The Pixies are an American alternative rock band that formed in Boston in 1986. The group disbanded in 1993 under acrimonious circumstances but reunited in 2004. Black Francis, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal, and David Lovering have been the band's continual members. While the Pixies found only modest success in their home country, they were significantly more successful in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe, although never achieving mainstream success with their studio albums.
The band's style of alternative rock music is heavily influenced by punk and indie rock, and while highly melodic, is capable of being tremendously abrasive at the same time. Francis is the Pixies' primary songwriter and singer and has a distinctly desperate, yowling delivery. He has typically written cryptic songs about offbeat subjects, such as UFOs and surrealism. References to mental instability, violent Biblical imagery, and physical injury feature in many of the band's songs.
The group is frequently posited as the immediate forebear of the alternative rock boom of the 1990s, though they disbanded before reaping any of the benefits this might have brought them. Avowed fan Kurt Cobain's acknowledgement of the debt Nirvana owed to the Pixies, along with similar tributes by other alternative bands, ensured that the Pixies' legacy and influence grew substantially in the years following their demise.
History
Formation
The history of the Pixies began when undergraduates Joey Santiago and Black Francis (born Charles Thompson IV) shared a room at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Santiago soon introduced Francis to the music of David Bowie and 1970s punk rock, and the pair began to jam together. Francis then embarked on a student exchange trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico, but upon arriving struggled to grasp the Spanish language. After spending six months in an apartment with a "weirdo, psycho, gay roommate", he returned to Amherst and dropped out of the university. The two spent 1984 working in a warehouse, with Francis composing songs on his acoustic guitar and writing lyrics on the subway train.
The pair formed a band in January 1986. Bassist Kim Deal joined Santiago and Francis two weeks later after responding to a classified advertisement Francis had placed, seeking a female bassist who liked both folk music icons Peter, Paul and Mary and the hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü. Deal was the only person to respond, but arrived at the audition without a bass guitar as she had never played the instrument before. She claimed her twin sister Kelley Deal had a bass back in Dayton and that she had no money to get it. Francis lent her $50 for the airfare and Deal returned with the bass guitar. The trio started rehearsing in Deal's apartment, "because the old lady upstairs couldn't hear."
After recruiting Kim Deal, the band tried to get Kelley to join the band on drums, unsuccessfully. Kim's husband suggested they hire drummer David Lovering, whom Kim had met at her wedding reception. They arrived at a name after Santiago selected the word randomly from a dictionary and took a liking to the definition, "mischievous little elves". The group was originally named "Pixies In Panoply" ("Things on Fire" was considered), but soon shortened it to "Pixies". Once the band had settled on a name and stable line-up, they moved rehearsals to Lovering's parents' garage in the summer of 1986. Their first show—named as "possibly the worst gig in the history of rock" by the band—took place at the The Rathskeller, Boston, where they performed early versions of "Here Comes Your Man", "Dig for Fire", and "Build High".
Record contract and Come On Pilgrim
While the Pixies were playing a concert with Throwing Muses, they were noticed by producer Gary Smith (Fort Apache Studios). He told the band he "could not sleep until you guys are world famous." The band produced a 17 track demo at Fort Apache soon afterwards, known to fans as "The Purple Tape" because of the tape cover's purple background. The recording was funded by Francis' father at the cost of $1000 and took three days to record. The tape was released exclusively as a demo to interested parties, including Ivo Watts-Russell at 4AD and local promoter Ken Goes, who became the band's manager. Watts-Russell nearly passed on the band, finding them too normal, "too rock 'n' roll", but signed them at the persuasion of his girlfriend.
Upon signing with 4AD (the band later claimed they were "the coolest record company to pay on time"), eight tracks from the Purple Tape were selected for the Come On Pilgrim EP, the band's first release. The title was a lyric in the song "Levitate Me", which came from a catchphrase used by '70s Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman during his live concerts: "Come on Pilgrim, you know He loves you"—Francis once saw Norman at a Christian summer camp. Black Francis would later record one of Norman's songs during his solo career as Frank Black, plus share one concert stage with Norman.
In the EP, Francis drew upon his experiences in Puerto Rico, mostly in the songs "Vamos" and "Isla de Encanta"; the album included lyrics describing the poverty in Puerto Rico. The religious lyrics in Come On Pilgrim and later albums came from his born-again Christian days in the Pentecostal Church.
Come On Pilgrim showcased much of the Pixies' variety and set up the beginnings of many trends in their music. It includes two songs partly sung in Spanish ("Vamos" and "Isla de Encanta") and two songs that explicitly mention incest—"Nimrod's Son" and "The Holiday Song" (
sample ( help · info ) ). "I've Been Tired" refers metaphorically to sex and rock and roll culture and features a sense of humour, and there are four songs with religious references ("Caribou", "Nimrod's Son","I've Been Tired" and "The Holiday Song"). Beyond lyrical trends, Come On Pilgrim displayed Santiago's erratic leads (as best displayed in "Vamos"), Kim Deal's sweet harmonies (the then-married Deal used the pseudonym "Mrs. John Murphy" on the first few Pixies records, as an ironic feminist joke), and Black Francis's vocal range, from screaming to simple, traditional sung melodies.
Surfer Rosa and Doolittle
Come On Pilgrim was followed by the band's first full-length album, Surfer Rosa . The album was recorded by Steve Albini (who was hired by Watts-Russell on the advice of a 4AD colleague), completed in two weeks, and released in early 1988. Albini later became notable for recording Nirvana's In Utero at the request of Kurt Cobain, who had cited Surfer Rosa as one of his main musical influences, and particularly admired the album's natural and powerful drum sounds—a result of Albini's influence on the record. Surfer Rosa gained the Pixies acclaim throughout the musical world; both Melody Maker and Sounds gave Surfer Rosa their "Album of the Year" award. The success of Surfer Rosa would lead to the band signing an American distribution deal with major record label Elektra before the release of their next album.
As with Come On Pilgrim , the band delivered a wide range of song styles. However, sonically and thematically, Surfer Rosa was similar to Come On Pilgrim —from the drum-driven "Bone Machine", that showed a trademark propensity for surreal lyrics, to pop guitar songs such as "Broken Face", "Break My Body", and "Brick is Red". The band included heavier material, such as "Something Against You", with Black Francis' distorted screaming a prominent feature in the song, and Q Magazine later named Surfer Rosa as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time . A re-recorded version of "Vamos"—a song that appeared on Come On Pilgrim —appears on the album. The track, "You Fuckin' Die! (I Said)" (referred to as "Bonus Track" or "Untitled" on most versions of the CD) that appears toward the end of the album is actually an accidental studio recording of Francis and Deal talking amicably and joking, and despite the title of the song, there is none of the tension present between the two that would later drive the band apart.
Surfer Rosa featured popular songs such as "Gigantic"—their first single and one of the few songs on which bassist Kim Deal sang lead vocals—"River Euphrates", and "Where Is My Mind?" (
After their critically acclaimed album, the band arrived in England to support Throwing Muses on the European "Sex and Death" tour—beginning at the Mean Fiddler in London. The tour also took them to the Netherlands, where the Pixies had already received enough media attention to be headlining the tour. Francis later recalled: "The first place I made it with the Pixies was in Holland." The setlist included new songs such as "In Heaven", "Hey", and "Wild Honey Pie", and the tour became notable for the band's in-jokes, such as playing their entire set list in alphabetical order. The aforementioned songs were recorded in a Peel session in July at the BBC and they soon made a second trip to the studios; choosing "Dead", "Tame", "There Goes My Gun"
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