| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| OLDMANOTY |
Posted - 02/16/2007 : 06:16:55
What are the reactions of friends to Frank's music when you introduce it to them?
I have friends (no, really) who have bewildered me by their brutal dismisals upon hearing what I consider to be life-changing music. I remember once on a long car journey, we'd all brought cds to play on the way. After a couple of hours of listening to their choices (Wilco - pretty good, Elliot Smith - great, Stereophonics - aaarrrgghh)it was my turn and I slipped on DITS. At first there was no reaction at all, in fact my friends decided to have a conversation half way through 'Blast Off' (how dare they!) which continued until the opening bars of 'Stupid Me' upon which one of them laughed out loud and said "what is this shit?". Hurt but unperterbed and with a 'just wait till you hear this' expression on my face, I deployed TOTY. Four minutes later the words "can we have the Stereophonics back on" spewed forth and still haunt me to this day.
Does anyone have a similar experience or indeed a more positive one? |
| 35 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| myshutup |
Posted - 08/09/2007 : 10:31:01
the only songs that really caught my girlfriend's attention while listening in the car were: In the Time of my Ruin and Stupid me. she's not a pixies fan at all. -but she requests those two songs all the time.
my brother, however, is a big pixies fan - and the only songs he'll sit through of Frank's solo stuff are the quirky ones. |
| PistoLaura |
Posted - 07/28/2007 : 19:38:37
quote:
We were at the afterparty on Sunday because we hoped there would be a free bar! (there wasn't...)
[/quote]
because a free bar would be a BLACK RIDER... I gotta say it as no one else did...
|
| PistoLaura |
Posted - 07/26/2007 : 04:57:43
quote:
Originally posted by Ford Prefect
quote:
Originally posted by PistoLaura
I love a Diet of Worms... and nailing Faeces to the church door sounds kinda fun too...
"Do You Like Worms?" is a Beach Boys song from the legendary Smile sessions!
Do you like worms?
I was warned that (bad) Lutheran jokes had no place on this board... as for the creepy crawleys... they have their charms! |
| Ford Prefect |
Posted - 07/26/2007 : 01:52:28
quote:
Originally posted by PistoLaura
I love a Diet of Worms... and nailing Faeces to the church door sounds kinda fun too...
"Do You Like Worms?" is a Beach Boys song from the legendary Smile sessions!
Do you like worms? |
| vanishing_spy |
Posted - 07/25/2007 : 17:17:22
I agreed with the earlier comment. To convert someone, take them to a show! My girlfriend, er...my fiance, didn't get it. Her tastes IMO are very plain. She likes Tom Petty (not so bad) and pop country (the WORST) or as her brother calls it POPCUNT. She and I traveled to Berkeley last year to see Frank open for Tom Petty. It was a match made in heaven. She complains a lot less when I play Frank for hours on end during road trips. (but don't expect her to be posting on this forum any time soon) Can I help it if the guy has a ridiculously deep catalog?
Everyone I've ever taken to see Frank has commented about how tight the band is. He has a reputation for whipping his bands into shape (or beating them into submission) and it shows. If you can find a friend who enjoys talented musicians they will always enjoy the show. Then just play them the Catholics stuff and explain that it was recorded without edits etc. Works every time.
|
| PistoLaura |
Posted - 07/23/2007 : 16:02:09
I love a Diet of Worms... and nailing Faeces to the church door sounds kinda fun too... |
| Ford Prefect |
Posted - 07/23/2007 : 07:43:10
I brought a Frank Black mix CD with me in a friend's car last week, and learned the other day that he hasn't taken it out since! This is a guy who's a casual music listener at best, and whose usual fare consists largely of shitty pop-punk and whatever's new and popular on the radio, so I was surprised.
I even told him I was proud of him :p
Songs that stuck out to him were Tossed ("polka" chorus, haha), Los Angeles, I Will Run After You, and St. Francis Dam Disaster.
Do you like worms? |
| PistoLaura |
Posted - 07/19/2007 : 18:35:54
quote:
Originally posted by mikaelp75
...and Charly (the Normal one) remembered us from Nijmegen and kindly gave us backstage passes. Skippy had put us on the guest list as well, so we were properly pampered.
[/quote]
those guys were so lovely! it made my year! proof that good things do come to those who are too shy to ask! |
| mikaelp75 |
Posted - 07/19/2007 : 14:50:46
quote:
Originally posted by PistoLaura
quote:
Originally posted by coastline
Just so I'm clear ... Mike is mikaelp75? And you are the "potential new girlfriend" in his post?
And you were at the afterparty on Sunday why?
Sorry for all the questions. I'm just confused.
 Please pardon me, for these my wrongs.
Correctomundo. But two years on I'm a fully fledged girlfriend!
We were at the afterparty on Sunday because we hoped there would be a free bar! (there wasn't...)
...and Charly (the Normal one) remembered us from Nijmegen and kindly gave us backstage passes. Skippy had put us on the guest list as well, so we were properly pampered. |
| PistoLaura |
Posted - 07/19/2007 : 10:26:03
quote:
Originally posted by coastline
Just so I'm clear ... Mike is mikaelp75? And you are the "potential new girlfriend" in his post?
And you were at the afterparty on Sunday why?
Sorry for all the questions. I'm just confused.
Please pardon me, for these my wrongs.
Correctomundo. But two years on I'm a fully fledged girlfriend!
We were at the afterparty on Sunday because we hoped there would be a free bar! (there wasn't...)
|
| coastline |
Posted - 07/19/2007 : 08:58:21
Just so I'm clear ... Mike is mikaelp75? And you are the "potential new girlfriend" in his post?
And you were at the afterparty on Sunday why?
Sorry for all the questions. I'm just confused.
Please pardon me, for these my wrongs. |
| PistoLaura |
Posted - 07/19/2007 : 08:35:28
quote:
Originally posted by mikaelp75
The guy who did sound for a band we toured with through Europe kept playing Hang On To Your Ego and Papa's Got A Brand New Bag to get the levels, and when I realized that was the same guy who did Los Angeles, which I'd heard at a party and loved, I got that album. Just when we got home from the tour, the guitarist in the band (who already liked early Frank & Pixies) got Devil's Workshop & Black Letter Days to review for a Swedish metal mag and asked for my input, so I listened to them, raved about them and didn't give them back.
I put The Black Rider & His Kingly Cave on a mixed tape for my potential new girlfriend & she loved them straight away. Never heard of the guy, she said. Later, looking through her mom's cd collection I found a copy of Surfer Rosa that she'd bought as a teenager and forgotten about. Doolittle is now her favourite cd of all time but as a whole she prefers Frank solo. If Your Poison Gets You is her favourite track. I'm happily living with her in the UK and she has made TWO Frank tapes of her own for the car. Yeah, it was meant to be.
Doolittle is not my favourite CD of all time, Mikael! Hehe! I did have a copy of black letter days from my 'youth', but didn't listen with Mikael's fanaticism.... and i'd forgotten i had surfer rosa- a have just come to assume that all the music in our flat probably belongs to Mike... I am tho, first and foremost an FB affectionado. Poison gets me through my own black days, but I'm increasingly revisiting earlier stuff... into Headache, Los Angeles, The Black Rider (first version, better than Tom **gasp**), Ten Percenter, Abstract Plain I LOVE!!.... and loving Bluefinger, partic Lolita and Tight Black Rubber!
Mike is correct in saying that we now live happily together-and have just had an FB marathon whereby we saw him 3 times in two weeks! |
| lackflag |
Posted - 07/10/2007 : 23:59:24
In order to understand the Man on the first try, you really need to be in the ideal circumstances. I was on a road trip with some friends, driving long hours, and I was doing the early morning shift listening to TOTY while everybody was asleep or halfway there. They all became fans, and I contribute it to the fact that they were in a non-judgemental quasi-dreamstate. |
| mr.biscuitdoughhead |
Posted - 07/07/2007 : 15:04:26
I was at my friend's house and we were messing around trying to learn a new song ,cause we only know one song (Smells Like Teen Spirit, which we played at a talent show-totally not my idea-and he really f***ed up the solo, but that's another story) and I played him "Western Star" and he went "that's cool, let's try playing Heart-Shaped Box again".
I could tell he totally didn't get it.
edit: oh yeah, i quit "his" band, too. not really a band though anyways.
But not really. |
| jimmy |
Posted - 07/06/2007 : 22:31:37
It makes me uncomfortable when people play things for me, hoping that I'll like it ( I'll always say its good no matter what it is ), so I don't do it to other people.
One time though, I was in my dorm room and my friend next door came over to say hi while I was listening to Cult of Ray. The song playing was "The Marsist" and he instantly liked it and has been a fan ever since. |
| that means soda |
Posted - 07/06/2007 : 20:53:07
Well one night me and my friend max we were drinking in his old man's house and I had brought my guitar. As we were chewing the fat about japanese country music (my friend always talks about japan when he's drunk) I started playing Cold Heart of Stone. "the winter blows through my coat, it's chilling my bones" He liked it alot but when I made him download the song and listen to it, he said he liked my version better.
Well, that was quite nice to hear, but I had to slap him of course.
Montreal, October 1st 2002 |
| coastline |
Posted - 07/04/2007 : 23:05:42
quote:
Originally posted by The King Of Karaoke
When my friends don't like my music I usually ram it down their throughts until they cry tears of blood.
Can't wait to see THAT video on YouTube.
Please pardon me, for these my wrongs. |
| The King Of Karaoke |
Posted - 07/04/2007 : 22:05:26
When my friends don't like my music I usually ram it down their throughts until they cry tears of blood.
Not advisable on first dates though. I left that poor girl quitely confused cranking Sonic Youth's "Goo" back in 92. |
| mr.biscuitdoughhead |
Posted - 07/04/2007 : 13:38:59
quote:
Originally posted by hammerhands
And what song did Frank's son mention on the podcast?
Headache, I think.
Hey, that's my line |
| hammerhands |
Posted - 07/04/2007 : 13:18:47
Does anyone recall a video with a young girl singing a Pixies or Frank Black song? I think that could be key to compiling a list of catchy FB music. Western Star must be a song a kid would like? And what song did Frank's son mention on the podcast?
I hooked two of my friends on Surfer Rosa, one by forcing him to listen to it in the car ("I hate it." "Just listen to it again" "OK, I like, no I love it.") and one just by playing it subtly in the background a few times, but a third friend, a very good musician, is actually fearful that he may like it if he were more exposed and has asked me to never play FB or Pixies for him again (that guy who writes those weird songs).
BLD and DW, Fields of Marigold was the first song that caught my ear as well, I was quickly obsessed with it. I really disliked BLD when they were released and I had never considered it a great album until just these last few weeks, it's all that I want to hear.
This thread has affirmed for me that most people are put off by enthusiasm. Play the same music st your next few parties.
(This is one ugly monosyllabic post, sorry). |
| Carl |
Posted - 07/04/2007 : 09:22:06
quote:
Originally posted by Nova
My college tutor was very un-flattering about Mr Black when I showed him some tracks, being a musician himself this suprised me, but then again he was in a Robbie Williams tribute band so I guess their is no accounting for taste.
Yeah, that definitely explains it. |
| Nova |
Posted - 07/04/2007 : 05:09:01
My college tutor was very un-flattering about Mr Black when I showed him some tracks, being a musician himself this suprised me, but then again he was in a Robbie Williams tribute band so I guess there is no accounting for taste.
Apart from that Ive found that People are either instantly put off or are instantly amazed. My younger brother and my mom were early converts. And more recently after bombarding a good friend with Frank tracks he's decided he likes him that much that he's gonna come to London with me to see him on the 15th!
goodtimes.
http://thatjayblog.blogspot.com/ |
| trobrianders |
Posted - 07/04/2007 : 02:35:39
No use trying to turn somebody on to someone if there's even a hint that you're not gonna understand if they don't get it. That added pressure would turn anybody off before they've even listened. Good call jedi. The irony is she could so easily become FB's greatest fan if a song catches fire for her. There's just no telling. That's how it should be. Too many of us want a world created in our own image.
_______________
Ed is the hoo hoo |
| jediroller |
Posted - 07/04/2007 : 01:21:16
My latest uninteresting anecdote about "FB/Pixies fans and the generation gap" goes like this:
I was talking to a lovely young woman of 22 about the Frank Black concert I was going to attend the following day.
"So (says she), who is it you're going to see?
- Frank Black.
- ?
- You know the Pixies ? He's the singer in the Pixies.
- I thought the girl was the singer in the Pixies."
Later, I showed her the 93-03 album I'd just bought:
"That's the guy.
- Oh, right. I know who the Pixies are - I saw them at [some festival or other], but I didn't really like it. I like the cover versions better."
I was puzzled by that last statement, but didn't press on, as I could foresee this turning into a righteous rant from yours truly about how nobody in their right mind could rate James Blunt or Placebo above Frank... couldn't see any point in inflicting that on that poor girl, bless her.
"Les Blackolero, y sont forts en sacramant" - Czar | 06/26/2007 | 20:10:34
free music | Blackolero | Frank Black & Pixies Tributes |
| Jefrey |
Posted - 03/04/2007 : 02:02:12
quote:
Originally posted by jackelope
I've never been able to get anyone interested in Frank's music. My wife likes SMYT a bit, because it was brand-new when we were starting to date and I played it for her a few times back then, but she's not by any stretch a "fan."
He really is tough to get to know. With every single one of his albums, I go through the same process: I hear it, I don't like it. I hear it a few more times, and finally one song sort of catches my interest, and gradually I come around and "get" the album, and then it knocks something off my Desert Island List.
Even after I noticed this pattern, it still kept happening; the first time I heard Fast Man Raider Man, I said to myself, "OK, you're not going to like it the first time..." and it didn't help. I could barely finish listening to it. I gave it a few more listens, and it still never clicked, and then one day in class (I'm in law school) I found myself mentally singing "In the Time of My Ruin." Suddenly it all clicked for me, and I'm hooked.
With Devil's Workshop, the first song that clicked was "Fields of Marigold." With SMYT, it was "This Old Heartache." With Black Letter Days, it was "Chip Away Boy." It always takes a while for me to figure out a new Frank Black album; I can't imagine trying to get someone else to dial in with it.
I think with the best bands of all times it takes some effort just because the 'differentness' is what sets it apart from all the rest.
Ironically, the song that really made me appreciate the Rolling Stones was "Torn & Frayed" off "Exile On Main Street". It's a song that sounds more like the Grateful Dead than what you think of as the Stones. But it's quite like a lot of the later Frank Black stuff in a lot of ways.
It took quite a few listens of 'Exile On Main Street' to really get why it's one of the great albums. People are going to be talking about 'Exile" forever, but I'm pretty sure the Stereophonics won't be in the Rock 'n' Roll hall of fame.
========
jeffamerica
======== |
| jackelope |
Posted - 03/04/2007 : 00:14:46
I've never been able to get anyone interested in Frank's music. My wife likes SMYT a bit, because it was brand-new when we were starting to date and I played it for her a few times back then, but she's not by any stretch a "fan."
He really is tough to get to know. With every single one of his albums, I go through the same process: I hear it, I don't like it. I hear it a few more times, and finally one song sort of catches my interest, and gradually I come around and "get" the album, and then it knocks something off my Desert Island List.
Even after I noticed this pattern, it still kept happening; the first time I heard Fast Man Raider Man, I said to myself, "OK, you're not going to like it the first time..." and it didn't help. I could barely finish listening to it. I gave it a few more listens, and it still never clicked, and then one day in class (I'm in law school) I found myself mentally singing "In the Time of My Ruin." Suddenly it all clicked for me, and I'm hooked.
With Devil's Workshop, the first song that clicked was "Fields of Marigold." With SMYT, it was "This Old Heartache." With Black Letter Days, it was "Chip Away Boy." It always takes a while for me to figure out a new Frank Black album; I can't imagine trying to get someone else to dial in with it. |
| Grotesque |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 11:49:29
No, it's one of the problems of itunes. It changes the order when you click up the list or when you open it again.
One of the orders it gives is alphabetical order (when you click the "name" column I think) |
| moksha23x |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 08:34:38
quote:
Originally posted by vilainde
That's a very nice tracklist, moksha. Did you leave it on alphabetical order?
I have the mix saved as a playlist in iTunes.......so I don't know if its the original order??? I'm positive that 'Atom In My Heart' was first on the mix...Like I said I made this mix really quickly...... If I really made a mix in alphabetical order on the fly, that's pretty weird???? |
| coastline |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 04:32:42
Yeah, great set. For the most part, it's pretty mellow, which is indeed what you have to do when you're trying to turn people on to Frank Black. The loud stuff just doesn't work at first, in my experience.
Please pardon me, for these my wrongs. |
| vilainde |
Posted - 02/21/2007 : 00:01:43
That's a very nice tracklist, moksha. Did you leave it on alphabetical order?
Denis
"Can you hear me? I aint got shit to say." |
| moksha23x |
Posted - 02/20/2007 : 14:54:22
One day an old friend surprised me with a phonecall , saying she flew into SF and was driving north on the 101 to Humboldt(her home) and she was going to be passing by my home (sonoma County). She said told me she didn't have much time but "let's meet for lunch.......and oh! I have no music(rental car), make me some CD's." I hurried to make some mixes on the fly.......I made a few mixes each of a band, I can't remember all I gave her.....Sparklehorse, Arcade Fire, Joanna Newsom, Ray Davies, new Bob Dylan (Modern Times)..? and of course I thought it a great time to turn someone onto Frank Black. I made the mix pretty quickly just pickin out songs I thought she might be able to resonate with ........I look at it now and I guess its strange, I have blocks of certain new albums and "Fare Thee Well" at the beginning of the mix. Regardless, two days later I received a call and even though I gave her like five other CD's of different bands she said, THanks for the music! I really love the Frank Black one. She told me her daughter, named Utopia (we call her Topie, she's 7)....loved Llanno Del Rio, she loves singing it. I was stoked that she loved it. I offered to buy her and her husband tix for the SF Fillmore show...she couldn't make it though. Anyway here's the mix:
Atom In My Heart
Bullet
California Bound
Coastline
Cold Heart Of Stone
Dark End Of The Street
Fare Thee Well
Fast Man
Fitzgerald
Go Find Your Saint
Holland Town
Horrible Day
I Burn Today
I Will Run After You
If Your Poison Gets You
Jaina Blues
Llano Del Rio
Preacher's Daughter
Six-Sixty-Six
Southbend Bevy
Sunny Sunday Mill Valley Groove day
True Blue
Whispering Weeds
|
| misterwoe |
Posted - 02/20/2007 : 10:25:29
Over the years I've managed to turn about 4 friends onto FB. Incidentally, I was familiar with FB before I knew about the Pixies, and the first album I heard was TOTY. So that's usually the first one I play for people. But I think I'll make a mix next time.
In high school, I loaned TOTY to a girl I had a crush, and she thought it was my idea of a practical joke. I couldn't understand why she would think that. Things were never the same between us again.
It's true that it would be strange if FB started getting crazy amounts of attention and constant radio play. I don't think it would diminish my enjoyment of his music. I'd be more like: "I told you so!"
The best way to turn someone onto FB: TAKE THEM TO A SHOW.
I'll be by the pool, playing with my guns. |
| mikaelp75 |
Posted - 02/20/2007 : 04:20:20
The guy who did sound for a band we toured with through Europe kept playing Hang On To Your Ego and Papa's Got A Brand New Bag to get the levels, and when I realized that was the same guy who did Los Angeles, which I'd heard at a party and loved, I got that album. Just when we got home from the tour, the guitarist in the band (who already liked early Frank & Pixies) got Devil's Workshop & Black Letter Days to review for a Swedish metal mag and asked for my input, so I listened to them, raved about them and didn't give them back.
I put The Black Rider & His Kingly Cave on a mixed tape for my potential new girlfriend & she loved them straight away. Never heard of the guy, she said. Later, looking through her mom's cd collection I found a copy of Surfer Rosa that she'd bought as a teenager and forgotten about. Doolittle is now her favourite cd of all time but as a whole she prefers Frank solo. If Your Poison Gets You is her favourite track. I'm happily living with her in the UK and she has made TWO Frank tapes of her own for the car. Yeah, it was meant to be. |
| Jefrey |
Posted - 02/19/2007 : 22:34:28
quote:
Originally posted by Carolynanna
But would you really like it if it was an easy conversion?
And all the friends that you think have lame tastes in music were singing his praises?
And all of a sudden Frank was a staple on the radio and winning grammys?
__________
For Chrissakes have a cup of tea.
That happened to my wife in college. She would play Nirvana and other new stuff and all the sorority twits would give her the "what the hell is this crap?" look. A few months later they were all playing it at parties....bleh.
But she also wore a concert T that said "Did you miss Ned's Atomic Dustbin? Then YOU FUCKED UP!" on the back in pink neon, so that made up for it.
========
jeffamerica
======== |
| Grotesque |
Posted - 02/19/2007 : 08:55:10
Let's admit it: we are snobs!
(I'm not sure if the word snob exists in english) |
