PIXIES
Four piece standard rock band. Black Francis: Lead vocals, guitar, lead lyricist. Kim Deal: Bass. David Lovering: Drums. Joey Santiago: Lead guitar. In the early 1990's, the Pixies were the band to follow. Even after they disbanded in 1993. The music carried on from house to house...car to car. Their popularity could quite possibly be even greater today as many other, newer bands have cited the Pixies as a significant influence. They have been noted as having Boston as their origin.(refer to my Throwing Muses post and my description of the Boston music scene which includes the Pixies) However, Boston is where they went to gig. They formed at UMass while attending.
This must be duly noted that Black Francis is a musical genius. Fact. The last album was indicative of an unfortunate but eventual split of the band. One can surmise that the members were not seeing eye to eye because of the lack of musical cohesion and fluidity of sound that had been so explosive on prior albums. Francis could not make everyone happy as leader. It happens. He did go on to produce a few solo projects, but really they could not compare to the ingenuity of Pixies phenomena.
Kim Deal...Bassist and sometime vocal contributor herself was a major influence on the success of the Pixies edge. Unfortunately, struggled and continues to struggle with substance abuse rendering her talents well-wasted. She did come out with a few solo pieces as well that were huge college radio successes, but then fell flat. Long after this work, I went to see Deal perform and it was mediocre at best. So sad about us......
TECHNICALITIES:
Black Francis
Vocal Range:
Tenor
C3-C5
Never goes low(bass)
Let alone--baritone, but brilliantly uses his natural vocal ability to
rise and fall within the tenor range
Kim Deal
Contralto
F3-F5
Projection:
Aliens+the alienated
Style
Pure Rock
Album Breakdown:
Come On Pilgrim 5 stars
"On the launchpad..."
Surfer Rosa 4 stars
"Blast off....."
Doolittle 3 stars
"Hovering in space..."
Bossanova 5 stars
"Ultimate soundtrack to life in space...."
Trompe Le Monde 2 stars
"Back to earth like meteor-style...messy...."
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"Something just snapped...and I think it was my brain. Now I'm on an edge between the sunshine and the rain."
