“From our very first shows, before we even put out a record, people have always been slapping us on the back, giving us a big kiss and a big hug and going, ‘I dig your thing. I like what you’re about.'”
Pixies bandleader Black Francis fondly remembers the good old days, when his band crafted its signature works — 1988’s “Surfer Rosa” and 1989’s “Doolittle” — and taught Kurt Cobain a thing or two about loud choruses. But after almost a decade on the reunion circuit, the group is putting its legacy on the line by releasing new music for the first time since 1991, aside from a 2004 one-off single. For version 2.0, the Pixies are not only adapting to 21st-century attention spans, they’re trying to craft new music that holds up against a beloved back catalog while weathering a revolving door of bassists.
The Pixies’ revival has thus far produced two four-song EPs, “EP1” and “EP2.” The former arrived Sept. 2, with 5,000 physical copies selling out through the band’s website and more than 84,000 sold through digital retailers, according to the band’s publicist, who says the majority of these totals weren’t reported to Nielsen SoundScan, which has tracked 5,000 sales. “EP2” debuted Jan. 3, also through the band’s site. Across the two EPs, there are traces of the Pixies’ abrasive eccentricity — check out Francis’ spoken-word diatribe in “Indie Cindy” — but the music’s prevailing texture is the smooth, sedate power-pop of tracks like “Another Toe in the Ocean” and “Snakes.”
“We’d always made a conscious effort not to sound like the previous record,” guitarist Joey Santiago says. “So why should we be any different on the new material?”
Couple the new releases with a heavy international touring schedule, and the Pixies are as active as they’ve been in two decades. But the band says that manager Richard Jones has been just as instrumental to the relaunch as any Pixie. Jones, a lifelong musician and native of Manchester, England, has managed the group since its return in 2004, when it toured the world and played its first shows in more than a decade. The Pixies’ plan to self-release music in four-song bursts is his brainchild.
“After 22 years since the last new music, there was no way we were going to just plunk out an album, like, ‘There you go,'” Jones says, citing My Bloody Valentine, which shocked fans last year by releasing its first album in 12 years without any promotion. “We didn’t want to put out an album where one or two tracks would be the focus tracks and the rest would be left.”
But the band’s lineup changes have hogged much of the press coverage. Bassist Kim Deal, after years of well-publicized feuds with Francis, quit the band in June 2013. She wasn’t involved in the recording of the new music, the product of late-2012 sessions with producer Gil Norton. (Friend Simon “Dingo” Archer filled in on bass instead.) The Pixies insist Deal is welcome back if she so chooses, but they say there’s been little communication with her recently, and Deal seems to be focused on her work with the Breeders.
The band enlisted Muffs guitarist Kim Shattuck to fill Deal’s role, but after three months of touring with the Pixies, she was let go. Paz Lenchantin, known for playing with A Perfect Circle, Zwan and the Entrance Band, was enlisted as her replacement. (Calls to Shattuck and Deal for comment weren’t returned by press time.)
Even as just a touring member, Lenchantin has her work cut out for her. On Jan. 15, after hitting the road in September for the first time in two years, the Pixies embark on a North American tour that wraps March 1. Next up will be dates in South America and Europe through early June.
William Morris Endeavor head of music Marc Geiger, the band’s longtime booking agent, says, “You’re telling a story along the way. The big story is that the band has made great new music, finally, and that they’re still relevant many years later.”
Geiger has booked the Pixies since the late ’80s, but now he and Jones are mobilizing fans with new tactics. In 2010, the team utilized Topspin data to invite the band’s most active devotees to direct-to-fan, service-charge-free gigs in Los Angeles and London, which sold out almost instantly. The group still performs surprise shows between announced tour stops, with Jones emailing the most dedicated fans in each city and urging them to keep the news to themselves. For the Pixies’ performance at the iTunes Festival in London in September 2013, Jones secured a chunk of tickets to distribute to fans, ensuring they’d be well-represented in the sprawling crowd.
“I keep telling people to get on the Pixies’ mailing list to be the first ones for a [concert] pre-order so they can get in,” Santiago says, referring to the deluge of guest list and ticket pleas he receives in most cities.
But these hungry Pixies fans aren’t just Generation X old-timers. The band says its heavy touring, fan-engagement tactics and new music seem to be reaching a new generation as well. “All these young kids who weren’t even born when we were out for the first time, they’re all at our shows now,” drummer David Lovering says. “They know every word.”
“Our brand has weathered well,” Francis adds. “The audience, the promoters, the musical world we encounter — it feels like we’re royalty.”