Tag: Alternative Rock

Tunes

Best tunes of 1994: #25 Frank Black “Headache”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date November 4, 2025
2 Comments on Best tunes of 1994: #25 Frank Black “Headache”

Back in the early 90s, Toronto alternative radio station CFNY collaborated with music retailer extraordinaire HMV on a series of alternative music compilations. Fittingly titled “Free at last”, the radio station would hand them out as promotional items at events and the store would give them out free with purchases of music by at least one of the artists appearing on the compilation. There were five of them made (that I know of) from 1991 to 1995 and I’m pretty sure they were available both on cassette tape and compact disc, though the art work differed between the two.

I must have had friends that had a few of the volumes because I still have a couple of copies dubbed to cassette packed away in the basement. I also have stowed with them a legit one that I got myself from HMV: Volume 4, from 1994. Looking at the track listing, I figure I probably got a copy with Lush’s second album “Split”. Other artists that appeared on this volume included The Breeders, The Charlatans, Meat Puppets, The Tindersticks, and yes, you guessed it, Frank Black. The very track of focus today, the only single off his sophomore solo long player.

I had only just gotten into his band, the Pixies, a year or two before they announced their break up in 1993 and almost immediately, the frontman* appeared with his debut solo album. In truth, Black had been working on solo material for some time, recording some covers for a planned album as early as during the sessions for Pixies 1991 long player, “Trompe le monde”. The eventual self-titled debut only ended up with one cover on it** when it came out but had a banger of a single on it called “Los Angeles”, whose video I recorded one night from CityLimits and watched and rewatched and rewatched. The sophomore release, “Teenager of the year”, appeared the following year, including twenty two tracks, mostly of typical Pixie length, in and around the two to two and a half minute mark. I never really got into that album as a whole but man, did I love “Headache”, and this was mostly due to the compilation I spoke about above.

“This wrinkle in time, I can’t give it no credit
I thought about my space and I really got me down
Got me so down, I got me a headache
My heart is crammed in my cranium and it still knows how to pound”

Economical as ever, Black packs it all into three minutes. There’s no running start here, going from zero to a hundred, right from the get-go. Crashing drums and slacker guitars, feeling so free and loose. But it’s Black’s vocals and melody that are the star. There ain’t no time to sit and ponder one’s place in the universe and in history. You just gotta go for it. Live it and sing along with Frank. Back him up, screaming all the way. You’ll never be sorry.

*Adjusting his assumed moniker slightly from Black Francis to Frank Black.

**Which I loved.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1994 list, click here.

Tags 1990s, 1994, Alternative, Alternative Rock, American rock, Best tunes, Black Francis, Frank Black, Pixies, Retro, Solo

Vinyl

Vinyl love: Concrete Blonde “Bloodletting”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date October 31, 2025
2 Comments on Vinyl love: Concrete Blonde “Bloodletting”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Concrete Blonde
Album Title: Bloodletting
Year released: 1990
Year reissued: 2017
Details: standard black

The skinny: Well, it’s All Hallow’s Eve again and though it’s been years since I’ve celebrated it in any traditional sense and double that since I dressed up in costume as the holiday warrants, I know it’s an important one to many people and I do try to observe it every year in my own way. This year, as I often do, I’ll spin some gothic rock tunes, perhaps some Sisters, some Joy Division, or this album by Concrete Blonde. “Bloodletting” took the alt rock trio from California into gothic rock territory, their frontwoman Johnette Napolitano having been reportedly inspired by Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles novels, and scoring the group their best-selling album* in the process. I purchased this bare bones reissue when I saw it come up for sale on Amazon back in 2017 because it’s one of those albums** that I knew I needed in my collection, a total mood record that is playable front to back and to front again. And every time I do spin it, I get the urge to light some black candles and crack a bottle of full bodied red wine. Happy Hallowe’en everybody!

Standout track: “Tomorrow Wendy”

*This mostly on the back of their huge radio-friendly hit “Joey“.

**It ranked number six on my best albums of 1990 list when I counted it down earlier this year.

Tags 12", 1990s, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best albums, Concrete Blonde, Gothic rock, Retro

Tunes

Best tunes of 2020: #9 Andy Bell “Love comes in waves”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date October 15, 2025
2 Comments on Best tunes of 2020: #9 Andy Bell “Love comes in waves”

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Ever since pioneering shoegaze rock band, Ride, called it quits rather spectacularly back in 1995, I’d been firmly planted in camp Mark Gardener in terms of following the post-breakup careers of the two warring principal songwriters and driving forces behind the band. I’d always preferred his voice and with the exception of “Vapour trail“, enjoyed far more the songs he led with Ride. I always thought he’d do greater things. Who knew the opposite would turn out to be true?

Sure, Gardener was the first of the two to record and release a solo album by a long shot. However, Bell seemed to get back on the horse quicker, forming Hurricane #1 in 1996, a band of whom I’ve still only heard a few tracks but who released a couple of reasonably successful albums before breaking up a few years later*. Shortly after that, he was recruited by the Gallagher brothers to replace founding Oasis member Guigsy, a job for which he had to quickly learn the bass. He stuck with them until their rude implosion a decade later** and stayed on with Liam for a couple of albums under the Beady Eye moniker. Fans (and readers of this blog) will know that Ride successfully reunited just over ten years ago and not only toured but have released three amazing new albums that build beautifully on their legacy. There’s also been a host of other collaborations and projects that I know little about or only heard tell of so I won’t list them, but know Mr Bell has been quite active indeed.

And in the midst of all this productivity, Andy Bell has been writing, recording and tinkering with songs, a step away from all of these projects, refining and honing sounds, lyrics and melodies. Apparently, “The view from halfway down” became something more than just a ragtag collection of song snippets shortly after David Bowie’s death, this event lighting a fire under Bell’s comfy chair. As a debut solo album, it works perfectly, recognizable enough as Andy Bell but different enough to set it apart from his other projects. And, yeah, some excellent tracks here.

“If you’re searching for meaning
Or a secret worth revealing
And you’re missing the feeling
Of connection, a reflection back from above
You’re ready to ride the first wave of love”

“Love comes in waves” is the opening number and the lead single from the album, a clarion call, a demand for attention. It’s frenetic jangling guitars repeating and not giving up, pounding it in to you, dancing up and down your spine. Meanwhile, the drums just chug along, breathless and immovable, like the unbreakable ocean that he’s comparing with love. A thing of beauty that creates a space that I would definitely want to revisit again and again, sometimes dancing, sometime just being.