timeline

Pixies

A Boston quartet who made five records between 1987 and 1991, split in 1993, and came back in 2004 after bands such as Nirvana, Radiohead and Weezer had cited them as an influence.

Origin
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Years active
1986-1993, 2004-present
Genres
alternative rock, punk rock, surf rock
Labels
4AD, Elektra, Rough Trade

Boston

Black Francis, born Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV, and the guitarist Joey Santiago met in 1984 as neighbors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. They formed a band in January 1986. Two weeks later Francis placed an advertisement for a bass player who liked both Peter, Paul and Mary and Hüsker Dü. Kim Deal was the only person who answered, and she arrived at the audition without a bass, having never played one. Her husband suggested David Lovering as the drummer, and Santiago chose the name by picking the word pixies from a dictionary.

In March 1987 the band spent three days at Fort Apache Studios in Boston with the producer Gary Smith and recorded a 17-track demo, later known as the Purple Tape. Their manager Ken Goes passed it to Ivo Watts-Russell of the British label 4AD, who signed them and picked eight songs for the mini-album Come On Pilgrim, released in September 1987.

Albini and Norton

Surfer Rosa came out in March 1988. It was recorded at Q Division in Boston, where the band had booked ten working days, with Steve Albini, who sent Deal's vocals on Where Is My Mind? and Gigantic into a studio bathroom for the echo. It reached number 2 on the UK indie chart, and Melody Maker and Sounds both named it album of the year. When 4AD wanted a single, Gil Norton re-recorded Gigantic, and the label asked him to produce the next album.

Doolittle was made in the autumn of 1988 with a budget four times larger than Surfer Rosa's. It opened with Debaser, took its first single from Monkey Gone to Heaven, with strings recorded in one afternoon, and gave them Here Comes Your Man, which reached number 3 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. 4AD released it in Britain, where it reached number 8, and Elektra in the United States, where it rose to 98.

Strain and Los Angeles

After Doolittle the tension between Francis and Deal came to a head. There were incidents at concerts in Stuttgart and Frankfurt, and Deal was almost fired after she refused to play in Frankfurt. After the last date of the US tour the band announced a hiatus, and Deal formed the Breeders, whose first album Pod appeared in 1990.

Francis, Santiago and Lovering moved to Los Angeles, and Deal joined them. Bossanova, recorded with Norton from February 1990, had many songs written in the studio, and it reached number 3 in the UK and 70 in the US. Its first single was Velouria, which became their first UK top 40 hit. Trompe le Monde followed in September 1991, their last record with Deal, and includes a cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain's Head On. In 1992 they supported U2 on the US leg of the Zoo TV Tour, and they played their final show of that era at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on 25 April 1992. In early 1993 Francis told BBC Radio 5 that the Pixies were finished, without telling the others first.

After

Francis became Frank Black for his solo records, and Where Is My Mind? played in the closing scene of Fight Club in 1999. The band reunited for a first concert at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis on 13 April 2004, and that year's tour grossed over $14 million. In 2009 and 2010 they toured Doolittle track for track.

Deal left in 2012. Kim Shattuck replaced her for 2013, and Paz Lenchantin became a full member in 2016. Emma Richardson took over from Lenchantin in 2024, the year of the ninth album, The Night the Zombies Came. Kurt Cobain said he had basically been trying to rip off the Pixies when he wrote Smells Like Teen Spirit, and David Bowie said they made just about the most compelling music of the entire 80s.

Members

Records

Songs

Breeders, Throwing Muses, Nirvana, The Jesus and Mary Chain

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Discography and data

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Live performance archives

Sources

  1. Pixies (band), Wikipedia
  2. Pixies catalogue, Pitchfork, Pitchfork (2014-04)
  3. Pixies: how we made Where Is My Mind?, The Guardian (2020-11-02)
  4. Pixies frontman Black Francis answers readers, The Guardian (2022-02-03)
  5. Pixies, Pixies
  6. Pixies on MusicBrainz, MusicBrainz