Day After Day #132: Headache

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Headache (1994)

What do you do when you have a massively influential band that you don't want to be in anymore? If you're Charles Thompson (aka Black Francis aka Frank Black) and you're done with the Pixies, you just keep going. 

After breaking up the band in 1992, Thompson started working on a solo album with Eric Drew Feldman, who had collaborated with the Pixies, Captain Beefheart and many others. That album, 1993's Frank Black, was named after his new stage moniker and was a fitting follow-up to the final O.G. Pixies albums, Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde, full of songs about UFOs and sci-fi weirdness. 

For his second solo album, Black worked with Feldman again, as well as his old Pixies bandmate Joey Santiago, Lyle Workman, Moris Tepper and drummer Nick Vincent. By the time Teenager of the Year came out in May 1994, Black's former bandmate Kim Deal was already riding high with the Breeders and their '93 release Last Splash. 

Rather than compete on a popularity level with Deal, Black released a 22-song collection of weird and awesome little songs, most of which were under 3 minutes long. Teenager of the Year wasn't really appreciated when it came out, although the song "Headache" got a little MTV and radio airplay, hitting #10 on Billboard's Modern Rock tracks.

"Headache" was the catchiest song on the album, so it made sense as a single. It was also a great ditty about dealing with life's stresses.

"This wrinkle in time, I can't give it no credit/I thought about my space and I really got me down/Got me so down, I got me a headache/My heart is crammed in my cranium and it still knows how to pound/I was counting the rings/And I fell me into sleep/I peeked to see if you were way back when/I was counting trees/Until a day when there was one/I'd hoped beneath, asleep is where that you had been."

It's about as joyous sounding a song about a headache as you're going to find, filled with glorious pop harmonies and maybe even some redemption.

"Well, I found you/Maybe you can help me/And I can help you."

The video is gloriously weird, as a multiple Frank Blacks sing the harmonies, fly and take a chainsaw to a giant pain pill.

Teenager of the Year hit #2 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and #131 on the Billboard 200. It didn't get a lot of love until later, but I'll pat myself on the back and say I loved it from day 1. I got into the Pixies late in their first run and then was digging the solo stuff from Frank and Kim. But Teenager of the Year is still my favorite post-Pixies album. It reminded me a bit of a Guided By Voices album, both in the short song lengths and the wide range of subject matter; Black sings about old video games, outer space (duh), record store snobs, historical Los Angeles, the Three Stooges and long road truckers. The arrangements are fun and interesting and 30 years later, it still sounds amazing.

Black released another good solo album in '96 and then formed the Catholics, which was a much more straightahead rock band than the Pixies. He released several more albums before reuniting with the Pixies in 2004 for a tour. He continued to release solo material throughout the '00s while also playing Pixies shows. Deal left in 2013, but the Pixies forged on with new bassists and recorded four new albums and subsequent tours. Black hasn't released any solo material since 2011, but the Pixies (now on their third post-Deal bassist) are still touring.