The Boston-based band is considered one of the most influential outfits of the late '80s and '90s.
By DAVID BRINN
Veteran American rockers the Pixies will be returning to Israel next year on July 14 at the Tel Aviv Expo, two years after their well-received 2017 show in Caesarea.The American alternative rock pioneers also performed here to a sold-out audience in 2014 at Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa.The Boston-based band, who broke up in the mid-1990s and reformed bigger than ever in 2003, is considered one of the most influential outfits of the late '80s and '90s, with albums like Surfer Rosa and Doolittle setting a blueprint for post-punk diversity.Led by the iconic Black Francis (Frank Black) and including his co-founders David Lovering on drums and Joey Santiago on lead guitar, along with bassist Paz Lenchantin – a replacement for longtime mainstay Kim Deal – the Pixies released their seventh album this year – Beneath the Eyrie.The Pixies and Israel have a history. They were slated to headline a 2010 festival in Tel Aviv. However, in the aftermath of the MaviMarmara incident in which nine Turkish activists aboard the Gaza-bound aid ship were killed, the group ended up being one of the high-profile cancellations to Israel that year, amid rumored pressure on them to back out of the show.