M
matto
Guest
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2005/12/19/here_comes_your_band/
Here comes your band
December 19, 2005
The flack for eMusic checked in the other day and told us something interesting. In 1998, he said, eMusic -- then called GoodNoise -- was the first online music store to offer MP3s for sale, and the first two tracks in its catalog were by Frank Black, who has been a favorite of ours since he began fronting those post-punk progenitors, the Pixies. (The two songs were ''All My Ghosts" and ''King and Queen of Siam.") The friendly flack then informed us that today eMusic will add the one millionth track to its catalog, and the song is ''Here Comes Your Man," off the Pixies' new live CD ''Hey." All of this seemed a good excuse to get Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV -- a.k.a. Frank Black -- on the horn.
MARK SHANAHAN
Q: How are you?
A: Well, I was up all night, and I was just at the doctor's office with my son, who's got a cold and an ear infection.
Q: We call that a Tylenol deficiency in my family.
A: That's good. (Laughs.)
Q: So, it's true that your songs were the first offered for sale on the Internet?
A: Apparently. As it was explained to me, many artists -- bigger fish than myself -- couldn't for contractual reasons do a deal with eMusic, which, I think, had a dorkier name back then.
Q: You don't strike me as a big Web guy.
A: I'm not. I do download stuff but only if it's for sale. Not because I have high morals; I just don't know how to find stuff.
Q: Why'd you pick ''Here Comes Your Man"?
A: About six months after the ''Here Comes Your Man" video was on MTV, I was driving through El Paso, and I was pulled over by border patrol. It was 3 a.m., and they were very suspicious of my luggage, which included some piñatas I had brought from Boston. They were like, ''Have you been to Mexico, Mr. Thompson?" There were about eight of them standing around my car getting ready to do something when one of them said, ''Haven't I seen you on MTV?" Suddenly, the search was off, and 10 minutes later I was holding a shotgun and wearing night-vision goggles posing for pictures.
Q: That's a great story.
A: The point is that's the song Joe Blow knows me for.
Q: What's the status of the Pixies? Still enjoying the reunion?
A: We just got back from Japan. That was the last gig on the books. At one point during the last show, I was teasing Kim [Deal] about something, and she flipped me off. She was just fooling around, but I thought she was serious. It was the first time that'd happened the whole time, and I thought, ''Oh, man, she's mad at me. It's over."
Q: You recording a new album?
A: Yeah, but I need to write some good songs. These Pixies have gotten a little uppity. They're like, ''What if it's not as good as the old records?"
Q: Say, the Pixies were a Boston band, but you live out west. You still feel any attachment to this place?
A: Sure. It Boston. It's where I was born. It's New England. It's the other place in my life.
Here comes your band
Here comes your band
December 19, 2005
The flack for eMusic checked in the other day and told us something interesting. In 1998, he said, eMusic -- then called GoodNoise -- was the first online music store to offer MP3s for sale, and the first two tracks in its catalog were by Frank Black, who has been a favorite of ours since he began fronting those post-punk progenitors, the Pixies. (The two songs were ''All My Ghosts" and ''King and Queen of Siam.") The friendly flack then informed us that today eMusic will add the one millionth track to its catalog, and the song is ''Here Comes Your Man," off the Pixies' new live CD ''Hey." All of this seemed a good excuse to get Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV -- a.k.a. Frank Black -- on the horn.
MARK SHANAHAN
Q: How are you?
A: Well, I was up all night, and I was just at the doctor's office with my son, who's got a cold and an ear infection.
Q: We call that a Tylenol deficiency in my family.
A: That's good. (Laughs.)
Q: So, it's true that your songs were the first offered for sale on the Internet?
A: Apparently. As it was explained to me, many artists -- bigger fish than myself -- couldn't for contractual reasons do a deal with eMusic, which, I think, had a dorkier name back then.
Q: You don't strike me as a big Web guy.
A: I'm not. I do download stuff but only if it's for sale. Not because I have high morals; I just don't know how to find stuff.
Q: Why'd you pick ''Here Comes Your Man"?
A: About six months after the ''Here Comes Your Man" video was on MTV, I was driving through El Paso, and I was pulled over by border patrol. It was 3 a.m., and they were very suspicious of my luggage, which included some piñatas I had brought from Boston. They were like, ''Have you been to Mexico, Mr. Thompson?" There were about eight of them standing around my car getting ready to do something when one of them said, ''Haven't I seen you on MTV?" Suddenly, the search was off, and 10 minutes later I was holding a shotgun and wearing night-vision goggles posing for pictures.
Q: That's a great story.
A: The point is that's the song Joe Blow knows me for.
Q: What's the status of the Pixies? Still enjoying the reunion?
A: We just got back from Japan. That was the last gig on the books. At one point during the last show, I was teasing Kim [Deal] about something, and she flipped me off. She was just fooling around, but I thought she was serious. It was the first time that'd happened the whole time, and I thought, ''Oh, man, she's mad at me. It's over."
Q: You recording a new album?
A: Yeah, but I need to write some good songs. These Pixies have gotten a little uppity. They're like, ''What if it's not as good as the old records?"
Q: Say, the Pixies were a Boston band, but you live out west. You still feel any attachment to this place?
A: Sure. It Boston. It's where I was born. It's New England. It's the other place in my life.
Here comes your band
