Bono, Bowie, Kurt Cobain and Thom Yorke have all said that The Pixies are one of the most influential bands of the past two decades. But minutes before taking the stage for another sold-out show during the current Pixies reunion tour of Japan, leader Frank Black isn't having any of it.
"No, I don't hear it," he says commenting on the post-Pixies music scene, "though I can't say I've really listened either." He later concedes, however, that maybe some of The Pixies' albums "stand the test of time."
Judging by the delighted paroxyms of fans and critics that greeted news of The Pixies' reunion shows in 2004, 12 years after their break-up, the public agrees. So much of contemporary rock, or at least the interesting bits, owes something to the group's idiosyncratic mixing of surf rock guitar with darkly playful surrealistic lyrics, and their novel collision of noise and melody.