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Bedbug
> Teenager of the Year <

2962 Posts

Posted - 07/18/2022 :  23:31:46  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Terrific stuff as always Jason. Appreciate your work on this.
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *

1446 Posts

Posted - 07/20/2022 :  23:16:01  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Thanks!

If anyone cares, it looks like this is going to be the full series so far. Let me know if you notice something missing or out of order. My intention is to cover things in the order of release, but I'm not super-fixated on that being perfect (and I took a few liberties with a couple of the live albums), but if I'm way off about something I'd be curious.

INTENTIONALLY NOT INCLUDED
singles, the "LoudQuietLoud" documentary, the Pixies 10" EPs from 2013-14

I MIGHT INCLUDE...
The new Black Francis box set. It's just the albums collected so I'm leaning toward no, but we'll see how I feel in fifty years when I get to it. I definitely want to include the Catholics box set because it presents the songs in a new way.


19. BLACK LETTER DAYS
20. DEVIL'S WORKSHOP
21. SHOW ME YOUR TEARS
22. PIXIES DVD
23. FRANK BLACK FRANCIS
24. HONEYCOMB
25. PIXIES SELL OUT DVD
26. ONE MORE ROAD FOR THE HIT
27. SNAKE OIL
28. FAST MAN RAIDER MAN
29. (PIXIES) ACOUSTIC: LIVE IN NEWPORT DVD
30. (PIXIES) LIVE AT THE PARADISE IN BOSTON DVD
31. CHRISTMASS
32. 93-03
33. BLUEFINGER
34. SVN FNGRS
35. LIVE AT THE HOTEL UTAH SALOON
36. PETIT FOURS
37. THE GOLEM
38. NONSTOPEROTIK
39. ABBABUBBA
40. PALEY & FRANCIS
41. LIVE IN NIJMEGEN
42. (FRANK BLACK AND THE CATHOLICS) LIVE AT MELKWEG
43. LET THE PEOPLE SPEAK
44. THE GOOD INN
45. INDIE CINDY
46. (FRANK BLACK AND THE CATHOLICS) THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS
47. HEAD CARRIER
48. BENEATH THE EYRIE
49. DOGGEREL
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Bedbug
> Teenager of the Year <

2962 Posts

Posted - 07/21/2022 :  03:27:16  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Are you going to cover things like Women of War etc?

Looking forward to the next 50 years!
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *

1446 Posts

Posted - 07/21/2022 :  11:58:57  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Bedbug

Are you going to cover things like Women of War etc?

Looking forward to the next 50 years!



Probably, but I would mention it in the "Indie Cindy" article.

Or maybe some compilation of neo-Pixies non-album tracks will come out along the way and I'll cover it there.
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billgoodman
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<

Netherlands
6009 Posts

Posted - 09/10/2022 :  23:42:22  Show Profile  Click to see billgoodman's MSN Messenger address  Reply with Quote
Jason, I Messaged you on Facebook, but I just discovered your writing

A blog on Robert Pollard too!

---------------------------
BF: Mag ik Engels spreken?
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *

1446 Posts

Posted - 09/12/2022 :  09:49:13  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I didn't get your Facebook message. Sometimes if I'm not "friends" with someone on there, I don't get their message. Other times, I do get their message, but I get no notification for it. Facebook sucks. The best ways to contact are me through e-mail or through leaving a comment on the site.

Anyway... Frank Black-O-Rama #19: BLACK LETTER DAYS is up
http://www.theconstantbleeder.com/2022/09/12/frank-black-o-rama-19-black-letter-days/

It's about sad songs, Hank Williams, double albums, and maybe some other stuff. I was inspired a little by the controversies in the "Doggerel" thread here, too ("Frank Black's music is always annoying somebody...").

Anyway, I LOVE "Black Letter Days".
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Bedbug
> Teenager of the Year <

2962 Posts

Posted - 09/13/2022 :  09:14:20  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Thanks Jason for your treatment of BLD. Lots of good content as always. I don't feel as strongly about the latter half of FB&C's catalog, but you've given me a renewed interest and I'm spinning the disc today. Good stuff. Thanks
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *

1446 Posts

Posted - 09/13/2022 :  15:18:15  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I think the Catholics got BETTER as they went on. The Catholics are fun to write about, but exhausting because there's so much to say.
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Bedbug
> Teenager of the Year <

2962 Posts

Posted - 09/13/2022 :  15:50:27  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I hear you, but happen to hold the opposite view. I think they topped out with DITS, and SMYT is my least fav C’s album by a lot. But I love it all, and not everything can be tied for the Number One spot.

Agree with you that the catalog is exhaustive,

Can someone do a “by the numbers” comparison of how many songs FBF has written versus other famous artists. Other than Dylan I’m sure he leaves a lot of hall of famers in the dust.
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *

1446 Posts

Posted - 12/27/2022 :  15:41:56  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Frank Black-O-Rama #20: DEVIL'S WORKSHOP
https://www.theconstantbleeder.com/2022/12/28/frank-black-o-rama-20-devils-workshop/

There's only one good reason for a band to put out two albums in one day and I think "Devil's Workshop" fulfills that nicely.
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Troubles A Foot
= Cult of Ray =

USA
816 Posts

Posted - 12/27/2022 :  17:03:50  Show Profile  Visit Troubles A Foot's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Great stuff. Devil's Workshop is my favorite Catholics record and probably in my top 2 or 3 Frank records, including the Pixies.

I'm very curious though, why do you call Modern Age sci-fi? What do you think it's about?
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *

1446 Posts

Posted - 12/27/2022 :  17:27:23  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I interpret "Modern Age" as a time travel song. The narrator keeps meeting people from other time periods and figuring out how to communicate with them. The "man in the business of hunting and gathering" is a caveman, for example.

Edited by - Jason on 12/27/2022 17:33:33
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Troubles A Foot
= Cult of Ray =

USA
816 Posts

Posted - 12/27/2022 :  20:49:43  Show Profile  Visit Troubles A Foot's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Oh that is so cool. I never thought of that. Hmm.
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *

1446 Posts

Posted - 12/27/2022 :  21:58:53  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I'll break it down further just for fun.

Well I found a road and off I sped
I met a man with no little toe and a real big head


The narrator meets a future human from thousands of years up the evolutionary ladder. This person has a sleeker body that has evolved out of some useless appendages ("no little toe") and he has a bigger brain ("real big head").

Though I did not speak somehow I said

This is an old idea from sci-fi stories in which these evolved humans of the distant future have acquired powers, such as telepathy, due to their expanded brains. Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End is a famous example of this.

Where are you from? He said the modern age
And where are you from? I said the modern age


Both characters identify their time as "the modern age" because it's all they know.

On the shore by the sea that was still lathering
I met a man in the business of hunting and gathering
Somehow we understood each other’s blathering


Now, it's the opposite situation. Our narrator meets someone from the distant past, a caveman.

And he said where are you from? I said the modern age
And where are you from? He said the modern age


But the caveman thinks that he's from the modern age because that's all HE knows. Every time is a future time's primitive age.

Stopped at a light in my car
I asked the next car how they are
They say that we are fine and how are you?
I say that I am fine and thank you

I’m feeling fine in the modern age
Driving around in the modern age


I interpret this as our narrator settling in a time that they like, a simple world where people are polite to each other.

Edited by - Jason on 12/27/2022 22:03:09
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Troubles A Foot
= Cult of Ray =

USA
816 Posts

Posted - 12/27/2022 :  23:45:40  Show Profile  Visit Troubles A Foot's Homepage  Reply with Quote
I love that. You're probably right, though I always just saw it as a road traveling song. Like the guy with no little toe and a big head I just thought was some weird Deliverance type dude in some random country town. But your version makes more sense! The line about "still lathering" brings to mind the idea that this is a new beach that has recently formed way in the past.
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Bedbug
> Teenager of the Year <

2962 Posts

Posted - 12/28/2022 :  12:54:59  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Great stuff Jason, thank you again for your work on the series.

Ever since the complete FB&C's came out I've stopped listening to the albums and only listen to the songs in alphabetical order. So it's nice to hear you talk about the album presentation of the music.
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Stevio10
* Dog in the Sand *

United Kingdom
1073 Posts

Posted - 12/29/2022 :  14:07:36  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Love the vocal delivery on Bartholomew. Is it about Bartholomew the Disciple? He was flailed, maybe that's how he ended up in the coffee? He was the saint of Armenia...one of All the Saints. ?
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *

1446 Posts

Posted - 12/29/2022 :  22:36:41  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I have a cloudy memory of Frank saying in an old interview that "Bartholomew" was inspired by a homeless guy camped out near the studio, but there are other onion layers to the imagery in that song for sure.
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Troubles A Foot
= Cult of Ray =

USA
816 Posts

Posted - 12/31/2022 :  08:20:12  Show Profile  Visit Troubles A Foot's Homepage  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Stevio10

Love the vocal delivery on Bartholomew. Is it about Bartholomew the Disciple? He was flailed, maybe that's how he ended up in the coffee? He was the saint of Armenia...one of All the Saints. ?



I took All the Saints to be about Bowie, Lou Reed, etc, etc the musical artists who died in recent years that inspired Frank that he's "trying to be." He's wondering why he's still here, ie he as a musical artist, when all these legends who he thinks are so much better than him had to die.

Edited by - Troubles A Foot on 12/31/2022 08:21:43
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Bedbug
> Teenager of the Year <

2962 Posts

Posted - 01/03/2023 :  05:51:32  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Stevio10

Love the vocal delivery on Bartholomew. Is it about Bartholomew the Disciple? He was flailed, maybe that's how he ended up in the coffee? He was the saint of Armenia...one of All the Saints. ?



I pretty much think this
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Stevio10
* Dog in the Sand *

United Kingdom
1073 Posts

Posted - 01/20/2023 :  13:15:22  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Troubles A Foot

quote:
Originally posted by Stevio10

Love the vocal delivery on Bartholomew. Is it about Bartholomew the Disciple? He was flailed, maybe that's how he ended up in the coffee? He was the saint of Armenia...one of All the Saints. ?



I took All the Saints to be about Bowie, Lou Reed, etc, etc the musical artists who died in recent years that inspired Frank that he's "trying to be." He's wondering why he's still here, ie he as a musical artist, when all these legends who he thinks are so much better than him had to die.




I like that, I never thought of it that way! I took it as 'Saint Francis' carrying on the work of Jesus.

Edited by - Stevio10 on 01/20/2023 21:54:57
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Jason
* Dog in the Sand *

1446 Posts

Posted - 07/15/2023 :  09:02:40  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Frank Black-O-Rama! #21: SHOW ME YOUR TEARS
https://theconstantbleeder.com/2023/07/15/frank-black-o-rama-21-show-me-your-tears/

Some words about the end of Frank Black and the Catholics.
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Bedbug
> Teenager of the Year <

2962 Posts

Posted - 07/15/2023 :  18:31:46  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Yes!

Can’t wait to read this

Full disclosure this is my least favorite FB album but maybe you will show me the light

Thanks for your work on this
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Troubles A Foot
= Cult of Ray =

USA
816 Posts

Posted - 07/16/2023 :  22:24:44  Show Profile  Visit Troubles A Foot's Homepage  Reply with Quote
That was great. Coastline is a favorite song of mine and I used to cover it at my shows all the time.
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Arm Arm Arm
* Dog in the Sand *

1034 Posts

Posted - 08/05/2023 :  09:00:29  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
SMYT was my least favorite, maybe still is but one day I really enjoyed the album, and during the beginning of a bleak period of time it was something I listened to and enjoyed. Haven't listened to it since.

Good write-ups as always Jason.

cheers
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two reelers
* Dog in the Sand *

Austria
1018 Posts

Posted - 08/24/2023 :  12:42:45  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Thanks for that article. I felt and still feel very much the same about FB&TC. They were an obsession, a guiding light, and a lifeline during good parts of my life back then. Nothing wrong with the Pixies, but I would chose the Catholics at any time over them. I also raise my glass to them and to your article!

I joined the cult of Souled American / 'cause they are a damn' fine band
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