Frank Black
The Black Sessions – Live in Paris plus The Kitchen Tapes
1995, Anoise Annoys
If you were in the US and you wanted to keep up with Frank Black in the 90s, you had to buy a bunch of import CDs from Europe. In addition to the singles (most American labels didn’t bother with those at the time unless the band was a major cash cow), there was The John Peel Session EP from the UK in 1995. The next year, there was the Euro edition of The Cult of Ray, which included a second CD with four bonus tracks. Later still in 1998, was the first Frank Black and the Catholics album, which came out on the Belgian label Play It Again Sam several months before it came out anywhere else.
Eh, I didn’t mind. I thought that was cool, even if it cost me a few extra bucks.
Plus, it helped that most of this stuff was easy to get at the time. Not only were record stores more plentiful, but even some of the mega-chains were on a mission to stock every CD that they possibly could to fill their miles of rack space devoted to loss leaders and that’s how I was able to go to the blindingly corporate Best Buy in the shitty suburb of Mesquite, TX in 1996 and scoop up this UK live album.
Sometimes I miss the mid-90s. Then I remember how bad my hair was and am glad that we all moved on.
Continue reading “Frank Black-O-Rama! #9: BLACK SESSIONS – LIVE IN PARIS”