About
Out of Boston in 1986 came one of alternative rock's most influential and unpredictable acts. The Pixies coalesced around the creative axis of Black Francis (Frank Black) and Kim Deal, with guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer David Lovering rounding out the lineup. Their chemistry was volatile and brilliant in equal measure, producing a sound that nobody quite had a name for at the time. Loud-quiet-loud dynamics, surf rock undertones, Francis's unhinged screaming juxtaposed against Deal's cool harmonies, and lyrics drenched in surrealism and dark Americana — it all added up to something genuinely strange and genuinely great. Surfer Rosa and Doolittle remain stone-cold classics, the kind of records that reward repeated listens and still sound fresh decades later. Bossanova and Trompe le Monde followed before a notoriously abrupt breakup in 1993, delivered by fax. The Pixies' cultural footprint is enormous — Kurt Cobain openly credited them as a blueprint for Nirvana's quiet-verse-loud-chorus approach, and their fingerprints are all over the alternative explosion of the 90s. They reunited in 2004 and have kept recording and touring since, proving the fire never fully went out.
