****Official Kim Deal quit the Pixies thread*****

[RainDog]

27. here's a little information

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/jun/14/pixies-kim-deal?guni=Network%20front:network-front%20main-5%20on%20the%20guardian:Network%20front%20-%20all-purpose%20editable%20trailblock osition2

I was asked to write some words on Kim Deal, who has quit the Pixies after 25 years, but really I only need the one: Gigantic.

Deal earned few songwriting credits in the Pixies and sang lead vocals on even fewer, but Gigantic, from the band's 1988 debut album Surfer Rosa, was among their best moments: jaw-droppingly sexual ("my big, big love&quot and catchier than a medieval plague. Deal's breathy voice, which provided a sensual contrast to Black Francis's bloodcurdling screams on the rest of the Pixies' catalogue, was here allowed centre stage, and it was a relief – shocking, even.

Pixies were groundbreaking and original at a time when rock music had seemed moribund. They used unconventional chord structures and time signatures, but they never forgot to write a tune. Chief among their innovations was their use of dynamics. Having a hushed verse followed by a sudden, deafening chorus seems obvious post-Nirvana, but the Pixies were the ones who pioneered it. And during those quiet bits it was always Deal's snaking, four-to-the-floor bass-lines always kept the show on the road, allowing Black Francis to pant and yelp his frightening Old Testament lyrics about sex and death before the chorus's ecstatic eruption.

The band didn't go in for stage tricks or dazzling light shows. Black Francis was an unlikely-looking frontman as it was. But onstage, Deal provided reassurance, grinning her way through songs that were often genuinely unnerving.