| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
 Posted - 11/20/2002 : 23:00:38
|
There's a chance that I may get to interview the man himself at one of the upcoming shows. Hit me with your questions and I shall weed through them and pick out the ones which I feel would fare well. Those of you who are picked will be notified in advance. Thank you and good luck
www.thebennies.com |
|
|
Dave Noisy
Minister of Chaos
Canada
4496 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 00:45:15
|
I'll start with the standard fare:
What are you reading? Listening to? Desert island disks?
What keeps you performing / touring?
Tell us about 'Jean Black'.
What sort of home studio do you have? Home sound system?
Favorite breakfast cereal?
DVD-A or SACD?
Boxers, briefs or commando? (For the ladies. Honest. ;)
Friend or foe: the FB.net Forum?
If you could redesign the STOP sign, what would you do?
Okay, i'm getting stupider as i get more tired.
- Dave |
 |
|
|
debaser
- FB Fan -
France
121 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 02:16:54
|
Just two simple questions for me :
1/ Is the european tour scheduled yet ?
2/ Do they plan to do 3 in a row concerts in Paris, France like they've done somewhere in Canada (can't remember exactly where) ?
Thanks !
|
|
|
|
bazza
* Dog in the Sand *
Ireland
1439 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 02:31:54
|
ask him if he takes the crunchy biscuits out of his lucky charms.
it takes two to lie marge - one to lie and one to listen. |
|
|
|
Ten Percenter
- FB Enquirer -
United Kingdom
1733 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 02:32:10
|
great news El Barto. Good luck!
I agree with the Euro tour question! Also (plenty of chaff coming):
Is the character in Ed is Dead the same person lamented in Adda Lee?
You said in interview that on BLD you and the band had a very different idea of what the final 12 tracks should be. (a) Could you give examples of which band member wanted which tracks included and (b)is Frank and the Catholics quite a democratic band, even if you write the songs?
Any thoughts of releasing your version of John the Revelator on a future album or b-side?
Why no San Antonio, Tx during your current tour?
Do you think Beefheart has been and still is an influence in your music?
You have mentioned Goat's Head Soup in a number of interviews - it got quite poor reviews at the time - is it one of your favourite Stones' albums? If so, what attracts you towards it particularly?
Re Dylan - which do you prefer at the moment - Self-portrait or Blood on the tracks?
|
|
|
|
johndietzel
= Cult of Ray =
Burkina Faso (Upper Volta)
464 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 02:41:12
|
1) What is the best compliment you have received regarding your music (or) what would you consider the highest compliment a musician can receive (or) do you even care? [this question can be rephrased as more of a "ideal epitaph" question--you could say something like, "Speaking of Black Rider, Tom Waits has said he wants his tombstone to read 'I TOLD you I was sick.' How do you want to be remembered?" That sort of thing]
2)(at the risk of offending him, although I suspect he knows full-well) With the vocals in such songs as "Heloise" and "Bartholomew" and particularly "I've Seen Your Picture" from DitS, are you purposefully paying homage to Mick Jagger as a singer? or does it just come out that way? or are you oblivious to the spitting sonic image?
3) Do you ever stop (or have you ever stopped) to evaluate yourself as a part of the American rock heritage. I mean do you have a particular notion of what, if anything, you have added to the collective catalogue of rock and roll? Do you even think in those terms at all?
4) Don't you ever experience writer's block?
5) I think it would be great to say something lame like "My next question is, "Robert Onion" (or "SA, Texas" or "Chipaway Boy" or whatever) is such an amazing song. Just make the statement.
6) Ever been to the Rosecuscian (a quasi-sect of wannabe Egyptian-like guys at least in some way related to his "Velvety" "Velouria" legends) museum in San Jose? Inspiring place, no mushrooms necessary.
7) In the absence of "the Bill Goodman Happening", do you ever catch Art Bell or any of the other "Coast to Coast AM" personalities on late-night radio, while on the road?
8) Have you ever flashed a big Mac truck to let 'em know it's safe to pass and/or been "thanked" by the driver with his own flash? There are few more satisfying undertakings while driving along I-80 at three in the morning.
9) Would you call yourself fluent in Spanish and do you usually/ever order food at mom & pop taco shops in the language?
"Make no mistake; Ricky Lake's eatin' mad steaks off your bad breaks."
Carlton Ridenhour |
|
|
|
mdisanto
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1140 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 04:02:25
|
haha john, itd be so hard to go up to frank black and say "my next question is, robert onion is an amazing song" i mean to deliver it right so that it gives off the intended effect. i just picture myself like reading the paper that has my questions and like reading it too fast before i remember to say it with some kinda of inflection, haha itd would be interesting though.
anyway, ask him what his favorite cereal is, he likes breakfast apparently
what are his feelings on talking on the cellphone while driving?
do you ever play video games?
is white noise maker secretly about your preference in alarm clocks? or do you have one of those cd deals?
has there ever been anything that you've been afraid to do onstage?
what are the last 2 movies youve seen (rented or in theatre)?
-miked |
|
|
|
frank_black_francis
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
895 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 05:41:03
|
if you were in space and you farted, would it be enough to propel you forward?
wutchu talkin bout willis? |
|
|
|
Chris Knight
= Cult of Ray =
USA
899 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 07:30:21
|
I gots me some questions!!!
What's your favorite of all the records you've made? What's your favorite Iggy Pop solo album? Do you have any neato guitar exercises that you use to keep your chops up between tours/dates? Do you warm up before shows? In contrast to your recent "rootsy" musical direction, have you considered making a more experimental album with the Catholics, i.e. one influenced by modern classical music, progressive or math rock, free jazz, etc.? |
|
|
|
eebee
- FB Fan -
United Kingdom
104 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 07:43:02
|
Say tommorow the worl was gonna you had to send out your music into orbit and write three sentences about how you wished to be remembered and choose 6 songs from your entire career [including pixies orr not? hmm] that you would wish to be contained in your erm sputnik that fully depict you as an artist
cool |
|
|
|
eebee
- FB Fan -
United Kingdom
104 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 07:45:08
|
| opps i nicked johns ideal-sorry i got overexcited |
|
|
|
BrendanT
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
907 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 09:11:08
|
Wow, quite the response from the forum. Some awesome questions. I will try my best.
1. Sonic Youth had all of their gear ripped off in much the same fashion yourself and the Catholics did. After a few months Thurston said that it took a while for the immediate anger to disapear, once it did - he felt that it may have been a blessing because it forced the band to begin fresh. (The result being the fantastic Murray Street album) Do you feel the same way? Or was the loss of your equipment just a negative experience and a simple bump in the road on the way to BLD's and DW?
2. The answer may be an obvious Yes (because of the 5 night stand) but can you see a definate cultural difference between the USA and Canadian fans, media and audiences? If yes, what are those differences?
3. You write quite a bit about what some people might find as being trivial historical events. Do you keep up to date with current political problems? Do you have any opinions on the world today?
4. Are there any other creative interests that you involve your time in? For example, creative story writing, films, acting etc...
Good luck with the interview and thanks for this opportunity El Barto. Where might you be interviewing him?
Strummer-man
I had me a vision!
Why should I leave America for America junior? |
|
|
|
Big Red
- FB Fan -
17 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 09:29:42
|
El Barto, what do you think of these questions?
Here are a few questions I would love to ask Frank:
1. Here's a question I would love to ask every musician: Are you aware of the all the bootlegs of your material like No Big Deal, Hate Me, etc? What do think of these bootlegs? Do you seek them out, and what are your favorites?
2. You gear was stolen after I saw you at Irving Plaza in New York. What happened and any luck in finding out who took it?
3. I really loved your Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove Day album. Can you tell us why you didn't release it offically? Did you upload it to the net as a gift your fans and will you ever release some of the songs offically?
4. Will you consider putting out an offical live album with the Catholics?
5. Can you tell us how you found The Bennies?
6. Will we ever see a DVD of live preformances from the Catholics or Pixies? |
Edited by - Big Red on 11/21/2002 13:52:43 |
|
|
|
big_galoof
= Cult of Ray =
USA
310 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 10:04:38
|
Big Red queried:
>I really loved your Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove Day album. Can you tell us why you didn't
>release it offically? Did you upload it to the net as a gift your fans and will you ever
>release some of the songs offically?
I think FB's answer to this question can be found in the Earlash interview:
"Every once in a while we record a pile of sounds we like, think it's an album but within a week or two fortunately we are able to catch it and go "nah that's not an album." It's like two songs and eight questionable, you know what I mean."
I'm pretty sure he's referring to SSMVGD here. Agreed?
TBG
visit the big galoof's frank black trade list here:
http://home.nycap.rr.com/souvenirs/tradelist.htm |
Edited by - big_galoof on 11/21/2002 10:05:08 |
|
|
|
peter radiator
= Cult of Ray =
USA
653 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 10:11:58
|
quote:
Originally posted by El Barto
There's a chance that I may get to interview the man himself at one of the upcoming shows. Hit me with your questions and I shall weed through them and pick out the ones which I feel would fare well. Those of you who are picked will be notified in advance. Thank you and good luck
www.thebennies.com
Thanks for the opportunity. I recently interviewed Frank during his stint in Toronto, but at the last minute my space was cut, and I was forced to drop the chat from my article. I'm currently shopping it freelance to some other stops on the tour and hopefully it will see the light of day. If not, I'll gladly offer it (and an earlier talk I had with Frank on the release of the self-titled Catholics LP) gratis to this site if they want to archive it.
As is always the case when I have met with /spoke to Frank, I was a bit nervous and easily thrown off track. He seems quite mercurial, and does not suffer fools gladly. It's a bit of a tightrope act when conducting an interview, because you're never quite sure if he's going to appreciate your questions and become animated and loquacious or think you're a complete idiot who's wasting his time.
I can't say I blame him, as I've been on the receiving end of some mighty insipid conversations with journalists about my own bands, but it does make it rather hard to get the most out of a twenty-minute phone call...
A few questions I wanted to ask him, but got sidetracked and had to forego were:
1. I know you're a fan of at least some of David Lynch's work. Are you also familiar with the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky, such as "The Holy Mountain", "El Topo (The Mole)" and "Sante Sangre"? If so, do you find any sort of simpatico with the presentations of both spitituality and violence displayed in his work and those which can be found in your own words and music?
2. You're now admittedly viewing the Catholics as a core band of your rhythm section plus a rotating cast of musicians who come and go as their schedules allow. How does this play into "band loyalty", and are you ever forced to be competetive when it comes to paying your sidemen? By that I mean that Frank Zappa used to have to essentially keep his bandmembers on retainer and pay them some sort of salary even between tours so that they were not stolen away by other musicians wiht more lucrative offers, regardless of their affections or love for his music and company. How difficult is it to obtain firm committments from the people you play with when they know there's probably another good friend and excellent player waiting in the wings to fill their space if need be?
3. How exactly did you come to be involved with the relatively unknown (and tremendously talented) songwriter Rob Laufer, who is thanked in the liners of your debut solo CD and sat in on the sessions for Black Letter Days? What do you think of his own material?
4. I can only imagine that it must get EXTREMELY tiring for you to have to constantly field journalists' questions and audience requests regarding the notion of reuniting the Pixies. I steadfastly appreciate and respect your disinterest in that idea. I also got an immense kick out of the fact that for close to a decade you avoided performing songs made famous by that group. It reminded me of Dylan's decision upon his conversion to Born-again Christianity to abandon his prior secular material, and insist on playing only his newer songs in concert, which cost him many fans, but won him others who appreciated his nerve and commitment to avoiding nostalgia. Eventually he started to incorporate older songs of his which seemd to fit in with the general tone of his newer stuff, and that is the mode he remains in to this day.
May I ask if your decision to reinstate certain tunes from your own back pages into the Catholics' live sets was in any way a concession to bothersome fans? Or –like John Fogerty– did you simply reach a point in your life when you felt comfortable reopening a chapter in your artistic evolution that had been closed?
Was there any particular reason for airing out these older songs, and how exactly do you decide what's worth resurrecting?
4. I'm assuming that "Robert Onion" is about Robert Heinlein. Is this true? If so, what of his work speaks most to you?
That's it. I hope some of these make the cut, and El Barto, if you're a member of The Bennies, that was a great show in Columbia, SC. I dug your band a lot. You're the first group I've ever seen that actually reminded me of Half Japanese.
- Peter Radiator
"Real music is out there and real people are making it." ~ Webb Wilder |
|
|
|
big_galoof
= Cult of Ray =
USA
310 Posts |
|
|
Brackish
- FB Fan -
142 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 11:28:26
|
Here's a couple of questions I'd love see answered:
1)Given the 4,3,2,1 ending of Robert Onion, did you originally plan to have Blast Off as the next song on Dog in the Sand?
2)Is there anything common to the Pixies songs that you now play with The Catholics? Like they're your favorites, or the bands favorites, or they're funnest to play, or the bass line was not integral to the song?
3)What are your favorite cities to play?
4)Do you ever think about giving up?
5)When you're trying to decide what songs make the cut on an album, or what the setlist will be for a show, how much input do you take from the band. Is the process democratic, or do you make all the decisions.
6)Your albums have been produced by a few different folks. Vincent, Feldman, yourself. How has this influenced each album and are there any producers you'd like to work with that you haven't? |
|
|
|
johndietzel
= Cult of Ray =
Burkina Faso (Upper Volta)
464 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 15:30:23
|
quote:
Originally posted by Brackish
Here's a couple of questions I'd love see answered:
1)Given the 4,3,2,1 ending of Robert Onion, did you originally plan to have Blast Off as the next song on Dog in the Sand?
What a great question!
"4. I'm assuming that "Robert Onion" is about Robert Heinlein. Is this true? If so, what of his work speaks most to you?"
I guess maybe Robert Zubrin could be the ultimate cryptical red herring for the real subject (Robert Heinlein) but I doubt it. If you didn't already know, EVERY LINE of the song is involved in an acrostic to literally spell out the song's subject.
"Make no mistake; Ricky Lake's eatin' mad steaks off your bad breaks."
Carlton Ridenhour |
|
|
|
floop
= Wannabe Volunteer =
Mexico
15297 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 18:32:09
|
quote:
Originally posted by mdisanto
haha john, itd be so hard to go up to frank black and say "my next question is, robert onion is an amazing song" i mean to deliver it right so that it gives off the intended effect. i just picture myself like reading the paper that has my questions and like reading it too fast before i remember to say it with some kinda of inflection, haha itd would be interesting though.
-miked
totally.. that would be great to do a Chris Farley style interview..
El Barto: "do you remember when you were in the Pixies? [dramatic pause] That was awesome!!!" |
|
|
|
Malax
* Dog in the Sand *
United Kingdom
1340 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 18:45:27
|
| Completely off topic, but a famous comedian here in the Uk had 'Told You I Was Ill/Sick Didnt I' (or words to that effect on his tombstone when he died. Tom Waits the big ripoff merchant. |
|
|
|
Atheist4Catholics
= Cult of Ray =
USA
925 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2002 : 20:23:17
|
1. Chords, melody, or lyrics first?
2. Do you always write on guitar, or do you use piano sometimes.
3. What, if any, lyrical tools do you use (Thesaurus, Rhyming Dictionary . . .)
4. How much of your actual experiences are in your lyrics
5. You're one of my favorite guitarists. Can you comment on your approach as a rhythm guitarist.
6. How can you scream like that and still have a great voice after all these years.
7. Sometimes on stage you appear to really despise your audience. Is this true sometimes? Why?
8. Have you ever considered doing a live to 2 session between two different buildings ala Esquivel? It could sound like those Motown records where the rhythm section is on one side and the orchestra on the other.
|
|
|
|
theonecontender
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
565 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2002 : 01:03:11
|
Is a song a song without words. Are words songs.
1c & ray |
|
|
|
peter radiator
= Cult of Ray =
USA
653 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2002 : 11:06:55
|
quote:
Originally posted by big_galoof
that's a bunch of damn erudite and well-written questions. bravo peter!
TBG
visit the big galoof's frank black trade list here:
http://home.nycap.rr.com/souvenirs/tradelist.htm
Thanks for the friendly words. Hopefully some of my outtakes will make the cut and we'll eventually hear the answers...
I'll check out your trade site and look forward to sharing some great music with you, kind sir.
~ Peter Radiator
"Real music is out there and real people are making it." ~ Webb Wilder |
|
|
|
MIRV
- FB Fan -
178 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2002 : 12:04:24
|
| ask him if he's gay. |
|
|
|
johndietzel
= Cult of Ray =
Burkina Faso (Upper Volta)
464 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 00:05:56
|
Sorry. I forgot one that has been in my head for months:
Seeing as two of the Ramones have sadly "retired" in the last couple years, do you stand by your hope that "if someone retires, they'll pull another Menudo," and do you think there's even a small chance it will happen? Also, did you know Roger Corman produced Rock n' Roll High School?
"Make no mistake; Ricky Lake's eatin' mad steaks off your bad breaks."
Carlton Ridenhour |
|
|
|
Dave Noisy
Minister of Chaos
Canada
4496 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 00:32:19
|
| Hey MIRV, he's married to a woman, so i have my doubts he's gay. If he were, what difference would it make? |
|
|
|
Solidgld
- FB Fan -
USA
104 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 02:17:51
|
Does he understand the effect his music past to present, has had on his generation that now is growing older with him. I know I am not alone in my love of his music it seems that anyone who really enjoy's the Pixies or FB&TC are very pasionate about it.
Molding Rock into Metal Again. FB
|
|
|
|
ProverbialCereal
- FB TabMaster -
USA
2953 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 10:09:32
|
If you ever got back together with the Pixies, would you consider a Frank Black and the Catholics reunion?
Derek |
|
|
|
FranknWeezer
= Cult of Ray =
USA
356 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2002 : 12:11:54
|
1. Why have you stopped making videos for the singles off your albums?
2. What are your thoughts on the Gibson SG (like Rich and Dave play)?
3. Have you ever been truly inspired, humbled, or flattered by meeting a fan? Was it me?
4. What do you think of Weezer? Would you ever collaborate w/ them?
5. Do you listen to Steve Earle, John Prine, or Lyle Lovett?
FranknWeezer |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
Topic Locked
