Pixies - Garage-rock conquers the USA

The Pixies were one of the most important bands of the “indie” movement of the 1980s. From their original blend of garage-rock, hardcore and power-pop, Nirvana took their cue (as Cobain himself admitted), along with countless other bands of the following decade. Their songs, only seemingly straightforward, marked a significant step forward in the use of song form in the history of rock.

From the beginnings to Surfer Rosa

The band was born in 1986 when singer Black Francis, aka Charles Thompson, met guitarist Joey Santiago in Puerto Rico, where both were studying. The two decided to drop out of school and move to Boston to form a band. Through a newspaper ad (“Bassist wanted, into Husker Du and Peter Paul & Mary”) they found the talented Kim Deal, who brought along her drummer friend, David Lovering. “I got the gig because I was the only one who answered the ad,” Kim would later recall. The quartet began packing out Boston's small clubs with a curious blend they called “noise pop” (“two-thirds noise, one-third pop”).

Signed by the English label 4AD, Pixies debuted a year later with the EP Come On Pilgrim, a work still somewhat raw in places, but one that showcased the band's knack for self-irony and for mangling rock's traditional languages. Their points of reference were the neurotic pantomimes of Pere Ubu, the frenzied energy of Violent Femmes, the electric charge of Neil Young, but also the psychedelic ragas of Velvet Underground and the abrasive rock of Stooges and early Bowie. A blended and upended background poured into acidic, violent songs that nonetheless always retained a melodic core. Adding an extra touch of eccentricity were the surreal lyrics, sung in “Spanglish” slang. “We don't do it to win over a Latin American audience,” explains Kim Deal. “It's just that sometimes Spanish sounds more 'percussive' and manages to better define what we're trying to say.” From the Mexican digressions of “Vamos” and “Isla De Encanto” to the driving “Levitate Me,” from the bluesy “Nimrod's Son” to the frantic “I've Been Tired,” a new sound emerged that, developed further on the following two records, would indelibly define the Pixies style.

1988 was the year of definitive consecration with Surfer Rosa. The record, which topped the British independent charts, was hailed by critics as one of the last masterpieces of “post-punk” or as the manifesto of a new “art-punk.” The basic sound was still garage-rock, but everything was twisted into a succession of distorted riffs and spasmodic rhythms, infectious refrains and hysterical screams. “Bone Machine,” for instance, is a fierce progression of dissonance and obsessive effects. The boogie of “River Euphrates” and the goofy “Oh My Golly!” are two irresistible gags. The fervor grows ever more frenzied: from the ska-inflected stride of “Something Against You” to the punky “Broken Face,” from the voodoobilly of “Tony's Theme” to the solemn ballad “Gigantic.”

But the real anthem of the record is "Where Is My Mind?", an acidic, unsettling melody destined to become one of their signature songs. The solemn closer, "Caribou", proves that the Pixies also have a certain command of psychedelia and know their Velvet Underground well. A surprising record full of endless facets, Surfer Rosa manages to compress a throbbing underlying tension into power-pop choruses, dressing hardcore's hallucinated fervor in melodic form.

Pixies songs are born out of teamwork: "Usually Charles starts with a catchy chord progression and we try to arrange it all. If it works, we record it," says Kim Deal. And they're mostly short songs, in the style of the Ramones and the Sex Pistols: "Maybe because they're just 'nasty' riffs and you can't stand them for more than two minutes," Kim jokes.

From Doolittle to the downward arc

It's precisely the harder riffs that take over on Doolittle (1989): from the savage stomp of "Debaser" to the tight rhythm of "Wave Of Mutilation", all the way to the hard-rock energy of "No 13 Baby" and "Gouge Away". But there's no shortage of the usual deranged gags ("Mr Grieves", "La La Love You") and the more melodic numbers, from "Here Comes Your Man" to "There Goes My Gun". What really defines the album, though, are the disorienting ballads "Wave Of Mutilation" and "Monkey Go To Heaven". Balanced between unbridled punk and melodic pop, Doolittle marks the peak of the Pixies' popularity, sealed by the 150 dates of the "Sex and Death Tour" around the world, their contribution to the Neil Young tribute album ("The Bridge"), and Rolling Stone naming the American band "best group of the year".

But after Doolittle, the Boston band's downward arc also begins.

Bossanova (1990) stays afloat on the instrumental overture of "Cecilia Ann" and a handful of effective choruses ("Velouria", "Allison", "Dig For Fire", "Blown Away"), but it seems to have lost much of the unbridled imagination that had characterized the two previous works. Even more muddled is Trompe Le Monde (1991), written entirely by Francis: only the catchy "Alec Eiffel", the vibrant, Clash-style "U Mass", and the surreal "Bird Dream Of The Olympus Moon" are worth saving. The Pixies have reached the end of the road: not even the invitation to open for U2's Zoo TV tour is enough to stop them splitting up, which happens in 1992.

Afterwards, Frank Black will embark on a successful solo career, recording as Frank Black from 2003 to 2007, and as Black Francis from 2007 onward.

Santiago and Lovering will form the Martinis, while Kim Deal will give life to the far more successful Breeders. The wait for the longed-for return to the scene is filled by at least a couple of releases: the essential Death To The Pixies, a monumental, rarity-packed anthology put out by 4AD and Elektra in 1997, and Live At The BBC, pressed the following year.

2004 marks the Pixies' return to the stage with a reunion tour, but fans will have to wait a few more years for new recordings.

The Pixies' second life…

In June 2013 Kim Deal leaves the band, and a few days later the single "Bagboy" arrives, offered as a free download on the official website.

In September of that same year, a series of EPs begins to roll out, the first of which is titled Ep-1 and contains four new tracks. Four tracks that would have been well received had they come from some up-and-coming band, but which can't be measured against the quality standards the Pixies have traditionally set.

"Andro Queen" opens the proceedings without verve, without drama. An attempt is made to recover some energy on the following "Another Toe In The Ocean", but it ends up sounding almost forced, worse even than some of Frank's blander solo work. On the more moderately oblique "Indie Cindy" (chosen as the lead single), Black actually wonders whether audiences will accept their new work. The one spark, the one flash of pride, comes from the closing track, "What Goes Boom", which at least delivers some solid guitar work, an epic-mooded chorus, and flavors that take us back to their pioneering past.

Ep-2 (2014) and Ep-3 (2014) follow, and all three are collected on Indie Cindy (2014), their first full-length album in more than two decades since Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde, which fails to satisfy the expectations of those who had hoped for their comeback for so many years.

Things go much better two years later with Head Carrier, the second album of the Pixies' second life, steeped in a pervasive sense of déjà vu, that pleasant feeling of being comfortably back home among old friends. Everything sounds like a replica of the old atmosphere, as if time had stood still on the grooves of Doolittle, a decisive influence on bands (Nirvana above all) who would go on to achieve infinitely greater success than the Boston kids of back then. Every song on Head Carrier seems built to recall one from the band's glorious past: a perception reinforced when "All I Think About Now" (the only track sung and written by Paz Lenchantin) reveals itself as a clear homage to "Where Is My Mind?" and to legendary bassist Kim Deal, whose every guideline Lenchantin (known for her stints in A Perfect Circle and Zwan) follows closely, especially in her handling of backing vocals and countermelodies. The title track's opening is an adrenaline jolt, Frank Black's vocals surprisingly brush up against the inflections of Michael Stipe, and from there on unfold twelve tracks that prove far more solid than those found on Indie Cindy.

Brutal and furious on "Baal's Back" and "Um Chagga Lagga", tender on "Might As Well Be Gone" and "All The Saints", bursting with alt-pop attitude on "Tenement Song" and "Plaster Of Paris", irresistibly sunny on "Classic Masher" and "Bel Esprit" — everything flows pleasantly, synthetic and fast, without ever growing dull. And it hardly matters that the four musicians can no longer amaze the way they once did: their ideas are no longer a surprise today, having stood for twenty-five years as a reference standard, absorbed by both the alternative circuit and the mainstream through all the bands who have adopted them as an absolute touchstone. If you're happy to settle for that, Head Carrier proves to be a seriously good record, the concrete celebration of what remains of our most carefree teen spirit, a worthy continuation of an era and an aesthetic. And any nostalgic effect will be softened by appreciation for one of the most successful reunions of the new millennium.

In November 2018, 4AD compiled some live recordings from the band's very earliest days on Live From The Fallout Shelter, as raw as they are representative of a sound that would go on to influence a multitude of musicians in the years that followed.

The CD became a bonus disc in the valuable commemorative box set containing "Come On Pilgrim" and "Surfer Rosa", released to celebrate the latter's thirtieth anniversary.

Another year passes, and in September 2019 comes Beneath The Eyrie, the American band's seventh album, once again recorded with Tom Dalgety at the controls at Dreamland Recording Studios, an isolated and atmospheric former church that influenced the making of the record in various ways: the title, tied to the discovery of a large eagle's nest outside the location, the sinister gothic-themed cover art, and a series of dark compositional ideas. A distant ghostly echo precedes the stride of "In The Arms Of Mrs. Mark Of Cain", the opener, followed by the tale of love & mischief that is "Graveyard Hill", chosen as the first single and accompanied by one of the coolest videos the band have ever made, a fun, lysergic 70s B-movie. Musically we're in pure Pixies' zone territory here, with that mighty bass, the band's recognizable guitar stabs, and a driving refrain.

Other moments to satisfy listeners thirstiest for rock are "Long Rider" and the furious "St. Nazaire". The album's overall mood, though, more often veers toward mature alt-pop ("Death Horizon", "This Is My Fate"), leaving room for the western-tinged stride of "Bird Of Prey" and a few lonely nocturnal ballads ("Daniel Boone"). While "Ready For Love" and "Silver Bullet" don't stand out, that's offset by the splendid "Catfish Kate" and "Los Surfers Muertos", the most evocative moment on "Beneath The Eyrie": a Mexican folk-horror universe in which Paz Lenchantin truly shines. Without the bite and daring of their early years, nor the peaks of its predecessor, Beneath The Eyrie still contains plenty of worthwhile moments, carrying on more than respectably one of the most precious brands in American alternative rock.

Now mature, Black Francis & co. have progressively smoothed out the ferocity and roaring edges of their past into a mature, melodic alt-pop. The songs on Doggerel (2022) are more elaborate and less impactful, with the singer increasingly accompanied by acoustic guitar, though here and there you can still catch a flash of the "good old Pixies". The "highs" don't reach the level of Head Carrier, the best post-reunion work, but at least they liven up an otherwise all-too-tame listen.

In the opening stretch of the record we thus find the shifting rhythm of the opener "Nomatterday", the western tones of "Vault Of Heaven", and the fine "Dregs Of The Wine", enriched by Paz Lenchantin's well-placed backing vocals. A trace of the ghostly aura inherited from its predecessor lingers in "Haunted House", but after the driving "There's A Moon On", showcased at the previous summer's Rome live-greatest hits show, the inspiration gradually fades until it peters out on the closing title track.

After yet another change of bassist (Emma Richardson taking the place of Paz Lenchantin, who had taken the place of the prematurely deceased Kim Shattuck, who had taken the place of Kim Deal, who in those very same days released her solo debut without the Breeders), in October 2024 Pixies released their tenth album, The Night The Zombies Came, their fifth post-reunion work, arriving right at the twentieth anniversary of their comeback.

The band confirms a sound that has long since become institutionalized, compressed into a well-worn, melodic adult-alternative-pop-rock. Fans are stirred up by the more urgent tracks ("You're So Impatient", "Oyster Beds" and "Ernest Evans" are genuinely not bad at all), alternating with more finely crafted songs ("Primrose", which opens the record gliding along on soothing acoustic guitars, and "Chicken") and a couple of potential indie-circuit hits (the alt-pop fullness of "Hypnotised", "Motoroller" and "Kings Of The Prairie" works wonderfully).

Caught between hardcore and acid-rock, punk and power-pop, Pixies, in the late Eighties, forged a new rock language that, alongside that of Sonic Youth, would become a genuine goldmine of ideas for every alternative-rock band of the following decade. Thanks to them, the primitive energy of garage rock was reworked in a postmodern key, with a measured mix of intellectual eccentricity, urban alienation, Latin anarchy and Anglo-Saxon humor.

Contributions by Alessio Belli ("Beneath The Eyrie", "Doggerel")

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google