Miscellaneous references in movies, TV shows, and books

• Wave of Mutilation (UK Surk) is used in the Allan Moyle film Pump Up the Volume (1990). The track appears on the film's original soundtrack.

• In the Allan Moyle movie Empire Records (1995), at the end two of the people (I can't remember their names) were talking about how Pixies had one of the best bass lines. I thought that rocked. (reported by Jason Ronbeck)

• A French movie called Albert Souffre (Bruno Nuytten, 1992) had its whole score made of Pixies songs. This soundtrack was never released as a record.

• The Pixies song La La Love You was the music used to play out the film Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me (Joel Hirshman, 1992) and there may even have been another song played during the film, but I can't remember. There weren't any other Subba bands on the soundtrack, but there were songs by bands like Pavement and Violent Femmes, so the Pixies kind fitted into the scheme of things quite nicely.

• La La Love You can be heard in the trailer for Woody Allen movie Deconstructing Harry. However, the song cannot be heard in the movie itself.

• Don't forget A Matter of Degrees (W.T. Morgan, 1990), with Where is My Mind and title track by Throwing Muses. (reported by Emily Arkin)

• Dig for Fire is used cleverly in the Cameron Crowe film Singles (1992). It plays in the background of a scene that takes place in one of those video dating places. The director Tim Burton also makes a cameo appearence in this very scene! (reported by Eric Rutherford)

• Taken from a Sight & Sound article about David Lynch's movie Lost Highway:
  "What is so striking about watching Lynch at work is that every shot is considered not only in terms of how it can be made visually and conceptually arresting, but also how to encode it with some sense of the whole. This involves attention to colour, texture, sound, mood and meaning (not talked about), as well as performance. At one point he insists that some inconsequential dialogue be recorded later so that a track by The Pixies can be played through a scene. "I must have this music. Please!" This is as tyrannical as it gets with Lynch. The First AD concedes." The Pixies song in question was Ana, and it was supposed to be played in the background in a scene where Pete is dancing in the bar (it can be heard in Chris Rodley's BBC documentary on the movie). Unfortunately, due to licensing problems with 4AD, the song had to be removed and was replaced by "Eye" (Smashing Pumpkins) (many thanks to John Drauss for the initial information)

• Some people believe that Lynch's movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me makes a reference to the Pixies: a string of numbers through the movie (5, as agent Desmond leans his open hand against the wall in the trailer; 6 is a number which appears on a telephone pole; 7 as Bowie walks out of the elevator), followed by a scene with a monkey, would refer to Monkey Gone To Heaven lyrics "If Man is 5, if the devil is 6, then god is 7, this monkey's gone to heaven".

• At the very beginning of Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach, 1995), at a College Graduation party, Cecilia Ann from Bossanova is playing in the background. It really works throughout the scene and sets a bleak but playful mood for the film. (reported by Jason W. Brown)

• I saw the movie Grosse Pointe Blank (George Armitage, 1997), and in one scene Monkey Gone to Heaven is played in the background. (reported by Matt Katz)

• Isla De Encanta was playing during the closing credits of Married to the Mob (Jonathan Demme, 1988). I was quickly flipping channel late one night and was stunned when I heard the familiar tune. (reported by Vojin)

  In the movie Unbreakable (M. Night Shyamalan, 2000) with Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis, I am tired is played in the background of the scene when Samuel L. Jackson's character is in a comic store. He refuses to respond or cooperate with an employee thus fitting the lyrics because he is tired of his lifetime pursuit for a hero. (reported by Jonathan, Stefan, Char and Antti) In the movie Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) with Brad Pitt you can hear the song Where is my Mind? from the last scene to the end titles. (reported by Stefan, Char, Antti and Larry) Where is my Mind? is also the opening song for the credits in The Adventures of Sebastian Cole (Tod Williams, 1998). (reported by Char) Four Pixies songs are played in Rolling Thunder (Scott Dittrich, 1991): Cecilia Ann, Blown Away, Rock Music and No. 13 Baby. (reported by Santiago) The United States Of Leland's soundtrack (Matthew Ryan Hoge, 2003) features three songs by The Pixies: Gigantic, River Euphrates, and Hang Wire. It also features Manitoba by Frank Black.

• Chris Carter named Millenium's main character after the Frank Black we all know.

• A friend of mine just called me after seeing a reference to the Pixies on that TV show Blossom. The dad and the grandpa were having a name that tune bet on the piano. There was sixty dollars in the pot and Blossom's dad played the same three notes on the piano over and over, and the granpa said. "How could I not know this one, It's Here comes your man by Black Francis and the Pixies." Weird, don't ya know. It's too bad the Pixies had to die. (reported by John Drauss)

• I seem to remember a while there was a mention of the Pixies in a skit on the great show Kids In The Hall. It was a while ago, so bear with me: One of the guys walked into a record store and asked "Do you have the new Pixies album?" The guy behind the counter answered "Yes we do, but it sucks!" I can't remember what the rest of the skit was about, but i remember they did that for a couple more bands. (reported by Skaface)

• Being a huge Kids In The Hall fan I've seen the mentioned skit several times. The main idea of the skit is how to become a real Doors fan. Bruce McCulloch plays the super doors fan record store employee and Kevin McDonald plays the customer. Kevin comes in, asks for the new Cure album after which bruce says yeah, its over there, but it sucks (im paraphrasing). Kevin then asks for the new Pixies album after which bruce then says again it sucks, I think there is another band mentioned, The Happy Mondays maybe? Bruce then goes on to tell how to be a real doors fan after mcdonald asks about a doors album. McCulloch actually has an album out where most of the skit is recanted although the Pixies reference is replaced by a Depeche Mode refence. The album is actually real good although I'm baised being a big KITH fan. (reported by Matt Nunziato)

• The Kids In The Hall scene that is mentioned sounds like one that was repeated on Bruce McCullough's brilliant album "Shame Based Man". The track is called "The Doors" and is a monologue on how to tell you are a true fan of the Doors (and happens also to be the best song on the album). It starts out "Have you heard the new Cure album? It sucks. The new Depeche Mode album? It sucks too. The new Happy Monday's album? I don't know if there is one, but if there is, it sucks and I know 'cause I'm... a Doors fan!" This must be where in the original scene it asks if you've heard the new Pixies' album. (reported by Rodney Anderson)

• I would just like to tell you that one time when I was watching Singled Out on MTV, one of the selections under the categories was Pixies, and that contestant chose it. Then after all the people were kicked out, that host guy yelled at the keyboardist "Why didn't you play the Pixies!!!??". (reported by Raj Kale)

• On the MTV Video Awards, Ben Stiller was impersonating Matt Pinfield and was interviewing the lighting guy for the show. After throwing out some arcane references to the lighting guy, the lighting guy tells "matt" that he isn't allowed back here (in other words, "piss off") and "matt" says "uh maybe after the show we could hang out. I got some really cool pixies imports we could listen to." I found that quite clever, especially since I am almost positive the pixies were never mentioned on any MTV Awards shows. (reported by Caribou529)

• Trompe Le Monde was namedropped (at two different points) in the best selling book Complicity by Iain Banks (reported by Mark Haines)

• In the messages concerning Pixies songs in movies, someone mentioned that Trompe Le Monde was mentioned a few times in a book. Well, that's not the first time! A friend of mine has an economics book where the name "Pixies" and "Trompe Le Monde" were used in some homework problem. It was something like "A business called Trompe Le Monde, Inc. which is run by the Pixies Brothers..." (or something like that :) (reported by Steve Krulewitz)

• In Bruce Sterling's novel Holy Fire - he uses a line from Subbacultcha when describing a character's ecstasy for life: "You know when you grope for Luna..." - Sterling put this in italics, so this HAD to be a reference to the song. (reported by Charles Esteban Paul)

• "David Grohl, Nirvana's drummer, came to a U2 show during the first leg of the Zoo tour to visit the opening act, the Pixies. Bono invited him in for a talk. Bono mimicks Grohl chewing gum and saying, "Hey, man, nothing against you, but I don't know why the Pixies would do this." Bono asked if Grohl didn't think it was brave of the Pixies to try opening for U2 in arenas. Grohl didn't buy it. "We'll never play big places," he said of Nirvana. "We're just a punk band. All this success is a fluke. Tomorrow I could be somewhere else." (Excerpt from U2 At The End Of The World, by Bill Flanagan)

• The Nephilim Roleplaying game rulebook has a Nephilim wearing a Pixies T-Shirt (flying "P") in one picture.

  I went to school at n.c. state university and there was a professor there named John Kessel, who was also a novelist...he has a book called "Corrupting Dr. Nice" (as well as one called "Good news from outer space") and discussing it with him, I told him it reminded me of the pixies and he said "Yes! i'm a big fan!", and said they were an influence on him, which I thought was funny cause he's like this 55 year old guy. But, anyway, he was telling me how he was debasing this and that in the novel and dropped the title Un Chien Andalou in a joke in the text. (submitted by Silntplnet)