Video: Pixies – “Catfish Kate”
Video created by Neirin Best and Lianne Pierce. From Beneath the Eyrie, due September 13.
It’s easy for music snobs to scoff when a band gets back together years after splitting up and has the audacity to release new music. Especially if they don’t have all the original members. How dare they! How crass! They’re diminishing their legacy!
But really, who the hell are we to tell somebody how they can or cannot make a living? What kind of privileged bourgeois bullshit is that? Charles Thompson has every right to don his Black Francis persona and make Pixies music with or without the participation of Kim Deal or the approval of a bunch of pin-headed geeks furiously typing into their phones.
I’ll admit I would have never gone out and bought a ticket to see the new incarnation of this band when they recently opened up for Weezer on tour. But a pal had an extra ticket and I tagged along and I’m really happy I did.
Not only is going out with your friends and seeing live music a life-affirming thing to do in general, but seeing the Pixies in concert reminded me that Joey Santiago is one of my favorite guitar players and Dave Lovering is a hell of a drummer and Black Francis has written some of the greatest songs of all time. Of course you’re going to miss Kim Deal’s incomparable voice and chug chug chug bass, but the new girl gets the job done. They sound good. They are good.
And “Catfish Kate” is a good Pixies song. Sure, you keep waiting for Santiago to go nuts and it’s disappointing that he never does, but hey, it’s a creepy song about woman getting abducted by a catfish. What more do you want from the Pixies in 2019?