Charles Frank Black Francis Thompson

Discussion on new albums, developing listening skills, critical listening to others' work, as well as TOMB members' MP3 links, online recording critiques

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shedshrine
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Charles Frank Black Francis Thompson

Post by shedshrine » Mon Oct 18, 2010 4:18 pm

TapeOp Black Francis Frank Black archive thread

Frank Black Francis albums info by Frank

Quite enamored of a lot of this guy?s stuff.
Great music with unexpected changes and abstract lyrics that make connections in exiting ways are a strong draw for me, being able to express penetrating insight (some of which is undoubtedly provided by the listener) and emotion through superficially bizarre material has always been one of his major talents. The man can turn a phrase. Robyn Hitchcock and Kurt Cobain come to mind in this regard as well.

Here?s to Charles Michael Frank Black Francis Kittridge Thompson seven fingers. and Violet. More please!

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Post by shedshrine » Thu Oct 21, 2010 6:47 pm

Just because you needed to know:

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The Japanese special edition of "Teenager of the Year" has an additional bonus mini cd.

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Includes versions recorded during the TOTY sessions of:

Men In Black
At the End of the World
Oddball
Headache -(NYC version)
Hate Me
Amnesia

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one little story here: Frank has a great sense of humour. There's a track on Teenager called Fiddle Riddle and during the break there's a quick bit of piano drops in. it's one of those things little kids play on piano, kind of like a chopsticks type thing, where you just roll your hand across the grouping of three black keys up twice and hit the next black key twice and roll your hand down the three twice and hit the next lower black key twice (Little Indians?). Anyway this guy I was teaching English with in Japan and I are driving around wirh two lady friends while this album is playing. So TOTY is playing, and when the album gets to this song and at that point I just mentioned decides he just cannot stand it any longer. "Can you turn this **** off? What is this crap? Got to be the worst music I've ever heard. It's like some little kid". We never become very close friends as you might have imagined.
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T-rex
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Post by T-rex » Thu Oct 21, 2010 7:52 pm

Bluefinger renewed my faith in all things rock for a while there. That is a great fkn album!

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Post by shedshrine » Thu Oct 21, 2010 8:24 pm

Agreed. "Captain Pasty","Threshold Apprehension" and his cover of Brood's "You Can't Break a Heart and Have It" are definite candidates for inadvertant speeding tickets.

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Post by vvv » Fri Oct 22, 2010 11:30 am

Bluefinger is one of my faves, altho' I like Pistolero the best, and I hated Seven Fingers. Nostoperotik (his latest) I'm still unsure about - especially the production, what seems awful conservative to me.

Fast Man Raider Man is one of my fave double CD's, ever.

Butt then, all of his records are good; I highly reco ya pick up Christmass what has a bonus DVD of him doing a solo gig, electric guitar and fat-man sweat (both of what I know something about.)

The Kitchen Tapes is also interesting, as a collection of cassette recordings done to demo early Pixies songs.
bandcamp;
blog.
I mix with olive juice.

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T-rex
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Post by T-rex » Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:49 pm

shedshrine wrote:Agreed. "Captain Pasty","Threshold Apprehension" and his cover of Brood's "You Can't Break a Heart and Have It" are definite candidates for inadvertant speeding tickets.
Agree 100%!

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Post by shedshrine » Sat Oct 23, 2010 8:15 pm

Excuse brief forray into Recording Gear, but What's the 9 volt for?(clicky)
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Re: Frank Black's 9 volt...

Post by Gregg Juke » Sun Oct 24, 2010 7:57 pm

Maybe active pick-ups that aren't wired in the back, for some reason?

GJ

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shedshrine
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Post by shedshrine » Mon Oct 25, 2010 12:49 pm

Yeah, alright, I guess I was hoping for something more exotic, like trying out some custom clean-sustain mod before committing to it, like a Philospher's Tone or something..moving on.

Of course Charles' great lyrics are always fun. I still can't figure out why his song about John Denver is called Czar.

Wiki:
"In live performances, Black said the song Czar was about folk singer John Denver, particularly his energy crisis-era activism and his unsuccessful attempt to become a space tourist."



Czar? Denver's real name was Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., maybe that last name translates to Czar. anyway...

Wait, I think i just answered my question: Energy Czar?

_____________________
edit (link):

Q:What?s all this about John Denver on the song ?Czar? on your latest album "The Cult Of Ray"?

- I wrote a song about him because I thought it was very interesting the he would use his fortune to try and persue space. He offered NASA and the Russian equival 10 million dollars if they took him along into space (laughter)...they both turned him down thou.
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Post by vvv » Mon Oct 25, 2010 3:34 pm

It's a subacultcha thang.
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Post by Judas Jetski » Mon Nov 08, 2010 3:24 pm

I really think that Joey Santiago is the previous owner of my Ibanez Roadstar. Seriously. He had one just like it when I saw him on Frank's first solo tour. He was talking about the guitar with a bunch of us between sets, and I got a good close look at it. He said he was going to sell it after the tour (he bought it for that tour because he'd hurt his back and his Les Paul was too heavy), at Daddy's Junky Music in Andover MA.

A few months later, I was looking for a Roadstar with a maple neck. I checked the Rochester store (now closed) and they didn't have one, but they ordered one in for me... it was blonde on blonde (just like Joey's), had the same wear on it as Joey's, and had a few other peculiarities that I remembered from Joey's guitar. Of course, I didn't think to check where the guitar came from until after I'd stickered it... but of course it came from Andover. I really think it was his... Of course, it's mine now, but if it was I'd love to know. 'Cause I'm a HUGE fan of the Pixies and Frank, and Joey's one of my all-time favorite guitar players.

I wonder if there's some way I could find out. Any ideas?
New Judas Jetski EP up! andysmash.bandcamp.com

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Post by shedshrine » Tue Nov 09, 2010 12:46 pm

Judas Jetski wrote:I really think that Joey Santiago is the previous owner of my Ibanez Roadstar. I wonder if there's some way I could find out. Any ideas?
Great Googly Moogly...

Joey on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joey-Sant ... 0152805196
Joey and David?s band
http://www.facebook.com/everybodytheband

that tweet thing..
http://twitter.com/joeysantiago

Judas Jetski
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Post by Judas Jetski » Sun Nov 14, 2010 6:46 pm

Looka' that. Thanks!

I tried doing the FB thing but kept coming up with what were obviously fan pages... tried MySpace too. But that Everybody link might be the hookup. I can just ask the guy. Ah, the wonderz of the interwebz. :D
New Judas Jetski EP up! andysmash.bandcamp.com

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Post by shedshrine » Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:25 pm

Received this today from Japan. Pricy sucker.

I discovered this album while living in Japan.
I had never heard of the Pixies.
I was at a listening station in a Shinjuku record shop.
I donned a pair of phones and "Whatever happened to Pong" came on while a picture of a large man in a tiarra looked on.
(EDIT: "Hey Shedshrine, it's a crown not a tiarra." -F. Black)

His off the wall abstract writing really spoke to me, as living where you can barely communicate gets pretty absurd after awhile.
Japan is a fantastic country, I just wasn't making enough progress learning he lingo at the time. I did meet my wife there however.
So, for me, this album symbolizes my 5 year stay in Asia, hence my willingness to pony up a bit for this two record set.
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Post by shedshrine » Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:49 pm

And finally, this ebay-found pic from a page in a French magazine interview I've framed to hang amidst my music room decor. Nice ceilings in that studio!

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