For a band whose recording career lasted only a bit over five years, the space that the Pixies occupy in the upper echelon of indie-rock demigods just goes to show what an amazing band can do given the right set of circumstances. This is never more evident than when said amazing band reunites years later, tours and attempts to release an album of new material only to realize that what they once had was in every way a byproduct of a time and place that is impossible to recreate. So goes the story of the Pixies who, as lead singer Frank Black just announced to Billboard, have given up on trying to write new Pixies songs for a widely rumored, yet wholly unrealized sixth studio effort. Black has reported writing several songs at the beginning of 2006 in an attempt to lure bassist Kim Deal into making another Pixies album. The results were less than encouraging. "I tried to find my Pixies muse and write a so-called Pixies number but they weren't any good," Black told Billboard. "They sounded a little contrived or something. That's the problem with trying to repeat something you did a long time ago." Both Black and Deal have kept busy with their own solo projects. Black, just yesterday, released Fast Man Raider Man, a neo-Americana effort in the same vein as his 2005 release Honeycomb. Whether or not the classic line-up of Black, Deal, guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer David Lovering will ever again enter the studio remains to be seen, but, for now, it doesn't seem likely. "What can I say?" Black said. "Sometimes I wish I could just spit out some Pixies-esque songs, but it doesn't really work that way. You write the songs and they come out the way they come out. They might sound like the Pixies, but these days mostly…not." www.pixiesmusic.com
