Goodbye, 2013, which marked the 20th anniversary of Black Francis bidding bitter goodbye to his influential Pixies -- my favorite fucking band of all time -- a summary dissolution that included a kiss-off to bassist Kim Deal by crappy fax machine, no less. Hello digitally reconstituted Pixies X.0, soldiering forward with a rotating arsenal of socially networked superfans and capitalizing no longer on earned nostalgia but on self-released new music calling the shots on a cratered music industry.
Its newest move, "EP-2," arrived Jan. 3, courtesy of the official Pixies site, which is where the defiant '80s quartet now markets and distributes the art and commerce it makes as a self-employed '10s power trio. Like its predecessor "EP-1's" scorching lyrical beatdown "Bagboy" and self-aware rehab "Another Toe in the Ocean," "EP-2's" post-ironic sex anthem "Blue Eyed Hexe" and narcotized astro-groove "Magdalena 318" prove the rebooted Pixies are fully under the power of indefatigable rockbot Black Francis, who has barely met a year or two within the last 30 in which he hasn't released one if not two albums. Even the new stumbles in the unsigned (!) Pixies' digitally sliced and diced downloads -- and there are a few -- remain in even the lamest geek argument a fine example of an indie, alternative, whatever, nevermind band (and brand) fighting to remain vital (and visible) in an internetworked age of accelerating white noise.
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