This month, I’m looking back at movies and tv shows to rediscover songs that graced the screen. The scenes and the music are inseparable. They’re engrained in our heads and our hearts. And they’re proof that the best music we have doesn’t exist in isolation. It attaches itself to a moment or an experience. #SceneSongs
Movie: Fight Club
While it may not be in the upper echelon of my personal Pixies favorites, “Where Is My Mind?” has cultural implications that far outweigh the rest of this great band’s catalog. That’s, of course, because of Fight Club, which was not just a terrific film, it was a cultural phenomenon. Controversial and influential, Fight Club ended with this song — and then continued on in public discourse and in private fight clubs across the U.S.
“Where Is My Mind?” is an introduction to the irresistible, jarring world of the Pixies. It’s a coming out party of quiet-loud-quiet dynamics that mimicked the cinematic rhythms of the movie and that would define the Pixies imprint on the music world. They weren’t Nirvana. Or Radiohead. Or Smashing Pumpkins. But they were the ones that influenced all three. We may not have any of those bands without this song. What I’m drawn to on this track: Black Francis going from tentative to full-blown insane. I also think the simple, pervasive guitar riff trumps the mini guitar solo.
“WITH YOUR FEET ON THE AIR AND YOUR HEAD ON THE GROUND, TRY THIS TRICK AND SPIN IT, YEAH.”