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.
+ Pre-order the album on 2x Gold LP +
+ Pre-order from the 4AD Store here +
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.
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
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 2024 Acoustic Solo Shows:
3rd – The Stone Church, Brattleboro VT, US
5th – 3S Artspace, Portsmouth NH, US
7th – Jane Pickens Theater, Newport RI, US
Tickets On Sale November 1st 12pm ET
Teenager Of The Year Tour Dates:
January 2025
15th – The Fillmore, San Francisco CA, US
16th – The Fillmore, San Francisco CA, US
18th – The Orpheum, Los Angeles CA, US
19th – The Magnolia, El Cajon CA, US
22nd – The Paramount, Denver CO, US
24th – TBA, Minneapolis MN, US
25th – The Metro, Chicago IL, US
26th – The Metro, Chicago IL, US
28th – St Andrews Hall, Detroit MI, US
29th – History, Toronto ON, Canada
31st – Citizens House Of Blues, Boston MA, US
February
1st – Brooklyn Steel, Brookyn NY, US
4th – Le Trianon, Paris, France
6th – The Palladium, London, UK