Frank Black
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- This article is about the contemporary musician. For the 19th century governor of New York, see Frank S. Black.
- For the TV series character, see Millennium (TV series).
Biography
Thompson was raised in Harbor City, California. He studied in the University of Massachusetts, before taking off to Puerto Rico as part of an exchange program. It was here where he reportedly spent six months in an apartment with a "weird, psycho, roommate," who inspired the song "Crackity Jones." Many of the Pixies' early songs refer to Thompson's experiences in Puerto Rico, most notably "Isla De Encanta," incorrectly named after the island's motto, "Isla Del Encanto" (Island of Charm). Thompson finally left his studies after debating whether he would go to New Zealand to view Halley's Comet or to start a rock band with his former roommate from Massachusetts, Joey Santiago.The Pixies were active from 1986 to 1993. They found modest success (primarily on college radio) in America and became very popular in Britain and throughout Europe. They have retained a following, and have since been seen as one of the best and most influential rock groups of their era.
After the band split (due primarily to internal tensions between Thompson and bassist/singer Kim Deal), he went on to record solo material with Eric Drew Feldman, a member of alt rock pioneers Pere Ubu who also appeared on Captain Beefheart's Doc at the Radar Station and Ice Cream for Crow albums. After adopting the stage name "Frank Black" (a reversal of his "Black Francis" persona), his first solo release was the self-titled Frank Black (1993), which included the song "Los Angeles" (about different places named Los Angeles—"not the one in south California / they got one in south Patagonia"), and this was followed in the next year by Teenager of the Year, which included the song "Headache." These two albums were critically well-received and remain fan favorites, although they enjoyed little commercial success.
1996 saw the release of The Cult of Ray, which featured [Lyle Workman] on lead guitar. A point of interest here is that Workman's guitar was fed solely through the left speaker, with Thompson's rhythm coming from the right. Despite the likeness between Workman and Santiago's berserk styles, the album did not gain the same critical or fan acclaim as his previous solo efforts. Recently, Workman has continued his career by touring with Beck. Following this album, Thompson formed a new band, Frank Black and the Catholics, featuring Workman on lead guitar and fellow Cult of Ray musicians David McCaffrey (bass) and Scott Boutier (drums). McCaffrey and Boutier had worked together along with Mark Mulcahy in the band Miracle Legion, and later in the TV Only incarnation of Polaris, famous for composing the music for the cult favorite show The Adventures of Pete and Pete. The band's eponymous first album was released in 1998. This was the first Frank Black album recorded entirely to two-track live in the studio, which would become a signature of future albums released by the band. This was the first album ever posted on eMusic and, according to the website, is arguably the first album ever made legally available for commercial download. [link]
At this time, Workman left the group to pursue a solo career and session work. Rich Gilbert was added to the group to replace him. The band then released Pistolero in 1999 and then Dog in the Sand, which is often considered a high-point of Thompson's career, in 2000. This album added Athens, Georgia musician Dave Philips on pedal steel guitar and lead guitar, and also saw the return of Joey Santiago on three tracks. Two separate albums, Black Letter Days (the title refers to the opposite of "Red Letter Days" which are holidays — a "black letter day" being an ordinary day [link]) and Devil's Workshop, were released simultaneously in 2002; this was considered to be a somewhat unusual, although musically successful, move. A sixth album with the Catholics, Show Me Your Tears, was released in 2003. "Show Me Your Tears
In late 2003, following long-standing rumours, an official announcement was made that the Pixies were practicing for a reunion tour. They played publicly for the first time in 12 years in April 2004, and went on to tour extensively in the U.S, Canada and Europe in the same year. The Pixies also recorded a new composition "Bam Thwok", sung and co-written by Deal, which was released on the iTunes Music Store.
As far as recording was concerned, 2004 saw Thompson step way from The Catholics to collaborate with other musicians in Nashville. Thompson teamed up with legendary session men Steve Cropper, Spooner Oldham, Reggie Young, and Anton Fig, as well as producer Jon Tiven, to record Honeycomb, his first solo album since 1996's Cult of Ray. Honeycomb was released in July 2005 to very favorable reviews.
Thompson continued to tour with the Pixies through 2005 and 2006, but also recorded more solo sessions which are to be joined with unreleased tracks from the Honeycomb tapes for a new double album called Fastman Raiderman (released in June 2006). In addition, two separate albums of Frank Black and the Catholics b-sides and rarities, Snake Oil and One More Road for the Hit, were released on iTunes in March 2006 (with an eye towards a future CD release). On top of this, Thomson was also working on more new solo material with Eric Drew Feldman in the first part of 2006, some of which has already been performed live with Feldman at small concert halls.
He is currently married to Violet Clark, his second wife, with whom he has two children, Jack and Lucy.
Singing and songwriting style
Thompson once said he modeled his performance style on two simple words: "Scream it." He adopted the mantra from a Thai neighbor, who once asked him to sing "Oh! Darling" by The Beatles and "Scream it like you hate that bitch!"
Indeed, Thompson's powerful screams were a signature of Pixies albums, which fit quite well with the band's typical song structure of quietly paced verses followed by thundering chorus lines and repetitive guitar staccato. However, due to years of strain on his vocal chords his current voice is considerably milder than that of his younger years.
During his stay in Puerto Rico, Thompson picked up a fairly fluent yet informal (at times incorrect) use of Spanish, which he has continued to use throughout his career. His earlier songs in Pixies reflected aspects of his days in San Juan and are heavily seasoned with local slang from the island. Ever since his later works with the Pixies, the use of Spanish drifted westward, reflecting places and aspects of the state of California and its culture. This evolution illustrates the constant combination of Thompson's sources of inspiration. Many of his songs allude to California's surf culture, although he himself has never experienced or had interest in it. His admitted interest in space and science-fiction blends with his use of Spanish in references to Arecibo's observatory and the American West as it relates to New Mexico and Area 51.
His lyrics are noted for their sometimes obscure references to unusual topics like outer space, unexplained phenomena such as UFOs, and even The Three Stooges (the last of these being the subject of "Two Reelers", a song from Teenager of the Year). He has also used the Bible as a source for his stories, most notably in the incestuous tale of "Nimrod's Son" and the stories of Uriah and Bathsheba in "Dead" and Samson in "Gouge Away". Lyrics with a focus on science fiction were particularly prominent on his three solo albums of the mid-1990s (Frank Black, Teenager of the Year, and The Cult of Ray). With the Catholics, his lyrics have more often tended towards historical topics; for example, on Dog in the Sand, there is a song called "St. Francis Dam Disaster", which is about the catastrophic collapse of the St. Francis Dam near Los Angeles in March 1928 and the All My Ghosts EP featured an account of the "Humboldt County Massacre" of Wiyot Indians on February 26, 1860 near Eureka, California. This last bespeaks an elegaic impulse in Thompson's songcraft, one rendered most poignantly in two murder victim tributes: "The Last Stand of Shazeb Andleeb", eulogizing a Pakistani student at Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California, who was beaten to death on May 18, 1995; and "I Gotta Move", a lamentation for Eraserhead actor Jack Nance, who died from head trauma apparently sustained during an alteraction in the parking lot of Winchell's Donuts in Pasadena on December 29, 1996.
Other lyrics celebrate film, music and literature: e.g., directors Luis Bunuel in "Debaser" and Jacques Tati in "The Jacques Tati"; rockers Jonathan Richman ("The Man Who Was Too Loud"), the Ramones ("I Heard Ramona Sing") and singer Johnny Horton ("If It Takes All Night"); and writers Ray Bradbury ("The Cult of Ray") and Madeleine L'Engle ("Headache").
Musically, one aspect that is often overlooked by listeners and even loyal fans is Thompson's frequent use of atypical meter signature in his songs. Rock and pop themes usually rely on conventional, "square" metrics such as 2/4, 4/4 and 3/4. Thompson has composed many successful songs that stray from these conventional beats. The practice can be easily noticed in songs like "The Marsist" (opening track on The Cult of Ray), where the bass cycles through 19 quavers. However, themes like the Pixies' "Gouge Away" and "Isla De Encanta," as well as "Skeleton Man" from his work with The Catholics, hide similar metrics and the same unconventional approach to songwriting within rock songs. Overall, beneath the visceral simplicity of the Pixies' and Thompson's songs lies some eclectic attention to music theory and sources, evident by the use of Spanish rhythms, galloping marches in the style of cowboy movies, haikus, and many other traits. The lyrics to "Ana", "Speedy Marie" and "Robert Onion" respectively contain the acrostics surfer, Jean Marie Walsh (his then girlfriend and current ex-wife) and Robert "The Case For Mars" Zubrin.
Solo Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Frank Black (album) | 4AD |
| 1994 | Teenager of the Year | 4AD |
| 1996 | The Cult of Ray | American Recordings |
| 2004 | Frank Black Francis | spinART / Cooking Vinyl |
| 2005 | Honeycomb | Back Porch / Cooking Vinyl |
| 2006 | Fast Man Raider Man | Back Porch / Cooking Vinyl |
With The Catholics Discography
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Frank Black and the Catholics | spinART |
| 1999 | Pistolero | What Are Records? |
| 2000 | Dog in the Sand | What Are Records? |
| 2002 | Black Letter Days | spinART / Cooking Vinyl |
| 2002 | Devil's Workshop | spinART / Cooking Vinyl |
| 2003 | Show Me Your Tears | spinART / Cooking Vinyl |
EPs & singles
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Hang On To Your Ego | 4AD |
| 1994 | Headache | Badd |
| 1995 | Men In Black | American Recordings |
| 1995 | The Marsist/Better Things | Dragnet |
| 1996 | I Don't Want to Hurt You | Sony |
| 1998 | All My Ghosts | Play It Again Sam |
| 2003 | Nadine | Cooking Vinyl |
Compilations
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Oddballs | EMusic |
| 2006 | One More Road for the Hit | spinART |
| 2006 | Snake Oil | spinART |
With The Pixies Discography
| Year | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Come On Pilgrim | 4AD |
| 1988 | Surfer Rosa | 4AD |
| 1988 | Surfer Rosa & Come On Pilgrim | 4AD(UK Release) |
| 1989 | Doolittle | 4AD |
| 1990 | Bossanova | 4AD |
| 1991 | Trompe Le Monde | 4AD |
External links
- [Approved fan site]
- [Frank Black discography]
- [Frank Black's Allmusic entry]
- [Entry on Musicbrainz]
- [Frank Black Lyrics]
- [Lostwriters' Review of Fastman Raiderman]
| Pixies |
| Black Francis | Kim Deal | Joey Santiago | David Lovering |
| Discography |
| Albums: Come on Pilgrim | Surfer Rosa | Doolittle | Bossanova | Trompe le Monde | Death to the Pixies | Pixies at the BBC | Complete B-Sides | Pixies (The Purple Tape) | |
| Singles: "Gigantic" | "Monkey Gone to Heaven" | "Here Comes Your Man" | "Velouria" | "Dig for Fire" | "Planet of Sound" | "Alec Eiffel" | "Head On" | "Debaser" |
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