Francis is the primary songwriter; his often surreal lyrics cover offbeat subjects such as extraterrestrials, incest, and biblical violence.

Their jarring pop sound influenced acts such as Nirvana, Radiohead, Modest Mouse, the Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer.

Guitarist Joey Santiago and songwriter Black Francis (born Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV) met when they lived next to each other in a suite while attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

[5] Two weeks later, Francis placed an advertisement seeking a bass player who liked both the folk act Peter, Paul and Mary and the alternative rock band Hüsker Dü.

[11][12] The group arrived at a name after Santiago selected the word "pixies" randomly from a dictionary, liking how it looked and its definition as "mischievous little elves".

[1] While the Pixies were playing a concert with Throwing Muses, they were noticed by the producer Gary Smith, the manager of Fort Apache Studios.

[13] The critic Heather Phares identified themes such as sexual frustration ("I've Been Tired") and incest ("Nimrod's Son" and "The Holiday Song").

[13] Surfer Rosa gained the Pixies acclaim in Europe; both Melody Maker and Sounds named it their "Album of the Year".

[19] The Pixies arrived in England to support Throwing Muses on the European "Sex and Death" tour, beginning at the Mean Fiddler in London.

Norton produced their second full album, Doolittle,[21] which was recorded in the last six weeks of 1988 and seen as a departure from the raw sound of Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa.

[22] Doolittle featured the single "Here Comes Your Man", which biographers Josh Frank and Caryn Ganz describe as an unusually jaunty and pop-like song for the band.

[21] After the tour's final date in New York City, the band was too exhausted to attend the end-of-tour party the following night and soon announced a hiatus.

[5] During this time, Santiago and Lovering went on vacation[21] while Francis performed a short solo tour,[5] made up of a number of concerts to generate gas money as he traveled across the country.

[1] Deal formed a new band, the Breeders, with Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses and bass player Josephine Wiggs of Perfect Disaster.

[36] Also in 1990, the Pixies released a cover of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's "Born in Chicago" on the compilation album Rubáiyát: Elektra's 40th Anniversary.

The album included "U-Mass", which has been described as being about college apathy,[38] and whose guitar riff was written years before at the University of Massachusetts before Francis and Santiago dropped out.

[39] Also that year, the band contributed a cover of "I Can't Forget" to the Leonard Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan,[40] and began an international tour on which they played stadiums in Europe and smaller venues in the United States.

[44] Deal returned to the Breeders, who achieved a hit single, "Cannonball", from their platinum-selling Last Splash in 1993, and released more albums several years later.

[67] A warm-up tour through the U.S. and Canada (in which all dates were recorded and released as individual limited-edition CDs) was followed by an appearance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

[70] In June 2004, the band released a new song, "Bam Thwok" exclusively on the iTunes Music Store; it reached number one in the UK Official Download Chart.

[84][85] To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Doolittle, the Pixies launched a tour in October 2009 where they performed the album track-for-track, including the associated B-sides.

[93] On July 1, 2013, the Pixies announced the addition of the Muffs and Pandoras guitarist and vocalist Kim Shattuck to replace Deal for their 2013 European tour.

As a child, he listened mainly to 1960s songs, religious music and Emerson Lake and Palmer, [...] and Talking Heads, who he says "weren't punk either".

[119] Guitarists who influenced him include Jimi Hendrix, Les Paul, Wes Montgomery, Lou Reed[120] and George Harrison.

Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine has described Francis's writing as containing "bizarre, fragmented lyrics about space, religion, sex, mutilation, and pop culture".

[5] Biblical violence is a theme of Doolittle's "Dead" and "Gouge Away";[1][124] Francis told a Melody Maker interviewer, "It's all those characters in the Old Testament.

[130][131] Gary Smith, who produced Come On Pilgrim, said in 1997:[131] I've heard it said about the Velvet Underground that while not a lot of people bought their albums, everyone who did started a band.

[38] Artists including David Bowie, Matt Noveskey, Radiohead, PJ Harvey, U2, Nirvana, the Strokes, Alice in Chains, Arcade Fire, Pavement, Everclear, Kings of Leon and Matthew Good have cited admiration of the Pixies.

[135] Other bands and artists who have cited the Pixies as an influence include Weezer,[136] Gavin Rossdale of Bush,[137] Snow Patrol,[138] Slowdive,[139] OK Go,[140] Eve 6,[141] Thrice,[142] Better Than Ezra,[143] Toadies,[144] Ash,[145] Ride,[146] Veruca Salt,[147] Sleeper,[148] Lemuria,[149] and Treepeople.

From Head Carrier onwards, the following videos were made: "Tenement Song", "Um Chagga Lagga", "On Graveyard Hill", "Catfish Kate", "Long Rider", "Hear Me Out", "Human Crime" and "Vault of Heaven".