Pixies

The Pixies are an American alternative rock band formed in 1986 in Boston, Massachusetts. The group disbanded in 1993 in acrimonious circumstances, but reunited in 2004. The group currently consists of founders Black Francis (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), and David Lovering (drums). Co-founder Kim Deal (bass, backing vocals) left in 2013 and was replaced by Kim Shattuck as live bass player for a few months, then by Paz Lenchantin for the band's 2014 tour. The Pixies achieved relatively modest popularity in their home country, but were significantly more successful in the United Kingdom, mainland Europe and Israel. The group is credited with having an influence on the alternative rock boom of the 1990s.

The band's style of music contains a range of elements, including psychedelia, noise pop, hard rock, surf pop, and surf rock. Black Francis is the Pixies' primary songwriter and singer. His lyrics feature a number of offbeat subjects such as extraterrestrials, surrealism, incest, and biblical violence.

Pixies (EP)

Pixies is a 2002 EP release of the (mostly) previously unissued material from Pixies' original 17-track demo tape (known to Pixies aficionados as "The Purple Tape"), recorded at Fort Apache Studios in March 1987 by Gary Smith. Eight of the tracks from sessions were released in 1987 as the band's debut, Come On Pilgrim and the remaining nine were sourced for this release by SpinART Records in the U.S. and Sonic Unyon records in Canada.

Track listing

All songs written by Black Francis, except "In Heaven" by Peter Ivers.

The Purple Tape

The Purple Tape was a demo that the band recorded in three days during their first studio session in 1987. The track listing is as follows:

Fairy (Artemis Fowl)

Fairies, in the fantasy series Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, are fictional beings, usually shorter than a human, who possess magic properties. The average height of a fairy is exactly 1 metre, one centimetre. All the fairies have retreated below the Earth to escape the destructiveness of the human race. Their underground civilization is centered on the capital city of Haven. Fairies are vernacularly known as the People, and live a life according to the Book of the People. There are 8 recognized families of fairies- Elves, Dwarves, Pixies, Gnomes, Gremlins, Goblins, Sprites and Demons. However, the centaurs have been mentioned several times, as with trolls, and the centaurs' cousins, the unicorns, were killed off, yet they are not recognized.

Races of Fairies and the eight families

The Eight Families

In Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony, it is said that 10,000 years ago, there were eight families (or species) of fairies. It is possible that Centaurs and Trolls used to live not underground but above ground, and were recruited by the fairies for the war against the Mud People (the term used by fairies to address humans). This would explain the links between many animals these two species have, and would explain why they don't have magic. Centaurs are also cousins of unicorns, so they couldn't be in the fairy family without the unicorns. The fairies, however, are mostly humanoid. Warlocks are also part of the fairy world. They are extremely magical fairies that originate under unknown circumstances.

Velouria

"Velouria" is a song by the American alternative rock band Pixies, written and sung by the band's frontman Black Francis. "Velouria" is featured on their album Bossanova, was the first single to be released from it and was the band's first UK Top 40 hit. The song features extensive use of theremin. It featured on the influential 1990 Madchester compilation album Happy Daze.

Lyrics

Unlike many of the band's other songs, the lyrics to "Velouria" are those of a straightforward love song. Black Francis said of the lyrics to the song in an interview with SongFacts, "It's folklore based; the Rosicrucians of 1920s San Jose California had some pretty interesting ideas."

Video

As "Velouria" was climbing up the UK Top 40, the band was offered a spot on Top Of The Pops. However, a BBC rule stated that only singles with videos could be performed on the show. To counter this, a cheap video was made with the band being filmed running down a quarry.

In the video, twenty-three seconds of footage (the time needed for the band members to reach the camera) is slowed in order to last for the duration of the song. However, the effort in filming the video was in vain; Pixies did not play "Velouria" on Top of The Pops while the single was in the charts.