The Pixies were one of those bands who got popular right at the cradle of grunge. Even more than that, they were considered a major influence on alternative rock bands who followed in their footsteps.
In a 1994 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Kurt Cobain from Nirvana admitted that he was trying to emulate The Pixies’ style, “I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies… We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.”
The Pixies’ Early Days
From the earliest days of the band, there was always tension over creative control between band leader, Black Francis (born Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV) and bassist Kim Deal.
Bassist Kim Deal picked up the guitar at age 13 after her father started taking lessons and she learned pretty quickly. Kim started writing songs with her sister Kelley. They had trouble getting into a band because girls typically didn’t play rock music in high school. They started playing truck stops instead and even had an opportunity once to open for the Allman Brothers.
The Pixies’ origins dated back to 1983 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst when Charles Thompson met guitarist, Joey Santiago. Santiago grew up in the Philippines and moved to the US at age 6. He played in different bands in high school.
Thompson and Santiago began to jam together and Thompson showed Santiago a few songs he had written including “U-Mass” and “Levitate Me”.
During their second year of university, Thompson and Santiago were bored with college. They dropped out and started a band together. They moved to Boston where they continued to write music together while working at a warehouse to pay the bills.
“Band seeks bassist into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul and Mary. Please – no chops.”
By January 1986, Thompson and Santiago needed a bassist and drummer. They placed an ad in the Boston Phoenix that read, “Band seeks bassist into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul and Mary. Please – no chops.”
Kim Deal was the only person who responded to the ad, even though she only played guitar. She recalled to Spin, “I went over to meet Joe and Charles. I thought Joe was a Mexican when I first met him. He didn’t talk much. But Charles played this song on acoustic, called ‘Brick Is Red’ and I liked it.” Inspired by the band, she decided to learn bass.
Initially, Deal recommended her sister Kelley to join as the group’s drummer, but things didn’t work out because Kelley wasn’t as confident in her drumming abilities. Deal ended up recommending a friend of her husband’s, a drummer named David Lovering who she met at her wedding reception. She remembered Lovering because he wore a pinstripe suit. Lovering had given up drumming, but after hearing the band’s music, he joined the group.
“The music is unconventional.” – Black Francis
The quartet soon started jamming in Lovering’s parents’ garage and the sound they were developing was really difficult to characterize, combining elements of punk and surf rock. They became known for their loud-quiet-loud dynamics which many other bands copied. Charles Thompson told Guitar.com, “The music is unconventional. There’s a lot of half-steps, a lot of chords that don’t theoretically go with the key, but it seems to work.”
Thompson rejected a lot of what was considered mainstream at the time, especially hair metal bands, only really being impressed with their speed and nothing else.
Mischievous Little Elves
Originally calling themselves Pixies in Panoply, they quickly shortened their name to Pixies. The name came to Santiago who sometimes still sometimes struggled with English and referred to the dictionary to look up certain words. One day he was flipping through the dictionary and came across the word Pixies whose definition read “mischievous little elves”.
The Pixies booked their first live gig in September 1986 at a club in Cambridge. While their first couple of gigs were a little rough, by the late summer and early fall of that year, they started earning a name for themselves in the Boston club scene.
“Death to the Pixies”
A bulk of the band’s set lists for those shows consisted of their first 2 records. The band also stood out for the way they advertised their gigs, using posters that read “Death to the Pixies” with a naked Thompson on the ad.
Julie Farman booked local gigs for Boston bands and told Spin, “The big local bands were Mission of Burma, the Neats, the Lyres, and the Del Fuegos. There was this hierarchy in the Boston scene. These were the bands who played locally and came up through the clubs and really worked it and earned it and hung out. The Pixies were not part of that scene. They came out of nowhere.”
“Man if this shit takes off, my career is over.” – a Boston musician
At the time, there were a lot of bands in the Boston scene that were derivative of whatever was popular at the time. So while bands like the Smiths were popular in the ’80s, there would be a Boston version of the Smiths. The Pixies didn’t fit into that mould and sounded like nobody else. One Boston musician recalled to Spin, “Man if this shit takes off, my career is over.”
The Pixies caught the attention of a local producer while opening for Throwing Muses in December 1986. It was the first time both bands were on the same bill. At that gig was a local producer and Fort Apache Studio owner named Gary Smith who saw the Pixies for the first time and was blown away.
Thompson’s father financed a 17-track demo, known to fans as The Purple Tape, at a cost of about $1,000 at Smith’s recording studio. The tape was recorded over the course of 3 days during the winter of 1987.
Charles Thompson Becomes Black Francis
Francis’ time spent in Puerto Rico and having grown up with fundamentalist Christian parents influenced several of the tracks found on their demo. Following that session, Charles Thompson adopted the name Black Francis while Kim used the alias, Mrs. John Murphy.
Black Francis revealed to Spin why he used the name, “I wanted a stage name. It was a punk-rock thing. I’ve since learned it has a much longer history, mostly in black blues music. But for me, it was, if it’s good enough for Iggy Pop, it’s good enough for me.” Deal chose the name Mrs. John Murphy after she interacted with a woman who wanted to be called by her husband’s name as a form of respect.
Pixies Sign Record Deal with 4AD
Up until this point the Pixies’ demo had been rejected by numerous labels including Elektra, Slash, SST, Relativity, Homestead, Throbbing Lobster, and New Rose. 4AD almost passed on the band as well but it was Ivo Watts Russel’s girlfriend who persuaded him to sign the band.
4AD chose to take 8 tracks from the group’s demo and release it as a mini-LP called Come On Pilgrim. The song list created a bit of tension between the Pixies and the producer of their demo as they felt it wasn’t the best representation of the group. They also wondered what would happen with the remaining tracks.
Released in September 1987, Come On Pilgrim earned a lot of praise in the UK while also peaking at No. 5 on the UK Indie Album charts. The band started to get airplay on college radio stations stateside as well.
Surfer Rose
To support the release, the band hit the road, touring in America, in cities they hadn’t previously played. Once they got off the road they were given a budget of $10,000 by their label and in December 1987, they hooked up with producer, Steve Albini for their first full-length LP, Surfer Rosa.
The sessions were pretty harmonious with Albini and he only took a fee of $1,500 for his services and opted not to take any royalties off album sales, which producers are typically entitled to. It was something he continued to stand by his entire career as he saw it as an insult to the band.
During the recording of the album, Albini utilized some unorthodox recording techniques including recording studio banter between the members, which made it onto the album. Kim’s vocals in the studio bathroom on the tracks “Gigantic” and “Where is My Mind” helped to achieve a more ‘roomy’ echo.
While the tension between Black Francis and Kim Deal didn’t reach a boiling point until years later, it seemed to start with the single “Gigantic”. Deal told Spin, “When journalists used to say things like, ‘Why doesn’t Kim sing more?’, Charles would leave the table.”
“I have an ego.” – Black Francis
Black Francis responded back in the same interview, “I have an ego. You have to have an ego to do this. At the time, we would be playing and I would say to myself, ‘I’m doing all the work. She’s smoking a cigarette and the crowd is loving her. Why am I knocking myself out writing all these damn songs?’”
Released in 1988, Surfer Rosa garnered much praise overseas in Europe and was awarded Album of the Year” by UK music magazines, Melody Maker and Sounds. While the response stateside was positive, it was also more muted. It may have had something to do with the fact that 4AD didn’t have a big distributor stateside and Surfer Rosa wasn’t that widely available. Spin magazine, however, did name the Pixies, Musicians of the Year and referred to the album as “beautifully brutal”.
The album spent over a year on the UK Indie Albums charts, peaking at No. 4. Almost 2 decades after its release, it seemed to have caught on in America. The album finally went gold by the middle of the 2000s. The track, “Where is My Mind” was used at the end of the movie, Fight Club and raised the band’s profile.
“It’s the most compelling music outside of Sonic Youth, made in the entire ’80s.” – David Bowie
Surfer Rosa was hugely influential in shaping the sound of so-called grunge bands who shot to popularity years later in the early ’90s. Even David Bowie found himself a fan of the album, saying, “It’s the most compelling music outside of Sonic Youth, made in the entire ’80s.”
To support the album, The Pixies journeyed to Europe in the Spring of 1988 to open for Throwing Muses, but halfway through the tour the Pixies started to draw a bigger crowd and they soon became the headliner. The band headed back into the studio, this time with producer Gil Norton who they met on tour.
Norton produced a majority of the group’s work going forward and 4AD allotted a budget of about $30,000 and 3 weeks of studio time. Black Francis focused on biblical themes with a bigger focus on the old testament. The resulting album was Doolittle which was released in April 1989.
By this point in time, 4AD had signed a US distribution deal with a major label in Elektra. The album garnered positive praise and with the help of a major label, the band received more airplay on American radio with the singles “Here Comes Your Man” and “Monkey Gone to Heaven”, both charting in the top 5 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The singles also did pretty well in the UK as the band released an additional single, “Debaser”.
Tensions Rise Between Kim Deal and Black Francis
Dolittle ended up going Platinum in America and while the band had a lot to celebrate, the creative relationship between Kim Deal and Black Francis began to sour even further. Deal wanted more say in the creative process, while Black Francis pushed back.
The touring cycle for Dolittle was fraught with tension. Black Francis allegedly threw a guitar at Deal during a concert in Germany. The next day she refused to play at the band’s next show in Frankfurt and was almost fired from the Pixies.
Black Francis claimed to Spin magazine that he did, in fact, kick the guitar at her because Kim showed up an hour late to a sold-out gig. Regardless, the pair soon stopped talking all together and travelled separately from each other on the road.
By the fall of 1989, the Pixies took a much-needed break. Francis moved to LA and did a short solo tour for gas money while Lovering and Santiago went on vacation. It was during this time that Deal came to realize that she needed to start her own group to get her creative ideas out.
Kim Deal Starts New Band Called The Breeders
Kim Deal started the outfit, The Breeders and they recorded their debut album, Pod in 1990 with producer Steve Albini. During the making of The Breeders’ first album in early 1990, the band was in the UK, while the remaining members of the Pixies had moved across the country to Los Angeles and started working again with producer Gil Norton.
By the time Deal returned to America, she was shocked to learn her bandmates moved out west without telling her. She spoke to Black Francis who told her he didn’t want her to come to California but she did so anyways. Upon arriving in LA, the band’s manager told her where to meet the band the next day but it would turn out he had given her the address to a lawyer’s office.
The band actually got along fine.” – Black Francis
The band decided to finally fire Deal but by the end of the meeting, the band backed down and Deal was still in the band. Black Francis revealed to Spin, “First of all, a lot of the so-called tension and negativity within the band that people have alluded to over the years is much exaggerated. It was almost thrust upon us because people were looking for it. The band actually got along fine.”
By February 1990, the band recorded their follow-up, Bossanova which represented a more mellow direction for the band and was inspired by Black Francis’ fascination with science fiction and UFOs. The band had little time to rehearse the songs as Black Francis wrote them mostly in the studio.
Released in August 1990, the album, while criticized by some for being too mellow, was mostly praised and received a good amount of airplay on alternative rock radio. The tour to support the album saw the quartet headline the 1990 Reading Festival with Lovering remembering, “That was our first big headlining thing. That was probably the most money we made for a gig at the time.”
Following the Reading festival, the band toured with David Bowie and Australian band Midnight Oil, playing massive stadiums in Europe. Following the tour, the band headed back to the studio and released their final album with Deal, Trompe Le Monde in September 1991. The album was largely overshadowed by the plethora of releases that month with bands like Guns N’Roses, Nirvana, Metallica, REM and many others putting out albums around this time.
“He definitely didn’t want her to have a big imprint on the songs.” – Gil Norton
Deal played a much smaller role in the studio. Producer Gil Norton recalled to Spin, “Kim’s presence got less every time, especially when we did Trompe Le Monde. I wasn’t happy by the end of that, because there was one song that I thought was perfect for her to sing. Charles didn’t want her to sing it. He definitely didn’t want her to have a big imprint on the songs.”
The tour to support the album offered the band a pretty big opportunity. U2 was on their Zoo TV tour and originally asked Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails to open for them, but both bands declined. The Pixies got the offer and they accepted. They played to the biggest audiences of their career but the band didn’t seem to enjoy the tour. Tensions between Deal and Black Francis hampered their life on the road, plus American audiences appeared lukewarm to the band’s live shows.
“There was no life in the Pixies’ set.” – Michael Azzerad, author
Author Michael Azzerad attended the Madison Square Garden show and recalled to Spin, “There was no life in the Pixies’ set. I walked out incredibly disappointed. I thought, this is where they really crack it in the US, and the goods were not there anymore.”
Black Francis revealed to the LA Times in 1992, his experience on the road with U2. “Everyone was all excited about it and I admit I was too, but the record company was acting like we were gonna sell a million records, and, of course, it didn’t happen… It was good, you know. I would never want to say anything that would reflect badly on U2, like it was boring, but it was boring. It had nothing to do with them or the way we were treated… You know, all those places where they play basketball or hockey are similarly designed, and after a while, it’s cement building after cement building.”
Black Francis Announces the End of the Pixies
The Pixies played their final show in April 1992 in Vancouver, Canada. After the tour, they decided to take a long break but in January 1993, Black Francis gave an interview to BBC Radio 5 where he announced the band was over without providing any details.
Shortly after that interview, Black Francis broke the news to Santiago over the phone and allegedly faxed Deal and Lovering to break the news. Kim Deal, at the time, was recording The Breeders’ sophomore record, Last Splash which was the group’s biggest record.
Following the Pixies breakup, Black Francis rebranded himself as Frank Black and released a number of solo albums with his backing band, The Catholics. Santiago stayed loyal to Francis, playing guitar on several of his albums.
Lovering initially passed up the opportunity to play drums in Foo Fighters and instead became a magician, creating his own style of magic called “scientific phenomenalism”. Deal continued with The Breeders while also forming the band, The Amps.
The Pixies Reform for Reunion Tour
By 2003, Black Francis called Santiago to see if he was interested in reforming the Pixies and by 2004, the band was back together and doing a full reunion tour. The same year, a best-of album came out and the band released a new song, “Bam Thwok” which was written and sung by Kim Deal.
While fans thought they’d see an album of new material, the band continued to tour for the next 9 years or so, really not putting out any new material.
Kim Deal Leaves the Pixies
In 2009, the band launched a tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the album, Doolittle by playing the album in its entirety, in addition to the b-sides. Once again, the tensions between Kim Deal and Black Francis boiled over and in 2013, it was announced she had left the band.
Kim Deal announced she was leaving the Pixies to concentrate on making new material with The Breeders. It happened to coincide with the fact that The Breeders’ classic lineup from the ’90s had gotten back together in 2013 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the group’s album, Last Splash.
“…She was unhappy with the situation, or unhappy with her life or whatever, just not happy.” – Black Francis
Black Francis gave an interview to the Guardian shortly after Deal’s departure saying, “She’s been reticent for a very long time to make a new Pixies record. She was unhappy with the situation, or unhappy with her life or whatever, just not happy.”
Two weeks after Deal’s departure, the Pixies released a new song that didn’t feature Deal called “Bagboy”. The band announced that bassist Kim Shattuck would be Deal’s replacement by the summer of 2013, during their tour across Europe. She ended up being fired by the band several months later with Black Francis citing personality conflict and her bass playing.
Kim Shattuck ended up passing away shortly after her departure. She was diagnosed with ALS 2 years prior.
Shattuck was replaced by Paz Lanchantin and the band released a series of EPs in late 2013 and early 2014 called EP’s 1, 2, and 3. They were combined as part of one album called Indy Cindy, a year later.
In 2016, the band released Head Carrier, which received mixed reviews. They released their most recent album in 2019, Beneath the Eyrie, which was accompanied by a podcast, documenting the making of the album.
“…It must have been hard for her to be in a band where some other guy was always pulling at the reins.” – Black Francis
As recently as 2020, Black Francis gave an interview to Grunge Online where he discussed his working relationship with Kim Deal. “Kim and I just didn’t get along well after a time. She always had her own ambition and became comfortable in a leadership role in her other band. It must have been hard for her to be in a band where some other guy was always pulling at the reins.”
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