Music Geek-Out #9: Pixies “Monkey Gone to Heaven”

Again, there are many reasons why I chose this song for the philoSOPHIA dinner playlist at Miami. As I mentioned, I was doing a little “awesome female bassist” subsection of the set. AND, at a school an hour away from Dayton, Ohio, I would be seriously remiss if I didn’t include some Kim Deal. Kim was/is the bassist for the Pixies. And, for me growing up as a teenage modern rock chick in between Cincinnati and Dayton in the 90s, Kim Deal was IT. She was proof that local girls could get out and do something interesting.

I picked this track specifically because it shows how important Kim was to the Pixies (in)famous “loud/quiet/loud” aesthetic. Her vocal harmonies appear mainly in the “loud” sections, but as something softer and warmer than Black Frances’s angsty, more cutting vocals. So, she uses softness to make the loud sections loud.