Pete Yorn's Frank Black-Produced LP Gets a Release Date

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I haven't kept up much with Pete Yorn's music in the past few years. I was fully behind and into his debut, musicforthemorningafter (so many great songs...I even performed "Strange Condition" at a school concert), but didn't really stay with him past that. I returned to the Yorn fold when he released Nightcrawler which, honestly, only really happened because he did an in-store at a record store just down the street before it was released. I believe the last words I said to him were about where to find the best burrito in the area (What? He asked where he could get one).

Anyways, Yorn has been pretty active as of late, especially last year with Back and Forth and the Scarlett Johansson collaboration Break Up. When news was coming out about these two releases, there was talk of a Frank Black (or Black Francis...depends on what year this is?) produced album that was a pretty straightforward rock album. I thought, of the three albums he's releasing, this is the one I want to hear the most. And now, information about its release.

On September 28th, Vagrant Records will release the self-titled 11-song set. The album was recorded spur-of-the-moment during the summer of 2008. The project came about after Yorn received an e-mail from Black while he was recording Back and Forth in Nebraska. Black suggested the two record some songs together. Yorn was interested and soon headed out to Salem, OR where Black and Yorn set up an impromptu studio where they banged out the visceral album in a mere five days.

Surprisingly Black came down with the flu two days into recording but was determined to see the project through. "Frank didn't give a shit about getting sick, so we stayed in the flow," recalls Yorn. "He has an incredible ability to distill a song down to its core."

Frank recalls, "Pete told me he wanted to better define himself as an artist. I think he just wanted to rock out. But as we headed down a path of realization I stripped him down a whole bunch. We battled in the best sort of way. I tried to get the session into a fearless and raw place, and to his artistic credit Pete took his songwriting to a fearless and raw place. This listener will find his or herself sitting right next to Pete on the couch. And the record totally rocks out."

Pete Yorn Tracklisting:
1) Precious Stone
2) Rock Crowd
3) Velcro Shoes
4) Paradise Cove I
5) Badman
6) The Chase
7) Sans Fear
8) Always
9) Stronger than
10) Future Life
11) Wheels

And seeing as the album cover is said to be a plain black cover, I'd imagine it's just the same cover Spinal Tap ended up with for Smell the Glove.

So, look for this soon.