History Music / ThePixies

* ''Surfer Rosa'' (1988): Their raw {{Grunge}} album, produced by Steve Albini, with probably the largest predominance of more "comedic"/light-hearted tunes in their catalogue, like the goofy "Tony's Theme", the BilingualBonus "Oh My Golly!" or the comic malevolence of "Something Against You". Source of the band's first single, "Gigantic", notable for being written and sung mainly by Kim Deal (before Francis' ego kicked in), and the [[WordSaladLyrics word salady]] meditation on fish behaviour "Where Is My Mind?", which somehow became [[FightClub very]] [[SuckerPunch popular]] for movie soundtracks.

* ''Doolittle'' (1989): Where they hooked up with Gil Norton, who stuck with them for the remainder of their career. Has a more polished production, slightly more nightmarish in spots especially when Francis showcases his awesome lungpower ("Debaser"), contains their BlackSheepHit "Here Comes Your Man" and the offbeat ballad about pollution "Monkey Gone to Heaven", which provides the page quote. This was their first album after a deal with signed with Elektra Records, who would distribute their albums in the USA while 4AD handled the UK. Deal doesn't get a tune for herself, but she sings lead alongside Francis on "I Bleed", provides plenty of backing ones ("Silver", "There Goes My Gun", "Monkey Gone to Heaven", "Hey"), and Lovering got [[StepUpToTheMicrophone prodded into singing]] "La La Love You".

* AlbumTitleDrop - The EP ''Come On Pilgrim'' takes its name from a line in "Levitate Me." Similarly, ''Doolittle'' is mentioned in "Mr. Grieves." And ''Surfer Rosa'' is said in "Oh My Golly!". ''Trompe le Monde'' doesn't have this, but it makes up for that by having a song called "Trompe le Monde", the only Pixies album to have a TitleSong.

* EleventhHourNumber - Utilized very well to serve as the climax of their albums.

* AlbumTitleDrop - The EP ''Come On Pilgrim'' takes its name from a line in "Levitate Me." Similarly, ''Doolittle'' is mentioned in "Mr. Grieves." And ''Surfer Rosa'' is said in "Oh My Golly!". ''Trompe le Monde'' doesn't have this, but it makes up for that by having a song called "Trompe le Monde", the only Pixies album to have a titular track.

* ''Bossanova'' (1990): Recorded after the band and Norton moved to LosAngeles, this is the album where Francis took complete control of the band and marginalised Deal (no cowrites or lead vocals; she's largely relegated to backing vocals on the choruses of "Is She Weird", "Ana" and "Havalina"). A much shinier, heavily SurfRock-influenced effort ("Cecilia Ann") whose lyrical obsession with space and [=UFOs=] complements its PsychedelicRock sound. Contains the successful single "Dig for Fire", "Velouria" (famous for its slapdash, slow-motion abusing video) and some of their mellower material ("Ana", "Havalina"). It got their best chart performance in the UK (#3), while Elektra's resources meant that they started getting extra attention back home.

* StageNames - Francis' real name is Charles Thompson. For ''Come On Pilgrim'' and ''Surfer Rosa'', Deal was credited as "Mrs. John Murphy" as a feminist joke at the expense of a woman who told her [[TheMaidenNameDebate she wanted to be known as "Mrs. <her husband's name>"]][[hottip:*:John Murphy was Deal's husband at the time]].

* {{Step Up To The Microphone}} - "Gigantic" and the cover of "I've Been Waiting For You" has lead vocals by Kim Deal (and she does backing vocals on quite a few tunes), while "La La Love You" and the B-side "Make Believe" are sung by David Lovering (who also adds backing vocals to the previously-mentioned "I've Been Waiting for You").

* ''Doolittle'' (1989): Where they hooked up with Gil Norton, who stuck with them for the remainder of their career. Has a more polished production, slightly more nightmarish in spots especially when Francis showcases his awesome lungpower ("Debaser"), contains their BlackSheepHit "Here Comes Your Man" and the offbeat ballad about pollution "Monkey Gone to Heaven", which provides the page quote. This was their first album after a deal with signed with Elektra Records, who would distribute their albums in the USA while 4AD handled the UK. Deal doesn't get a tune for herself, but she sings lead alongside Francis on "I Bleed", provides plenty of backing ones ("Silver", "There Goes My Gun", "Monkey Gone to Heaven", "Hey"), and Lovering got [[StepUpToTheMicrophone prodded into taking a turn on the mic]] for "La La Love You".

* ''Doolittle'' (1989): Where they hooked up with Gil Norton, who stuck with them for the remainder of their career. Has a more polished production, slightly more nightmarish in spots especially when Francis showcases his awesome lungpower ("Debaser"), contains their BlackSheepHit "Here Comes Your Man" and the offbeat ballad about pollution "Monkey Gone to Heaven", which provides the page quote. This was their first album after a deal with signed with Elektra Records, who would distribute their albums in the USA while 4AD handled the UK.
* ''Bossanova'' (1990): Recorded after the band and Norton moved to LosAngeles, this is the album where Francis took complete control of the band and marginalised Deal. A much shinier, heavily SurfRock-influenced effort ("Cecilia Ann") whose lyrical obsession with space and [=UFOs=] complements its PsychedelicRock sound. Contains the successful single "Dig for Fire", "Velouria" (famous for its slapdash, slow-motion abusing video) and some of their mellower material ("Ana", "Havalina"). It got their best chart performance in the UK (#3), while Elektra's resources meant that they started getting extra attention back home.
* ''Trompe le Monde'' (1991): Maintaining the shiny spacey sound of the previous effort but much more Music/HeavyMetal-influenced (Francis attributed this to recording next door to Music/OzzyOsbourne), showcases the band at their most {{Badass}} (the furiously fast "Planet of Sound", the [[TheJesusAndMaryChain "Head On"]] cover, the cowbell-featuring TakeThat "U-Mass"), while making enough room for melodic ("Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons") and mellow material ("The Navajo Know"). Former PereUbu keyboardist Eric Drew Feldman contributes keyboards and went on to collaborate with Francis and PJHarvey.

* ''Surfer Rosa'' (1988): Their raw {{Grunge}} album, produced by Steve Albini, with probably the largest predominance of more "comedic"/light-hearted tunes in their catalogue, like the goofy "Tony's Theme", the BilingualBonus "Oh My Golly!" or the comic malevolence of "Something Against You". Source of the band's first single, "Gigantic", notable for being written and sung mainly by Kim Deal, and the word salady meditation on fish behaviour "Where Is My Mind?", which somehow became [[FightClub very]] [[SuckerPunch popular]] for movie soundtracks.

* EpicSong - "Motorway to Roswell", much more epic than any song about an alien's vacation gone wrong has the right to be. Shame it's not the last song on ''Trompe le Monde''.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pixies-2.jpg
[[caption-width:450:These are the underwater guys who control the sea. (L to R: Santiago, Francis, Deal, Lovering)]]

-->''"If man is five''
-->''Then the devil is six''
-->''And if the devil is six''
-->''Then GOD IS SEVEN!"''

-->''"We can play loud or quiet - that's it."''

Pixies' recording career started in 1987 with the release of the ''Come on Pilgrim'' EP on British label FourADRecords. They released four more albums on the same label (with Elektra Records handling them in the US) until officially disbanding in 1993 due to exhaustion after supporting {{U2}} on the Zoo TV tour and intra-band tension, mostly over Francis [[IAmTheBand marginalizing the others' contributions]] (especially Deal's). Francis changed his name to Frank Black and started a solo career, Deal found success with TheBreeders, Santiago worked in soundtracks and his band The Martinis and Lovering alternated drumming with a hobby as a magician. The band reunited in 2004, took a hiatus in 2007, re-reunited in 2009 and is still touring today.

-->'''Black Francis''', quoted in the article [[http://aleceiffel.free.fr/gods.html "The Pixies: Gods of Almost Pop"]]

-->''We can play loud or quiet - that's it.''

Another highly influential 1980s AlternativeRock band that reached a moderate level of popularity but enjoyed widespread critical acclaim. Famous fans include: [[ModestMouse Isaac Brock]], [[{{Nirvana}} Kurt Cobain]], DavidBowie, {{Radiohead}}, PJHarvey, {{Weezer}}, and [[{{U2}} Bono]], among others.

Pixies' recording career started in 1987 with the release of the ''Come on Pilgrim'' EP on [[{{Four AD Records}} 4AD Records]]. They released four more albums on the same label (with Elektra Records handling them in the US) until officially disbanding in 1993 due to exhaustion after supporting {{U2}} on the Zoo TV tour and intra-band tension, mostly over Francis [[IAmTheBand marginalizing the others' contributions]] (especially Deal's). Francis changed his name to Frank Black and started a solo career, Deal found success with TheBreeders, Santiago worked in soundtracks and his band The Martinis and Lovering alternated drumming with a hobby as a magician. The band reunited in 2004, took a hiatus in 2007, re-reunited in 2009 and is still touring today.

* ''Trompe le Monde'' (1991): Maintaining the shiny spacey sound of the previous effort but much more HeavyMetal-influenced (Francis attributed this to recording next door to Music/OzzyOsbourne), showcases the band at their most {{Badass}} (the furiously fast "Planet of Sound", the [[TheJesusAndMaryChain "Head On"]] cover, the cowbell-featuring TakeThat "U-Mass"), while making enough room for melodic ("Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons") and mellow material ("The Navajo Know"). Former PereUbu keyboardist Eric Drew Feldman contributes keyboards and went on to collaborate with Francis and PJHarvey.

* EpicRiff

* StageNames - Francis' real name is Charles Thompson. For ''Come On Pilgrim'' and ''Surfer Rosa'', Deal was credited as "Mrs. John Murphy" as a feminist joke at the expense of a woman who told her [[TheMaidenNameDebate she wanted to be known as "Mrs. <her husband's name>"]][[hottip:*:John Murphy was her husband at the time]].

* BookEnds - "Doolittle" begins and ends with a song about EyeScream.

* StageNames - Francis' real name is Charles Thompson.

* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: The subject of "Gigantic".

Despite the name, there is no ManicPixieDreamGirl in the band, despite what Kim Deal's fans think.

Despite the name, there is no ManicPixieDreamGirl in the band.

--->They'll come and play
--->Their friends will say
--->Your daddy's rich
--->Your mama's a [[LastSecondWordSwap pretty thing]]

* RecordProducer - Gary Smith, SteveAlbini and Gil Norton.

* ''Trompe le Monde'' (1991): Maintaining the shiny spacey sound of the previous effort but much more HeavyMetal-influenced (Francis attributed this to recording next door to OzzyOsbourne), showcases the band at their most {{Badass}} (the furiously fast "Planet of Sound", the [[TheJesusAndMaryChain "Head On"]] cover, the cowbell-featuring TakeThat "U-Mass"), while making enough room for melodic ("Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons") and mellow material ("The Navajo Know"). Former PereUbu keyboardist Eric Drew Feldman contributes keyboards and went on to collaborate with Francis and PJHarvey.