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idiot_sleep
- FB Fan -
USA
55 Posts |
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frankblackphx
= Cult of Ray =
USA
287 Posts |
 Posted - 11/13/2002 : 16:18:47
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Thanks for the article.
Let's hope Frank was being serious about releasing two albums again for his next releases. :) |
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CaptainMaximus
- FB Fan -
126 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2002 : 16:32:51
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| Isn't Rich Gilbert, who wasn't mentioned, also an intregal part of that "core" the article mentions, or is he sitting out for this tour? I've seen him in all the recent pics, though. Seems to me the article forgot Mr. Gilbert. Otherwise, an entertaining read. |
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Solidgld
- FB Fan -
USA
104 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2002 : 17:07:37
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Great article,Thanks idiot sleep. Read the reviews Topic's people are saying he's playing in the shows. Like usual breaking strings(he really rocks).
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Dave Noisy
Minister of Chaos
Canada
4496 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2002 : 17:16:42
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Here's the article:
Frank Black & The Catholics: Only Believe
"We don't always like to preach to the converted," states Frank Black, speaking in a low voice. It's early at his hotel in Toronto, where he and his band are wrapping up a five-night residency at the prestigious Horseshoe Tavern. "It's nice to get new converts," he chuckles.
Black "gripes" in colorful, passionate fashion when he's in a good mood. And why not? He's perhaps one of the most prolific and influential figures in modern American rock and pop music. He's survived a few treks to the edge of (Photo by Frank Hamrick)
commercial success, witnessed the evil side of the biz, returned safely to the sanctuary of the nebulous "underground," and still makes a living playing exactly the kind of music he wants to play.
Back in the mid-1980s, Black [AKA Charles Thompson], formed a rock band in Boston called The Pixies, adopted the stage name "Black Francis," and went on to release five hugely acclaimed records that still inspire and influence people today.
After The Pixies parted ways in the early '90s, Black Francis began a solo career as Frank Black. After Teenager Of The Year, Black started to move away from that psychedelic, multi-track, heavily-produced type of recording and into something more basic. The sound got back to where it all began with two guitars, a bass and drums: nothing else. He and his new band, The Catholics (featuring bassist David McCaffrey and drummer Scott Boutier, both formerly of Miracle Legion), released a hellacious, back-to-basics, self-titled rock debut in 1998. Over the last four years, Black and the gang have toured North America and Europe and recorded a pile of varied pop, rock and twangy music on their own mobile studio in Los Angeles.
For Frank Black, the unofficial status of "elder statesmen" in the underground rock world seems to fit. Just ask any clueless 19-year-old DJ.
"I just don't have patience for the young'uns... I hate to say, but it's true, you know?" he says. "Without a doubt, any representative of a college station or newspaper - they just stink. And I'm generalizing, I mean, there are some nice people out there doing it. But most of them don't know how to hold a conversation. They don't know how to ask a question. There's nothing! I have to kinda do all the work for them... I just got done talking to some kid from Yale who scored 1800 or something on the SATs and the guy can't even form a fucking sentence. It's unbelievable."
Maybe it's a generational thing, this breach between "alternative" circa 1991 and 2002.
"I realize that," he concedes. "I was 19, too. I don't expect them to be seasoned or anything. Believe me, I love that college radio and college newspapers exist - if they didn't my career would be even more obscure than it is! I just don't have he patience for it any more," he laughs.
"Last year I was doing the summer festival circuit in Europe, which was bigger and more summery festivally than ever before," Black continues. "There's hundreds of these festivals all over the continent, small ones and medium sized ones. It's a good thing for someone like myself, who's not exactly hot right now. I was able to get some gigs there last summer and I made out okay. I remember when I first started doing that summer circuit with the Pixies, my memory of the lineups was that they were a hell of a lot more interesting back then than they are now. It seems very dumbed down and catering very much to that kind of 'Hey-Oh! Hey-Oh! Hey everybody, let's hit a beach ball around.' Really dumb. Really dumb. I feel like, yeah, maybe it is a generational thing, but I don't know... I think something is going on and people are really getting dumbed down."
Frank Black & The Catholics kicked off their recent tour in support of two new full-length records released simultaneously in late August. Black Letter Days and Devil's Workshop were once again issued by the band's longtime label SpinART Records. Both albums mix a wild variety of styles and sounds, from rootsy, Stones-style blues–rock and earthy Dylan-esque folk, to the dusty cabaret-carnivalism of Tom Waits and the weirdness of Pere Ubu. There's more piano, pedal steel and organ throughout both collections than previous efforts. There's more personalized stories, ghost tales and road songs, too. According to Black, it all just fell into place naturally.
Black: "I made two records and I suppose it was financially easier for the label to release them in the same day as opposed to a month apart or something like that, which would have been my preference. It's been done before. I wasn't trying to make a big statement or make a big deal out of it or anything. I just recorded a bunch of stuff. I'm half way tempted to release two records again next time... just to bug a few journalists!"
What made one batch of songs end up on one album and another on the other? It was a simple time table situation in which the meat of one session comprised on album and the results of another, more stripped-down session made the other.
"There was one session that became one record and one producer and a core lineup," says Black. "We still had our studio and kept recording. A couple of the guys had to leave because they other commitments. The producer had other commitments but we still had our engineer and our stuff. Out of deference to the people participating in Black Letter Days, we didn't water it down with stuff from our second session. We liked it... someone could certainly make the argument that Black Letter Days sonically maybe sounds a little crisper, a little more thought-out and little more produced. Out of deference to the people who weren't able to work on Devil's Workshop, we didn't wanna just go, ’Hey man, while you guys were out of town, we decided to add a bunch more songs to the record and take a few more off.' You know, we didn't wanna get into that. I think people do have a tendency in general to talk about records in all–encompassing type of ’Well, to sum it all up in a nutshell, this record sounds like this.' But people's records aren't symphonies with three movements. They have ten or 18 songs on them. People used to say the same thing about Pixies records – like ’This one's all this and this one's like that.' The entity of the song if much more identifiable."
The core lineup of current Catholics includes Frank Black on lead vocals and acoustic and electric guitars; Dave Phillips on vocals, guitar and pedal steel; David McCaffrey on bass and vocals; and Scott Boutier on drums (and "absolutely no vocals"). Special guests on the albums included guitarists Joey Santiago (Black's former colleague in The Pixies), Lyle Workman and Morris Tepper; keyboardists Rob Laufer, Eric Feldman and Stan Ridgway (ex-Wall Of Voodoo); and percussion from Ben Mumphrey.
David Phillips, as some locals may remember, played in Athens band Liquor Cabinet, Redneck GReece Delux and Little Debbie through the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Black: "That's right – L'il Davey Phillips! He's a great musician and a really great guy. We love having him in the band. We brought him into the band for Dog In The Sand as kind of our auxiliary guitarist. He was so good and such a pleasure to be with that he ended up on every song on the record. From that point on he was in the band. He's a pretty accomplished musician... it's not like I'm Captain Beefheart or Frank Zappa; it's dumber than that. So I didn't have to walk him through anything. It works out for us because Rich Gilbert is occasionally unavailable because he's with other projects. It gives him the chance to do that. Or if Eric Feldman [an early member of the Catholics] is available, he'll come in and play piano or something. It's a good situation. I like having it where people can kinda come in and out of the band but they're always in it."
Ballard Lesemann
And a pic:
 (Photo by Frank Hamrick) |
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KingOfSiam
- FB LinkMaster -
USA
460 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2002 : 10:23:15
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| Hilarious.....Scored 1800 on his SAT and can't form a fucking sentence!!!!!! Brilliant. |
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Chip Away Boy
= Cult of Ray =
914 Posts |
Posted - 11/14/2002 : 22:37:02
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I'm half way tempted to release two records again next time... just to bug a few journalists!"
lets hope so! |
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