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Pixies frontman isn't at a loss for words

By Malcolm X Abram
Frank Black Francis wants to be cuddled.

Since the return to action of his indie rock band the Pixies, the man known to friends as Charles Michael Kitridge Thompson IV, and soon-to-be daddy (his girlfriend is pregnant with their first child), has become a cog in the music business machine like never before. Though he has never stopped making music, having released 11 albums under the name Frank Black, the success of the Pixies reunion has made him a hot interview for rock scribes who came of age with the Pixies and those who are playing catch-up.

Formed in Boston in 1986, the Pixies - vocalist guitarist Black, lead guitarist Joey Santiago, drummer and magician David Lovering and bassist, vocalist and "secret weapon" Kim Deal - were just a quirky band playing Black's quirky songs around Massachusetts. A tour opening for Throwing Muses got the band a chance to record a demo, which got the group signed to `80s and `90s indie rock powerhouse label 4AD. The band's debut EP, Come On Pilgrim, in 1987, followed by the Steve Albini-recorded full-length Surfer Rosa in 1988 featured college rock radio staples Where Is My Mind, and the Deal-penned fan favourite Gigantic.

By its third release, Doolittle, the band began getting attention from MTV and had successful singles with the pop-leaning tune Monkey Gone to Heaven and Here Comes Your Man. Two more strong records followed, Bossanova and the noisy Trompe Le Monde, before the breakup. However, the band's musical template - razor-sharp guitars, soft verses, loud choruses, strong hooks compiled of cryptic lyrics and Black's patented unhinged scream contrasting with Deal's detached girlish voice - arguably defined indie guitar rock of the era and laid the foundation for what was to become "alternative". Since Francis's infamous 1992 fax breaking up the band, musicians, including Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Bright Eyes leader Conor Oberst and most famously Kurt Cobain, have sung the band's praises. And both David Bowie and Staind covered the band on recent albums.

A dozen years later, the band has reunited to considerably more mainstream fanfare than it garnered the first time around. For Francis, that means having slight variations on the same conversation several times a day - a task for which Francis is not always in the mood, particularly when said scribe seems disingenuous or simply attempts to get Francis to fill in the blanks on a low-key band that made an important but low-key splash, and ended with a low-key breakup. And, as your intrepid reporter aka "phone No. 5 of the day" clumsily broached the subject, Francis needed to do a little venting.

"That was then, this is now," he said. "You live with a bunch of people for a few years and you get on each other's nerves. It's not that big of a deal. "It happens to every band, pretty much. Bands break up, some bands don't, some bands are able to get over and they do their reunion tour. I mean it's not like I'm an Arab and Kim's an Israeli."

Fair enough. But, how about...

"I don't mean to be cranky with you, sir, but what I'm saying is you guys (reporters) say all kinds of things, but you never really back it up with any real observations. What you do is you rehash other articles that have been written," he said.

Uh ... OK so everybody's getting along really great now?

"Yeah, there you go!" he said, laughing.

"Isn't this better than some guy giving you some VH1 sound bubble sound bite so you can block it out in big bold print? Aren't you glad I'm real as opposed to some trite crap?

"It's not even the question, it's how it's asked. This is supposed to be a romance ... and I can tell they're not there, they're just reading off of a piece of paper or something. So I have no problem with dull little questions, but the dull little questions really drive you nuts if you feel like the other person on the other end of the line is not really curious. They are just going through the motions and its like, no, I need more cuddling than that. We gotta spoon a little bit, I don't just want to (fornicate)."

Ironically, Deal called him during the interview.

"See, that was Kim asking me if I wanted to go do something. See how rosy it is?" he said, laughing.

The Pixies circa 2004 are a bit wiser, a little bit heavier, and though the music business machine periodically intrudes, Francis said they are all having a very good time with the reunion. Since the debut at the Coachella Festival in May and the announcement of the tour, they has been selling out arenas around the United States and Europe, playing to crowds exponentially larger than the ones they used to pack into clubs and theaters. As much as Francis enjoys having 5,000 to 10,000 people, many half his age, screaming back his lyrics at him, he said the band misses the smaller rooms it used to play.

"Big cement buildings are not great for rock shows," Francis said.

- copyright (C) 2004 KRT News Service

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