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madtempest
- FB Fan -
USA
225 Posts |
 Posted - 09/05/2007 : 12:29:17
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Sorry, there are too many threads for me to figure out which one to post these under, so I am just making my own. ;)
Here is the latest press release:
Punk.bz:
http://punk.bz/2007/08/23/black-francis-returns-with-bluefinger-album-an-ode
-to-dutch-artist-herman-brood/
text:
BLACK FRANCIS RETURNS WITH “BLUEFINGER,” ALBUM AN ODE TO DUTCH ARTIST HERMAN
BROOD
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BLACK FRANCIS RETURNS WITH “BLUEFINGER,” AN ODE TO DUTCH ARTIST HERMAN BROOD
Los Angeles, CA - The Pixies’ iconic lead singer Frank Black dons his
decades-old moniker - Black Francis - and, imbued by the spirit of eccentric
Dutch painter/musician Herman Brood, recorded a brand new set of 11 songs,
collectively titled “Bluefinger,”that is set for a September 11 release on
Cooking Vinyl.
“I privately went back to the old stage name, if that even makes any sense,
almost as a joke, explains Black Francis. “I couldn’t get The Pixies back
into a studio, but I would transform into my alter ego of yesteryear. I
spoke the magic syllables aloud and nothing happened; just as I thought.
Soon after, my new manager asked me for a bonus track for a “best of”
compilation to be released later in the year. And as I prepared for the
session, I became (honestly) gripped by the spirit of Herman Brood, and my
bonus track expanded into an 11 song record called BLUEFINGER in just a few
days. Thank you Herman. You were at the distant edge of my vision for years
when suddenly I was under your influence like a cloud of opium, like the
scent of the house of the rising sun. Bliss. Bliss. Bliss. I had spoken the
magical name and nothing had happened, but I was impatient, and like so many
people, I thought the magic would reveal itself in an instant, as depicted
in films. Magic is more subtle. And Herman Brood did turn me back into BLACK
FRANCIS. Funny how things work out. You just never know.”
Directly or indirectly, all 11 songs reference Brood, known as the “Dutch
personification of ’sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.’” Brood was a rock
musician going back to the 1960s, and he and his band Herman Brood and His
Wild Romance, experienced success in Europe, and even scored a top 40 hit in
the U.S.A. in 1979 with “Saturday Night.” He was outspoken and in the public
eye for decades, in part due to his relationship with the German artist,
Nina Hagen. His art has been exhibited at galleries and at the Museum of
Groningen in Amsterdam, and he created murals - considered by many to be
valuable contributions to Dutch culture and art - in various public spaces
around that city. A hard drug user for many years, he swore off most drugs
later in his life, but the damage had been done. In 2001, he was told he had
only a few months to live, and later that year, committed suicide at aged 54
by jumping off the roof of the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel.
“John Lennon and Yoko Ono claimed the Amsterdam Hilton in 1969,” Francis
continues. “The Pixies headlined their first big rock show in Holland in
1988. Herman Brood reclaimed the Hilton for his country in 2001, and now I
feel he has even claimed back The Pixies, or at least me, BLACK FRANCIS.”
Black Francis recorded “Bluefinger” in September, 2006 in Portland, OR.
Appearing on guitars, harmonica and vocals, Francis was joined in the studio
by drummer Jason Carter (Guards of Metropolis), Violet Clarke on vocals, and
bassist Dan Schmid (The Visible Men). Mark Lemhouse produced the album.
“Bluefinger” showcases a Herman Brood cover - “You Can’t Break a Heart and
Have It,” and ten Black Francis originals: “Captain Pasty,” “Test Pilot
Blues,” “Lolita,” “Tight Black Rubber,” “Angels Come to Comfort You,” “Your
Mouth Into Mine,” “Discotheque 36,” “She Took All the Money,” “Blue Finger,”
and “Threshold Apprehension,” which is a bonus track on Frank Black’s
“93-03#8243; “best of” album, due out June 12.
As Black Francis, Boston and Los Angeles-bred Black was one of the
architects of modern rock as front man of the Pixies, whose
“loud-quiet-loud” dynamics, primal scream intensity and free-ranging
compositional style exerted a huge influence on alternative music. His solo
recordings as Frank Black demonstrated his artistic restlessness, embracing
alternative pop and avant-garde rock with equal fervor; he continued
exploring this territory with a new band, The Catholics, for several years
before journeying to Nashville to create two critically-acclaimed albums
with producer Jon Tiven - 2005’s “Honeycomb” and the more intense, upbeat
“Fast Man Raider Man” in 2006.
*****
PitchforkMedia.com:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/44904-frank-black-covers-waits-ro
xy-music-on-itunes-ep
text:
Frank Black Covers Waits, Roxy Music on iTunes EP
New Black Francis album gets tracklist, release date
His Black Francis alter ego is set to release Bluefinger via Cooking Vinyl
on September 11 (September 3 in the UK), but Frank Black won't allow the
recently issued 93-03 retrospective compilation to be the only thing he puts
out this year.
Black has added to his repertoire with his own exclusive-to-iTunes EP, the
creatively titled Live Sessions. Available now, the EP features Black
originals "Massif Central" and "Manitoba" alongside covers of Roxy Music,
Tom Waits, and the Good, the Bad & the Queen. Quick turnaround on that last
one!
Comprehensive Frank Black fansite FrankBlack.net has some tiny tidbits
about a couple of other Black projects as well. First, Black's rumored
collaborative project with Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart's Magic
Band, Pere Ubu) is on hold for now, and second, there is a Black
collaboration with his wife Violet called Grand Duchy that seems to have an
album called Fort Wayne on the horizon. The very distant horizon, we
imagine.
Finally, Black has a single show scheduled for October 5 at Eugene,
Oregon's WOW Hall.
Bluefinger:
01 Captain Pasty
02 Threshold Apprehension
03 Test Pilot Blues
04 Lolita
05 Tight Black Rubber
06 Angels Come to Comfort You
07 Your Mouth Into Mine
08 Discotheque 36
09 You Can't Break a Heart and Have It
10 She Took All the Money
11 Blue Finger
Live Sessions (iTunes exclusive):
01 Re-Make/Re-Model [Roxy Music cover]
02 Massif Central
03 Manitoba
04 History Song [The Good, the Bad & the Queen cover]
05 The Black Rider [Tom Waits cover]
Video: Frank Black: (Do What You Want) Gyaneshwar [from the Christmass LP]
Posted by Dave Maher
*****
Chattanooga's Pulse: (from the syndicated column, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)
http://www.chattanoogapulse.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2007/09/05/46ddc79ad09ae
TEXT:
New Music
by John M. James
September 05, 2007
Two “old friends” are rising back into the aural zeitgeist next week. Heart vocalist Ann Wilson returns with Hope & Glory, her debut solo album showcasing a new, poignant, serious-minded original, and 11 powerfully resonating cover selections. More somber and earthy than political or preachy, the themes adrift in Neil Young’s “War of Man,” Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” and Jesse Colin Young’s “Darkness, Darkness” are well stirred by these troubled times, and well, mighty comforting here in the foxhole. More clouds and thunder come in a spooky-cool run at Pink Floyd’s “Goodbye Blue Sky,” a down-home front-porch hootenanny of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” with guest Gretchen Wilson, and a call to “Get Together” with The Youngbloods’ Summer of Love hit.
Other guests include a duet with Elton John on his own “Where to Now Saint Peter,” and k.d. lang riding shotgun on the road to Lucinda Williams’ “Jackson.” Closing out the Zoe Records release, Wilson’s new song, “Little Problems, Little Lies,” was written from the imagined perspective of an American soldier in Iraq, “a bleedin’ in a bombed-out SUV,” and succeeds where 90 percent of pop music today fails, asking the listener to slow down a little, breathe deep, and listen to the words… Pixies founder Frank Black (Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV) is playing Sibyl again, back in his Black Francis personality and raising up the hairs on the back of my neck with a strong new album fixated on Dutch wild man Herman Brood. Bluefinger is due this coming Tuesday on the Cooking Vinyl - a complete, magnificent return to the electrifying riffs and convulsing glee that made the Pixies so great. Who’s Brood?
Black hopes the listener will discover the late painter and musician, whose life of “sex, drugs and rock n’ roll” excess urged the songwriter to flip back into his decade-suppressed alter ego and write this album in a few intense, possessed days. One Brood cover makes the set, the pithy “You Can’t Break a Heart and Have It.” A new five-track mini album of Luxembourg sessions recorded earlier this summer (as Frank Black) is also now available exclusively through iTunes. Three cool covers made the set: Roxy Music’s “Re-Make/Re-Model,” Tom Waits’ “The Black Rider,” and The Good, The Bad & The Queen’s “History Songs.”
*****
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new Frank Black/Black Francis press releases
