When the Pixies came through they were at the tail end of their career and opening, not happily I hear history or rumor who knows, either way it seems a pretty commonly told tale about their having to open for U2.
There was a guy who always knew the cool music from HS a couple of years older than me named Cooper, who mentioned to me outside of AP French class that he was so excited about seeing the Pixies as they were opening for U2. We spoke well after the bell rang about this and I wanted this information, music information, ingesting the knowledge Cooper always told with close attention (unlike this girl who was always trying to push the Cure on me and her glam/goth bands on me in some class, again with upperclassmen that I cannot remember, I think it was Trigonometry). With Cooper and the Pixies/U2 story I was actually late for class and got detention, that is one way that helps me remember that story with such detail, that and I have super genius skills.
As for me I thought this was odd, how could someone like a band more than U2?!!? Then again I knew little of the Pixies nor had the money to see U2 and I was just a Sophomore on his way to learning what music I liked and did not. Music was beginning to be one escape from the hardships of growing up in the upper middle class town of Dunwoody, GA, noted for its now celebs. I was/am not one of them. I think I peaked when I was like 5 to 7 yrs old, when I was the Christiano Ronaldo of YMCA soccer, seriously, I was even ripped like that, well again history is debateable.
Speaking of history there is a story of Frank Black throwing his guitar at Kim Deal over frustrations that she wanted to play some of her own tunes, it goes like this:
It was after Doolittle that tensions between Deal and Francis came to a head (for example, Francis threw a guitar at Deal during a concert in Stuttgart), and Deal was almost fired from the band. Santiago, in an interview to Mojo, explained:
| “ | Kim was headstrong and wanted to include her own songs, to explore her own world. The way I think Charles [Black Francis] saw it, the band made pizzas, not cookies. Before we made Bossanova, we were even going to fire her after a gig in Frankfurt where we found her hanging out in her hotel room with no intention of playing. But our lawyer convinced us to try and work it out, to give her a warning or something. You know, I blocked that incident out of my head, that was too heavy for me. Kim couldn't believe I'd be party to it but I told her, she didn't seem happy, so why hang around? In the end, Kim realized it was Charles's bag, that he was the singer, but they kinda stopped talking after that. | ” |
Pretty much that was the beginning of the end.
The Breeders formed shortly thereafter, (see live video at this link) "Cannonball"and girl bands started taking off and the Pixies were through, with Studios picking up ever girl band they could, I even remember good ole Picasso Trigger who would play some sketch places in Atlanta and always were at least watching Kathy Poindexter who was kinda cute in her own way and that more than the music is probably why I went (I think she was involved on and off and on with Eric Bachmann frontman of Archers of Loaf and other bands (try track 6 Plumbline for info on what I think was all this, who knows).
While they weren't through they managed to make some awesome music. The Pixies definitely influenced bands too as Nirvana and Kurt Cobain liked to tell reporters that they hired Steve Albini for "In Utero" (listen for free at that link on last.fm) and cited "Surfer Rosa" as the reason for hiring Albini. They weren't the only ones for sure and I am sure if you look up some of those Pixies fan sites (<--- at this one in particular "I Love Pixies"you will find tons of more detailed info, win prizes, dvds and get a chance to bond with other fans...pretty cool site, check it out) Anyhow in honor of the Pixies and Charles Thompson IV aka Black Francis aka Frank Black (vocals-guitar), Joey Santiago (guitar), Kim Deal (bass-vocals and David Loverling (drummer) who the story goes they picked their named randomly flipping through the dictionary...who knows the truth to all this "history", but the music lasts. The music always lasts and for that I personally am thankful for this band from UMass who decided to make rock and roll and the rest is as they say 'history'. Enjoy!
(also this is a new file share, let me know if its shi**er than the other methods we tend to use. It's trendy and I figured I'd give it a shot, because I'm all about trends ya know ;p.)
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