Pixies

Pixies Acoustic: Live In Newport is a fabulous companion piece to Eagle Vision's Club Date: Live At The Paradise in Boston. The older, wiser Pixies elegantly transfer their melodies from instruments to audience with ease and joy. As beautifully filmed and bright as the Paradise concert the material jumps out of the speakers, the pretty embellishments of the acoustics a delight while the camerawork coming in from different angles makes for an appealing backdrop to the audio. The advance hype in the press release again overdoes it calling this great ensemble "arguably the most influential American band of the last 20 years." Just as Mission Of Burma suffers from too much praise (after all, Burma is just watered down Velvet Underground and nowhere near as vital or important), the super music of The Pixies can get overlooked when given Beatles-type importance. Had they stayed together and manufactured another dozen albums there's a chance they could've used their platform to shift the tides...a chance, mind you, but what is really happening on both this acoustic set and on the Paradise/T.T.The Bears gigs is a terrific band that can entertain and generate good vibes. Nothing ground-breaking, nothing that will make musicians roll out of bed and write the next "Instant Karma", just a really fun foursome finally getting their due. Perhaps twenty years from now the next generation of garage rockers will pick up a Pixies DVD and say "wow - what a neat bunch of tunes!" And isn't that really what it's all about? Comes with a nice bonus documentary of the band practicing and more liner notes from Boston Phoenix music editor Matt Ashare as well as some cool photos in the six page insert. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide