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The Pixies

Pixies, The

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The Pixies Facing The Fire Squad

Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 3 November 1990

The pixies are the best band on the planet. Discuss. ...

Audio interviews

The Pixies (1988)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, 5 April 1988

The Boston indies talk about their working processes and place in the musical scheme of things; discuss their name, and more.

File format: mp3; file size: 28.6mb, interview length: 31' 12" sound quality: ***

The Pixies' Black Francis (1989)

Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages audio, 27 March 1989

Black Francis on the telephone, talking about The Pixies' major label debut, his influences ranging from his Pentecostal background to the movies of David Lynch, and his "Black Francis" persona

File format: mp3 File size: 23mb Interview length: 25 minutes 10 seconds Sound quality: **

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Throwing Muses, The Pixies: Rat Club, Boston MA

Live Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 19 September 1987

EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT, excellent. Extremely excellent. F then six asterisks then another excellent. ...

The Pixies, Big Dipper, the Bags: Three local bands on the rise

Profile by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 23 November 1987

ENNUI AND nostalgia can become frequent traveling companions for veteran club-crawlers of the Boston rock scene, those folks searching for a new kind of kick, ...

The Pixies: Surfer Rosa

Review by Mark Sinker, New Musical Express, March 1988

PIXIES QUOTE The Fall (a mangled snatch of 'Stephen Song' in 'I'm Amazed'), so we can: "They pass my home at night/oh they are NOT ...

The Pixies: Surfer Rosa (4AD)

Review by Chris Roberts, Melody Maker, 12 March 1988

"WHERE IS my mind?" smirks huggable Black Francis, and you can't help but rattle your jewellery. If "bloody your hands on a cactus tree/wipe it ...

The Pixies: Surfer Rosa (4AD CAD803/CD)****

Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 19 March 1988

CATCH THIS WAVE! ...

The Pixies: Speaking In Tongues

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 19 March 1988

THE HOLLERING IS ALL. The Pixies are what's left when all the frustrations and absences that once prompted rock'n'roll into being have faded away or ...

Throwing Muses, The Pixies: Mean Fiddler, Harlesden, London

Live Review by Keith Cameron, Sounds, 16 April 1988

"WHAT ABOUT those Pixies – motherf***ers, huh?" enquired a grinning Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses. She referred to the previous band and no one in ...

The Pixies: Bone Idols

Interview by Robin Gibson, Sounds, 30 April 1988

This might be their first European tour, but PIXIES are already being hailed as a rock 'n' roll band without parallel. ROBIN GIBSON roots through ...

Throwing Muses, Pixies: Town & Country Club, London

Live Review by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, 14 May 1988

BATTLE OF THE BANDS ...

The Pixies' Charles Francis

Interview by Martin Aston, The Catalogue, 1989

THE PIXIES, in the space of time it takes to skin a Bros, have been hailed as rock's saviours, Those That Will Save Us From ...

The Pixies: Doolittle

Review by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, April 1989

THAT LITTLE MONKEY with the halo hot-wired to its tiny skull – the central image for both the Pixies' latest single and this, their second ...

The Pixies: Talking With The Animals

Interview by Helen Mead, New Musical Express, 22 April 1989

Some weird shit here, fans, as THE PIXIES attempt to explain themselves and their new album to our elflike HELEN MEAD. ...

The Pixies: Animal Crackers

Interview by Keith Cameron, Sounds, 6 May 1989

Only a year after their first ever UK visit, Pixies are a Top Ten albums band! Keith Cameron joins their tour in Brighton to find ...

Pixies, Pere Ubu: Kilburn National, London

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 July 1989

SUPPORT FOR The Pixies, Boston's finest, came from Pere Ubu, born again (and again) as cortex-tickling popsters via the Cloudland album. Vocalist David Thomas, a sweating balloon ...

The Cure, Love and Rockets, The Pixies, Shelleyann Orphan: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey

Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1989

HAD SOMEONE predicted in 1978 that 49,223 people in a stadium would one day clap and sing along as the Gothic rockers in the Cure ...

The Pixies: Ditties Of Pixilated Reasoning

Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 1990

A year ago, the Pixies were considered the last word in rock bacchanalia. The Boston-based band's three albums – Come On Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa and ...

The Pixies: Bossanova

Review by Terry Staunton, New Musical Express, August 1990

THE EVER-SO-ARTY lyric book that accompanies the new Pixies album contains the words to a song that you will not find on the record itself. ...

The Pixies: Tyranny And Mutation

Interview by Jon Wilde, Melody Maker, 10 August 1990

A PIXIES album that isn't drenched in murder, mutilation, death, crucifixion, blood, evil and barbarism? It's hard to imagine, but that's exactly what the band ...

The Pixies: Bossanova (4AD)

Review by Bob Stanley, Melody Maker, 11 August 1990

ONE THING that's always bugged me about The Pixies is the universal acclaim for their LPs – how come no one ever gripes about the ...

The Pixies: Bossanova (4AD CAD 0010)

Review by Mat Snow, Q, September 1990

QUEASY The Pixies: What can they mean? What are they on? ...

The Pixies: No Time-Wasters!

Interview by Andy Gill, Q, September 1990

"IT'S NOT I'M ORIGINAL or anything." Charles Kittridge Thompson IV, aka Black Francis, Pixies frontman, is describing how he comes up with the lyrics to ...

The Pixies: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, The Times, October 1990

WATCHING THE Pixies in a rock venue as mainstream as the Hammersmith Odeon seemed wrong, and they were as surprised to be there as anyone ...

The Pixies: Bossanova (Elektra)

Review by Robert Gordon, Spin, November 1990

POP AND NOISE no longer collide for the Pixies; on the new album, Bossanova, they mutate into new beasts. The feedback and vocal frenzy of ...

Surfing With The Aliens: The Pixies

Report and Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1990

THE KIDS AT England's annual Reading festival are a scruffy lot. A ‘90s hybrid of hippie and punk, they wear tie-dyed T-shirts, asymmetrical hairdos, jeans ...

Are Pixies Ready For Stardom?

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 23 November 1990

THEY HEADLINED the three-day Reading festival in England earlier this year, getting paid $65,000 to play their off-kilter rock 'n' roll to 50,000 fans. ...

The Pixies, Blowfly: Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 December 1990

Pixies Play Nice and Rough ...

The Pixies: Surfer Rosa To Super Nova

Interview by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 20 December 1990

Three years ago, the irrepressible Pixies set the rock scene buzzing with their howling, primeval sound. In 1990 they stepped from this murky past and ...

The Pixies: Democracy Cuban Style

Profile and Interview by Mark Kemp, Option, January 1991

"OH, DON'T print this," Black Francis says, in a gentle voice, catching himself midway through a tell-all about a one-time Spider From Mars. "What if ...

The Pixies: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, The Observer, 30 June 1991

Ungodly and oh so grungy ...

The Pixies: Road To Gnomewhere

Interview by Bruce Dessau, Vox, July 1991

The Pixies are in L.A. Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV is driving his dirty yellow caddy fast. With the stereo playing loud. Bruce Dessau thumbed ...

Pixies: Trompe Le Monde

Review by Keith Cameron, Vox, October 1991

WHEN SHAKEY WROTE the one about music being the food of love and wanting excess of it, little did he know that one Black Francis ...

Pixies: Trompe Le Monde

Review by Mark Cooper, Q, October 1991

BOSTON'S PIXIES have already ascended close to stadium status judging from their recent triumph at Crystal Palace. Yet their mounting success betrays no loss of ...

The Pixies: Trompe le Monde

Review by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 27 October 1991

THERE WAS A time when the Boston group the Pixies was the last word in rock-and-roll bacchanalia. ...

Doing the slam: Tales from the mosh pit, where rock 'n' roll is a contact sport

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 23 February 1992

THESE DAYS, rock 'n' roll has become a contact sport. Not all rock 'n' roll, of course. You won't see slam dancing at a Moody ...

The Pixie Perspective

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 1992

Off stage, the band's Black Francis is a regular Joe who bears the cult-rocker's burden of mythology with a shrug and a smile. ...

Kim Deal & Tanya Donelly: A conversation about Belly, the Breeders, Throwing Muses, the Pixies & alternatives

Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Musician, September 1993

STROLL INTO the Dayton, Ohio, house shared by twins Kim and Kelley Deal on a muggy summer afternoon and step over a clutter of CDs, ...

The Pixies: Death To The Pixies

Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, November 1997

The Pixies: grievous, greedy and groundbreaking ...

The Pixies: Death to the Pixies

Review by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 10 November 1997

THE DOUBLE BILL looked great on paper: the Pixies and Throwing Muses at Avalon. Actually the Lansdowne Street club was called Metro then, back in ...

Hello Goodbye: Joey Santiago & The Pixies

Interview by Martin Aston, MOJO, December 1997

HELLO – September 1986 CHARLES [FRANCIS] and I were suite-mates rather than room-mates at the University of Massachusetts. Like me, he'd gone to college in the ...

Pixies Reissues

Review by Tom Cox, Uncut, March 1998

Come On PilgrimSurferrosaBossanovaTrompelemonde Boston scree party: incredible back catalogue from the precursors of grunge ...

Pixies: Pixies

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 2 July 2002

IN 1987, BACK when alt-rock was called "college rock," the Pixies loomed large, like a bizarre crossbreeding of pop sensibilities, art-rock conceptualism and nasty guitar ...

The Pixies: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 3 June 2004

EXACTLY HOW much this, the first UK night of the Pixies' reunion tour, means to the crowd is shown when they walk on stage to ...

The Rebirth of the Pixies

Interview by Keith Cameron, MOJO, January 2005

2004 brought 103 Pixies gigs. The artist once again known as Black Francis accepts our applause. ...

Why Your Favourite Band Should Split Up

Overview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 19 August 2010

From the Pixies to the Zombies, Jude Rogers talks to the bands who chose to burn out, not fade away ...

4AD Records: The "pure" label behind Pixies and Cocteau Twins

Retrospective and Interview by Martin Aston, The Guardian, 10 October 2013

Little was known about Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, the enigmatic founders of celebrated indie label 4AD, until they were tracked down in the US. ...

4AD Records: Labelled with Love

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Classic Pop, November 2013

A new book, Martin Aston's Facing The Other Way, tells the story of a label that scored just a single number one hit during the ...

The Pixies: Looking back on Doolittle and the making of a classic

Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Classic Rock, May 2014

30 years after the Doolittle album took The Pixies from obscurity to alt.rock's top table, the band Kurt Cobain wanted to be in look back ...

Kim Deal: "Misogyny is the backbone of the music industry"

Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 3 March 2018

KIM DEAL, 56, sings and plays rhythm guitar with the Breeders, formed in 1989 as a side project with Throwing Muses' Tanya Donelly. The band's ...

see also Frank Black

see also Breeders, The

see also Black Francis

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