Vacuuming with Trompe Le Monde

A sarcastic 1992 review of The Pixies by Peter Stone Brown, but you can't have it all I guess.

I've been listening to the Pixies' Trompe Le Monde (Elektra) while vacuuming my room which may be the perfect way to listen to them because the vacuum cleaner is often indistinguishable from their sound.

Last weekend I also listened to Trompe Le Monde and simply found it annoying, but now I have a cold and anything anyone says reminds me of Paul Tsongas, which makes Trompe Le Monde a lot more tolerable. The Pixies don't sound like Paul Tsongas though they are from Massachusetts, and maybe overexposure to Tsongas tsalking has helped them formulate the state of mind which led to their music resembling life on an airport runway.

The song I noticed every time was this neat little ditty called "Alec Eiffel," because the way they sing the refrain "Little Eiffel," makes it sound like "Little Lifeboat," so I searched the CD cover in vain looking for a song called "Little Lifeboat." It's a super-produced job and there's all kinds of extra more 'n likely synthesized effects that add to the songs aerodynamic message.

Aerodynamic is a pretty good description of Joey Santiago's guitar though you could never say that about Kim Deal's one-note style of bass playing. One thing that definitely makes Trompe Le Monde stand out over its predecessor is that the bass isn't nearly as audible.

The other cool cut is a Jesus and Mary Chain song "Head On" that rocks real hard with singer Black Francis occasionally slipping in a bit of Gordon Gano type sarcasm into his voice. It should be a hit. It's followed by a bit of punky fun "U-Mass" and more healthy sarcasm with "Palace of the Brine" with Black Francis sounding sort of like Marc Bolan.

The best thing about the Pixies is their satirical humor which is in both the lyrics and the music. When the two converge on "Subbacultcha" and "Distance Equals Rate Times Time," the result is fairly powerful.

They fail when they get into pseudo British forced anguish vocals and pretentious significance. Luckily they only do this once or twice and only at those times do you wish the vacuum cleaner was louder.

The Pixies open for operatic rockers U2 next week at their speedily sold-out Spectrum show.