To celebrate Frank Black‘s landmark solo album, Teenager Of The Year turning 30, 4AD release a one-time vinyl pressing on 17th January, to accompany a tour of North America plus Paris and London, where Frank Black and the original band will be performing the album in its entirety.
This special vinyl tour edition of Teenager Of The Year, has been remastered for the first time from its original analogue studio tapes. Sounding as essential as the day it was released, the limited 30th Anniversary Tour Edition is cut at 45 rpm for optimum playback and is being pressed on double gold vinyl. The album also comes in a gatefold sleeve with liner notes by both Frank Black and producer Eric Drew Feldman. A 24-bit digital version is being released on the same day.
Frank Black tells all about the making of Teenager Of The Year in a unique podcast with Mark Beaumount.
“Welcome to my 30th anniversary Teenager Of The Year podcast, where you may hear me pontificate on the mysteries and swim among the faded memories of my 2nd solo effort from 1994.” watch here:
Originally recorded amid a rich songwriting vein, just as the Pixies had been placed on hold, Frank Black’s ambitious double album Teenager Of The Year came out in May 1994, just one year after his fantastic self-titled solo debut. Recorded with scene legend Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Pere Ubu, The Residents), Teenager Of The Year, is now widely regarded as the defining statement of his solo career and the best album the Pixies never made.
“Sometime in the early 80s, I’d have to look up the date, I matriculated high school. This school held an awards banquet for some of the departing students at the school. I received an award called the TEENAGER OF THE YEAR award; my brother received the same award the following year. Our award was a 50 dollar credit for textbooks, a TEENAGER OF THE YEAR medallion (my mother still has this), and also the banquet hall dinner, soup to nuts. My brother and I had no complaint about the award (it was given for being all-around-good-guy as best as we could determine). But for such a grand title to be given as TEENAGER OF THE YEAR, I felt the glory had not been amplified enough.
In 1993, I was doing “solo recording” sessions with Eric Drew Feldman in Los Angeles. We had settled on a core band with Nick Vincent and Lyle Workman, occasionally augmented by Joey Santiago and Moris Tepper. Though we had to change studios numerous times for actual forest fires and earthquakes, the whole process was such an addictive musical buffet that Eric and I couldn’t stop. We did some vocals at a studio rumored to be owned by Sergio Mendes; in the control room was a wall of television screens broadcasting the brush fire which crept toward us. We eventually evacuated to someplace else. We never met Sergio but we saw him perform a few weeks later when we vacated to Las Vegas after the Northridge earthquake, which had trapped the TEENAGER OF THE YEAR tapes in a studio vault for some time. Our zeal plus empathy from our financiers, they safely observing our travails from London, was enough to keep the money flowing until Eric and I relented and declared “Consummatum est”.
We tried to make it grand. 22 in 62. I called it TEENAGER OF THE YEAR. It is 30 years old now, and the original band will perform the record at various venues in early 2025. 4AD has remastered the LP for a fresh printing. Enjoy.” Black Francis 2024 Meredith, New Hampshire.
Pitchfork placed Teenager Of The Year in their Top 100 albums of the 90’s saying “beneath its veneer lie the moments brilliant enough to rival any of the Pixies’ 1990’s work, and Black’s greatest lyrical achievement.” The album is also included in the book ” 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”, while The Quietus in 2014 said “Teenager Of The Year feels like a lost Pixies album in the way Ram feels like a lost Beatles album. It’s colossal, it teems with innovation.”
Watch the video for the single Headache from Teenager Of The Year here:
“Initially it was a 14-song album. It was mixed. Eric Idle was staying nearby. He kept telling me to change the songs around. Al (Clay)had to run off and go to his next project. We weren’t completely happy with what we had. The solution: record more songs. Eight more were born. Whole shebang was remixed by David Bianco. The day before we were to start the remix, the 1994 Northridge earthquake occurred. Charles, Jean (Charles’ first wife) and I escaped to Las Vegas, ate many shrimp cocktails, and we saw Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’99 perform. Sergio was especially good. After about five days we returned to the mixing studio and the deed was done.” Eric Drew Feldman.*
To pre-order the limited Teenager Of The Year 30th Anniversary Tour Edition go to: https://frankblack.ffm.to/teenageroftheyear30
Teenager Of The Year tracklisting
Side A
A1 Whatever Happened To Pong?
A2 Thalassocracy.
A3 (i Want to Live on an) Abstract Plain.
A4 Calistan.
A5 The Vanishing Spies.
A6 Speedy Marie.
Side B
B7 Headache.
B8 Sir Rockaby.
B9 Freedom Rock.
B10 Two Reelers.
B11 Fiddle Riddle.
Side C
C12 Olé Mullholland.
C13 Fazer Eyes.
C14 I Could Stay Here Forever.
C15 The Hostess with the Hostess.
C16 Superabound.
Side D
D17 Big Red.
D18 Space Is Gonna do me Good.
D19 White Noise Maker.
D20 Pure Denizan of the Citizens Band.
D21 Bad, Wicked World.
D22 Pie In The Sky.
Catalogue number: 4AD0761LP
UPC: 19140076105
Performed by:
Frank Black on vocals and guitars
Eric Drew Feldman on bass and keyboards
Lyle Workman on guitar
Nick Vincent on drums
plus features by
Joey Santiago – lead guitar on tracks 8,15,20,21 and 22
Moris Tepper – lead guitar on tracks 11 and 17
The Teenager Of The Year Tour starts on 15th January at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco and includes 11 US and Canadian shows before going over to perform in Paris on Tuesday 4th February and the iconic London Palladium on Thursday 6th February.
December Acoustic Solo Shows:
3rd – Brattleboro, VT – The Stone Church
5th – Portsmouth, NH – 3S Artspace
7th – Newport, RI – Jane Pickens Theater
The full 2025 Teenager Of The Year Tour Dates are:
January
15th San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
16th San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
18th LA, CA The Orpheum
19th El Cajon, CA The Magnolia
22nd Denver, CO The Paramount
24th Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
25th Chicago, IL The Metro
26th Chicago, IL The Metro
28th Detroit, MI St Andrews Hall
29th Toronto, ON History
31st Boston, MA Citizens House Of Blues
February
01st Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Street
04th Paris, France Trianon
06th London, UK The Palladium
Feast you eye here on a Frank Black tour cartoon:
Tickets for the Teenager Of The Year shows are available from here: https://blackfranc.is
The touring band is:
Frank Black on vocals and guitars
Eric Drew Feldman on bass and keyboards
Lyle Workman on guitar
Nick Vincent on drums
Rob Laufer – keys, bass and guitar
