Pitchfork

Are the Pixies still the Pixies? The four musicians performing the 28 tracks on Hey!: Live Pixies 2004-2005, which were culled from performances in 17 cities, are the same four people who performed together in small venues during the late 1980s and early 90s, who recorded the influential and beloved albums Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, and whose conflicting egos led to their infamous demise via fax machine. The line-up remains the same-- octopus-armed David Lovering on drums, Joey Santiago on guitar, bassist Kim Deal, and Charles Michael Kittridge "Frank Black Francis" Thompson IV leading the group down into the depths among the crustaceans and sea gods-- but the band itself seems noticeably different: The Pixies' legacy has solidified in the 12 years since their breakup, which inevitably affects how its members play their music and how we hear it.

Released initially through eMusic.com (and later this month via other internet retailers), Hey! includes popular choices like "Here Comes Your Man" and two versions of "Wave of Mutilation" (the traditional, and the "UK Surf" b-side version) along with album tracks from nearly all of the band's releases, which makes it a useful counterpart to 2004's Wave of Mutilation: The Best of the Pixies. Despite covering numerous shows, Hey! still retains the shape of a single, very long concert. It's difficult to think of better back-to-back openers than these fierce renditions of "Planet of Sound" and "Debaser", especially when "Gouge Away" follows. "La La Love You" is a strangely diverting intermission, "Vamos" closes the show (despite Lovering losing the beat once or twice), and "Gigantic" is the evening's only encore, with the band members wishing each other good night on the outro. What it lacks in stage banter and crowd response Hey! makes up for with a strong tracklist and careful sequencing.

The Pixies don't dramatically reinvent many of these songs, but instead give them alternately ferocious and workmanlike run-throughs that are, above all else, faithful to the originals. The most drastic reinvention is the acoustic take on "Here Comes Your Man", which gives the song a shambolic gait that plays up its main ascending riff, but mostly Hey! contains leaner and often more aggressive versions of favorites like "Planet of Sound", "Mr. Grieves", and "Subbacultcha". Not surprisingly, these songs prove extremely durable, retaining all the nervy weirdness and jittery explosiveness of their earlier incarnations. Black even hits all the old barks and whoops and rockmejoes (especially on "Crackity Jones" and "Bone Machine"), which at first comes across as rote and practiced in contrast to his more seemingly spontaneous studio versions. Fortunately, his vocals on Hey! never slump into mimicry of his younger self; rather, his tics remain as crucial to and as inseparable from the songs as their lyrical and guitar riffs.

Despite the looseness of the dynamic and the astringency of their sound, the band reveals an affectionate devotion to these songs that countervails any hint of in-it-for-the-money opportunism behind the reunion. But while they play the same songs in roughly the same way, these Pixies aren't the same Pixies of 1988 or 1990 or 1992. There are subtle differences, most notably in their vocals. Deal's voice has lost some of its whispery sweetness, and gained a coarser texture that roughens the edges of "Gigantic" and "Ed Is Dead". And Francis' voice has grown huskier, grittier, and lower, losing almost all of its nasal tone. Moreover, there's a different tension here than I remember from the band's heyday. They seem looser and less uptight, perhaps not as driven or as obscure, but seemingly having a much better time on stage. "Debaser" even has a little swing in it as Black sings about Un Chien Andalou.

Ultimately, the Pixies sound different; they feel bigger now, more revered and appreciated. Maybe it's because they're playing larger venues for younger, enthusiastic crowds, or perhaps because they've been identified as the forebears of so much of today's indie rock, but they sound positively charged here. The downside to this resurgence is that it's difficult to think of the Pixies in the present tense. They're like classic rock now-- especially considering how little new material this reunion has spawned to date-- and Hey! finds them walking a thin timeline between embracing their legacy and fighting off the past tense.

 

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