Frank Black And The Catholics - Frank Black And The Catholics (1998)

Frank Black and the Catholics is the debut album from Frank Black and the Catholics, released in 1998. The backing group on this album performed on Black's previous album, The Cult of Ray, but the group name was first adopted on this release. The album was recorded live to two-track tape over the course of two days in 1997, but a protracted dispute with Black's label American Recordings, reportedly over the "raw" sound of the recordings, delayed its release for 18 months. The album was released in June 1998 in the MP3 format on GoodNoise.com (precursor to eMusic) and was the first album by a major artist to be commercially released on the Internet. The album was then released in the fall of 1998 by SpinART records in the US. During the interim, Lyle Workman left the group and was replaced by Rich Gilbert, and Black prepared the follow-up, Pistolero.