If I could only listen to two albums for the rest of my life, they would be XTC's Skylarking and The Pixies' Doolittle.

If you made me choose between the two, I'd have to kill you.

(Happy Ending would be runner up at third.)

XTC stopped touring in 19eighty-freaking-two, and who knows what the hell is going on with Dogstar...

So this, from pitchfork media (via Warren Ellis) is very good news.

Pixies To Reunite For Tour In April 2004; New Album Possible

John L. Ferrer and Will Bryant report:
There's that rare time when a sarcastic, jaded music news site has to report without any sarcasm or irony. Short of the Velvet Underground, there's no band more beloved, more important, more cited as an influence in indie rock than the Pixies. Whether you're strictly a Doolittle man (surely one of the finest damn rock albums ever) or an obsessive who can name every Trompe le Monde b-side, the Pixies' contributions to the alternative rock canon are sacred texts, the alpha cell of a paisley-flecked v23 flowchart that, down various impeccably typeset branches, might lead to Nirvana, to the Breeders, to Throwing Muses, Guided By Voices, Modest Mouse, Trail of Dead, or Enon.

Sadly, most of these revelations weren't made until after the band's prime. Since their reportedly messy and bloody demise in 1993, fans have signed on by the dozens-- based partially on the recommendation of Kurt Cobain, and partially by their desire to find something truly exuberant, legitimate, funny and weird in their music. Anyone born in the '80s might surely have at some point sighed and abandoned all hope of seeing the Pixies on stage at all. In a sense, the idea of a Pixies reunion has almost become a joke, the indie-kid version of "Yeah, when pigs fly." So when the report came in July that all four original members (that's Black Francis, Kim Deal, David Lovering, and Joey Santiago) have been secretly practicing together every couple of blue moons since the breakup, there was the first glimmer of hope.

Now that the heavyhandedness is past, here comes the point. The glimmer is now a full-blown supernova. It's happening. In April. No dates yet, not even any quotes from the group's principals-- just a band spokesperson's promise to MTV, who broke the story. The source, who remains unnamed in MTV's story, also claims that if all goes well a studio album will follow.
The Pixies. Are back. Together. Music is saved. Lovers of rock, unite and cheer. This is going to truly own.

Someone alert Reeves to this, I think he's a fan as well.