| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| jezza |
Posted - 06/02/2007 : 22:01:22
I was into the Pixies from the very beginning and always throught the album run Come On Pilgram -> Doolittle were as good as it gets. I kinda left Frank for a while after TOTY and picked up with him again due to the positive reviews for the Honeycomb album - quite a long patch!
Anway, loved the stuff since (Blue Finger best Frank album eve??) and been doing a lot of catching up on the missed albums. It dawned on me the other day while listening to frank tracks on my ipod that his stuff is actually better than the pixies. The pixies are more immediate - you can get the genius first listen - while frank's stuff takes a while to open up and reveal its true genius.
Just wanted to get that out of my system! |
| 13 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| moonruler |
Posted - 06/09/2007 : 17:02:16
love the pixies, saw the reunion tour, but rarely listen to them. i do, however, listen to a lot of frank black. |
| trobrianders |
Posted - 06/09/2007 : 15:55:34
If the solo work is eclipsed by 'this band called Pixies' then so fucking what! The fly-by fans dropped off 91-07. Big deal. He was never gonna be everyone's cup of tea anyway. If he was half the man he'd have sold twice as much and become Bono and we'd be off listening to someone else. I'm really glad he reformed Pixies for those couple of years. It put everything in context. Charles has nothing to worry about now. His solo work grows in respect every year and he's as free as he was day one. He was the man, he is the man.
At least he ain't gonna die like Van Gogh.
Sorry, little off-topic I know but it's good to get that off.
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Ed is the hoo hoo |
| johnnyribcage |
Posted - 06/09/2007 : 14:48:47
With a couple of exceptions, the Pixies music and Frank Black's music are so different that it really is an apples to oranges thing as Jefrey suggested. That the rest of the Pixies may or may not be essential to creating that "Pixies" sound is debatable. I personally think the Black Francis persona was responsible for 90% of what made those albums what they were, and the reason his solo albums don't sound like the Pixies is by choice. The way it appears to me, is Charles tends to do whatever the hell his raw emotions are telling him to do at the moment, and everyone else who doesn't get it can eat shit. That's probably the thing I respect most about him. Bluefinger really shows that the Black Francis character has always been there, and jezza, I have to agree, on the whole, the solo output far eclipses the Pixies output. If you're just now getting into the solo years, you're in for a real treat and I wish I could put myself in your shoes.
That being said, I got into it myself in 2001, eight years after he started going solo, and from my point of view, since Kim Deal apparently can't handle a new Pixies album, and Charles (if history is any judge) will continue to break off amazing and diverse albums year after year (sometimes twice in a year), you're in good shape. Just keep catching up and you'll see what I mean. Welcome aboard!
I love this part... Yeah, we did it! |
| awestruck |
Posted - 06/04/2007 : 18:04:18
Well since I haven't heard everything yet, I can only comment on the Pixies or Frank Black issue.
I see all of his music as a whole, whether he was a part of the Pixies, The Catholics, or solo.
I think it may be because I haven't listened to his albums in chronological order,
so I think that makes it hard to see it separately, even though I know that it is separate.
Frank's voice makes the music for me. I like all of it.
Maybe I will grin but I won’t bear
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| SPEEDYMARIEGONZALES |
Posted - 06/04/2007 : 16:58:07
for the most part the pixies stuff was franks stuff
maybe his solo years let him try some different things because he did not have to consider the other members participation,
i think the material from both eras are equally good for what they are
Manuel wants to keep his pet rat.
Manuel: Mrs. Fawlty, please understand. If he go, I go!
Basil Fawlty: Well, goodbye! |
| pixiestu |
Posted - 06/04/2007 : 06:49:12
Really depends what mood I'm in to determine whether I listen to the Pixies or Frank Black. I do seem to listen to Frank Black more but that could well be down to me simply having more FB bootlegs compared to Pixies, plus they only made four full abums and a few compilations, demos etc.
It may be hard to compare Surfer Rosa and Honeycomb, but I appreciate them both, regardless of how different they sound.
As people have said, there may be different eras of Frank Black but it's still the same guy, so it's all good. If I had to pick between the Pixies and Frank Black, however hard it is, I'd have to say...Frank Black.
"The arc of triumph" |
| Jose Jones |
Posted - 06/04/2007 : 06:31:38
i don't separate the two. i always think "look at all the songs charles thompson has written; from caribou to bluefinger, he's the best out there."
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they were the heroes of old, men of renown. |
| coastline |
Posted - 06/03/2007 : 15:10:58
There was a time when I thought FB was running out of gas, and that he'd never live up to his Pixies years. That was somewhere between Cult of Ray and Show Me Your Tears. It was SMYT and Honeycomb that pulled me back in. And now I look at his entire body of solo work, and it absolutely stands up to the Pixies years. And now I do love the Catholics years. It just took the post-Catholics music to make me apprecicate it.
 Please pardon me, for these my wrongs. |
| Carl |
Posted - 06/03/2007 : 11:26:49
Hi jezza! I kind of lost interest in FB for a while after COR, it was a while before I got the Catholics stuff! |
| mikaelp75 |
Posted - 06/03/2007 : 03:49:47
It's all great disco, but I do wish Frank would incorporate more riffing rather than strumming these days, if you see what I mean. It'd be nice to have some songs that don't sound like they're written on/for acoustic guitar again. Having said that, I actually agree; I mostly prefer the solo stuff. |
| jezza |
Posted - 06/03/2007 : 02:51:51
Yeah, apples for me definitely.
I agree with you, ying, on the point of FB's diversity of musical output. And with such a diverse range of music the quality remains so high. I guess what I also should have said is that the pixies were so highly acclaimed (for good reason) and I think FB should be ackowledged just as much (and sell as many records) as the pixies because his output is as good, if not better.
And he's so prolific - I love that! If only my other fav artists could match his incredible pace of releases, rather than the usual 3-4 year wait between albums. |
| yingguoguizi |
Posted - 06/03/2007 : 02:30:14
I think FB's output has been more diverse and interesting than the Pixies', and I Listen to FB's stuff much more than the Pixies stuff these days- but maybe that's because FB's stuff is current.
My first reaction is to agree with you Jezza, but I also wouldn't pick between the two. TOTY and Trompe Le Monde are two of my all time favourite albums. I think it's best to see it all as the same guy making music, after all FB wrote 99% of the Pixies songs.
On the other more important issue, I go for apples. |
| Jefrey |
Posted - 06/03/2007 : 00:35:21
Apples > Oranges?
I think a lot here would agree with you, but I wouldn't want to have to pick between the two. I love it all.
== jeffamerica == |
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