Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

A long time ago --- 30 years, to be exact --- when commercial cable television as we now know it was in its infancy, there was no MTV, no BET, no CMT, no VH1. There was, however, SNN, which stood for Satellite News Network. SNN was like a campus radio station. You never knew what was going to be on (though, ironically, I don’t remember ever seeing any news programs); there would be an hour of this, and an hour of that, and none of it followed any sort of reliable schedule. There was a really amateurish pro wrestling program where the ring kept falling apart, a couple of reruns of old television shows, and…a music video program. And that was pretty cool. There was one video they kept playing, called “Saturday Night,” by Herman Brood and His Wild Romance. I found the LP, SHPRITSZ, for a buck (this was 1978, remember) and bought it, played it a few times and then lost it in a divorce. I didn’t think anymore about Brood until 2001, when I heard that Brood died a suicide. I sort of forgot about Brood --- again --- until now.

Frank Black, resuming his Black Francis persona from Pixies, has released a CD titled BLUEFINGER, a tribute to Brood. Brood was not really well known stateside, but was a major player in the Euro rock world in the 1970s and 1980s. He also was a painter of some renown, and most importantly for our purposes, a major influence on Black. BLUEFINGER is not a CD full of Brood covers --- only one of the tracks, “You Can’t Break A Heart And Have It,” is a Brood composition --- but most of the songs reference Brood. Black Francis persona notwithstanding, BLUEFINGER is arguably a Pixies CD without the annoyance of Kim Deal; it is perhaps, more focused than Black’s Frank Black work. Or maybe not. It is, in any event, terrific.

There are several standout tracks on BLUEFINGER, including the instant classic, “Threshold Apprehension” (previously released as a hidden track on the 93-03 compilation, and the wonderfully named “Captain Pasty,” the first proper single off of BLUEFINGER. Black’s penchant for vaguely disturbing titles is in full bloom --- “Lolita,” “Tight Black Rubber” --- and the music matches the mood. Black continues to create contradictory moods with each track. “Threshold Apprehension” goes on for too long to be comfortable, yet is too short by half, while “Angels Come To Comfort You” is a mini-biog of Brood’s life, occasionally irreverent but on balance respectful. And “Tight Black Rubber” is… well, what you’d expect, as much a nod to The Velvet Underground as it is to Brood’s chaotic lifestyle. Black goes gonzo on Brood’s “You Can’t Break A Heart And Have It,” as is appropriate here, and one can immediately catch the link between Brood and Black

There are no real surprises on BLUEFINGER, other than that Black has eschewed the diversion into country music that informed his last couple of proper releases. He instead returns to the guitar-driven, hook-laden, compositions that veer off so wonderfully into random directions. The title track is the closest thing to a ballad on the disc, though it is too loud and wonderfully discordant to fully meet the definition. In a word, Black --- Francis, that is --- is back.