TWO FOR THE ROAD

The venerable singer songwriter decided to unleash his latest work, Black Letter Days and Devil’s Workshop, simultaneously – 29 grinding morsels of skewed, gut-level rock ‘n’ roll to devour and slowly digest.

It’s not a new concept – Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits and Juliana Hatfield have all seen fit to overwhelm voracious fans with twin packs of material in years past. But for Black and his band the Catholics, the decision was simply business.

“Well, I don’t think the record company would have gone for separate releases,” explains a relaxed Black over the phone from his home in Los Angeles. “It would mean twice as much postage and twice as many phone calls, that kind of thing. I originally wanted them to do it like that – two records kind of close together – but I guess that was asking too much of them if you’re a small fry like me.”

Black is hardly a “small fry” in the music world – and his songs clearly still pack a considerable punch. The tenacious songwriter has been roaming the frayed edges of the rock universe for well over 15 years – “moving black boxes from the back of my car from one side of town to the other side of town” – and shows no signs of backing down.

“People accuse me of being prolific, but I don’t know,” says Black. “It’s not like I work 365 days a year writing songs and making albums. I just think I’m willing to release music on a regular basis, and there are other people who won’t or can’t, because they’ve gotten themselves all tied up in compromising situations with record companies.”

Black has always played the game by his own rules, both as the ringleader of his former band The Pixies and his current project with the Catholics. Compromise has never been a part of the creative equation, and for Black, music is simple: “I pick up a guitar, and I write a song,” he explains matter-of-factly. “I play with the band. I go to a club and unload the band. I play a show. I go to the studio and set up microphones. I stay up late. I record music and get all excited about it. I pretty much do what I want when I want.”

When Black first stormed out in the late ’80s, The Pixies consisted of Black (then known as Black Francis, aka Charles Thompson), Kim Deal, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering. They were an explosive breath of fresh air, churning out punk-infused guitar rock that cut through a sea of limp pop pretenders to reclaim the six-string honours before officially disbanding in 1993. These days, acts like The White Stripes,

The Strokes and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are the latest crop of back-to basic bands to descend upon the airwaves.

But Black dismisses the notion of a musical resurgence. “There’s just always people who are attracted to guitars and making records via that vibe,” he says. “The idea that the scene is changing now, it’s not an evil notion, but it’s kind of a ditzy, romantic one. I think most of the time it’s just wishful thinking on the part of not just critics, but also fans. They want to belong to something, to say ‘this is my generation.’ I don’t want to be part of some generation. I want to be me.”

Recorded live to two-track tape, both Black Letter Days and Devil’s Workshop – his seventh and eighth solo recordings – burn hard, cranking out dark, vitriolic rock ‘n’ roll with faint traces of back-road country, baroque pop, and blues. It’s a ragged sound reminiscent of the Velvet Underground’s Loaded, and as the band kicks into a brazen cover of Tom Waits’ Black Rider, you get the feeling that a stab at the classic Head Held High might not be far behind.

It seems a world away from the volcanic dynamics of seminal Pixie recordings like Come On Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa, and Doolittle. But Black isn’t quite so sure. “I think that between my old songs and new songs, there are far more similarities than differences,” he says.

“Critics would like to say that there are many differences, but that fact of the matter is, it doesn’t feel like night and day to me. The songs I play from the Pixie catalogue are ones I’m comfortable with. Some of the older Pixies stuff feels sort of ditty-ish. It’s partly because so many of them are very short. But I still do ditties, you know. I can’t say that what I do now is so dramatically different.”

FRANK BLACK AND THE CATHOLICS
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4
9 P.M., $17.50
BARRYMORE’S MUSIC HALL