(Credits: Far Out / Dave Grohl)
Thu 3 July 2025 13:00, UK
Dave Grohl could claim to be one of the most important musicians of his generation if he wanted to. There’s no chance he actually would considering his reputation as one of the most humble people in music, but he has always found his place on some of the greatest rock records from the 1990s onwards, whether that’s with Nirvana, Foo Fighters, or moonlighting as a guest musician for Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age. But Grohl himself has said there are some bands with far less attention that should be twice as successful as he is.
Ever since he started in Nirvana, the drummer has never forgotten where he came from, and listening through some of his records, it’s easy to pick out tracks that owe a great deal to the hardcore scene. He grew up with punk rock before anything else, and while he did embrace his Beatles tendencies when writing his own tunes, it’s hard to think of a song like ‘Weenie Beenie’ existing if it were not for him listening to everything from Slayer to The Stooges to Black Flag first.
Right as he was transitioning into life as a musician, though, the alternative scene was starting to spread its wings a little bit more. It was clear that acts like REM and The Smiths wouldn’t be the darlings of MTV in the same way that Madonna was, but when listening to The Replacements, making a career in the field looked a lot more possible. Then everything changed when Pixies arrived.
There were people already making alternative music with pop melodies, but Grohl felt Pixies were far above anyone else in their field, saying in 2004, “Face it, the quiet/loud dynamic that’s dominated alternative radio for the last 14 years can be attributed to one and only one band, the Pixies. Undoubtedly one of the most influential groups of the new rock generation, they are back on tour to reclaim their status as the coolest American band since, well, possibly ever.”
But it goes a lot deeper than the quiet/loud dynamic that happened in their songs. By that logic, most power ballads from hair metal bands operate on the same principles, but whenever Frank Black shrieked at the top of his lungs during his songs, something much more visceral happened whenever he sang. This was honest emotion and a breath of fresh air compared to every other pop artist.
Looking through every other band that came after, Grohl had a point in calling their sound one of the most imitated in the world. ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ wouldn’t have been what it is were it not for Pixies paving the way first on songs like ‘Monkey Gone to Heaven’. Looking at the countless bands that Nirvana influenced, even Kurt Cobain would have redirected everyone to albums like Doolittle and Surfer Rosa to listen to first.
Then again, just because it’s imitated doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. In the same way that most people can imitate Bob Dylan but not match his lyrics, it takes a massive effort to make a song deliver the punch of a Pixies track, which is why Foo Fighters were whipped into shape when Pixies producer Gil Norton came on to help them record albums like The Colour and the Shape.
Pixies are often looked at as the building blocks of what would become the alternative rock sound today, but a lot of their songwriting is criminally underappreciated compared to the influence they cast over everyone else. They may have shied away from the spotlight sometimes, but had the music business been fair, they would be sharing spaces in rock and roll Valhalla with bands like Led Zeppelin.
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