30/04/2012

A Closer Look At...Pixies

This week Gigseen are bringing you another fantastic concert to enjoy at your own leisure. Our Gig of The Week featured concerts are completely FREE all week - all you have to do is register at Gigseen TV, sit back and relax as we bring you Pixies.


Each week, A Closer Look At... is intended to help you find out a little more about the featured artist and their concert. Or, if you're already a die-hard fan, it's a chance to remind yourself of the talent and spectacle on offer!


As one of the most influential American bands of all time, there's no excuse not to watch this fantastic concert live from Boston back in 2005. With a 19 track setlist, the band perform some of their most famous hits including Where Is My Mind?, Gouge Away, Debaser, Hey and Monkey Gone To Heaven with infectious energy and precision.


Formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1986, the band consist of Francis Black - Guitar And Vocals, Joey Santiago - Lead Guitar, Kim Deal - Bass Guitar And Vocal and David Lovering on Drums. By the Autumn of that year, the band had played enough gigs to land a big support slot for fellow Boston band, Throwing Muses. At the concert, Gary Smith, an artist manager and producer at Boston's Fort Apache studios, heard the group and offered to record them. Then, In March 1987, the Pixies recorded 18 songs over the course of three days, resulting in their demo, dubbed The Purple Tape.



Pixies combined jagged, roaring guitars and stop-start dynamics with melodic pop hooks, intertwining male-female harmonies and evocative, cryptic lyrics. Although the Pixies inspired and influenced many, creating the blueprint for alternative Rock, the Pixies weren't accomplished musicians. Black Francis wailed and bashed out chords while Joey Santiago's lead guitar squealed out spirals of noise. But the band members were inventive, rabid rock fans who turned conventions inside out, melding punk and indie guitar rock, classic pop, surf rock, and stadium-sized riffs with singer/guitarist Black Francis' bizarre, fragmented lyrics about space, religion, sex, mutilation, and pop culture. Their music was direct and forceful; a style that was followed and embellished upon by everyone from Grunge to Britpop.