Review

A minor masterpiece from the one and future Pixie.
A few years into his semi-successful solo career, former Pixie Frank Black formed a new four-piece band and forged a new ethos: From here on in, his music would be recorded live to two-track, with no edits or overdubs. Furthermore, he would embrace forms and song structures the Pixies had done their best to explode. The results, which unsurprisingly didn't sound much like his earlier works, would have to stand or fall on their own merits. Recorded in two days in March of 1997, this first Catholics record turned out to be a minor masterpiece: A chance to see Black honoring heroes like the Who ("Suffering") Jonathan Richman ("The Man Who Was Too Loud") and maverick psychedelic-era Christian rocker Larry Norman (a blistering cover of "Six-Sixty-Six"), and discovering a sound that would carry him through five more Catholics albums. "All My Ghosts," "Steak 'n' Sabre" and "King & Queen of Siam" are especially good, and as searing, in their way, as anything the Pixies laid down on vinyl.