| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| fumanbru |
Posted - 03/14/2009 : 10:46:52
hey everyone!
first time poster, long time lurker! i just discovered this awesome site!
who else's love's toty? whatever happened to pong? thalassocracy! calistan, speedy marie, bad wicked world!! pure music genius! if i got stranded on an island and could only take one album- this is the one i'd take!!
have a great day!
 "I joined the Cult of Frank/ cause I'm a real go-getter!" |
| 10 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| trobrianders |
Posted - 04/09/2009 : 03:28:36
Overpowering at first. I didn't get it really. Like Nate says Frank was walking machs and I was just swimming in the slop. And even though it's now my joint favorite along with DITS, I still have a growing appreciation of it. The last shift was when I heard Frank play guest DJ on KCRW's Open Road. He brought a stack of CD's of his favorite songs and it surprised me to hear they all dated from the mid-50s to the mid-60s. TOTY's late-50s, early-60s iconography began to make even more sense. From Pong's 70s realisation of a 50s idea all the way through to Pie In The Sky's "Go clean up your room junior if you want to watch Ed Sullivan, and that's an order", vibe.
The sound surfaces too are all once shiny, now faded, like retro kitchenware; formica, stainless steel, tupperware, chrome plate. Another thing that threw me about it was I associated the 50s with clarity, possibility; A pink Caddy on an open road. TOTY was all complex structures and arrangements, impossibly dense. My pink caddy struggled in this Korean jungle warfare setting. Now it ploughs through.
I really love the album cover now, didn't at first. But I still wish he'd used an actual photograph of him recieving his Teenager of the Year award.
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Ed is the hoo hoo |
| Ziggy |
Posted - 04/09/2009 : 01:35:45
Nate, I loved reading that. Ought to appear in the booklet with the CD! |
| Nate in the PDX |
Posted - 04/08/2009 : 18:53:26
Yep, "Teenager" was and remains a masterpiece, and it probably goes without saying that it's of great personal import as well. But I'll say so anyway. As with everything in the BFB catalog from "Doolittle" forward, its arrival and the subsequent period of utter absorption in it delineated a very specific time in my life. My first year out of college, when I played "Teenager" over and over and over again.
(I can just write freely and purge the personal data banks here with impunity, because there's a good chance this is all going to be erased ere long, right?)
I will admit that this album gave me a terrific amount of trouble, especially the middle third of it, from "Freedom Rock" through "Hostess" or therabouts... remember, children, this was the days before the internet provided a ready-access translation of the profundity of these tracks. And I've never been accused of reading to deeply into things to begin with. These difficult tracks gave me a very clear idea of the Frank Black that was clear as mud, absurdly complex, the man whose evolution was only just beginning, and with whom I would be a fool to try and keep up. Playful and brilliant and musically genius as always, but at a level of erudite obscurity and egregious far-out-ness that we hadn't seen before. Or so it seemed to me. Like the man was just fucking with us, which of course he was.
But what a tonic this album was... everything was bloating in rock again, Nirvana having made way for a bunch of utter garbage that proliferated, and here was this ridiculous wonderful extended missive/puzzle from a wizard who loved us and wanted to challenge us and maybe piss us off a little. PUSHING us with this lovely music.
So rewinding the tape of my life to the spring and summer of 1994 -- Jesus H Christ that WAS fifteen years ago, MisterWoe! -- this was the soundtrack. I was a freakin' mess, languishing in Virginia with a college degree and no idea what to do and where to go, and California beckoned, so I headed West.
And it came to pass that the middle third of this album is, for me, where the greatest glories are to be found, buried within "Fiddle Riddle" and "Olé Mulholland" and the rest of these tracks that were so impenetrable fifteen years ago. I've been hearing the line "The concrete of the aqueduct will last as long as the pyramids of Egypt or the Parthenon of Athens... long after Job Harriman is elected mayor of Los Angeles" over and over in my head the past few days, and that's probably a byproduct of cruising this board too much, but more than that it's the result of fifteen years spent lovingly mulling over this record. |
| Visiting Sasquatch |
Posted - 04/08/2009 : 04:47:16
This was also my introduction to Frank Black! One of my all time favorite albums by anyone. Classic! |
| Spartacus |
Posted - 04/06/2009 : 19:12:05
Definitely my fave frank album. Incredible that an album with 22 songs has no weak spot.
Best opening 4 track sequence you could get.
'I thought that I would stay just for a while' |
| Fast Man |
Posted - 03/23/2009 : 06:05:27
My personal favorite album to listen to while mountain biking. |
| misterwoe |
Posted - 03/16/2009 : 06:10:20
this was also my introduction to the work of Mr. Black ... ah ... the nostalgia!
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eyes burning |
| VoVat |
Posted - 03/15/2009 : 09:48:53
This album was my introduction to Frank, and I still consider it my favorite. How could an album with 22 songs be so consistently great?
"If you doze much longer, then life turns to dreaming. If you doze much longer, then dreams turn to nightmares." |
| misterwoe |
Posted - 03/15/2009 : 00:16:45
last night, while playing Big Red for my fiancee I realized the album is now 15 years old. how about a re-release with bonus songs/dvd??? just a thought...
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You're all a bunch of slaves! |
| fumanbru |
Posted - 03/14/2009 : 10:48:20
wew, i was nervouse there...i thought snitz was gone forever...
"I joined the Cult of Frank/ cause I'm a real go-getter!" |
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