something about the way the Black Francis sang that worked because they became way more. successful, I think. Well, here's what I think, dude, it has to be that. Melodies. Paired with, yeah, paired with the more radio-friendly new wave kind of, you know, side to the post-punk coin. They were trying to make simple songs, I think.
Starting point is 00:30:03 Right. To work with. That's the opposite of what Sonic Youth was doing. Yeah, yeah. Well, hey, real quick, I wanted to, all we've been talking about is Black Prances here. So let me name the rest of the, I guess we talked about Kim, too. let me name the other two players here. So Joey Santiago on lead guitar, and he also did backing vocals.
Starting point is 00:30:24 And then David Lovering is the drummer. Apparently, he's also the lead vocalist on track 10, La La Love You, and he plays bass guitar on a track called Silver. All right, anyway. So I actually have another clip here from number 13, baby. there's a really cool outro kind of jam if you will that kind of happens at the end and we're going to let this just fade into the very next track there goes my gun all right so here's the the second part of number 13 baby i think we need to revisit that quote from him dude when francis was saying you know we really worked on sounding simple that's a great example of how they
Starting point is 00:34:27 pulled that off like they totally they nailed it dude they kept it simple but in such a cool way well this is such a simple yeah simple simple song like I mean just the premise behind the lyrics the song itself like you can kind of see why
Starting point is 00:34:43 if the music came before the lyrics it sure sounds like it could be like a Western kind of theme song and apparently that's you know the story is just just, you know, apparently the narrator, the person you're hearing, you know, see these things, just encounters an unarmed person, feels threatened, and then shoots them.
Starting point is 00:35:03 I mean, that's a tale as oldest time in the wild, wild west. Once that gun came out, yeah. I just, I love this song, dude. It sounds almost like a song that came out 30 years prior to this record. I don't know how to describe it, dude. It's just really straightforward, yeah. Yeah, but like it's almost got like a 60s vibe to it. I think that maybe is in part to Kim deal her background vocals.
Starting point is 00:35:33 Like the back and forth kind of vocals. The way she's kind of singing it kind of playfully like really like you said, I think there's definitely a 60s vibe. Yeah, I love it, man. Yeah. And let's do you know what dude. You have to for one you have to have a producer that's going to allow you to to just kind of explore the, I don't know, the limits of the space in which you're recording.
Starting point is 00:35:58 The way that they are recording his vocals, it sounds like he's, you know, very far away from the mic. Yeah, the first where he says, look at me. He's definitely yelling it from a, from a distance to kind of tell this story. Right. And you have to, I mean, you've got to be a confident lead singer, you know, like he's got, he's just, he knows. He knows.
Starting point is 00:36:18 He knows. Now, the story there's a little bit of a, apparently like their first record, or at least the way that the producer of that record, Steve Albini, I think his name is, the producer of Sera Rosa was saying that like it seemed like a band that was, you know, a little unsure of themselves or like, you know, could be malleable. In other words, like, if he felt the need to take the song in a direction, he didn't have to fight hard to do it. it. Like, that's what he probably meant by that. Like, it was their first record, you know. So by the time they get to Do Little, they had more confidence. And they had already worked on the demos and stuff and then knew they had some good songs.
Starting point is 00:36:59 But it's funny that you should say that because I have a quote here from, from Gil, the producer of Do Little, saying that, you know, there are these great ideas for songs, but he didn't feel that they had been fleshed out. And so he was trying to do, trying to get, I guess trying to have the band flesh it out, maybe do more things with it. And then Charles apparently got frustrated one day. And he went to Tower Records and pulled out a bunch of Buddy Holly records, like Greatest Hits records and was like, look at this.
Starting point is 00:37:30 There's this line. He said, look at this. And he turned over the record of the Buddy Holly greatest hits. And most of the songs were barely over two minutes or whatever. And if they were, then they were like the quote unquote epic songs or whatever. So anyway, he was like going back to the, you know, to the, you know, to the, the greats that came before I'm going to be like look man I don't need to make this any more complicated than it needs to be so so Gil was like look man I feel like we need to flesh out this
Starting point is 00:37:55 idea a little more yeah and and in black francis so hang on his name's charles his name is very confusing he goes by black francis that's his stage name or whatever so yeah just just a reminder his name is charles but his name is charles but he's reference we've been referencing him is both charles and black well that's that's what he goes by under you know that's his pixie stage name yeah yeah but that but that's funny dude he's like look we're keeping it simple. That's what we're trying to do. But that's the thing like... Look at these buddy Holly songs.
Starting point is 00:38:22 Right. And I think, what are you going to say? Right. If you're a producer, what are you going to say to that, right? Right. It's like Buddy Holly. So my hands are tied here, I guess you're right. But that, but that's funny. But no, it's good that he fought for that because it works so well.
Starting point is 00:38:37 Like it sounds to me like on their first full-length surfer Rosa, maybe he didn't have that confidence to push back on the producer, you know? Right. And like, make his case for. a simpler song. So when you listen to number 13 baby, that little outro that we played in the end, that seems to me like, you know, maybe Black Francis, Charles, if you prefer to call him, Charles, maybe Charles, you know, I prefer like Francis. Well, there you go. He felt like, you know what, let's draw this jam session out and tack the son at the end of the song because I think it works
Starting point is 00:39:11 really well. So he must have felt strongly about that, that outro, because, the rest of the songs are really straightforward and don't really have those long drawn out instrumental sections at all. And that is the longest song, isn't it? I think so, yeah. Yeah. Not even four minutes long, man. Yeah. I think I mentioned this a few episodes ago. I really love it when when bands either, you know, have a really long intro before they start singing or they have a really long outro. So anyway, I just love it when that happens. Yeah, dude, me too. Okay, we got one more song here. We got the very last track. All right, this song is called Gouge Away. Did they record these live, like, you know, in the same room?
Starting point is 00:41:54 I think he did. I think there are some songs where, like, he would record the vocals, like, in the closet or something like that to try to get a certain sound. But, yeah, I think most of them were live, yeah. Man, this is one of those bands that I wish I would have cared about earlier on so that I could have caught them live in their prime. And I'm sure they're still. Well, yeah, they had a breakup, but a reunion. I think in like 2004. I've yet to see them live and I would love to catch one of their shows.
Starting point is 00:42:26 Yeah. Well, I mean, you may or may not know this cute, but Kim Deal went on to to form the breeders with her twin sister, which is, you know, another very well-known 90s act. Yeah. You know, cannonball is kind of like their huge, huge hit that everybody knows. But anyway, so yeah, they had a breakup and then they, you know, Black Francis did, he's done a bunch of solo stuff. So there's all sorts of solo records out there. I think he goes under like Frank Black or something like that. But anyway. Yeah, dude, what a great way to end an album. Yeah. I mean,
Starting point is 00:43:02 you start with the basser, you end with gouge away. Let's talk about the lyrics, dude. The lyrics are kind of fun. It's talking about the Samson and Delilah story from the Bible. Oh, from the Bible. Yeah, because when you basically sing like, hey, yeah, sure, gouge away. Gouge my eyes out. See if I care. I'm want to come back stronger. Apparently, I think the story, if I remember correctly, is he gets his hair cut off and he loses his strength. Something about his eyes getting gouged out or something. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:43:32 And then his hair grows back and he, he, you know, crumbles the temple or whatever. I see the one that fights the giant, man, I don't remember. I don't remember my Sunday school. David. That's David. Oh, my bad. David and Goliath. David and Glyth.
Starting point is 00:43:45 Okay. So yeah, okay, here we go. Samson had his eyes gouged out by enemy Philistines after his. wife Delilah betrayed him by shaving his head in his sleep. Oh, yeah, that makes so much sense. Right. And so apparently, right. Anyway, but that's the story.
Starting point is 00:44:01 Like, you know, he gets his strength back somehow and then he gets his revenge in the end, right? Because he tears down the palace or the temples or whatever and kills everybody. So I think that's the idea. Like, Goway, I'll come back stronger. You know what I mean? Right. You can damage me, but I'll come back. Anyway.
Starting point is 00:44:19 So yeah, dude, it's a great record. Great record. And we got, we got, we got, we got more greatness coming just around the corner because I feel like the perfect transition from this band. It's, there's only one band we could do. I really do feel I wake you. Yep. Modest mouse.
Starting point is 00:44:38 We're going to talk about modest mouse next, next week. And do we have? They've always felt like kindred spirits to me. Yeah. Yeah. Mice Mouse and Pixies. Sure. Now, I think we're going to do just a.
Starting point is 00:44:49 Are we going to hone in on one record? Because I think we need to do one of their early records if we do. Yeah, I say we do some tracks from the Lonesome Credit West and then Moon in Antarctica. Because I feel like from those two albums is when, I mean, they start to change. And maybe some people might say for the worse or some might say for the better. But like those are two good albums to kind of see where they went with their sound. because if you listen to their first two records, to me, they're just like a perfect, like jam band. Like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:45:24 They just have like a jam band. Let's just get in a room and play music and see where it takes this kind of vibe. That's how I always think of them, their early stuff at least. It just sounds like jam sessions, you know, like improv almost. Well, I confess, dude, I don't have too much familiarity with their early stuff. I really don't. So. Same with Lones, some crowded West, dude.
Starting point is 00:45:47 Yeah. This is going to be new stuff to me, really. That's exciting. So, I mean, should I not listen? Don't you dare. I'll bring. I'll bring the goods. I'll bring the goods.
Starting point is 00:45:57 I'm going to have some live reactions here. Yeah. You know, I'm probably familiar with, you know, a track or two here and there. Does doing the cockroach mean anything to you? It means nothing. Oh. Okay. Well, we're not, I don't think we're going to play that song.
Starting point is 00:46:11 But. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That's all I need to hear, dude. If that doesn't mean anything to you, then, yeah, we're in for some treats for Mr. Travis. Okay. Next week.
Starting point is 00:46:22 I like being in for treats, dude. All right. Well, that's next week. From there, who knows where we'll go? Well, we know because we've planned out the next few weeks. We've planned it out. Yeah, we got some goodies in store for you guys. I'm really pumped for where we're heading after this, dude.
Starting point is 00:46:40 It's going to be fun, man. I think so, yeah. You know, limitless fun, basically. We could just stay. We're basically, we're steering into the 2000s, right? And we're just going to stay in there for the foreseeable future. And our wheelhouse, yeah. Our wheelhouse, yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:55 Yep, yep, yep, yep. All right. Well, that's it, man. So, hey, why don't you follow us on Instagram? We've been having all sorts of fun on Instagram. So, yeah, just look for No Filler podcast and Instagram. Follow us there. You can still follow us on Twitter.
Starting point is 00:47:11 We're just not as active on their. They're actually about as active as we ever were because we were never active on Twitter. Yeah. But I just wasn't feeling the vibes on Twitter for a long time, dude. We weren't getting any love on there. We didn't know that the Instagram was where it's at. So anyway, follow us on Instagram. And hey, you know what?
Starting point is 00:47:35 It's been a while since we've talked about that microphone in front of your face. The AKG Lyra microphone is. a real beauty, dude. I'm a big fan of it. We got hooked up with their podcaster essentials kit, which is the AKG Lyra microphone and this lovely headphones, dude, that I don't know the name of the headphones, you know, off the top of my head. I think it's got some letters and numbers in it, but I, this is the most comfortable pair of headphones I've ever owned. Really, dude, I could wear this all day. I could walk around all day with these headphones on my dumb and you know not then they wouldn't be uncomfortable at all and you'd be like oh shit i forgot i was
Starting point is 00:48:20 wearing headphones absolutely it's pretty nuts dude because you know you can attest to this i can't as well after like an hour most headphones are starting to hurt my lobes dude you know i can tell you right now the ones i'm wearing yeah yeah it starts to get uncomfortable after a while and these are not the AKG headphones that you've got so and what we've decided what i've decided after using this pair, these headphones, this mic. If you are looking to start a podcast, get yourself the AKG podcaster essentials kit. It's a no-brainer, dude. It comes with the AKG Lyra microphone. You know, that's what's recording my voice right now, coming in buttery smooth. And this pair of headphones, it comes with Ableton Live Light, which is like the lighter version of Ableton,
Starting point is 00:49:10 which is the recording program that I use to piece together this episode. That's what I'm recording my vocals in right now, dude. It comes with all of that for a really reasonable price, dude. Like, it's really a no-brainer. Get yourself the AKG Podcast or Essentials Kit if you are looking to start a podcast yourself. And yeah, so thank you, AKG, for supporting the show. And as always, you can find us on the Pantheon Podcast Network. That is the podcast network for music lovers.
Starting point is 00:49:43 We've got over 60 shows now. All music centered, lots of great shows in the network. That is our family. You can find us at pantheonpodcasts.com. And yeah, that's it. Next week, we're coming at you with some modest mouse. And until then, thank you, as always, for listening. My name is Quentin.
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