First, I offer my sincerest apologies to any die-hard indie connoiseurs who may be reading this - I have never heard a Pixies album in its entirety.

It's been impossible to avoid the hype that has descended as a result of their reunion and so I was hoping that the extremely intelligent - for the most part anyway ;-) - Drownedinsound readers would be able to provide me with their informed opinions of the band (I find it impossible to gauge an accurate impression of any band's music these days from the mainstream press). Just why are they regarded as such a huge influence on the likes of Nirvana, Radiohead etc when there doesn't seem to be initially many similarities?

PS: I realise that buying their albums will answer this question but I prefer to hear what people here think.