Pixies is a group of alternative Rock American formed in 1986 with Boston, Massachusetts. The group separated in January 1993 under conditions some not very surging, but reformed in April 2004. Since the origin it consists of 4 members: Black Francis (born Charles Thompson IV, and having today for name of artist Frank Black) (voice and guitar), Joey Santiago (guitar), Kim Deal (voice and low) and David Lovering (battery).

The music of Pixies draws in particular its influences in the Punk and the Surf rock'n'roll of the Années 1960, and is characterized by its melody richness, its particular dynamics (calm verses and endiablés refrains). The style will be popularized later by Kurt Cobain within Nirvana. The songs were written in near total by Black Francis, the singer and guitarist of the group.

The texts of Francis are deliberately obscure, and cover subjects as various and obscure as the UFO and surrealism. The biblical references, the mental disease, the wounds physical and the inceste return in many songs. The group is largely regarded as the spearhead of the explosion of the alternative Rock at the beginning of the Années 1990, although it dissolved before to have been able to profit from this statute of pioneer. Their influence was all the more accentuated after their separation. This statute of pioneer is mainly due to the génuflexion of Cobain with regard to Pixies.

The first period

The group was formed with Boston in 1986 by Joey Santiago and Black Francis (born Charles Thompson IV). They became acquainted with Kim Deal (alias Mrs John Murphy) thanks to a classified asking an unusual combination of musical influences, referring has Hüsker Of the and Peter, Paul and Mary. It is Kim Deal which presents the beater David Lovering to them. Joey Santiago, which is of Filipino origin , has a particular affection for the words which it does not include/understand perfectly. He proposes, after having laminated a dictionary the name Pixies in Panoply , which they almost immediately shortened for Pixies (being translated into French by " Lutins").

Pixies started to play in the area of Boston. At the time of a concert with the Throwing Muses, the group was noticed by Gary Smith, a producer working with the studios Fort Apache. Smith became their manager and produced a model of 17 or 18 titles according to the sources (it is published later on under the name of Purple Tape ). This model fell into the hands from Ivo Watts-Russell, owner of the British Independent label 4AD, which offered a contract to them. Eight titles of this demonstration were selected to be reproduced on the maximum Like one Pilgrim . Their first album, Surfer Rosa , produced by Steve Albini, left then to the beginning of the year 1988. It contains in particular the piece Where Is My Mind? , used later as credits of end in the film " Fight Club ". The British musical press enticha immediately of them. The group was not signed in the United States as of the beginning, but after an opening in the British hit-parades and some passages over American radios, their discs were published by Elektra Records.

Three individual was drawn from their second album, Doolittle . Monkey Gone to Heaven and Here Comes Your Man was classified in Signal 10 of the category Modern Rock in the United States. The album reached the 8th place of the classification of the best sales in the United Kingdom, and entered Signal 100 to the United States.

Black Francis began a career in solo then, and, in parallel, Kim Deal formed The Breeders with her sister twins Kelley and Tanya Donelly of the Throwing Muses. For this period, Black Francis limited the contributions of Deal in the group; the first two albums had been partially written by Kim Deal, but all the songs being reproduced on the album Bossanova , left in 1990, were signed Black Francis. Deal hardly appreciated this news gives and announced unilaterally the separation of the group during the following round. Pixies were then at the top of their glory, and they played nevertheless a memorable version of Debaser with the Festival of Reading in 1990.

Notwithstanding the rumors of separation, another album followed. Trompe the World always comprised small contributions of Deal and did not obtain criticisms as positive as its predecessors. During the promotional round for its album solo, Frank Black announces with the radio the dissolution of the group, during an interview. It is only after it forwarded to the other members of the group a fax announcing its intention to dissolve Pixies.

After separation

Black Francis was made call Frank Black, and left several albums solo. It came from there to form a group with Scott Boutier, Eric Drew, Rich Gilbert, David McGaffrey, and Dave Philips which took the name of Frank Black and the Catholics . Deal turned over with the Breeders, and obtained a tube in 1993 with Cannonball , drawn from the album Last Splash . However, during several years, they had much evil to produce another album, mainly because of the addiction to the Héroïne of Kelley Deal. This album, Title TK , finally left in 2002, Kim and Kelley remaining only members of the original formation. Kelley Deal also recorded with The Amps. Lovering appeared occasionally on scene to carry out there what it called of the experiments of science phenomenalist ; he also played of the battery on one of the albums solo of Tanya Donnelly. Santiago appeared on the albums solo of Frank Black, composed of the music for the television channel Fox, and formed, with his wife Linda Mallari, a group called The Martinis.

During the long period of inactivity of Pixies the label 4AD in spite of very published several discs. The first compilation of the group entitled Death to the Pixies 1987-1991 was marketed in 1997, in its French version it was accompanied by a disc no-claims bonus recorded live in September 1990 in the Netherlands. Pixies At the BBC , left the following year, is a compilation of recordings diffused by the BBC of 1988 to 1991. Complete B-Sides compiles faces-B published on the individual ones of the group between 1988 and 1991. Pixies (The Purple Types) , published in 2002 by the label Cooking Vinyl, gathers songs drawn from the model from which the mini-album Like one resulted Pilgrim .

Reformation

Eleven years after the separation of the group, of many rumors circulated announcing a new round. It is only into 2004 that Pixies went up on scene, they occurred on April 13rd with the Fine Line Music Cafe of Mineapolis, and started a first series in fifteen concerts in the west of the the United States and with the Canada, whose culminating point was the festival Coachella Valley Music and Arts . The tickets for these spectacles were often sold in a few minutes, even in Canadian cities of intermediate size like Winnipeg or Regina.

Followed a three months world tour, then a four months round in the United States which ended on December 18th with the Hammerstein Ballroom of New York (see detail of the dates).

June 15th, 2004 Pixies made the first part of the Red Hot Chili Peppers to the Parc of the Princes to Paris.

In spring 2004,4AD left a new more complete compilation, Wave off Mutilation: The Best off the Pixies , as well as a DVD containing the recording in a concert, the clips, and documentary on Pixies. All the concerts, including that of April 13rd in Mineapolis, were recorded and 1.000 specimens were then put on sale by the DiscLive service. The whole collection is now exhausted.

In October 2005 leaves a live DVD named Sell out , it takes again their concert with the Eurockéennes of Belfort of July 2004, like sixteen titles filmed at the time of the round 2004.

In November 2006 leaves a DVD entitled loudQUIETloud , documentary on their reformation.

Discography

Albums

• Like one Pilgrim (mini-album, October 1987, 4AD Records)
• Surfer Rosa (March 1988, 4AD Records)
• Doolittle (April 1989, 4AD Records)
• Bossanova (August 1990, 4AD Records)
• Horn the World (September 1991, 4AD Records)

Compilations and various

• Death to the Pixies 1987-1991 (1997, 4AD Records)
• I' m your fan (1991, Atlantic/Wea)
• Pixies At the BBC (1998, 4AD Records)
• Supplements B-Sides (2001, 4AD Records) off
• Pixies (The Purple Tape) (2002, Cooking Vinyl)
• Wave Mutilation: The Best off (2004, 4AD Records)

Videotex

• Pixies (documentary concert and, 2004)
• Pixies - Out Salt 2004 Meeting Tower (concert, 2005)
• Pixies - Acoustic - Live in Newport (concert, 2006)
• loudQUIETloud (documentary, 2006)

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