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Arm Arm Arm
* Dog in the Sand *
1048 Posts |
 Posted - 06/13/2026 : 13:09:35
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Oh, it's been years since I listened to them, or even Frank's solo work and the Pixies, so much of a good thing, a great thing I needed to take a break.
Returning to Fb & the C's have me loving their music even more than before, which, considering of how high the esteem I hold these recoreds in, is quite frankly, incredible.
Six albums, five years, great sound quality, performances that both show off individual's skills and yet are mixed in like perfect seasoning.
How You Went So Far feels like walking into some late night basement bar where the greatest unknown band is there playing away their heartbreak, and trying to cure yours too, and if they can't well, they can sympathize.
Who knew the Pixies would have a second life and the Catholics would remain the great secret waiting to be told? |
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Troubles A Foot
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1154 Posts |
Posted - 06/13/2026 : 13:30:54
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Oh wow, I could not agree more.
A few weeks ago I had a really long, tiring, bad day at work. I got in the car for the 45 minute drive home. I put on all of Catholics on shuffle.
Holy shit. It just blasted my face off. Bad Harmony played, I remember. I was just screaming along. There's just nothing like those albums. It inspired me to make a Spotify playlist (very Catholics-heavy) called "Fucking Off After A Long Day At Work."
Other great songs after a shit day at work: So Hard To Make Things Out, So. Bay, I Switched You...OK I guess a lot of Pistolero!? |
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Arm Arm Arm
* Dog in the Sand *
1048 Posts |
Posted - 06/14/2026 : 08:54:25
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Nice name for your list, I get it! Glad the tunes helped.
Pistolero is a great album, with three big epic songs, I Switched You which is hard-rocking borderline metallic with a burst of chaos, So Hard To Make...where the song makes you feel like you really are on a plain watching something beyond human kin and of course So. Bay which transitions from a heavy groove to something majestic. It kinda sums up the whole record in one song. |
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Troubles A Foot
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1154 Posts |
Posted - 06/14/2026 : 13:24:56
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Yeah, it's a really underrated album.
I often think about how I would try to convince a Pixies-only fan to appreciate Pistolero. I can hear how it's different from the Pixies in many ways, but it also feels more ferocious to me.
I will always remember playing I Switched You at work, to a coworker who had never heard it, though he knew Pixies and who Frank was, and during the insane part of the song he said "Damn Frank Black, stop rocking so hard!" |
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two reelers
* Dog in the Sand *
Austria
1091 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2026 : 00:33:52
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Billy Radcliff(e?).
The most epic of his epic ones. Fantastic tune, out-of-this-world lyrical imagery (note the duality theme).
For your playlist, I hope you have included Suffering from FB&TC self-titled!
And after venting out, Black Letter Day and Southbound Bevy would also fit here.
I joined the cult of Souled American / 'cause they are a damn' fine band |
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Stevio10
* Dog in the Sand *
United Kingdom
1149 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2026 : 11:30:18
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| Yeah Pistolero is a near perfect slice of Frank signing off the 90s rocking out. There's no 'bad' tracks on the album, just the best are up there with his very best. In addition to the ones already mentioned, I'd have to point to Western Star as being a stand out song. |
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Skatealex1
* Dog in the Sand *
1728 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2026 : 16:47:41
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This thread encouraged me to listen to some Frank stuff again too.
Oddballs- on the road. A fun album of 'oddball' tracks. I think how prolific he was in these times made it fun to follow. Random b-sides and off the cuff sounding albums and releases.
Today- rocking with Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove Day. Another fun b-sides album, from the Catholics this time. A few of these tracks did end up getting released. Always dug Humboldt County Massacre too. |
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Brank_Flack
* Dog in the Sand *
Canada
1121 Posts |
Posted - 06/16/2026 : 08:39:19
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Yeah, I revisited the Catholics last year and was pretty blown away (hence that Best of the Catholics thread I made).
I'll stir the pot a bit: I think the alt-country albums have aged like fine wine (Black Letter Days gets better with each passing year), but the 90s rock albums are still hit and miss for me. Even though the band started as a rock outfit, I think they're a better Americana/alt-country band - they are so much more expressive and subtle in the latter mode, whereas I still find them a bit too pedestrian/meat-and-potatoes in the former, Lyle Workman flourishes on self-titled withstanding. The "blistering" numbers often leave me more tired out than excited. Some of their best playing from the 90s rock albums are the ones that foreshadow the alt-country turn (Dog Gone, Billy Radcliffe, 85 Weeks, Western Star, etc.). |
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Arm Arm Arm
* Dog in the Sand *
1048 Posts |
Posted - 06/16/2026 : 15:22:20
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quote:
Originally posted by two reelers
Billy Radcliff(e?).
The most epic of his epic ones. Fantastic tune, out-of-this-world lyrical imagery (note the duality theme).
I joined the cult of Souled American / 'cause they are a damn' fine band
When he sings "and I feel very bad for William Radcliffe..." I get chills. I try to space out when I listen to the tune so as not to wear it out, aside from this re-discovery of their oeuvre.
It's an epic in, what, less than three minutes, a perfect metaphysical sci-fi/horror/fantasy western song.
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Arm Arm Arm
* Dog in the Sand *
1048 Posts |
Posted - 06/16/2026 : 15:24:37
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quote:
Originally posted by Stevio10
Yeah Pistolero is a near perfect slice of Frank signing off the 90s rocking out. There's no 'bad' tracks on the album, just the best are up there with his very best. In addition to the ones already mentioned, I'd have to point to Western Star as being a stand out song.
Yes! What's interesting to me is some of his music sounds flat and uninteresting at first before blossoming in one's ears. Western Star just builds in power till by the end it's as anthemic as Pearl Jam's Alive. |
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Arm Arm Arm
* Dog in the Sand *
1048 Posts |
Posted - 06/16/2026 : 15:25:39
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quote:
Originally posted by Skatealex1
This thread encouraged me to listen to some Frank stuff again too.
Oddballs- on the road. A fun album of 'oddball' tracks. I think how prolific he was in these times made it fun to follow. Random b-sides and off the cuff sounding albums and releases.
Today- rocking with Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove Day. Another fun b-sides album, from the Catholics this time. A few of these tracks did end up getting released. Always dug Humboldt County Massacre too.
That's a great song.
Perhaps a rare misstep for my taste is Velvety, it's all right but I prefer the Pixies's instrumental. |
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Arm Arm Arm
* Dog in the Sand *
1048 Posts |
Posted - 06/16/2026 : 15:29:52
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quote:
Originally posted by Brank_Flack
Yeah, I revisited the Catholics last year and was pretty blown away (hence that Best of the Catholics thread I made).
I'll stir the pot a bit: I think the alt-country albums have aged like fine wine (Black Letter Days gets better with each passing year), but the 90s rock albums are still hit and miss for me.
I'll have to go back and look for it.
That is definitely some serious pot-stirring.
I enjoy all of the stages of their arc, it's why I think DITS is the most archetypal record of theirs for its looking back to their rock beginnings (three years earlier ha ha) while pointing ahead to what they'd become, but I understand your perspective.
What I find incredible, is how the band traverses well-worn rock-country roads yet always stray from these into more interesting routes.
Cheers
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Brank_Flack
* Dog in the Sand *
Canada
1121 Posts |
Posted - 06/16/2026 : 18:03:39
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quote:
What I find incredible, is how the band traverses well-worn rock-country roads yet always stray from these into more interesting routes.
This is a good way of putting it!
I would also like to second your admiration for Billy Radcliffe. Quintessential FB lyrics. |
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Troubles A Foot
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1154 Posts |
Posted - 06/16/2026 : 19:13:31
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| My favorite is still probably the first FB&C album, so I fully disagree. |
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Arm Arm Arm
* Dog in the Sand *
1048 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2026 : 09:13:52
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quote:
Originally posted by Brank_Flack
quote:
What I find incredible, is how the band traverses well-worn rock-country roads yet always stray from these into more interesting routes.
This is a good way of putting it!
I would also like to second your admiration for Billy Radcliffe. Quintessential FB lyrics.
Thanks. |
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Arm Arm Arm
* Dog in the Sand *
1048 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2026 : 09:16:49
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quote:
Originally posted by Troubles A Foot
My favorite is still probably the first FB&C album, so I fully disagree.
For me, it was a huge shift to go from Cult of Ray (and TOTY and the self-titled) to FB& the C's first record. It wasn't as immediately accessible, and like I said earlier, felt musically flat.
But overtime I came to appreciate and then love songs like "All My Ghosts", "Steak n Sabre" "Back To Rome," and "Dog Gone." Now I find them phenomenal with interesting parts and dynamic shifts as well as a really smooth flow.
The Catholics entire run has a warm inviting feel.
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Arm Arm Arm
* Dog in the Sand *
1048 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2026 : 15:04:35
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While I'm expounding on the band, while I understand Frank's mindset, when it comes to songs relatives to albums, and set lists, and I think the alphabetical boxset is an interesting approach, I definitely prefer the albums.
Each its own unique artistic statement.
Self-titled has a great flow to it, the weakest song on there being the Larry Norman cover, I generally prefer Frank's originals. The song order works. But I'm glad he didn't use that approach on the rest of the Catholics.
There's this majestic feel to the songs on the first album, maybe All My Ghosts sets the pace with le bridge fantastique, some of the tracks deeply resonate, like Do You Feel Bad About It, like the best songs, feels both personal and universal-but then that's art.
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Troubles A Foot
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1154 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2026 : 16:50:17
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| I hate that he put the songs in alphabetical order on the box set. It's so the opposite of what I love about albums. |
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billgoodman
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Netherlands
6362 Posts |
Posted - 06/19/2026 : 06:54:32
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quote:
Originally posted by Troubles A Foot
I hate that he put the songs in alphabetical order on the box set. It's so the opposite of what I love about albums.
Yeah, that was a mistake FBF made in my opinion
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BF: Mag ik Engels spreken? |
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Fb & The C's have aged like a fine wine
