''Devil's Workshop'' is the second of a pair of albums by Frank Black and the Catholics to be simultaneously released on August 20, 2002 (along with ''

Black Letter Days ''Black Letter Days'' is the first of two albums by Frank Black and the Catholics simultaneously released in 2002 (along with ''Devil's Workshop''). The title implies the opposite of the term "Red Letter Days" which are holidays – a "black let ...

''). "His Kingly Cave" was originally recorded for an aborted album project in mid-2000 entitled ''

Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove Day ''Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove Day'' is an album by Frank Black and the Catholics, recorded in 2000. Because Black was not completely happy with the recording sessions, he decided against a commercial release. However, he did hand out several c ...

''. "Velvety"'s music comes from an earlier

Pixies A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...

B-side, appropriately named "Velvety Instrumental Version". The track first received lyrics when it was revived for this album.

Background

In 2002, Frank Black talked to the Free Williamsburg website about some of the songs on ''Devil's Workshop''. "Velvety" was written by Black as a teenager and was called "Velvety Instrumental Version" because at the time he thought it sounded like

the Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise ...

, "which, of course, it doesn't, in hindsight," he said. "We had started to play it when we were touring on ''

Dog in the Sand ''Dog in the Sand'' is Frank Black's third album with backing group the Catholics. It was released in 2001 by Cooking Vinyl in Europe and What Are Records? in the United States, and was produced by Nick Vincent. The album was generally met wit ...

'', just the instrumental version. It was a loud, open the set, "Hello! We're here!" kind of rave-up. It was kind of around. One day I had a session, and I didn't have a new song to present to the band and I said "Okay, I'm gonna write some lyrics to this song." As a matter of fact, that was the first thing we recorded for ''Devil's Workshop'', I believe, on the first day." "His Kingly Cave" is about a trip to

Graceland Graceland is a mansion on a estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, which was once owned by rock and roll icon Elvis Presley. His daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited Graceland after his death in 1977. Graceland is located at 3764 Elv ...

many years before. Black: "I thought it would be fun to take hallucinogenic mushrooms while I was there. I was much younger than I am now. ... I went to Graceland with my girlfriend and we took mushrooms and it was a horrible and tense day. That's a telling of that day in that story."

Track listing

All tracks written by

Frank Black Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV (born April 6, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the frontman of the alternative rock band Pixies, with whom he performs under the stage name Black Francis. F ...

. # "Velvety" – 2:28 # "Out of State" – 2:29 # "His Kingly Cave" – 4:44 # "San Antonio, TX" – 3:43 # "Bartholomew" – 2:26 # "Modern Age" – 2:55 # "Are You Headed My Way?" – 2:03 # "Heloise" – 3:42 # "The Scene" – 2:29 # "Whiskey in Your Shoes" – 3:06 # "Fields of Marigold" – 3:05

Personnel

Frank Black and the Catholics *

– vocals, guitar *Scott Boutier – drums *David McCaffery – bass, vocals *Dave Philips – guitar, pedal steel guitar, vocals Additional musicians *

Joey Santiago Joseph Alberto Santiago (born June 10, 1965) is a Filipino-American guitarist and composer. Active since 1986, Santiago is best known as the lead guitarist for the American alternative rock band Pixies. After the band's breakup in 1993, Santiag ...

– guitar *

Lyle Workman Lyle Dean Workman is an American guitarist, composer, session and touring musician, and music producer. His music has been widely distributed since his debut on the eponymous '' Bourgeois Tagg'' album in 1986, and is known for his work as compos ...

– guitar *

Moris Tepper Moris Tepper, sometimes credited as Jeff Moris Tepper, is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and artist. Tepper first came to prominence in the late 1970s with Captain Beefheart. He has also worked with singers Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Rob ...

– guitar *Rob Laufer – keyboards *

Eric Drew Feldman Eric Drew Feldman (born April 16, 1955) is an American musician. Feldman has worked with Captain Beefheart, Fear, Snakefinger, The Residents, Pere Ubu, Pixies, dEUS, Katell Keineg, Frank Black, The Polyphonic Spree, Tripping Daisy, Reid Paley, C ...

– keyboards * Stan Ridgway – keyboards * Ben Mumphrey – maracas Technical *Frank Black and the Catholics – producer *Ben Mumphrey – producer, engineer *Robert Vosgien – mastering *AlphaBeta – cover design

References

{{Authority control 2002 albums Frank Black and the Catholics albums SpinART Records albums Cooking Vinyl albums