YOU CALL THAT NEWS?
(Hot Poop, Lukewarm Poop…final poop)
(Last
updated 8 February 2010)
Hot Poop
You are hereby reminded that, as previously
advertised, the inaugural issue of The Rondo Hatton Report went live on 21
December 2009. With submissions from 14 contributors of diverse persuasions,
there's something for everyone, folks.
Specialised entertainment
for people who are tired of other entertainment. And so can you be too.... Doors now open for contributions to the
next issue, reekin' atcha from March. It's the best kinda place to unfasten
yourself! http://www.rhreport.net/current.html
·
Jon Larsen has just been to Arthur Barrow's
Lotek Studio to record The Don Preston Story and The Bunk
Gardner Story (proposed sequels to his JCB Story CD - but these will be made available for download only,
once Arthur has edited them). “From these
historical recording sessions, we went directly into another unforgettable
recording session: new music composed and performed by Tommy Mars - in my view the most brilliant keyboard player today,
he is pure genius! This time, Mars recorded new, almost orchestral music to the
surrealistic story Willie Nickerson's Egg,
by yours truly. Tommy had already read the story, so now I only have to mix and
edit the project before release.” adds Jon. He also advises that The Don And Bunk Show is available for
booking this spring (US East coast) and summer (Europe), in case there's any
promoters out there reading this.
·
The first
person to answer the following question correctly was Robin Jones, who will now receive a copy of Prism Films’ excellent Frank Zappa: The Freak-Out List, which
I’ve reviewed (along with the new 200
Motels and Drummers of FZ DVDs)
at http://www.idiotbastard.com/reviews.htm#Vids:
Question A rope-ladder is hanging over the side of a ship. The ladder
is 12 feet long, and the rungs are one foot apart. The lowest rung is resting
on the top of the ocean. The tide rises at the rate of four inches per hour.
How long will it take before the first four rungs of the ladder are under
water? Answer Forever, as the ship rises with the water.
·
Many
Zappateers celebrated my birthday by going to Larvik in Norway without me.
Obviously we all love our MufFinZ,
but many who went are now raving about the Dead
Dino Storage band, who also played at the Zappa Fest there. Here's some
clips which Ludznl recommends you watch: http://www.facebook.com/l/dee5c;www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGX4E8LPTh4;
http://www.facebook.com/l/dee5c;www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3V52FGaSEo;
http://www.facebook.com/l/dee5c;www.youtube.com/watch?v=371s0_PSmEg
·
Frank did it.
Dweezil and Vinnie did it. Now Steve Vai has had a go...at playing on a cover
of the mighty Zep’s Stairway To Heaven.
This latest one will appear on Mary J.
Blige's next album. Meantime, Sony has released a new compilation: Playlist - The Very Best of Steve Vai.
·
ZPZ will support Jeff Beck at a show in LA on 17 April.
Jeff’s new studio album, Emotion &
Commotion, will be released in April. It features: his ‘Ronnie Scott’ band:
a couple of songs I saw Jeff play at the indigO2 last year (Lilac Wine with
Imelda May & Corpus
Christi Carol...which, of course, were both also on Jeff Buckley's Grace); a studio
recording of (hope you’re reading this, AMZ) Somewhere Over The Rainbow; a few originals; a couple of other
guest vocalists; and a 64-piece orchestra. The mighty Vinnie Colaiuta will be replaced by Narada Michael Walden for Jeff’s 2010 world tour. And the lovely Tal Wilkenfeld has been replaced by Rhonda Smith. Hi ho...!
·
Hall Of Fame Records
has released volume 11 of its Spanish Zappa tribute series. Subtitled King Kong, it’s performed entirely by
the Filthy Habits Ensemble who, like
Hall Of Fame supremo Luis Gonzalez,
will be playing at Zappanale this year. More here: http://www.halloffame.es/zappa.html
·
The Chad Wackerman Trio has a Hits Live DVD out soon. You can see a
clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ZVU6ma2vg&feature=email,
and order it from the Drum Channel here: http://www.drumchannel.com/entertainment/Chad-Wackerman-Trio-DVD--88371.aspx
·
Steve Vai is
featured on Orianthi (The King Of Pop’s last guitarist)’s new album, Believe. Check this out: http://www.orianthi.com/player/default.aspx?meid=5547
·
The Wrong Object's fab Zappanale #19 set, featuring Stanley
Jason Zappa, has just been released on CD by Fazzul Music. Click here (and scroll
down a tad) for more info.
·
Hot Club
Records has just released A Portrait Of Jon Larsen, a ‘best of’ by the
Django/Zappa/Piazzolla-inspired guitar virtuoso. Among many others, it features
contributions from Tommy Mars, Bruce Fowler and Jimmy Carl Black. Jon should also have his new solo CD featuring
Tommy Mars ready soon (Willie Nickerson’s
Egg).
·
Artist Peregrine Honig recently finished six
years of work on Widow, a
collaboration with 18 other artists. Printed by Landfall Press, the project
will take the form of a glossy one-volume fashion magazine that includes an
audio component comprising the final studio recording of Jimmy Carl Black. Only 1,500 copies will be published. Peregrine
told me: “My husband - Mark Southerland, the
saxophonist on the album - and I met Jimmy in Nancy, France in 2007. He was
such a great guy and his wife was so sweet. I am proud to have his work in my
compilation. The CD, Snuff Black, is
a compilation of out-jazz performed live to Jimmy telling stories about his
life as Frank Zappa's drummer. He is a great storyteller and the scenes he sets
up are beautiful and dynamic. I knew he was sick when we recorded the CD, but
his death came as a huge surprise to me. His passing became poetic in the
context of the print and title ‘Widow’. Jimmy was full of life during the Snuff Black recording and he recalled
amazing moments in his life-performing in Berlin with Zappa while being pelted
with unripe pears - working at a Dunkin' Doughnuts with a side job selling
marijuana batches.”
·
Napoleon Murphy Brock tells me revised release date notifications will be sent out soon for
his imminent CD, What Frank Zappa Heard - Just
in Case You Were Wondering - Live at the Red Noodle in Waikiki, Hawaii.
He adds: “We are mastering the disk this
weekend...quality control.” Napoleon will again be at Zappanale this
year; see the festival flyer here…and here.
·
Essra Mohawk (aka Sandra Hurvitz and Uncle Meat)’s debut record, Sandy’s Album Is Here at Last! -
originally released on the Bizarre label, is being reissued on CD by
Collectors’ Choice in February. FZ intended to produce the album, but handed
the reins over to Ian Underwood. Cal
Schenkel designed the album’s sleeve. The reissue contains the bonus track, Life Is Scarlet.
·
The continuing
legal battle between the ZFT and the Arf Society was scheduled to resume in a
Dusseldorf court today (12 January)...until Gail’s lawyer, Mr Thomas Schmitz,
phoned in sick at the eleventh hour. So a further postponement – until 21
January.
·
Being Frank: My Time With Frank Zappa by Nigey
Lennon has just been issued as an e-book on scribd.com. It will
also be available on the Boryanabooks.com
site shortly, and through other outlets including Amazon.
·
Finally, ‘Tony
Palmer's film of Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels’
is due to be officially released on DVD in March. Restored using the original
source material (overseen by Palmer), it features a director’s commentary as a
bonus feature. Read more at http://www.frankzappa200motelsdvd.com/
·
Following its
excellent MOI In The 60s DVD, Chrome
Dreams (in association with Prism Films) is set to release another Zappa
documentary in February, this time about his influences - notably, those listed
on the inside of the very first MOI album. Titled Frank Zappa - The Freak Out List, you can read more about it here: http://www.idiotbastard.com/News/FZFOlist.htm
·
Here’s the
dates for April’s BOZZIO HOLDSWORTH LEVIN MASTELOTTO European tour: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=117027446855&topic=11720
·
Volume Two of
Billy James's biography about Todd
Rundgren, entitled A Dream Goes On
Forever - The Continuing Story Of Todd Rundgren, has just been issued by Golden Treasures Publishing.
·
Fancy some FZ
down under? Go here: http://www.idiotbastard.com/News/PressRelease1.htm
·
As well as The
Rondo Hatton Report going live on 21 December, this Idiot travelled nearly 300
miles to celebrate Frankie’s birthday with the Zappatistas in Wigan…only the event got canned due to the weather.
Still, I met up with Uncle Ian, had a few beers, and prised my copy of Philly
76 out of the hot little hands of G&S Dave (thanks, bro). And meantime,
at Zappa.com, the Barfies started offering Frank
Zappa Plays The Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute for digital
download.
·
Jean-Luc Ponty & His Band (featuring new drummer, Pierre-Francois Titi Dufour),
will be at Zappanale #21 next August. Wowzers!
·
Dr Paul Carr’s
latest paper, on ‘the incorporation of
time, space and place in performing, composing, arranging and producing Frank
Zappa’s music’, can be read here.
·
In the
immortal words of the Rt Hon Lord Sir David of Coverdale, “here’s one for ya”: the Muffin
Men have sent greetings for a fab Winter Solstice in the form of a taster
from the band’s recent recordings. Ladies, put your legs together and listen
now to Doobie Stopping.
·
A little FZ
music has been used in a car commercial in Holland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw42AcLNL-o
·
Look, hear: a
Swedish Zappa fan paid a lorra lorra cash to hear Joe’s Garage: http://radiodupree.blogspot.com/2009/12/zappa-fan-sets-record.html
·
As well as
playing at Zappanale as part of their 20th anniversary celebrations,
them crazy Muffin boys are also playing at a Zappa festival on my birthday in
Norway (click this).
·
Todd Grubbs' new CD, Return Of The Worm,
should be released in January. It features special guests Jerry Outlaw, Blues Saraceno
and Mike Keneally. Todd is also one
of the artists contributing to my Burnt Weeny project.
·
Steve Vai’s Now We Run (from Live In Minneapolis - Where The Wild Things Are) has been nominated
for the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category in the 52nd Grammy Awards.
He’s up against Jeff Beck (with Vinnie)'s A Day In The Life (from Performing
This Week...Live At Ronnie Scott’s). The awards take place at the end of
January.
·
Shenkar has a new
album out called Face To Face. It
features guest appearances by members of Korn.
·
Shoogagoogagunga! Dweezil has a new album coming out in
January called Return Of The Son Of… It
features tracks recorded live with ZPZ on the past few tours; mainly Ray White on lead vox, but some Ben
Thomas too (Zomby Woof and Montana come from this year’s show in
Manchester).
·
Great blogging
from Mr John Adams: http://www.earbox.com/posts/45
·
This sounds
like an interesting Beefheart cover album: http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/albums/related/messin.htm
·
“Watch me now, I'm gonna eat
the label!” (Thanks, Dave! Thanks, Tom!)
·
While The Magic Band will NOT now be at
Zappanale #21, ‘as good as confirmed’ are: the Muffin Men, Le Bocal, The Plastic People Of The Universe, Ensemble Ambrosius and Jazzprojekt Hundehagen.
·
Singalongafrank:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Karaoke-Hits-Frank-Zappa/dp/B0029RO1F2/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1259354882&sr=1-17
·
Lotsa cool
audio (and more) at Dweezil Zappa World: http://www.dweezilzappaworld.com/songs
·
Check out Morgan Ågren playing the Swedish
archipelago – live!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXzmW-4Z6ms
·
New interview
with Dweezil at http://digital.premierguitar.com/premierguitar/200912_1#pg82,
which reveals that The Roxy Performances
doovdé could be
released by the end of 2010. DZPZ had a special guest at their show in Austin,
Texas: “Eric Johnson…joined us for Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy and Muffin Man. I play his signature
Stratocasters on tour and it was a real thrill to have him up there with us.”
·
Live Music, a ground-breaking animated short film inspired by Romeo And Juliet, features music performed by Steve Vai and his
String Theories violinist, Ann Marie Calhoun. You can buy it on iTunes right
now (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMovie?id=339213497&s=143444).
·
Backstage
Auctions will be hosting its 2009 Holiday auction in December. It will include
over 300 Frank Zappa lots, containing record awards, signed items, vintage
concert posters, unique vinyl releases, original artwork, rare photos,
promotional items, scripts, books, magazines and many other incredible
collectibles. This amazing offering comes directly from the private collection
of consigners such as Dave McMacken and Cal Schenkel (FZ album cover artists),
Essra Mohawk (who sang with Frank in 1966), Jim Pons (MOI bass player, 1970–71)
and Fred Woods (author and recognized Zappa expert). The auction preview starts
on 29 November and the on-line auction goes live on Sunday 6 December; it will
run for one week (ending on Sunday 13 December). This historical auction will
take place online at: www.backstageauctions.com.
Click here for a sample.
·
The Drummers Of Frank Zappa (Roundtable
Discussion and Performance – you know, that marvelous thing that appeared on
the Drum Channel featuring Terry Bozzio, Chester Thompson, Chad Wackerman, Ruth
Underwood and Ralph Humphrey) is now available on DVD: http://www.abstractlogix.com/xcart/product.php?productid=24396
·
Dale Bozzio has just started her time in jail for cruelty to cats. Read more here: http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/phlog/archive/2009/11/13/missing-persons-singer-dale-bozzio-jailed.aspx
·
Dweezil has
knocked out another odd cover: this time, it’s Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime on Purple
Pyramid’s An All-Star Salute To Christmas
album. (BTW, just discovered that Vinnie Colaiuta played drums on the Dweezil
Zappa Plays Zeppelin rendition of Stairway
To Heaven.)
·
The
Zappatistas have been asked to help celebrate the anniversary of the great
man’s birthday at the Fuzzbox in Wigan (on Monday 21 December 2010, natch). There’ll
be a full night of Zappa music, videos and, of course, Mr Etheridge and the
boys. Venue open from 1700 for drinks and music; Zappatistas on stage 2130.
Admission £12 (& £10 concessions).
·
The New Dutch
Academy's new Super Audio CD Zappa
Symphonies, Crowning Glory is available now, featuring world premiere
recordings of symphonies by Francesco
Zappa (and Graaf, Stamitz & Schwindl). A number of sample tracks from
the disc appear here: http://www.newdutchacademy.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=31
·
Watch The Mother People play Willie The Pimp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNv2yDNVmw4&feature=player_embedded#
·
The Arf
Society has revamped its Zappanale website, which now lists the
following as confirmed for its 21st festival next year: ZAPPATiKA; The Central
Scrutinizer Band; The Paul Green School of Rock Music; LiLo's Zapmospehres;
Caballero Reynaldo; and Don Condor & The Texas Outpost.
·
On 3 February
2010, at Skinny's in North Hollywood, Patrice
“Candy” Zappa will perform some of Frank's ‘stellar hits’, as well as some
of her (and husband Nolan Porter)'s
songs. Robert Martin will be their
special guest. According to her recently revamped website, Candy is also working on a CD of
some of FZ’s music with Ed Palermo.
·
ANT-BEE’s live
jam with Don & Bunk, now on YouTube.
·
George Duke: “My engineer and I have been working on
this 5.1 mix of the Prague DVD whenever we get a few minutes. You Zappa fans
will be happy to note that I did a three song [Cosmik Debris/Inca Roads/Uncle Remus] medley tribute to Zappa in the middle of the show
which came out great. You fusion fans may be in for a treat – the original Cobham/Duke Band has been in
discussions about organizing a tour hopefully next year schedule permitting.” The Prague show was filmed in May 2009, but we may
have to wait to see it until after the GD Band’s Montreux concert has been
released on DVD.
·
And the Rob
Pruitt Award on Sculptor goes to...Cynthia
Plaster Caster! See http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/33122/first-annual-art-awards-winners-announced/.
·
Listen to excerpts from Blues For
Tony by Holdsworth Pasqua Haslip
Wackerman - a live double CD tribute to Tony Williams - here: http://www.moonjune.com/MJR029.htm.
·
Read Geoff Willis' entry on Don
Preston in the Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians section of jazz.com.
·
The Muffin Men are currently in the studio finishing
off some original material. 2009 has been a year of none-Zappa activities for
the Muffinz due, in part, to the sad death of singer/drummer Jimmy Carl Black,
along with the current/difficult climate for performing live Zappa material.
Next year sees the band performing selected gigs as part of their 20th
anniversary celebrations. It is still being decided in which ways to release
the original material, although some of it will be incorporated into the 4th
volume of Muffinz Moovies, which is
currently in production. An engineer on the sessions describes the material as “diverse: some very rocky; some very silly - pretty much
what you would expect from them.” Musicians involved include Jumpy,
Waco, Rhino, Mikey and Roddie. Watch their website for
updates.
·
GZ Sez: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gail-zappa/the-future-of-music_b_337202.html
·
Read Clinton
Morgan’s article on Divan at http://abctales.com/story/clinton-morgan/blasphemy-and-upholstery.
·
Dr Paul Carr
wants to know what interest there is in MPhil/PhD research into FZ’a music: http://paulcarrmusings.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/masters-and-phd-study-on-the-music-of-frank-zappa/
·
Here’s two
clips of ZAPPATiKA in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMvS9VqcC-4
and http://www.youtube.com/user/ZAPPATiKA#p/a.
And what about the latest version of Jon Nelson's Genkin Philharmonic playing
Zappa in Buffalo in September: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHhCHFmfjKI?
·
Some bright
spark tried to edit FZ's Wikipedia entry to include the following detail of his
love affair with The Lizard King: “For a brief
period in the 1960's, Frank Zappa and Jim Morrison were seen together quite
often. There is a photograph not well known to the public, a photograph
featuring Zappa standing on his head naked in a hotel room with Morrison,
‘playing him like a fucking tuba’.” I'd love to see that!
·
Joseph DIaz: “I have just posted a new interview with
Steve Vai in my Myspace page (www.myspace.com/j21music).” Nice one!
·
Old Skool
Hooligans has more Zappa t-shirts: here.
·
Read Dr Paul Carr’s latest paper, Frank Zappa, Sex and Popular Music, at http://paulcarrmusings.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/frank-zappa-sex-and-popular-music/.
His next presentation, The Big Note –
The Ultimate Gesture: The incorporation of time and space in performing,
composing, arranging and producing Frank Zappa’s music, will be at
the ATRiuM in Cardiff next month. And then next April he’ll present “Dickie’s Such An Asshole”: Frank Zappa, Popular
Music and Politics, at the ‘Music and Politics’ conference at Bristol
University (see Diary for details).
All power to the lad for raising FZ’s profile in these institutions, I say. Go
cheer him on if you’re able.
·
Read about
FZ's friendship with American comic book artist, writer and editor, Jack Kirby at http://royalflushmagazine.com/2009/10/13/zappa_meets_kirby/
·
The latest
issue of Classic Rock presents PROG
(look, see its spiffy cover) features an
interview with Dweezil in which he
states “Ray
White is coming back on the road with us.” But hold your horses:
this is just a re-hash of Alan Di Perna’s article that first appeared in Guitar World in August 2008. It does
though include some stuff edited out of that mag, if you’re interested in
clocking it. Ray will of course be joining Project/Object
at the end of the year to link up with Ike
Willis – that’s right, the Othello Brothers back together on tour for the first time in 25 years! See http://www.projectobject.com/ for details.
·
In the latest instalment of the continuing story of Michael Myers, Halloween II (written and directed by Rob Zombie, and starring ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic), Howard Hesseman’s
character is called Uncle Meat, the owner of the Java Hole which sports the
famous FZ on the crapper poster (you can see the bottom of it here: http://www.dreadcentral.com/img/news/jul09/hallochicks.jpg).
·
A reformed Missing Persons - featuring Warren Cuccurullo, Doug Lunn, Joe Travers, Dale Bozzio and Scheila Gonzalez - are back playing dates in the US. Check here for rehearsal
pix and more. And here for the latest
on Bozzio’s cat cruelty case.
·
In November, Eddie Jobson’s U-Z Project plays Poland
– this time with John Wetton as
special guest.
·
The Mother People (see http://www.myspace.com/themotherpeople)
played FZ at The Flavel in Dartmouth on 9 October. Anyone catch them?
·
The Sancho Plan (who create new interactive entertainment experiences for the 21st
century) have just premiered their new work, The Black Page, described as “Frank
Zappa meets Salvador Dali.” Sancho Director, Ed Cookson, tells me “The Black Page
is our take on both Zappa’s works No. 1
and No. 2, although both in shortened
forms...we just play the drum solo from The
Black Page No. 1 before climaxing with a chunk of the melody of No. 2 to a full backing. Right now we’re
working on securing a London premiere date – though we’re very much hoping
it’ll be this year!” Read more here: http://www.thesanchoplan.com/blackpage.html
·
The NorrlandsOperan's Symphony Orchestra will start the Umeå Jazz Festival with a concert
dedicated to FZ - check http://www.norrlandsoperan.se/default.asp?refid=10034&id=10377
and http://www.umeajazzfestival.se/default.asp?id=8179
for more.
·
Panzerballet (who played Zappanale #19) have a new album out called Hart Genossen - von Abba bis Zappa. It
features two FZ medleys. Find out more via http://www.myspace.com/panzerballett
·
Steve Vai’s new
DVD and CD, Live In Minneapolis: Where
The Wild Things Are, are now available. And right this very minute you can
download (for free) a track from it (at http://www.vai.com/wildthings/download/eve/).
What are you waiting for? And read this too.
·
You can now
pre-order Mike Keneally’s
long-awaited concept album, Scambot 1.
And right this very minute you can download (for free) a track from it (at http://www.keneally.com/mail.html). What are
you waiting for?
·
AMD’s director
of digital media and entertainment, Charlie
Boswell, has been tweeting: “I directed/produced the [ZPZ] Roxy and Hogg [Auditorium in Austin] shows. Frank Zappa’s original Roxy show will release
before we drop ZPZ's Son of Roxy,” he says.
·
The Trame Trio, founded by hurdy-gurdy virtuoso Gilles
Chabenat, have an album out called Changer
d'Air that features an interesting cover of Peaches En Regalia. Look, hear: http://www.gilleschabenat.com/audio/audio.htm#trametrio
·
Snapper Music
has just released a CD of doo-wop, R&B and experimental moments that
inspired FZ called The Roots Of Frank
Zappa. Happily, it only duplicates a few tracks on Chrome Dreams’ earlier Frank Zappa’s Jukebox. And Chrome Dreams
has yet another new FZ disc suddenly available: Frank Zappa – The Interview
Sessions.
·
Anyone want an
art print featuring a Zappa quote? Look here: http://www.urbangraphicshop.co.uk/Products/Prints/Scrawl/Something-To-Remember.html
·
Holdsworth Bozzio Levin Mastelotto (or HoBoLeMa)
will be playing dates in the US, Japan and Europe early next year.
·
The tail-end
of my recent interview with Ike Willis
is now up at http://idiotbastard.com/Interviews/IkeWillis.htm.
·
The Fall’s Last Night At The Palais CD/DVD features
a cover of Hungry Freaks, Daddy (on
which the band also briefly quotes Beefheart’s Plastic Factory).
·
New CD, Inside Out by Tom McCaslin, features FZ's Outside
Now Again performed by Tom on his tuba. Unaccompanied. “This is definitely not for the faint of heart. This
rocks my world,” says Gail.
·
Rhino's Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets
1965-1968 box set includes tracks by Captain
Beefheart & His Magic Band, Lowell
George & The Factory, The Turtles (featuring Flo & Eddie), The Leaves (featuring Jim Pons) and Kim Fowley.
·
On Tony Palmer’s official YouTube pages,
you can now watch an excerpt from 200 Motels – “coming
soon from http://www.tonypalmerdvd.com”,
who inform me “we have no fixed release date....but
one thing is for sure, we have the master tapes and the urban myth that they
‘disappeared’ is untrue.”
·
Will there
will be a Hot Rats 40th
anniversary show in New York on 15 October? Hope so.
·
The Rod-man
has alerted me to an update on Muffin
activities: http://www.muffinmen.co.uk/
·
On 31 October,
George Duke & Friends (including
Napoleon Murphy Brock) play a
concert with the Metropole Orchestra at the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam.
·
In France, in
Paris, the Festival Présences (13-15 November) pays tribute to FZ. But you may wish
to skip the first night in favour of a soiree co-hosted by Les Fils De l'Invention and featuring Caballero Reynaldo and Arf!
·
While at Zappanale, I found out that
for the second time in its history, the Festival l'Alambic Electrique had been
cancelled for financial reasons (it was scheduled for 21-22 August, with inter alia Here & Now and Peach
Noise scheduled to perform). On my return, I learned the terrible news that
Thierry Leroy – ex- manager of Gong
and President of La Voix du Fromage' (who produced the festival, and with whom
I have been corresponding for several years) – had hanged himself. If you knew
TL and want to pay your respects, you can leave a message at http://www.myspace.com/festivalalambicelectrique.
·
The latest issue of Classic Rock
magazine features the 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time (as chosen by the 100
greatest living guitarists), and comes in four different covers – one Jimi; one
Eddie; one Keef; and one FZ.
·
The Big Picture by Fred Frith and Arte Quartett, with special guests
Katherina Weber and Lucas Niggli, features a track called T. Square Park Lark (for Frank Zappa).
·
Zappanale #21 takes place in Bad Doberan, 13-15 August 2010. Be there.
·
Andrew Bean tells me that new issue of The Comics Journal has a huge story on an unpublished book edited
by Michel Choquette and constructed
in the early 70s. Choquette spent 14-26 February 1972 on the West Coast, where
he met a wheelchair bound FZ who “promised to write
a strip and have Cal Schenkel...illustrate it. He did, but Choquette is still
trying to figure out what it is about.”
·
Dr Paul Carr was at Zappanale #20. Read what he thought of it at http://paulcarrmusings.wordpress.com/. Paul
will be back in Germany on 26 September, with Richard J Hand, to present their
paper, “Make a Sex Noise Here”: Frank
Zappa, Sex and Popular Music, at the Halle an der Salle (http://www.aspm-online.org Then some time between 13 and 15
November, Paul will present his The Big
Note – The Ultimate Gesture: The incorporation of time and space in performing,
composing, arranging and producing Frank Zappa’s music paper at the ATRiuM
in Cardiff.
·
Steve Vai lists Black
Napkins as his sixth favourite guitar instrumental on the AOL Radio Blog. He
comments: “Frank had a unique way of phrasing on
the guitar. When he improvised his solos it was like a hurricane of wind and
notes. He could write deeply touching melodies.”
·
Dale Bozzio says she has been trying to get the original Missing
Persons “back for nine years. Now is the time. Frank
says it is time. Frank is telling me to go get Terry.” She told Hollywood Today “I
knew Frank since I was 16 and a half. He gave us everything we have. I still
visit his grave.”
·
Here’s two CDs I learned about while at Zappanale: Stu Grimshaw’s The Stranger, featuring Ike Willis, was released a few years
ago – I only discovered this on speaking to Ike himself, after I’d interviewed
him for my book. Learn more
at http://www.the-stranger.com/. And in December, Napoleon Murphy Brock will release This Is What Frank Zappa Heard – Just In
Case You Were Wondering. Read more here: http://www.idiotbastard.com/News/PressRelease.htm.
·
There's a new MOI show from 1970 to be heard from Wolfgang's Vault at http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/mothers-of-invention-concert/1360-4901.html
·
Five Peace Band - featuring Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and Vinnie Colaiuta - has a live
double-album out culled from its 2008 tour of Europe.
·
Nice interview with Napoleon
Murphy Brock in Der Spiegel here:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,641511,00.html
·
Wanna hear Bob Dobbs and Ben Watson waxing lyrical aboot Karl Marx, James
Joyce and Marshall McLuhan over the oeuvre of FZ for 18 hours? Go here: http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=bobandben&sort=-publicdate
·
Abbey Road: A Tribute To The Beatles by various artists came out a few months back. It
features Dweezil covering Tomorrow Never Knows. Dweezil, of
course, previously performed a Lennon/McCartney composition (Anytime At All) on his Confessions album. He also contributed
to the Fat Boys’ rendition of Baby You're
A Rich Man, and the Peace Choir's Give
Peace A Chance.
·
Eddie Jobson on his UKZ
band off-shoot: “UZ is a totally flexible project that can morph into different
guises according to which members are in the band at the time. This is
primarily an instrumental project, almost the ultimate tribute band to the
various people playing with me. For instance, if a famous singer comes in for a
night to sit in, we all have the virtuosity that we can transform ourselves
into being the ultimate cover band for that singer. I might play a Curved Air,
a Roxy Music or a Frank Zappa track.” One such guest could well be John Wetton. UZ played six consecutive dates on the US East Coast from
Monday 17 August.
·
The launch party for ZAPPATiKA's debut album, The Short But Legendary Flight of the Dodo, was held last September
in Paris. The event was recorded by a young team of film-makers called Le
Labostrophe, and here is the first track from their editing suite: an
acoustical reading of The Torture Never
Stops: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=61721624
·
Indonesian prog-rockers Discus
- who the Arfs have been trying to get to Bad Doberan for some while now - will
finally play Zappanale this year. That's next week, people. The programme for
this jubilee festival has now been finalised: click the banner above to viddy
it.
·
The Magic Band has recently signed a new record deal with Sundazed
Records. The label will be releasing a double live CD from the band’s 2005 UK
tour.
·
Longtime Project/Object
bassist Dave Johnsen is currently on
tour with a pop/electronic tinged band called Glint. They’re in London this week. Check out http://glintonline.com/ for more.
·
Steve Vai guests on two tracks on the new Mike Stern album, Big
Neighborhood.
·
The Adrian Belew Power Trio’s
first studio album, e, is now
available from StoreBelew. The
band also recently issued a Live Overseas
album on iTunes (which includes Neurotica
and Frame By Frame, neither of which
appeared on the excellent Side Four Live).
·
As well as his solo show at Zappanale in a few weeks, Terry Bozzio will be duetting with Chad Wackerman in Japan later this
year. And on 25 October, The Wackerman Brothers (Brooks, John and Chad) will
perform their trio compositions at the Montreal Drum festival.
·
This Idiot’s interview with Robert
‘Bobby’ Martin has been ever-so-slightly expanded, as I had a few more questions for the man. Read the full thing now at:
http://idiotbastard.com/Interviews/RobertMartin.htm
And here’s a sneak preview of the interview with Bruce Bickford that André Cholmondeley has
been doing for me: http://idiotbastard.com/Interviews/BruceBickford.htm
·
Supergrass' Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey have teamed up with
Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich for a new spin-off band, The Hot Rats, playing covers of classic rock 'n' roll tracks.
·
Reading The Gangster of Love - Johnny “Guitar” Watson: Performer,
Preacher, Pimp by Vincent Bakker has got me listening to the likes of Space Guitar, digging out my copy of The Funk Anthology and marvelling at Johnny’s great contribution to music and, of
course, his influence on our Frankie. I’ve started to review the book here.
·
Steve Vai will release his concert film and live CD, Live In Minneapolis - Where The Wild Things Are, on 29
September on Favored Nations Records. The show was recorded and filmed at the
State Theatre in Minneapolis before a sold-out audience as part of his Sound Theories world tour. Watch the
full promo here and tell me
the guy doesn't know how to put on a show - or how to put a great band
together. See also the Favored Nations preview webpage at http://favorednations.com/wtwta-preview/index7.html
and the official Press Release.
·
If you’ve watched Grey’s Anatomy,
or seen the movies Forgetting Sarah
Marshall and Sex And The City,
then you’ve probably heard The Bird And
The Bee - a duo from LA comprising Lowell
George’s daughter, Inara, and Greg Kurstin. At the tender age of 12, Greg
co-wrote and played on Dweezil’s Crunchy Water (the b-side of My Mother Is A Space Cadet).
·
Cheepnis: http://lileks.com/bw/scifi/itconq/
·
Geoff Willis (once more): “The Lenox Jazz
School Concert, August 29 1959 has just been released on CD, and features Ian Underwood's very first recordings. He
plays alto sax and flute on two tracks with the Jimmy Giuffre Ensemble, and on
three tracks with the Herb Pomeroy Ensemble, which also includes Ornette
Coleman. Ian is heard playing a flute solo on a tune called Paul's Pal with
Herb Pomeroy. The CD also features sometime-Zappa percussionist John Bergamo on one track with the
Kenny Dorham Ensemble, where he shows himself to be, at the age of 19, an
excellent and swinging jazz drummer. Probably one for completists, but not the
average Zappa fan. The CD is on FreeFactory 064, and is available from www.jazzmessengers.com”.
·
Click on the last tune here http://www.myspace.com/unitedsoundsofmusic,
and watch the video here http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3dhdGNoP3Y9TENZLVRwZjZIY28
to hear and see the Low Budget Research
Kitchen performing with Napoleon
Murphy Brock recently.
·
Read a new interview with Nigey
Lennon at http://boryanabooks.com (who will soon be
offering a completely revised and updated e-book edition of her Being Frank book soon).
·
Geoff Wills: “I recently discovered an
excellent web-based jazz magazine, edited by esteemed jazz writer Ted Gioia,
called jazz.com. I submitted a review of the original jazz version of Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
(see http://www.jazz.com/music/2009/7/12/frank-zappa-take-your-clothes-off-when-you-dance). There's also an article by Ted on the jazzy side of
Frank (at http://www.jazz.com/dozens/the-dozens-the-jazzy-side-of-frank-zappa).
·
You lucky folk can get a 10% discount at www.strings.ie -
Suppliers of Musical Instrument Strings & Accessories, and “fans of Uncle Frank”. All you need to do is click
on ‘cart’ after you have finished adding products and enter the word ‘IDIOT’ in
the discount coupon box. The 10% discount will be applied and you can then
proceed to the checkout. “Unfortunately, we can
only accept website orders from citizens located within the EU at this time.
Non-EU citizens can contact us directly if they wish to discuss postage costs,
etc.”
·
Pete Griffin: “I’ve been receiving some strange
compliments from people after ZPZ shows recently, along the lines of ‘Wow, your
solo tonight was sooooo much better than the one on the DVD.’ It’s kinda hard
to focus on the positive side of what they’re saying, my brain sometimes thinks
‘does that mean they thought I sucked on the DVD?’ But I realize that
considering the DVD was recorded 3 years ago, they must be right in some ways
about my improvement. Something would be wrong if I was playing this music
every night and somehow getting less proficient on my instrument. But I think
the main improvement has come from being onstage with such incredible
musicians, and especially from listening to and backing up their solos. From
Scheila’s way of holding the crowd in the palm of her hand, to Billy essentially
composing a new piece every night, to Jamie wrenching every ounce of emotion
from his strings, to Joe simply dropping every jaw in the house, I get a
serious music lesson every night. And that doesn’t even include Dweezil, who
plays guitar like no one I’ve ever heard.”
·
Not only has J21 (aka Joseph
Diaz, compiler of the Eyeinhand Sampler
CD a few years back) just produced a stunning 3 minute and 57 second rendition
of Burnt Weeny Sandwich, but he also has his
great debut solo album, Yellow Mind: Blue
Mind, released on Voiceprint shortly. The album’s title comes from Don Preston and the disc features Trey Gunn, Graham Bonnet and Ed Mann.
Voiceprint will also release on DVD the individual episodes of Tony Palmer’s classic series, All You Need Is Love, in August –
including Volume 14, All Along The Watchtower: Sour
Rock, featuring ‘Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and More’.
·
Ascolta plays Zappa (again) on 11 October 2009 at the Dresden Festival of
Contemporary Music.
·
Watch Steve Vai’s tribute to the King Of Pop here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBd4QXrEPHA
·
The soundtrack to Michael Mann’s new film, Public Enemies (starring Johnny Depp), features a track called Chicago Shake by The Bruce Fowler Big Band.
It was co-written by Bruce and features brother Walt on trumpet and Albert
Wing on sax. Malcolm McNab also
plays trumpet on the score.
·
I recently bought Ed Palermo’s
new CD, Eddy Loves Frank, and it’s
effin brill; I’ll pen a review at some point. But meantime, here’s a press release for
y’all to peruse if you’ve not yet got this fab disc.
·
Zappa.com has just posted a couple of clips from the LA stage production
of Joe’s Garage (at http://www.zappa.com/stufftoget/video/packardgoose.html
and http://www.zappa.com/stufftoget/video/diva_joesgarage.html).
Good to see former Grande Mother, Ken
Rosser, prominently featured during Packard
Goose.
·
A cover of Peaches En Regalia
will be included on How I Got Over,
the forthcoming album from hip-hop band, The
Roots.
·
Herb Cohen is currently in court in LA demanding $1M damages
from journalist Barney Hoskyns and Random House, claiming that they defamed him
by accusing him of embezzling royalties from Tom Waits in the biography, Low
Side Of The Road: A Life Of Tom Waits.
·
Howard Kaylan is finishing up a memoir, How Not To Be Me, which he hopes will be turned into a film.
·
“The gorgeous Gail Zappa has invited me to cover a
Frank Zappa song. I am incredibly honoured. I am looking through his oeuvre.
That’s a whole lot of oeuvre! Any suggestions? You know I like things fruity.
Suggestions?” asks Lucy Lawless, aka Xena: Warrior
Princess.
·
Gary Lucas and Lenny Kaye
performed Who Are The Brain Police?
at the Gods & Monsters’ 20th Anniversary Show in New York on 11 June. Bet
that was good.
·
Denizens of the continental US of A can host a concert by Mike Keneally and Bryan Beller at a venue of their choice. The MyKeneally Tour will
take place between 6-20 August. See this for more.
·
Grand Funk off-shoot Flint
has its eponymous 1978 debut album now out on CD (from Wounded Bird Records). FZ plays guitar on
two tracks (Better You Than Me and You’ll Never Be The Same).
·
New book, Afterbirth: Stories You
Won’t Read in a Parenting Magazine, features an essay by Moon Unit called Mom Redefined. Here’s an extract: “When
I was little, ‘Mom’ meant let people be themselves so Dad doesn’t leave us for
a groupie and we can keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. ‘Mom’
meant do your own thing, because my mom didn’t have time to play with us or
teach us conflict resolution - she was too busy making sure my dad didn’t leave
us for a groupie. ‘Mom’ meant yell a lot to get us to stop screaming so Dad can
sleep so he can work and doesn’t leave us for a groupie. By the time I was
ready to leave home, the definition of ‘Mom’ had expanded to include unfair
rule through financial bondage, control through psychological and emotional
manipulation, and profound apathy.” Hear more at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF5SKiP5dHg.
·
This Idiot understands that the ‘great singer from a well known group’
who ‘had not done any of the required preparation’ for the gig of singing with
ZPZ was Living Colour’s Corey Glover.
·
See Diva, Dweez, Gail and Bust in Vilnius: http://united-mutations.blogspot.com/2009/06/dweezil-and-gail-zappa-in-vilnius.html.
By the bye, I note that the radio ad for
the imminent UK dates by ZPZ on Planet Rock talks about Dweezil and a 12-piece
band. Shome mishtake surely?
·
Other Minds Records has just issued Conlon
Nancarrow’s Studies for Player Piano: The Original 1750 Arch Recordings,
Volumes 1–4 on CD. If you’ve not heard and of this, it’s crazy, mind-blowing
stuff. Go here to sample some brief excerpts: http://www.otherminds.org/cgi-bin/shop.pl/page=Nancarrowstudies.html/SID=PUT_SID_HERE/buy=1
·
The Alambic Électric Festival this year will feature the Grandmothers – more at http://www.myspace.com/festivalalambicelectrique.
·
The amazing Mr. Bickford will
be a special guest at Zappanale 20. Bruce is bringing lots of his work over to
Bad Doberan, where you’ll be able to see his little creatures on display. He’ll
also have some of his newest pictures and his new film with him. This Idiot is
part-way through interviewing Bruce, in cahoots with the incredible André Cholmondeley.
·
Interested in hearing Edgard
Varèse conducting Charlie Mingus?
Go here: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/06/edgar-varèse-and-the-jazzmen-mp3s.html
·
Mike Keneally appears on Todd
Grubbs’ next CD, The Return Of The
Worm (due soon), on a song called The
Message. Todd tells me Mike’s solo is “weird
and fantastic!” He adds that “this album is
a bit different than some of my other ones; it has a lot of ‘field recordings’,
humour and overall strangeness.” The Todd Grubbs Group (with ANT-BEE, Bo Smith and Tony Arnone)
have also contributed a wondrous piece for my 21 Burnt Weeny Sandwiches project.
·
Onion boy Bryan Beller: “I have it on good authority that Steve Vai is now finally, finally done with the live DVD of the
2007 String Theories band, and that it’s coming out this summer.”
·
Oh my - a new interview with Ray
Collins: http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_12484780.
And some interesting chats with Jimmy
Carl Black here: http://sprisk.com/kultur/jimmy-carl-black-1938-2008.html
·
Wendy Bannister tells me “we still have a
few of the Knebworth Frank Zappa T shirts left in all sizes from small to XXXL.
They are normally £12.45 but we would keep the price down to £11.95 – plus a
second one at half price (£5.97) - for the visitors to your site. Anyone
interested should email info@rockmusicmemorabilia.com or phone 01954 268088. I have been receiving lots of
requests for them because of the imminent ZPZ tour. We also still have a couple
of the original 1971 posters left in mint condition for £80 if anyone is
interested.”
·
Following its Zappa jukebox CD, Chrome Dreams has now released Captain Beefheart’s Jukebox: The Songs That
Inspired The Man. It duplicates a couple of the songs on the FZ one, but
looks pretty nifty. The wondrous Radar Station has a short review here: http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/albums/related/jukebox.htm
·
Ed Mann is selling Zappa stuff: http://www.edmann.info/ZAPPA_PAGE.html
(thanks, Bob).
·
The Vegetarians (one of the 20 extraordinary idiot bastards) have a
new CD, 24 Carrot Songs, available
from CdBaby (http://cdbaby.com/cd/vegetarians2)
and on iTtunes. You can also listen to and download all the songs at www.annellssongs.com.
·
Back in 2003, Gail said we “can expect a new
batch” of Beat The Boots. And
here they finally are: six ‘discs’ now being sold by AmazonMP3.
Apparently Rhino passed on flogging these particular ‘unpolished turds’ a while
back. Here’s some helpful info on what the discs contain: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.frank-zappa/msg/dad9046b7600f47b?hl=en
·
Old Skool Hooligans are offering some ‘awesome new imported t-shirts’,
including Weasels Ripped My Flesh
and Freak Out!
ones.
·
I wanted a quick way to notify folk about new news, and I didn’t quite
get this newfangled Twitter thing. So I created The Idiot’s Little Bastards
Club on Facebook (at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=93547360554&ref=mf).
Join us, Michael?
·
A message from Scott Parker: “The third
volume in my Recordings Of Frank Zappa
book series is now available. You can read more about this 399-page monster at www.scottparkerbooks.com. This book explores
the recorded work of FZ in his first decade. The first half of the book
includes a full-color worldwide discography from 1972-1973, complete with
commercially-issued LP and CD bootleg releases. The second half of the book
contains in-depth reviews of every known bootleg concert recording of FZ from
1972 through 1973. Transcriptions of FZ’s inter-song announcements are also
given. The book is 399 pages long. This version of the book is limited,
numbered and signed by the author.”
·
Gail’s former boyfriend, Bobby
Jameson (for whom Frank arranged Gotta
Find My Roogalator) is in intensive care after emergency surgery for an
aortic aneurysm. His condition is stable. Read his mother’s blog: http://thinkaboutitworld.blogspot.com/
·
Arf…http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/8048173.stm
·
Steve Vai appears on the forthcoming Spinal Tap album, Back From
The Dead, released on 16 June. Steve is also to release a 25th Anniversary
Edition of his first solo album, Flex-Able.
·
Ben Thomas is the new ZPZ singer (read about it here). This is the
same Ben Thomas who appeared in the Gail-approved Joe’s Garage musical in LA last year.
·
Zappa Records is pleased to present the official digital download of Mothermania,
a special 40th Anniversary Edition in celebration of the original vinyl
release, on Mothers’ Day. (Make sure you have Java version 1.4 or later
installed and, oddly,
if you buy each track separately, it works out cheaper than getting it in one
hit.) Read more at: http://www.zappa.com/zapparecords/2009_mothermania.html.
Coming soon at zappa.com, “GZ Sez”.
·
Why not watch a very nice clip of the Central Scrutinizer Band with specialle guesta, Ike Willis, on what could well be
Chanel 9 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzArFXSFa7U
(courtesy Sminky-pinky John-Kaminski, aka Mr Cool).
·
Don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but Mike Keneally is now offering the Sluggo!, Half Alive In
Hollywood and Mistakes albums for
download (including new liner notes – if someone writes and tells me which FZ
song title Mike sings backwards in What
Happened Next, I may send them a peanut), on either mp3 or FLAC, for a mere
$10 each. And he’s currently running a Mothers’ Day sale which means you can
get a 10% discount off these (and other items - go here: http://store.moosemart.com/servlet/StoreFront)
by using the promo code “MIKE4MOM”. Support this artist! Oh, and he’s just
finished Scambot – yay! I like Mike.
·
If you were unable to attend our concert for Jimmy Carl Black last November, you can hear The Thurston Lava Tube‘s
Caravan (with a drum solo) and The FrazKnapp Fusion Project (featuring Carlo Bowry and Andy Frizell)’s Ra Ja For
Jimmy from that evening on their MySpace pages. And shortly you’ll be able
to hear even more of the Thurston’s set when Cordelia Records releases the
band’s fifth album, The Year Of The Dog.
Material from the concert will be included as mp3 format in the “CD extra”
content doings. The actual album includes recordings of four of the songs
(Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, The Beatles’
I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and their own
Don’t Borrow Dominoes From A Black Man
and Ianisation) that they played that
night. I like the Thurston Lava Tube.
·
This Idiot had forgotten (he’s old
and retiring) about Miquette Giraudy’s
The Blimp quote in Steve Hillage’s Light In The Sky. Sure hope they play it at Zappanale this year.
·
Out in July from Rykodisc, New
York Times, a two-CD set of live performances from Flo & Eddie recorded at The Bottom Line in New York City from
1979 to 1994. The second disc includes their FZ medley (Who Needs The Peace Corps?/Concentration Moon/The Ugliest Part Of Your
Body/Absolutely Free/Peaches en Regalia/Magic Fingers) from the 1993 show. “This was a great collection of songs we did while
singing with The Mothers of Invention. Howard and I loved the early Zappa
records and this medley showcases some of our favourite songs from We’re Only In It For The Money.”
says Mr. Volman. “We can’t ignore the late Mr.
Zappa whenever we are doing a history of our careers. One day, we’d love to
work with Dweezil too, just to keep the genius of his father alive. There was
never a more brilliant musician and he was, of course, a well-acknowledged
father figure to both Mark and me as well.” says Mr. Kaylan. Meantime,
available right now is ‘Save The Turtles’
The Greatest Hits of The Turtles (see http://www.idiotbastard.com/News/PressRelease.htm).
·
The Chad Wackerman Trio has a
live DVD out soon. Confirms Chad, “The DVD is close to being finished. We
recorded it at the Drum Channel, so it’s a matter of squeezing the time in with
their schedule. I hope in a couple months it’ll be out.” Regarding the Drum
Channel’s excellent Zappa Drummers Roundtable thing, during which Ruth
Underwood called Chad “dear”, young Master Wackerman adds: “Ruth is great.
That’s the first time I had a chance to speak with her.”
·
In Germany, the May edition of Playboy
featured the lovely Moon Unit in the
naughty naked semi-rude:
·
In the May 2009 edition of Record Collector,
Alan Clayson talks to Gail Zappa – principally about Lumpy Money and her own pre-FZ musical
career. In this interesting article, Mrs Z reveals that The Rage & The Fury may never be released (“Frank didn’t care if anyone [else] heard it – and I feel the same,”), that FZ
‘ordered’ her to sell the master tapes of a second un-issued Wild Man Fischer album to Rykodisc,
that she’s thinking of taking guitar lessons, and that she is keen to write her
autobiography.
·
Out now from Zonic Entertainment/Hot Club Records, No Forest Fire by the Mar Vista Philharmonic – that is: Tommy Mars, Arthur Barrow, Bruce
& Walt Fowler, Larry Klimas, Kurt McGettrick and VINNIE
COLAIUTA! Says Artie: “It is a wild and cool
free improv from August 2002. It is the one and only assemblage of this group,
sadly, as Kurt is no longer with us. This session led to the BBC sessions after
the BBC guy heard this and asked if we could do something to go with their 10th anniversary show. It’s for the hard
core fans who might like to hear what some of the vets might do left to their
own devices!” See more butts here: http://www.idiotbastard.com/News/PressRelease1.htm
·
Walt Disney Studios has signed a multiyear deal with Ahmet Zappa to help oversee its newly
christened Kingdom Comics, which will shortly announce which graphic novelists
and artists plan to collaborate on upcoming projects.
·
Wymer Publishing is planning a new book:
Lukewarm Poop
Love Bomb: Live 1967-1969 by Blossom Toes features FZ’s guest appearance
with the band at the legendary Amougies Festival, as well as a cover of the
good Captain’s Electricity. Grab it
from Sunbeam Records now…Billy James
(aka the ANT-BEE) is currently
hosting his own online radio programme called Listening Through A Glass Onyon on the UK’s largest classic rock
website (www.GetReadyToRock.com). The first show
was aired on 5 April; along with playing ANT-BEE music, James is also spinning “eclectic slices of prog, psychedelic and experimental
music by such legends as Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Magma, Godley &
Gouldmen, Daevid Allen, Le Orme, Supersister, Flo & Eddie and Wildman
Fisher to name a few. The next show will be aired sometime in May 2009.”…listen
to Frank Zappa: A ‘Lumpy’ Legacy
– a short news item by Joel Rose for NPR, featuring Gail and Ike. After the
story first aired on 9 April, NPR was asked to take down the two FZ pieces it
had been given permission to stream…next April sees the complete works of Edgard Varèse performed in one weekend at London’s South Bank. See here for more: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/festivals-series/varese-360
…read ace bass-boy Bryan Beller on Scott Thunes at: http://www.bassplayer.com/article/frank-zappas-alien/apr-09/94337.
Hope that gets you juiced for me book…Brian Eno in the Grauniad: “Zappa was very technical and impressed by things that
were musically challenging - weird time signatures, strange keys, awkward chord
sequences. Zappa was important to me as an example of everything I didn’t want
to do. I’m very grateful to him, actually.”…thanks to my good friend
John Kaminski for flagging-up this clip of Frank playing the church bells in
Prague: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjHJAysbf5s.
And Freak Out! The Carl O. Franzoni Movie, too (see http://www.davidborboa.com/projects.htm)...read
Scott Thunes’s very own account of
his recent guest appearance with ZPZ here…long time FZ
fan, Penn Jilette, talks about
turning 54…and FZ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZGED-s4cK0...the
Muffin Men have
just updated their website: they are to record some original music in the
summer and “this material may or may not be
released, the band may or may not take the material out on the road. Due to the
current climate with regard to permissions for playing FZ music, the Muffinz
will not be performing or recording FZ material for the rest of this year.”
There should though be a tour of Europe to celebrate their 20th anniversary
next year. Listen to the podcast for
more…interesting Dweezil interview
here from late last year: http://www.q107.com/DJsandShows/KimMitchell/Audio.aspx
(thanks, Dave). He talks about how ZPZ has pretty much used up all of the
friendly special guest alumni, impersonates Don Van Vliet, and jams along to the Mighty Zep’s How Many More Times…YouTube has some
great clips of Mike Keneally and
chums covering some ‘classic rock’. Try these for starters: War Pigs (he’s on drums); Sunshine Of Your Love (guitar &
vocals); Harvest Moon (bass!)…Jon Larsen has been in the studio again
with Tommy Mars. But this time “Tommy did not play one single note! The studio, by the
way, is the LA based Lotek Studio, owned and engineered by the Zappa alumni,
‘clonemeiser’, and bass player par excellence, Arthur Barrow. Anyway, even without touching his keyboards once
today, Tommy gave me goosebimples on my arms, chills up and down the spine, he
made me laugh, and cry. How? By reading the surrealistic short story Willie Nickerson’s Egg, or not just
reading it, but making it come alive! Tommy’s reading is spiced up by short
glimpses of music.” Willie
Nickerson’s Egg is expected to be released in the middle of August…Dale Bozzio has now been convicted of
animal cruelty. Police say 12 cats had to be put down after being found in
Bozzio’s home last year. She pleaded not guilty to several misdemeanor counts
of animal cruelty, but has been convicted of one count last week. The
54-year-old singer is expected to be sentenced next week in District Court for
Southern Carroll County. She faces up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Her manager said Dale had left
the cats in the care of a friend...out now from Edel Records
in Europe, Playing In Tongues, the
new album from Warren Cuccurullo
featuring Terry Bozzio. It includes
the “never before recorded piece of music by Frank
Zappa, Wreckelection, a 14 chord
progression that was part of my 1978 Zappa audition [and] is now a ZFT approved new work by FZ…Munchkin Music is the
BEST!”. You can see WC’s Sid
Arthur’s Message solo at http://www.cuccurullo.tv/sam-vid.htm;
the album track features the voice of Warren’s long-time friend, Al Malkin. Also on the album is Dale Bozzio (as Miss Tickle). You can
buy selected tracks - and listen to samples of all of them - right now
at Play.com in the UK.
And here’s a little recent something (cough)
recorded with Joe Travers and Tommy Mars: http://www.pumpitout.com/audio/obummer.mp3
...the 399 pages of Scott Parker‘s new book, Blessed Relief: The Recordings Of FRANK ZAPPA
Volume Three, 1972-1973, are being readied for print as I type…you can now
see all seven episodes of the Drum Channel’s The Zappa Drummers Roundtable – featuring Terry Bozzio, Ralph Humphrey,
Chester Thompson, Chad Wackerman and Ruth Underwood - at http://www.drumchannel.com/entertainment/15004.aspx.
And The Zappa Drummers Drum Jam, too
(http://www.drumchannel.com/entertainment/13294.aspx)...Chris Opperman’s fifth album, The Lionheart, features ten brand new
studio recordings - including The
Porpentine, his ambitious 12-movement piece for full orchestra plus rhythm
section - and a ferocious double guitar solo by Mike Keneally…the May 2009 issue of Guitar World featured Steve
Vai on the cover and an in-depth article celebrating the 25th anniversary
of Flex-Able. Steve recounts the
production of the album, and the article includes many rare photographs of
Steve’s self-built studio, as well as photos from the sessions…sadly, there’s
no official Arf Society CDs from last year’s Zappanale, but Italian band Fattore Zeta has released its set from
the festival on a new CD called Dio Fa…coming
soon: new book, Beefheart: Through The
Eyes Of Magic, by John “Drumbo” French (http://www.propermusic.com/epk/teaser/vol1.html)...listen
to Gail Zappa & Joe Travers talking about Lumpy Money (“...and
maybe a little something special on the side”? Yeah, there is fer sure:
a Frankly Valarie excerpt from the currently-being-worked-upon 4tieth
anniversary Ruben & The Jets CD)
on KPFK Radio. It’s all here (fast-forward
one hour to the start, then to around 1:40:00 for the exclusive)…the Unmatched series of Zappa tributos just
got bigger: http://www.halloffame.es/unmatched8-9-10.html
...the small town of Middelburg in Holland has decided to name a square after
FZ in a built-up area named de Mortiere. I think we should lobby to have
something similar in Bognor Regis…read an interview from 2000 with David Ocker (Zappa copyist,
orchestrator, librarian and Synclavier programmer) by J21 at http://www.myspace.com/j21music
...you can get 20 Extraordinary Renditions
from iTunes Plus…electro-poof,
Vince Noir, has bought his parents
one of Don Van Vliet’s paintings –
read all abaht it in The Currant Bun …my
buddy J-Roc wants to share this cool video of Mike Keneally performing in Swindon
with you…Markus Stauss’s Trank Zappa
Grappa In Varese? will have a new live CD featuring Willie The Pimp, Mother
People, The Gumbo Variations, Mom & Dad, Apostrophe and King Kong
out in March. But they can all now be heard officially on Markus’s Fazzul
website at http://www.fazzulmusic.ch/deutsch/t-z-g-i-v.php
...Classic Records have re-released Hot
Rats on vinyl. See here http://www.classicrecords.com/item.cfm?item=RS%206356%2D200GRAM
…Ed Mann’s new CD, Sing Gong 24, is available now from http://www.edmann.info:80/SingGong24.html.
Read an interview with Ed by J21 at http://www.myspace.com/j21music
...you can now order the Frank Zappa And
The Mothers Of Invention In The 1960s DVD direct from Chrome Dreams. And
here’s an in-depth review…for their
special January Sale, www.rockmusicmemorabilia.com
is reducing the price of its Frank Zappa Bath and Knebworth commemorative set
by £10 to just £49.99, and it still includes the special gift of CDs ad DVDs.
This offer is only available in the UK through www.idiotbastard.com. Anyone interested should
either email info@rockmusicmemorabilia.com
or phone 01954 268088…Aynsley Dunbar is “excited
to announce that my first solo CD in many years has just been released. This CD
features many of the biggest rock and blues musicians in the industry today.
There are some new songs and some surprises in there for some of you Journey
and Zappa fans.” It features his cover of Chunga’s Revenge...the Gotan
Project have released a live album that includes another rendition of their
interpretation of Frank’s Chunga’s
Revenge...George
Duke’s new CD, Dukey
Treats (released in August), features
Napoleon Murphy Brock on two tracks, and Vinnie Colaiuta on another two…bassboy Bryan Beller’s second CD, Thanks
In Advance (featuring performances by Mike
Keneally, Joe Travers, Marco Minnemann, Scheila Gonzalez and Steve Vai’s violinist, Ann Marie Calhoun, among many other fine folk), is now out…Mondo Hollywood is now out on DVD. For
those that don’t know, this 1967 film briefly features FZ & the Mothers,
Vito, Rodney Bingenheimer, and Bobby Jameson with his then girlfriend, Gail
Sloatman. Check it out here: http://www.chaletfilms.com/dvd/395-Mondo_Hollywood_ed._Collector.html
...Jack Bruce was intimately
involved in putting together Can You
Follow?, a 6-CD set spanning his career from 1962 to 2003, which of course
features Apostrophe. Now here’s an
extract from a 1992 interview with Jack by Polish rock magazine Tylko Rock regarding his involvement in
said track: “At the time I was recording an album
with Carla Bley, far more interesting one...so Frank, whom I met earlier,
appeared one day in the studio and asked me: “Can you take your cello and go to
my session?” So I turned up in a NY studio with my cello, I’m listening to his
music, pretty awful, and just don’t know what to do with myself, and Frank says
to me: “Listen, I would like you to play a sound, like this... whaaaaaang!!!”
So I did what he asked me to do. Whaaaaaang!!! That was all. That was my input
to Frank Zappa’s most popular record! (laughs)” (Bear in mind that this
was found on Wikipedia, which also claimed that Jan Molby was openly bi-sexual
and that Ronnie Hazelhurst co-wrote Reach
for S Club 7.)…a bust of FZ is to be erected in Baltimore; see http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-zappa0507,0,5047730.story
Gail has said that she supports the project, spearheaded by Zappa fans from
Lithuania. Baltimore’s public art commission has accepted the gift of the
bronze bust, which will sit atop a stainless steel pole. It’s a replica of the
bust that went up in 1995 in Vilnius. GZ says the creators of the bust “have gone about this in the right way, with total respect
for the composer.” Eric Leicus, a Lithuanian resident in Baltimore says:
“A friend who works in the Baltimore Office of
Promotion & the Arts (BOP&A) tells me that various well-trafficked
locations have been denied for placement of the statue because Frank Zappa was
not an appropriate image to have on their grounds. Therefore, its very possible
that the Zappa statue could be put on the outskirts on the city...meaning,
it’ll be put in a place where no one will see it. I’m thinking it should be in
Fells Point Square/Mt Vernon Park or at least somewhere downtown where people
can actually appreciate it.” If you agree, Eric suggests you send an
email to Kim Domanski (public art coordinator for BOP&A, kdomanski@promotionandarts.com)
and tell her that you’d like to see the statue in a highly trafficked/visible
area, and not pushed to the outskirts of the city where no one will see it…My Soul - The Complete MPS Fusion
Recordings, a 4-CD box set comprising George
Duke’s Solus; The Inner Source; Faces In Reflection; Feel;
I Love The Blues…; The Aura Will Prevail; and Liberated Fantasies, has just been
released. Not sure where this leaves the Promising Music remastered
reissues…Wendy Bannister: “We have two of the big original 1971 tour posters
left (with a slightly larger tear than the ones we sold through your site for
£75) for only £45.” Anyone interested should email Wendy on info@rockmusicmemorabilia.com
or phone 01954 268088…Vivid Entertainment plans to release what it says is a
film from the vaults of classic rock: a sex film supposedly of Jimi Hendrix. The film shows a naked
man who resembles Hendrix, but his full face appears on screen for only a few
seconds, with his eyes closed. The film has no audio, but the DVD includes
commentary from two women who believe the tape is real: Pamela Des Barres and Cynthia
Plaster Caster, who says “I’m 100 percent sure
it’s him. The facial bone structure is the same. The eyebrows and the moustache
are true to the style he was wearing in 1970.”…Ray Scherr and Steve Vai are the Executive Producers
of Crazy, a new independent feature
film inspired by the tragic life and music of 1950s-era guitarist Hank Garland. Steve performs a cameo as
Hank Williams…2007 saw the release
of Tony Palmer’s All My Loving DVD. Now, available for
the first time, his All You Need Is Love
has made its DVD debut as a lavish boxed set containing all 17 episodes of the
TV series on 5 discs. This includes interviews with some of the major names of
the past 50+ years including John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elvis Presley, Jimi
Hendrix, Tina Turner, Bill Graham, FZ and Eric Clapton. the mighty Paul StatusBaby asked Tony about the chances of 200 Motels coming out on DVD. And this
is what he said: “Keep your fingers crossed - we
are doing our best! We have now found the master tapes, so are looking into the
potential contractual problems.” Any extras? “We are still
examining the material, but there might well be an interview with me about the film’s
origins, if only to dispel some of the garbage that has been written about what
actually happened, usually by people who were not there.”…German
label, Promising Music, has gained access to a range of more than 400 titles of
the MPS catalogue and has remastered and reissued Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris’s Got
The Blues and George Duke’s Faces In Reflection. They may also
reissue George’s I Love the Blues, She
Heard My Cry (featuring Ruth Underwood, Bruce & Tom Fowler, Janet
Ferguson and Johnny “Guitar” Watson), The
Aura Will Prevail (featuring Echidna’s Arf and Uncle Remus), Feel (featuring FZ), and Liberated Fantasies (featuring Napi).
The CDs are packaged in downsize replicas of original LP, with inner sleeves,
an extra booklet with legible reprints of liner notes…I Believe In Music: The History Of The Gross Prophet is a 50-track,
double CD collection featuring tracks recorded by Gross Prophet members before,
during and after their time in the band (1962–1999). The band’s prime line-up
included bassist/vocalist Gerald Sanders of the Tornadoes. The collection
(which includes the FZ-engineered Tornadoes’ track Moon Dawg) has been put together by Greg Russo (with Gerald’s help)
and will be available from Crossfire Publications in May. If you haven’t
checked out the two Tornadoes CDs that Greg put together (Now And Then and Charge Of
The Tornadoes), visit the Crossfire site for more info now…Bright Eye
Pictures has two new DVD releases: Prometheus’
Garden (28 minutes, 1988) is the only film over which Bruce Bickford maintained complete creative control. The DVD
features a commentary track by Bickford, an alternate score by Laird Dixon, and
the half hour documentary featurette, Luck
Of A Foghorn: The Making Of Bruce Bickford’s Prometheus’ Garden, directed
by Brett Ingram. The other is an exclusive release of the new Monster Road “Collector’s Edition” DVD,
featuring a DVD-9 encode for superior image quality, plus the movie soundtrack
by Shark Quest and 15 additional minutes (45 min. total) of extras, including
rare Bickford animation and deleted scenes from the documentary…got a very
sweet email from Frank’s brother, Charles
Robert “Bob” Zappa: “I have been reading - and enjoying - material on your
web site for quite some time and would like to thank you for keeping Frank’s
memory alive for so many of his fans,” he wrote. Guess that makes me Zappa
Family approved? Bob has written a book (Frankie
and Me: Growing Up ZAPPA), but it’s still out on submissions and has not
yet been sold…Claude Nobs and Perry Richardson have just published four
hardback books – Live! From Montreux: 40
Years Of Music From The Montreux Jazz Festival – that include many photos
from the 1971 casino fire…Guitar Center’s Fresh
Cuts Volume 1 CD, featuring Guitar Center employees & more, includes Magic Carolina by Dweezil Zappa, seemingly an excerpt from a ZPZ show of the segue
between two songs by his daddy. Get it on eBay today…in 2007, Marty Smyth released an album of tunes
played on a church organ, called Synchronous,
that includes Peaches En Regalia (http://www.martysmyth.ca/Listen/A39642BC-30AB-49D2-BA57-C54A30CFA358.html)...like
father like son: Dweezil’s version of the mighty Zep’s Stairway To Heaven can be heard on three new-ish releases: Led Box: The Ultimate Tribute To Led
Zeppelin (2008, Cleopatra Records); Rock
Band Classics (2008, Deadline); and Classic
Rock Masters (2008, Deadline). Sounds like Axl Rose on the out-chorus…Pamela Des Barres is “looking for
former groupies or modern girls still hanging with bands for an upcoming doc
based on my last book, Let’s Spend the
Night Together. The bands have to be very well known, sorry! Please send me
a brief note about your exploits,” she asks…watch George Clinton’s P-Funk All Stars rip into I’m The Slime on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bqf2mPoOns
(thanks to The Amazing Mr Bickerton for that)…Steve Vai has contributed a previously unreleased song to the Musicians For Minneapolis - 57 Songs for the
I-35W Bridge Disaster Relief Effort benefit CD. Without Me is a soaring ballad originally recorded during the Ultra Zone sessions, and features Philip Bynoe on bass, Mike Mangini on drums and Mike Keneally on keyboards…get the
latest DVD (or CD) from Robert Martin
here: http://www.lookgreatnakedatanyage.com/...Phish has released a live album (old
recording: Vegas 96) that includes
their version of Peaches En Regalia…eaders
of T’Mershi Duween may recall Bruno MacDonald (also of The Amazing Pudding Floyd ‘zine)? Well,
he’s written a book with Robert Dimery called Rock & Roll Heaven (Quintet Books) – about musical icons who
have joined the great gig in the sky…including FZ. Read it and weep.…the artist
formerly known as L Shankar is now Shenkar. His self-produced solo
release for Big Deal Records was released on 25 September 2007 and features
guest artists and musicians such as Patrick Leonard, Natasha Bedingfield, Wendy
& Lisa and former Pussycat Doll, Ana Maria…after Zappa Plays Zappa Phaze
II, Dweezil went back to What The Hell Was I Thinking?, “a project I was hoping to finish last year,
after working on it for 14 years. It’s a continuous piece of music that’s also
a 75-minute audio movie featuring 35 different guest guitar players. It’s a
‘Guinness Book’ sort of thing, I guess.” Hoop-la! Meanwhile, Dweezil can be
heard on the soundtrack to the film, Gracie,
playing a song called Bad Intensions
(not the Dr Dre song, one
assumes?). The film, set in 1978, sounds like a Gregory’s Girl/Bend It Like
Beckham teenage girl plays footie type thing...trumpet player Malcolm McNab, who toured with both
Grand & Petit Wazoos, released his first solo album last year, entitled Exquisite - The Artistry of Malcolm McNab,
which includes a cover of The Be-Bop
Tango featuring (among others), Earle
Dumler on bass oboe, Bruce Fowler
on trombone, Ruth Underwood on
marimba and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums...okay,
this didn’t make it onto my CD,
but this entry into WFMU’s Sixty Second Song Remix contest is well worth a
listen: http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/2007/01/one/General_Assembly_-_Idiot_Son.mp3...spiffing
news from Mike Keneally: Vai Piano Reductions Vol. 2 is underway.
“We’ve settled on a list of songs for me
to tackle and I’ve started work on arranging Love Secrets for solo piano.
Wicked.” Indeed. If you haven’t got the first volume, what you waiting for,
godammit?...
…just in case you visit the foot of the page first, click this pic to
order this new FZ DVD. Weirdo…
21 BURNT WEENY SANDWICHES –
coming soon!
Contact: disco.boy@blueyonder.co.uk