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The New Bolero
= Cult of Ray =
394 Posts |
 Posted - 04/28/2004 : 09:49:38
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This Josh "Teenager of the Year:the Musical" Frank character is back at it. MTV says he's pitching a tell-all Pixies biography, using 1st-hand interviews granted while he was researching his bullshit musical. Is it me or does the guy seem like a leech?
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1486632/20040427/pixies.jhtml?headlines=true
Proposed Book Would Detail Infamous Pixies Dust-Up
As the Pixies reunion tour rolls on, there may soon be another way to revisit the group's past: two writers have been pitching a book proposal for an oral history of the band.
Since the bandmembers have never been known to get along swimmingly, the behind-the-scenes take, as told to music journalists Josh Frank and Caryn Ganz, would be "nothing short of a ticking time tomb," according to the proposal currently circulating among New York publishers.
The book would be called "Fool the World: An Oral History of the Pixies," in a nod to the translation of their French-titled 1991 album, Tromp le Monde. It would follow the band from its inception to "one of the most notorious breakups in rock history" — when singer/guitarist Charles Thompson (a.k.a. Black Francis, a.k.a. Frank Black) told the band's manager via fax that he was dissolving the band, before he'd informed fellow Pixies Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering — through to the band's current reunion (see "Pixies Guitarist Says Reunion Not Embarrassing So Far; Martinis Ready To Roll").
"For the first time since the band's 1993 demise, all four members have spoken, on the record and at length, about the Pixies' remarkable ride," the proposal reads.
Frank originally started interviewing each of the bandmembers, as well as seminal figures from the band's life, in an effort to write a musical called "Teenager of the Year" (also the name of a 1994 Frank Black solo album), which would follow the lives of Thompson and the band. But since he approached them as an artist first and a journalist second, the proposal says, he gained their trust and ended up with more material than would fit into a two-hour musical. Thus, his proposed biography would be in the vein of Legs McNeil's "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk," "where the story of a band, a scene and a crucial era of rock history is told in the words of those who lived it."
Frank and Ganz also plan to include the voices of Thom Yorke, David Bowie, Bono, Polly Jean Harvey, Dave Grohl and Ric Ocasek to analyze "how the Pixies absorbed, reflected and created the culture of their time," which would make "Fool the World" "the most definitive and cohesive document of early 1990s rock ever written," the proposal promises.
And just in case there's any question of whether such a document would be of interest today, "one only needs to look to the hunger for anything and everything Pixies" since the band announced it was reuniting. "The Pixies' story is dramatic, vibrant and still being written," the proposal reads.
One publisher noted, however, that the band's volatility, which makes the premise interesting, also threatens to undermine the project, or at least the band's participation in its promotion. |
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2004 : 10:42:26
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I don't like the implication of "since he approached them as an artist first and a journalist second, he gained their trust and ended up with more material than would fit into a two-hour musical." Did he trick the band into revealing things they wouldn't have for a book? Is this essentially a stab in the back? That's sort of what it sounds like.
If that's the case, or if FB (or the Pixies at large) don't endorse this, then I am completely against it and wouldn't be caught dead with a copy. If that's not the case, then of course, I will purchase one for every room in my home. :)
Josh seemed nice when he came by here, so I really hope this isn't the case, but you can never tell for sure... especially if he's working with an editor from Spin.
 "Join the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened" |
Edited by - Cult_Of_Frank on 04/28/2004 10:49:27 |
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soundofataris
= Cult of Ray =
USA
715 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2004 : 10:49:42
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You know, I really enjoy music oral histories, such as Uptight (the VU story), and Please Kill Me. Hearing lots of different sides of a story and then weeding through the various opinions to formulate my own truth. It'd be like a Pixies-Roshomon. I'd actually be really intersted in reading this book, regardless of an offical endorsment.
-You are merely a citizen. |
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Ziggy
* Dog in the Sand *
United Kingdom
2463 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2004 : 11:25:08
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It's a stupid and selfish stunt. Particularly now the band are apparently reconciled. I can't see it doing any good.
'Took his plane to Columbia/So I could sell at my school" |
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teenheather
- FB Fan -
USA
7 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2004 : 11:48:43
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FYI Guys, before you get all bent out of shape.
The writer of the article didnt have any of the real info on the book, she made imost of it up.
The musical is happening in NYC in september. It is being co-written by the writer of "freak."
The book has been in the works for a year, based on the musical.
Josh is a fan just like every one else who is creating art based on his hero's as he has been doing for years. He is also getting NOTHING out of this save artistic happiness. he has been working on these projects for 3 years.
The book in no way compromises trust. It is about the early alternative rock scene on the east coast centered around Charles adventures and the rock scene research from the musical.
Hope that clears up some fears. H. |
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2004 : 12:17:20
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Thanks for popping by, I suppose MTV fabricating/exaggerating shouldn't be a surprise to any of us at this point. My apologies if I was offensive, my intent was simply to state that I didn't see Josh as the type and that I hoped what the writer was implying was not in actual fact what was going on.
"Join the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened" |
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The New Bolero
= Cult of Ray =
394 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2004 : 12:50:45
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| Thanks for the other side of the story teenheather. If MTV is unfairly making a well-intentioned Pixies fan out to be an opportunistic creep in their hatchet-job story, I'm sorry for my tone. |
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prozacrat
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1186 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2004 : 13:56:00
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I believe that Josh Frank is a credible kind of guy. He did an off-Broadway musical called Love Janis which was along the same lines and got pretty high marks in the theatre scene from what I remember. Teenager of the Year was just his next musical. Obviously the Pixies reuniting is going to change his plans in one form or another. I'm going to give him the benifit of the doubt.
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Broken Face
-= Forum Pistolero =-
USA
5155 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2004 : 14:12:41
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plus he stole my idea - i talked openly on this board about doing an oral history of the pixies over a year ago! bastard!
-brian
- "I joined the Cult of Frank / And they tried to cut off my nuts and make me put on a blue jumpsuit"
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Forget the Musical, How 'Bout a Pixies Book?
