Best FZ Covers – DZPZ & Eric Johnson’s “Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy” & “Muffin Man”

For those who think Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa is a cold, “note-by-note” band, incapable of improvisation, I’m obviously not going to alter your view with a few posts, and neither would I endeavour to try. For those willing to look past original preconceptions, though, might be pleasantly surprised, as I was, when I dug deeper into this band.
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Call Any Vegetable – 1970 versus 2006

One of the fantastic advantages of the advent of current technologies such as YouTube and the Internet, is it allows one to compare and contrast particular songs – in this case, Frank Zappa‘s “Call Any Vegetable” – with particular groups and bands of completely different eras: FZ‘s 2nd MOI band’s vaudeville-style with that of Dweezil’s Zappa Plays Zappa. Merely just a cover? Or an improvement on the original? Zappa Plays Zappa‘s clip is from their DVD/CD released in 2006 of two shows filmed and recorded in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA, respectively. While the two Vaudeville Mothers clips (the complete audio) and the edited version, both from the “Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 6 Nov 1970” show. Personally, I’ll always have a bias toward the earlier versions. Still, Napoleon Murphy Brock does one hell of a rendition.
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Dweezilla!

Looks like Dweezil is branching out into new territory. From the inbox:

Get ready to expand your harmonic horizons and ignite your musical creativity this summer at DWEEZILLA! DWEEZILLA is a unique five-day experience where musicians will be surrounded by Dweezil Zappa and members of his core band for a musical bootcamp. From June 21-24 in the Catskill Forest Preserve in upstate New York, DWEEZILLA offers aspiring musicians a wide range of master classes at all skill levels in addition to one-on-one sessions with Dweezil himself.

DWEEZILLA

Quoth The Dweez: “I decided to create a diverse music boot camp for people of all skill levels hoping to increase their musical prowess. It would make me very happy if I could help a fellow musician take their skills to the next level.”

Pricing? Here’s the cheapest admission as stated in the Dweezilla press kit: $485 — Day Use (No Accommodations/Camping): Includes all daily activities and workshops from breakfast to the evening activities.

More Dweezila info here.

Ahem… is this the beginning of the end of ZPZ?

Zappa’s Universe — Revisited

Zappa’s Universe (the album and video of the same title) documents the big tribute concert thrown for Frank Zappa over four nights (November 7-10, 1991, although the footage on the album and video are from the first two nights), organized by conductor Joel Thome, who assembled the Orchestra of Our Time at the Ritz in NYC. Mike Keneally and Scott Thunes were joined by other ex-Zappa sidemen Steve Vai, Denny Walley among many others including Frank’s son, Dweezil Zappa.

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Humor in Music — Z


Does humor belong in music? During this particular Z gig (NAMM, Hilton, Anaheim, CA) in late January, 1995, it did.

Bryan Beller:

The Z show was a private party for Peavey, with a special guest appearance by Dick Clark. We all got dressed up in fake costume stage tuxes and wore ZZ Top beards for a planned skit, before playing our only song of the evening: an even newer medley, one that spanned the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. It was fun, it was silly, it was Z in a nutshell.

Here are Parts III, IV, and V.

Z is:

Dweezil Zappa – guitar, vocals
Ahmet Zappa – vocals
Mike Keneally – guitar, vocals
Bryan Beller – bass
Joe Travers – drums