page_title: Black Francis
section_title: Pixies
hierarchical_section_title: Black Francis / Biography / Pixies
caption_attribution_description: Frank Black (Pixies) in Primavera Sound Festival 2010, Barcelona, Spain.
context_page_description: Charles Thompson IV 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. Following the band's breakup in 1993, he embarked on a solo career under the name Frank Black. After releasing two albums with record label 4AD and one with American Recordings, he left the label and formed a new band, Frank Black and the Catholics. He re-adopted the name Black Francis in 2007.
  His vocal style has varied from a screaming, yowling delivery as lead vocalist of the Pixies to a more measured and melodic style in his solo career. His cryptic lyrics mostly explore unconventional subjects, such as surrealism, incest, and biblical violence, along with science fiction and surf culture. His use of atypical meter signatures, loud–quiet dynamics, and distinct preference for live-to-two-track recording during his time with the Catholics, give him a distinct style within alternative rock.
  Thompson regrouped the Pixies in early 2004, but continued to release solo records and tour as a solo artist until 2013, when he declared his solo career to be over.
context_section_description: Soon after returning to Massachusetts, Thompson dropped out of college, and moved to Boston with Santiago.  He spent 1985 working in a warehouse, "managing buttons on teddy bears," composing songs on his acoustic guitar, and writing lyrics on the subway. In January 1986, Thompson formed the Pixies with Santiago. Bassist Kim Deal was recruited a week later via a classified advertisement placed in a Boston paper, which requested a bassist "into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul and Mary." Drummer David Lovering was later hired on recommendation from Deal's husband.
  In 1987, the Pixies released an 18-track demo tape, commonly referred to as The Purple Tape. Thompson's father assisted the band financially, lending $1,000 in order to record the demo tape; Thompson later said that his father "wasn't around for a lot of my younger years, so I think he was doing his best to make up for lost time." The Purple Tape led to a recording contract with the English independent record label 4AD. For the release of the mini album Come On Pilgrim, Thompson adopted the alias "Black Francis", a name inspired by his father: "he had been saving that name in case he had another son."
  In 1988, the Pixies recorded their debut album Surfer Rosa. Thompson wrote and sang on all the tracks, with the exception of the single "Gigantic," which was co-written and sung by Deal. To support the album, the band undertook a European tour, during which Thompson met Eric Drew Feldman, a later collaborator on Pixies and solo albums. Doolittle, with Thompson-penned songs such as "Debaser" and "Monkey Gone To Heaven," was released the following year to widespread critical acclaim. However, by this time, tensions between Thompson and Deal, combined with exhaustion, led the band to announce a hiatus. Thompson has an aversion to flying, and spent this time driving across America with his girlfriend, Jean Walsh (whom he had met in the band's early days), performing solo shows in order to raise funds to buy furniture for his new Los Angeles apartment.
  The band reconvened in 1990, and recorded two further albums: 1990's Bossanova and 1991's Trompe le Monde; the latter was Thompson's first collaboration with Feldman. The later Pixies albums were characterized by Thompson's increasing influence on the band's output, as well as a focus on science fiction themes, including aliens and UFOs. These themes would continue to be explored throughout his early solo work. Trompe le Monde includes the song "U-Mass," which was written about the university he attended as a youth, and due to the keyboard part played by Feldman, signified a move away from the band's alternative rock sound. Although Deal had contributed on the songs "Gigantic" (from Surfer Rosa) and "Silver" (from Doolittle), from Bossanova on, Thompson wrote all the band's original material. This contributed to the increasing tension between him and Deal, and the Pixies broke up in 1992; this was not publicly announced until early 1993.
caption: Black Francis with the Pixies in Barcelona.
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