Although Black Francis will always be synonymous with the Pixies, too many people often overlook his solo career which took flight immediately after their breakup in the early 90s, which often yielded some delightfully eccentric (not to mention stellar) results. This is particularly true in the case of his first two solo albums (released under his “Frank Black” alias) that featured plenty of tunes that rivaled the greatness of his Pixies heyday (like “Los Angeles” or “Headache”, just to name a few). But, as alluded to, those albums also saw him lean further into his inherently quirky and spontaneous tendencies, like when he wrote a fittingly spastic song about the game of pong to kickoff what most people consider to be his best solo album: Teenager of the Year. Checkout this rightfully batshit performance of “Whatever Happened to Pong? / Thalassocracy” live and witness Mr. Black in all his oddball off-kilter glory:
