FRANK BLACK Frank Black Francis Sonic Unyon · For fans only – one disc of early-Pixies demos and one disc of electro covers. Like a musical McDLT – the hot side is hot and the cool side is freaking cold.
First off, let me say that I don’t blame Frank Black for dumping this two-disc rarities album on us now. With the Pixies revival in full swing there is no better time than now to rake in the cash. Truth be told, I’m impressed he waited this long.
Motivations mean very little, though, So what does the music sound like? The disc entitled Black Francis Demo features 15 lo-fi renditions of Pixies songs performed by Black on acoustic guitar in 1987, prior to recording the first album by the Pixies. Hauntingly bare in their arrangements, such classics as "The Holiday Song" and "Broken Face" sound pretty good in this stripped-down form. Some included rarities will be a welcome addition for completists, but the most impressive thing about this collection is that a song such as "Subbacultcha," which wasn’t commited to tape by The Pixies until 1991’s Trompe le Monde, has an almost identical arrangement in demo form. It’s a testament to Black’s songwriting skill (and dominating personality) that in the passing four years the songs hardly changed.
The disc entitled Frank Black Francis is a series of 13 covers by Two Pale Boys, a couple of guys who dabble in electro-acoustics and manage to suck the life out of everything from "Where is My Mind?" to "Planet of Sound." Oddly, Black agreed to contribute his vocals. I could go on about how the jazz elements don’t suit Black’s songs and how the glitchy stuff falls flat, but that would be me sugar-coating the truth. These songs are just plain bad. This collection leaves the listener with two opposing conclusions about Black’s music. On one hand, the demos prove that he is such a good writer that the songs can survive on their own, stripped naked and sent off to fend for themselves. Alternately, Two Pale Boys prove that the songs must not be that good on their own, otherwise they wouldn’t have fucked them up so bad
BLACK FRANCIS DEMOS 3/5
FRANK BLACK FRANCIS 1/5
JASON LEWIS
"Fried food, cigarettes, no exercise, chest pain..." (Excerpt from the Angina Monologues)
