Frank Zappa’s 1971 big-screen venture 200 Motels has not been particularly well-preserved on VHS over the years. Although there have been several releases and re-releases, these have tended to be sourced from the same slightly iffy video masters with no attempts at any kind of upgrade.
The first ever (official) DVD release of the film last month on the Voiceprint label should have been the perfect opportunity to rectify this. Sadly, this release – overseen and ‘restored’ by original co-director Tony Palmer – stands out as not only the worst edition of the film ever commercially released but could actually hold the honour of being the worst DVD ever compiled. (…)
It looks like shit.
Full – very very detailed – article here (see our previous post about the DVD!) Just one side-note: on the official site of the DVD one will find where the trailer should be: “This video is no longer available because of copyright reasons – belonging to Metro-Goldwin-Mayer”.
(Sorry, the latter had to be translated back to English from Hungarian… I’m not sure whether it’s perfect, but you’ll understand anyway.)
The Fowler Brothers [Tom & Bruce] got a call from a festival in Stuttgart to play a set of Zappa music. This became the Banned From Utopia. I was called at the last minute to be a guest, so I played a couple of tunes with them at the festival. We then went into the studio and recorded various Zappa tunes and originals over a five year period, and the result was the CD, So Yuh Don’t Like Modern Art.
Agreeing to the project at the last minute, the ten members of Band From Utopia formed for and headlined the 1994 festival. The concert was recorded on 32 track mobile digital and also filmed for broadcast on german television (from which the above clips, “The Illinois Enema Bandit” and “Be-Bop Tango” were recorded). This was the first time all of these musicians collectively had taken the same stage at the same time.
Update (11/05/09): Thanks to Andrew for enlightening me on the difference between the CD (that contains 15 tracks from the festival) and the DVD (which only replicates three on the CD). Thus the DVD is not a complete performance.
News from The Idiot Bastard: 1.) New ZPZ DVD sometimes: Son Of Roxy; 2.) new singer soon to be announced (ohh-ohh – might it be Ahmet?…), 3.) new post on the ZPZ blog, not really mentioning the above (yet?); and with some solo-samples.
The DVD above was recorded on the 12th of december – see the setlist here. I think I’ll buy it – along with One Shot Deal.
Did someone mention The Tubes? For your entertainment pleasure, here is an updated theatrical version of The Tubes classic “Mondo Bondage” taken from their DVD, “Wild In London” (Recorded at the Shepherds Bush Empire, Dec 2004).
Beware: An aging Fee in leather bondage attire may either offend, or perhaps even excite certain viewers. You are hereby warned.
Taken from the DVD “Wild In London” and recently posted on YouTube. After nearly 35 years in rock, The Tubes never cease to amaze me, especially their live performances.
I’m sorry Mark, but it’s Dolby Digital. We originally were going to with PCM audio but we decided that we would go Dolby since we did not treat the audio in any way, nor remix. We went for picture quality instead. But when we switched the audio, the print work had already been completed.
That’s the story. We are planning on a special edition-type release with (hopefully) the full shows & all remixed in surround. The Nina Blackwood stuff should be on that.
