Namesakes #126: Pixies

These week, the Namesakes garden is infested with cheeky little imps. Like all Pixies though, they're very hard to catch on camera. Only one set of Pixies could be linked to photographic evidence. Guess which ones...?

THE PIXIES #1

I think this is our earliest set of Pixies. Extensive research suggest that it was originally recorded in 1946 by Bob Camp & His Buddies, but that it was re-released / possibly re-recorded in 1962, by which time Bob's buddies had turned into Pixies. Despite what the internet might try to tell you, this isn't the same Bob Camp who would later create the cartoon Ren & Stimpy.

Bob Camp & His Pixies - Jack & Jill Boogie

THE PIXIES #2

The year is 1956. Here are some more Pixies on a Christmas novelty record with Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft playing Santa. The same Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft who was the voice of Tony The Tiger. You know what that suggests about these Pixies? They're greeeeeeaaaaat! 

The Pixies - Santa's Too Fat For The Hula Hoop

Two years later, these self-same Pixies would return accompanied by the John Williams Orchestra (not that one) to perform a song about pygmies.

Different times.

The Pixies - Pygmy Love

THE PIXIES #3

Elsewhen in the 50s, we find some Pixies involved in a budget rip-off re-recording of the Poni Tails hit Born Too Late...

The Pixies - Born Too Late

THE PIXIES #4

Teen girl group from 1959, though they sounds like they come from the 40s... 

The Pixies - Echoing Mailbox / Bacia-Ba-Loo

THE PIXIES #5

From 1963, a Frankie Valli-esque Pixies on the Don Dee record label...

The Pixies - Thrilled

THE PIXIES #6

Japanese group from 1964, though it's another that could easily have been released many years earlier...

The Pixies - Teenage Love

(THE) PIXIES #7

Formed in 1986 by Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV (or Frank Black / Black Francis to his mates), Kimberley Ann Deal, Joseph Alberto Santiago and Dave the drummer, the Boston-based Pixies are surely one of the most influential indie / alt-rock acts of that or any other era. They split up in '93, reformed in 2004 and Kim managed to stick it out for another decade before finally telling Frank to Gouge Away.

Pixies carried on, though they dropped the definite article, suggesting they could no longer be THE Pixies without Kim. That interpretation does credit Frank with a little more modesty than he's famous for. 

The Pixies - Debaser

Pixies - Bagboy

THE PIXIES #8

In 1992, Select magazine commissioned notorious satirist Chris Morris to produce a recording to be given away as a cover-mounted floppy disc (remember them?). Morris recorded a spoof radio show (sticking a pin in the pompous inanity that Steve Wright's Radio 1 show had become by that point). This also included a song called Mother-Banger by The Pixies (lead singer "Jet Black"). I include it here because a) it's on discogs; b) I was a huge Chris Morris fan back in the Day (Today).

The Pixies - Motherbanger (song starts at 2.30)

Bono "fans": it's worth listening to the bit after Motherbanger in which Morris spoofs a Sun journalist into believing he's talking to the "great man" about the band's farewell gig at Alton Towers, with NWA in support. 

"Between you and me, have you ever heard anything so stupid as calling yourself 'The Edge'?"

 

Which is your pick of the Pixies?