Pixies: Do Little
Loudquietloud: A Film About the PixiesMud Visual
“We don’t talk to each other very much,” confesses Frank Black midway through the third Pixies DVD in a year. “That’s just the type of people we are.” Throughout this reunion-tour-doc’s 85 minutes, this — and little else about the group’s dynamic — becomes painfully clear. For a band whose music is so riddled with tension, its story, or at least the one depicted here, is drama-free, even as the members reconvene after 12 years.
One reason the Pixies were so lionized is that as inscrutable as their songs were, the band looked (and behaved) like chess-club nerds — Cocksucker Blues high jinks are not to be expected. But given the acrimony that followed the band’s split and the reunion’s evolution from cautious experiment to surprise blockbuster, there should be a story to tell here. Instead, it’s all awkward silences. Only when drummer/magic geek David Lovering pops Valium after his dad dies — and suffers an onstage meltdown — does the film find a moment of conflict. The concert footage is reliably intense, but given that a quality live DVD just came out, performances aren’t reason enough to buy this.
