Frank Black Announces “Teenager Of The Year” 2025 Tour + Reissue

When the album, Teenager Of The Year, came out in 1994, it had only been a year since Black Francis announced the breakup of Pixies via a BBC 5 radio interview. Born Charles Kittridge Thomspon IV, the frontman changed his stage name to Frank Black and released his self-titled debut solo album under the new moniker in March of 1993. Teenager Of The Year was the follow-up, and while the first album still holds up, the sophomore effort showed Thompson evolving further away from the sound of his former (and current) band and claiming a new identity as a songwriter. Many of the more recent fans likely don’t realize the legendary status of the Pixies was placed on the group retroactively. They never really achieved major commercial success during their original inception. I was fairly young when they disbanded and, while I loved the Pixies, I didn’t view the Frank Black material through a lens where it was somehow in conflict with them or the cause of their demise. If anything, it was something happening in real-time that was fresh and exciting. I loved it.

Teenager Of The Year has endured and its lead single, “Headache” continues to be viewed as a highlight of Black‘s prolific solo career. Of the album’s development, Black has stated, “I relaxed a little bit and said ‘you know what, I’m not going to worry about if something is too pop or too country, or too traditional or whatever’.”  Now, 40 years after it was originally released, ol’ Frank Black Francis Thompson has announced a “Teenager Of The Year” live tour beginning in early 2025. A physical reissue of the LP will hit shelves this fall.

There’s a lot to appreciate about Teenager Of The Year from the music to the cover photo, but I’ve always really loved the album title. Black offers insight into where the title came from along with some details regarding the recording sessions.

“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“

Eric Drew Feldman began working with Black when he contributed keys to the final Pixies album before their breakup, Trompe Le Monde (1991). Feldman brought with him an impressive resume. A one-time member of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, he later partnered with Snakefinger, and eventually joined Pere ubu, which opened for the Pixies. Feldman went on to contribute bass, keys, and synths, as well as co-produce both Frank Black‘s self-titled debut and Teenager Of The Year. He would later join PJ Harvey‘s band and is a current member of The Residents.

Eric provides a detailed recollection of the recording process, himself. The individuals referenced are Al Clay (engineer/co-producer), Nick Vincent (drums,), Lyle Workman (lead guitar), Joey Santiago (lead guitar on 5 tracks), Moris Tepper (lead guitar on 2 tracks), and David Bianco (engineer/mixing).

“The principal musicians and Al met up in the greater San Fernando Valley. Sweating craniums… Charlie writing chord changes on a dry erase board Nick, Lyle, myself writing them on scraps of paper. Lyle was segregated into an iso room because he was new and I just wanted to hear what Nick, Charles, and I were playing. When I eventually heard what he was doing, I was very grateful he had been invited. Al always had tape (perhaps DATs) running for reference in case we did something especially good or bad. Empty gyoza boxes were abound in the room. Initially 14 basics recorded in three days. At that point, Charles was often sitting in a corner, staring off into space composing lyrics, looking anxious. Joey and Moris were invited to do what they do. 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 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 she bang 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.“

A new re-mastered version of Teenager Of The Year will be released by 4AD later this year.

Tickets for the Teenager Of The Year Tour are available HERE