Die Beistelltische – Are You Hardcore, Enough?

Die Beistelltische is a German sextet (from Göttingen) that performs Frank Zappa’s music a cappella. In 2007, they contributed a special edit of their a capella version of ‘The Idiot Bastard Son’ to “20 Extraordinary Renditions”, that was released on Cordelia Records. Check out their hilariously funny and offbeat a capella version of ‘Billy the Mountain’ which bounces back and forth between German and English. Are you hardcore, enough?
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Billy the Mountain, Martyrs’ 2009

Just prior to an unauthorized performance of “Joe’s Garage” at Martyrs’ in Chicago on July 27th, 2009, The Chicago Zappa Collective performed an exceptional version of “Billy the Mountain” as an opening set:

Billy the Mountain – The Chicago Zappa Collective, Martyrs’
[audio:20091110-Billy The Mountain.mp3]

The Chicago Zappa Collective:

Colby Beserra, Matt Reed, and Ben Wilson – vocals
Chris Siebold and Mike Pinto – guitars
Paul Mutzbaugh – keyboards
Chris Clemente – bass
Rick Vitek – drums

Capt. CHEESE-BEARD & The 7 Sisters Of Prevention – Live In Brussels

Capt. CHEESE-BEARD & The 7 Sisters Of Prevention will be performing two hours of “Live” Zappa music on Friday, September 18th, 2009, starting at 8:30 PM, at Indigo Studios, a new venue in Brussels, Belgium, close to the old Wielemans Cuppens brewery.
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Jimmy’s Last Tour — Jimmy Carl Black & The Muffin Men

After stumbling across this 1993 promo video of Frank Zappa’s “Willie the Pimp” featuring Jimmy Carl Black and The Muffin Men (live with studio footage), I found the following Podcast on The Muffin Men homepage. The band reminisces about Jimmy’s last tour (gigs he had to cancel due to increasing ill health), his friends attempts to help (including old friend Arthur Brown), and the benefit gigs. The podcast also includes an extended live version of Jimmy Carl Black‘s “Great White Buffalo”.

Click here to listen to horn and guitar solos from “Great White Buffalo” recorded in Aschaffenburg entitled, “Aschbuff”.

The Chicago Ate present Joe’s Garage

On March 9th, 2009, the Chicago Ate (or) The Utility Muffin Research Kitchen Employees’ Union Memorial Band (Chicago Chapter) presented “Joe’s Garage” at the ‘Martyr’s’ club in Chicago.

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News from Andre’ — Project/Object

This just in via email from Andre’ Cholmondeley:

PROJECT/OBJECT – the music of Frank Zappa
featuring IKE WILLIS & DON PRESTON
and special guest RAY WHITE (on July 4 only)

Sat 4th July – Western, Pa
The Church Of Universal Love and Music
Doors: 10 AM – 2 sets – All ages Tickets/Advance: $30 DOS:$ $40

Andre’ Cholmondeley plays guitar in this band, a tribute to the music of Frank Zappa. P/O also has Eric Svalgard (keyboards), Eric Slick (drums), Robbie “Seahag” Mangano (bass). Ray White will join P/O on their July 4 date only.

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Zappanale (Then & Now) — Capt. Cheese Beard & The 7 Sisters Of Prevention



I had nearly forgotten about Capt. Cheese Beard & The 7 Sisters Of Prevention after Barry first posted their video of “Black Napkins” here at KUR back in 2007. Frankly, this ten piece band blows me away with their musicianship and their enthusiasm for the material they are playing (just check out the first two clips from their performance at Atelier210 – the aforementioned “Black Napkins” and “More Trouble Every Day”).

Captain Cheese Beard & the 7 Sisters of Prevention are a ten piece fusion band from Brussels, Belgium, formed by Johan De Coninck in May of 2006 after a year of pondering whether the whole project was actually feasible and worth all the trouble of managing a production of its size.

About three years ago, after riding pygmy ponies for many hours at the Pygmy Pony Riding club and smoking a whole pack of Wellfields (these are very dodgy Togolese cigarettes, by the way) Capt. Cheese-Beard went into a trance and had a vision in which he was visited by his long-time idol Frank Zappa who died in 1993. The great man himself told the captain that it was clear that his oeuvre was at risk of being lost, as it was not being exposed to the music listening youth of today. This was of course totally unacceptable. Maybe it was the side-effects of the Wellfields, temporally disabling the captain’s sense of reason, but during that cerebral meltdown he swore as a proud member of the pygmy pony riding club that he would do everything within his power to bring Zappa’s music back to life. Of course this was easier said than done. The media, regulated for many years now by the central scrutinizer, the sort of person who smells of cabbage, hired by so-called friends of the music biz, wasn’t going to be very receptive to the idea of putting the great composer’s “subversive” music back on the air. To make things worse, the central scrutinizer’s roll consists in making sure that the minds of our young consumers are continuously bombarded with tasteless, lukewarm, prefab pop. The captain, who by now had come back to his senses, realized he had to come up with a different, more daring plan. He decided he would find 9 other crazy musicians (preferably with prior pygmy pony experience) who would join him on a quest to go out there and attempt to play Zappa’s music themselves. He scratched his beard, put his fingers up his nose and smelled that it was good.

The Band:

Didier Demeestere – drums
Pascal Hauben – bass
Sara Corsius – keyboard
Johan De Coninck Corsius – guitar & voice
Rojah Lao – vocals (first 2 gigs only)
Abil Khazzaka – vocals
Vanessa Spy 007 – lead vocals
Katja Maes – melodic percussion
Ansje De Groef – flute
Thomas Van Gelder – alto & soprano sax
Kristof Kerremans – sax
Ludovic Jean-Mart – sax

This band certainly does have it’s groove down. From “Sofa #1” and “Sofa #2” (in German) to such Zappa classics as “Cosmic Debris“, “Inca Roads“, “Yo Mama“, “Andy“, “Pygmy Twylyte” and “Peaches En Regalia“.

The following rehearsals of “Cosmic Debris” and “Peaches En Regalia” show the band at work (and having fun):


Capt. Cheese Beard & The 7 Sisters Of Prevention will perform on Zappanale 20’s Main Stage on Friday, 14. August 2009.

Zappanale (Then & Now) — Jazzprojekt Hundehagen


Thomas Brünnich, Thomas Käckenmeister and Michael Käckenmeister had already made music together while attending the conservatoire in Rostock in the mid-1980s, before ever conceiving of forming a band together. In the autumn of 1990, the three musicians again became active, playing in Blues and Rock bands surrounding Doberan. Around approximately 1996, was when the lasting foundation was forged to what would eventually constitute the main character of Jazzprojekt Hundehagen.

Michael Käckenmeister emerged as the group’s musical head. The group’s inspirations were rooted in interaction with his brother Thomas Käckenmeister and the musician companion Thomas Brünnich. Thomas Käckenmeister brought the experienced Guitarist Harald Werner into the group, along with the Quintet’s only woman, Pianist Katrin Werner.

The band took their name from the village they rehearsed in – an interim solution for several gigs at first – but the name stuck and it seemed like nonsense to change it.

Jazzprojekt Hundehagen play successfully in the northern part of Germany. They do standards as well as own compositions and themes of Frank Zappa.

Click here to listen (or download) various mp3’s at Jazzprojekt Hundehagen website, including “Black Napkin” “Zoot Allures”.

Jazzprojekt Hundehagen have performed at the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th edition of the Zappanale festival. They are scheduled to appear at Zappanale 20.

Note: Many of the webpages are in German. Use Babelfish to translate.

Beefheart Night at the Knitting Factory

Back on April 9th, 2008, Gary Lucas curated “Beefheart Night at the Knit“, a salute to the Music, Poetry and Art of Don Van Vliet, a/k/a Captain Beefheart.

Click here to view highlights of that night and backstage interviews with the evening’s many and various participants (thanks to Culture Clash).

Don Van Vliet might have been absent in body on this particular evening, yet his presence, and his affect on popular culture, art, and music is unquestionably undeniable.

Zappanale (Then & Now) — DBRK


From the DBRK MySpace page:

DBRK is a Parisian collective of obedience “Fun First” composed of amateurs and professionals musicians. Real Cover Band, DBRK revisits the work of artists from the sixties to the eighties according to a basic principle: to explore each title must seduce each of the 9 members of the collective. It’s repertoire ranges from David Bowie to Frank Zappa, through Patti Smith, Bob Marley, Roxy Music, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Joy Division, Jimi Hendrix, The Fall, The Wolfgang Press, Brian Eno, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, Wire, Robert Wyatt, Martin Circus, Cream, John Lennon, Genesis, Nick Cave, etc… The commercial potential is not the main objective of DBRK, so do not you cross animating a wedding or a bar mitzvah, though… In a wink to Zappa, DBRK means: Delicious Band Research Kitchen.

In the first clip, DBRK performs a fantastic jazz-infused version of “Uncle Remus” live in Paris at the “Les Fils de l’Invention” FZ festival on July 5, 2008 (now my favorite version of this Zappa/Duke composition). In the second clip, they perform “Wino Man”.

Click here to catch up on the other goings on in Paris, in general, and in France, in particular (a pretty lively bunch of Zappa freaks, I must say). It’s entirely in French, so you’ll need to translate the page (use babelfish)

DBRK performed at ZAPPANALE 19.