The Muffin Men @ Fairport & Elsewhere

In 2008, The Muffin Men – a British band, based in Liverpool, England which primarily plays the music of Frank Zappa – performed at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, performing such Zappa classics as “Zoot Allures”, “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” and “Black Napkins” (above) as well as “Road Ladies“, “San Ber’dino“, and “My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama“.
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Zomby Woof By Quasar

Ardent devotees of the music of our time, the Quasar saxophone quartet is dedicated to premiering and promoting contemporary music that is multi-dimensionally conceived. Celebrated for its energy, audacity and exceptional technical ability, Quasar explores different aspects of artistic creation from instrumental music to live electronics, from improvisation to instrumental theatre. Quasar received two OPUS prizes.

It seems they also have a cover version of The Black Page.

Zappanale 20 – Highlights

I’ve recently come across a couple of highlight videos from Zappanale 20. The first (above) is of Project Object featuring the son of the late Jimmy Carl Black, Geronimo Black performing “Cosmic Debris”. The second video (below) is The Grandmothers performing “A Pound For A Brown”. Awesome live material.
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Who Do You Think You Arf?!? – The European Grandmothers

I have always been intrigued by the D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) ethic among bands who cover and interpret Zappa’s music. True, few of these acts have any hope of actually being signed by today’s youth driven music business. In many cases, Demo CDs are given away free of charge through websites, or produced in limited runs by independent labels. In either case, it’s often up to the fan to track down these CDs and order them (if possible).

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Fraternity Of Man — Oh No I Don’t Believe It

Fraternity Of Man” was released on Abc Records in 1968 and featured a cover of Frank Zappa’s “Oh No I Don’t Believe It” (which he had yet to release himself). Blues leads were handled by Elliot Ingber, and psychedelic leads were played by Warren Klein. The inclusion of this track on this Fraternity Of Man album is widely attributed to Elliot due to his association with the Mothers.

Thursday Mix: Cover Me This

I’m both pleased and proud to initiate the inaugural post of Kill Ugly Radio’s first Mixtape presentation, “Thursday Mix: Cover Me This.” Sixteen different musicians/bands performing twenty-five Frank Zappa Covers:

1. Tink / 13 — Banned From Utopia
2. Solitude — Banned From Utopia
3. Black Page #2 — Bogus Pomp
4. Filthy Hobbitz — Doot!
5. Bogner Regis — Ed Palermo Big Band
6. Heavy Duty Judy / Grand Wazoo — Ed Palermo Big Band
7. What’s New In Baltimore? — FiDO
8. Eat That Question — FiDO
9. Little House I Used To Live In — Frogg Cafe
10. King Kong — Frogg Cafe
11. Uncle Remus (Instrumental) — George Duke
12. Sexual Harassment In The Workplace — Mario Mariani
13. Packard Goose — Mario Mariani
14. Peaches En Regalia — Marzi Nyman & Estonian Dream Big Band
15. Sofa — Marzi Nyman & Estonian Dream Big Band
16. Black Page #1 — Kroumata Percussion Ensemble
17. Uncle Meat — Kroumata Percussion Ensemble
18. Eric Dolphy Memorial BBQ — Kroumata Percussion Ensemble
19. Duke of Prunes — Project Object
20. Sy Borg — Project Object
21. Pygmy Twylyte — Quintette Gaucher
22. Mr. Green Genes — Viva Zappa
23. Motherly Love — Voice of Cheez
24. Big Swifty — The Wrong Object
25. Let’s Make The Water Turn Black — Zappatistas

Most of the tracks listed above are available for download via Zappateers, or Internet Archive’s Live Music Archive, or individual band/artist websites (check them all out, there are lots of audio nuggets to be found).

Click here to listen to the mixtape.

Note: If anyone feels we are infringing their copyright, contact us and we will remove the item in question.