The Red and Black

Issue date: 10/28/09 Section: Out & About

Media Credit: Courtesy Black Francis Black Francis, a collective of local musicians, unite to pay tribute to the legendary Pixies. [Click to enlarge]

This Halloween, the music of several famous rock and funk bands will come back from the dead.

The 40 Watt Club is hosting a Halloween show called "Ghouls Gone Wild," featuring The HEAP's tribute to Parliament-Funkadelic; Black Francis, a Pixies cover band; and Gary's Got a Boner, a Replacements cover band.

Kathy Kirvo, who will play in the Pixies cover band, organized the show.



"It's just a band for Halloween, but I normally play in Heavy Feather," she said. "But we did a Pixies tribute band years ago at the 40 Watt on Halloween, so we ... decided to do it again for fun."

Kirvo said The Pixies are "perfect creepy Halloween music."

"A long time ago we decided to do it because I think The Pixies weren't even broken up," she said. "And their songs, you know, the words [to] 'Gouge Away,' 'Debaser,' they're all pretty creepy, kind of spooky Halloween songs, so it's perfect for Halloween."

The cover band, named Black Francis after the lead singer of The Pixies, consists of Kirvo, Paul Hammond, Jay Ring, Jerry Sumrell and Mark Stepp. All five used to play together in the band Greenhouse.

Since that time, Hammond has played in Time Toy and LFU, and Ring has played in LFU.

Sumrell played in several bands in Athens and Atlanta and was a music writer for Flagpole before moving to Virginia.

Stepp now lives in Los Angeles and works as a music and video producer, editor and director. He will return to Athens for this show, which was the group's main reason for deciding to play together again.

At the show, the musicians will take on the personalities of the members of the Pixies. Kirvo, for example, will take on the role of Pixies bassist Kim Deal.

Continued...

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