小简介
组建时间： 1986 国籍： 美国 解散时间： 1993
风格类型：Alternative Pop/Rock（另类流行/摇滚） College Rock（学院摇滚）
乐队介绍：
上世纪八十年代中后期，Pixies被主流媒体认定为一种很糟糕的音乐，乐队当时将朋克和独立吉他摇滚结合起来，邋邋遢遢、大起大落的“脏”吉他、跌跌撞撞的情绪、流行摇滚的亲和力这些后来Grunge的看家本领在他们的身上已初见端倪，可以说，没有他们就不会有日后的Grunge和涅磐。Pixies做为当时最具影响力的独立摇滚乐队，为日后另类摇滚打入主流社会做了有力的铺垫，但当时的主流媒体对他们却持排挤态度，甚至没有人愿意播放他们的作品，尽管全美国都承认Pixies是当时最有影响力的另类摇滚乐队之一。进入九十年代后，科本最终凭借他最喜欢的乐队——Pixies的影响一举成名，涅磐继承了Pixies的风格，并传播给了更多的新乐队，Grunge开始狂扫美国。然而Pixies却没有看到这一天的来临，一九九一年前后，乐队成员之间的矛盾最终导致了乐队的解体，但他们的影响是深远的，今天的Post-Grunge、Brit-pop中我们依然能够看到Pixies从前的身影。请记住这几个伟大的名字：Black Francis(主唱/节奏吉他)、Joey Santiago(主音吉他)、Kim Deal(贝司)、David Lovering(鼓手)
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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 werent accomplished musicians — Black Francis wailed and bashed out chords while Joey Santiagos 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 — its 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. MTV was reluctant to play their videos, while even modern rock radio didnt put their singles into regular rotation. Furthermore, tensions between leader Black Francis and bassist/vocalist Kim Deal, who wanted to incorporate her songs into the bands repertoire, crippled the bands progress. By the time Nirvana broke the doors down for alternative rock in 1992, the Pixies were effectively broken up.
The Pixies were formed in Boston, MA, in 1986 by Charles Thompson and his roommate, Joey Santiago. Born in California, Thompson began playing music as a teenager, before he moved to the East Coast during high school. Following graduation, he became an anthropology major at the University of Massachusetts. Half way through his studies at the college, he went to Puerto Rico to study Spanish, and after six months he decided to move back to the U.S. to form a band. Thompson dropped out of school and moved to Boston, managing to persuade Santiago to join him. Advertising in a music paper for a bassist who liked Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul & Mary, the duo recruited Kim Deal (who was billed as Mrs. John Murphey on the groups first two records), who had previously played with her twin sister Kelly in the folk-rock garage band the Breeders in her hometown of Dayton, OH. On the advice of Deal, the group recruited drummer David Lovering. Inspired by Iggy Pop, Thompson picked the stage name Black Francis and the group named itself the Pixies after Santiago randomly flipped through the dictionary.
By the fall, the Pixies had played enough gigs to land a supporting slot for fellow Boston band Throwing Muses. At the Muses concert, Gary Smith, an artist manager and producer at Bostons Fort Apache studios, heard the group and offered to record them. In March 1987, the Pixies recorded 18 songs over the course of three days. The demo, dubbed The Purple Tape, was given to key players within the Boston musical community and the international alternative scene, including Ivo Watts, the head of Englands 4AD Records. Impressed with the cassette, Watts signed the band and released eight of the demos songs as the EP Come On Pilgrim in 1987.
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. Monkey Gone to Heaven and Here Comes Your Man became Top Ten modern rock hits, clearing the way for Doolittle to peak at number 98 on the U.S. charts; in the U.K., it entered the charts at number eight. Throughout their career, the Pixies were more popular in Britain and Europe than America, as evidenced by the success of the Sex and Death tour. The band became notorious for Black Francis motionless performances, which were offset by Deals charmingly earthy sense of humor. The tour itself became infamous for the bands in-jokes, such as playing their entire set list in alphabetical order. By the completion of their second American tour for Doolittle at the end of 1989, the group had begun to tire of each other and decided to take a hiatus during the beginning of 1990.
During the hiatus, Black Francis went on a brief solo tour and Kim Deal formed a group with Tanya Donnely from the Throwing Muses and bassist Josephine Wiggs of Perfect Disaster, naming it after her teenage band, the Breeders. The Breeders recorded the Albini-produced Pod, which appeared on 4AD in early summer 1990, shortly after the Pixies reconvened to record their third album with Gil Norton. More atmospheric than its predecessors, and relying heavily on Francis surf rock obsession, Bossanova was released in the fall of 1990; unlike Surfer Rosa or Doolittle, it contained no songs by Deal. Bossanova was greeted with decidedly mixed reviews, but the record became a college hit, generating the modern rock hits Velouria and Dig for Fire in the U.S. In Europe, the record expanded the groups popularity, hitting number three on the U.K. album charts and paving the way for their headlining appearance at the Reading Festival. Though the supporting tours for Bossanova were successful, tension continued to grow between Kim Deal and Black Francis — at the conclusion of their English tour, Deal announced from the stage of the Brixton Academy that the concert was our last show.
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. Francis began working on a solo album.
As he was preparing to release his solo debut, Francis gave an interview on BBCs Radio 5, announcing that the Pixies were disbanding. He hadnt yet informed the other members; later that day, he faxed them his statement. Inverting his stage name to Frank Black, Francis released his eponymous debut that spring to mixed reviews; over the next few years, Frank Blacks audience gradually shrank to a small cult following. The Breeders released their second album, Last Splash, in the fall of 1993. The album became a surprise hit, going gold in the U.S. and spawning the hit single Cannonball. Soon after, Deal also formed the Amps, who released their one (and only) album, Pacer, in 1995. Santiago and Lovering formed the Martinis in 1995 and appeared on the soundtrack to Empire Records. Although 4AD began issuing archival Pixies releases, including Death to the Pixies 1987-1991, Pixies at the BBC, and Complete B-Sides in the late 90s and early 2000s, those were relatively quiet years for the bands members. After releasing the disappointing The Cult of Ray for American in 1996, Black shuffled between different labels before ending up at spinART for 1999s Pistolero, where he also released his subsequent solo albums, most of which were met with a fair-to-middling response. Deal and the rest of the Breeders, meanwhile, suffered from problems ranging from substance abuse to writers block, and only surfaced intermittently, spending time in the studio but only having a cover of 3 Degrees Collage on the soundtrack to 1999s The Mod Squad to show for their efforts until they released Title TK in 2002. David Lovering left the Martinis and became the touring drummer for Cracker, and also appeared on Tanya Donellys Sliding and Diving, but found himself unemployed in the late 90s. Combining his studies in electronic engineering at Wentworth Institute of Technology and his years of performing experience, Lovering dubbed himself a scientific phenomenalist, a cross between a scientist, performance artist, and magician, and warmed up the crowds at Frank Black, Breeders, Camper Van Beethoven, and Grant Lee Buffalo concerts. Santiago and his wife Linda Mallari continued the Martinis through the 90s, recording several demos and self-released albums. Santiago also began a career composing soundtracks and incidental music, beginning with the score for 2000s Crime & Punishment in Suburbia, to which Black also contributed a track. At the time, rumors circulated that Santiago would join Black on-stage during one of his London dates on the Dog in the Sand tour; though this didnt happen, it at least sparked hopes that the Pixies would eventually reunite. These hopes seemed unfounded until 2003, when Black revealed in an interview that he had considered reuniting the band and that he, Deal, Santiago, and Lovering occasionally got together to jam. Soon after, it was confirmed that the Pixies would reunite in 2004 for U.S. tours in the spring and fall; an appearance at that years Coachella festival; and gigs in Europe and the U.K. that summer, including performances at the T in the Park, Roskilde, Pinkpop, and V festivals. All 15 of the bands North American warm-up tour dates were recorded and released in limited editions of 1,000 copies, which were sold online and at the shows. The week after the Pixies Coachella appearance, the long-awaited DVD retrospective Pixies and revamped best-of Wave of Mutilation: The Best of Pixies were released by 4AD.
