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Pixies Mulling Return to Studio, Future Touring Plans

by Gary Graff, Detroit  |   February 14, 2011 5:20 EST
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As the Pixies gear up for the next leg of their "Doolittle" tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of the landmark album, the group members are divided about giving a similar treatment to another of its albums.

"Everyone is asking, 'What's gonna be next?' " drummer David Lovering tells Billboard.com. "We're not even finished with this yet, but we've been talking about doing (1988's) 'Surfa Rosa;' I think that would be second on our list of the best Pixies albums we've ever had. I actually like 'Surfa Rosa' better; it's a dynamic record, it's all over the place, a lot of my favorite songs are on there. That one's even older than 'Doolittle,' so maybe we'll wait for the 30-year anniversary or something."

Guitarist Joey Santiago, however, says he's not been privy to any "Surfa Rosa" possibilities and jokes that the Pixies' next full-album concert "may be 'Exile on Main Street." But seriously, folks, Santiago claims that playing another Pixies album in its entirety "hasn't been a discussion point. Maybe we'll go back to the old-fashioned way and just do a set of songs."

The Pixies, who started giving "Doolittle" its due in the fall of 2009, will recreate the album again starting April 9 in Halifax, with 13 Canadian shows and a trio of U.S. dates -- in Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Paul, Minn. -- before wrapping up May 3 in Vancouver.

"It's just been going great," Lovering says of the "Doolittle" dates. "It's one of our best, and one of the ones that people accept as being supposedly a classic album. And we're still hitting places we haven't hit yet. People have been waiting to hear it and asking us to come to their cities to do it, and we have a lot of fun with it, so why not?"

Lovering and Santiago expect the upcoming tour to close out the "Doolittle" cycle. And while the Pixies are comfortable to continue as a touring band, both acknowledge that "there's talk" about a new Pixies album, which will be the group's first studio effort since 1991's "Trompe le Monde."

"It's still up in the air," Lovering says. "We've been talking about this for about three years now, actually. I don't know if it will come to fruition; I'm waiting and waiting to see what will happen. All I can say is if there is one, it better be good. We'd really have to work at it."

Santiago says the Pixies are waiting for "some kind of spark" to encourage them to get serious about a new album. "We're waiting for that, like, 'a-ha!' moment," he explains. "I'm already there. It's just a matter of timing and everything aligning. There's days where I think it could happen and other days I go, 'The shit's never gonna happen.' I guess there's a little pressure from the legacy thing. Sure there is. But I don't think there's any preconceived thing that anyone could expect us to do. The possibilities are pretty wide open, I'd say."

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