Month: August 2007

Orange Sunshine

Aah the late 60s. Hippies! Summer of love! Groovy music!

LSD.

Check this trailer for an upcoming documentary of The Brotherhood Of Eternal Love, entitled Orange Sunshine:

More about The Brotherhood docu here:

The group’s headquarters, a Laguna Beach head shop called Mystic Arts World, mysteriously burned down in 1970, and two years later, law enforcement indicted several dozen members of the group. Those who weren’t arrested fled overseas. The story of the Brotherhood is one of the strangest chapters of American counter-cultural history, yet 40 years after its inception during the so-called Summer of Love, it’s one that remains little-understood and, outside the confines of Laguna Canyon, all but unknown.

“As one former member — who spoke on the condition of anonymity — told me, ‘If you remember it, you weren’t there.'”

Heh.

Touring Can Make You Crazy

Adrian Belew continues to publish amazing anecdotes on his Elephant Blog. Take anecdote #37 which he dubs The Fourth Day Of My Professional Touring Life. In it, he tells the tale of FZ’s “then-new” tour manager Ron Nehoda:

the morning after our show at the Aladdin Pancho came around 9 AM to pick up the bags. when he got to Ron’s room there was no answer. eventually he had a security person open the door. Ron was sitting quietly in a bathtub full of water and blood. he had slit his wrists. evidently Ron had a serious gambling addiction as well as a taste for coke. he had gotten himself so coked up the night before he had gambled away frank’s earnings from the concert (reportedly about $15,000.00). as they took him from the tub he was still alive. he said to poor Pancho. “I’ll tell you about it later”.

Not so much as an oblique reference to this incident to be found in any of the FZ-books I’ve read. Weird.

The Voice Of Cheese: Mölli & Laoudis

It took a brief interlude, but the VOC is back. Mölli & Laoudis is one of Jari Karjalainen’s pet projects (myspace link). The track — or rather: one of the tracks — he sent in is called “¿Es Rojo?”. Jari says:

I have no idea what I want KUR readers to hear,because it’s all too diverse what’s been coming up on the Voice of Cheese. Mölli & Laoudis might do the trick (both words meaning “jerk, idiot, hillbilly, stupid motherfucker, douchebag” etc., the former in Finnish, the latter in Swedish). “¿Es Rojo?”, with its horrible sound scheme and all, should be played as-is, and everything about it is intentional – even the (arguably) bad quality mp3.

Intriguing eh? Oh, and the mp3 is tagged as Genre: Swing. Thanks for the chuckle, Jari. Have a listen:

[audio:026_Molli_Laoudis_Es_Rojo.mp3]

Like it? Download it.

Incidently: I have exactly two submissions left in store after this, so unless any of you guys ‘n girls send in new tracks, the end of the VOC is imminent.

It’s been a wonderful musical trip so far: 26 quirky tunes you’ll never hear on the radio. Want to keep it going? Send a note with a bit of info and your mp3 attached to killuglyradio [at] gmail [dot] com — don’t forget to put “KUR Reader Music Submission” as the subject line.

Any and all contributions will be posted here — they need not, I repeat need not, carry any Zappaesque influence. Why, I myself have lined up what could be construed as a pretty cheesy track for this series’ Grand Finale. Critics be damned. Anything goes.

Strange News From Mars

Put away your tinfoil helmets, the above title is an album written, arranged and produced by Jon Larsen. Recorded in Los Angeles in March, it features Zappa alumni Tommy Mars, Bruce Fowler, Jimmy Carl Black and Arthur Barrow.

Surrealism is a key word for Larsen, as it was for Zappa himself, and even if the compositions are all Larsen’s, there is no doubt that the spirit of Zappa infuses the album. This is evident in the air of the compositions, but most of all it is the presence of The Mothers of Invention which Larsen eventually gave key roles in the conceptual make up of the record.

Nuggets

Clearing out the inbox a bit…

Now There’s An Auction

“An Incredible Two-Hour Zappa Audio Snack!”

The winning bidder will be allowed an exclusive visit to The Vault at Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK) in Los Angeles, famously, the home of all Frank Zappa Masters. An opportunity to be one of the few insiders in history, but more importantly, you will be the personal guest of Gail Zappa and Joe Travers (…) to tour The Vault and listen to selections of Zappa music that have not been previously released.

Opening Bid: $250.00.
Time Left: 12 days 3 hours 25 minutes.

Frank, Gail & Ravel’s Gardener, Sitting In A Tree

At zappa.com’s forums, Wiki Jawaka contributor Maroual asked a question with regard to the omission of Ravel’s Bolero on TBBYNHIYL, and got an answer — from Gail, no less.

Maroual:

I don’t actually know from an official source why the Bolero had to be removed from TBBYNIYL, do you ? Maybe the ZFT did not want to pay royalties and prefered to remove the track.

Gail:

Interestingly you have used Ravel as an example. Ravel’s Bolero was removed from FZ’s Master in the countries where it was not public domain. We (yeah, I know you trustbusters hate this when I mean me and FRANK) had to ‘post’ a public apology in the newspaper for “perverting” the intent of the composer by FZ’s arrangement and make sure that that the number of copies sold over the course of the following 2 years was limited – when it then went into public domain in the rest of the world. Since Ravel had no progeny his heirs as I recall were related to his gardener and or housekeeper. You live and you learn. — gz

For those who hadn’t heard it yet, here’s FZ’s magnificent version of Ravel’s Bolero. If memory serves, this bit is taken from the Barcelona ’88 gig, as broadcast on Spanish TV.

Dub Room Special: The CD Version

Apparently, a CD version of The Dub Room Special DVD is being sold at ZPZ concerts. Tracklist:

  1. A Token of My Extreme (Vamp): 2:29
  2. Stevie’s Spanking: 5:54
  3. The Dog Breath Variations: 1.42
  4. Uncle Meat: 2:16
  5. Stink-Foot: 3:58
  6. Easy Meat: 6:51
  7. Montana: 4:24
  8. Inca Roads: 9:46
  9. Room Service: 9:15
  10. Cosmik Debris: 7:44
  11. Florentine Pogen: 10:13

Zappa-List member Chris Foreman writes:

Not included from the video: Approximate (from the ’74 band) and Flakes, Cocaine Decisions & Nig Biz (from the ’81 band). A Token of My Extreme wasn’t on the video, but is on the CD. And, of course, the track order is completely different.

Continue reading “Dub Room Special: The CD Version”

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

There’s a topic over at MetaFilter about legendary saxplayer Rahsaan Roland Kirk. According to TRFZB, he appears to have joined the Mothers at the 1968 Boston Globe Jazz Festival, and was on the same bill as the MOI for a ’69 jazz tour of the East Coast. Questions:

  • Does anyone know of any footage of these gigs?
  • Does anyone know of any written accounts of them?

Madamjujujive says thanks.