Pixies - Indie Cindy

In a newspaper ad in 1986, Frank Black found Kim Deal by a asking for someone who liked Husker Du. So beget, for me, the greatest band in the history of alternative music, from a reference to the second greatest band in the history of alternative music. Twenty-eight years later, Pixies have compiled their first album since ’92. It’s based on three previous EPs.  As Vonnegut says, so it goes.

Regardless of what you might think of Indie Cindy, Frank Black is a genius songwriter and musician. He can crank out songs in his sleep, and based on the sheer volume of music from 1986 to now, some were apparently written in his sleep. After Pixies broke up, his series of solo albums continued his crazy-ass songwriting and splintered, fast/slow ups-and-downs.

Indie Cindy is not a great album. It’s a big deal to be without Kim Deal. Her sassy, frenetic basslines, and vocals which bounced the grating manic guitars all around are gone. Without her the opening song on Indie Cindy, ‘What Goes Boom’, sounds more like Zwan than Pixies. 

‘Blue Eyed Hexe’ has a rumble like AC/DC. There’s more metal on this one than punk-pop. While the lyrics are decidedly Pixies, Frank’s vocals have very little of the edge to them they used to.

Kim Deal made Frank and the boys crank out Jackson Pollock paintings. Without Kim Deal you have a cobbled-together Pixies album. Yet I’ve listened to it five times already, because Frank Black wrote it, and his current band is playing it. It’s as simple as that.