Leonard Cohen Live In London

At Pitchfork tv, for one week only, watch an integral recording of Leonard Cohen live in London:

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Check the playlist to the right of the page for links to all 26 songs.
Hat tip: Houbi.com

In other news, Moon Unit goes semi-nekkid in next month’s German edition of Playboy (via IBS). Just thought I’d throw that in for added contrast. 🙂

Warren Cuccurullo: Playing In Tongues

We here at Barfko-Swill are pleased to begin our digital release schedule (that includes FZ, DZ & other artists) with Warren Cuccurullo’s Playing In Tongues. And speaking of Playing In Tongues this is the launch of releases available through Barfko-Swill in 256 Kbps & FLAC formats. How you like it.

With Terry Bozzio on drums. You can order it here, listen samples from it here, read about it (history and all) here. Warren adds:

and here’s the BIG news… this disc contains a never before recorded piece of music by frank zappa…”recollection”, a 14 chord progression that was part of my 1978 zappa audition is now a ZFT approved new work by fz…

Zappanale (Then & Now) — Bogus Pomp

Bogus Pomp began in August, 1994, when guitarist Jerry Outlaw and keyboardist Rick Olson got together for some informal jamming. It started out as a quartet  (Jerry Outlaw: guitar, vocals – Rick Olson: keyboard – Alex Pasut: bass – Tom Mccowan: drums), but quickly grew to a 10 piece ensemble. The Bogus Pomp Orchestra consists of Bogus Pomp (the 10-piece electric band), plus a 15-piece chamber ensemble. They’re based in Tampa Bay, Florida, USA.

The band has performed concerts with New York Big Band leader Ed Palermo, and in 1998 and 1999 performed with Zappa alumni, Ike Willis. Since October 1999, Napoleon Murphy Brock has been a permanent member.

In the clip above, performing as the “Bogus Pomp Semi-Acoustic Orchestra” feat. Napoleon Murphy Brock at the St. Katharinen church in Hamburg, Germany, on August 13th, 2008 (organized by the Arf Society and opener for Zappanale 2008), the band performs “The Idiot George Bush Son” and “Sleep Dirt”.

Click here to download or listen to German radio broadcast of this Hamburg concert (It’s well worth the listen).

Other Bogus Pomp downloads:

BOGUS POMP with THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA and IKE WILLIS (New Music Series, Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, Florida, January 16th, 1999)

BOGUS POMP, Live on WMNF 88.5 FM Radio in Tampa Florida, February 7th, 
2008

BOGUS POMP at THE SKIPPER DOME

Bogus Pomp appeared at Zappanale 15 and 19.

Zappanale (Then & Now) — DBRK


From the DBRK MySpace page:

DBRK is a Parisian collective of obedience “Fun First” composed of amateurs and professionals musicians. Real Cover Band, DBRK revisits the work of artists from the sixties to the eighties according to a basic principle: to explore each title must seduce each of the 9 members of the collective. It’s repertoire ranges from David Bowie to Frank Zappa, through Patti Smith, Bob Marley, Roxy Music, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Joy Division, Jimi Hendrix, The Fall, The Wolfgang Press, Brian Eno, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, Wire, Robert Wyatt, Martin Circus, Cream, John Lennon, Genesis, Nick Cave, etc… The commercial potential is not the main objective of DBRK, so do not you cross animating a wedding or a bar mitzvah, though… In a wink to Zappa, DBRK means: Delicious Band Research Kitchen.

In the first clip, DBRK performs a fantastic jazz-infused version of “Uncle Remus” live in Paris at the “Les Fils de l’Invention” FZ festival on July 5, 2008 (now my favorite version of this Zappa/Duke composition). In the second clip, they perform “Wino Man”.

Click here to catch up on the other goings on in Paris, in general, and in France, in particular (a pretty lively bunch of Zappa freaks, I must say). It’s entirely in French, so you’ll need to translate the page (use babelfish)

DBRK performed at ZAPPANALE 19.

Zappanale (Then & Now) — Gong

Perhaps it’s the French attitude towards music and musical groups, yet I find the sheer number of incarnations that the band Gong has gone through to be truly amazing. Just imagine if each member of the original Mothers of Invention decided to start their own version of the Mothers after Frank called to tell them he was breaking up the band (then you’ll get an idea).

Gong is a progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen in 1967, after Allen—then a member of Soft Machine—was denied entry to the United Kingdom because of a visa complication. Allen remained in France where he and a London-born Sorbonne professor, Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of the band.

While the “Classic Gong” line-up retired from regular touring in 2001, there have been one-off reunions since, most notably at the “Gong Family Unconvention” (Uncon), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly rooms as a one day event. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here and Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The most recent Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3-5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: classic Gong, System 7, Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake & Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Acid Mothers Gong, Slack Baba, Kangaroo Moon and many others.

In June 2008, Gong played a concert in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank, opening for Massive Attack’s Meltdown festival, with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy, Mike Howlett, Chris Taylor and Theo Travis among the lineup (see clip above).

Click on Parts 2/3/4/5/6 for additional excerpts from the June 14th, 2008 show at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Gong will be performing at Zappanale 20.

Zappanale (Then & Now) – The Grande Mothers



Between now and August 16th, 2009, the start of Zappanale’s 20th Jubilee, I am going to feature both past and present participants of Zappanale, beginning with The Grande Mothers.

The Grande Mothers feature Zappa alumni, Napoleon Murphy Brock (lead vocals, tenor sax, woodwinds and choreography), Don Preston (vocals, keyboards and transformations), and Roy Estrada (vocals, bass and pachuco falsetto), along with musicians Chris Garcia (drums, percussion and vocals) and Miroslav Tadic (electric guitar and all the difficult Zappa licks). Over the last few years they have toured to enthusiastic audiences in the US, Canada, Great Britain, as well as various stops in West and Eastern Europe showcasing their special blend of musical mayhem, virtuosic playing, bizarre humor, and as always, their playful love of the music, itself, and each other. And the feeling is contagious and infectious (or so was the sensation when they performed in my little neck of the woods last year).

Just don’t just take my word for it, though. Listen to the interview with the group (first clip). Watch them perform “Pygmy Twylyte” at the Pacific Road Arts Centre, Birkenhead, UK on the 12th March 2008 (second clip). Or perform “Peaches en Regalia” at the Sugar Nightclub for Victoria’s JazzFest ’08.

If those aren’t enough to convince you, click here, here, and here.

Whatever Happened To Dale Bozzio?

We know she’s always been a wild one, however lately things have gone rather awry:

Prompted by calls from concerned neighbors, a police officer entered Bozzio’s home on October 12, 2008. […] Inside the home, the officer found “feces in every corner of the residence,” but no food or water. “I located a cat leg bone on the floor in the kitchen, the flesh of which appeared to have been consumed by the other cats,” documented the officer. “I took as many pictures as possible before I was forced out of the residence by the overwhelming odor from inside.”

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 21.

Madrugada — Discordant Sounds from EU

Madrugada – Majesty

Madrugada (which in Spanish and Portuguese and means “dawn”, “the blue hour” and was suggested to the band by poet/writer friend Øystein Wingaard Wolf) is a Norwegian rock band formed in 1995 hailing from a little place called Stokmarknes in Vesteraalen. The band’s members include Frode Jacobsen (bass), Sivert Høyem (vocals) and Robert BurÃ¥s (guitar).

On July 12, 2007, guitarist Robert Burås was found dead in his apartment in Oslo. He was 31 years old.

A new, self-titled album was released on January 21st 2008 after having released the single “Look Away Lucifer” on December 10, 2007. All tracks of the album were recorded before Robert BurÃ¥s died. After his death, they continued recording the album to honour Robert. In the spring of 2008, Madrugada embarked on a tour throughout Europe and Norway, playing material from the Madrugada album as well as material from previous albums. In late October 2008, their farewell tour began. The 11th and final concert of their last tour was held in a sold out Oslo Spektrum November 15, 2008.

Madrugada always surprised me with their anti-love songs and their thought provoking lyrics (check out the videos, “Majesty” and “Look Away Lucifer”, respectively), as well as their often discordant music (which any Mother’s fan cannot help but enjoy). Unfortunately, I discovered them too late to ever see them live, though.

Zappa Books

The purpose of this site is to provide a little help to those that are looking for written material about Frank Zappa.

This is just a reminder for all of us about this amazing site called Zappa Books. The layout of the page has changed and some new features were added: you can leave your comments and rate books. It’s full of FZ-related articles, scans, whatever – extremely rich material, it even includes Bryan Beller’s article on Alien Orifice’s bass line (Steve, do you hear me?).

Thanks, afka.net, keep up the good work!

Zappa Versus the Packard Goose

It’s easy to understand where FZ got his distaste of rock ‘n roll (and music) writers from — just read some the reviews of his albums and concerts, here.

On the other hand, though FZ wasn’t known as a very avid reader of books, he did publicly recite “The Talking Asshole” excerpt from William S. Burroughs’ seminal novel, Naked Lunch:

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