Alt rock legends Pixies back with new album

Alternative rock pioneers the Pixies on Wednesday released a new song and announced a forthcoming album, the second since the influential group reunited.

"Head Carrier," which will come out on September 30, will be followed by a tour of Europe where the Boston-born band initially enjoyed a greater fan base than in the United States.

The group led by Black Francis put out a first track, "Um Chagga Lagga," a return to the Pixies' hard-charging brand of surfer rock with fast-paced guitar and drums.

"Head Carrier" is only the sixth album by the Pixies, who went on hiatus at their height in the early 1990s.

The band reunited in 2004 but it took another 10 years until the group released a second-generation album, "Indie Cindy," in 2014.

"Head Carrier," which was recorded in London, will be the first album with the Argentine-born bassist Paz Lenchantin as a full-fledged member.

She had tentatively replaced Kim Deal -- also known for her band The Breeders -- who left in 2013 after years of on-off clashes with Black Francis.

The Pixies became an underground sensation in the late 1980s as they mixed distorted guitar with absurdist lyricism, as witnessed in songs such as "Debaser" which was inspired by Salvador Dali's surrealist film "Un Chien Andalou."

The rough-around-the-edges sound and artistic sense became a major influence on alternative rockers such as Nirvana who took the global music scene in a less mainstream direction in the early 1990s.