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FRAI1K BLACK & IRC CATHOLICS
RAW, RCAM AnD EHCKI1K IRe F0RMHLA
\A/i 4- kl *” s two most rectnt albums,
Vf 11 n songwriter Frank Black (AKA
Charles Thompson) has taken the most bask
approach to record making possible, recording
1998*5 frank Black & The Catholics and last
year's Pistolero— both on the spinART label-
live in the studio to two-track tape with virtu
ally no overdubs. The first album was finished
in just four days, while/Vrtotero was completed
in two five-day sessions, partly because Black
wrote some of the material in the studio. These
albums represent a considerable shift in the
sonic feel of the music Black has made since
1991 when he broke up The Pixies—the influ* <
ential alternative Boston rock group he
helmed beginning in 1986—to embark on his
solo career. Where the 1993 solo debut, frank
Black, and the 1994 follow-up. Teenager Of
The Year, took considerable advantage of the
studio, with plenty of layered instruments,
overdubs and even some programmed rhythms,
the latest albums are as raw as rock comes,
with two electric guitars, bass and drums pow
ering the sound.
For Black, the live-to-two-track approach to
recording offered a refreshing change from the
more meticulous methods that are common to
studio sessions.
"That was so satisfying after being in bands
and playing music and recording records for IQ
or 11 years in kind of a multi-tracked way,
which can be very tedious," Black explains, "You
know, even in sort of the rough and ready kind
of music that I have been associated with, for
the most part, there is still this drive for perfec
tion, this drive to get everything perfect. And of
course, with multi-tracking you do it to death.
You do the bass over and over and over. You do
the drums over and over. You end up splicing
your vocals, literally choosing not between vocal
takes, but between syUables for crying out loud.
It just goes nuts. To just walk in and play it like
a real rock musician and have it be done and
over with instantaneously, I mean, you can
imagine how satisfying that would be for me
and the other guys in the band."
Unfortunately, some other people involved
with his career have questioned whether Black
had an ulterior motive behind the more primi
tive approach to record making,
"Everyone's trying to convince me to go
back to traditional overdub recording because
they assume I'm just trying to be a rebel or
something," Black says. "I'm not. The promoter
in France thinks that I've got plenty of hits up
my sleeve. I'm just being defiant I'm insisting
on being obscure. He doesn't get it. He doesn't
get that it just comes out the way it comes
out. And a lot of people think
that what I do now is so different than what I
did with The Pixies."
Black understands that his manager and
promoters might be less enamored with his
newest records. They aren't as radio-friendly,
and that doesn't help the business side of
Black's career. Still Black sees an irony in the
situation.
"Definitely what's being played on the radio
is a lot more produced," Black says, comparing
his music to current radio fare. "And it's diffi
cult to get this stuff played on the radio. When
I was making so-called more produced records
with, say, [producer] Eric Feldman, at the time,
no one was saying 'Oh gee, you're hanging out
with ex-Captain Beefheart [member] Eric
Feldman and you're making a record. Great this
is going to b* really commercial' It was 'Oh
gee, oh man, a 22-song album. Oh boy.'
Everyone was nay-saying me then. Of course,
those records were more successful than the
onesTm releasing now. But now they think
that was the glory days, at least for
the solo records. And in terms of record sales it
was. It's tough to get played on the radio.
What can I say?"
Black has a valid point If the raw sound of
Frank Black & The Catholics and Pistclero makes
Black's music a tougher sell to radio, it's not as
if his songwriting skills have diminished. With
solid backing from bassist David MacCaffrey and
drummer Scott Boutier (both of influential
Providence band Miracle legion), Frank Black &
The Catholics contains some of the best songs
of Black's solo career. Pistolero isn't quite as
immediately catchy, but it's another potent
effort. The album is typified by "Bad Harmony,"
"I love Your Brain" and "Western Star," which
are all concise, hard-hitting tunes that boast
meaty, guitar-chord progressions and the
snappy rhythm section work of The Catholics.
The 14 songs on Pistolero—featuring new gui
tarist Rich Gilbert (formerly of Human Sexual
Response, Zulus and Concussion Ensemble)—
are delivered in rapid-fire succession, with
slight changes of pace provided only by the
country-ish "Billy Radcliffe" and the mid-tempo
almost-ballads "You're Such A Wire" and
"Eighty-Five Weeks."
The relentless tempo of Pistolero, of course,
does the album no favors in the commercial
accessibility department. But for all the talk of
the more perverse elements of the music, Black
feels his writing has actually shifted toward the
mainstream, especially with his lyrics.
"The more you write songs and the more
that you perform songs and play in a band, you
get a little better at what you do maybe," says
Black. "So you become more bold and you
want to embrace the cliches more because
you're not afraid to do them. It's easier to be
weird, to be obtuse, angular, whatever. But to
try to be, to try to exist using formulaics, to
try to exist within a certain parameter, like a
song like 'Bad Harmony,' 'We're like bad har
mony,' a really straight line like that, I would
have never done that 10 years ago because I
would have been too embarrassed. I would
have been/'Oh that's too bokey, it's too tradi
tional or something, mainstream.' But now I'm
definitely like a lot more tempted to see just
how middle of the road can I be. What can I
get away with and still satisfy my rock muse?"
Alan SeuJIey
whQ Frank Black & the Catholics,
Reid Poley
Wwcrp 40 Wall Club
WhFN Wednesday June 21
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