Kill Ugly Radio: Frank Zappa & Elsewhere

Posted in Heh Heh, Music, YouTubery | 5 Comments »

Strange what one finds on YouTube…Is it jazz, or is it big band, or is it porn? Or is it Big Band Jazz Porn? You decide…

Posted in Bizarre, Heh Heh, Miscellany, Music, YouTubery | 9 Comments »

What is it about the music and lyrics of Tom Waits that popular culture has clung to so heartily? Has he touched upon something deep within our common unconscious, like some dimestore novel from which we are all characters?

And we’re all behaving like dogs…

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(via)

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It’s been a bit of a busy week for me, fellow fen! However, here’s some stuff that didn’t pass by my radar unnoticed:

• In Japan, this and that hits the streets. Says Thomas Marrot: “the plot happens in Frank Zappa Street where human and animal characters live together in a “funky & pop” city.”
• A Zappa Music Map
• Soundpainting: “the live composing sign language created by New York composer Walter Thompson for musicians, dancers, actors, poets, and visual artists working in the medium of structured improvisation.”
  A bunch of clips, again via Thomas:
  • one, two, three, four
  • More on Soundpainting…
• Some books we ordered from Amazon.co.uk finally arrived!
  • American Gods — Neil Gaiman
  • The Bin Ladens — Steve Coll
  • Born Standing Up — Steve Martin
• Armed America — portraits of gun owners in their homes.
• Painting elephant — this is nothing short of mesmerizing.

.. and then there’s this:

…have a great weekend!…

Posted in Miscellany, Music, Pop Cult, YouTubery | 19 Comments »

I was recently arranging and updating my personal MySpace profile page when I came across these two video gems: Frank Zappa’s “Watermelon in Easter Hay” live with Mike Keneally and the rest of the 1988 band, and The Mike Keneally Band live performing “My Dilemma”.

Frank Zappa: Watermelon In Easter Hay

Mike Keneally

Posted in Frank Zappa, Mike Keneally, Music, YouTubery | 5 Comments »

It’s Wednesday, hump-day, and you are no doubt in need of something special to get you through those mid-week doldrums (perhaps brought on by a certain vaultmeister’s recent non answer). So, here’s Jim Dandy to the rescue, so to speak, with Black Oak Arkansas‘ “Hot ‘n Nasty” followed by “Lord Have Mercy On My Soul (Halls of Karma)”. I don’t think anyone can possibly view these two videos, the first especially, without realizing where Van Halen got much of its stage act.

Posted in Bizarre, Music, Pop Cult, YouTubery | 13 Comments »

Barry and I had a very interesting discussion the other day concerning why some Zappa fans also become big Captain Beefheart fans, while some do not. The crux of the biscuit, so to speak, comes down to Beefheart’s appeal, lyrically, since both Frank Zappa and Don Van Vliet are appealing musically. For example, I offer the following live version of Bat Chain Puller from the French Chorus TV show in 1980 (I suggest you turn it up loud, too):

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Recorded August 25, 1985, here’s yet another classic Zappa TV appearance that takes us back to the days of the PMRC and “porn rock”. Part one consists mostly of introductory stuff, so let’s skip right to part two:

…part three, part four (yes, there are four parts!)

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music, Politics, YouTubery | 18 Comments »

We interrupt this program for a bit of nostalgia for the old European folk (preferably of the French persuasion).

Over the weekend Sharl and I watched Podium — wait, let me rephrase that. Over the weekend I gently persuaded Sharl to join me in watching Podium. Now before you get any weird ideas, Podium is a comedy about a Claude François imitator whose main character is played by Benoît Poelvoorde of Man Bites Dog fame.

Now who is this Claude François character, I hear you ask. Well, behold:

That’s CloClo performing the classic Alexandrie/Alexandra for you, somewhere back in the late 70s. Pretty shocking for those Young Sophisticates among you, I imagine. Yet I need only hear the beginning notes of that tune and BOOM — there I am: barely 10 years old, fresh out of the bath, hair neatly combed, gushing over those background dansers also known as Les Claudettes. Everything, needless to say, was much better in the seventies. Yes? (No? Discuss.)

Anyway, back on topic: imagine our surprise when during the end credits of Podium, this pops up:

To be fair, it was Sharl who spotted this. It was I who freeze-framed the screen and took the picture. But hey, see that? In their “thank you” list, they actually include Frank Zappa! One can’t but wonder why…

Moving on, here’s another tune that you may actually be familiar with:

Pfeh, a My Way cover, you shrug? Quite the opposite.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Movies, Music, Pop Cult, YouTubery | 30 Comments »