25th Anniversary: Doolittle by The Pixies

     “I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I admit it.“-Kurt Cobain

Friday was the 25th anniversary of The Pixies sophomore stunner, “Doolittle,” an album that remains as relevant as it was the year I was born. The Pixies influence on modern music is no secret, as the quote from Cobain shows, some of the greatest songwriters of our time took cues from the indie rock sensation.
You can clearly hear the influence they had on Nirvana with a song like “Tame,” with it’s whispered verses over a running rhythm section, exploding into an aggressive chorus of screaming vocals over thrashing instruments. Johnny Greenwood of the musical juggernauts Radiohead is quoted as saying “The reason we don’t use as much guitar now is there are only a handful of Pixies albums. You can’t keep copying them.” Radiohead citing you as an influence is pretty much like getting a letter of recommendation from the Dean of Harvard.
The incredible thing about “Doolittle,” is the scope of the albums sound. It has a bubblegum pop song like “Here Comes Your Man,” to the straight up punk of “Crackity Jones,” and the Morrisey-esque “La La Love You.” It’s clear why the band has such a vast influence across the music industry, when their sound can be so diverse.

Their influence isn’t limited to bands that came around the same time as them either, as legends such as David Bowie have covered them, as well as modern rock megastars Kings of Leon.
So whether it’s Beck stripping down Wave of Mutilation:

Artists turning the songs into their own stories:

Or JGL doing his best karaoke tribute:

The Pixies influence can be felt across multiple mediums, and found from the time that they became a band, to still going strong today.