Pixies Release ‘Bagboy,’ First New Song in Nine Years
Long-simmering rumors of a new Pixies album got a boost today when the band posted “Bagboy,” its first new song since 2004, just two weeks after announcing the departure of bassist Kim Deal.
Rather than dribbling out the new track with a teaser clip, then a lyric video and then a live-action version, the influential alt-rockers went all in with a video featuring the bagboy in question riding home on his bike with groceries, bathing in a tub full of Froot Loops and then smashing the hell out of his (or someone’s) house. He’s accompanied by drawling talk-sung vocals from Black Francis, a booming beat from David Lovering and a huge, meaty guitar riff from Joey Santiago. Who’s that singing Deal-like harmonies? Jeremy Dubs, a western Massaschusetts musician who performs occasionally with Black Francis. Santiago and Lovering sing backing vocals on the track.
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“The lyrics, coincidentally, were composed at a Starbucks Coffee in Harvard Square in Cambridge, about a hundred feet from where, 25 years ago, I composed some of the lyrics to an old Pixies song called ‘Break My Body,'” Black Francis said in a statement. “The music for the song has been around for a few years. There are some demos I made with Joey and David a few years ago in Los Angeles, related to a film idea that still has yet to see the light of day, although work on the music continued.”
The last new song the Pixies released was the download-only single “Bam Thwok,” which accompanied the band’s 2004 reunion after an acrimonious breakup in 1993. The group toured on and off over the ensuing nine years, including a multi-year stint celebrating the the 20th anniversary of their 1989 album Doolittle.