With just about everyone in the rock biz fixated -- as ever -- on the next big thing, Frank Black's "small is beautiful" attitude is pretty darn refreshing. |

By "small," we're not implying that the round mound of noisy sound has begun marketing some sort of post-punk diet plan; he has, however, retreated from the major label ranks in order to focus his energy on music, rather than marketing.

"It's gotten so that everyone is only interested in the home run, and not in the guy who can guarantee that he'll get on base," says Black, whose new combo, the Catholics, will release their first full-length on the SpinArt label early next month. "But I'm not really complaining: With the Pixies, we had our little party, we had street cred and we sold some T-shirts."

These days, Black says he's not quite as interested in the ephemera that surrounds making records, preferring to concentrate on renovating his L.A. home -- he proudly notes that he took down his own mailbox column (on purpose) -- and studying up on the shadowy world of the Masons, since, as he puts it, "they're behind everything."

"I realized this was a business the first time a club owner gave me $50 for playing a show, but it's just gotten way too lame these past couple years," he says. "I'm never gonna play another one of those fuckin' radio station shows again, for one thing. I don't feel like I have to dance like a court jester in order to curry favor with someone who doesn't know anything about music." (David Sprague)