Back tracking

A Pixies tribute and Ferrick comes home

Cellars by Starlight by Brett Milano

Funny thing about the Pixies: when they started out, they didn't sound like anybody. Nowadays it seems everyone owes a certain debt to the groundbreaking Boston band. That die was cast after Nirvana absorbed the Pixies' sound into "Smells like Teen Spirit." So in 1999 it's no big shocker to find 15 rock, pop, and punk bands covering Pixies songs on Where Is My Mind: A Tribute to the Pixies (Oglio). But how does it feel as a former Pixie to hear your songs recorded by the likes of Eve 6, Local H, and Reel Big Fish?

"I was surprised it was done at all," is guitarist Joey Santiago's reaction when I speak to him over the phone from his California home. "What I'd love to see is an all-star cast -- give me Bruce Springsteen or U2, now that would be interesting. Give me Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys. Get Celine Dion into it. Hey, I should put that together myself -- I should make all that money. Maybe I can round people up -- hey, Bruce, I'm dying over here; I'm hungry; I want to be your neighbor. And when I move in next door, I want to come over and borrow some milk."

Santiago proceeds to tell an amusing but irrelevant story about how his wife, singer Linda Mallari, once cornered Springsteen at a New Jersey club before I steer him back to the album he's allegedly promoting. "Yeah, the album -- you know, good for whoever's putting it out. Overall it sounds pretty good, but I've only listened to it twice or once or something. I didn't even know most of the bands, except for Weezer. `Manta Ray' is a riot; and whoever did `Trompe le Monde,' I loved the dialogue they put it at the end. So I liked the sillier version. But I don't like the ones that cover the songs note for note, sound for sound -- you can't do that, for crying out loud."

Would he like the album better if he hadn't been in the Pixies? "I'd probably think, `Yeah, this is pretty good. Now let me hear the real stuff. And, hey, where's the Boss?' "

Santiago's assessment is pretty much on the mark. With the possible exception of Reel Big Fish's avant-groove murder of "Gigantic," nothing on the tribute album is an outright embarrassment. Most of the versions are respectful, literal readings of the originals. If you heard Superdrag's "Wave of Mutilation," Local H's "Tame," and Samiam's "Here Comes Your Man" at a party, you'd likely mistake them for the Pixies album takes. The two joky tracks that Santiago singles out -- Braid's "Trompe le Monde" and the Teen Heroes' "Manta Ray" -- wear thin in a hurry. And too many bands key into the Pixies' eccentricity without catching the sexual tension or the David Lynchian weirdness that made the group so interesting.

The disc's standout reinterpretation comes from Weezer, whose "Velouria" brings out the minor-key melancholy that was only suggested in the original. Whereas the Pixies played the whole song at full throttle, Weezer give it an ebb-and-flow treatment: the verses have a torchy quality; the choruses are drenched in massive power chords. (This is the first Weezer track to feature the band's new bassist, former Bostonian Mikey Welsh, whose local credits included stints in Left Nut, the Heretix, Jocobono, and Juliana Hatfield's band.) In general, though, an outfit as influential and inventive as the Pixies calls for a stronger set of interpreters -- maybe not Springsteen and Dion, but wouldn't it be great to hear Sleater-Kinney tear into "Debaser," or the Donnas do "Oh My Golly"?

The tribute is the third Pixies-related album to be released in the past 18 months, after Pixies at the BBC and the double retrospective Death to the Pixies (both 4AD/Elektra). There's also been talk of a B-sides/rarities album, though Santiago says that's up in the air. "The record company's been looking for one song I have on tape; it's called `Rocka My Soul and Boom Chicka Boom.' It's probably the weirdest song we ever did; I enjoyed it because it had feedback. We played it the first few times at Green Street Station, back when we thought we were just a rock band, even though we still came off in some goofy, quirky way."

And Santiago's reaction to the revival? "It's fine but, jeez -- don't they usually do this with people who are dead? I mean, it hasn't been that long, and everybody's still active."

Santiago's priority these days is the Martinis, an outfit that he and his wife have led since 1995. Pixies drummer David Lovering was also in the band for a time, as was That Dig bassist Petra Haden. The band made their one local appearance at T.T.'s in December of 1995, displaying a smartly updated Pixies sound -- and since Frank Black was in the audience that night, it was one of the last times three Pixies were in the same room. Santiago says there isn't much chance of a reunion "unless somebody offers a ridiculous amount of money, and probably not even then. I don't think Charles [Thompson, a/k/a Frank Black] would ever do it, and I feel uncomfortable even talking about it with him."

Meanwhile, Santiago's new band still have to compete with his old band. "It's true, but we're winning people over. Those Pixies snobs, some of them don't get it and some of them get converted. But I see people at the shows, and I'm thinking, `Come on -- you were in elementary school when the Pixies were going on, so why get into it now?' "

FERRICK'S RETURN

Since it's becoming fashionable for rising artists to leave Boston, it's a pleasure to welcome one back -- especially a well-liked local fixture like Melissa Ferrick, who never stayed away too long even when she was living on the West Coast. After four years away, she's given up her West Hollywood apartment and headed back to her North Shore home. That's not to say she'll be around any more often, since her fourth album, Everything I Need (WAR), is turning into a long-deserved national breakthrough, and her home for the next year is likely to be the road.

"I realized I was paying rent on an LA apartment that I was never at," she notes. "All my work now has been from Atlanta north, and from Chicago east -- that's where the album is doing well. It was getting insane to drive from LA to play a show in New York."

Ferrick is careful not to overstate the success of the new album, but it's definitely a step forward for the former Atlantic recording artist. "It's not a huge million-seller, but it's catapulted me from 150-seat clubs to selling 700-seaters, and for me that's a big deal. Now I have a road manager, so I don't end up driving and trying to read a map at the same time."

There have been other changes in Ferrick's life. Having written a career's worth of brutally frank songs about her love life -- and come up with some unusually happy ones on Everything I Need -- she reports that she's single again. "I plan on being on my own for at least a year. It's the first time I've ever lived alone and not been in a relationship, so I'm behind in some things. But I've never felt better. A lot of my songwriting has been about my relationships, but I'm coming to realize it's all about my relationship with myself."

Ferrick will play her first local gig since returning to the area next Friday, June 11, at the Paradise. In the past she's always played solo, but this time she'll have a backing band. Long-time fans of Ferrick who know she draws a mostly female crowd may be surprised to see a bunch of guys. But Ferrick isn't making any apologies. "I just wanted a band who could kick ass. I didn't gender-specify the auditions. I don't want to be the Go-Go's."

RUMBLE REPORT

Big congratulations to the Shods for winning the WBCN Rumble at the Middle East last week, even though they didn't. The honors actually went to the Sheila Divine, after a heavy night of competition from the Shods and the wild-card band Half Cocked, who proved that good old unreformed hard rock doesn't always need irony to make it connect. But true to form, the Shods ignored the competition and went on stage and had a blast. They opened with "Rock 'n' Roll Manifesto"-- a tongue-in-cheek anthem that some judges may have mistaken for the real thing. For a finale they dug up a Boston classic, the Outlets' "Knock Me Down," and slammed it home with their own "Jezebel," which is lately sounding less like a '50s ballad homage and more like glam-era Bowie. I overheard a couple people dismissing the Shods as a throwback to early-'80s Boston rock. But the same folks were later seen grooving to the Freestylers, a British group whose self-consciously retro sound evokes the hip-hop Bronx of the same period.

As always, sincerity and sweat are what count. After a few lean years in the mid '90s, it's good to see the Rumble out of its slump. This year the shows were consistently well-attended, so it might be a good idea to move the preliminary rounds to the larger downstairs room at the Middle East next year. And some deserving local headliners -- Baby Ray, Honeyglazed, Superhoney -- made it to the semifinals. Lunar Plexus, who come across as a funkier Splashdown, were my discovery of the week. They're the first local band I've heard who combine the appeal of electronic pop (cool computerized backdrops, sultry female singer) with aggressive rock guitar and a hard-driving rhythm section. On the night I judged, they lost to Kicked in the Head, a spirited but generic ska-core band.

The up-and-coming rockabilly band the Raging Teens, who likewise made it to the semifinals, also looked like potential stars -- good songs, great spirit, and an obvious focal point in guitarist Amy Griffin, now sporting a look that's halfway between '50s debutante and '90s Paula Kelley, and playing authentic, reverb-drenched licks. I'd swear she was the reincarnation of Scotty Moore, except that he's still alive.

A lot of people love the Sheila Divine, and I'd venture a guess that they're the same folks whose last favorite local outfit was Machinery Hall (and perhaps O Positive before that). All those bands hinged on the singer's vocal prowess. The Sheilas carry that approach to extremes: their instrumental sound is a bit thin and the songs aren't especially catchy, so if you're not bowled over by Aaron Perrino's pipes -- and if you didn't think that his breaking into screams for the last number at the Rumble final automatically made for a big dramatic moment -- then this may not be your kind of band. And there are probably a few record execs out there who'll tell you that you're wrong.

COMING UP

Half Cocked open for Garage Dogs at T.T. the Bear's Place tonight (Thursday), Seks Bomba are at Bill's Bar, Asa Brebner plays Toad, and new-popstars Owsley are at the Middle East . . . Buffalo Tom's Bill Janovitz and Buttercup's Jim Buni both play solo at the Milky Way tomorrow (Friday). Curio (ex-Sirensong) are at Club Bohemia, the Sheila Divine are at Bill's, and Quintaine Americana are at the Middle East . . . Swing and funk at the Middle East on Saturday, as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band headline with Katharine Whalen (of Squirrel Nut Zippers). Merrie Amsterburg plays a Native American benefit at T.T.'s, Danny Brooks is at the House of Blues, and Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson is at Johnny D's . . . The reunited Echo & the Bunnymen are at the Paradise Tuesday, Those Bastard Souls and Richard Buckner are at the Middle East, and Expanding Man begin a weekly residency at the Lizard Lounge . . . Reggae star Gregory Isaacs is at the House of Blues Wednesday; Pamela Means is at the Lizard Lounge, and Squatweiler play the Middle East.