Friday Mix: Tweezer Glint – Part Two

Welcome to this second KUR mix of four, presented on four consecutive Fridays in May, entitled “Friday Mix: Tweezer Glint (Studio-ized Concert Versions) Part II“.

Parts Three and Four will be posted on consecutive Fridays this May 22nd and 29th, respectively.

Click here to listen to the mixtape. Enjoy.

The Jimmy Carl Black Story — Jon Larsen

jon_larsen_-_the_jimmy_carl_black_story

Recorded prior to Jimmy’s passing from cancer in 2008, The Jimmy Carl Black Story is a double CD from Jon Larsen‘s label, Zonic Entertainment/Hot Club Records. Joined by Zappa alumni Tommy Mars (keyboards), along with Knut Reiersrud (guitar/harmonica), Ola Kvernberg (violin), Rob Waring (marimba) and Jon Larsen (guitar) — the first CD is “Part One: The Surrealistic Space Odyssey”, one hour of music inspired by Jimmy’s life:

The music is groove based R&B, laidback spacerock, and zappaesque jazz/rock, and even with some glimpses of Django. Here is also the 20 minutes adventure of Capt. Zurcon and his crew onboard the Spaceship BigEar III, on their way to the red planet Mars, and their problems with the sexually frustrated Martian (the Guacamole Queen), the mutant fromage, and a lurking whale (depicted on the cover).

The second disc is “Part Two: “The Rockumentary”, an 80 minute documentary about the “Indian of the group”. We hear about Jimmy’s start at the reservation, growing up in Texas with a racist father, The Soul Giants, Frank Zappa, The Mothers of Invention, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, mafia connections, and years of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, but also moving stories from a long, and unusual life in music. Jimmy Carl Black is the born storyteller. An intriguing and unique addition to the oral history of rock music, with an insider’s view of life in the “Mothers”. Jimmy’s stories have a measured, thinking-out-loud quality to them as he remembers details and clarifies contradictions among seemingly muddled recollections. A must have in any Mothers of Invention collection.

Jimmy Carl Black has always held a special place among fans of the original Mothers, myself included. Jimmy might not have been the most successful of musicians, yet he always managed to live the life of a true troubadour. In his own words: “I’m famous, but I don’t have a pot to piss in,” he was fond of saying.

Although famous for his avant-garde work with Zappa, he was really more of a roots musician and worked extensively in blues, Tex-Mex, and country-rock. He came from a generation of musicians for whom working in a rock & roll band meant playing for strippers, four or five sets per night with more than one version of “Wooly Bully.”

For Black, being impoverished wasn’t just a private matter. His former boss, Zappa, had recorded band meetings and arguments, inevitably about money and the lack of it, and had edited these spoken word bits into several Mothers releases. But no matter how hard times became, Black always remained involved in some kind of musical project … He moved around the Western United States, almost always having to work at some job other than music in order to survive and support his five children.

Always an inspiration, Jimmy’s life seemed as deeply rooted as the blues he sang and played so well.

The following excerpts from The Jimmy Carl Black Story:

Hi Boys And Girls, I’m Jimmy Carl Black
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Hi Boys And Girls.mp3]

California In 1964-In Walked Roy Estrada-The Soul Giants
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/California In 1964-In Walked Roy Estrada-The Soul Giants.mp3]

Then We Went To Hawaii-LSD
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Then We Went To Hawaii-LSD.mp3]

Back To L.A-Frenchy’s A Go-Go-The Original Suzy Creamcheeze
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Back To La-Frenchy’s A Go-Go-The Original Suzy Creamcheese.mp3]

New York City-Absolutely Free-Off-Off-Broadway At The Garrick Theatre
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/New York City-Absolutely Free-Off-Off-Broadway At The Garrick Theater.mp3]

Miami Pop Festival-Freak Out at the Cast Away Hotel-Arthur Brown
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Miami Pop Festival.mp3]

Note: if we are infringing on anyone’s copyright, contact KUR and we’ll remove the offending material.

Captain Beefheart — Revisited


A couple of my favorite Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band videos, “I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby” (The Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot, 1972) and “Hard Working Man” (Dust Blows Forward – Anthology, 1999) — and a reminder to revisit Barry’s Monday, September 29th, 2008 post of BBC’s documentary on The Captain, narrated by the late great John Peel. Click here.

Ban(ne)d From Utopia — Stuttgart, 1994


In the summer of 1994, promoters from the Jazz Open festival in in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany, contacted the Fowler Brothers.

Chad Wackerman interview at Idiot Bastard:

The Fowler Brothers [Tom & Bruce] got a call from a festival in Stuttgart to play a set of Zappa music. This became the Banned From Utopia. I was called at the last minute to be a guest, so I played a couple of tunes with them at the festival. We then went into the studio and recorded various Zappa tunes and originals over a five year period, and the result was the CD, So Yuh Don’t Like Modern Art.

Agreeing to the project at the last minute, the ten members of Band From Utopia formed for and headlined the 1994 festival. The concert was recorded on 32 track mobile digital and also filmed for broadcast on german television (from which the above clips, “The Illinois Enema Bandit” and “Be-Bop Tango” were recorded). This was the first time all of these musicians collectively had taken the same stage at the same time.

Other tracks such as “I Ain’t Got No Heart“, “Zombie Woof” and “Yo Cats” are available as fan videos (audio only).

Parts of their Jazz Open performance are available on DVD, while a more complete performance is available on CD.

The Ban(ne)d From Utopia are:

Ike Willis – guitars, vocals
Bruce Fowler – trombone
Kurt McGettrick – baritone sax
Bobby Martin – tenor sax, keyboards, vocals
Tommy Mars – piano, keyboards, vocals
Tom Fowler – violin, bass
Arthur Barrow – bass, guitar, vocals
Ed Mann – vibes, percussion
Jay Dittamo – drums
Chad Wackerman – drums, percussion

Note: Their name, The Band From Utopia, eventually morphed into Banned From Utopia.

Update (11/05/09): Thanks to Andrew for enlightening me on the difference between the CD (that contains 15 tracks from the festival) and the DVD (which only replicates three on the CD). Thus the DVD is not a complete performance.

Friday Mix: Tweezer Glint – Part One

Approximately a month ago, Barry, our intrepid webmaster, passed on several suggestions for future KUR Mixtapes for me to consider. One such suggestion, from LRonHoover, was to compile concert versions of studio-ized solos. Quite the challenge, I thought, given Frank Zappa’s penchant for using live concert material in the majority of his albums (for instance, Joe’s Garage alone is made up almost entirely of tracks culled from live shows).

So, I spent most of April, and the first week of May, cross-referencing Zappa’s studio albums with my own collection of field recordings and bootlegs. The result is a four part compilation, starting today, entitled “Friday Mix: Tweezer Glint (Studio-ized Concert Versions) Part I“.

Parts Two, Three, and Four will each be posted on consecutive Fridays this May 15th, 22nd, and 29th, respectively.

Click here to listen to the mixtape.

Frank Zappa — Composer & Guitarist

In the above clip, an audio interview circa 1984, Frank Zappa talks about soloing on the guitar, his attitudes toward live performances, and his relationship with his audience (listen closely at the 7:05 point for a relevant opinion of Frank’s regarding the performing of his solos “note for note”). Quite enlightening.

In the clips below, a radio documentary about Frank Zappa’s bizarre relationship with Jazz, culled from various sources and interviews (some with Zappa himself, just before his passing) with various alumni (Arthur Barrow, Adrian Belew, Mike Brecker, George Duke, Bruce Fowler, Ralph Humphrey, Tommy Mars, Patrick O’Hearn and Don Preston), entitled, albeit, ironically “Jazz From Hell” (presented by Charles Shaar Murray for Jazz File, BBC Radio 3).

News of the initial broadcast caused a hubbub, of sorts, among a sinister group of listeners of Jazz File who, euphemistically, referred to themselves as “The Friends Of Radio 3” or “FoR3” who were up in arms over the station’s decision to devote an edition of Jazz File to Zappa’s work:

“If they put Frank Zappa on,” a FoR3 spokesperson warns direly, “they are likely to alienate jazz fans the way they have classical fans.”

Actually, it’s worse than FoR3 feared. The Zappa special in question, Jazz From Hell, which [Murray] wrote and will present, takes up three Jazz File programmes on successive Saturdays. That’s three occasions on which unsuspecting listeners risk exposure to Zappa’s unique musical universe. And all at the taxpayers’ expense!


Click here to read Charles Shaar Murray’s response to the hubbub his audio documentary stirred up.

Note: In order for this documentary to be allowed to be uploaded to YouTube, most of the FZ music had to be removed first. The original poster, ‘fruhko’, apologizes for the uneven editing, but the content is there. This editing also accounts for the shortened time duration.

Mothers Night: A Ten Hour Marathon

Rich of another Ugly Radio writes:

We are doing a ten hour marathon of The Mothers on Portland OR station KBOO this Friday night starting at 8pm (PST). That’s right, it’s time once again to remember our Mothers. Of course we mean The Mothers of Invention. Frank Zappa’s seminal band of renegade freaks and musical experimentalists. Bizarre and hilarious indigenous “folk” music, borne of the denizens of the streets of 1960s Los Angeles and El Monte.

Join us FRIDAY, MAY 8TH from 8:00 pm until 6:00 am. Featuring rare live performances, “incidents”, interviews, and special Mothers gifts for those who decide to become a MEMBER of Community Radio KBOO during the broadcast.

Folks around the world can listen in on the web at www.kboo.fm/listen.
Some highlights from last year.