Really Pixies? Really? Did You Have To Go And Ruin An Average Song With An Awful Video?

Okay, so my initial repose to The Pixies releasing their first new song in over 9 years? Elation. Hyper elation. Elation so great it may have even been enough for me to shove out annoyingly naggy thoughts like "not really that great of a song" and "Kim Deal left the band for this?". Dammit, I was in the mood for Pixies and I was completely willing to overlook the fact that I wasn't in high school anymore, and hadn't really listened to the Pixies as religiously as I use to for...well about 9 years actually. "Bagboy" sounded pretty awesome and it hinted at a possible new Pixies album in the the future; The Pixie having missed the "everything old is cool again! I think the kids call it retro" bandwagon, that everyone from Soundgarden (semi-successful) to Alice In Chains (arguable successful), to Pavement (No new music for you! But an enjoyable short-lived reunion? Sure!) to The Offspring (the exact opposite of successful or enjoyable) had managed to jump onto a few years back.

Not that I mean that to sound bitter. With plenty of new acts since 2000 rising in prominence, filling the void those phenomenal late 80's early 90's groups left, those same groups returning for another shot at glory  through big name festival appearances and a couple of new tracks here and there, doesn't quite reek of desperation or the equivalent of the big kids returning to the playground to take back their ball. So by all means, I was thrilled to hear that the new Pixies track on their website. (it served as a nice bowl of ice cream to get over the heartache of Kim Deal announcing she'd was leaving the band just days prior).

What I'm not so thrilled with is the god awful video the band decided to put their seal of approval on. The video for "Bagboy" depicts an annoying asshat of a kid who NEVER wipes that shit eating grin of his face. Though, the fact that I found the kid off putting at first may have more to do with my irrational prejudices (such as classifying people's faces by how punchable they are. In his case it hovered somewhere between "very" and "desirably so") then anything else. Fair enough. What becomes troubling is that as the video proceeds to show this kid grabbing a credit card to make a grocery run for way to much milk, their's this slight bubbling feeling of dread that you can't quite shake. As if something's kinda wrong but you can't quite put your finger on what it is. That eerie feeling gets juxtaposed with the deliriously silly chorus and Francis's tongue-in-cheek vocal delivery. It's like he wants you to enjoy the song but something just feels off.

The video concludes with the boy vandalizing his own home with a combination of whipped cream, spilled milk and cheerios (which he bathes in at one point) and smashing objects to death with a baseball bat. So far, so very punk rock with a spot of ol' David Lynch.

Then you get to the last 5 seconds and TADAH! The revel is that that annoying little glasses wearing punk didn't own the home! The camera pans away as he leaves the home to revel the real owner to be a frightened black women, tied up on her bed. See, turns out he just broke into her house, presumably subdued her with violence before tying her up, stole her credit car, made a shit ton of purchases, vandalized her home, then rode off into the sunset on his bicycle without freeing her, with an air that implies he's done this before and to others. Oh, you silly kids you! What kind of  adventures will you think up next?

So yeah, for now damn reason. NO DAMN REASON the video decides to simultaneously offend African Americans, women, and African American women (all who actually do live in threat of this "charmingly" decapitated violence) with an ending that just drops of a black women being tied up to have her home and  sense of security vandalized by a young white man, like it's no big thing. It's just the careless of this that gets me worked up. I understand artistic creative and the whole artistic license thing. I get it. Really I do. But what was the point? What was the friggin point of just contributing another casual image of racial violence and violence against women in a rare double whammy? I can't shake the feeling that Kim Deal wouldn't have put her name anywhere near this abomination of video. Not on her watch.

Hey maybe I'm barking. But the videos bellow. Feel free to think whatever you'd like. But their was no reason this video couldn't have done anything, literally anything else. Oh and by the way Francis? Turns out, having an awful video helps your audience to take the first steps in realizing that your first new song in 9 years may not be as awesome as you think it is. And once the aging hipsters have stopped jerking you off and the new age hipsters have finished blogging your praises to high heaven (reminding you no doubt for the 50th time how influential you were), you can enjoy that quite lull that comes just before you realize you might not have it anymore. That the creative well may really be finally dry and Kim Deal leaving just confirmed it. And your instances on an awful video calculated to be "shocking" without giving a damn whom it might possibly be offensive to or what kind of message you might be sending, was just the first nail in the coffin.