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floop
= Wannabe Volunteer =
Mexico
15297 Posts |
 Posted - 09/19/2007 : 20:41:20
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quote:
Originally posted by benji
that rolling stone review is so predictable it's almost sickening.
i expected nothing more or less from those idiots.
all i can say, thank god for polio! brian
it would be one thing if his vocals were actually "Cobain-esque" but jesus, he doesn't sound anything like Kurt Cobain
it's a curse |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 16:59:40
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MemeStreams.
Black Francis - Bluefinger
Topic: Music
1:51 pm EDT, Sep 20, 2007
On September 11th 2007, something happened that will
change Rock n' Roll forever. A watershed moment of sorts
occurred. Charles Thompson (aka Frank Black) resumed using
his original pseudonym, Black Francis, and released what is
likely the most important album of the past several years.
Bluefinger is just amazing. It's a return to the style Thompson
made famous with The Pixies. It sounds like the album you'd
expect Thompson to have made after The Pixies, more so than
the work he did as Frank Black with The Catholics.
Thompson's solo work as Frank Black is straight up rock n' roll,
with ventures into country and alternative. His new solo work
as Black Francis is a return to a style more similar to that of
The Pixies or Nirvana. It's raw, loose, driving, punk influenced
alternative rock. It's not over-produced. It sports a sound that
you can only get when you put away the polish and focus on
the intensity. It's like a breath of fresh air.
Almost everyone I know has been listening to this album the past week. If you are not listening to it, you
should be. Get on the band wagon. You can listen to the entire album from the website. Go go go..
Black Francis - Bluefinger
The Maneater.
Black Francis: Here comes your man
By Kelsey Whipple, Staff Writer. Posted September 21, 2007.
If there was a rock hierarchy, it’s pretty
safe to say Elvis would be the king of
rock, Thom Yorke would be the king of
weird and Kanye West could be king of
cool. And if he were ever to belong
anywhere, Black Francis would have to
be king of crazy.
After all, everyone — at least everyone in
the alt-rock minority who still can’t
believe Billy Corgan pulled the Pumpkins
back together, for worse or for worse —
knows that Black Francis is a little left of
center. Heck, he even knows it.
It’s easy to imagine Francis waking up
every evening, taking a look in the
mirror, and, after slicing up eyeballs,
cranking out another album as he
changes his shirt.
His latest of 15 releases without his late ‘80s companions, the Pixies, is a
return to what he does best, as well as a return to his stage name —
Charles Thompson IV doesn’t cut it.
On Bluefinger, Francis’ wails and shrieks go beyond banshee, and,
combined with jagged, riotous riffs, the album’s 11 songs are a welcome
return to Francis rocking out just because he can. And boy, can he.
The focus of Bluefinger, for reasons unknown, lies on artist/musician
Herman Brood in some way or another.
It’s easier to understand Francis’ abstract lyrics than his decision to use
the deceased Dutchman as a muse, but Francis has been known to pull
off the peculiar. “You Can’t Break a Heart and Have It,” a Brood cover, is
the freak-out Francis stifled during his Nashville sessions in recent years,
and its 2 1/2 minutes are a painless one-two punch to the eardrum.
It soon becomes apparent that although this is Francis’ most deliberate
solo album to date, the hype created by the return to his Pixies alter ego
is baseless.
His standard live-to-two-track style has one texture: rough.
With the exception of “Lolita,” a song drowning in harmonica, most of
the songs follow Francis’ typical loud-quiet-louder formula, a too-direct
approach critics have never endorsed.
“Threshold Apprehension,” originally a bonus track on Francis’ 93-03
album, is a literal shout in death’s face. Complete with ‘80s synth, the
lyrics include Lou Reed-esque couplets such as “Grand Marnier and a
pocket full of speed/We did it all day ‘til we started to bleed.”
Francis’ wife, Violet Clark, takes over the song’s spoken-word backing
vocals and sounds uncannily like Kim Deal while Francis squawks a
frenzied “Threshold, threshold, threshold...” throughout the refrain.
When the squawks turn into “Are you feeling ... apprehensive?” the only
answer is “yes.” “Threshold Apprehension” is easily the greatest Pixies
song that never was.
“Captain Pasty,” on the other hand, is a song in which riffs and vocals
race but neither wins. Francis sounds like Kurt Cobain, but that’s been
done before and better.
“Angels Come to Comfort You” is an eerily commendatory song about
Brood’s suicide with lyrics nothing short of quirky and an outro just
short of heart-wrenching.
In the end, Francis might have grown up to be a debaser, but his most
recent effort is a Frank Black/Charles Thompson/Black Francis affair, not
a Pixies album.
It’s the freak-out we’ve been waiting for, but aftezr rumors that the
Pixies were heading back into the studio, it’s not the way we were hoping
it would happen.
And with all of the Brood brooding, it has to be asked: Where is his
mind?
Courtesy of Cooking Vinyl Reco
Pixies main man Black Francis is
back with the freaked-out
Bluefinger. It’s no substitute for
the real thing, but you know
what they always say: Some
Black Francis is better than no
Black Francis. |
Edited by - Carl on 09/22/2007 17:27:42 |
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Apesy
= Cult of Ray =
USA
411 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 21:25:07
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I'm especially disappointed in Rob Sheffield's RS review since in his book, Love Is a Mix Tape, I remember quite a few Frank Black solo songs popping up on various mixes. Yet he sounds like he hasn't given a crap about anything the man's done since "U-Mass".
-=Apesy |
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Blank_Frackis
- FB Fan -
55 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 04:46:01
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That Maneater review isn't the most negative of reviews in this thread, but it's certainly the worst in my opinion. That's just gibbering incoherently for 15 paragraphs. There's no opinion there, it consists solely of profound sounding nonsense like "“Captain Pasty,”... is a song in which riffs and vocals race but neither wins." tied together with the standard references to Kurt Cobain, the name change and the usual rubbish. Honestly, the reviewer could have written that without listening to a single song on the album for all it matters.
If time's a drug then Big Ben's a giant needle injecting it into the sky. |
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fumanbru
* Dog in the Sand *
Canada
1462 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 11:11:00
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here's a good short one from the winnipeg free press..
http://www.whatsonwinnipeg.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29932
September 22nd, 2007
FOR the first time since the Pixies split, Charles Thompson has reverted to his old stage name, but Bluefinger doesn't sound like the Pixies album that never was; rather, it's a great Frank Black record -- perhaps the best since his earliest solo efforts.
The opening one-two punch of Captain Pasty and Threshold Apprentice are aggressive blasts of skewed punk that would have fit nicely on Teenager of the Year. Francis cites the late drug-addled Dutch art-rocker Herman Brood as the inspiration for the album, which accounts for the debauched tales of sex and drugs and a musical bent harking back to his storied alt-rock past. His time with the Catholics and recent trips to Nashville occasionally shine through, but merely add colour to his canvas. The cover of Brood's You Can't Break a Heart and Have It is another album highlight.
Bluefinger is a return to form that uses all the ammo from throughout his varied career. Welcome back, Mr. Francis.
(4/5 stars)
-- Rob Williams
 "I joined the Cult of Frank/ cause I'm a real go-getter!" |
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Czar
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
321 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 14:25:29
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___________________________
Do you think the Pixies were a brouillon of Black Francis? |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2007 : 08:55:39
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I'd wear that!
Times Online.
From The Times
August 31, 2007
Black Francis: Bluefinger
Steve Jelbert
The umpteenth solo record by the former Pixie, this time using his
more raucous alter ego, is inspired by the life of the now-forgotten
Dutch rock singer and junkie Herman Brood. The bracing Captain
Pasty and a version of Brood’s You Can’t Break a Heart and Have
It are undeniably powerful, but too often Black Francis is beginning
to resemble Lou Reed, another persistent talent whose best work
was his earliest.
(Cooking Vinyl)
Times Online.
From The Sunday Times
September 2, 2007
Black Francis: Bluefinger
Mark Edwards
As I write this, Amazon has Bluefinger listed as an album by
Frank Black. Right person, of course, but wrong persona. When
Charles Thompson wakes up in the morning and decides which
alter ego to assume for the day, it’s not a mere whim. It changes
everything. This isn’t a Frank Black album. And all those Pixies
fans who were confused and sometimes disappointed by the Frank
Black oeuvre will be delighted to learn that it really is a Black
Francis album. Weird, wired and warped, these songs sound like
Pixies songs. The quality of the songwriting is a little variable, but
in the energy of Threshold Apprehension, the scream-and-
response melody of Discotheque 36 and the off-kilter lurch of the
title track, that old Black Francis magic will have you in its spell.
Cooking Vinyl COOKCD408
NME.COM.
Black Francis
Bluefinger
The unlikely, ghoulish inspiration of a dead Dutch
pop star has forced Pixies' frontman Frank Black into
making his finest album since the demise of his
influential '90s alt.rockers. Because that's what
'Bluefinger' is. Pixies fanatics will probably attribute
this to the revival of the Black Francis name he used
as a nomme de guerre in the Pixies. Black himself is
fully aware of the significance. In an open letter
accompanying the new album, he writes "I couldn't
get the Pixies back into a studio, but I would
transform into my alter ego of yesteryear." In fact,
the true reason for this artistic Indian summer is that
the Pixies' dark lyrical conceits have been awakened
by the subject of much of the album's content, Herman Brood (pronounced 'Broat'). In 2001, Dutch rocker,
artist and renowned hedonist Brood threw himself from the roof of the Amsterdam Hilton. After a stint in
rehab, Brood had just been told he had only months to live. As Black points out on 'Angels Come
To Comfort You', the hotel was "...good enough for John and Yoko, man" (it was the scene of The Beatle's
famous 'bed-in'). Black sees Brood, like Lennon, as something of a musical auteur, a man of style. The
album kicks off in rollicking fashion. 'Captain Pasty' finds Black in yelping, screeching mode, atop two
minutes of punk guitars and machine-gun drums. 'Your Mouth In Mine', with its jangly, chiming guitars
doing battle with passages of rumbling bass, transports the listener back to the day when Pixies, Buffalo
Tom, Dinosaur Jr and co ruled the alt.rock earth. Elsewhere, 'Tight Black Rubber', with its languid, nagging
bassline and 'Threshold Apprehension''s screaming garage rock, shine. Only the lumpen pace of 'Test Pilot
Blues' fails to fully fire. But that's a minor, unwarranted moan. After years in the dark, this is a slice of
Black gold. |
Edited by - Carl on 09/24/2007 10:59:16 |
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *
1446 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2007 : 21:19:22
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quote:
the scream-and-response melody of Discotheque 36
Uh... |
Edited by - Jason on 09/24/2007 21:19:38 |
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billgoodman
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Netherlands
6214 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2007 : 04:48:19
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quote:
Originally posted by Jason
quote:
the scream-and-response melody of Discotheque 36
Uh...
yes, that got me wondering too
---------------------------
BF: Mag ik Engels spreken? |
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *
1446 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2007 : 13:17:14
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quote:
Originally posted by billgoodman
quote:
Originally posted by Jason
quote:
the scream-and-response melody of Discotheque 36
Uh...
yes, that got me wondering too
---------------------------
BF: Mag ik Engels spreken?
Okay, I listened to the album again today and, to be fair to the reviewer, "Discoteque" does get mildly screamy as well as call-and-response-y (if I may write like a character from Buffy the Vampire for a moment) toward the end. |
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billgoodman
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Netherlands
6214 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2007 : 15:14:44
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not as screamy call and response as you can't break a heart and have it
---------------------------
BF: Mag ik Engels spreken? |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2007 : 09:27:40
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Ohio.com.
Pixies sound is revived
First solo album as Black Francis follows style of indie group
Published on Sunday, Sep 30, 2007
BLUEFINGER Black Francis Cooked Vinyl
The reunion of seminal indie rock group the Pixies was good for all involved.
Two of the band members were out of music and all needed the money, and
the musicians, whose influence is undeniable, finally got some financial reward
from being a seminal indie rock band.
For Charles Thompson, aka Frank Black, aka Black Francis aka the guy who
wrote most of the Pixies' songs, the reunion was revitalizing. Reportedly he
lobbied to get the band into the studio for a proper album, but was rebuffed,
settling for two tracks recorded for a soundtrack.
Inspired but left unfulfilled from the brief reunion and entranced by the late
gonzo Dutch artist/musician/junkie Herman Brood, Frank Black has revived his
old name and unleashed Bluefinger, his first solo record under the Black
Francis name.
Having revived the name, Francis has also revived the sound of the band and
his old style of shriek/singing. Pixies fans not enamored with the studied, rootsy
Americana direction on Francis' recent Honeycomb and its slightly more
rocking successor Fastman Raiderman will consider this quickly written and
recorded collection a welcome return to familiar territory.
Francis begins the album in full Pixies mode, with the odd chord progressions
of Captain Pasty moving on into the primal-scream fits of Threshold
Apprehension, which includes the Pixies-patented screaming boy/lackadaisical
girl vocal juxtapositions with Violet Clarke. The midtempo She Took All The
Money and the title track, a slow blues, features the pair harmonizing, and while
Clarke is probably a better singer than former Pixie Kim Deal, the
Francis/Clarke contrast just doesn't conjure the same sonic magic as the
Francis/Deal combo.
Nevertheless, Francis is in good songwriting form and the disc's 11 tracks
manage to incorporate the old Pixie sound as well as the roots-rock flavor of his
more recent work. Tunes such as Tight Black Rubber use the Pixies' much-
imitated quiet verse/loud chorus dynamic and gives Francis a chance for one of
those rambling surreal monologues like the Pixies' Planet of Sound.
Francis is a better singer than he was 20 years ago, when a song like the laid-
back rootsy Discotheque 36 and the bouncy Test Pilot Blues would have been
out of his grasp.
Just as he has paid tribute to his heroes in tunes such as Alison, written for
pianist Mose Alison, Brood is the subject of Angels Come to Comfort You (''He
was no saint, but he was Dutch, so he could paint, yeah he had the touch,''
Francis sings) and Francis offers a loose punky cover of Brood's You Can't
Break a Heart and Have It.
After the low-key grooves and melodies of his recent work, Bluefinger is a
welcome return to the louder, rocking side of Francis and more of a creative
sidestep than a retreat. It may not be the Pixies reunion album Francis and fans
hoped for, but the smell and sound of his old band permeates the recording
and is sure to make some old fans (does he have non-Pixies fans?) wish
Francis' former bandmates had been equally motivated.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached atmabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
NOW Magazine.
Discs
 BLACK FRANCIS Bluefinger (Cooking Vinyl) Rating: NNNN
Unsure of the future of the Pixies, Frank Black has filled his time by assuming his former moniker and
releasing another consistently great record, this one inspired by Dutch musician/painter Herman Brood,
who committed suicide in 2001.
Bluefinger boasts the off-centre pop sensibilities that have always been the songwriter's strong point,
with generous amounts of abusive guitar, playful up-tempo rhythms and half-sedated, half-maniacal
vocals, as on Angels Come To Comfort You. Add an ability to string lyrical and musical narratives together
to create a complete whole and Bluefinger should serve as yet another highlight in an already stellar
body of work.
Evan Davies
NOW | OCTOBER 4 - 10, 2007 | VOL. 27 NO. 5
skullring.org - Music Review: "Bluefinger" by Black Francis. |
Edited by - Carl on 10/07/2007 18:54:36 |
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The New Bolero
= Cult of Ray =
394 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2007 : 22:47:12
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| FYI--I went to see They Might Be Giants last night and wound up asking Flansburg after the show if he'd heard Bluefinger yet. He said he had it downloaded and is eager to hear it but hasn't yet had a chance to hear it. He did remark that he really dug the cd's cover art. |
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benji
> Teenager of the Year <
New Zealand
3426 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2007 : 23:13:46
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it was reviewed in last weekends edition of the Otago Daily Times, my local newspaper.
gave it 4 out of 5 stars...
was a good review.
not on the net tho and didn't rip the review out.....
all i can say, thank god for polio! brian |
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darwin
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
5454 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 00:56:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Czar
___________________________
Do you think the Pixies were a brouillon of Black Francis?
They pretty much had that shirt at the show tonight. |
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Czar
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
321 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 05:29:06
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"They"?
___________________________
Do you think the Pixies were a brouillon of Black Francis? |
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ground control
- FB Fan -
1 Posts |
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darwin
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
5454 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2007 : 12:09:12
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quote:
Originally posted by Czar
"They"?
___________________________
Do you think the Pixies were a brouillon of Black Francis?
At the merchandise table (with the photo, but not the text on a black shirt) |
Edited by - darwin on 10/12/2007 12:10:40 |
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Daisy Girl
~ Abstract Brain ~
Belize
5305 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2007 : 17:22:39
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cool! I want one!
We're all obscure fans.- trobrianders
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2007 : 17:26:26
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San Francisco Bay Times.
By Don Baird
Published: October 18, 2007
There have been a few new releases from some very well established artists lately,
one representing a comeback or reunion of all original members, one representing
the dissolution of a long-time partnership for a first solo effort, and another
returning to an earlier alter ego created in their first band to tell the story of a
unique and troubled Dutch painter/musician who many have forgotten or never
heard of. Each of these records are remarkably strong and complete, showing a
definite forward motion creatively while in a sense returning to the past for part of
the inspiration or basic genus.
Another great record that popped up out of nowhere, it seems, is a release by Black Francis, the alter ego of Frank Black, the prolific
singer/songwriter originally of the Pixies. After a myriad of solo releases, sometimes double albums, often of a quieter, more traditional
nature, almost too many to keep track of, he comes out with the loudest, most rocking disc he’s put out in years. Perhaps that’s why he’s
using the Black Francis moniker on this one, because some of these songs on Blue Finger unleash a definite and much needed blast of
Pixies-esque power and full-tilt raw emotion. It’s a most welcome return, and I haven’t been able to stop listening to it.
Taking the pared-down approach of using three musicians, himself on guitar, vocals and harmonica, drummer Jason Carter, bassist Dan
Schmid and Frank’s wife Violet Clarke on back-up vocals for one song, the formula is a scorcher. From the rollicking first cut, “Captain
Pasty,” you know you are in for a fresh, hard ride with its manic guitar and urgent vocals. Then it just slams into probably my favorite cut on
the disc, “Threshold Apprehension,” with its solo guitar intro building into a frenzied assault, Black Francis hitting those higher registers
vocally as he repeatedly sings, “Threshold threshold threshold,” evoking the tension the title aims at.
It seems this record was completely inspired by the life of Dutch painter/musician Herman Brood. The cover art is a painting by Brood, and
there is a cover of a song he wrote for his band, Herman Brood and His Wild Romance, called “You Can’t Break A Heart And Have It,” and
Black Francis’s vocalization alone is worth the price of this album. He goes one more than ten, he goes further than the most intense
screaming moments of the Pixies, and it is unbelievable. I had heard very little about Brood prior to this record, except that he was heavily
and openly addicted to drugs, was involved with Nina Hagen, and he committed suicide by jumping from the roof Amsterdam Hilton Hotel in
2001. Much of his story is referenced in the songs on Blue Finger, and his inspiration has produced one of my favorite records of the year
from possibly my favorite artist in Rock and Roll. I highly recommend this disc for all fans of the Pixies, Frank Black, Black Francis, Dutch
Artists and junkies.
Morning Paper: Black Francis: Bluefinger - not the Pixies, but what is?
Both bars on - Lazy Journalism, part 1. |
Edited by - Carl on 10/25/2007 04:01:37 |
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Srisaket
= Cult of Ray =
Thailand
313 Posts |
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joe FITZ of molly BANG
= Cult of Ray =
USA
349 Posts |
Posted - 04/05/2010 : 12:25:33
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quote:
Originally posted by velvety
Positive review from New-Noise:
"Frank Black is a legend. Having cut his cloth in the annals of late 80s/ early 90s alternative music history with the Pixies and produced some of that era’s defining moments, his career since has involved a steady flow of solo records and latterly a reformation of the Pixies to massive international acclaim. Picking up the Black Francis moniker once again, he’s delivered a new album of original material (and one cover) which demonstrates a brilliant return to form. The renaissance of the Pixies has had a very positive effect on him.
‘Bluefinger’ grew from a visit to the studio to record a single track for his recent best of and from these sessions the new album grew. Never one to be hurried, Frank managed to put down the entire record in a matter of days. The songs aside, we’ll get to those in a moment; but one of the real triumphs of ‘Bluefinger’ is the wonderfully minimal emphasis on production and the focus lying truly upon the musical content. Everything is just really simple, kinda like the old Pixies blueprint of loud-quiet-loud-quiet there’s a certain (perhaps unacknowledged) formula to this of basic guitars, basic drums, functional basslines and good old hearty vocals. And what’s more it works. It’s not minimal for the sake of it, it’s minimal because it sounds good.
Opening with the lead single, ‘Captain Pasty’, the album begins with an instantly catchy tune, guitars grimy and energetic and the chorus very much in the Pixies mould – memorable and difficult not to hum along to. ‘Tight Black Rubber’ is punchy and has lots of impact, Francis’s voice peaking as he hollers the titles words over and over. The Herman Brood cover ‘You Can’t Break A Heart And Have It’ fits in seamlessly and from this it’s easy to see how the influences for the album grew.
The highlight however is the acoustic-tinged ‘She Took All The Money’, which despite its cheery feel is actually quite sad when you focus the lyrics of being left, unfortunately, skint and about to die. Grim stuff. Violet Clark’s backing vocals lift the song and add rare depth and texture.
This is a great record. Ok, so it’s no Pixies classic, but it’s not that far removed. Certainly a contender for one of the records of the year."
http://www.new-noise.net/album-reviews/black-francis/bluefinger/black-francis---bluefinger_2627.html
never knew this. threshold apprehension?
________________________________
my band: www.myspace.com/mollybang
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Bluefinger reviews
