https://frankblack.ffm.to/teenageroftheyear30

To celebrate Frank Black’s landmark solo album, Teenager Of The Year turning 30, 4AD release a one-time vinyl pressing on 17^th 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 30^th  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.”

 

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.”

“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

The Teenager Of The Year Tour starts on 15^th January at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco and includes 11 US and Canadian shows before going over to perform in Paris on Tuesday 4^th February and the iconic London Palladium on Thursday 6^th February.

December Acoustic Solo Shows:

3r^d – Brattleboro, VT – The Stone Church

5^th – Portsmouth, NH – 3S Artspace

7^th – Newport, RI – Jane Pickens Theater

The full 2025 Teenager Of The Year Tour Dates are: 

January 

15^th    San Francisco, CA     The Fillmore 

16^th    San Francisco, CA     The Fillmore 

18^th    LA, CA          The Orpheum

19^th   El Cajon, CA        The Magnolia 

22^nd    Denver, CO        The Paramount

24^th    Minneapolis, MN    First Avenue 

25^th    Chicago, IL         The Metro 

26^th    Chicago, IL         The Metro 

28^th    Detroit, MI         St Andrews Hall

29^th    Toronto, ON         History 

31^st    Boston, MA         Citizens House Of Blues 

February 

01^st    Brooklyn, NY         Brooklyn Street

04^th    Paris, France        Trianon 

06^th    London, UK          The Palladium

Feast you eye here on a Frank Black tour cartoon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMlB2fBnLX8

Tickets for the Teenager Of The Year shows are available from here: https://blackfranc.is