Released at the tail end of the 1980s, the Pixies’ debut album silently changed the entire alternative rock world and still sends ripples today.
The Pixies’ debut album, “Surfer Rosa” (1988), looms large in their eclectic discography. After their debut, the Boston rock band would soon record their commercial breakthrough record “Doolittle” (1989), go on an unexpectedly lucrative reunion tour in 2004 and earn endearing comparisons to the rock band The Velvet Underground. But it is their introductory record that started their long journey to indie-rock stardom.
Despite its overwhelming retrospective praise, “Surfer Rosa” was a commercial dud in the United States at the time of its release in the late ’80s and, at its best, a modestly successful indie-rock record. The debut, released through the British label 4AD on March 21, 1988, later distributed to the United States through the British label Rough Trade Records, got considerably more buzz abroad than domestically, spent 60 weeks in the chart and peaked at No. 2 in the United Kingdom.
Additionally, the anthemic and uncharacteristically charming “Where Is My Mind?” (1988), track seven on the project, often overshadows the album as a whole. An analysis of this song merits a dissection of its own: how it was never released as a single, how its popularity took off after its inclusion in the movie “Fight Club” (1999) or how it currently has more streams on Spotify than all of their other top five songs combined. It is also one of their rare sing-alongs.
While “Where Is My Mind” garnered commercial success, “Surfer Rosa” as a whole solidifies the Pixies as the true progenitors of the 1990s global alternative rock movement.
Take David Bowie, for example, who lauded them for making “the most compelling music outside of Sonic Youth in the entire 80’s.” Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead, went as far as to say, “the Pixies changed my life.” Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood echoed a similar sentiment, explaining in a 2011 interview with BBC Four that one of the main drivers of the band’s future artistic experimentation was that “there are only a handful of Pixies albums. You can’t keep copying them.”
“Surfer Rosa” worked because of its unique approach toward song structures, subtle melodicism and unorthodox usage of in-studio technology.
The Pixies is composed of lead vocalist Black Francis, guitarist Joey Santiago, drummer David Lovering and bassist Kim Deal — later replaced by Emma Richardson. I would be remiss if I did not also include the late engineer and producer Steve Albini as the rock group’s unofficial fifth member. Remove any of these five pillars and the Pixies’ debut inevitably loses a crucial element, something many of the band’s current critics have noted regarding Deal’s absence from the band today.
Without Francis, “Surfer Rosa” would lose much of its chaotic tonality. Francis’ distinct vocal yelping, haphazard Spanish singing picked up from his stint in Puerto Rico and harrowing stream-of-consciousness lyrics contribute to the album’s unnerving aesthetic.
Lead guitarist Santiago also brings an entirely new philosophy toward the electric guitar. His simple yet abrasive style of playing coupled with his use of amplifier feedback on many of their songs — including “Vamos” (1987), “River Euphrates” (1988) and “Oh My Golly!” (1988) — has influenced a whole generation of alternative rock guitarists.
Additionally, the oft-overlooked drummer Lovering brings a metronomic and ferocious intensity toward the kit, aided in large part by engineer Albini’s desire to capture the acoustics of the room in the final mix. Whether Lovering plays in a restrained way, like on “Where Is My Mind?” or at full throttle like on “Broken Face” (1988), his drumming hits listeners like a truck.
Lastly, bassist Deal is arguably the anchor for the entire project. Her punchy bass parts and iconic backup vocals have become a staple of the indie rock repertoire. On the rare chance that frontman Francis let her pen a song, the results were similarly impressive, such as the band's lead single “Gigantic” (1988) which Deal sang and co-wrote with Francis. Deal left the band in 2013 due to creative differences with Francis.
“Where Is My Mind?” would also lose much of its emotional intensity if not for Deal’s cavernous hoo-hoo background vocals on the track, an effect achieved by Albini moving their recording equipment into a studio washroom. The unsettling juxtaposition of Francis’ howls and Deal’s cherubic vocals often sound like nails on a chalkboard, perhaps indicative of their corroding relationship with each other.
Musically, the Pixies' trademark loud-to-soft-to-loud dynamic laid the blueprint for abrasive alternative rock music in the following decade. Their subdued verses and incendiary choruses provided a much-needed breath of fresh air in comparison to their vapid glam-rock and hair metal contemporaries. Without the Pixies, the contemporary rock world would surely look different, as bands as broad as Radiohead, Nirvana, Weezer, The Strokes, TV on the Radio, Drop Nineteens and PJ Harvey have all listed them as foundational influences.
