Biography
After dissolving the Pixies at the start of 1993, the group’s former frontman and chief songwriter flipped his performing alias from Black Francis to Frank Black so he could pursue work on his own. In truth, he had already begun cutting his first solo record before notifying the rest of the band. Teaming with onetime Pere Ubu member Eric Drew Feldman, Black sometimes returned to the aggressive post-punk guitar sound that had defined landmark Pixies releases such as Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, yet he more often emphasized his underappreciated gift for melody. His 1993 self-titled debut offered an eclectic survey of pop idioms that stretched from surf rock and heavy metal to Beatlesque songcraft and new wave. The follow-up, the expansive and wide-ranging Teenager of the Year, appeared in 1994 and highlighted every strength of Frank Black’s approach; despite positive notices and an alternative-radio success with “Headache,” the album dropped from the charts within two weeks of release. Early in 1995 Black ended his associations with Elektra and 4AD, moving to American Recordings in the United States and Sony in Europe. He delivered his first project for the new labels, the hard-rocking The Cult of Ray, in January 1996, yet the record failed to reach the broad listenership he had anticipated and moved far fewer copies than its predecessors.
American Recordings shut its doors temporarily in early 1997 while sorting out financial difficulties, leaving Black adrift. He had already tracked an album with the Catholics—a group that was essentially his existing Cult of Ray backing band under a new name—but could not issue it because of the label’s troubles. After extricating himself from both American and Sony, he signed with Play It Again Sam in England in early 1998 and issued Frank Black and the Catholics that spring. Without a domestic deal until spinART licensed the album for an August U.S. release, he followed with Pistolero in 1999 and Dog in the Sand two years later. Black re-emerged in 2002 with a pair of contrasting efforts: the expansive Black Letter Days and the more relaxed The Devil’s Workshop. The therapy-inspired Show Me Your Tears arrived the next year.
A Pixies reunion restored his visibility in 2004, encompassing North American tours in both spring and fall, a Coachella appearance, European and U.K. dates that included a set at the T in the Park festival, the DVD retrospective Pixies, the best-of compilation Wave of Mutilation: The Best of Pixies, and the prospect of new Pixies material. Amid this activity, the double-disc Frank Black Francis—containing early Pixies demos alongside reinterpretations of Pixies songs by Black and the Two Pale Boys—surfaced that autumn. The reunion trek extended into 2005; that summer Black issued Honeycomb, a Nashville, Tennessee–recorded collection featuring session luminaries Spooner Oldham, Reggie Young, Anton Fig, and Steve Cropper. He reconvened the same musicians, supplemented by additional guests, for the sprawling double-album Fast Man Raider Man in 2006 and supported it with opening dates for Foo Fighters.
Although the 2007 concept album Bluefinger examined the life and death of Dutch painter/punk rocker Herman Brood, it contained some of Black’s most intense rock in years—so much so that it was credited to his Pixies-era persona, Black Francis. Frank Black resurfaced the following year with the Seus EP, which preceded the mini-album SVN FNGRS, a set shaped by the Irish legend of Cúchulainn. Still recording as Black Francis in 2010, he released the sexually charged NonStopErotik and a five-disc limited edition of his score for the 1920 silent horror film The Golem, directed by Carl Boese and Paul Wegener. A single-disc version of The Golem and the B-sides collection Abbabubba appeared in 2011, as did Paley & Francis, a collaboration with longtime friend Reid Paley that included contributions from Muscle Shoals veterans Spooner Oldham and David Hood. Bureau B Records issued two live documents, Live at the Melkweg and Live in Nijmegen, in 2012.
American Recordings shut its doors temporarily in early 1997 while sorting out financial difficulties, leaving Black adrift. He had already tracked an album with the Catholics—a group that was essentially his existing Cult of Ray backing band under a new name—but could not issue it because of the label’s troubles. After extricating himself from both American and Sony, he signed with Play It Again Sam in England in early 1998 and issued Frank Black and the Catholics that spring. Without a domestic deal until spinART licensed the album for an August U.S. release, he followed with Pistolero in 1999 and Dog in the Sand two years later. Black re-emerged in 2002 with a pair of contrasting efforts: the expansive Black Letter Days and the more relaxed The Devil’s Workshop. The therapy-inspired Show Me Your Tears arrived the next year.
A Pixies reunion restored his visibility in 2004, encompassing North American tours in both spring and fall, a Coachella appearance, European and U.K. dates that included a set at the T in the Park festival, the DVD retrospective Pixies, the best-of compilation Wave of Mutilation: The Best of Pixies, and the prospect of new Pixies material. Amid this activity, the double-disc Frank Black Francis—containing early Pixies demos alongside reinterpretations of Pixies songs by Black and the Two Pale Boys—surfaced that autumn. The reunion trek extended into 2005; that summer Black issued Honeycomb, a Nashville, Tennessee–recorded collection featuring session luminaries Spooner Oldham, Reggie Young, Anton Fig, and Steve Cropper. He reconvened the same musicians, supplemented by additional guests, for the sprawling double-album Fast Man Raider Man in 2006 and supported it with opening dates for Foo Fighters.
Although the 2007 concept album Bluefinger examined the life and death of Dutch painter/punk rocker Herman Brood, it contained some of Black’s most intense rock in years—so much so that it was credited to his Pixies-era persona, Black Francis. Frank Black resurfaced the following year with the Seus EP, which preceded the mini-album SVN FNGRS, a set shaped by the Irish legend of Cúchulainn. Still recording as Black Francis in 2010, he released the sexually charged NonStopErotik and a five-disc limited edition of his score for the 1920 silent horror film The Golem, directed by Carl Boese and Paul Wegener. A single-disc version of The Golem and the B-sides collection Abbabubba appeared in 2011, as did Paley & Francis, a collaboration with longtime friend Reid Paley that included contributions from Muscle Shoals veterans Spooner Oldham and David Hood. Bureau B Records issued two live documents, Live at the Melkweg and Live in Nijmegen, in 2012.
Albums
Singles
Live
