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fumanbru
* Dog in the Sand *
Canada
1462 Posts |
 Posted - 04/02/2003 : 06:05:28
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It's a Black day for Pixie fans
Highly anticipated concert has been sold out for weeks
Wed Apr 2 2003
BARTLEY KIVES
IN recent days, a steady stream of increasingly desperate-sounding people have called or e-mailed to ask one question: How can I get in to see Frank Black?
The answer is, you can't. You'd have an easier time fighting your way to Baghdad.
Tickets to see the former leader of The Pixies have been sold out for weeks, making tonight's show at Le Rendez-Vous -- which was already moved from the smaller West End Cultural Centre -- one of the most heavily anticipated concerts of the year.
"That's rare. I can't tell you the last time that's happened," says the man variously known as Charles Thompson, Black Francis and Frank Black over the course of a monumentally influential if largely unheralded musical career.
The Pixies, the Boston quartet whose collage of absurdist humour and post-punk guitar bluster paved the way for much of what is now modern rock, never made it to Winnipeg during its relatively short lifespan.
That explains the local demand to see Black and his band of the past five years, The Catholics, who play roots-rock with a little bit of twang and the occasional Pixies number. "While it's fun to go out on a limb and explore some new area sometimes, it's nice to work with an established vocabulary," says Black, explaining his current fascination with roots rock and Americana.
"Sometimes it seems more interesting to go down a road that a lot of people go down, to try to come up with something good using the same tools and the same vibe.
"It's not about rehashing. It's about taking on a certain code, going with the flow and trying to be creative within that certain parameter."
To date, Frank Black & The Catholics have put out five albums, including two -- Black Letter Days and The Devil's Workshop -- on the same day last year.
In typically idiosyncratic style, the first disc includes two versions of Tom Waits' Black Rider, while the second is led off by Velvety, an old Pixies instrumental given lyrics for the very first time.
A sixth, even twangier album tentatively titled Madams At Nine is in the can and may be released before the year is out. Black's modus operandi is to record as often as the whim strikes, rather than be confined to making one album every other year, the schedule favoured by record companies.
"A lot of artists prefer to be (prolific). That's the pace artists used to use back in the '50s and '60s," he says. "Things have slowed down a lot because of marketing. It makes sense from a business point of view, but it doesn't from a creative standpoint."
Black considers today's music landscape to be rife with too many talentless bands who are desperate to be famous. The element of fun, so central to the success of the mischievous-sounding Pixies, is absent from earnest, young bands who take themselves too seriously.
"The problem is the masses out there do respond frequently to getting hit upside the head with the stupid stick," Black opines. "So the (record labels) say, 'Gee, we made a lot of money with this stupidity, let's really pour on the stupid and hire some more of these stupid bands."
Despite his misgivings about music business, Black is happy with his role as a niche player, mostly because he has 100 per cent control over his creative work. He remains proud of his work with The Pixies but doesn't give much thought to the band's heady musical legacy.
David Lovering, the former drummer for Pixies, precedes Black on tonight's bill, playing a short set that's been described as performance art. Tangiers, an indie band from Ontario, opens up.
"We've never been to this part of the country, though we always wanted to," says Black. "So if there's any anticipation among the crowd, we share it."
bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca
Here's another story from another local paper.
Alt-rocker Black sings praises of Manitoba
Frank Black has never set foot in Manitoba -- but we've already become part of his musical landscape.
"We're really looking forward to playing there, because we'll be playing a new song that's called Manitoba," declares the alt-rock pioneer down the line from a tour stop "somewhere in Texas."
"It's a tale of something that happened to someone," he adds cryptically, reluctantly elaborating when pressed. "I have a friend who's from Manitoba -- the Thompson area. The tale comes via her. But I don't want to say that. I don't want to spoil it for people."
Fat chance. Short of cancellation, there's little Black could do to dampen local enthusiasm for his local debut this week. Perhaps the most hotly anticipated indie-rock gig in the city in years, the show -- originally earmarked for the West End Cultural Centre -- sold out in days and was moved to the larger Le Rendez-Vous to accommodate demand.
Even more impressive, the husky, balding 37-year-old singer-guitarist isn't the hottest ticket in town this week because of some flavour-of-the-week hit single. Rather, it's mainly because of who he was and what he did more than a decade ago. In the late '80s and early '90s, Black -- under the flip-flopped handle Black Francis -- fronted the seminal alt-rock band The Pixies, whose spiky guitars and quiet-loud dynamic approach laid the foundation for alt-rock. No less a deity than Kurt Cobain famously claimed Smells Like Teen Spirit was his attempt to write a Pixies song. The compliment and his influential former band -- topics inevitably raised in interviews -- haunt Black to this day.
"If anything, I just get bored by being asked about it," he says, er, frankly. "There isn't any interesting answer to that question. What are you supposed to say about somebody liking you? I get tired of people saying, 'You're considered influential. How does that feel?' "
Though, it must be said, Black doesn't seem to mind being considered influential.
"Honestly, I think The Pixies are kinda more famous since we broke up than we ever were together," he says. "But whatever status the media or whoever wants to force on me is fine. Status is a nice thing. I'm not resistant to it."
But he doesn't rest on those laurels, either. Since disbanding The Pixies in 1993, Black has maintained a busy schedule, issuing eight solo albums -- with the last two, the edgy rockers Devil's Workshop and Black Letter Days, released simultaneously last summer. A new album is already in the can.
"To us, that's the pace, at least a record or two a year," Black says. "And that should be the standard pace. We're always frustrated that the rest of the music business has slowed down. If record labels are worried about having too many releases, it's because they have too many artists. They sign too much crap. They do."
One contract you won't see Black putting his John Hancock to is anything to do with a Pixies reunion -- though he says fans can expect to hear old favourites during his band's set.
"We do plenty of Pixies," he says. "People don't need to hear tons of it, but if they hear three or four things they feel like they've received a well-rounded meal. They're like, 'Great. Now you can play whatever you want.' "
Especially if it's about Manitoba.
Toronto buzz-band Tangiers and former Pixies drummer David Lovering -- who now bills himself as a "Scientific Experimentalist" -- open the show.
by DARRYL STERDAN
Winnipeg Sun |
Edited by - fumanbru on 04/02/2003 06:22:03 |
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