Pitchfork

His Black Francis alter ego is set to release Bluefinger via Cooking Vinyl on September 11 (September 3 in the UK), but Frank Black won't allow the recently issued 93-03 retrospective compilation to be the only thing he puts out this year.

Black has added to his repertoire with his own exclusive-to-iTunes EP, the creatively titled Live Sessions. Available now, the EP features Black originals "Massif Central" and "Manitoba" alongside covers of Roxy Music, Tom Waits, and the Good, the Bad & the Queen. Quick turnaround on that last one!

Comprehensive Frank Black fansite FrankBlack.net has some tiny tidbits about a couple of other Black projects as well. First, Black's rumored collaborative project with Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, Pere Ubu) is on hold for now, and second, there is a Black collaboration with his wife Violet called Grand Duchy that seems to have an album called Fort Wayne on the horizon. The very distant horizon, we imagine.

Finally, Black has a single show scheduled for October 5 at Eugene, Oregon's WOW Hall.

Bluefinger:

01 Captain Pasty
02 Threshold Apprehension
03 Test Pilot Blues
04 Lolita
05 Tight Black Rubber
06 Angels Come to Comfort You
07 Your Mouth Into Mine
08 Discotheque 36
09 You Can't Break a Heart and Have It
10 She Took All the Money
11 Blue Finger

Live Sessions (iTunes exclusive):

01 Re-Make/Re-Model [Roxy Music cover]
02 Massif Central
03 Manitoba
04 History Song [The Good, the Bad & the Queen cover]
05 The Black Rider [Tom Waits cover]