With loads of enthusiasm and little musical experience, the Pixies roared out of the Boston garage rock scene to become one of the most influential alternative rock bands of the late '80s and early '90s. Their signature sound--Black Francis's (a.k.a. Charles Thompson) maniacal screaming, Kim Deal's sweet harmonies and Joey Santiago's blitzkrieg riffing--became the blueprint for many bands to follow (Nirvana being a notable one) and proved to be an ideal antidote for the increasingly blasé pop music being churned out at the time.

Following fellow New Englanders Throwing Muses to the arty British 4AD label, the Pixies wasted little time or effort practicing. Instead they released Come On Pilgrim, a rapidly issued slab of eight demos (paid for by Francis's father) featuring explosive guitars and propulsive, non-linear pop songs sung in both English and Spanish. The real coup, though, came with the band's follow-up, Surfer Rosa, an outstanding work of unsettling guitar screech produced by Chicago noisemonger Steve Albini. It would be the album that made both Albini and the band, at least for the moment, legendary. Doolittle, the band's third LP, expanded on the Pixies' sound, with smoother production and more melodic pop smarts. Lulling tracks like "Here Comes Your Man" and "La La Love You" stand in stark contrast next to outrageous black rockers like "Debaser" and "Wave Of Mutilation."

Creative tension marred the band's work from here on, with the product sounding more like the solo work of Black Francis than the true, gratifying work of an ensemble. Bossanova, a hyperkinetic collection of surfy pop and sci-fi, was too musically abstract to have much impact, and so was the disappointing Trompe Le Monde, the band's swan song. The Pixies broke up soon thereafter, with Black Francis embarking on a solo career as Frank Black and Kim Deal forming an intermittently active band called the Breeders.