Kim Deal leaves the Pixies

Pixies (circa 2004)

Today, the news broke that Kim Deal has officially left the Pixies. The band has already broken up no less than twice, but today the band announced through their Facebook page that Deal has left the band that she founded 27 years ago. So later on in this post, we’ll get into “Into the White”, which is one of the few songs that she co-wrote and sang lead for the band.

Way back in the late 1980s, Deal responded to an ad for a bass player, and whether Charles Thompson (Black Francis) liked it or not, she and Joey Santiago were the real stars of the show that was the Pixies. On the first two records, Kim Deal has some songwriting credits and she sang lead on a few songs, but by Bossanova, she was shut out of that aspect of the band. After the release of Trompe Le Monde in 1991, the Pixies went on tour supporting U2. By then, relations were sour. It wasn’t a good experience for them, and inter-band relations got worse. They decided to take a break.

Meanwhile, Kim Deal decided to team up with Tanya Donelly to start The Breeders as a side project.

At some point in 1993, Black Francis unilaterally decided that the band was done for good. He called guitarist Joey Santiago to tell him this. He sent faxes to Kim Deal and David Lovering.

Black Francis and Kim Deal didn’t speak a single word to each other for more than 10 years while they each continued to do their own musical things.

In 2004, the band reunited. Black Francis and Kim Deal had buried the hatchet between them. They went on tour, and a documentary film crew chronicled the whole thing in the film “loudQUIETloud“. It was a bit of a disaster Kim Deal had been in and out of drug alcohol rehab, and she sort of demanded that their tour be drug- and alcohol-free. Drummer David Lovering didn’t quite respect her wishes. He was drunk a lot, popping a lot of pills, and more. He caused problems in the dressing room and on the stage. It wasn’t the only thing that made the reunion tour a disaster, but it was a big thing.

They went their separate ways again. Then, in 2009, they decided to reunite for a tour in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of their seminal album Doolittle. That tour ended up stretching over three years. With that reunion tour, they only played in cities where they’d never played before. That meant that they came to my town in the autumn of 2011. It was very good. At the end of that tour, they went on hiatus again.

Since Kim Deal has officially left the band, that has to mean that the band is done. They can’t play those songs with a different bassist. It won’t work.

Anyway, tonight’s song is one of the few that Kim Deal was credited as a co-writer. It’s also one of the few on which she sings lead.

“Into the White” (live version) by the Pixies

It’s a wonderful song because of Kim. Her iconic bass line. Her vocals. Her song.

The song originally appeared in 1989 as a b-side on the “Here Comes Your Man” single. It’s also shown up on a couple of anthologies including the two-disc set Death to the Pixies. The live version that I used is from the second disc in the Death to the Pixies set. You can buy that from the amazon store here. Please note that if you buy the mp3 download, you DO NOT get any of the live stuff. So just buy the physical copy.

Kim has left the band, and the band is most likely done forever. Meanwhile, Kim will be busy with The Breeders, as they’ll be touring the 20th anniversary of their second album Last Splash. After that tour concludes, they’ll be one of the headlining bands at this year’s Hopscotch Music Festival.