― J (Jay), Monday, 10 February 2003 21:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
Subquestion: is liking Frank Black 'hipster'?
― J (Jay), Monday, 10 February 2003 21:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 10 February 2003 21:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 10 February 2003 22:28 (twenty-one years ago) link
But as a solo artist overall, I vote DUD.
― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Monday, 10 February 2003 22:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
Once again, his first album is great and what I've heard of Teenager of the Year is annoying. 'Dog in the Sand' and 'Bullet' were pretty good on his last (?) album.
― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 10 February 2003 22:35 (twenty-one years ago) link
Live, he's brilliant. Frank Black is a rock god, hands down.
― derrick (derrick), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 07:31 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 09:03 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 12:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 15:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 15:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
Show Me Your Tears if a fine, diverse cd. Totally different than his Pixies stuff, but great nonetheless. CLASSIC!
― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 05:33 (twenty years ago) link
That's ridiculously unfair. Da Vinci wasn't in a band, much less in a band with the likes of Kim Deal and Joey Santiago. I'm very glad Frank's made friends with Joey again, albeit in a "will you be insignificant on my new album? I'll pay you!" kind of way.
But Frank Black is classic no matter what. Do this: make a mix which follows "Warm California Sun" by The Rivieras with "Two Spaces" by Frank Black. Then you may begin to understand the sensibility and the kitschy-yet-soulful genius at work here.
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 05:57 (twenty years ago) link
He writes about things that no one in rock (that i know of, at least) writes about. And I think that's cool. Discussions of history and science are big with him.
Like one of my favorite things about some of his recent music are his songs that, essentially, teach history. The trials of the American Indians at the hands of the early settlers seems to be a topic he's into. Like the song "Humboldt County Massacre" is a two minute punk rock song with lyrics that go into encyclopedic detail about the slaughter a particular tribe. "Chip Away Boy" is another ("Chip Away Boy" = Chippewa Boy). "St. Francis Dam Disaster" is another historical song. "Llano del Rio".
And he sometimes puts word games into his lyrics that can be fun to discover. If you like the song "Robert Onion" off Dog in the Sand, check out the first letter of each line of the song. They form an acrostic that clues you in to the song's inspiration.
― Yoda Ono, Wednesday, 31 December 2003 11:23 (twenty years ago) link
― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 15:17 (twenty years ago) link
― dyson (dyson), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 15:43 (twenty years ago) link
― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 15:49 (twenty years ago) link
― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Saturday, 6 March 2004 02:36 (twenty years ago) link
― The TAO that can be Posted is not the TAO! (The Tao that can be Posted is), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 02:49 (nineteen years ago) link
Frank Black‘s second solo album, Teenager of the Year, turned 30 this year, and to celebrate 4AD is giving it a new reissue, and Frank will be playing it live, in full, on tour in early 2025.
Says Frank: “Sometime in the early 80s, I’d have to look up the date, I matriculated high school. This school held an awards banquet for some of the departing students at the school. I received an award called the TEENAGER OF THE YEAR award; my brother received the same award the following year. Our award was a 50 dollar credit for textbooks, a TEENAGER OF THE YEAR medallion (my mother still has this), and also the banquet hall dinner, soup to nuts. My brother and I had no complaint about the award (it was given for being all-around-good-guy as best as we could determine). But for such a grand title to be given as TEENAGER OF THE YEAR, I felt the glory had not been amplified enough. In 1993, I was doing ‘solo recording’ sessions with Eric Drew Feldman in Los Angeles.We had settled on a core band with Nick Vincent and Lyle Workman, occasionally augmented by Joey Santiago and Moris Tepper. Though we had to change studios numerous times for actual forest fires and earthquakes, the whole process was such an addictive musical buffet that Eric and I couldn’t stop. We did some vocals at a studio rumored to be owned by Sergio Mendes; in the control room was a wall of television screens broadcasting the brush fire which crept toward us. We eventually evacuated to someplace else. We never met Sergio but we saw him perform a few weeks later when we vacated to Las Vegas after the Northridge earthquake, which had trapped the TEENAGER OF THE YEAR tapes in a studio vault for some time. Our zeal plus empathy from our financiers, they safely observing our travails from London, was enough to keep the money flowing until Eric and I relented and declared ‘Consummatum est.’ We tried to make it grand. 22 in 62. I called it TEENAGER OF THE YEAR. It is 30 years old now, and the original band will perform the record at various venues in early 2025. 4AD has remastered the LP for a fresh printing. Enjoy.”
― mizzell, Tuesday, 16 July 2024 14:19 (one month ago) link
The tour happens in January and February, and reunites most of the players on that album, including Eric Drew Feldman, Lyle Workman and Nick Vincent.
Frank Black – 2025 Teenager Of The Year Tour Dates:
January
15th San Francisco, CA The Fillmore16th San Francisco, CA The Fillmore18th LA, CA The Orpheum19th El Cajon, CA The Magnolia22nd Denver, CO The Paramount24th Minneapolis, MN TBA25th Chicago, IL The Metro26th Chicago, IL The Metro28th Detroit, MI St Andrews Hall29th Toronto, ON History31st Boston, MA Citizens House Of Blues
February
01st Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel04th Paris, France Trianon06th London, UK The Palladium
― mizzell, Tuesday, 16 July 2024 14:21 (one month ago) link
I was never interested in the Pixies reunion tours, but I want to see this. Cool that he got the original band together for it.
― mizzell, Tuesday, 16 July 2024 14:22 (one month ago) link
yeah, I might go to this? Haven't seen a Frank solo show since the 90s!
― tylerw, Tuesday, 16 July 2024 14:29 (one month ago) link
Oh hell yeah
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Tuesday, 16 July 2024 14:35 (one month ago) link
kinda wish one of those shows was near me, Teenager of the Year is up there with Come On Pilgrim as one of my favorite things he's done.
― some dude, Wednesday, 17 July 2024 23:49 (one month ago) link
Thalassocracy is still one of my all time fav starts to a song.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 18 July 2024 01:14 (one month ago) link
man i'm excited, love this album
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 18 July 2024 01:51 (one month ago) link
I haven’t listened to this album in 18+ years but it was one of my favorites in high school and I must have listened to Calistan three hundred times…this is one of the nostalgia bids I might actually go for
― Slim is an Alien, Thursday, 18 July 2024 23:27 (one month ago) link