Kill Ugly Radio: Frank Zappa & Elsewhere

• Hand-picked intimate venues;
• Every attendee will be able to get a free MP3 concert download
within a week of performance;
• Hagstrom guitar giveaway at every show;
• Submit your song requests for each show.

Well, sounds good, if you ask me…

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music, YouTubery, Zappa Plays Zappa | 36 Comments »

A few months back Just a week ago, Andrew Greenaway did an interview with Jimmy Carl Black. Despite health problems, Jimmy’s in good spirits, performing with The Muffin Men and recording with various other artists across Europe. Just one project he’s worked on:

The CD is called The Jimmy Carl Black Story. It is due out anytime. I basically went into the studio one night and told my life story. It took me about one and a half hours to do it. He [Jon Larsen - ed.] then used some blues players from Oslo and also some of the guys from the Strange News CD for the background music.

Jimmy won’t make it to Zappanale this year, but has already set his mind on next year’s edition. Which is cool, since Sharl and I won’t be able to make it there either this year, for reasons that we may well expound upon at a later date. Read the whole article here.

Posted in Frank Zappa, In Writing, Interview, Music, Personal | 11 Comments »

Fraz Knapp came up with a wizard wheeze to follow-up the unqualified success that was the 20 Extraordinary Renditions CD. And Cordelia Records is happy to do the biznis again. So I’m now liaising with 20 artists, asking them to condense the whole of the Burnt Weeny Sandwich album into a 3-5 minute piece - with as much artistic licence as they want. They don’t have to use a bit from every song, but at least something from their fave bits of this wondrous album. Once done, a knob twiddler will concoct a remix of extracts from the 20 resultant pieces to create a whole new 21st interpretation of the BWS album.

From the news section of The Idiot Bastard.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music | No Comments »

I for one would love to see this:

The Open Fist Theatre Company in California will present the world premiere of Joe’s Garage, a new stage production based on the Frank Zappa album of the same name. Directed by Pat Towne, the production will begin previews at the Open Fist Theatre Sept. 18 with an official opening Sept. 26. The limited engagement will run through Nov. 22.

→ Joe’s Garage to Make World Premiere in September

Posted in Frank Zappa, In The News, Music | 21 Comments »

I’m shamefully late in reporting this, however our pal Kevin Hoover writes:

Guess what? There’s a new Zappa show on KHUM debuting Friday night, and I have an introductory post about it on the Crush All Boxes blog. Let’s all get behind Mark Scatchard as he launches Zen of Zappa!

• The Introductory Post
• KHUM 104.3/104.7 FM — Friday nights from 10PM to midnight

Tune in next Friday, why don’t you!

Posted in Community, Frank Zappa, Music | 18 Comments »

One of my favourite FZ tracks has to be Cruising For Burgers — the ZINY version that is. Back in ‘06, he who goes by the name of Magic Fingers had delighted me with a CD consisting of unofficial ‘88-tour CFB Variations for my birthday — the best one ever as birthday parties go, I should add. Bliss.

Fast forward to the present: along comes Muxtape. Urban’s been at it, so has Balint — who am I not to follow suit?

Presenting Eight ‘88 Ways To Cruise For Burgers. Disclaimer: the tracks offered are not downloadable, and have been in tape circulation for years. Enjoy them, and then buy The Real Thing™ — as if you hadn’t already…

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music | 3 Comments »

A few different covers of “Baltimore” - and instead of being “only” covers, being different from the “real” thing, these performances show me the sheer beauty of the melody line itself. And some pretty good musicians. I love these.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music | 13 Comments »

Slated for release next August 4th: Frank Zappa’s Jukebox:

Via The Idiot Bastard.

Posted in Frank Zappa, In The News, Music | 27 Comments »

After spending the good part of the last two weeks packing all my beloved FZ albums, tapes, CDs, (as well as everything else I own) into more boxes than I care to count in preparation for the big move downtown — I decided that the last thing I ought to do before tearing down and packing up the G5 is upload a muxtape of some of my favourite FZ alumni tracks. Click here to check them out. They’ll all be left up until next Friday. See you after the move!

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music | 5 Comments »

It’s been a couple of weeks since La Grande Freak Out came to Paris. Les Fils de l’Invention who organised the event this year, have just published an “incomplete” transcript/draft of the various sessions that took place. Some interesting reading that you may download here (PDF, 852Kb).

Posted in Community, Frank Zappa, In Writing | 1 Comment »