Thank goodness for the "nerdy little world"

I have begun reading "FOOL THE WORLD: THE ORAL HISTORY OF A BAND CALLED PIXIES" by JOSH FRANK and CARYN GANZ.
The first chapter deals with the formative years of the members of the Pixies -- CHARLES (BLACK FRANCIS) THOMPSON, KIM (MRS. JOHN MURPHY) DEAL, JOEY SANTIAGO and DAVID LOVERING.
In an insightful passage, Thompson describes how he grew up free of the typical influences on alternative rockers of his generation:
"I used to hang out with some misfits. We weren't the stoner kids, we weren't the jock kids, we were the 'we listen to oddball music kids.' I wasn't hanging out at all-ages shows or trying to get into clubs to see bands. I was buying records at used record stores and borrowing them from the library. You didn't necessarily see a Ramones record at the used record store. You just saw Emerson, Lake and Palmer records.
"So I didn't know (punk) music, but I had started to hear about it in high school. But it was probably a good thing that I didn't know it, that I instead listened to a lot of 60's records and this religious music. It was a different diet. It wasn't mainstream at all, but it wasn't hip, for sure.
"By the time I started to write music, I heard some punk and punk-influenced things, but it was kind of a good thing that I didn't listen to all these hip records when I was 16. It was good that I was in my own nerdy little world."
I was listening to "PIXIES AT THE BBC" last night before bed, thinking how different the band might have sounded had Thompson not grown up in that "nerdy little world."