It always strikes me as unusual when Frank Zappa actually states that a concert is going to be a very long one – like the The Palladium show on October 31st, 1978:
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Category: Official Releases
Supertramp – Crisis? What Crisis?
One of the most overlooked albums of the 1970s, in my opinion, is Supertramp‘s 1975 release ‘Crisis? What Crisis?‘ which was often relegated to the bargain bins of record stores. I’ve never understood why progressive rock fans weren’t more accepting of this album. It definitely deserves more accolades than it has received.
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Zappa & Beefheart – The Torture Never Stops (Bongo Fury Tour 1975)
In his 1975 Bongo Fury Tour with Frank Zappa‘s band, Captain Beefheart delivers his blues-infused vocals in what I feel is the quintessential version of “The Torture Never Stops” (part one, above; part two, below). I’ve heard other vocalists sing this song, but besides the Zappa sung version, only Don Van Vliet ever truly made this song his own. I’ve always wondered why this version wasn’t released on ‘Bongo Fury‘ and then released so late (almost like an afterthought) on ‘You Can Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 4‘ and ‘Cheap Thrills‘?
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Gary Lucas on Captain Beefheart
Filmed at the Swiss Cottage Hotel, London, September 2005, from the 2006 DVD documentary “Captain Beefheart: Under Review” (Prism Productions), Gary Lucas discusses working with Captain Beefheart in the early 80s, and the making of the track “Cardboard Cutout Sundown” from the 1982 Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band album “Ice Cream for Crow”, and explains Don Van Vliet‘s “Exploding Note Theory”.
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First Roxy, Then Son Of Roxy
Mike Keneally Interview & Video
Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a big fan of Mike Keneally. His music is so utterly different from anything else that each and every listening is indeed a delight. When his early recordings (which were long out-of-print) were made available for download, believe me, I scooped them up. The words progressive and eclectic only begin to describe this musical renaissance man.
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Zappa & Beefheart, Radio KWST, 1975
To promote the only album they ever made together – Bongo Fury – Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa put together a promotional documentary of their musical lives and times. It contained some obscure material, early collaborations, demos, proto and live versions, as well as official releases. It was broadcast by KWST and other radio stations in the US, on October 1st, 1975 (the day before the official release of their album), and quickly became fodder for bootlegs.
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Philly Cheez
This just in by way of Andrew:
In a very recent interview, Dweezil said a live FZ concert circa 1976 will be released soon featuring Terry Bozzio and “a female singer”. Word is, Vaulternative will issue a CD of the Spectrum Theater in Philadelphia show from 29 October that year. Band was FZ, Bozzio, Ray White, Patrick O’Hearn, Eddie Jobson and Bianca Thornton.
Set list was:
- Purple Lagoon intro
- Stink-Foot
- Poodle Lecture
- Dirty Love
- Wind Up Workin’ In A Gas Station
- Tryin’ To Grow A Chin
- The Torture Never Stops
- City Of Tiny Lites (incl. The Sanzini Brothers Pyramid Trick)
- You Didn’t Try To Call Me
- Manx Needs Women
- Titties ‘N’ Beer
- Black Napkins
- Advance Romance
- Honey, Don’t You Want A Man Like Me?
- Rudy Wants To Buy Yez A Drink
- Would You Go All The Way?
- Daddy Daddy Daddy
- What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are?
- Dinah-Moe Humm
- Purple Lagoon reprise
- Stranded In The Jungle
- Find Her Finer
- Camarillo Brillo
- Muffin Man
- Purple Lagoon outro.
No word on the 40th anniversary edition of Cruisin’ With Ruben yet.
The Loudness War in Modern Audio Mastering
A note by Thinman:
And if you are interested where recent CDs from our beloved composer’s work suffer from [the Loudness War], just listen to Buffalo or Trance-Fusion. I suffer physically when listening to productions of that kind.
See the rest of his entry for details and illustrations – and what Joe Travers had answered:
Well critics, here’s the deal. In the case of “Trance-Fusion”- we sent the album master to Bob Ludwig to do final tweeks, but the level on that title was already maxed out by Spence Chrislu. FZ was alive & authorized a final CD ref (I listened to it with him during his last days). So, in other words, FZ knew about it.
In the case of “Buffalo”, Frank Filipetti sent us a finished mix already mastered that way. That is how he works & so there was no additional mastering after the fact. If you don’t like how that sounds, blame it on him.