Amherst, Massachusetts 1983
Songwriter Charles Michael Kitridge Thompson IV meets guitarist Joey Santiago while living
near each other in the dorms at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
They began to regularly jam together.
A couple years later, both had dropped out of college and moved to Boston with the goal
of starting a rock band.
They placed an ad in the Boston Phoenix, which said “Band seeks bassist into Hüsker Dü
and Peter, Paul and Mary.
Please – no chops.”
One person answered the ad, and that was guitarist Kim Deal.
She arrived to audition without a bass, since she had never played bass guitar before.
But she loved Thompson’s songs and was inspired to get one.
The trio began rehearsing in Deal’s apartment.
Now, they still needed a drummer.
Deal suggested they reach out to David Lovering, a friend of her husband.
Lovering, who had all but given up drumming by this point in his life, was convinced and
decided to join the band.
After literally scouring a dictionary for awhile, Santiago suggested the band be called
Pixies.
The rest of the band was like, “sure, why not.”
They began rehearsing in Lovering’s parents’ garage.
Soon after, they got their first gig at a bar in Cambridge.
The bar spelled the band’s name wrong, however, advertising them as “the Puxies.”
But by the summer of 1986 they were regularly getting gigs at bars all over Boston, and these bars spelled their name correctly.
Their music was really hard to categorize, and promoters didn’t know what to do with them.
The songs were catchy, but every song was chaos….always seemingly about to fall apart.
The band was creative with how they advertised these shows.
They made posters that said “Death to the Pixies” and featured a naked Thompson on them
On December 13, 1986, Pixies opened up for Throwing Muses at a legendary Boston venue
affectionately known as The Rat.
It was at that show that producer Gary Smith, who managed a local recording studio known
as Fort Apache Studios, told the band he “could not sleep until you guys are world famous.”
He begged them to record with him.
Eventually they said yes, recording a 17-track demo with Smith at Fort Apache in March 1987.
Thompson’s dad paid the $1,000 needed for the recording session, and the band finished
in three days.
The songs made it quite clear that Pixies were not a band that could be easily labeled,
and thus, probably not easily marketed.
Sure, they were parts punk rock, and parts surf rock, but they really were creating an
entirely new sound.
Around the time of the recording of the demo, Thompson took on the stage name Black Francis
and Deal took on the stage name Mrs. John Murphy as a joke referencing her husband.
A local promoter named Ken Goes became the band’s manager and sent the demo out to labels.
Elektra, Slash, SST, Relativity, Homestead, Throbbing Lobster, New Rose...yep, all of
those labels rejected them.
But Goes also got the demo to Ivo Watts-Russell of the British record label 4AD.
Well Watts-Russell wasn’t that impressed by the demo either, but his girlfriend was,
and she talked him into signing the band.
8 of the 17 songs would make up the debut mini-LP by the band, called Come On Pilgrim.
4AD released Come On Pilgrim on September 28, 1987, and it did pretty well on the UK
indie album chart, peaking at number 5.
That success led to 4AD giving the band $10,000 to record a full-length album.
Producer and musician Steve Albini agreed to record the band.
This was before Albini had hit legendary status, but he was still well respected at the time.
Pixies recorded the album for a couple weeks in December 1987.
Famously, Albini recorded Deal’s vocals in a bathroom for the songs “Where Is My
Mind?” and “Gigantic.”
4AD released Pixies debut studio album, Surfer Rosa, on March 2, 1988.
Critics generally praised the album, especially in the United Kingdom, where it also spent
60 weeks on the UK indie album chart.
The American music magazine Spin described the album as “beautifully brutal,” and
later named Pixies musicians of the year.
Despite all the love from critics, Surfer Rosa didn’t get much mainstream radio airplay,
and featured only one single: “Gigantic.”
That said, today Surfer Rosa is considered a classic album, later reshaping alternative
rock and influencing grunge.
Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain said Surfer Rosa strongly shaped how he wrote the album Nevermind.
To promote the album, Pixies toured with Throwing Muses all over Europe.
By the end of the tour, THEY were the headliners, not Throwing Muses.
Around that time, the band met British producer Gil Norton, who would end up producing much
of their music.
They began recording with Norton in October 1988, this time with a budget of $40,000.
These recordings would have a much cleaner sound compared to previous recordings.
Recording wrapped up at the end of November, and on April 17, 1989, 4AD released Pixies’
second studio album, Doolittle.
It was the band’s first international release, with the label Elektra distributing it in
the United States and PolyGram distributing it in Canada.
Doolittle was both a critical and commercial success, with two hit singles: “Monkey Gone
to Heaven” and “Here Comes Your Man,” a song which showed they could be straight
up poppy if they wanted to.
Doolittle became famous for its dynamics- you know, often abruptly going from sudden
loud to quiet to loud again within the same song- which ended up being copied by many
bands afterward.
The album particularly did well on alternative radio in the United States.
Despite all this success, Kim Deal and Black Francis were not getting along very well.
At the root of the conflict was that Deal wanted more creative control within the band
and Francis didn’t want to give up creative control.
After another long European tour in the summer of 1989 and a very stressful American tour
in the fall, the band decided to take a little break.
Santiago and Lovering went on vacation.
Francis went a short solo tour.
And Deal formed a new band with Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses and Josephine Wiggs of Perfect
Disaster called The Breeders.
In January 1990, Francis, Santiago, and Lovering all moved from Boston to Los Angeles.
Deal was in the UK recording the first Breeders album with Steve Albini.
In February, Pixies began recording new material, again with producer Gil Norton.
Francis wrote many of the songs in the studio right before they recorded them.
They didn’t have much time to actually rehearse.
Eventually, Deal reunited with the band, and by the spring Pixies had wrapped up recording.
4AD and Elektra released their third studio album, Bossanova, on August 13, 1990.
This one also had two singles “Velouria” and “Dig for Fire.”
Critics mostly praised the album, and it also got lots of airplay on alternative radio.
On August 26, Pixies played their first really big show, headlining the Reading festival.
Over the next couple months, they continued to play huge festivals across Europe with
musicians like David Bowie, who once said Pixies, along with Sonic Youth, had made the
most compelling music of the 1980s.
In between tours during the first half of 1991, Pixies recorded new songs, but Kim Deal
had less and less of a role on them.
4AD released Pixies fourth studio album, Trompe le Monde, on September 23, 1991, and it would
be the last to feature Deal.
The album saw Pixies returning to their roots with a more raw sound, and critics once again
uniformly praised it, although it was overshadowed by another album released at about the same
time (Nevermind).
Still, it featured four singles: “Planet of Sound,” “Alec Eiffel,” “Letter
to Memphis,” and “Head On.”
The band once again toured constantly to promote the album, playing huge shows in Europe and
smaller ones in the United States.
In early 1992, U2 asked the band to open for them for part of their Zoo TV tour.
Throughout all of these shows, playing to the biggest audiences in their careers, that
the band was probably the least happy.
Deal and Francis were once again regularly fighting.
On April 25, 1992, the band played its last show of the tour in Vancouver.
Afterward, the band all agreed to take a break.
Once again, Deal started working again with the Breeders and Francis began recording a
solo album.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Francis announced that the band had broken up.
He announced it on January 13, 1993 on the BBC show Radio 5, and gave no explanation.
Only later that day did Francis call Santiago to tell him the news and, believe it or not,
told Deal and Lovering about the breakup via fax.
An abrupt ending to a relatively short career, but this story is not over...obviously.
In the years after the breakup, the former Pixies members had several projects.
First of all, Black Francis changed his stage name to Frank Black and released a few solo
albums, including some with his new collaborators, going by Frank Black and the Catholics.
While Santiago still contributed to some Frank Black albums, he also collaborated with other
musicians, began writing TV and film scores, and formed a band called the Martinis with
his wife Linda Mallari.
Deal continued with The Breeders, who had a big hit with “Cannonball” from their
album Last Splash in 1993.
She also later formed a band called the Amps.
Lovering also collaborated with other musicians, but turned down an invitation from Dave Grohl
to join the Foo Fighters.
A few years later, he became a magician.
I’m not joking.
Meanwhile, in the years following the breakup, Pixies were bigger than ever.
More and more of their songs entered the mainstream in various ways.
Flash forward to 2003, and just as abruptly as Charles Thompson ended Pixies, he brought
them back together.
Thompson called Santiago to see if he wanted to reunite, and Santiago called the others.
They did, they all did...and started jamming together again, just like old times.
Soon, the rumours got out and the world was excited.
Pixies were back, baby!
They played their first reunion show on April 13, 2004 at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
And then, one long, worldwide reunion tour throughout 2004.
On May 3, 4AD released Wave of Mutilation: Best of Pixies, and it added to the hype.
In June, Pixies released a new song called “Bam Thwok” exclusively on iTunes.
(instrumental)
In 2005, it was no longer a reunion...they just kept playing shows, including appearances
at Lollapalooza and the Newport Folk Festival.
After continuing to play shows around the world in 2006 and 2007, journalists were wondering
“why not record a new album?”
Charles Thompson, or Frank Black, well actually who by this time was once again Francis Black,
said he hoped for the band to record a new album, but said Deal didn’t want to.
Yeah, I probably should point out that since the band had gotten back together, there were
once again tensions between Black and Deal.
In October 2009, Pixies went on tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Doolittle,
performing the complete album live, even including the B-sides.
In 2010 and 2011, Pixies continued to tour around the world...but still, mostly playing
the old tunes.
After not hearing much from the band in 2012, on June 14, 2013, the band announced that
Deal had left the band.
Though Pixies has said she is always welcome back, she has yet to take them up on that offer.
They replaced Kim with another Kim...Kim Shattuck, who played on the 2013 European tour.
On June 28th, Pixies released the song “Bagboy” as a free download on their website.
On September 3rd, they released EP1, which featured four new songs.
Gil Norton produced it, and Simon Archer, from the band the Fall played bass in the
recordings.
Yeah, it got a lot of negative reviews.
A couple months later, they kicked Shattuck out of the band, soon replacing her with Paz
Lenchantin, a violinist and bassist who had contributed to many big bands over the years.
Pixies released two more EPs in early 2014.
EP2 on January 3rd, and EP3 on March 24th.
Wow, what creative names of EPs.
The reviews for the other two EPs weren’t much better, but at least the band was getting
comfortable recording together again.
Pixies threw all three EPs together and released it as their fifth studio album, Indie Cindy,
on April 19, 2014.
It was their first new album in more than 22 years.
In 2015, Pixies toured in support of THE Robert Plant.
Later that year, they began working with a new producer in the studio named Tom Dalgety.
On September 30, 2016, they released their sixth studio album, Head Carrier.
It was the first to fully feature Paz Lenchantin on bass, and featured four singles, believe
it or not: “Um Chagga Lagga,” “Tenement Song,” “Classic Masher,” and “Bel
Esprit.”
This one got better reviews, but one of the common criticisms was that the weirdness of
Pixies was long gone with these new songs.
That weirdness seemed to come back in 2018.
Back in the studio with Dalgety, they returned to their old weird selves, not giving a crap
about expectations from fans or critics.
These new songs ended up making up their seventh studio album, Beneath the Eyrie, which the
band released on September 13, 2019.
Leading up to its release, they released a podcast to promote it, hosted by music journalist
Tony Fletcher.
Beneath the Eyrie was the most critically acclaimed Pixies album since Trompe le Monde.
It featured the singles “On Graveyard Hill,” which graced us with this weird video... and
“Catfish Kate,” which the band performed live on Stephen Colbert.
Despite appearing on a national show like this, Pixies still manage to remain under
the radar, rarely getting much notice in the mainstream.
But that doesn’t mean they are any less influential.
In fact, today Pixies are arguably the most influential alternative rock band of all time.
Bands like Nirvana, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, and Arcade Fire all were heavily influenced
by them.
They were too weird for even MTV and modern rock radio, but MTV and modern rock radio
completely ate up the bands they influenced.
It’s paradoxical, because they are both obscure yet also pervasive.
Even today, Pixies are in a category all their own, and they seem more comfortable than they’ve
ever been.
Hopefully they’ll get weirder and weirder the older they get.
So what is your favorite Pixies song or album?
How does their new stuff compared to their old stuff?
Do you think they should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Let me know in the comments below.
Oh, and my answers to those questions are...My favorite Pixies song is Hey, my favorite album
is Doolittle, their newer stuff is almost as good as their older stuff, and of course
they should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Thanks for watching!