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Pixies: Bands
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Combining jagged, roaring guitars and stop-start dynamics with melodic pop hooks, intertwining male-female harmonies and evocative, cryptic lyrics, the Pixies were one of the most influential American alternative rock bands of the late '80s. The Pixies weren't accomplished musicians -- Black Francis wailed and bashed out chords while Joey Santiago's lead guitar squealed out spirals of noise. But the band were inventive, rabid rock fans that turned conventions inside out, melding punk and indie guitar rock, classic pop, surf rock, and stadium-sized riffs with singer/guitarist Black Francis' bizarre, fragmented lyrics about space, religion, sex, mutilation, and pop culture; while the meaning of his lyrics may have been impenetrable, the music was direct and forceful. The Pixies' busy, brief songs, extreme dynamics, and subversion of pop song structures proved one of the touchstones of '90s alternative rock. From grunge to Britpop, the Pixies' shadow loomed large -- it's hard to imagine Nirvana without the Pixies' signature stop-start dynamics and lurching, noisy guitar solos. While the Pixies were touted as the band to bring indie rock into the mainstream, they simply laid the groundwork for the alternative explosion of the early '90s.
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Pixies are an alternative rock music group. They formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1986 and disbanded in 1993, then reunited in 2004. Pixies found only modest success in their home, the United States, but were significantly more successful in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe. The band is often referenced as "the Pixies"; this is incorrect as the band does not use the article "the" to preface their name.
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The Pixies convened to record their first full-length album, Surfer Rosa, with producer Steve Albini, who had pioneered the thin, abrasive indie-guitar grind with Big Black. Albini gave the band a harder-edged, abrasive guitar sound, yet the group retained its melodic hooks. Released in the spring of 1988, Surfer Rosa earned enthusiastic reviews from the British weekly music press and became a college radio hit in America; in the U.K., the album made inroads on the pop charts. By the end of the year, the buzz on the Pixies had become substantial, and the group signed to Elektra Records. At the end of 1988, the group re-entered the studio, this time with British producer Gil Norton. Released in the spring of 1989, Doolittle boasted a cleaner sound and received excellent reviews, which led to greater exposure in America.
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In 1992 the Pixies disbanded after releasing four acclaimed albums and one mini-album in a five-year period. The Pixies are widely regarded as one of the most important rock bands of the past 20 years, influencing a new wave of alternative bands with their loud/soft song structure. To paraphrase Kurt Cobain himself, Nirvana would not have existed without the Pixies. When the band split up, frontman Black Francis began a solo career as Frank Black, and bassist/vocalist Kim Deal formed The Breeders. The Pixies' legacy and reputation has only grown stronger in the 12 years since they broke up. Witness it here as they play to audiences far larger than they drew in their heyday.
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Pixies at the BBC is a compilation of live BBC radio sessions by the American alternative rock band Pixies. Released by Elektra Records in 1998, five years after their initial split, it was recorded over several sessions between 1988 and 1991 at the BBC. All songs were written by Black Francis except tracks 1 and 15. The final track, "(In Heaven) Lady in the Radiator Song" was written by Peter Ivers and David Lynch for Eraserhead. The album is characterised by its raw, underproduced sound.
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While the Pixies did cancel their planned American tour, due to "exhaustion," the band reconvened in the spring of 1991 to record its fourth album, again with Gil Norton. Hiring former Captain Beefheart and Pere Ubu keyboardist Eric Drew Feldman as an auxiliary member, the band moved back toward loud rock, claiming to be inspired by the presence of Ozzy Osbourne in a neighboring studio. Upon its fall release, Trompe le Monde was hailed by some as a welcome return to the sound of Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, but closer inspection revealed that it relied heavily on sonic detail and featured very few vocals by Deal and none of her songs. The band embarked on another international tour, playing stadiums in Europe but theaters in America. During the spring of 1992, the Pixies opened for U2 on the opening leg of the Zoo TV tour; it would be their last trek through the United States. Upon the conclusion of the Zoo TV tour the Pixies went on hiatus, with Deal returning to the Breeders, who releasing the EP Safari later that spring.
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