![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Book Review
Aug. 6th, 2012 08:21 pmThe Pixies' Doolittle
by Ben Sisario
This short book is another in the 33 1/3 series. Sisario takes a very journalistic approach to Doolittle, getting most of the material for the book from interviews conducted with three out of the four members of The Pixies, with a particular concentration on Black Francis (aka Charles Thompson).
Sisario covers the band's history, focusing on the years up through Doolittle's 1989 release. He provides a lot of information on the process of writing and recording the songs, and provides some really interesting discussion of the band's influences, both musical and otherwise. I especially liked the parts about Thompson's relationship with Surrealist cinema.
The exploration of the songs themselves was the best part of the book. Sisario engages in some great discussions of the origins of the imagery and stories in the lyrics, despite Thompson's insistent evasion of any such analysis or introspection in their interviews. Sisario also does a good job of discussing the musical features of the songs.
I hadn't listened to Doolittle in years, and it was wonderful to dig it up and get into it again. I was 13 or 14 when it came out, and fairly new to the world of alternative music and so-called college radio. I think this was right about the time my sister and I discovered Conn College's WCNI. Thus the Pixies were one of the first big things we got into and their music was a big part of the sort of soundtrack for my adolescence. And even so many years later, it still resonates with me a lot. Sisario's book was a great way to get back into their music.
by Ben Sisario
This short book is another in the 33 1/3 series. Sisario takes a very journalistic approach to Doolittle, getting most of the material for the book from interviews conducted with three out of the four members of The Pixies, with a particular concentration on Black Francis (aka Charles Thompson).
Sisario covers the band's history, focusing on the years up through Doolittle's 1989 release. He provides a lot of information on the process of writing and recording the songs, and provides some really interesting discussion of the band's influences, both musical and otherwise. I especially liked the parts about Thompson's relationship with Surrealist cinema.
The exploration of the songs themselves was the best part of the book. Sisario engages in some great discussions of the origins of the imagery and stories in the lyrics, despite Thompson's insistent evasion of any such analysis or introspection in their interviews. Sisario also does a good job of discussing the musical features of the songs.
I hadn't listened to Doolittle in years, and it was wonderful to dig it up and get into it again. I was 13 or 14 when it came out, and fairly new to the world of alternative music and so-called college radio. I think this was right about the time my sister and I discovered Conn College's WCNI. Thus the Pixies were one of the first big things we got into and their music was a big part of the sort of soundtrack for my adolescence. And even so many years later, it still resonates with me a lot. Sisario's book was a great way to get back into their music.
