Light golden Belgian Witbier with a dense white foam nimbus. This cocky but out-of-tune beer has an elegant floral and perfumy aroma bounded by a Dadaist explosion of elderflower, orangey citrus, and lemon grass tones. An eerie yet pleasant experience like listening to the entire discography of The Pixies back-to-back through the shine of the ever.

“The most compelling music in the entire 80’s” – David Bowie

It’s the late 80’s, eons before the internet’s boom, and the American rock scene is overwhelmed by long hair, complex guitar riffs, synthesizers, and spectacle. Little did the world expect though that in the hype of it all four young musicians would emerge to create a band with a radically different approach to music and its live execution, a band many have now come to know as The Pixies. Formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1986, the band’s original line-up was comprised of Charles Thompson a.k.a. Black Francis (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), Kim Deal (bass, backing vocals), and David Lovering (drums). The band sadly called it quits in 1993, but did manage to reunite in 2004. After having maintained a steady line-up throughout the years, Deal left the band in 2013, being replaced by Paz Lenchantin, who became the band’s permanent bassist in 2016.

Sonically, the Pixies charted new territory and developed a unique sound which had yet to be heard within hard rock music. According to David Bowie, no band prior had ever captured such genuineness and originality, the latter of which can be broken down into three important elements.

1. Extreme pure dynamics and stop-start timing (“loud-quiet” shifts) in song structures featuring extremely hushed, restrained, and quiet versus, followed by a powerful explosion of noisy chorus, which has now become a widespread format in the rock genre.

2. Unusual juxtapositions and permutations through their lyrics constructed by intellectual intensity and strangeness through varying off-beat subjects such as Lynchian (e.g. Eraserhead) and Buñuel (Un Chien Andalou) Surrealism, Biblical old testament violence, incest, mutilation, pop culture and extra-terrestrial life, effortlessly done and with an exquisite sense of humor.

3. Psychotic colors and extraordinary guitar sound textures provided by Joey Santiago.

Despite their fearless exploration of new musical frontiers, this one-of-a-kind band never achieved the attention and popularity they deserved in their home country during the late 80’s and 90’s, though they did experience enormous success during this time in the United Kingdom and Western Europe. It was not until their song “Where Is My Mind?” was featured in the final scene of the American cult film “Fight Club” (1999) that the Pixies received their well overdue international exposure and praise.

The Pixies served as a paramount musical influence to some of the most highly regarded artists of our time, including but not limited to David Bowie, PJ Harvey, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains. In fact, Kurt Cobain openly admitted to having tried to rip off the Pixies when writing his most famous anthem “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” We pay homage to the Pixies by brewing our Elderflower Witbier, in which we endeavored to capture and portray the unique core of The Pixies’s music, and to salute them for all of these years of inspiration and broadening our imagination through their music, which will forever resonate in our hearts.