Black Francis

Whether performing with Pixies or on his own, as Black Francis or Frank Black, Charles Thompson reframes rock & roll's past in imaginative ways. On albums like 1988's Surfer Rosa and 1989's Doolittle, Pixies melded punk and indie, classic pop, surf rock, and stadium-sized riffs with Francis' fragmented lyrics about space, religion, sex, and pop culture, laying the groundwork for the '90s alternative explosion in the process. During his solo years as Frank Black, his music spanned 1993's eclectic and polished Frank Black to the rootsy sounds of 2005's Honeycomb. By the late 2000s, he was back to Black Francis and balancing the raw rock of 2007's Bluefinger with projects like 2010's soundtrack to The Golem and 2011's down-to-earth Paley & Francis. When Pixies resumed recording in the mid-2010s, Francis and company continued the sound of their groundbreaking early work with albums like 2019's Beneath the Eyrie.