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tits mcgee
- FB Fan -

1 Posts

Posted - 06/03/2005 : 11:42:07

http://boulderdirt.com/music/article.cfm/2964

Pixies, with Violent Femmes and the BellRays
7 p.m. Sunday
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison
$38.50, (303) 830-8497 or www.ticketmaster.com

Here comes your man

By Matt Sebastian | Wednesday June 1, 2005

For fans of the Pixies, hell froze over last year.

The legendary alt-rock quartet - whose whisper-to-a-scream dynamics served as Kurt Cobain's blueprint for "Nevermind" - put aside acrid personal differences to reunite for an ecstatically received reunion tour.

The band, which originally imploded after 1991's "Trompe Le Monde," spent much of 2004 on the road, first playing a string of instantly sold-out club gigs, then a near-headlining slot at Coachella, followed by European festival appearances, and, finally, another leg of U.S. dates, including a September stop at Denver's Magness Arena.

In the press, if not at the box office, the Pixies' comeback was the music story of the year.

Such overdue accolades and hipster-fueled hysteria must have been overwhelming for the band, right?

Wrong. Frank Black, the Pixies' stoic frontman, sounds entirely nonplussed by all the attention.

"No, it hasn't been overwhelming at all, and I mean that in a good way," Black says during a recent stop on the Pixies' current tour, which comes to Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Sunday. "If it was overwhelming, I'd associate that with being knocked off your feet, or tied down in some way. I could take plenty more of this before I felt overwhelmed."

Listening to the 40-year-old Black - who hasn't resuscitated his old nom de rock, Black Francis - talk about the Pixies is a little weird; he's so dispassionate and matter-of-fact about the band that it's almost like he's talking about a day at the office - not his tenure at the helm of a genre-shifting rock 'n' roll act.

"I just play music," he explains. "I play music in bands. I play music with other people, sort of as sidemen. I don't differentiate. ... I call up my manager, and he calls up the theatrical agent, and they book a tour. Sometimes you're in clubs, sometimes you're at a place like Red Rocks. They're both legit, and I'm happy playing anywhere."

In fact, Black may be in the midst of another round of Pixies reunion dates, but he's still firmly focused on his solo career. Next month, he'll release "Honeycomb," a country flavored platter he recorded last year in Nashville with a cast of Stax and Muscle Shoals session legends, including Steve Cropper, Reggie Young and Spooner Oldham.

It's a project Black says he's been itching to tackle for 10 years.

"I guess I'd point to 'Blonde on Blonde' by Dylan as sort of the prototype of that kind of experience - you know, you go to Nashville, you hire some cats and you make a record," he says, admitting he almost called his disc "Black on Blonde."

After cutting six rock records in five years with the stripped-down Catholics, Honeycomb is a serious departure for Black. There's no screaming, for one, nor much loud rock. Cuts such as "Selkie Bride" and "Go Find Your Saint," plus a slow-burning cover of "Dark End of the Street," are both twangy and soulful, steeped in Cropper's liquid guitar licks.

"It was like playing with Elvis or something," Black says of his sidemen, who weren't familiar with the Pixie's music. "They're just so good. It's like having the American Rolling Stones as your backing band. All I did was lay out a chart, just come chord progressions. They'd never even heard the songs before we played them, yet it's all take 1, take 2.

"Cropper, in particular, was very good about starting a song," Black adds. "We'd have an open bar, a four-count, on a particular chord, and he would, in the moment, develop some kind of little riff or little hook that would start the engine, get the song going, you know. He was very good at that - and he did it very quickly, off the top of his head."

In addition to delving into a different musical genre, Black also used "Honeycomb" to unfurl some of his most personal lyrics in songs such as "My Life is in Storage," which deals with the dissolution of his marriage and a move to Portland, Ore. Lyrically, it's a far cry from the Pixies' surreal tales of slicing up eyeballs and heaven-bound primates.

"I was headed down to meet the Pixies to rehearse (last year), and I drove to San Francisco, from Oregon, to do a (solo) acoustic gig," Black says. "I drove by all of these storage places, and, of course, I had a couple of them myself in various places. But, you know, I was just kind of bored, and trying to write some country and western songs when I came up with the first version of 'My Life is in Storage,' which was more of a straight-up, hokey country song.

"It was a lot more humorous at first, I suppose, and it didn't really stick, didn't feel right," he says. "The final version, which didn't really have anything to do with that country song musically or lyrically, except for the concept of storage, I wrote in the hotel in Nashville the night before it was recorded."

The "Honeycomb" sessions were quick and dirty, scheduled in the days before the Pixies reunion kicked off last April. Still, Black managed to make a return trip to Nashville later in the year and cut another record's worth of material with Cropper and some other session pros, a disc that could emerge before the Pixies' long-discussed new studio album.

"Nothing's happened with that yet, not in a tangible way," Black says of the planned Pixies project. "Maybe in a psychological way, though. We're kind of in the process of reinventing ourselves. I don't mean, necessarily, from a creative point of view, but just from a psychological point of view. I think we're trying to be a better band this time than we were before, trying to communicate a little better."

To illustrate his point, Black recounts an on-stage flare-up last week between himself and Kim Deal, "a little tension" that occurred when the Pixies' bassist attempted to take the band off its planned setlist during a show.

"I guess I can come off as a little tense on stage, and some of that's because I am actually tense," Black says. "But a lot of it's also because I'm all wound up from belting out these songs. People can get the wrong impression of our moods, not just the audience, but the rest of the band, too.

"But instead of just letting it fester, Kim and I had a nice long talk about this strange dynamic that occurs sometimes on stage when we go off setlist."

So is this a sign of maturity in the Pixies' camp? A result of once-squabbling bandmates growing older and wiser?

"Ahhhhh... partially," Black says. "But I would give more credit to psychotherapy (on my part). When you go to therapy, you're a lot more aware of how your buttons get pushed, and how other people's buttons get pushed. You become more tuned into that, so you're able to deal with a lot more, and sort of address it and discuss it in a friendly way as opposed to getting all wound up about it and just saying, 'Well, that was fucking stupid. I can't stand it when you act like that.'

"Anyway, we're working on it. Things are getting better."

fbc
-= Modulator =-

United Kingdom
4903 Posts

Posted - 06/03/2005 : 11:48:08

nice name and brilliant first post. thanks for this, much appreciated and another fine read

it all looks beautiful to me

dayanara
* Dog in the Sand *

Australia
1811 Posts

Posted - 06/03/2005 : 11:50:19

very nice, tits. thanks muchly.

kathryn
~ Selkie Bride ~

Belgium
15320 Posts

Posted - 06/03/2005 : 11:56:07

Lovely story, lovely user name. You come around here, much?

I still believe in the excellent joy of the Catholics

OldManInaCoffeeCan
* Dog in the Sand *

USA
1467 Posts

Posted - 06/03/2005 : 13:07:25

Alright, I'll state the obvious as well...Nice, Tits babe...love these big natural tete a tetes exposed for all to see...

Seriously, thanks for posting, all of these interviews posted have been great so far.

frank_black_francis
= Cult of Ray =

Canada
895 Posts

Posted - 06/03/2005 : 13:57:09

wow....PIXIES AND VIOLENT FEMMES....

ccuadros
* Dog in the Sand *

Chile
1315 Posts

Posted - 06/03/2005 : 17:26:21

quote:
Originally posted by frank_black_francis

wow....PIXIES AND VIOLENT FEMMES....

Yeah!! I'm agree!!! two of my prefered bands will play together...really amazing!!..I wish I'll be there...

By the way, it's excellent to know that frank is dealing better when happens problems with kim. it's a sign of maturity and that could reflect in long life to the Pixies and (I hope)a possible new record

Salu2

Visiting Sasquatch
= Cult of Ray =

USA
451 Posts

Posted - 06/04/2005 : 10:56:48

I would've bought Black On Blonde....

floop
= Wannabe Volunteer =

Mexico
15297 Posts

Posted - 06/04/2005 : 14:44:59

am i the only person who thinks of other connotations when i hear the album title Blonde On Blonde?

Edited by - floop on 06/04/2005 15:21:55

TRANSMARINE
* Dog in the Sand *

USA
2002 Posts

Posted - 06/06/2005 : 16:49:31

Like...Golden Retrievers getting excited, or a vhs copy of the Blond Ambition tour resting on top of an original vinyl copy of Parallel Lines?

I was alone...in my BIG BED

-bRIAN

vilainde
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<

Niue
7442 Posts

Posted - 06/07/2005 : 02:00:15

Uh... actually I can't think of any other meaning to the album name than what floop talks about (seriously). What's the actual meaning of Blonde On Blonde?

Denis

I know the god of rock n roll / Yeah I sold him my soul!

Joey Joe Jo Jr. Chabadoo
* Dog in the Sand *

1079 Posts

Posted - 06/07/2005 : 05:43:32

quote:
Originally posted by vilainde

Uh... actually I can't think of any other meaning to the album name than what floop talks about (seriously). What's the actual meaning of Blonde On Blonde?

Denis
I know the god of rock n roll / Yeah I sold him my soul!

During the session of this album Dylan was smoking blonde cigarettes after blonde cigartettes... It is a simple as that... It's country music... It's life...

Blah blah blah

cassandra is
> Teenager of the Year <