Classic pioneering rock band Pixies has some good news for longtime fans; the band is releasing its first full studio album in more than 20 years. Indie Cindy is scheduled to be out in late April, on the band’s independent label, Pixiesmusic. It’s also been produced by Gil Norton, the same producer that worked on hit albums Bossanova, Doolittle and Trompe le Monde. Indie Cindy comes after an EP release earlier in 2014, and the release of “Bagboy” in 2013, the band’s first single in nine years.
It’s now been almost 30 years since Black Francis, Joey Santiago, David Lovering and Kim Deal originally formed the momentously influential band and remarkably, all of the band members except Deal, who left in 2013, are still with the group. After breaking up in 1993, they reunited in 2004 and have made the rounds on the touring circuit, playing to sell-out crowds for seven years, a longer time than the band was originally a unit. But Lovering says the group needed some new content, and that’s why they came together to produce Indie Cindy. “We started seriously talking about recording new music about four years ago,” said Lovering. “New music seemed like something we just had to do, we just couldn’t continue to go out and tour without anything new. So the talk evolved into writing and recording, and we’re all very happy with the way everything worked out.”
Indie Cindy is being released into a very different world than Pixies’ 1991 release Trompe le Monde. 1991 saw the birth of the world wide web and the world’s first website. In the years since, the music world has changed astronomically, with the advent of ITunes, digital downloads, Spotify and online streaming services. It’s seen the fall of albums, cassette tapes and most recently, CDs, and seen the birth of social media sites that publicize new music information instantly and offer no mercy from the positive and negative comments of fans and critics alike. The music world has also seen a grand resurgence in appreciation for vinyl music, a trend that’s trying to hearken back to the days of a concrete music purchase and hi-fidelity sound. So it seems only fitting that Indie Cindy would be released on multiple formats, to cater to the growing gamut of tastes in various mediums. This time, if you want to spend a few dollars to buy Pixies’ newest release, you can have it on a standard 12-track CD, as a two-disc album on 180-gram vinyl, as a standard digital download available on a slew of retail sites, or for the die-hard fans, a combination of all of these, complete with original artwork in a hard-back book. A limited edition of the album will be released on April 19 for Record Store Day a week before the official release is scheduled to hit.
In the end, it’s proof that the Pixies are still kicking and willing to cater to a new generation of alt/rock listeners. The band that reportedly inspired Nirvana, The Strokes, Weezer and Radiohead is coming out with original material that may influence younger artists in new and different ways.
Indie Cindy Track Listing
1. What Goes Boom
2. Greens and Blues
3. Indie Cindy
4. Bagboy
5. Magdalena 318
6. Silver Snail
7. Blue Eyed Hexe
8. Ring the Bell
9. Another Toe in the Ocean
10. Andro Queen
11. Snakes
12. Jaime Bravo