Tag: rolling stone

Pixies: Doolittle

I consider myself pretty well versed and rounded when it comes to music. Especially with material produced between 1975-2000. While I enjoy a broad variety of genres on a regular basis, good old Rock is my go-to favorite. Gritty guitars, captivating rhythms, roughish vocals, and occasionally questionable lyrical content satisfy my soul.
I’ve known of Pixies for a couple decades, was familiar with their song Here Comes Your Man, over the years had read of them being an influence to a host of bands I like a lot, but somehow had never listened to one of their albums. The time has come.
While searching ‘Best Pixies Album’ online, it seemed there isn’t definitively one. Most websites that rank such things decry that all five of their full-length LPs are pretty solid, but one stood out just a bit more than the others – Doolittle – my pick for The Sonic Collective. It’s Pixies’ second album, was released in 1989, and has gained considerable clout since its release.
NME along with a host of other music magazines regularly rate this their top Pixies album, and a 2003 poll of NME writers ranked Doolittle as the second-greatest album of all time. Add to that Rolling Stone, ranking it 226 on their “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” and this seems like a solid pick.
While watching Dave Grohl’s brilliant Sound City documentary, he was surprised when asking various musicians what their first band was, to which Pixies co-founder Francis Black answered, “Pixies”. Talk about nailing it on the first try!
So put Doolittle on, then again, wait a bit, have another go, and see how it sits. Enjoy my pick.
Scott Coates
Click here to read our reviews of Doolittle.
Links
Buy it on iTunes
Pixies Wikipedia Page
Doolittle Wikipedia Page
Pixies Website
Black Francis talks with Rolling Stone about Doolittle turning 20
NME Ranks Pixies Albums
Check Out the Sound City Movie

The Dawn of Def Jam via Rolling Stone

In 1984, Def Jam Records, the label that defined hip-hop’s commercial and artistic potential, was born in a very unlikely location: a tiny New York University dorm room. Founder Rick Rubin — now a record-industry legend who’s shepherded the careers of everyone from Jay Z to the Red Hot Chili Peppers — hadn’t returned to that Greenwich Village double-occupancy room in three decades. But for Rolling Stone Films’ premiere documentary, Rick Was Here, he ventured back to Weinstein Hall, room 712, to remember how it all began. “I can’t believe it’s 30 years,” he says. “It’s really trippy.”

In the film presented by MaggieVision Productions and director Josh Swade, Rubin recalls the energy of Eighties New York, the attempt to make records that sounded like the raw performances he heard in clubs and the wild parties he threw in the dorm room listed as the label address on the first Def Jam 12-inch, T La Rock and Jazzy Jay’s explosive, drum machine-driven “It’s Yours.” The Beastie Boys’ Adam Horovitz remembers how he plucked a demo out of a pile in the room and told Rubin, “Man, this is really good, Rick. You gotta check it out.” (The tape belonged to a teenage MC named LL Cool J.)

Once he teamed with burgeoning mogul Russell Simmons, the Def Jam age — and hip-hop as an unavoidable market force — officially began. Rubin started DJ-ing for the Beasties and spent two years working with them on their legendary debut album, Licensed to Ill. “Nothing that happened was intentional,” he tells us. “Everything was trying to make something cool to play for our friends that they would like.”

In Rick Was Here — which arrives as Def Jam is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a new box set and special concert tonight at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center — Simmons, LL Cool J, Rubin’s college roommate Adam Dubin, former Def Jam president Lyor Cohen and more tell the story of how it all became possible. “Make it yours,” Rubin says. “That’s the thing that can change the world.”

def jam rick rubin rolling stone