| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| FrequencyOfGlow |
Posted - 07/15/2005 : 14:26:39
Is anybody else a little ticked off at some of these reviewers, who, while praising the hell out of Honeycomb, keeping digging at the so-called mediocrity of his solo (and Catholics) career to date?
Personally, I am blown away every time I hear Black Letter Days, Dog In the Sand, TOTY and so on.
Why must they trash some of his finest works in order to shine the spotlight on Honeycomb?
I think the winter is going to be a real whirligig |
| 21 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Carl |
Posted - 07/23/2005 : 06:21:10
Yeah, I mean he's just released an album that branches out again from previous musical styles. |
| DivisionPelagic |
Posted - 07/22/2005 : 18:56:11
"A spotty, sprawling catalog of solo efforts that touch on most every pop music style,
from heavy metal to spaghetti western, has done little to forge a
post-Pixies identity for Black. With the band's massively successful reunion
tour well into its second year, it would seem that Black is ready to settle
into a comfortable career peddling alt-rock nostalgia."
Anyone else find that insulting? Or at least highly under-researched and quite possibly stupid??
Alt-rock nostalgia....that makes me want to puke.
I've heard a lot of noise, so I'm going to the stereo store, to get a white noise maker and turn it up to ten. |
| Erebus |
Posted - 07/22/2005 : 17:41:36
quote:
Originally posted by billgoodman
listened to Black Letter Days today
it's also a great chunk of music
Yes. For at least the past year that's been the disc, whether Pixies, FB, or FB&C, that I've listened to the most. Really sweet. |
| VoVat |
Posted - 07/22/2005 : 17:25:20
quote:
I'm more set agog (not necessarily in a good way) by people on this forum who like his Catholics work but don't like disc 2 of Frank Black Francis.
Well, I wouldn't say Disc 2 is really Frank. It's the Two Pale Boys messing with Frank's songs.
I was all out of luck, like a duck that died. I was all out of juice, like a moose denied. |
| billgoodman |
Posted - 07/18/2005 : 14:17:36
listened to Black Letter Days today
it's also a great chunk of music
you know
Frank should have been recognized ages ago
but I'm glad that he's now
---------------------------
God save the Noisies |
| Carl |
Posted - 07/18/2005 : 06:51:47
It's getting a lot of good-to-fantastic reviews! Only read one or two reviews that grumbled about it a bit (but still praised a number of the songs!). |
| two reelers |
Posted - 07/18/2005 : 02:23:44
i think HC is so hymnically praised (compared to his solo/catholic-stuff) because it sounds extremely good. because it is extremely well produced, like the pixies-albums.
honestly, i don't think the songs on HC are "better" than his solo/catholics stuff. i would even say there is more song-writing quality, more diversity in some or many of his solo/catholics-songs (don't get me wrong, i loooove HC, and i think, especially lyrically, this is one of his best albums).
i think this all just shows that most of the critics are plain ignorant and don't sratch beneath the surface. like many people, they have not much idea of music, which is sad, because they are getting paid for it. but it seems, they judge just after the first listen, and of course, then the sound becomes more important than the raw flesh of the song itself.
just my opinion.
I joined the cult of Souled American / 'cause they are a damn' fine band |
| IceCream |
Posted - 07/17/2005 : 20:21:02
quote:
Originally posted by The Marsist
[quote]I'll buy it, Kathryn. It will probably be the first (and hopefully only CD that I ever buy)
[/quote)
cheap bastard ha ha ha
"i had to store my urine in jars so the wizards could not enchant me"
-Bowie
Hey, I buy plenty of vinyl. |
| Carl |
Posted - 07/17/2005 : 16:19:05
Thanks for posting, Mr. Tiven!
"I think that if you remove the amplification, The Pixies are pretty folky." :D |
| The Marsist |
Posted - 07/17/2005 : 10:54:32
[quote]I'll buy it, Kathryn. It will probably be the first (and hopefully only CD that I ever buy)
[/quote)
cheap bastard ha ha ha
"i had to store my urine in jars so the wizards could not enchant me"
-Bowie |
| Jontiven |
Posted - 07/17/2005 : 10:52:00
This from today's Boston Globe......hope I'm not breaking any copyright laws........
POP MUSIC
Frank Black's sinister sensibility has a sweet new sound
On his latest album, the artist changes direction -- again
By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff | July 17, 2005
Pixies frontman Frank Black is known for his mammoth howl, brief explosive
songs, and impenetrable lyrics about space and mutilation. A spotty,
sprawling catalog of solo efforts that touch on most every pop music style,
from heavy metal to spaghetti western, has done little to forge a
post-Pixies identity for Black. With the band's massively successful reunion
tour well into its second year, it would seem that Black is ready to settle
into a comfortable career peddling alt-rock nostalgia.
On the contrary. Black's 11th solo album, ''Honeycomb," comes out Tuesday on
Narada's Back Porch imprint, and it's a carefully conceived, supremely
focused Southern soul surprise -- one of those midcareer swerves that forces
you to reconsider a known musical quantity.
On paper, ''Honeycomb" reads like a giant step back in time. The disc's
producer, Jon Tiven, has worked with Wilson Pickett and B.B. King. Black's
new labelmates include John Hammond and the Neville Brothers. A who's who of
session aces -- grizzled veterans of the famed Muscle Shoals, Stax, and
American studios -- gathered for four days in Nashville to help Black
realize a decade-old dream inspired by the 1966 Bob Dylan album ''Blonde on
Blonde."
So unabashed is Black's affection for Dylan's country-rock opus -- the album
is filled with the sort of inventive structures and bizarre imagery that
would later become Black's calling card -- publicity materials for
''Honeycomb" winkingly refer to the project as ''Black on Blonde."
''I took my cue from another record that I really like a lot," says Black,
on the phone from a Pixies tour stop in Milwaukee. ''I don't know how much
is myth, but I've read accounts of how it was made and you get a picture of
this hot young kid composing couplets while the other guys are playing
cards, and then they bang out a record. While I'm certainly not as popular
as Dylan, and I'm a lot older now than he was when he made it, I feel a
similar thing happened. My muse was present, and these heavy hitters, with
all of their restraint and groove and prowess, supported it. Magic
happened."
Black may be an icon among the alt-rock set, but his reputation hardly
preceded him in Nashville. Producer Tiven says that's precisely why the
Dylan comparison is apt.
''He came down here with stuff that was so far beyond what these guys were
used to playing for a living. It was such a joy to play some new chord
changes and hear lyrics about falling in love with a half-sea-creature. It's
different from Dolly Parton."
Black isn't the first midlife musician to confront the future by plumbing
the past. The natural impulse to slow down and settle down has driven many a
rocker to discover his kinder, gentler roots. The first song Black wrote
for the album -- the icebreaker, as he refers to it -- is a waltz called
''Violet," named after Violet Clark, his girlfriend and the mother of his
6-month-old son, Jack. He worked his affection for blood into the first
verse, but Black's fans will still find this tender love song exceedingly
weird. Which proves, in a backwards sort of way, that the call of Southern
soul hasn't entirely subsumed Black's weirdness. His cover of the classic
''Dark End of the Street" -- crooned in the soft, pained reaches of his
falsetto -- is, considering the source, truly shocking.
In fact, Black believes that this mellow mash of dulcet country sounds and
sinister sensibilities is as radical in its rejection of all things hip as
the Pixies were for their groundbreaking dynamics.
''People like to say you can't do that or sound like that or try to be that
because you're not being real," he says. ''But rock 'n' roll is not about
what's happening right now in 2005, nor is it about what was happening in
1989 when I was first successful with the Pixies. It's about the '50s and
'60s and jazz and folk. There's nothing wrong with being really in tune with
what's going on or inventing a new sound. I just don't like it when that's
all you're supposed do."
This warm, muted record involved some serious risk taking. It was written
during a chaotic period marking the end of the musician's marriage to Jean
Black -- who performs a surreal duet with her ex on ''Strange Goodbye" --
and the beginning of Black's current relationship with Clark. The Pixies,
which had come to an antagonistic finish a decade prior, were in the
tentative first throes of a reunion. While the sadness and exhilaration that
colored those days came as no surprise to Black, the ease with which
formerly well-concealed feelings made it into the songs did.
''A lot was going on, not just in romantic relationships but in professional
relationships, too, and suddenly I was getting ready to put on my leather
jacket and fly to Nashville and record with Steve Cropper [soul guitarist
and founding member of Booker T. & the MGs]. All of it combined to up the
ante, and I touched on things that maybe I would have been afraid to touch
on in the past. I think my audience when I was writing this album became
those guys in the band. I didn't know them personally, but I kept imagining
these bearded older guys with long careers who are used to working with Neil
Young, and I really had to deliver for them. . . . Yes, I was a little
nervous. You have to stand tall."
Black and his bandmates in the Pixies may have to wear shoe lifts next month
when they headline the legendary Newport Folk Festival.
''I have this fantasy of showing up and Pete Seeger socks me," Black says.
''But I listen to a lot of Burl Ives, and some of those songs are just
totally psycho, dark, weird songs about murder and heavy stuff. Folk music
isn't only Peter, Paul and Mary doing 'Lemon Tree.' I love that song, but a
lot of great folk music is also quirky and kind of raw. I think that if you
remove the amplification, the Pixies are pretty folky."
If you remove the rules -- something Frank Black's been doing for years --
the past leads to the future, where a rock 'n' roll screamer can make
something as unlikely and lovely as ''Honeycomb."
|
| IceCream |
Posted - 07/17/2005 : 10:40:22
oh, I'll buy it, Kathryn. It will probably be the first (and hopefully only CD that I ever buy) |
| kathryn |
Posted - 07/17/2005 : 09:40:37
I love it all.
Give Honeycomb a chance. It is haunting.
Sometimes, no matter how shitty things get, you have to just do a little dance. - Frank
|
| The Marsist |
Posted - 07/17/2005 : 07:55:51
i hate disk 2 of fbf
"i had to store my urine in jars so the wizards could not enchant me"
-Bowie |
| IceCream |
Posted - 07/17/2005 : 07:31:51
well, i don't really like much of his stuff with the Catholics (besides 'pan american highway') so I don't mind when they trash Catholics work, but I probably won't like Honeycomb either. I'm more set agog (not necessarily in a good way) by people on this forum who like his Catholics work but don't like disc 2 of Frank Black Francis. |
| billgoodman |
Posted - 07/16/2005 : 01:31:50
Show Me Your Tears is a masterpiece
that should be mentioned
so is Dog in the Sand
that should be mentioned
although I think Honeycomb is his most consistent 'masterpiece'
---------------------------
God save the Noisies |
| Carl |
Posted - 07/15/2005 : 17:55:25
Indeed, although I hav'nt heard the whole album and therefore cannot say how good it is, as an FB fan it's nice to see him get some recognition for a change. In fact, he's getting a lot of press...this truly seems like his 'comeback' album! |
| Jontiven |
Posted - 07/15/2005 : 15:38:01
Let us try to control our venom and focus on the three-quarters full portion of the glass rather than the 1/4 empty. This is a very fortunate time to be alive, when an album of this substantive value can be recognized for its very greatness. It is not always the case.
bye,
Jon Tiven |
| kathryn |
Posted - 07/15/2005 : 15:28:49
I've been reluctant to clog up the review threads with my disgust over this matter, so I am glad you started this thread, FrequencyOfGlow.
May the mighty Catholics rise again! Or at least be remembered with the proper awe and respect.
I'm signing off and putting on Pistolero.
Sometimes, no matter how shitty things get, you have to just do a little dance. - Frank
|
| martha_promise |
Posted - 07/15/2005 : 15:13:13
Yeah, a lot of these reviews, if they happen to mention the Catholics at all, is in a passing comment with no nod whatsoever to all the great albums they did together.
It's nice to see Honeycomb getting such good press, but I would like to see Frank's Post Pixies/Pre Honeycomb work held in the regard that it deserves. Which in my opinion is Brilliant, Genius,..etc.
~~Come inside, or...Go Away.~~ |
| speedy_m |
Posted - 07/15/2005 : 14:57:56
It seems every album he releases is "his best work in a few years". So... they count the time when he's not releasing albums, or what?
watch me jumpstart as the old skin is peeled |
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