"I've heard it said about The Velvet Underground that while not a lot of people bought their albums, everyone who did started a band. I think this is largely true about the Pixies as well. Charles' secret weapon turned out to be not so secret and, sooner or later, all sorts of bands were exploiting the same strategy of wide dynamics. It became a kind of new pop formula and, within a short while, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was charging up the charts and even the members of Nirvana said later that it sounded for all the world like a Pixies' song. That was the beginning of the end of counterculture."
- Gary Smith, Fort Apache, 1997
The Pixies' initial six years of existence blew a breath of fresh air through both the independent and national charts. From the backwoods of Boston to headlining festivals worldwide, the band combined blistering guitar work with a unique approach to songwriting and became one of the most acclaimed acts in independent music.
Sun-kissed Long Beach, California proved too hot for Beatle-loving Charles Michael Kitridge Thompson IV to handle. Uncomfortable at the ten schools he was to attend while his publican father moved from bar to bar, Charles took inspiration from the likes of Iggy Pop, re-christened himself "Black Francis", and began to master the guitar, bass, piano and drums. All that was needed to complete the process from beach bum to rock musician was the voice. And Charles took advice from the most unlikely sources. He befriended a Thai rock star (cousin to the manager of the flower shop where he worked) who told him to "scream it like you hate that bitch", in the style of The Beatles' "Oh Darling". More contemporary music soon filtered through Charles' collection when he began a three year college course, boarding with Filipino guitarist Joey Santiago, who introduced him to the '70s sounds of punk and space age David Bowie. The rest of term was spent writing songs, playing guitar and smoking dope.
While the religious overtones in Black Francis' songwriting seem to stem from his parents' "born again" days in the Pentecostal church, his much-publicised use of Spanish lyrics was no doubt encouraged by a student exchange trip to Puerto Rico's San Juan. Unfortunately, he wasn't too proficient in that language and spent the initial weeks without money, unable to make himself understood in a "welfare state where so many people are screwed up". Tales of squalor from this time spent 50 stories up in the seedy apartment with a "weirdo, psycho, gay room mate", were later immortalised in "Crackity Jones" on the Doolittle album. After six months of lurid living, things came to a head in a local bar when Charles faced the option of either spending the next year in New Zealand witnessing the spectacle of Halley's comet or forming a band in Boston.
He resumed his friendship with Joey, and the pair became the Pixies, because of their liking for the dictionary definition ("mischievous little elves"). A celebrated newspaper advertisement - "Band seeks bassist into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul & Mary" - introduced Kim Deal, who'd previously been in a truckstop folk ensemble, The Breeders, with her twin sister Kelley. The Deals had been playing around their home town of Dayton, Ohio, even supporting '60s veterans Steppenwolf. But with Kelley gradually moving into catering, and Kim marrying Bostonian John Murphy (whom she divorced in 1988), The Breeders ground to a temporary halt.
Kim also brought along drummer David Lovering, a guest at her wedding reception. He'd been living in Massachusetts and had played in local bands Iz Wizard and Riff Raff. Now that the Pixies had settled upon a stable line-up, they began rehearsing in David's father's garage in the summer of 1986. "Possibly the worst gig in the history of rock" followed at the aptly named Rat Club in Boston where they performed early versions of "Build High", "Here Comes Your Man" and "Dig for Fire".
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Ultra Vivid Scene, This Mortal Coil, The Breeders, The Amps, Frank Black