The Pixies 'Pixies Sell Out' album

SPIN magazine called it “2004’s Comeback of the Year,” eBay auctioned single tickets for hundreds of dollars, and the media fell all over themselves with praise for what devotees bet their bottom dollar would never happen – the Pixies’ reunion tour. If you didn’t make it to one of the Pixies’ reunion dates, well then, you’re going to be able to take the Pixies home with you.

October 4th, Rhino Home Video has released “Pixies Sell Out,” an all- performance DVD culled from seven different Pixies reunion concerts held in 2004. The main part of the program is from the band’s concert in Belfort, France (July 3) and features 27 classic Pixies songs including “Here Comes Your Man,” “Monkey Gone to Heaven,” “Bone Machine,” “Where Is My Mind,” and “Gigantic.” The DVD’s bonus material offers additional performances from concerts in the United States (Coachella/May 1, Lowell/December 1, Austin City Limits Festival/September 18, and New Orleans’ Voodoo Festival/October 16), Japan (Fuji Rock Festival/July 30), England (the Move Festival/July 10) and Scotland (T In The Park/July 11).

Pixies - Frank Black/vocals, guitar; Joey Santiago/guitar; Kim Deal/bass; and David Lovering/drums - kicked off their reunion tour on April 13, 2004, at the Fine Line Music Café in Minneapolis, MN, and over the ensuing eight months shattered sales records around the world. The following May 1, Pixies co-headlined the Coachella Valley Festival and created pure magic in the hot desert for 50,000 fans (“The day belonged to the Pixies” said the New York Times). Pixies went on to sell out a record-setting four consecutive nights at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom, 19,000 tickets for their four-night London run were gone in less than two hours, and the band capped off 2004 with an unprecedented eight-night stand at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom.

The Pixies formed in Boston in 1986 when Charles Thompson dropped out of college and convinced his friend and roommate, Joey Santiago, to do the same. The two recruited bassist Kim Deal, who suggested drummer David Lovering join the group, and the lineup was official. Thompson adopted the stage name Black Francis and the group named themselves the Pixies after flipping through a dictionary. The Pixies quickly gained a cult following as well as critical acclaim for their signature blend of screaming punk noise, indie guitar rock, classic pop, and surf-rock riffs mixed with impossible-to-ignore melodic hooks and Francis’ bizarre lyrics about religion, UFOs, and metaphysics.During their six years together, the Pixies released five albums on the 4AD label - Come on Pilgrim (1987); Surfer Rosa (1988); Doolittle (1989); Bossanova (1990), and Trompe Le Monde (1991). Experiencing particular success in the U.K. and Europe, the Pixies played sold-out festivals and received a multitude of fan, peer and critical acclaim, the U.K.'s NME named Doolittle the "Second Best Album Ever." The band's influence was far-reaching; U2's Bono referred to the Pixies as “one of America’s greatest bands ever;” David Bowie called their work “just about the most compelling music of the entire '80s,” and Kurt Cobain, who identified Surfer Rosa as his favorite album of that entire decade, confessed, when writing “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” that, “Basically, I was ripping off the Pixies.”

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The Pixies - Pixies Sell Out