Tried to get excited up the new Electric Six album coming out early next month but couldn't. Here's the Klaxons:
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Wikipedia:
Klaxons are a Mercury Prize winning English band, based in London. The word 'klaxon' is derived from the Greek verb klazō, meaning "to shriek", and most commonly refers to air-raid sirens or other warning devices. They are currently signed to Rinse Records, their own branch of Polydor Records.
Following the success of previous singles "Magick" and "Golden Skans", the band released their debut album, Myths of the Near Future on January 29, 2007. The album won the 2007 Nationwide Mercury Prize.[1]
After headlining their first tour (the 2006 NME Indie Rave Tour), as well as playing numerous festivals worldwide, the band are currently working on their second album.[2]
Contents[hide]
1 History
1.1 Formation (2005 - 2006)
1.2 Angular/Merok/Modular Records (2006)
1.3 Polydor Records (2006 - present)
2 'Nu Rave'
3 Musical Style
4 Discography
4.1 Albums
4.2 EPs
4.3 Singles
4.4 Contributions
4.5 Covers
4.6 Awards
5 References
6 External links
6.1 Interviews/Reviews
//
[edit] History
[edit] Formation (2005 - 2006)
Simon Taylor-Davis grew up in Stratford Upon Avon where he met James Righton, who was a year below him in school. James taught Simon how to play guitar, and later they (along with members of Pull Tiger Tail) were in a band called 'Hollywood is a Verb' which was very briefly active during the summer of 2004. While studying Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University Simon was approached by Jamie Reynolds, the boyfriend of one of his housemates, to form a band.
Jamie Reynolds grew up in Bournemouth and Southampton and was active in several bands from his early teens, however the bands quickly dissolved and he dropped out of school to work in record shops over the next few years. He later moved to London after he was made redundant, spending his redundancy money on a studio kit in order to record with Simon and James under their early guise of "Klaxons (Not Centaurs)"[3].
The lineup was recently bolstered with the addition of drummer Steffan Halperin (former drummer Finnigan Kidd left to focus on another band, Hatcham Social [4])), who was recruited for live gigs after appearing on the album version of the track "Atlantis To Interzone" (the rest of the percussion on Myths of the Near Future was provided by the album's producer James Ford). As of early 2007 Halperin had become a quasi-official fourth member of the band, being listed on the Klaxons MySpace page and present in several interviews. However he remains mostly absent from the band's music videos, appearing only in the early video "Atlantis to Interzone" and briefly in the 2007 re-release of "Gravity's Rainbow".
[edit] Angular/Merok/Modular Records (2006)
Klaxons' debut single, "Gravity's Rainbow" was released on March 29, 2006 on Angular Records. Only 500 copies were released, and all were printed on a 7" vinyl decorated by the band themselves. Radio 1's Steve Lamacq was the first DJ to play the band and band recorded a Maida Vale session for his show on the strength of 'Gravity's Rainbow'. The band's second single, "Atlantis to Interzone", was released on June 12 of the same year. It was their first release for new label Merok and led to further coverage in the NME. The song enjoyed even more radio coverage including play from Zane Lowe and daytime BBC Radio 1 plays from disc jockey Jo Whiley, who repeatedly, and mistakenly, called the song "Atlantic To Interscope". Zane Lowe also wrongly credited the song as "Atlantis To Interscope".[5].
They released their first EP, Xan Valleys in the UK on October 16, 2006 on Modular Recordings.
[edit] Polydor Records (2006 - present)
In 2006, the band signed to Polydor Records. Their first single for the label, "Magick", was released on October 30 and reached #29 in the UK Top 40 the following week.
In August of that year, Klaxons played at the Reading and Leeds festivals, playing in the Carling tent on each festival site. The Carling tent, at both festivals, is the smallest stage and as a result large numbers of people were forced to watch from outside the tent. Fans sounded "Klaxons!" and cheered loudly between songs, brandishing glowsticks, seemingly giving credit to the "New Rave" (see below) bandwagon label. This term was coined by Angular Records founder Joe Daniel and later used by NME to describe the burgeoning scene.
The first single from their debut album, "Golden Skans", was released on January 22, 2007. It reached #16 in the UK Singles Chart on download sales alone, two weeks before the official release of the CD. It climbed to #14 the next week, eventually peaking at #7 after the CD release. On January 24, Klaxons performed on the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, performing "Golden Skans" and a cover of Justin Timberlake's "My Love", to great acclaim from Jo Whiley.[6] The band then released "It's Not Over Yet", a cover version of a song originally by Grace. The track included the "My Love" cover as a b-side, and reached #13 in the UK Singles Chart.[7]
Their debut album, titled Myths of the Near Future, was released on January 29, 2007. It entered the UK Album Charts at #2, beaten only by Norah Jones's album Not Too Late.
The band have recently collaborated with The Chemical Brothers on the track "All Rights Reversed", taken from the duo's new album We Are the Night and have expressed on several occasions an interest in working with Dr. Dre or Snoop Dogg on their follow up album (plans for which have not yet been finalized)[8] but which will be called Myths of the Near Past.
On September 20, it was revealed that the band were to release a double album featuring 27 tracks mixed exclusively by the Klaxons. Entitled A Bugged Out Mix, the band follow in the footsteps of Miss Kittin, Erol Alkan, Felix Da Housecat and Simian Mobile Disco, who have all made similar contributions.[9]
Klaxons are currently on tour through the United States and will be playing gigs across the nation, including at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, Colorado on October 4th.
[edit] 'Nu Rave'
Klaxons in concert, 2007.
Main article: New Rave
HMV describes Klaxons as "acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk", while their MySpace page touts 'Psychedelic / Progressive / Pop'. However, they are one of the isolated acts being referred to as 'Nu Rave', a genre term coined by Angular Records founder Joe Daniel, who released the trio's first single. Though the band's sound is decidedly art rock, they draw upon some less common influences - notably the rave culture of the 1990s, which they appropriate and redefine in a post-modern fashion. Their influences are perhaps most represented in their covers of rave hits "The Bouncer" by Kicks Like a Mule and "Not Over Yet" by Grace. Both tracks have since been released by the band, the first as part of a double a-side with "Gravity's Rainbow" in March 2006 and the latter as a single on June 25, 2007 titled "It's Not Over Yet".
While the band are consistently hailed as the defining act of the sparsely-populated Nu Rave movement, Klaxons have worked to avoid being typecast as champions of the disputed genre that may or may not exist. Even so, Klaxons member Jamie Reynolds expressed no regrets at the dubious honor, saying that "...it's great that it started as an in-joke and became a minor youth subculture"[10]
The Klaxons have been described as a 'manifestation of a Nathan Barley joke' by users of online communities.
[edit] Musical Style
Klaxons' music is often supernatural and magic-realist in theme, as shown in a number of song titles and lyrical content. Examples of this are "As Above, So Below" (favourite saying of Aleister Crowley), "Atlantis to Interzone" (a William Burroughs reference), "Magick" (Crowley) and "Four Horsemen of 2012"/"Gravity's Rainbow" (Thomas Pynchon references). The original name of Klaxons comes from a line in the art text, The Futurist Manifesto. "Forgotten Works" also contains references and lines from Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
Myths of the Near Future (29 January 2007) Polydor Records #2 (UK)
[edit] EPs
Xan Valleys (16 October 2006) Modular Recordings
[edit] Singles
Date of Release
Title
Uk Top 40 Chart Position
Album
March 29, 2006
"Gravity's Rainbow" / "The Bouncer"
N/A
N/A
June 12, 2006
"Atlantis to Interzone"
N/A
N/A
October 30, 2006
"Magick"
29
Myths of the Near Future
January 22, 2007
"Golden Skans"
7
Myths of the Near Future
April 9, 2007
"Gravity's Rainbow" (Re-recording)
35
Myths of the Near Future
June 25, 2007
"It's Not Over Yet"
13
Myths of the Near Future
To be announced
"Totem On The Timeline"[11]
-
Myths of the Near Future
[edit] Contributions
"4 Horsemen of 2012" - On Delete Yourself compilation 'Digital Penetration' (July 31, 2006)
"Magick (Simian Mobile Disco Mix)" - On NME compilation Club NME Presents Dancefloor Distortion (October 7, 2006)
"Gravity's Rainbow" (credited to "The Klaxons") - On Tony Hawk's Project 8 In-Game Soundtrack (October 17, 2006)
"Gravity's Rainbow (Van She Remix)" - On Kitsuné Music compilation Kitsuné Maison Compilation 3 (November 22, 2006)
"Gravity's Rainbow" - On Angular Recording Corporation compilation 'Future Love Songs' (December 11, 2006)
"Golden Skans to Interzone (So Me Remix)" - On Ed Rec Vol. 2 label compilation from Ed Banger Records (March 19, 2007)
"The Bouncer" (credited as "Bouncer") - On "Kiss Does...Rave: Original Rave V New Rave" compilation, Disc 2 (April 30, 2007)
"Golden Skans" - On "Magic Moves" Ski Film teaser (April, 2007)
[edit] Covers
"Golden Skans" covered by Kaiser Chiefs on Radio 1 Live Lounge Session
"Golden Skans" covered by Mark Ronson on Radio 1 Live Lounge Session
"Gravity's Rainbow" instrumental version by The Central Band of the Royal British Legion[10]
"The Bouncer" original by Kicks Like A Mule
"Trick or Treatz" original by Metronomy
"It's Not Over Yet" original by Grace
"My Love" original by Justin Timberlake
"The Night" original by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
"No Diggity" original by Blackstreet
[edit] Awards
2007 NME Awards: Best New Band[12]
2007 Mercury Music Prize: Myths of the Near Future
Links:
http://www.myspace.com/klaxons
http://www.klaxons.net/
Klaxons
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April 5th 2007 MGMT released the EP Time to Pretend. I haven't been able to find much information on them across the web but I've liked what I've heard.
Here is a link to their my space page:
http://www.myspace.com/mgmt
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=251553551
mgmt
I was a big Pixies fan back in the day. Never was sold on Charles without the group but this song has me screaming along.
Wikipedia:
Frank Black (born Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV on April 6, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist.[1] Active since 1985, Black is best known as the frontman of the influential alternative rock band Pixies, where he performed under the stage name Black Francis.[3] Following the band's breakup in 1993, he embarked on a solo career under his current pseudonym. After releasing two albums with 4AD, he left the label and formed a backing band, Frank Black and the Catholics. Black reformed the Pixies in 2004 and continues to release solo records while touring and recording with the band.[4]
Black's vocal style has varied from a screaming, yowling delivery as lead vocalist of the Pixies to a more measured and melodical style in later Pixies' albums and solo career.[5] His cryptic lyrics mostly explore unconventional subjects, such as surrealism, incest and Biblical violence, along with dam collapses, science fiction and surf culture.[6] His use of atypical meter signatures, loud-quiet dynamics and distinct preference for live-to-two-track recording in his career as a solo artist give him a unique style in alternative rock.[7]
As frontman of the Pixies, Black's songs (such as "Where Is My Mind?" and "Debaser") received praise and citations from contemporaries, including Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. Cobain once said that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was his attempt at trying to "rip off the Pixies".[8] However, in his solo work and records with the Catholics, he received fewer popular and critical accolades.[9]
Contents[hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Youth and college
1.2 Pixies
1.3 Early solo career
1.4 Frank Black and the Catholics
1.5 Pixies reunion, Nashville and beyond
2 Musical style
2.1 Influences
2.2 Songwriting and lyrics
3 Television appearances and videos
4 Samples
4.1 Pixies
4.2 Solo career
5 Discography
5.1 Studio albums
5.2 Singles
6 Notes and references
7 External links
//
[edit] Biography
[edit] Youth and college
Charles Thompson was born in Boston, Massachusetts on April 6, 1965. His father was a bar owner, and Thompson first lived in Los Angeles, California as a baby because his father wanted to "learn more about the restaurant and bar business".[10] Thompson was introduced to music at a young age, as his parents listened to 1960s folk rock. His first guitar was his mother's, a Yamaha classical guitar bought with money from his father's bar tips, which he started to play at age "11 or 12".[2]
Thompson's family moved around, first with his natural father, and then his stepfather, a religious man who "pursued real estate on both coasts"; his (natural) parents had separated twice by the time he was in first grade.[11] When Thompson was 12, his mother and stepfather joined a church that was tied to the evangelical Assemblies of God,[11] a move that influenced many of his songs written with the Pixies, which often refer to the Bible.[12] He discovered the music of Christian rock singer-songwriter Larry Norman at 13 when Norman played at a religious summer camp that Thompson attended. Norman's music influenced Thompson to the extent that he named the Pixies' first EP and a lyric in the band's song "Levitate Me" after one of Norman's catchphrases, "come on, pilgrim!" Thompson later described the music he listened to during his youth:[10]
“
I used to hang out with some misfits. [...] We were the 'we listen to odd-ball music' kids. I wasn't hanging out at all-ages shows or trying to get into clubs to see bands, and I was buying records at used records stores and borrowing them from the library. You just saw Emerson, Lake & Palmer records. So I didn't know [punk] music but I started to hear about it in high school. But it was probably a good thing that I didn't know it, that I instead listened to a lot of '60s records and this religious music.
”
Just before Thompson's senior year, his family moved to Westport, Massachusetts, where he received a Teenager of the Year award — the title of a later solo album.[13] During this time, Thompson composed several songs that appeared in his later career, including "Here Comes Your Man" from Doolittle, and "Velvety Instrumental Version".[14]
After graduating from high school in 1983, he studied in the University of Massachusetts Amherst, majoring in anthropology.[15] Thompson shared a room with another roommate for a semester before moving in with future Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago.[16] The two shared an interest in rock music, and Santiago introduced Thompson to 1970s punk and the music of David Bowie; they began to jam together.[17] It was at this time that Thompson discovered The Cars, a band he described as "very influential on me and the Pixies".[18]
In his second year of college, Thompson embarked on a trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico as part of an exchange program. He spent six months in an apartment with a "weird, psycho, gay roommate", who later served as a direct inspiration for the Pixies' song "Crackity Jones";[19] many of the band's early songs refer to Thompson's experiences in Puerto Rico. Thompson failed to grasp the Spanish language, and left his studies after debating whether he would go to New Zealand to view Halley's Comet (he later said it "seemed like the cool romantic thing to do at the time"),[20] or start a rock band.[17] He wrote a letter urging Santiago, with the words "we gotta do it, now is the time Joe",[21] to join him in a band upon his return to Boston.[22]
[edit] Pixies
Main article: Pixies
Soon after arriving back in Massachusetts, Thompson dropped out of college, and moved to Boston with Santiago. He spent 1984 working in a warehouse, "managing buttons on teddy bears", composing songs on his acoustic guitar, and writing lyrics on the subway train.[22] In January 1985, Thompson formed the Pixies with Santiago.[23] Bassist Kim Deal was recruited a week later via a classified advert placed in a Boston paper, which requested a bassist "into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul and Mary," and joined a week later. Drummer Dave Lovering was later hired on recommendation from Deal's husband.[15][24]
Audio samples of Pixies songs written by Francis
"Debaser"
is the opening track of Doolittle. This sample contains the first chorus and the bridge into the second verse.
"U-Mass"
is the sixth track from Trompe le Monde. This sample contains the end of the first verse and the chorus.
Problems playing the files? See media help.
In 1987, the Pixies recorded an eighteen-track demo tape, commonly referred to as The Purple Tape amongst fans. Thompson's (natural) father assisted the band financially, loaning $1000 in order to record the demo tape; Thompson later said that his father "wasn't around for a lot of my younger years, so I think he was doing his best to make up for lost time".[25] The Purple Tape led to a recording contract with the English independent record label 4AD.[17] Thompson adopted the alias "Black Francis" for the release of Come on Pilgrim, a name inspired by his father: “he had been saving that name in case he had another son”.[26]
In 1988, the Pixies recorded their second album Surfer Rosa. Francis wrote and sang on all the tracks, with the exception of the single "Gigantic", which was co-written and sung by Deal. To support the album, the band undertook a European tour, during which Francis met Eric Drew Feldman,[27] a later collaborator on Pixies and solo albums. Doolittle, with Francis-written songs such as "Debaser" and "Monkey Gone To Heaven",[28] was released the following year to widespread critical acclaim.[29] However, by this time, tensions between Francis and Deal combined with exhaustion, and led the band to announce a hiatus.[30] Francis has an aversion to flying, and spent this time driving across America with his girlfriend, Jean Walsh (whom Francis had met in the band's early days),[31] performing solo shows in order to raise funds to buy furniture for his new Los Angeles apartment.[32]
The band reconvened in 1990, and recorded two further albums: 1990s Bossanova and 1991's Trompe le Monde; the latter was Francis' first collaboration with Feldman. The later Pixies albums were characterized by Francis' increasing influence on the band's output, as well as a focus on science fiction themes, including aliens and UFOs.[33] These themes would continue to be explored throughout his early solo work. Trompe le Monde includes the song "U-Mass", which was written about the university he attended as a youth, and due to the keyboard part played by Feldman, signified a move away from the band's purely alternative rock sound. Although Deal had contributed to previous albums, from Bossanova on, Francis wrote all the band's original material. This contributed to the increasing tension between Francis and Deal,[32] and the Pixies broke up in 1992; this was not publicly announced until early in 1993.[34]
[edit] Early solo career
While the Pixies' 1991 album Trompe le Monde was being recorded, Francis had discussions with the album's producer, Gil Norton, about a possible solo record.[35] He told Norton he was keen to record again, even though he had no new material; as a result, the two decided on a cover album. However, by the time Francis visited a recording studio again in 1992, he had "plenty of tunes and musical scraps".[36]
He collaborated with Feldman to record new material; they began by trimming down the number of covers to one, The Beach Boys' "Hang On to Your Ego".[37] Feldman became the album's producer, and played keyboard and bass guitar on several songs,[38] with Santiago featuring on lead guitar.[39] Francis recorded the album during the hiatus and breakup of the Pixies in late 1992 and early 1993. He then adopted the stage name "Frank Black" (inverting his old persona "Black Francis") and released the results as Frank Black in March 1993.[40] Frank Black was characterized by a focus on UFOs and science fiction, although he explored other eclectic subjects, such as in "I Heard Ramona Sing", a song about the Ramones.[41] The album was similar in style, both musically and lyrically, to the Pixies' albums Bossanova and Trompe le Monde. Feldman later said that the first record connected his solo career with Trompe le Monde, "but at the same time it is an island, like nothing else he [Black] did".[42]
The following year, Black released his second solo record, a quirky twenty-two song double album entitled Teenager of the Year.[43] Teenager included the song "Headache" (sample (help·info)), a moderate success on alternative rock playlists; critics described the song as "irresistible pop".[44] The production of Teenager of the Year was markedly different from Frank Black; in the previous album, MIDI templates were used when writing songs, but in Teenager, Black showed individual parts to band members. Feldman noted that Black's songwriting became "a lot more spontaneous" while recording the album.[42] Black had begun to stray from his style with the Pixies, writing songs that covered a variety of genres and topics, and his new-found method of recording was closer to later albums than that of Frank Black and Trompe le Monde.
Both Frank Black and Teenager of the Year were critically well-received and remain fan favorites, although they enjoyed little commercial success. In 1995, Black left his long-time labels 4AD and Elektra.[45] Black continued to write new material: 1996 saw the release of The Cult of Ray on Rick Rubin's American Recordings; the album marked a turn away from the elaborate production of his first solo works and was recorded primarily live with few overdubs. His band for this album featured sole Teenager holdover Lyle Workman on lead guitar, along with bassist David McCaffrey and Scott Boutier on drums.[46][47] Though the album was neither critically nor commercially successful, its stripped-down approach would increasingly define Black's working methods for the next several years.
[edit] Frank Black and the Catholics
Black dubbed this backing band "the Catholics", and the band's eponymous album Frank Black and the Catholics was recorded in 1997. Recorded live-to-two-track initially as merely a demo, Black was so pleased with the results that he decided to release the sessions with no further production.[48] The album was delayed for over a year by conflicts at American, both internal and over its production,[49] and was ultimately released in late 1998 by SpinArt Records in the US. Since leaving American, Black has avoided long-term contracts with labels, and has maintained ownership of his album masters, licensing each album individually for release.[50]
Frank Black and the Catholics became the first album to be posted to the eMusic service; they claim it is "the first album ever made legally available for commercial download".[51] Critical reception to the album was mixed, with some writers noting Black's seemingly deliberate turn away from the "quirkiness" of the Pixies and his early solo work for a self-consciously straightforward approach,[48][52] and the "disappointingly straightforward punk-pop" musical style present on the album.[53]
Black would continue to eschew multi-track recording for the live-to-two-track technique for all subsequent releases under the group name. Live-to-two-track recording precludes the use of overdubs to correct errors or add texture; all takes are recorded continuously, and mixing is done "on the fly". On later albums, Black incorporated more musicians into the sessions to allow for more varied instrumental textures. Explaining his rationale behind the method, Black commented:[54]
“
Well, it's real. It's a recording of a performance, of a real performance between a group of people, an entourage, a band, as opposed to a facsimile of that, which is frequently what people do with multi-track recording. [...] I prefer it. It's a little more real. It's got a little more heart.
”
Workman left the Catholics in 1998 to pursue session and sideman work; Rich Gilbert was added to the band to replace him.[55] Frank Black and the Catholics released Pistolero in 1999, which critics cited as a return to Black's earlier form,[53] and Dog in the Sand in 2001, considered a high point in Black's solo career.[56][57] Dog in the Sand added Dave Philips on pedal steel guitar and lead guitar, and Santiago and Feldman began making occasional appearances with the group live and on record.[58]
By this time, while dismissing the possibility of a Pixies reunion, Black had begun to incorporate an increasing number of the band's songs into Catholics concerts, as well as including Santiago in his solo work again.[59] Black and the Catholics continued to release records; two separate albums, Black Letter Days and Devil's Workshop, were released simultaneously in 2002.[60] Devil's Workshop included the song "Velvety" (sample (help·info)), a version of the Pixies' song "Velvety Instrumental Version" (written by Black as a teenager) with lyrics.[61] The song was one of the first signs that Black had acknowledged his past work with the Pixies in his solo output. A sixth album with the Catholics, Show Me Your Tears, was released in 2003. Show Me Your Tears' title and many of the songs in it were inspired by Black's recent divorce and entry into therapy.[45]
[edit] Pixies reunion, Nashville and beyond
In late 2003, following long-standing rumors, an official announcement was made that the Pixies were practicing for a reunion tour. The band played publicly for the first time in 12 years in April 2004, and went on to tour extensively throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe in the same year. They also recorded a new Deal-written composition, "Bam Thwok", which was released on the iTunes Music Store.[62] Frank Black Francis, a double album bridging the gap between his two personas, was released to coincide with the Pixies reunion tour. The first disc consisted of solo demos of Pixies songs recorded the day before the Purple Tape was recorded, and the second contained studio collaborations, again of Pixies songs, with Two Pale Boys.[63]
Also in 2004, Black began to collaborate with a group of Nashville session men, including Steve Cropper, Spooner Oldham, Reggie Young, and Anton Fig, as well as producer Jon Tiven. In July 2005, the collective released Honeycomb under the Frank Black name, to generally favorable reviews. Entertainment Weekly described the album as "spare, graceful, [and] in the pocket", while Billboard noted it as "One of his finest hours".[64] A second volume of Nashville sessions, a double album entitled Fastman Raiderman, was released in June 2006.[65] Black appeared at a concert by Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman in June 2005 in Salem, Oregon.[66] Norman and Black performed a duet on "Watch What You're Doing", which later appeared on Norman's album, Live at The Elsinore.[67]
Frank Black with the Pixies at Pohoda music festival in Slovakia in July 2006
Black continued to tour with the Pixies through 2005 and 2006. Though the Catholics were effectively defunct, March 2006 saw the release on the iTunes Music Store of two separate albums of the band's B-sides and rarities, Snake Oil and One More Road for the Hit, with an eye towards a future CD release. Black was also working on more new solo material with Eric Drew Feldman in the first part of 2006, some of was performed live with Feldman. In the fall of 2006, Black began his first solo tour since 2003 taking Billy Block, Eric Drew Feldman and Duane Jarvis along as his backing band.[68] In October 2006, Black announced plans for the Pixies to start rehearsing and recording a new album in January 2007.[4] In December 2006, Black released the internet-only "Christmass" album; a collection of new studio tracks, hotel room sessions, and live acoustic recordings from a solo tour the previous summer.[69] In early 2007, a new album entitled Bluefinger was cryptically announced via his official website.[70] Black released a "best of" compilation, Frank Black 93-03, in June 2007. Concurrently with that release, Black undertook a European tour with a new band, featuring Guards of Metropolis members Jason Carter and Charles Normal, as well as bassist Ding Archer. For this tour, Black eschewed his usual rhythm guitar role and performed solely as a frontman and singer.
Black currently lives in Eugene, Oregon, and is married to Violet Clark, his second wife, with whom he has four children.[1]
[edit] Musical style
See also: Pixies' musical style
Over the course of his career, Black's musical style has grown to encompass a large number of genres; however, he is considered to produce rock or alternative rock compositions.[71] Whereas songs such as "Here Comes Your Man" (Doolittle), "Velvety" (Devil's Workshop) and "Headache" (Teenager of the Year) expose a more light rock side, others such as "Something Against You" (Surfer Rosa) and "Thalassocracy" (Teenager of the Year) hint to a more heavy rock influence in his material. A strong country music influence is also increasingly evident in his style, most notably in his Nashville albums, Honeycomb and Fastman Raiderman.
Black acquired his trademark screaming as a teenager, when, according to Black, a Thai neighbor asked him to sing "Oh! Darling" by The Beatles (from their album Abbey Road) and to "Scream it like you hate that bitch!"[72] Black's powerful screams were a signature of Pixies albums, along with the band's typical song structure of quietly paced verses followed by thundering chorus lines and repetitive guitar staccato.[15]
[edit] Influences
Black has drawn influence from a number of musical genres. As a teenager, Black mostly listened to 1960s folk and religious music, including the Christian singer-songwriter Larry Norman. Later in high school and in college, he discovered punk music (Black Flag), along with bands from other genres, such as the new wave band The Cars. While in Boston in 1984, before starting the Pixies, Black listened to Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade, The Spotlight Kid by Captain Beefheart, and I'm Sick of You, an Iggy Pop bootleg.[73] His choice of covers in his career reveals many influences, with songs such as The Beatles' "Wild Honey Pie" (from The White Album) and "Head On" (by The Jesus and Mary Chain) with the Pixies, and The Beach Boys' "Hang On to Your Ego" in his solo career.
Other media has influenced Black. References to the Bible, especially in his career with the Pixies, appear in his work; most notably in the incestuous tale of "Nimrod's Son", the stories of Uriah, Bathsheba in "Dead", Samson in "Gouge Away" and references to the The Tower of Babel in songs such as "Build High" and "Old Black Dawning".[74] He cited surrealist films Eraserhead and Un Chien Andalou (as mentioned in "Debaser") as major influences on his work with the Pixies; however, Surrealism was less of an influence in his solo career.[75] He commented on these influences (which he paid tribute to most in the Pixies' Doolittle), saying he "didn't have the patience to sit around reading Surrealist novels", but found it easier to watch twenty-minute films.[76]
[edit] Songwriting and lyrics
During his stay in Puerto Rico, Black acquired a fairly fluent, although informal and at times incorrect, use of Spanish, which he has continued throughout his career. Several early Pixies songs, including "Isla de Encanta" and "Vamos", reference his experiences in San Juan, and the lyrics are often heavily seasoned with the island's slang. The island's influence in his work is most notable in the song "Isla De Encanta", named after the island's motto, "Isla Del Encanto". Other Pixies songs drawn from his experiences there include "Vamos" (Come on Pilgrim), "Oh My Golly!", "Where Is My Mind?" (Surfer Rosa) and the B-side "Bailey's Walk". Several of his songs contain Spanish lyrics, most notably in the Pixies' first album, Come On Pilgrim, and a Spanish translation of "Evil Hearted You" by The Yardbirds.[77] From his later works with the Pixies onwards, his use of Spanish drifted westward, reflecting places and aspects of the state of California and its culture.[54]
Black's lyrics are noted for their obscure references to off-beat topics such as outer space, UFOs, and The Three Stooges — the last of these being the subject of "Two Reelers", a song from Teenager of the Year.[42] Lyrics with a focus on science fiction were particularly prominent on the later Pixies records, as well as his early solo albums.[78] With the Catholics, his lyrics have tended towards historical topics; for example, the song "St. Francis Dam Disaster" (from Dog in the Sand) details the catastrophic collapse of the St. Francis Dam near Los Angeles in March 1928,[74] and the All My Ghosts EP featured an account of the "Humboldt County Massacre" of Wiyot Indians in 1860 near Eureka, California.[79]
[edit] Television appearances and videos
See also: Pixies' television appearances and videos
Black performing "Monkey Gone to Heaven" as part of the Pixies on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2004[80]
Black has appeared on a range of television shows solo and as part of the Pixies, ranging from 120 Minutes and The Late Show in the US, to The Word in the UK.[81]
As part of the Pixies, he was reluctant to film music videos for singles. Elektra Records' Peter Lubin commented that "to get videos out of them was a major [...] undertaking and it only got worse over time", citing the fact that Black refused to lip-sync to music videos;[82] the video for the Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man" features Black and Deal opening their mouths as the vocals are being heard, mocking the practice.
In his early solo career as Frank Black, his videos were more professional; he became more willing to take part in them. "Los Angeles" is an example; the video features Black riding across a desert on a hovercraft. They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh, who directed the "Los Angeles" video, later commented on the change in Black's attitude to music videos:[42]
“
I think the Pixies had made enough anti-videos that Charles was ready to do things that were more visually hopped up. The 'Los Angeles' video that we did, the last minute and a half of the song is this open field of grey over which hovercrafts are floating. It's about as tripped up as any video I've ever been involved in, and it was also realizing a dream of Charles', getting him in a hovercraft.
”
Black has only released one music video since leaving 4AD, a low-budget video in Germany for Dog in the Sand's "Robert Onion". The last widely-released video produced for Black's solo material was for "Men in Black", from Cult of Ray.[83]
Websites:
http://www.4ad.com/frankblack/
black francis
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Wikipedia:
Menomena IPA:[məˈna.mə.nə] is an experimental rock band from Portland, Oregon, made up of Brent Knopf, Justin Harris, and Danny Seim. All members of the band share singing duties and frequently swap instruments when recording themselves.
[edit] History
Menomena began as a side project of Seim's late '90s solo project Lackthereof, a project which still continues.
The band formed in late 2000, when Knopf graduated from college and returned to Portland to collaborate with Harris and Seim [1].
The name "Menomena" was chosen for "the way it rolls off the tongue, sexually, or something" [2] and has no specific meaning, although it is often assumed to refer to the Piero Umiliani song "Mah Nà Mah Nà", a staple of The Muppet Show. A recent audioclip from SpotDJ had Brent sarcastically stating that the band name was a contraction of the words "Men" and "Phenomena".
Menomena played their first show at The Meow Meow, a now-defunct all ages venue in Portland, in July 2001. The trio opened their debut performance with a cover version of "The Abandoned Hospital Ship" by The Flaming Lips [3].
Shortly after joining the roster of High Road Touring, a San Francisco-based booking agency[4], Menomena drove a 1977 Dodge Sportsman RV on their first U.S. tour in 2004[5]. The aging vehicle suffered many breakdowns along the way. Knopf detailed these issues in an interview with Spin (magazine), "Systems that failed (and had to be replaced) during the tour included the following: tires, muffler, brake master cylinder, exhaust manifold, windshield wipers, horn, side-view mirrors (both fell off). Oh, and did I mention that there were two fires? Not one. Two. This vehicle promptly earned the moniker 'RV Danger.'"[6]. RV Danger (most likely a reference to Seattle band Harvey Danger) was later immortalized in a tour poster illustrated by Tyler Stout, who has collaborated with the band on numerous occasions[7]. Other notable tours in Menomena's early career were with Gang of Four (band)[8], The National (band)[9], and The Long Winters[10].
After several releases and national tours, Menomena signed with Barsuk Records in August 2006. The band still maintains a relationship with their original label, FILMguerrero. It was stated that FILMguerrero will continue be involved in their back catalog and possibly with future vinyl releases[11].
Menomena signed a contract with Germany-based record label City Slang in 2007, to release their album Friend and Foe across Europe on August 31 of the same year.
[edit] I Am the Fun Blame Monster!
After giving away several different homemade demo CD-R recordings at local shows, Knopf, Harris, and Seim stuck with the DIY aesthetic of their early demos by recording their first album themselves. The result was their ten-song debut, I Am the Fun Blame Monster! (an anagram for "The First Menomena Album"), which was self-released on May 20, 2003. The album was elaborately packaged in an 80-page flipbook that Seim designed and individually hand-assembled[12] while working at Kinko's [13].
A friend advised the band to mail a copy of their album to Pitchfork Media, a popular music website that Seim "had never heard of" at the time [14]. Several months later, Pitchfork gave the album a 8.7/10 rating, and placed it in the "Best New Music" section. The band continued to assemble the flipbooks by hand and distribute them with the help of online retailer CD Baby until late 2004, when the album was released nationwide by FILMguerrero, a Portland-based independent record label.
[edit] Under An Hour
On November 8, 2005, Menomena released Under An Hour, an album of instrumental music written for and performed with Monster Squad, an experimental dance company based in Portland[15]. The release consists of only three tracks, each of which is over seventeen minutes in length. Stylus Magazine gave the album a somewhat lukewarm "B-" and described it as, "...an interesting view into a band that continues to evolve without really throwing down any breadcrumbs for them or us to follow"[16].
[edit] Friend And Foe
Menomena released their third album (and first via Barsuk Records) on January 23, 2007. As with their first two releases, Friend and Foe was entirely produced, recorded, and mixed by the band. It received relative critical acclaim -- while some websites such as Lost At Sea praised the album for its offbeat rhythmic structure and creative use of melody [17], others such as PopMatters criticized it for presenting a sense of feigned maturity[18]. Pitchfork gave the album a 8.5/10 and again placed it in the "Best New Music" section, calling it "...The first great indie rock record of the new year"[19].
To celebrate the release of the album, Harris assembled a 25-member choir and taught them the various vocal layers of the new material with the help of his mother Diane, a trained opera singer [20]. The choir was made up of other Portland-based bands and artists, including The Helio Sequence, 31Knots, Nick Jaina, Psuedosix, Dat'r, Boy Eats Drum Machine, Corrina Repp, Ms. Murgatroid, and several other of Harris' close friends[21]. The Friend And Foe CD release show was held at Portland's Crystal Ballroom on January 28, 2007 [22].
The CD and LP (the latter was released in August 2007 by FILMguerrero) features an intricate packaging layout consisting of Die (manufacturing)-cut shapes, decoder rings, and hidden messages. It was designed by Knopf and illustrated by cult graphic novelist/ cartoonist Craig Thompson, of Blankets (graphic novel) fame[23].
[edit] Live Performance
In a performance setting, Menomena attempts to replicate the often dense instrumentation found on their recordings without the use of backing tracks [24]. Throughout the course of a typical concert, Knopf plays keyboards, electric guitar(s), and glockenspiel, while triggering various MIDI samples with his laptop; Harris plays electric guitar(s), baritone guitar, electric bass, Moog Taurus foot synthesizer, baritone saxophone, and alto saxophone; Seim plays drums and other percussion. All three members contribute vocal harmonies and sing lead on different songs [25].
[edit] Deeler
The band uses a computer program called the Digital Looping Recorder, or Deeler for short, in the song writing process. It was programmed by Knopf using Max (software) [26]. Seim explains the process, "First, we set the tempo of the click, which is played through a pair of headphones. We then take turns passing a single mic around the room. One of us will hold the mic in front of an instrument, while another one of us will lay down a short improvised riff over the click track. We usually start with the drums. Once the drums begin looping, we throw on some bass, piano, guitar, bells, sax, or whatever other sort of noisemaker happens to be in the room. Deeler keeps the process democratic, which is the only way we can operate" [27].
The use of Deeler as a compositional tool was discussed extensively by the band in an interview with Tape Op Magazine, published in issue #47 (May/June 2005) [28].
Websites:
http://www.menomena.com/
http://www.myspace.com/menomena
menomena
