Kim Deal, the bass player behind some of the Pixies' biggest hits, has left the 1980s alternative rock band, its remaining members said on Friday.
_0">Deal's pulsing bass and understated singing punctuated the influential group's early songs, which won critical acclaim for their quick bursts of sound and wild guitars.
"We are sad to say that Kim Deal has decided to leave the Pixies," the band's singer-guitarist Black Francis, drummer David Lovering and guitarist Joey Santiago said in a statement posted on their Facebook page.
The Boston band rose to prominence following their 1988 debut album, "Surfer Rosa," which eventually sold more than a half-million copies.
"Surfer Rosa" and its follow-up, 1989's "Doolittle," are often credited as a major influence for the emergence of grunge rock bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam that achieved wide mainstream success in the early 1990s.
The Pixies disbanded in 1993 because of songwriting disputes between Deal, 52, and Francis, and reformed in 2004 to tour but have released only one new song, Deal's "Bam Thwok", also in 2004.
"We are very proud to have worked with her on and off over the last 25 years," the band said. "Despite her decision to move on, we will always consider her a member of the Pixies, and her place will always be here for her. We wish her all the best."
Deal continues to record and release music with her band the Breeders, which she formed with her sister Kelley in 1990.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Dale Hudson)