March Music Madness: Pixies vs. Nirvana

Just got back from a few days away.

Update: REM & Modest Mouse move on to the final four (I'm putting an end to these matches before someone goes and ties them up ;) :

REM (8) beats Beach Boys (7)

and

Modest Mouse (5) edges Doves (4)

I know Nirvana owes a lot of their sound to the Pixies, but I only heard my first Pixies album about a year ago, where as I lived in Washington State from '88 thru '93. Hard not to have Nirvana be a part of your musical experience there & then.

Have a hard time seeing Nirvana winning this one. It's almost like a master v. apprentice matchup here.

The Pixies released 5 strong recordings, all in succession, while Nirvana (IMO) had only one studio album that does justice to their sound. Then there's <b>Unplugged</b>, which remains a masterful live recording. Still not enough to dethrone Black Francis & Co., however.

Yeah, I guess this is kind of a tough match up for some, but I've been listening lots and lots to the Pixies lately, especially Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, so it's not much of a contest for me. At least not right now. Pixies are just so damn much fun! And they're still around. And they were a blast to see on TV recently. And hopefully they might even stay together long enough to record a few new songs.

hey
been trying to meet you
hey
must be a devil between us
or whores in my head
whores at my door
whores in my bed
but hey
where
have you
been if you go i will surely die
we're chained

Interesting. I agree with the master v. apprentice analogy stated earlier. I was hit in the face with Nirvana, but had to discover the Pixies (from Cobain comments, ironically). During the early to mid nineties it was Nirvana, but since then, I've listened to the Pixies more often and I'm still listenin' - Doolittle, Bossa Nova, Surfer Rosa. I haven't pulled out a Nirvana record in a while. I think I'm gonna go with my present preference.

I've long thought the master/apprentice analogy was incomplete. As in, in this case, to my ears, the accomplishments of the apprentice ended up far outshining the accomplishments of the alleged master. I've seen people give waaaaayy too much credit to the Pixies with regard to Nirvana, but that's not going to affect anyone's preference. Mine's for Nirvana's admittedly limited catalog.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MindGoneHaywire

I've long thought the master/apprentice analogy was incomplete. As in, in this case, to my ears, the accomplishments of the apprentice ended up far outshining the accomplishments of the alleged master. I've seen people give waaaaayy too much credit to the Pixies with regard to Nirvana, but that's not going to affect anyone's preference. Mine's for Nirvana's admittedly limited catalog.

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now that you mention it, I've read that either Debaser or Gouge Away (can't remember which - but to my ear it's Gouge Away) was the inspiration for Teen Spirit and that's about it.