loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies
loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies
NR | 21 April 2006 (USA)
loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies Trailers

When college rock darlings the Pixies broke up in 1992, their fans were shocked and dismayed. When they reunited in 2004, those same fans and legions of new listeners were ecstatic and filled with high hopes. loudQUIETloud follows the rehearsals and live shows of the band as they struggle through the reunion tour "Sell Out"

Reviews
Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
Rijndri Load of rubbish!!
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
vincent-27 Some people complain about this, expecting an episode of "Behing the Music" but none of that is forthcoming. Really this is just a live concert, but it is interesting to see the in between footage because almost nothing happens. For any other documentary this can be a hindrance but for these guys it is somewhat fitting, it is like watching a Jim Jarmusch movie or something, with those big wide open spaces of non event. It really makes you appreciate the truly great musical events on stage. They are all fantastic musicians, even if Deal is a little lacking on the technique on the bass, she has a beautiful voice and great bass lines.There's no real revelations, other than the fact that it proves my theory that band reunions are mostly about money because of all the illegal downloading (the Pixies drummer confirms this). In the case of the Pixies, this seems to be a good thing because they obviously are as good as they ever were and other than Kim Deal, don't have anything really going for them individually. I would have liked to have learned more about the band but it's obvious that these guys aren't talking much about their past, they are seem way too cool for this (except maybe the drummer, who is great but kind of nerdy). The title loudQUIETloud has double meaning, it is at one time about the movie itself, the loud on stage performances and quiet backstage areas. It is also about the grunge movement that these guys help develop, personified by Nirvana, play a quiet verse, hit a distortion pedal and then scream a chorus, then turn off the pedal for the verse (which, ironically, none of their songs do). If you think about it this way, the movie is actually quiet a profound experiment and needs to be appreciated as a gestalt and not picked apart for not revealing "secrets" of the band. Maybe there are no secrets.
Cruentus I've been a Pixies music fan for years, but I never really knew much about the individual members. All I knew is that they inexplicably dropped off the face of the earth one day, and reappeared recently as middled aged people.This documentary makes it quite clear what happened. The individual band members are fragile, sensitive, flawed people, who made unbelievably unique and magical music when they were together. Unfortunately their fragility made it impossible for them to deal with their success.This film could have very easily taken the TV-style doc route with music industry producer and "expert" interviews, instead it just follows the band members around during their 2004 reunion tour. By showing Charles, Kim, Joe and Dave engaging in mundane everyday activities, we come to know them better than from any lecture delivered by a music "expert".Despite the fact that they never achieved any great commercial success during their heyday, the string of recent sold out tour dates proves that their music had a profound effect on millions of people worldwide.The Pixies now have a second chance to achieve the financial success that eluded them the first time around. Very few people in this life get a second chance at anything. I hope that they can achieve their financial goals, as well as finding the inner peace that they lacked in their younger years.I highly recommend this film to Pixie fans, new and old alike.
dromasca The Pixies are a real phenomenon in the history of rock. While they were young in the 80s and beginning of the 90s they did not enjoy too much success, and it can be said that their legend and influence started to build only at the moment when they split. Twelve years later, in 2004 they decided to get back together after a series of individual failures that seemed to bring all of them on the brink of personal and financial bankruptcy. The film tells very little about their first period of activity and focuses on Act 2 of their career.It is not that it tells too much we do not know from the music of the group. The Pixies are great musicians, decent human being and poor communicators. We do not learn from the documentary too much about the sources of their music, we do not understand why despite the success of their second career and despite of them writing music for their individual careers there was and there is no new album since they reunited. We learn something about their personal lives, but frankly speaking what we hear is not interesting or revealing. Music remains the best part of this film.
Chris_Docker The film kicks off with a quote from Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, about his famous song, Smells Like Teen Spirit: "I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies." As a tribute documentary, loudQUIETloud goes on to explore the Pixies strange career and provide some clues to why they have been so influential.The Pixies established themselves musically with deep contrasts, not just in volume (as the title suggests) but by combining many strange elements, melodic and abrasive, and cryptic lyrics - they are almost like a David Lynch rock experience (one of their songs is a cover from a song in Lynch's early Eraserhead). What made them extraordinary is that they disbanded just as they approached critical acclaim (within six years) and didn't reap the benefits of their popularity until they re-formed nearly twelve years later - at which point this movie begins.Tickets for their 2004 reunion tour sold out in four minutes, but the band members are no longer young. As the film develops we see some have families with small children, but they all have outside interests, musical or otherwise, and 'being the Pixies' is hardly something they identify with beyond a sense of responsibility to make sure the live performances go well. The detachment is so great that a struggling interviewer, asking an innocuous question about whether they will make another album, is nonplussed that the band really haven't considered the question one way or the other.Lead singer Frank Black ('Black Francis') is a bulky, almost intimidating figure with a shaven head, so it's something of a revelation to see him doing positive affirmations before bed, telling himself, "I am a nice person, people like me . . ." Bassist Kim Deal looks with surprise at the blisters on her fingers after the first concert - Frank reassures her they'll get better in about a week. Both of them continue working on their own material while on tour, Kim for the Breeders and Frank on his solo work. The band seem to accept that it is not in their natures to talk to each other much, even when they are getting on fine, but they seem more mature than the days of early acrimony where one or the other would unilaterally make public announcements of the band's imminent break-up.The sound and camera-work throughout is first rate, so if you like the Pixies even a little bit, this is a rare opportunity to experience them at their best. For those who have never heard of them, you might recall the song, 'Where Is My Mind?' as the exit music to the film Fight Club, or sections from their records 'Gigantic' and 'Hang Wire in the United States of Leland. For fans, the song listing taken from the credits includes: Where is My Mind, Hey, Here Comes Your Man, U-Mass, Caribou, Gouge Away, Nimrod's Son, In Heaven, Wave of Mutilation, Something Against You, Bone Machine, Cactus, Vamos, Monkey Gone to Heaven and also the Breeders song Iris.