Frank Black’s 'Teenager Of The Year' to get a 30th Anniversary Edition in January

The 30th Anniversary Edition of Frank Black’s solo album, Teenager Of The Year will see a one-time vinyl pressing on Jan. 17 via 4AD Records accompanied by 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, cut at 45 rpm for optimum playback and 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.

"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," says Black Francis.

"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'.

Adds Eric Drew Feldman, “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 (Black Francis/Frank Black), 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.”

To pre-order the limited Teenager Of The Year 30th Anniversary Tour Edition go to: https://frankblack.ffm.to/teenageroftheyear30

December Acoustic Solo Shows:
3rd - Brattleboro, VT - The Stone Church
5th - Portsmouth, NH - 3S Artspace
7th - Newport, RI - Jane Pickens Theater

Tickets On Sale November 1st 12pm ET

Teenager Of The Year Tour Dates:

January

15th - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
16th - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
18th - LA, CA - The Orpheum
19th - El Cajon, CA - The Magnolia
22nd - Denver, CO - The Paramount
24th - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
25th - Chicago, IL - The Metro
26th - Chicago, IL - The Metro
28th - Detroit, MI - St Andrews Hall
29th - Toronto, ON - History
31st - Boston, MA - House Of Blues

February

1st - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Street
4th - Paris, France - Le Trianon
6th - London, UK - The Palladium

Track listing:

Whatever Happened to Pong?

Thalassocracy
(I Want to Live on An) Abstract Plain
Calistan
The Vanishing Spies
Speedy Marie
Headache
Sir Rockaby
Freedom Rock
Two Reelers
Fiddle Riddle
Olé Mulholland
Fazer Eyes
I Could Stay Here Forever
The Hostess With the Mostest
Superabound
Big Red
Space Is Gonna Do Me Good
White Noise Maker
Pure Denizen of the Citizens Band
Bad, Wicked World
Pie in the Sky