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Ten Percenter
- FB Enquirer -
United Kingdom
1733 Posts |
 Posted - 07/04/2005 : 13:53:35
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No time to type it at the moment - is anyone a member of Mojo's online site? Anyway, it is a 4 star review (Mojo always tended to review Frank's post-Pixies work favourably), but it also has a brief interview with Frank. Frank mentions the the last FB and The C's European tour, and the band fights on the tour bus. It appears as if they are no more, if we had not already worked that out.
"Fried food, cigarettes, no exercise, chest pain..." (Excerpt from the Angina Monologues) |
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NimrodsSon
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1938 Posts |
Posted - 07/04/2005 : 13:59:47
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Perhaps ten years from now the world will finally see the light and we will have our Catholics reunion. Perhaps...
ˇViva los Católicos! http://adrianfoster.dmusic.com/ |
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dayanara
* Dog in the Sand *
Australia
1811 Posts |
Posted - 07/04/2005 : 14:25:13
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you think frank will stop playing catholics songs for a while the way he did pixies songs after the breakup? that would be a real tragedy.
i am sitting here observing my emotional discomfort. |
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kathryn
~ Selkie Bride ~
Belgium
15320 Posts |
Posted - 07/04/2005 : 20:36:32
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quote:
Originally posted by dayanara
you think frank will stop playing catholics songs for a while the way he did pixies songs after the breakup? that would be a real tragedy.
i am sitting here observing my emotional discomfort.
Dayanara, yet again I need that emoticon for slashing one's wrists.
Thanks.
Sometimes, no matter how shitty things get, you have to just do a little dance. - Frank
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Ten Percenter
- FB Enquirer -
United Kingdom
1733 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2005 : 07:14:15
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It looks like I am going to have to type it! I will type the review first, and the short interview later. The review takes up a whole page, although a photo of Frank accounts for some of this. As I mentioned already, there is a cryptic mention of the demise of the Catholics, but the Q and A does not expand on this.
Mojo review, August edition, by Andrew Male. A four star review (out of five!).
Back in 1992 Frank Black mentioned to his producer, Jon Tiven, that he'd like to do a Nashville record, follow in the footsteps of Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, get a bunch of guys who'd never heard of him, cut an album in a couple of days... maybe call it Black on Blonde? Twelve solo years later, following the demise of FB and The Cs ("Fistfights, trashed tour buses, personal life spilling over"), a recent divorce, a move to Portland, Oregon, and the pain of sorting out the Pixies reunion tour ("we were fighting on the phone, so that was off"), Black called Tiven and announced, "Let's do Black on Blonde!"
You can understand the appeal. The Catholics' 7-year career of cathartic diary-entry angst-rock had run its course and the names in Tiven's little black book were enticing: Steve Cropper, Buddy Miller and Reggie Young on guitar, Chester Thompson, Anton Fig, Billy Block and Akil Thompson on drums, David Hood on bass, Spooner Oldham on keyboards. Engineer? Dan Penn. Unfortunately, with the Pixies reunion tour suddenly back on, Black had 5 days to write and record the album. There were no rehearsals. It should have been a mess.
Retaining some of the post-therapy emotional honesty of 2003's Show me your Tears, Honeycomb moves on from denial and anger into a relaxed country-soul stage of fear'n'acceptance. Album opener Selkie Bride - a calm yet eerie reworking of the Orkney and Shetland myth of the selkie, in which Black meets one of the beautiful seal-folk during a wild storm on the north California coast - is followed by the equally wonderful I Burn Today, a country lament, possibly about a man who marries a siren, tries to burn her memories and ends up burning both. Both are modern folk songs where the pain of divorce and departure are represented as dark-edged encounters with fairy enchantresses.
With the band echoing Black's lyrics through tight, lazy playing, a mood is established that is both graceful yet ghostly, like some slow country drive into a haunted village. Points where it should all go wrong, such as his covers of Dark End of the Street and Song of the Shrimp (from Elvis's movie Girls, Girls, Girls) are redeemed by his sweet-sharp falsetto that has an eerie similarity to unsung country-soul heroes Eddie Hinton and Tommy McLain. Lovelorn, dog-tired, fragile, content, Honeycomb is really closer to the Dylan of New Morning than Blonde on Blonde; an angry young man finally transformed by a new voice and outlook, standing on the cliff edge of middle age, staring into the salty sea blast with resolute defiance.
"Fried food, cigarettes, no exercise, chest pain..." (Excerpt from the Angina Monologues) |
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Jontiven
= Cult of Ray =
USA
347 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2005 : 20:03:38
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For the record, I did not meet the artist in question until 1993, and we definitely yakked about it early on, just to keep everything on the up and up if there are any FB historians in the audience.
Nice review, fellas. I'll take a New Morning comparison any day of the week.
best,
Jon Tiven |
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Stuart
- The Clopser -
China
2291 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2005 : 21:21:56
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My opinion of Honeycomb has changed somewhat after listening to it over and over... its shaping up to be a cracking album, cannot wait to download the real version from iTunes in a few weeks time to check the differences.
This is a high class bureau de change, not some Punch & Judy show on the seafront at Margate! |
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *
1446 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2005 : 21:46:57
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That "diary entry angst-rock" description of the Catholics era left a bad taste, but good review overall.
Looking forward to the interview transcript. "Fistfights" among the Catholics is surprising, but I guess when a band spends that much time touring together for years and years, stuff like that will happen. |
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Ten Percenter
- FB Enquirer -
United Kingdom
1733 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2005 : 07:39:08
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I agree Jason - "diary entry angst-rock" is a poor description of the Catholics output and is also as odds with other Mojo reviews I have seen - for example, SMYT got a good review. I will now type the brief Q and A, but it sheds no further light on the demise of the Catholics (I assume the bit in the review quoting Frank was part of the same interview though??):
WAS THE CALM MOOD ON THIS ALBUM DIFFICULT TO ACHIEVE?
I wrote most of the songs right before the session so I guess I was in a calm place. I'd rented this very large loft space, one of the bigger lofts in the nicest building in this middle-aged yuppie gentrified district of Portland, Oregon, coffee shops, empty streets. Pleasant. I hadn't lived alone since I was 19 and I didn't have a television, I just listened to the jazz and classical stations all the time. Calm voices, 24 hours a day, and then I started writing.
WERE YOU INTENTIONALLY GOING FOR THAT SOUTHERN SOUL FEEL?
Well, I was hoping for a bit of a Blonde on Blonde vibe but the guys called in by the producer to do the record, I wasn't familiar with their roots so I didn't expect it to come off as soulful. I had no expectations. I didn't want to tell Steve Cropper what to play! It's so groove-orientated and they were incredibly tuned in to the songs. They didn't rehearse any of it.
DARK END OF THE STREET... THAT'S A TOUGH SONG TO TAKE ON.
Well, I wasn't familiar with all these other versions. I know Gram Parsons' version and I'd mentioned it to the producer, you know, "if we have enough time..." and at the session I'm with the engineer who wrote it! So when the producer says "Dark End of the Street" I go "I'm not ready to do that man." Dan was like, "it's cool, we'll lay it down for you and you sing it later." And he went in and sang it and it was like, smokin', and then he says "let's stop fucking around, let's play a real version!" And then he sang the most haunting version of it. How can I follow that?
I stayed up in my hotel bathroom all night, singing that song all over, trying to find my voice. The next day Dan was like, "ok, I'm going to go upstairs and take a nap." Which meant, have some time with the song away from him. We cut it and then he came down a little later, toothpick in his mouth, gave me a little look... "You're ok, kid."
"Fried food, cigarettes, no exercise, chest pain..." (Excerpt from the Angina Monologues) |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2005 : 09:53:09
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quote:
Originally posted by Jontiven
I'll take a New Morning comparison any day of the week.
That's a darn good album! |
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Stevio10
* Dog in the Sand *
United Kingdom
1074 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2005 : 21:50:33
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"Album opener Selkie Bride - a calm yet eerie reworking of the Orkney and Shetland myth of the selkie"
Hi, I was just wondering if anyone had any info on FB's interest of the Selkie? Perhaps, if im lucky, Jon Tiven or Frank could elaborate? Coming from and living on the Shetland islands, I am very intrigued to see the "selkie", famous Shetland folklore, in the song title and am wondering how it came about.
Many thanks,
Stephen |
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Ten Percenter
- FB Enquirer -
United Kingdom
1733 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2005 : 02:22:48
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quote:
Originally posted by Stevio10
"Album opener Selkie Bride - a calm yet eerie reworking of the Orkney and Shetland myth of the selkie"
Hi, I was just wondering if anyone had any info on FB's interest of the Selkie? Perhaps, if im lucky, Jon Tiven or Frank could elaborate? Coming from and living on the Shetland islands, I am very intrigued to see the "selkie", famous Shetland folklore, in the song title and am wondering how it came about.
Many thanks,
Stephen
I'd be interested to know this too Stephen. The Uncut interview shows that Selkie Bride was written before the other Honeycomb tracks - I wonder if it was written when Frank was on holiday in the Scottish Highlands in 2003? Probably not!
"Fried food, cigarettes, no exercise, chest pain..." (Excerpt from the Angina Monologues) |
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The Holiday Son
= Quote Accumulator =
France
1995 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2005 : 07:52:22
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Someone posted it at Pixiesmusic :
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OldManInaCoffeeCan
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1467 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2005 : 09:31:26
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Hey thanks The Holiday Son, that's a great picture, how 'bout that Sports Coat, nice look for The Man
(obviously Kathryn hasn't seen this yet)
 I joined the noisy cult of six-sixty-six when I somehow agreed to the Registration Policy |
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kathryn
~ Selkie Bride ~
Belgium
15320 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2005 : 10:58:17
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Actually, I am still recovering from the heart attack I got when I saw that.
Sometimes, no matter how shitty things get, you have to just do a little dance. - Frank
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2005 : 16:43:18
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| Yeah, saw that. I think somebody posted the text of the interview before. |
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Ten Percenter
- FB Enquirer -
United Kingdom
1733 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2005 : 01:27:02
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quote:
Originally posted by Carl
Yeah, saw that. I think somebody posted the text of the interview before.
Yes they did, in the very same thread! Holiday Son, where were you when I needed you a few weeks ago?
"Fried food, cigarettes, no exercise, chest pain..." (Excerpt from the Angina Monologues) |
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Honeycomb review: Mojo magazine
