Yo, Pixies, I'm a big fan and I'm really happy for you, and I'ma let this dude from The American Spectator finish, but your new video "Snakes" is most definitely not "the best music video of the post-MTV era."
That's not to say the article isn't without its charms. I do quite like this bit about the declime of the big budget video empire:
The paradox of music videos is that they grew worse as their budgets grew better. Initially, too-literal visual interpretations of lyrics, cheap, clichéd images such as smashing glass, and singers earnestly acting as actors signaled disaster. Later, when the productions resembled, in budget at least, a typical James Cameron film, the pretentiousness clashed with the inherently kitsch format. Think “November Rain.” Aspiring to make an epic music video misses the point.
So, go ahead and read more at The American Spectator. And watch that Pixies video, which we actually quite like, even if I would hesitate to call it "positively Shyamalanian if not Hitchcockian." I do agree with "oddball" and "off-kilter," however.
Magdalena is a an egg eating, rice showering dude named Nando Messias who will kick your ass. It's also the name of this new Pixies song, which also might kick your ass.
The Pixies may have figured out a good workflow for doing biz in the modern music world: Screw albums. Screw leaks. Just surprise release EPs with a music video or two — and timing that release right before a new leg of touring also ain't dumb. Offer the tracks as cheap downloads, plus a few reasonably priced bundles for the diehard fans.
The song itself is plays like "Subacultcha" 2.0, but with way more cowbell. And the video is appropriately evil and awesome.
Matthew Newman aka Mount Emult, director/animator/editor: It seems to me that the Pixies are interested in giving forward thinking newer video artists the chance to be creative on their own terms. I worked a lot with Charles on videos for his Grand Duchy project and then when videos were being considered for the new Pixies material he asked me to contribute. I got a few songs and picked out Blue Eyed Hexe. I think it fuckin rules and so i wanted to make a video for it. I collect imagery from all over and then I just sort of improvise on different themes and clues from the song eventually sculpting it into something that is free but also has some narrative elements to it. It is a dream come true to have a video for the Pixies to my name.
Flying monkeys, ninjas, a giant baby and a whale, oh my...
If Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can become a hit animated children's show, then why not the Pixies. Join Black Francis and the gang in this adventurous and imaginative clip that hints at a potential new frontier for the alt legends to conquer...
Don't look for the Pixies here — instead "Andro Queen" stars Austin singer/songwriter Shakey Graves with NYC musician Marco Benevento appears in his Tiger Face guise, and actress Crystal Oullette, as Dig documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner delivers a hazy road video.
The drugs don't always work for "Indie Cindy," a young woman who's caught up in a situation that gets more and more messed-up as directors LAMAR+NIK rewind, pause and play other tricks with the video footage.
Also of note — in fact, it's more than a sidenote — is that this is the second "surprise" video that L+N deliver for the rejuvenated PIXIES...
The Pixies were never a music video band. Makes sense. After all this is a band whose best songs were never the proper singles, who had no interest in looking like a rock band, was happy to arrange a concert set in alphabetical order and hated lip-syncing.
For instance, their other best known video, "Here Comes You Man," had Black Francis and crew employing an open-gaping mouth style instead of lip-syncing, and they look happily uncomfortable (by which I mean: The cringeworthyness is on purpose). Probably not a surprise they're not in their new video for "Bag Boy" — which like all things Pixies is curiously timed, coming just when you think the band is officially, finally over.
The classic Pixies video is their cover of the Jesus & Mary Chain's "Head On," which was born out of the band's insistance that the only way they make a music was if they did it live. No lipsync, no playing along to a track, no nonsense. The band sets up, plays, and gets out.
So the idea was born: Twelve 16mm cameras arranged to capture the band from various distances with different focal points. The resulting footage was then displayed on a 4x3 grid, creating a sort of mix-and-match effect that has the band looking fantastically odd.
Milk baths should be taken with fruit loops. Flares and Roman Candles can be used indoors, with caution. There is such a thing as too many balloons. Lessons abound in this first new Pixies video in forever, "Bag Boy," a modular sort of preacher jam that you can download for free.
Directors Lamar+Nik mostly steer clear of the paperwork that has defined much of their work to date — although there is a small moment of cardboard "Magnolia" lettering — focusing instead on a teenage creep who will either never be left home along again, or is a very silly home invader.
