Pixies

Pixies’ reputation as alt-rock trailblazers has been reignited in recent months. Their singles ‘Dregs of the Wine’, ‘There’s A Moon On’ and ‘Vault of Heaven’ have reconnected with long-standing fans and inspired newcomers too, a blend reiterated by a series of outdoor headline shows as well as a huge Hyde Park gig as guests to Pearl Jam. Today, Pixies release their new album ‘Doggerel’ on Infectious Music / BMG Australia, their first studio set since 2019’s ‘Beneath The Eyrie’.

In addition to the recent singles, ‘Doggerel’ is full of new material which lives up to their iconic status. It’s a mature yet visceral record of gruesome folk, ballroom pop and brutal rock, haunted by the ghosts of affairs and indulgences, driven wild by cosmic forces and envisioning digital afterlives where no God has provided one. And all the while, right there on the news, another distant storm approaches.

Produced by Tom Dalgety (Royal Blood, Ghost), ‘Doggerel’ represents an evolution for Pixies, one that you wouldn’t always associate with a band deep into a storied career. Their famously off-kilter streak is still present, but it’s channeled into songs which are bigger, more orchestrated and in some aspects a little more direct. Black Francis’s lyrics have also altered, his surrealist phrasing playing upon myths, legends, pop culture and a little nostalgia.

A congregation between darkness and beauty consistently emerges throughout the record. Opener and new focus track ‘Nomatterday’ sets the tone, lurching and grinding with an ominous intensity before unfolding into a breezy, power-pop rush. The ‘50s-tinged ‘Haunted House’ is possessed by the spirit of ghosts both literal and metaphoric, while ‘The Lord Has Come Back’ will be familiar to fans who have attended Pixies’ recent shows. Later on, beguiling folk-rock melodies propel ‘Pagan Man’ and then ‘Who’s More Sorry Now?’ asks questions about recriminations while carrying elements that recall guitarist Joey Santiago’s admiration for Ennio Morricone.

Santiago recently had his first Pixies songwriting credit for ‘Dregs of the Wine’, while his second follows with the album’s title track (both alongside Francis). Loosely styled and irregular in measure, it’s a slowburning song which is ‘Doggerel’ both in name and nature.

Pixies’ official store includes album bundles, new merch and exclusive formats available HERE. 

‘Doggerel’ tracklist:

‘Nomatterday’
‘Vault of Heaven’
Dregs of the Wine’
‘Haunted House’
‘Get Simulated’
‘The Lord Has Come Back Today’
‘Thunder & Lightning’
‘There’s A Moon On’
‘Pagan Man’
‘Who’s More Sorry Now?’
‘You’re Such A Sadducee’
‘Doggerel’

Australia is set to be one of the first countries to hear songs from ‘Doggerel’ live with Pixies returning in 2022 for their mammoth – Come On Pilgrim… It’s Surfer Rosa tour. The tour will bear witness to both seminal albums being performed in full – plus new and old tracks spanning their extensive catalogue.

Fans had better get in quick with most shows sold out and only a handful of tickets remaining for Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Sunday 4^th December and Freemantle Arts Centre, Sunday 11^th December.

Pixies
Come On Pilgrim… It’s Surfer Rosa
Australia 2022
Presented by Live Nation

BRISBANE       Fortitude Music Hall, Friday 2^nd December SOLD OUT

SYDNEY          Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Saturday 3^rd December SOLD OUT

SYDNEY          Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Sunday 4^th December
**TICKETS AVAILABLE**

MELBOURNE   Forum, Tuesday 6^th December SOLD OUT

MELBOURNE   Forum, Wednesday 7^th December SOLD OUT

ADELAIDE       Thebarton Theatre, Thursday 8^th December SOLD OUT

PERTH             Fremantle Arts Centre, Saturday 10^th December SOLD OUT

PERTH             Fremantle Arts Centre, Sunday 11^th December 
**TICKETS AVAILABLE**

For complete tour and ticket information, visit: pixiesmusic.com & livenation.com.au  

FOLLOW PIXIES
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | YOUTUBE | SPOTIFY 

The return of Pixies has been rapturously received, the alt-rock trailblazers reconnecting with long-term fans and introducing themselves to a fresh new audience. In recent weeks, they’ve headlined large outdoor venues across the UK, performed as special guests to Pearl Jam in Hyde Park, and played one of their most intimate shows in years at Manchester’s Band On The Wall. The shows come ahead of the release of their new album ‘Doggerel’ on 30^th September, which was previewed by its lead single ‘There’s A Moon On’.

Pixies’ momentum continues as they today share the follow-up single ‘Vault of Heaven’.

‘Doggerel’ tracklist:

‘Nomatterday’
‘Vault of Heaven’
Dregs of the Wine’
‘Haunted House’
‘Get Simulated’
‘The Lord Has Come Back Today’
‘Thunder & Lightning’
‘There’s A Moon On’
‘Pagan Man’
‘Who’s More Sorry Now?’
‘You’re Such A Sadducee’
‘Doggerel’

Mixing dusky, Morricone-style desert noir atmospherics with a chiming, melodic guitar motif, ‘Vault of Heaven’ also takes a leftfield turn as flourishes of female backing vocals provide an almost hymnal touch. Black Francis’s lyrics combine elements that are both abstract and everyday in a surrealist narrative, in which the protagonist aims for salvation but only ends up falling flat on his face.

‘Vault of Heaven’ is released alongside an official video which brings its absurdist tale to life. It begins with a semi-clothed Zorro-esque figure who is heading into Los Angeles on the back of a toy horse. He arrives at a 7-Eleven, where things get stranger still with the help of bizarre Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe lookalikes. The visual was directed by the filmmaker and musician Charles Derenne.   

As we’ve heard from both ‘Vault of Heaven’ and ‘There’s A Moon On’, ‘Doggerel’ is a mature yet visceral record of gruesome folk, ballroom pop and brutal rock. Its stories are haunted by the ghosts of affairs and indulgences, driven wild by cosmic forces and envisioning digital afterlives where no God has provided one. Pixies – completed by Joey Santiago (guitar), Paz Lanchantin (bass) and David Lovering (drums) – recorded the album with producer Tom Dalgety (Royal Blood, Ghost) in Vermont.

‘Doggerel’ is available to pre-order HERE. The band’s official store offers a range of physical product, merch and bundles as well as two exclusive formats: an orange vinyl and a red cassette. 

Australia is set to be one of the first countries to hear songs from ‘Doggerel’ live with Pixies returning in 2022 for their mammoth – Come On Pilgrim… It’s Surfer Rosa tour. The tour will bear witness to both seminal albums being performed in full – plus new and old tracks spanning their extensive catalogue.

Fans had better get in quick with most shows sold out and only a handful of tickets remaining for Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Sunday 4^th December and Fremantle Arts Centre, Sunday 11^th December.

Pixies
Come On Pilgrim… It’s Surfer Rosa
Australia 2022
Presented by Live Nation

BRISBANE       Fortitude Music Hall, Friday 2^nd December SOLD OUT

SYDNEY          Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Saturday 3^rd December SOLD OUT

SYDNEY          Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Sunday 4^th December
**TICKETS AVAILABLE**

MELBOURNE   Forum, Tuesday 6^th December SOLD OUT

MELBOURNE   Forum, Wednesday 7^th December SOLD OUT

ADELAIDE       Thebarton Theatre, Thursday 8^th December SOLD OUT

PERTH             Fremantle Arts Centre, Saturday 10^th December SOLD OUT

PERTH             Fremantle Arts Centre, Sunday 11^th December 
**TICKETS AVAILABLE**

For complete tour and ticket information, visit: pixiesmusic.com & livenation.com.au  

FOLLOW PIXIES
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | YOUTUBE | SPOTIFY 

Definition of doggerel (daw-​ger-​uhl): loosely styled and irregular in measure especially for burlesque or comic effect also : marked by triviality or inferiority – Merriam-Webster

The iconic Pixies forged an influential path for alt-rock during their first era, while their post 2004 reunion has seen them alchemize more sophisticated dark arts – a return which has them add another three UK Top 10 albums to the three they achieved on their first run. Now as fired up as ever before, Pixies will release their eighth studio album ‘Doggerel’ on September 30th via BMG, which is now available to pre-order HERE. They launch the album alongside its lead single ‘There’s a Moon On’.

‘Doggerel’ is a mature yet visceral record of gruesome folk, ballroom pop and brutal rock, haunted by the ghosts of affairs and indulgences, driven wild by cosmic forces and envisioning digital afterlives where no God has provided one. And all the while, right there on the news, another distant storm approaches.

Guitarist Joey Santiago says, “This time around we have grown. We no longer have under two-minute songs. We have little breaks, more conventional arrangements but still our twists in there.”

 Vocalist/guitarist Black Francis adds,  “We’re trying to do things that are very big and bold and orchestrated. The punky stuff, I really like playing it but you just cannot artificially create that shit. There’s another way to do this, there’s other things we can do with this extra special energy that we’re encountering.”

That energy shimmers in the album’s new single ‘There’s A Moon On’, which fits into the space between prototype squalling Pixies guitars and heartland rock classicism. Thematically it plays somewhere between fact and legend, playing upon the adrenalizing effect of the lunar cycle on the human psyche, a phase during which the drunks in Francis’s brother’s bar become more aggressive.

A congregation between darkness and beauty consistently emerges throughout the record. There’s ‘Haunted House’, a spirited concoction of ‘50s-flavoured pop with ghosts both literal and metaphoric, as well as the brooding Morricone desert rock of ‘Vault of Heaven’, and a breezy folk-rock melody on ‘Pagan Man’. But Pixies still possesses a ferocious edge, one that feeds into the grinding intensity and surrealism of ‘Nomatterday’ and The Who-like power of ‘Dregs of the Wine’, which will surely be the first and last Pixies song to namecheck Van Halen.

It’s a record with an unusual genesis. Instead of building upon rough ideas in the studio, Black Francis turned up to sessions with 40 songs prepared. Sessions started late in 2021 with producer Tom Dalgety (Royal Blood, Ghost) working with Francis in Massachusetts, before they headed to LA to finish tracks with the rest of the band.

Their input would be vital. Santiago contributed his first two Pixies songwriting credits, with music for ‘Dregs of the Wine’ and lyrics for ‘Doggerel’. Meanwhile, drummer David Lovering and bassist Paz Lenchantin’s performances have the uninhibited energy of two musicians who both confess to feeling reinvigorated by the process.

In addition to digital / streaming formats, ‘Doggerel’ will also be issued in a variety of physical configurations. There will be a range of gatefold colour vinyl options: the standard red vinyl, a yellow vinyl will be available exclusively from select independent stores, and an orange vinyl that is only available from the Pixies’ official store – which also offers an exclusive red cassette. The formats are completed by a deluxe CD.

If 2014’s ‘Indie Cindy’ was conceived as a belated continuation of ‘Bossanova’ (1990) and ‘Trompe Le Monde’ (1991) and 2016’s ‘Head Carrier’ revisited some of the murky melody and exotic gristle of ‘Surfer Rosa’ (1988) and ‘Doolittle’ (1989), both ‘Beneath The Eyrie’ (2019) and ‘Doggerel’ are expansive and unfettered albums that leave behind any sense of expectation. They are records evolved from, but not beholden to, Pixies’ past.

‘Doggerel’ tracklist:

‘Nomatterday’
‘Vault of Heaven’
Dregs of the Wine’
‘Haunted House’
‘Get Simulated’
‘The Lord Has Come Back Today’
‘Thunder & Lightning’
‘There’s A Moon On’
‘Pagan Man’
‘Who’s More Sorry Now?’
‘You’re Such A Sadducee’
‘Doggerel’

Australia is set to be one of the first countries to hear songs from ‘Doggerel’ live with Pixies returning in 2022 for their mammoth – Come On Pilgrim… It’s Surfer Rosa tour. The tour will bear witness to both seminal albums being performed in full – plus new and old tracks spanning their extensive catalogue.

Fans had better get in quick with most shows sold out and only a handful of tickets remaining for Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Sunday 4^th December and Fremantle Arts Centre, Sunday 11^th December.

Pixies
Come On Pilgrim… It’s Surfer Rosa
Australia 2022
Presented by Live Nation

BRISBANE       Fortitude Music Hall, Friday 2^nd December SOLD OUT

SYDNEY          Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Saturday 3^rd December SOLD OUT

SYDNEY          Sydney Opera House Forecourt, Sunday 4^th December
**TICKETS AVAILABLE**

MELBOURNE   Forum, Tuesday 6^th December SOLD OUT

MELBOURNE   Forum, Wednesday 7^th December SOLD OUT

ADELAIDE       Thebarton Theatre, Thursday 8^th December SOLD OUT

PERTH             Fremantle Arts Centre, Saturday 10^th December SOLD OUT

PERTH             Fremantle Arts Centre, Sunday 11^th December 
**TICKETS AVAILABLE**

For complete tour and ticket information, visit: pixiesmusic.com & livenation.com.au  

FOLLOW PIXIES
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | YOUTUBE | SPOTIFY