.

Pixies Offer New Tune

Reunited alt-rockers put "Bam Thwok" on iTunes Music Store

June 14, 2004 12:00 AM ET
The Pixies are offering their first new song in thirteen years through the iTunes Music Store. The reunited group recorded "Bam Thwok" in Los Angeles in March, and is selling the tune for ninety-nine cents.

The two-and-a-half-minute cut was lyrically inspired by an art book that bassist Kim Deal found on the street. Deal sings lead on the song. "From the handwriting, you could tell that this book must have belonged to a little kid," Deal said. "This kid had written a short story, a paragraph really, about a party that took place in another universe, about people and monsters that were partying together. It's a song about loving everyone, showing good will to everyone."

"Bam Thwok"'s release comes amid a popular reunion tour for the influential Boston alternative rock band. Earlier this year, the Pixies announced that they would tour for the first time since 1992. The group's initial run of North American dates sold out quickly. A European tour, and a more extensive U.S. itinerary (including dates on Lollapalooza) are still scheduled for this year. Frontman Frank Black called "Bam Thwok" "a nice way for us to break the ice after twelve years."

The Pixies previous studio collaboration yielded Trompe le Monde, the group's last studio album, which was released in 1991.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

prev
Music Main Next

blog comments powered by Disqus
Daily Newsletter

Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
marketing partners.

X

We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

Song Stories

“Karma Chameleon”

Culture Club | 1983

Boy George has said this song was about standing by what you believe in. However, at the time, he was involved in a secret affair with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. "Now people can understand the songs better," he said. "They were written about my relationship with Jon, and they were also written about being a gay man in a homophobic world." The lines "If I listen to your lies, would you say/I'm a man without conviction/I'm a man who doesn't know how to sell a contradiction," described his life at the time, he said. "I was selling this big lie."

More Song Stories entries »