Frank Black and the Catholics
Devil’s Workshop
2002. SpinART Records
There’s only one good reason for a band to put out two new albums on the same day.
They want to get diverse. They want to show off how they can play chess AND execute a backward somersault. They want the world to hear that they can do two different things well without much time to catch their breath in between tricks.
Maybe they’re bragging, but if you’re a fan, it’s a lot of fun.
I had a lot of fun on August 20, 2002, when Frank Black and the Catholics put out two albums that lived in my car, in my CD player, and in my brain for years. I dragged my old CDs around everywhere. They’re a mess now. You won’t want to touch them without gloves.
Black Letter Days is an 18-track sprawler that’s built like a classic rock double record set. It’s indulgent and unapologetic about it.
The other one, Devil’s Workshop, does exactly what it should do, which is be the opposite. It lets the air out of the balloon.
It was recorded a few months after Black Letter Days and I recommend that you listen in that order for the full effect. Take in the epic first and then put on this shorter, sharper self-response.
If it came out a year after Black Letter Days, Devil’s Workshop would be a confusing step backward for a group that was becoming more ambitious with each release.
As a companion to Black Letter Days though, Devil’s Workshop plays as a vital counterpoint. Both records argue with each other. One has big ideas, the other only wants to rock, which is also a neat summary of Frank Black’s music as a whole.
Black has never been a pure-blood punk, but old school punk rock is a formative influence that he, a 1970s kid, won’t ever shake. What makes him great is that he never imitates it outright. Rather, he uses it like an artist does.
The Pixies’ punk-like aggression and brevity kept their surrealist trip unpretentious. When Black got extra weird on his first two solo records with synthesizers and computer tones, he was still just a guy with a guitar and a batch of short songs, one of which was a tribute to the Ramones that pointedly sounds nothing like the Ramones.
Black has arty tendencies, but his punk influences keep him in check. Joe Strummer is always looking over his shoulder. Everything goes back to rock ‘n’ roll. He’s always stripping things down. Sometimes that means a five-year phase in which he only wants to record live in the studio. Other times it means playing solo shows where he stands alone with a guitar and tears through songs from all eras of his work. The music can be eccentric, but Black wants its effect to be simple.
With the Catholics, punk grounded Black’s classic rock interests. It kept him away from over-production and over-thinking. If he wants to make a vast double-album, he’ll do it. If he wants to knock out eleven songs in a few days and call it his next record, he’ll do that, too.
The songs on Devil’s Workshop aren’t much different from the other Catholics music. Its classic guitar rock influences are the audio equivalent of comfortable old blue jeans with a rip on the knee. There’s a break-up song (“Out of State”), some light sci-fi (“Modern Age”, originally released seven years earlier as a lo-fi demo on Black Sessions – Live in Paris), a road song (“Are You Headed My Way”), a little seething resentment (“The Scene”), and a death song (“Fields of Marigold”)
What distinguishes these tracks is that they sound less meditated upon and more bashed out than the last few albums. Most come off like they were written in a few minutes on an envelope (and in rock ‘n’ roll, that’s not a put-down). They’re a great songwriter putting in the work while the clock ticks toward the next session.
Adding to the mood of spontaniety is that the group are missing a guy. Guitarist Rich Gilbert couldn’t make it so Black got the likes of Joey Santiago, Lyle Workman, and Moris Tepper to fill in. Everyone’s a pro and everyone’s worked with each before. They lock together tightly around these songs and forge them into bullets. Six of these eleven tracks are under three minutes. Only one is over four minutes. As a whole, its running time is about half the length of Black Letter Days.
Even the sound of the record is extra compressed. Black Letter Days is FM radio and Devil’s Workshop is AM radio. The piano and pedal steel here don’t get the breathing room that they get on other record. They’re all just a part of this record’s chunky beef stew. Plenty of midtempo tracks line the path, but there are almost no quiet moments. No one takes a long solo. There seems to be little fuss to the live-in-the-studio production. It’s all about the songs and knocking them out fast.
It’s rock music, in other words.
This record takes a group of skilled players who could execute all sorts of ambitious visions and makes a garage band out of them, which is a cool idea.
Devil’s Workshop kicks off breakneck with “Velvety”, a redo of the old Pixies instrumental B-side, but this time with lyrics. The words are new. You can tell by the California references. Still, they’re the envelope scribblings of a songwriting giant and the track is a blaze of fun.
Other highlights include the smokey”His Kingly Cave”, the only song ever written about dropping acid and then taking a tour of Graceland.
“San Antonio, TX” has a warm mid-sixties slink and burbling organ work. The band sound like they stepped out of Highway 61 Revisited. I think the lyrics are about the time that Black’s then-wife had a health emergency in the middle of a tour and he had to rush back home. I still remember driving to Trees in Dallas, TX in June of 2000, all revved to see Frank and the Catholics only to be greeted by a “cancelled” sign. The previous night the band played in, yep, San Antonio (thank you, FrankBlack.net gigography).
My favorite though is the rocking doom and gloom of “Whiskey in Your Shoes”. While Black sings about a hard luck drunk who’s never at a loss for an excuse for another drink. the band careen like a queasy ride on a Tilt-A-Whirl with loose screws. The pedal steel work by Dave Phillips bleeds all of the beauty out of the instrument and makes it sound like a nightmare. I wish Johnny Cash had covered this one.
I wish there were more covers out there of all of this Catholics stuff. These are such rock solid songs that sound perfect for other faster-slower, harder-softer arrangements and other voices.
Which of the 2002 albums is better? Black Letter Days gets the nod because it’s longer, but these two records are a married couple. They don’t compete. They work together to form a complete picture of what the Catholics were all about.
Getting in touch with timeless styles of music. The sound of a live band. Long trips. Short blasts. An inspiring work ethic.
Above all though, they’re about songs. Lots and lots of songs. Frank Black at this time seened as hooked on writing them as I was on hearing them. He was in a groove and was clearly enjoying it. He sounds happy singing sad songs.
He also had a band who could handle the load AND spend months on tour.
He had that for a little while longer, at least.
The Catholics were burning out, but not before they made one more top-shelf record, which I’ll talk about next.