Music Reviews

Pixies Sell Out: 2004 Reunion Tour Rhino Music ••••½ DVD Picture/Sound ••• Extras ••••

Pixies Sell Out is the oddest sort of union between the archetypal indie-rock band and the mass audience it deserved but never had. The DVD documents a French festival concert and sweetens the program with 15 bonus-track extras from other dates. Cleverly, the program opens with a composite performance of "Bone Machine" - then it's on to the 27-song concert. Rooted to their spots onstage, the Pixies radiate fierceness and focus, particularly in the four-song screamfest from "Crackity Jones" to "Tame." Their art-damaged punk-pop has aged well, and the crowd merrily flagellates itself to Frank Black's obsessive, hook-filled rants. Sonically, I prefer the punchier stereo mix to the disembodied surround. The latter dissipates the band's machine-like roar, and it's one of the rare times I'd complain that the center channel is overloaded to the detriment of the left and right fronts.