[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Frank Black



Anyone else like the Pixies/frank Black? Their stuff seldom leaves my cd
player (when it's unoccupied by the Who, of course.) I just found this at:
http://american.recordings.com/American_Artists/Frank_Black/frank_bio.html

The Frank Black "Cult Of Ray" Bio



Los Angeles, 4:45AM 

And within the year, my reign as "Teenager" is over. I celebrate by asking to
be let out of my recording contract which is also nearly over. By now the
company (4AD) and I are old friends, and they actually say yes (thanks);
somebody reads a rumor on the superhighway of misinformation and the
weeklies report that I've been dropped (thanks). Oh well. This sure beats my
last job. 

While my manager makes arrangements for a new patron, I record most of an
album and pickle it for a distant date. I play some of the cukes for a curious
A&R man from London, who later tells my manager, "Frank doesn't know
what he wants"; I write a note to myself to tell future A&R types that I want
to sell lots and lots of records. 

Enter American Recordings. 

"Kid, making double albums is fine by us, but could you boil off some of the
juice and give us something a bit more meaty?" 

So I bump things down to sixteen tracks, hire myself as sole producer, ask the
Providence based country-stylie rhythm section 'les punks' to join the meaty
party; the red-headed wonder from Marin County remains as guitarriste. We
cut it ("make hits" in magician's lingo) mostly live with a young engineer the
employment agency sent over without so much as a tambourine overdub and
boil, boil, boil it down to 13 numbers, clocking in a Trad. 40+ minutes. Carrot
top has been playing us the newly re-mixed Who: Live At Leeds over and
over, and through our Mancunian connections, find the man responsible so
that he can mix our new record. It's called The Cult of Ray. 

"But, Frank, tell us about the songs and how it's different from back when you
were in the Pixies?" 

Well, you got your geographic obsession, conspiratorial paranoia, genetic
alterations (hell, at this rate, given the current popularity of "X-Files,"
I might
be buying a new yacht-type boat thing), pop culture and my frustration with
it, lonely youth, a song I hope everyone can relate to, an instrumental you
can kick my teeth to, universal violence, monsters, another instrumental (I
try singing on these, but sometimes it just sounds better if I shut up), the
pit,
Mr. Angeleno himself, and last and perhaps most important of all, Shazeb
Andleeb. 

"But, Frank, you didn't answer about the Pix..." 

Oh, yeah. "And how it's different." I guess on this album, more than ever, it's
pure Frank. 

     -Frankus Blackus Maximus
****************************************************************************
******

Frank's new album comes out this Tuesday. And if the above didn't have
enough Who content, Beavis just said: "Ever since I was a young boy, I've
played the silver ball." just this very second. I swear.

P.S. Any word if JAE's gonna make it to Florida? It's 80 degrees; how can
anybody not swing down here?

Randalllllllllllllllllll