Kinda Young, Kinda Dead…

In doing my thesis research (which will include a chapter on You Are What You Is), I stumbled across the discussion of “Charlie’s Enormous Mouth” over at the ARF.ru website, which had this comment:

Fuck ME. I remember the Charlie fragrance commercials, but I don’t remember kinda young kinda wow. I was real young so I dont doubt it.
I always suspected that Charlie’s Enormous Mouth was a riff on the “Charlie” fragrance because “Charlie” referred to a woman name in both cases. (For the non-English speaking, Charlie is usually a nickname for Charles, a mans name, and rarely used for Charlene or any other female variant).

In this day and age of vintage commercials being posted on YouTube for nostalgic purposes, I was able to find a 1973 ad for the Charlie fragrance…

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I find FZ’s work to be endlessly rewarding to the astute listener.

Interview With Michael Bruce – The Original Alice Cooper Group

Recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the other original members of the Alice Cooper GroupMichael Bruce was the band’s guitarist, keyboard player and backing vocalist. In an exclusive interview by Nightwatcher for Nightwatcher’s House of Rock, Michael Bruce talks about his experiences as a member of the Alice Cooper Group (for the Zappa/Mother of Invention fan, though, one will find a lot of interesting historically relevant information – both in the interview, and on Michael Bruce’s website):
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The Cardiacs in Rehearsal

Long before I had began writing and posting here at KUR, one of the many things which had attracted me to this weblog (and frankly, still does, years later) was all the new music I was exposed to on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis (via posts, comments, and various emails from band publicists throughout the world).
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Zappa Jam Site Re-opens on Facebook

The old Zappa Internet Jam has a new address on Facebook, here.

The old Zappa Internet Jam was a great place, but times change. Much has happened in the last few weeks and well so it looks we have done a job on our new site on Facebook. It is finally up and going to the point where it is now operational. Check it out.

We would love to hear responses, what you think.

A lot of great old stuff will be posted there soon and we encourage you to post new ones. Download the tunes, add your comments, ask questions or share advice with our musicians community and also, this is your new chance to submit your music for feedback straight to the people that matter, and you can interact on comments and more.

To upload your music first time to the new system: please login with your Facebook account, or register a Facebook-less account. You can upload a maximum of three tracks in any 30 day period. When you upload a track to us, it will be online automatically. Anyone can share your music with friends on and outside Facebook, but only the best ones will be posted to our Zappa community wall.

We will now be welcoming you back.

-Zappa Internet Jam Team


As always, the Zappa Jam Site is a wonderful source of excellent new Zappa covers. I give their new FB Jam Site a thundering endorsement!

Owsley Stanley, 1935-2011

Owsley Stanley died in an automobile accident on March 13 in Australia, where he had been living.

Besides being known to Zappaphiles as a reference in “Who Needs The Peace Corps?”, Mr. Stanley was best known for his work as an amateur chemist, providing his wonder-tonic for the likes of The Beatles and The Grateful Dead. We also have Mr. Stanley to thank for the Dead’s skull logo and served as the inspiration for the group’s dancing bear logos.

We remain vigilant in learning if documents will be released revealing whether or not Mr. Owsley was indeed a CIA man.

The ESO plays Zappa

Almost eight weeks ago I learnt that one of The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra‘s 2010-11 Symphony Specials would be a performance of Frank Zappa compositions by a rock group fronted by two Zappa alumni – Ed Mann and Ike Willis – and backed by the ESO on Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 at 7:30pm at Edmonton’s Enmax Hall in the Winspear Centre (see above).
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Sunday Big Note – Listening Session #12

I’m certain each of us has our own personal experience in relation to Pink Floyd‘s masterpiece, Dark Side of the Moon. The band itself had conceived the album as a concept reflecting themes such as conflict, greed, the passage of time, death, and insanity. Indeed, the album struck such a universal chord during those early years of the 1970s, both the band and the public having witnessed the death of the idealism borne of the 1960s and the emerging cynicism of the 1970s, the tracks of Dark Side of the Moon were a sort of common recognition of a shared humanity. Perhaps, at very least, that’s why the album “remained in the charts for 741 weeks from 1973 to 1988, longer than any other album in history.”
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Paul Buff’s Pal And Original Sound Studio Archives: The Collection

This just in by way of Andrew – from Crossfire Publications:

During 2010, Crossfire rolled out 35 download volumes (a total of 417 tracks) from Paul Buff’s archives of Pal and Original Sound recordings. Many of you wanted lossless files rather than MP3s, so we’ve gone and done it!

So what’s the deal?

We’re offering the entire 35-volume set of recordings as WAV files along with a large, 138-page PDF featuring Greg Russo and Paul Buff’s historical liner notes, photos and credits. The whole thing comes on a flash drive. Of course, all of the tracks that feature Frank Zappa as a performer, writer, producer or engineer are part of this set. Not only that, you also get 56 bonus tracks (two featuring Zappa) that were not part of the series. All of these bonus tracks were discovered and/or remastered after the series was completed, and you have to buy the entire set to get them.

The Collection, a total of 473 tracks, is $350 US for the flash drive (including shipping). Order yours here.

Sunday Big Note – Listening Session #11

The choice of this week’s Sunday Big Note was an easy one as it is also one of our webmaster’s favorites as well. Indeed, it put a smile on my face to learn that he had this very recording in his own private collection for a long time now. On Friday, October 22nd, 2010, in his post entitled “Hey Nineteen“, Barry said:
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