Pixies

American alternative rock band the Pixies formed in 1986 by Black Francis (vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriter), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), Kim Deal (bass, vocals) and David Lovering (drums) in Boston, Massachusetts.

Black Francis grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father was a bar owner. He was introduced to music at a young age, as his parents listened to 1960s folk rock. His first guitar was his mother’s, a Yamaha classical guitar bought with money from his father’s bar tips, which he started to play age 11.

When Francis was 12, his mother and stepfather joined an evangelical church that was tied to the Pentecostal denomination Assemblies of God, a move that influenced many of his songs written with the Pixies, which often refer to the Bible. Just before his senior year, his family moved to Westport, Massachusetts, where he received a Teenager of the Year award—the title of a later solo album.

Santiago was born in Manila, Philippines, the third of six sons of an anesthesiologist. In 1972, when President Marcos declared martial law, the family immigrated to the United States. After two years in Yonkers, New York, the family moved to Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

Guitarist Santiago and songwriter Black Francis (born Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV) met when they lived next to each other in a suite while attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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 respondent, and arrived at the audition without a bass, as she had never played one before.

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”.

In 1987 Pixies released an 18-track demo tape, commonly referred to as The Purple Tape which led to a recording contract with the English independent record label 4AD. For the release of the mini album Come On Pilgrim, Thompson adopted the alias “Black Francis”, a name inspired by his father: “he had been saving that name in case he had another son”.

In 1988 Pixies recorded their debut album Surfer Rosa. To support the album, the band undertook a European tour. “Monkey Gone To Heaven”, was released the following year to widespread critical acclaim.

The band had signed to Elektra Records at the end of 1988, so “Monkey Gone to Heaven” was their first American and major label release. It was critically well-received; Rolling Stone’s David Fricke said “Monkey Gone to Heaven” was “a corrosive, compelling meditation on God and garbage.” The single reached number five on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart.

The second studio album Doolittle was released on April 17, 1989, on 4AD. The album was an instant critical success and became the band’s breakthrough album. Doolittle was especially well received in Europe, where the British music weeklies Melody Maker and Sounds named it their album of the year.

The album is praised for its “quiet/loud” dynamic, which was achieved through subdued verses that are founded on Kim Deal’s bass patterns and David Lovering’s drums. The peaks in tone and volume were achieved through the addition of distorted guitars by Francis and Joey Santiago. This technique influenced the development of early-1990s grunge music; Kurt Cobain said Doolittle was one of his favourite records and that its songs heavily influenced Nirvana’s song “Smells Like Teen Spirit“.

After Doolittle, tensions between Deal and Francis came to a head (for example, Francis threw a guitar at Deal during a concert in Stuttgart), and Deal was almost fired from the band when she refused to play at a concert in Frankfurt

In 1990, all members of the group except Deal moved to Los Angeles. Unlike previous recordings, the band had little time to practice beforehand, and Black Francis wrote much of the band’s third 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.

Their jarring pop sound influenced acts such as Nirvana, Radiohead, Modest Mouse, the Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer.

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.
Kim Deal left in 2013, and was replaced by Kim Shattuck as a touring bassist. She was replaced that year by Paz Lenchantin, who became a full member in 2016.

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, who achieved a hit single, “Cannonball”, from their platinum-selling Last Splash in 1993.

In 2003, a series of phone calls among band members resulted in some low-key rehearsals, and soon the decision to reunite. By February 2004, a full tour was announced, and tickets for nearly all the initial tour dates sold out within minutes.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Doolittle, the Pixies launched a world tour in October 2009 where they performed the album track-for-track, including the associated B-sides.

In June 2013, the Pixies announced that Kim Deal had left the band and announced the addition of the Muffs and Pandoras guitarist and vocalist Kim Shattuck to replace Deal for their 2013 European tour. Just 5 months alter Shattuck announced that she had been dismissed from the band. In December 2013, it was announced that the Entrance Band and A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin was joining the Pixies for the 2014 tour.

One notable citation as an influence was by Kurt Cobain, on influencing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit“, which he admitted was a conscious attempt to co-opt the Pixies’ style. In a January 1994 interview with Rolling Stone, he said, “I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it [smiles]. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band—or at least in a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.”