In the wake of Pixies demise back in the ’90s, Kim Deal already had a packed parachute, as the Breeders debut was made during the band’s first short hiatus and came out around the time of Bossanova. But it was the follow up Last Splash that made her a bona fide star. However, Frank Black was responsible for the majority of the songwriting in the quartet, and had hinted at making a solo record before Pixies threw in their blood-and-sweat stained towels.
His first self-titled record got some immediate traction with the cover of Beach Boys “Hold On To Your Ego” and single “Los Angeles” and he carried that momentum to include bass player and Eric Drew Feldman on the next one; Feldman was first pulled into Black’s orbit as a studio musician on Pixies Trompe Le Monde and would prove to be a key collaborator as Black’s career progressed.
Feldman would bring along fellow Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band vet Moris Tepper and rounding out the band were two highly respected LA studio music vets, Nick Vincent on drums and Lyle Workman on guitar. Obviously highly skilled, the members actually managed to fully coalesce and sound like a band rather than a bunch of hired guns pulled in for a specific assignment, and Teenager Of The Year started a fruitful relationship. (Fun fact – Charles actually won the teenager of the year award in high school!)
Though the radio hit “Headache” (and we learned that Monty Python alum Eric Idle almost played on the studio version but too many Heinekens got in the way) definitely got traction, deciding to tour on the record and play the sprawling 22 song double album in one dose was a bit of a daunting task for casual fans. Having the band who created it (minus Tepper, plus Tepper’s friend Rob Laufer) definitely helped, their onstage chemistry showing no patina of rust over the ages.
As a pre-cursor, Black played a couple of songs from his debut record before launching into the proper main course, celebrating its 35th trip around the sun. (This is the part of the program where I admit I lost track of Black’s solo career and am shocked to learn he’s put out nineteen solo records, including nothing since 2011.)
Black warned about some deep cuts coming our way, and a song like “Sir Rockaby” definitely lost some of the steam that “Headache” got going. “Two Reelers” was prefaced by Black admitting that the Marx Brothers were more intelligent but his soft spot resides with the Three Stooges, eliciting a “Fuck Shemp” from a member of the crowd. Does that guy not know about Joe or Curly Joe? The song was one where the odd time signatures made the Beefheartian band connection pretty obvious.
Wrapping up with two additional songs from the debut, the scorching “Los Angeles” was revealed by Black as being written over a bowl of matzo ball soup. The closing song was also part of those matzo ball sessions, “I Heard Ramona Sing” a love song to everyone’s favorite fake brothers, The Ramones.
Opening duties fell to Reid Paley, who’s collaborated with Black on a record and has pulled support duties in the past. Paley had a jazz-like combo as rhythm section, drums and stand up bass. The entire schtick came off as Tom Waits lite lite lite, but I do give the drummer props for his skills.
