The Pixies

The Pixies are an American alternative rock band that formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1986.[1] The band disbanded in 1993 under acrimonious circumstances but reunited in 2004. Black Francis, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal, and David Lovering have been the band's continual members. The Pixies found only modest success in their home country, but were significantly more successful in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe, although never achieving mainstream success with their studio albums.[2]

The Pixies' style of alternative rock music is heavily influenced by punk and surf rock, and while highly melodic, is capable of being tremendously abrasive at the same time. Francis is the band's primary songwriter and singer and has a distinctly desperate, yowling delivery. He has typically written cryptic songs about offbeat subjects, such as UFOs and surrealism. References to mental instability, violent Biblical imagery, physical injury, and incest feature in many of the band's songs.

The group is seen as an immediate forebearer of the alternative rock boom of the 1990s, though they disbanded before reaping any of the benefits this might have brought them.[3][4] Avowed fan Kurt Cobain's acknowledgement of the debt Nirvana owed to the Pixies,[5] along with similar tributes by other alternative bands, ensured that the Pixies' legacy and influence grew substantially in the years following their demise.

The Pixies' history began when undergraduates Joey Santiago and Black Francis (born Charles Thompson IV) shared a room at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.[8] Santiago soon introduced Francis to the music of David Bowie and 1970s punk rock, and the pair began to jam together.[9] Francis then embarked on a student exchange trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico, but upon arriving struggled to grasp the Spanish language.[10] After spending six months in an apartment with a "weirdo, psycho, gay roommate",[11] he returned to Boston and dropped out of the university.[9][12] The two spent 1984 working in a warehouse, with Francis composing songs on his acoustic guitar and writing lyrics on the subway train.[13]

Discography

* Come On Pilgrim (1987)
* Surfer Rosa (1988)
* Doolittle (1989)
* Bossanova (1990)
* Trompe le Monde (1991)

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