Frank Black’s solo album, Teenager Of The Year turning is turning 30. To celebrate 4AD are releasing a one-time vinyl pressing, available on January 17th, to accompany a tour of North America plus Paris and London, where Frank Black and the original band will be performing the album in its entirety.

The Teenager Of The Year Tour starts on 15th January at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco and includes 11 US and Canadian shows before going over to perform in Paris on Tuesday 4th February and the iconic London Palladium on Thursday 6th February.

This vinyl tour edition of Teenager Of The Year, has been remastered for the first time from its original analogue studio tapes. Sounding as essential as the day it was released, the limited 30th Anniversary Tour Edition is cut at 45 rpm for optimum playback and is being pressed on double gold vinyl. The album also comes in a gatefold sleeve with liner notes by both Frank Black and producer Eric Drew Feldman. A 24-bit digital version is being released on the same day.

Originally recorded amid a rich songwriting vein, just as the Pixies had been placed on hold, Frank Black’s album Teenager Of The Year came out in May 1994, just one year after his fantastic self-titled solo debut. Recorded with Eric Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Pere Ubu, The Residents).

“Sometime in the early 80s, I’d have to look up the date, I matriculated high school. This school held an awards banquet for some of the departing students at the school. I received an award called the TEENAGER OF THE YEAR award; my brother received the same award the following year. Our award was a 50 dollar credit for textbooks, a TEENAGER OF THE YEAR medallion (my mother still has this), and also the banquet hall dinner, soup to nuts. My brother and I had no complaint about the award (it was given for being all-around-good-guy as best as we could determine). But for such a grand title to be given as TEENAGER OF THE YEAR, I felt the glory had not been amplified enough.

In 1993, I was doing “solo recording” sessions with Eric Drew Feldman in Los Angeles. We had settled on a core band with Nick Vincent and Lyle Workman, occasionally augmented by Joey Santiago and Moris Tepper. Though we had to change studios numerous times for actual forest fires and earthquakes, the whole process was such an addictive musical buffet that Eric and I couldn’t stop. We did some vocals at a studio rumored to be owned by Sergio Mendes; in the control room was a wall of television screens broadcasting the brush fire which crept toward us. We eventually evacuated to someplace else. We never met Sergio but we saw him perform a few weeks later when we vacated to Las Vegas after the Northridge earthquake, which had trapped the TEENAGER OF THE YEAR tapes in a studio vault for some time. Our zeal plus empathy from our financiers, they safely observing our travails from London, was enough to keep the money flowing until Eric and I relented and declared “Consummatum est”.

We tried to make it grand. 22 in 62. I called it TEENAGER OF THE YEAR. It is 30 years old now, and the original band will perform the record at various venues in early 2025. 4AD has remastered the LP for a fresh printing. Enjoy.” Black Francis 2024 Meredith, New Hampshire.

“Initially it was a 14-song album. It was mixed. Eric Idle was staying nearby. He kept telling me to change the songs around. Al (Clay)had to run off and go to his next project. We weren’t completely happy with what we had. The solution: record more songs. Eight more were born. Whole shebang was remixed by David Bianco. The day before we were to start the remix, the 1994 Northridge earthquake occurred. Charles, Jean (Charles’ first wife) and I escaped to Las Vegas, ate many shrimp cocktails, and we saw Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and Sergio Mendes and Brazil ’99 perform. Sergio was especially good. After about five days we returned to the mixing studio and the deed was done.” Eric Drew Feldman.*

December Acoustic Solo Shows:

3rd – Brattleboro, VT – The Stone Church
5th – Portsmouth, NH – 3S Artspace
7th – Newport, RI – Jane Pickens Theater

Teenager Of The Year Tour Dates:

January
15th – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
16th – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
18th – LA, CA – The Orpheum
19th – El Cajon, CA – The Magnolia
22nd – Denver, CO – The Paramount
24th – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
25th – Chicago, IL – The Metro
26th – Chicago, IL – The Metro
28th – Detroit, MI – St Andrews Hall
29th – Toronto, ON – History
31st – Boston, MA – House Of Blues

February
1st – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Street
4th – Paris, France – Le Trianon
6th – London, UK – The Palladium

pre-order the limited Teenager Of The Year 30th Anniversary Tour Edition HERE