loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies (2006) Reviews

• Walter Reade theater in Lincoln Center offers up ROCKDOCS galore!!!

  SONNYK_USA2006-07-25

  Of the several ROCK-umetaries playing at this year's ROCKDOCS festival this one is undoubtedly the best. Due in part to the power of the band being profiled ("Pixies") and the expansive inside look presented by the filmmakers that details the individual member's lives inside and outside the band. It was said about the Beatles that each musician was excellent in his own right but when the four of them gathered together something 'magic' happened. This also applies to the Pixies and their relationships to each other, as they are ironically the four most uncommunicative people in the world when sitting backstage, but put them in front of an audience and you get an eruption of music and lyrical poetry that stays with you long after the concert has ended. Formed in 1986 by Charles Thompson (aka 'Black Francis'), the band achieved a modicum of success until in 1992 Thompson dissolved the band due to friction with co-lead singer Kim Deal (who also fronts 'The Breeders' w/ her sister). In the intervening years the band's music inspired dozens of other bands and became a cult phenomenon. Now some 12 years leader, Thompson has decided to put the Pixies back together and see if what they once had can be duplicated. Of course, the long years between have brought about a number of changes among the members, most notably the rehabilitation of Kim Deal's alcoholic problems. Although she still drinks alcohol-'free' beers by the dozen her recollection of the Pixies concert years are a haze and now she's forced to listen to their albums to recall the parts she played. She enlists her sister Kelly to join her for the tour to segregate herself from the band and any partying on the road. Kelly also proves useful as she likes to 'interview' other band members with extremely pointed questions offering quite a bit of comic relief. In addition to Kim, each member of the band has followed a strange road since the Pixies break-up with only Deal and Thompson able sustain solo careers in the interim. The documentary successfully brings all of their varied paths together within the framework of rehearsals, warm-up tours, and the inevitable European and USA venues with fan adulation escalating from one date to the next culminating at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. Most poignant of the non-band stories is the movie is that of a teenage musician's adulation of Kim Deal and her gifting of the paperback book "Brave" to her idol. The novelette turned her on to the Pixies after they'd disappeared from the scene, but the music inspired her to form her own band. The end credits features the Pixies-wannabe's jamming in the basement and continuing the 'Pixies' legacy. This coda completes the circle started at the beginning of the film with Kurt Cobain's quote on how the Pixies were one of the bands that inspired Nirvana. In fact, Cobain said that Nirvana was trying to BE the Pixies. As you can see, if you're not a fan of this band now, I guarantee by the end of this film you'll be making a beeline to the nearest music store (as I did). So if you only make it to one movie at this year's festival, then let this be the one!

• loudQUIETloud give a rare glimpse of the people behind the music.

  klettow2006-05-04

  I had the pleasure of attending the NYC premier of loudQUIETloud: a Film about the Pixies, at the Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006. The film documents the successful 2004 reunion of the Pixies and in the process gives the viewer a rare glimpse at the people behind the music. I am nearly 40 years old, and have been a Pixies fan for nearly half of that time. The thing that always struck me funny about being a Pixies fan is this: first, Pixies fans have an almost insane love of their music, and second, most fans have no idea of what the people in the band are like. This film does a great job in addressing both of these points. You get to watch as the band takes their first steps in the rehearsal studio, Kim Deal resorts to listening to her parts on an iPod to get the chord changes right, through their first live show in Minneapolis where the crowd goes absolutely wild. "Did you see that? Those people were freaking out! ", said Kim during a backstage break. The film goes on to show the band members in their day-to-day lives, Joey and Charles managing their careers and young families, Kim dealing with sobriety with the help of her twin sister Kellie, and Dave coping with his father's illness and death. All in all, they seem like four ordinary people. The thing that makes them extraordinary is when they take the stage together; something happens that I can best describe as magic. The concert footage in the film is beautifully shot, and the band sounds better than ever. The Pixies are older, wiser and a little rounder, but they still know how to blow the house away. The question of "are you going to record a new album" was posed to the band during the film and the answers were interesting. Charles said that he was still in the song writing business, and it sounded like he was open to a new album. He then went on to say that it would probably be best if they started over from scratch, maybe change their name to the "Vomit Squad" and start playing small clubs again, that would be the most honest way to do it. You know what? That sounds good to me. "I'll take four tickets for Vomit Squad's Upchuck world tour 2007, please."

• Best rock doc in years

  filmsexy2006-03-28

  I saw this film at the SXSW Film Fest in Austin - waited in line two hours for the pleasure - and let me tell you it was worth every minute. The film is beautiful and profound and really captures the essence of the band and life on the road in general. The Pixies are one of the all-time greats of my youth, so it's a little depressing to see them all grown up and coping with their very adult and normal lives, but on stage they rock like never before (the live footage is remarkably well shot and recorded). Off stage they don't talk much to each other, but somehow the film transcends that and really captures the essence of each of the band members individually as well as the on stage chemistry that makes them tick. Pixies fan or not, Don't miss this one.

• Fragile Individuals that Make Magical Music Together

  Cruentus12007-12-16

  I've been a Pixies music fan for years, but I never really knew much about the individual members. All I knew is that they inexplicably dropped off the face of the earth one day, and reappeared recently as middled aged people. This documentary makes it quite clear what happened. The individual band members are fragile, sensitive, flawed people, who made unbelievably unique and magical music when they were together. Unfortunately their fragility made it impossible for them to deal with their success. This film could have very easily taken the TV-style doc route with music industry producer and "expert" interviews, instead it just follows the band members around during their 2004 reunion tour. By showing Charles, Kim, Joe and Dave engaging in mundane everyday activities, we come to know them better than from any lecture delivered by a music "expert". Despite the fact that they never achieved any great commercial success during their heyday, the string of recent sold out tour dates proves that their music had a profound effect on millions of people worldwide. The Pixies now have a second chance to achieve the financial success that eluded them the first time around. Very few people in this life get a second chance at anything. I hope that they can achieve their financial goals, as well as finding the inner peace that they lacked in their younger years. I highly recommend this film to Pixie fans, new and old alike.

• Rock documentary with excellent production values

  Chris_Docker2006-07-29

  The film kicks off with a quote from Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, about his famous song, Smells Like Teen Spirit: "I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies." As a tribute documentary, loudQUIETloud goes on to explore the Pixies strange career and provide some clues to why they have been so influential. The Pixies established themselves musically with deep contrasts, not just in volume (as the title suggests) but by combining many strange elements, melodic and abrasive, and cryptic lyrics - they are almost like a David Lynch rock experience (one of their songs is a cover from a song in Lynch's early Eraserhead). What made them extraordinary is that they disbanded just as they approached critical acclaim (within six years) and didn't reap the benefits of their popularity until they re-formed nearly twelve years later - at which point this movie begins. Tickets for their 2004 reunion tour sold out in four minutes, but the band members are no longer young. As the film develops we see some have families with small children, but they all have outside interests, musical or otherwise, and 'being the Pixies' is hardly something they identify with beyond a sense of responsibility to make sure the live performances go well. The detachment is so great that a struggling interviewer, asking an innocuous question about whether they will make another album, is nonplussed that the band really haven't considered the question one way or the other. Lead singer Frank Black ('Black Francis') is a bulky, almost intimidating figure with a shaven head, so it's something of a revelation to see him doing positive affirmations before bed, telling himself, "I am a nice person, people like me . . ." Bassist Kim Deal looks with surprise at the blisters on her fingers after the first concert - Frank reassures her they'll get better in about a week. Both of them continue working on their own material while on tour, Kim for the Breeders and Frank on his solo work. The band seem to accept that it is not in their natures to talk to each other much, even when they are getting on fine, but they seem more mature than the days of early acrimony where one or the other would unilaterally make public announcements of the band's imminent break-up. The sound and camera-work throughout is first rate, so if you like the Pixies even a little bit, this is a rare opportunity to experience them at their best. For those who have never heard of them, you might recall the song, 'Where Is My Mind?' as the exit music to the film Fight Club, or sections from their records 'Gigantic' and 'Hang Wire in the United States of Leland. For fans, the song listing taken from the credits includes: Where is My Mind, Hey, Here Comes Your Man, U-Mass, Caribou, Gouge Away, Nimrod's Son, In Heaven, Wave of Mutilation, Something Against You, Bone Machine, Cactus, Vamos, Monkey Gone to Heaven and also the Breeders song Iris.