Frank Black

小简介
1993年，Frank Black解散了The Pixies乐团并实施了他的单飞计划，截止到目前，他分别以个人的名义或与The Catholics合作的形式发行了十三张专辑（不包括现场及精选），音乐虽已无The Pixies时期引领时代的领袖气质，但他屡屡将传统摇滚乐焕然一新的创作，还是赢得了一大批摇滚死粉的欢心。只不过，与当年的风光相比，Frank Black更多的还是成为了一名草根精英、平民英雄（这大概也是因为缺少Joey的缘故吧），虽无烟花如此那般的灿烂，但毕竟也算是音乐不停就发光不止。
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Inverting his stage name from Black Francis to Frank Black, the former Pixies lead singer/songwriter embarked on a solo career after he broke up the band in early 1993; actually, he began recording his solo album before he told the band the news. Working with former Pere Ubu member Eric Drew Feldman, Black occasionally heads into the ferocious post-punk guitar territory that marked such landmark albums as Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, but more frequently he plays up his considerably underrated melodic side. His self-titled 1993 debut album was an adventurous sketchbook of pop styles ranging from surf rock to heavy metal, from Beatlesque pop to new wave. Blacks second album, 1994s Teenager of the Year, was a sprawling and diverse album that amplified all the best points of Frank Black. Although it received favorable reviews and had an alternative radio hit with Headache, it slipped off the charts two weeks after its release. Black parted ways with Elektra and 4AD in early 1995, signing a new record contract with American in the U.S. and Sony in Europe. Black released his first album for American and Sony, the hard-rocking Cult of Ray, in January 1996.
The Cult of Ray hardly found the wide audience Black had hoped for, selling considerably less than his two previous efforts. Early in 1997, American was forced to close briefly as they straightened out their financial problems. Black was lost in the shuffle. He had recorded an album with the Catholics — essentially just a renamed version of his Cult of Ray supporting band — but was unable to release it due to Americans problems. Eventually, he wrangled himself free from both American and Sony. Early in 1998, he signed with Play It Again Sam in England, and he released Frank Black and the Catholics that spring. He was left without an American record contract until spinART picked up the album for release in the U.S. in August. Pistolero followed in 1999. Dog in the Sand was issued two years later. In 2002, Black returned with two albums, the ambitious Black Letter Days and The Devils Workshop, a more laid-back effort. Show Me Your Tears, which was inspired by Blacks therapy sessions, followed a year later.
Black returned to prominence in 2004 with a Pixies reunion, a project that included North American tours that spring and fall; an appearance at the Coachella festival; dates in Europe and the U.K. that summer, including a performance at the T in the Park festival; Pixies, a DVD retrospective; a new best-of collection, Wave of Mutilation: The Best of Pixies; and last but not least, the possibility of a new Pixies album. That fall, Frank Black Francis, a double-disc set of early Pixies demos and reinterpretations of Pixies songs by Black and the Two Pale Boys, arrived in the midst of all this activity. The Pixies reunion tour continued into 2005; that summer, Black released Honeycomb, a collection of songs recorded in Nashville, TN, featuring performances by session greats such as Spooner Oldham, Reggie Young, Anton Fig, and Steve Cropper. He reunited with this crew and added a host of other guest stars for 2006s sprawling double album Fast Man Raider Man, which he supported with a string of dates opening for Foo Fighters.