Pixies: 1 Compilation + 1 Album + 4 EPs

Pixies, American band whose unique blend of punk rock’s aggression and pop music’s infectious

melodies helped establish the sound that would define alternative rock in the 1990s. The original members were Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV (also know as Black Francis and Frank Black; b. April 6, 1965, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.), Joey Santiago (b. June 10, 1965, Manila, Philippines), Kim Deal (b. June 10, 1961, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.), and David Lovering (b. December 6, 1961, Burlington, Massachusetts, U.S.).

Pixies are associated with the 1990s alternative rock boom, and draw on elements including punk rock and surf rock. Their music is known for its dynamic "loud-quiet" shifts and song structures.
                                                                 

Francis is Pixies' primary songwriter; his often surreal lyrics cover offbeat subjects such as extraterrestrials, incest, and biblical violence. They achieved modest popularity in the US, but were more successful in Europe. Their jarring pop sound influenced acts such as Nirvana, Radiohead, the Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer. Their popularity grew in the years after their break-up, leading to sold-out world tours following their reunion in 2004.
                                                                

The Pixies formed in Boston in 1986, when singer-guitarist Thompson (using the stage name Black Francis) and his former Boston University roommate, guitarist Santiago, decided to put together a band. In response to the duo’s ad in a local newspaper for a “bassist into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul, and Mary,” Deal joined the group, bringing along her friend Lovering as a drummer.
                                                                  

While the Pixies were playing a concert with Throwing Muses, they were noticed by producer Gary

Smith, manager of Fort Apache Studios. He told the band he "could not sleep until you guys are world famous". The band produced a 17-track demo at Fort Apache soon afterwards, known to fans as the Purple Tape because of the tape cover's purple background. Funded by Francis' father at the cost of $1000, the recording session was completed in three days. Local promoter Ken Goes became the band's manager, and he passed the demo to Ivo Watts-Russell of the independent record label 4AD Watts-Russell nearly passed on the band, finding them too normal, "too rock 'n' roll", but signed them at the persuasion of his girlfriend.

Upon signing with 4AD, eight tracks from the Purple Tape were selected for the Come on Pilgrim mini-

LP, the Pixies' first release.[5] Francis drew upon his experiences in Puerto Rico, mostly in the songs "Vamos" and "Isla de Encanta", describing the poverty in Puerto Rico. The religious lyrics in Come on Pilgrim and later albums came from his parents' born-again Christian days in the Pentecostal Church. Critic Heather Phares sees themes such as sexual frustration ("I've Been Tired") and incest ("Nimrod's Son" and "The Holiday Song") on the record.
                                                                

The Pixies quickly earned a reputation as part of the local Boston club scene and released their full-length debut, Surfer Rosa, in 1988. The album was an instant critical favourite and received considerable airplay on college radio and in Europe.
                                                     

While rougher than the Pixies’ later work, Surfer Rosa established the band’s signature sound: an aggressive blast of searing guitars and Thompson’s screeching vocals, which were oddly but effectively counterbalanced by enchanting pop melodies and Deal’s gentler backup vocals. Equally distinctive were the strange, cryptic lyrics penned by Thompson, which over the years would encompass references ranging from his Pentecostal upbringing to UFOs to Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel’s Surrealist film Un Chien andalou (1928; An Andalusian Dog).
                                                                                           

In 1989 the group released Doolittle, its most revered album, which built upon the Pixies’ existing

formula and perfected the stop-and-start dynamics that would perhaps become its greatest legacy to later alternative bands, especially Nirvana. Bossanova, a surf music-inspired variation on the earlier albums, followed in 1990. By this time, tensions were rising in the band—Deal, once a co-songwriter, contributed little to the album, and the group had effectively disbanded by the time of the release of Trompe le Monde (1991), which is generally considered the Pixies’ weakest effort.
                                                                                         

In early 1993, Francis announced in an interview to BBC Radio 5 that the Pixies were finished. He offered no explanation at the time, unbeknownst to the other members of the band. He later called Santiago and notified Deal and Lovering via fax.
                                                                                 

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 scored a hit with "Cannonball" from their platinum-selling Last Splash in 1993, and released more albums several years later. She also formed the Amps, who released one album.
                                                

With another name change, Thompson went on to release several memorable albums as Frank Blank or Frank Black and the Catholics, including Teenager of the Year (1993), Dog in the Sand (2001), and Honeycomb (2005). Deal shifted her focus to her onetime side project, the Breeders, the band she had fronted with Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses, whose place was taken by Deal’s twin sister Kelley for the release of the candid, hook-laced Last Splash (1993), one of the landmark albums of the 1990s.
                                                        

The Pixies played their first reunion concert on April 13, 2004, at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A warm-up tour through the U.S. and Canada was followed by an appearance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The band then spent much of 2004 touring throughout Brazil, Europe, Japan, and the U.S. The group won the Act-of-the-Year award in the 2004 Boston Music Awards. The 2004 reunion tour grossed over $14 million in ticket sales.
                                                            

In June 2004, the band released a new song, "Bam Thwok" exclusively on the iTunes Music Store; it

reached number one in the UK Official Download Chart. 4AD released Wave of Mutilation: The Best of Pixies, along with a companion DVD, Pixies. The band also contributed a rendition of "Ain't That Pretty at All" to the Warren Zevon tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich. "Bam Thwok" and "Ain't That Pretty at All" were both recorded by engineer Ben Mumphrey, the former at Stagg Street Studios in Van Nuys, CA and the latter at Metamorphosis Studio in Vienna, Austria.
                                      

 

In 2005, the Pixies made appearances at festivals including Lollapalooza, "T on the Fringe", and the Newport Folk Festival. They continued to make appearances through 2006 and 2007, culminating in their first shows in Australia. Francis suggested that a new Pixies studio album was possible, or unlikely, the main obstacle being Deal's reluctance.
                                                       

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Doolittle, the Pixies launched a tour in October 2009 where they performed the album track-for-track, including the associated B-sides. The tour began in Europe, continued in the United States in November, with the South American and Australian tour

following in March 2010, then New Zealand, and more European dates in spring 2010, and back to North America in fall 2010 and into spring 2011. In 2004 the Pixies reunited for a much-anticipated multicity tour, on which a limited amount of on-site CD recordings of each concert were instantly available to concertgoers. The tour was also captured in the documentary film loudQUIETloud (2006). Although Deal left the group in 2013, the Pixies continued to tour and record, using various bassists. Subsequent albums included Indie Cindy (2014) and Head Carrier (2016).   

                                               

Most of the Pixies' songs are composed and sung by Francis. Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine has described Francis's writing as containing "bizarre, fragmented lyrics about space, religion, sex,

mutilation, and pop culture". Biblical violence is a theme of Doolittle's "Dead" and "Gouge Away"; Francis told a Melody Maker interviewer, "It's all those characters in the Old Testament. I'm obsessed with them. Why it comes out so much I don't know." He has described Come on Pilgrim's "Caribou" as being about reincarnation, and extraterrestrial themes appear in a number of songs on Bossanova.

DEATH TO THE PIXIES  1997

Pixies ‎– Death To The Pixies
Label: 4AD ‎– DAD 7011 CD, 4AD ‎– 8447192
Format: 2 × CD, Compilation
Country: Italy
Released: 1997
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock,Alternative

DISC ONE

01. Cecilia Ann    (The Surftones) [Bossanova (1990)]  2:06
02. Planet of Sound  [Trompe le Monde (1991)]    2:06
03. Tame  [Doolittle (1989)]    1:56
04. Here Comes Your Man     [Doolittle]    3:21
05. Debaser  [Doolittle]    2:52
06. Wave of Mutilation  [Doolittle]    2:04
07. Dig for Fire  [Bossanova]    3:02
08. Caribou  [Come On Pilgrim (1987)]    3:14
09. Holiday Song  [Come On Pilgrim]    2:14
10. Nimrod's Son  [Come On Pilgrim]    2:17
11. U-Mass   [Trompe Le Monde]    3:01
12. Bone Machine  [Surfer Rosa (1988)]    2:34
13. Gigantic  (Francis Kim Deal)  [Surfer Rosa] (single version)    3:08
14. Where Is My Mind?   [Surfer Rosa]    3:52
15. Velouria     [Bossanova]    3:40
16. Gouge Away     [Doolittle]    2:44
17. Monkey Gone to Heaven    [Doolittle]    2:57

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DISC TWO (limited edition bonus)
Disc two was recorded 25 September 1990 at Vredenburg in Utrecht, Netherlands  and produced by VPRO Radio 3.

01. Debaser     2:55
02. Rock Music     1:51
03. Broken Face     1:21
04. Isla De Encanta     1:42
05. Hangwire     1:59
06. Dead     2:30
07. Into The White     3:30
08. Monkey Gone To Heaven     2:58
09. Gouge Away     2:53
10. Here Comes Your Man     3:12
11. Allison     1:15
12. Hey     3:54
13. Gigantic  (Written-By – Mrs. John Murphy)  3:26
14. Crackity Jones     1:35
15. Something Against You     1:46
16. Tame     2:05
17. Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)     3:05
18. Where Is My Mind?     3:36
19. Ed Is Dead     2:52
20. Vamos     4:34
21. Tony's Theme     2:27

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BOSSANOVA  1990

After Pixies finished touring obligations for their second album Doolittle (1989) in January 1990, band members Black Francis, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering moved from Boston to Los Angeles. Bassist Kim Deal meanwhile stayed in the UK to record the first Breeders album during January with producer Steve Albini.Deal ultimately decided to travel out to Los Angeles with the rest of the group.
                                              

Bossanova is the third studio album by American rock band Pixies. It was released in August 13, 1990 on the English independent record label 4AD in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. The album's sound, inspired by surf rock and space rock, complements its lyrical focus on outer space, which references subjects such as aliens and unidentified flying objects.
                                          

Because of 4AD's independent status, major label Elektra Records handled distribution in the United States; Bossanova reached number 70 on the Billboard 200. The album peaked at number three in the UK Albums Chart. Two singles were released from Bossanova, "Velouria" and "Dig for Fire"; both charted on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart, at #4 and #11, respectively.

Black Francis – vocals, guitar
Kim Deal – bass guitar, vocals
David Lovering – drums, vocals
Joey Santiago – lead guitar

TRAXS

01. Cecilia Ann     (The Surftones)  2:05
02. Rock Music     1:52
03. Velouria     3:40
04. Allison     1:17
05. Is She Weird     3:01
06. Ana         2:09
07. All Over the World     5:27
08. Dig for Fire     3:02
09. Down to the Well     2:29
10. The Happening     4:19
11. Blown Away    2:20
12. Hang Wire     2:01
13. Stormy Weather     3:26
14. Havalina     2:33

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MONKEY GONE TO HEAVEN EP  (1989)

01. Monkey Gone To Heaven  2:56
02. Manta Ray  2:39
03. Weird At My School  1:58
04. Dancing The Manta Ray  2:14

HERE COMES YOUR MAN EP  (1989)

01. Here Comes Your Man  3:23
02. Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)  3:00
03. Into The White  4:41
04. Bailey's Walk  2:24

2 EPs HERE:
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ALEC EIFFEL EP (1991)

01. Alec Eiffel  4:45
02. Motorway To Roswell  2:49
03. Planet Of Sound (Live)  2:25
04. Tame (Live)  2:27

ALEC EIFFEL EP  (1992)

01. Alec Eiffel  2:51
02. Letter To Memphis  2:41
03. Build High  1:41
04. Evil Hearted You  2:38

2 EPs HERE:
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