Pixies (band)
The Pixies are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1986. The original lineup consisted of Black Francis, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal and David Lovering. The Pixies are associated with the 1990s alternative rock boom, and draw on elements including punk rock and surf rock. Their music is known for dynamic "loud-quiet-loud" shifts and song structures. Francis is the primary songwriter; his often surreal lyrics cover offbeat subjects such as extraterrestrials, incest, and biblical violence.
The Pixies' debut release was the mini-LP Come On Pilgrim, followed by the albums Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, Bossanova and Trompe le Monde. They disbanded in 1993. The Pixies found only modest success in the US, but were more successful in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe. Their alternative rock sound influenced acts such as Nirvana, Radiohead, Modest Mouse, the Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer.
The Pixies' popularity grew after their breakup, leading to a 2004 reunion and sold-out world tours. Deal left in 2012, and was replaced with Kim Shattuck for their 2013 tour. She was later replaced with Paz Lenchantin, who became a full member in 2016. With Lenchantin, the Pixies recorded the albums Head Carrier, Beneath the Eyrie and Doggerel. In 2024, Lenchantin was replaced by Emma Richardson, formerly of Band of Skulls. The ninth Pixies album, The Night the Zombies Came, was released that year.
History
Formation (1984–1986)
Guitarist Joey Santiago and songwriter Black Francis met in 1984 when they lived next to each other while attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Although Santiago was worried about distractions, he noticed Francis played music and the pair began to jam together. Francis spent six months in Puerto Rico studying Spanish, then returned to Amherst and dropped out of the university. Francis and Santiago spent the following year working in a Boston-area warehouse, with Francis composing songs on his acoustic guitar and writing lyrics on the subway.The pair formed a band in January 1986. Two weeks later, Francis placed an advertisement seeking a bass player who liked both the folk act Peter, Paul and Mary and the alternative rock band Hüsker Dü. Kim Deal was the only person to respond, and arrived at the audition without a bass, as she had never played one before. She was invited to join as she liked the songs Francis showed her. She obtained a bass, and the trio started rehearsing in Deal's apartment.
After recruiting Deal, Kim paid for her sister, Kelley Deal, to fly to Boston and audition as a drummer. Though Francis approved, Kelley was not confident in her drumming, and was more interested in playing songs written by Kim; she later joined Kim's band the Breeders. Kim's husband suggested they hire David Lovering, whom Kim had met at her wedding reception. The group arrived at a name after Santiago selected the word "pixies" randomly from a dictionary, liking how it looked and its definition as "mischievous little elves". The Pixies moved rehearsals to Lovering's parents' garage in mid-1986 and began to play shows at bars in the Boston area.
''Come On Pilgrim'' (1987)
While the Pixies were playing a concert with Throwing Muses, they were noticed by the producer Gary Smith, the manager of Fort Apache Studios. He told them he "could not sleep until you guys are world famous". Funded by Francis' father, the Pixies spent three days recording a 17-track demo at Fort Apache, which would become known as the Purple Tape for its purple cover. Promoter Ken Goes became the Pixies' manager, and he passed the demo to Ivo Watts-Russell of the independent record label 4AD. Watts-Russell found the Pixies too normal and "too rock 'n' roll", but was persuaded to sign them by his girlfriend.Upon signing with 4AD, eight tracks from the Purple Tape were selected for the Come On Pilgrim mini-LP, the Pixies' first release. Francis drew upon his experiences in Puerto Rico, mostly in the songs "Vamos" and "Isla de Encanta", describing the poverty in Puerto Rico and singing in loose Spanish. The religious lyrics and later albums came from his parents' born-again Christian days in the Pentecostal Church. The critic Heather Phares identified themes such as sexual frustration and incest.
''Surfer Rosa'' and ''Doolittle'' (1988–1989)
Come On Pilgrim was followed by the Pixies' first full-length album, Surfer Rosa. It was recorded by Steve Albini, completed in two weeks, and released in early 1988. Surfer Rosa gained the Pixies acclaim in Europe; both Melody Maker and Sounds named it their "Album of the Year". American critical response was positive but more muted, a reaction that persisted for much of the Pixies' career. Surfer Rosa was eventually certified gold in the US in 2005. The Pixies 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 a significant amount of media attention.The Pixies signed an American distribution deal with the major record label Elektra. Around this time, they struck up a relationship with the British producer Gil Norton. Norton produced their second full album, Doolittle, which was recorded in the last six weeks of 1988. Doolittle had a much cleaner sound compared to the raw sound of their first two releases, largely due to Norton and the production budget of US$40,000, which was quadruple that of Surfer Rosa. Doolittle featured the single "Here Comes Your Man", which biographers Josh Frank and Caryn Ganz describe as an unusually jaunty and pop-like song for the band. "Monkey Gone to Heaven" was popular on alternative rock radio in the US, reached the top 10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks, and the single entered the Top 100 in the U.K. Like Surfer Rosa, Doolittle was acclaimed by fans and music critics alike. Doolittle was their first album to enter into the Billboard 200, peaking at 98. In the UK, the album was a commercial success, reaching number 8 in the Albums Chart.
Break (1989–1990)
After Doolittle, the tensions that had been growing between Deal and Francis came to a head, and Deal was almost fired from the band when she refused to play at a concert in Frankfurt. Santiago, in an interview with Mojo, described Deal as being "headstrong and want to include her own songs, to explore her own world" on the band's albums; eventually she accepted that Francis was the singer and had musical control of the band, but after the Frankfurt incident, "they kinda stopped talking". The band became increasingly tired during the post-Doolittle "Fuck or Fight" tour of the United States and fighting among members continued. After the tour's final date in New York City, the band was too exhausted to attend the end-of-tour party the following night and soon announced a hiatus.During this time, Santiago and Lovering went on vacation while Francis performed a short solo tour, made up of a number of concerts to generate gas money as he traveled across the country. Deal formed a new band, the Breeders, with Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses and bass player Josephine Wiggs of Perfect Disaster. Their debut album, Pod, was released in 1990.
''Bossanova'' and ''Trompe le Monde'' (1990–1992)
In 1990, all members of the group except Deal moved to Los Angeles. Lovering stated that he, Santiago, and Francis moved there "because the recording studio was there". Unlike previous recordings, the band had little time to practice beforehand, and Black Francis wrote much of the album in the studio. Featuring the singles "Velouria" and "Dig for Fire", Bossanova reached number 70 in the United States. In contrast, the album peaked at number three in the United Kingdom. Also in 1990, the Pixies released a cover of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's "Born in Chicago" on the compilation album Rubáiyát: Elektra's 40th Anniversary.The band continued to tour and released Trompe le Monde in 1991, their final album before their break-up. The album included "U-Mass", which has been described as being about college apathy, and featured a guitar riff written years earlier at the University of Massachusetts before Francis and Santiago dropped out. The album also featured a cover of "Head On" by the Jesus and Mary Chain. Also that year, the band contributed a cover of "I Can't Forget" to the Leonard Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan, and began an international tour on which they played stadiums in Europe and smaller venues in the United States. In 1992, they supported U2 on the lucrative US leg of their Zoo TV Tour. Their final performance took place on April 25, 1992 at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, British Columbia. Tensions rose among band members, and they went on sabbatical and focused on separate projects.
Breakup and solo projects (1993–2003)
In early 1993, Francis announced in an interview with BBC Radio 5 that the Pixies were finished, without telling the other members of the band. He offered no explanation at the time. He later called Santiago and notified Deal and Lovering via fax.After the breakup, the members embarked on separate projects. Black Francis renamed himself Frank Black, and released several solo albums, including a string of releases with Frank Black and the Catholics. Deal returned to the Breeders and released several albums, including a hit single, "Cannonball", from the platinum-selling Last Splash in 1993. She also formed the Amps, who released one album.
Santiago played lead guitar on a number of Frank Black albums and other artists' albums. He wrote music for the television show Undeclared and theme music for the film Crime and Punishment in Suburbia. He formed the Martinis with his wife, Linda Mallari, and released the album Smitten in 2004. In 2004, he also played lead guitar on the album Statecraft by the novelist and musician Charles Douglas. Lovering became a magician and performed a style of magic he called "scientific phenomenalism". He was temporarily a member of the Martinis, and later drummed with the band Cracker.
4AD and Elektra Records continued to release Pixies material: the best-of album Death to the Pixies, the Peel-session compilation Pixies at the BBC, and the Complete 'B' Sides compilation. In 2002, material from the Pixies' original 17-track demo tape was released as an EP, Pixies, on Cooking Vinyl in the U.K. and SpinART Records in the U.S.; Black has also used these labels to release solo work and albums with the Catholics. Their song "Where is My Mind" was played during the climax of the movie Fight Club in 1999, introducing the song to a new generation of fans.