Way back in 1988 (I was a junior in high school) a band by the name of The Pixies released their first full length album called Surfer Rosa. At the time I had no idea who they were since I was fully entrenched in Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix, I'd yet to discover any underground or alternative music. That would come later in college. Those who did were lucky enough to experience (no reference to Jimi H.) the beginning of Grunge which would later be coined with the Seattle hard rock movement. Well Seattle should give thanks to Boston because that's where it originated. The Pixies had a raw, unfinished, jam-like sound that was captured so beautifully on this first record. Bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and later Weezer certainly owe a debt of gratitude for pioneering the sound that they made famous. If you ask the generic music fan of today who The Pixies are you will mostly get....'Who?' That's ok, music knowledge is often handed down and not learned. For me I was introduced to The Pixies during the early Grunge years after I was already a fan of the more popular bands and quickly tossed it aside as nothing special. But as the years rolled on more and more I found myself realizing just how influential their sound actually was and now hold Surfer Rosa as one of my favorite albums. That is the great thing about music, there is no rule that says you have to discover an artist or a band when it drops it's first album or before anyone else hears about it. That may be considered cool but it's not realistic. For most of us we need to lean on others to find out what's happening, who's the hot new band in Williamsburg or L.A. or who the next new 'IT' band is gonna be. That's why music will always be a community environment to be shared with others, not a sitting-in-your-pj's-10-minutes-before-bedtime-experience.
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