Into the Black

But for the immediate future, at least, Black and guitarist Dave Phillips are gearing up for a set of acoustic shows on their way to Denver.

"Me and Dave are officially on a little break right now, but we're doing a little run through the Southwest. We're going to Colorado for some label business, and we're going to play a few shows on the way. We haven't been through New Mexico and Arizona in a while."

Frank Black, fronting his Catholics.

Details

Scheduled to perform on Monday, July 23. Showtime is 9 p.m.

Mason Jar

Related Content

• It's Easter: Here Are Five Musicians Whose Careers We Would Resurrect
  April 6, 2012
• Take Cover: Born Loser and The Hangers On Cover The Pixies
  March 27, 2012
• The Pixies @ Mesa Amphitheatre
  September 23, 2010
• Jose Garces, What Are You Listening To?
  March 2, 2012
• The Pixies
  September 23, 2010

More About

• Frank Black
• Pixies
• Charles Thompson
• Robert Onion
• Radio

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

So putting aside the scurrilous rumors and the ugly history, Frank Black seems slowly to be coming to a more confident place in his solo work, boosted by a pragmatic awareness of what it takes to get it out of his head, and into the world.

"Like what I said about the corporate labels being a bad place to be? A really cynical place? I'm not a political person, but I just assume that there is a lot of evil in the idea of corporate management. I read a lot of this guy named Kim Stanley Robinson, who writes a lot about the colonization of Mars and the idea of national sovereignty. His whole idea of the future is this prospect of not only the world, but the universe being eventually controlled by multinationals. And I see it in the music industry, but I sometimes wonder if that's the direction the whole world's heading towards. But, you know, obviously the idea of national sovereignty has changed in the last several years. There aren't as many dark corners to hide in anymore, and I think a lot of countries don't get away with the things they might have gotten away with, maybe 15, 20 years ago. The world is smaller.

"You get happy, sometimes, when you hear stories of companies going under. I was just reading about how Tower Records had to scale back in their operations, because they'd gotten too big for their britches, and I felt so satisfied because I thought, hey, they don't have ultimate control, they can't just take over everything. And I actually like Tower Records, kind of.

"But it's satisfying to know that corporate ownership's not a flawless machine. That it can't just run over everything."