The Pixies are not a band you start listening to in sixth grade to impress a girl. They’re the band that you’re drawn to when you’ve come to detest the glamour and manufacturing of popular music, for the weirdly artistic sounds of a Pixies record.
When I first listened to the Pixies, seeing the video for “Here Comes Your Man” off the band’s second album “Doolittle,” I was just as confused by the music as I was by the warped, surrealistic video. The mix of frontman Black Francis’ theatrically emotive vocals and the delicate cries of bassist Kim Deal created a euphoric presence of alternative rock.
Looking back on the Pixies’ career of briefly realized genius, the prime of the band existed only for a few strong years, from their creation in 1986 to 1989. But the three albums produced within those years, “Come On Pilgrim,” “Surfer Rosa” and “Doolittle,” came to represent the onset of alternative rock music that combined a strong musicality with a preference for the strange and insane.
The band’s first record, mini-LP “Come On Pilgrim,” released in 1987, ushered into the music world the deranged compositions of Francis, the thumping, driving bass of Deal, the psychedelic guitar riffs of Joey Santiago and the dynamic drums of David Lovering.
While it doesn’t showcase the singles that followed on the band’s next two albums, “Come On Pilgrim” features the grand range of musicality the band would later explore. The folk stylings of Francis’ vocals that often deteriorated into screaming madness on tracks such as “Isla de Encanta” and “Nimrod’s Son” signaled a strangely melodic diversion of alternative rock music that the Pixies would later craft into their definitive style.
The Pixies began to gain widespread notice the next year when the band’s first full-length album, “Surfer Rosa,” debuted with classic tracks, including “Where Is My Mind?” and “Gigantic.”
“Gigantic” begins like so many classic Pixies’ songs, with a swiftly moving Deal bass line, while Francis’ whiny cries blend into the background. “And this I know / His teeth as white as snow / What a gas it was to see him,” Deal sings at the beginning of the track, which is colored by her mellow, calming vocals.
The track then moves into the quintessential pre-chorus, with Santiago’s screaming guitar notes over Lovering’s pounding snare drum rhythms, which would later inspire the pre-choruses of songs such as Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The Pixies’ ability to transform quiet verses into heavy-sounding and active choruses would become the trademark of alternative rock in the ’90s.
Perhaps the Pixies’ most recognized song, “Where Is My Mind?,” is rightfully so because it stands by itself as a pure commotion of sound. The simple chord progression is made complete by Francis’ expressive vocals over Santiago’s chaotic guitar line.
“With your feet on the air and your head on the ground / Try this trick and spin it, yeah / Your head will collapse / But there’s nothing in it / And you’ll ask yourself / Where is my mind?” Francis sings.
The absurd brilliance of “Where Is My Mind?” was enough to cement the Pixies as heroes of alternative rock, but the band’s last album before Deal’s departure, 1989’s “Doolittle,” framed the band as legendary, despite being recorded during the final threads of patience between Deal and Francis.
The album’s opening track, “Debaser,” is one of tremendous passion and musicality, telling a story based on the 1929 surrealist film “Un Chien Andalou,” by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí.
“Got me a movie, I want you to know / Slicing up eyeballs, I want you to know / Girlie so groovy, I want you to know / Don’t know about you / But I am un chien Andalusia,” Francis wails over Deal’s spoken reiteration of the song title.
The remainder of the album, which features the surprisingly romantic tune, “Wave of Mutilation,” the catchy single “Here Comes Your Man” and the strictly bizarre “Hey,” fills the record with themes of chaos that influenced numerous successful bands in the ’90s as well as today, from Radiohead to Weezer and Modest Mouse.
While the Pixies have returned time and time again, releasing albums without Deal, including this year’s poorly received extended play “EP1,” music fans can never hold anything but respect for a band that had such a notable rock ‘n’ roll influence.
Francis sings in “Hey,” “Been trying to meet you … We’re chained.” The Pixies will always be chained to any music that paves new roads of passionately insane, artistic rock for generations to come.
Pixies Playlist: