Jeff and Diane of The Four Directions perform “Lonesome Cowboy Burt” at the Bolton Street Theater in NewCastle, Australia – complete with trumpet and harmonica solos, as well as an improvised tap interpretation. I kid you not. Personally, I don’t know whether this cover belongs as one of the best, or worst FZ covers I have ever heard. They certainly deserve marks for nerve and enthusiasm, though. For bookings or info please contact their agent [ jeje-Management@good-craft.com], or contact Diane [tapsolo@gmail.com]. I dedicate this post to Gail.
Category: Bizarre
Best FZ Covers: Battle of the YouTube Muffins, Or, Some People Like Cupcakes Better…
I’m really not certain which of these groups belongs in a compilation of best FZ covers – each has something different and unique in their version of Frank Zappa‘s Muffin Man that the other two groups do not. Give them a hearing and decide for yourself. MazMyth at LMCS Auditorium on January 9, 2009; Zappa Plays Zappa at Villa Arconati, July 15, 2008; or Pappa Plays Zappa at The Upperfloor (known as Stalloftet) in Hamar, Norway, August 3, 2008:
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BluBlu a la Zappa
While surfing YouTube recently I came across this wonder piece of stop motion animation, entitled MUTO, from the walls of Buenos Aires by graffiti and animation artist BluBlu which someone has added Frank Zappa‘s “The Torture Never Stops” from Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, January 20th, 1976. Amazing hardly begins to describe it.
Chat Roulette Piano Improv
Ah, the wonders of Chatroulette: advertised as “instant video-chat” with complete strangers, in my experience it’s mostly a place where young desperate men log on to, erh, yank their crank for all the world to see. That and loads of badly lit, pasty white fat guys with watery eyes wearing day-old underwear. Some fun to be had there too though:
Frank Zappa — Cynic, Satirist, Social Anthropologist
Frank Zappa had been referred to as a lot of things throughout his thirty year career – some complimentary (genius, iconoclast, family man) and some not so complimentary (misogynist, anti-semite, misanthropist) – yet all one need do is listen to some of the myriad of interviews Zappa gave during his life (beginning with an excerpt from the Mark Radcliffe BBC Radio 1 Interview, above) and evidence becomes overwhelmingly clear: besides being a musician and composer, Zappa was a life-long cynic, satirist, and a social anthropologist:
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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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Maybe I’m Totally Wrong, But I’m a…
(Played by The Ohio University Marching 110 at the Ohio Theatre in November, 2000.)
“Rock ‘n Roll Evening News” with Frank Zappa
On two separate appearances on the “Rock ‘n Roll Evening News” – one on October 11th, 1986 (clip above), and another on November 29th, 1986 (clip below), Frank Zappa explains why most aspects of popular culture (in their case, the 1980s) sucks a rat’s dick, and why nothing new is seldom ever heard or performed on television or radio (AM or FM), as well as speaks his views on drugs, politics, and concerning movements generally.
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The Jack and Jim Show
Eugene Chadbourne and Jimmy Carl Black – the principle members of the Jack and Jim Show – perform a cover of Captain Beefheart‘s “Dropout Boogie” (first clip, below) at The Pit Inn, Shinjuku on June 6th, 2008 (available on their CD, Pachuco Cadaver), and a cover of the song, “One More Road To Cross” (second clip, below) from their 2007 DVD, The Jack & Jim Show: Live at the Stone, NYC.
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Dick Barber Interview, 1990
Dick Barber was the Mothers‘ road manager in the late 60’s and early 70’s. He also played with great emotion the role of the industrial strength Gypsy Mutant Vacuum Cleaner that Motorhead falls in love with in “200 Motels“. He is also mentioned as one of the people whose name is checked on the cover of “Freak Out!” under the heading “These People Have Contributed Materially In Many Ways To Make Our Music What It Is. Please Do Not Hold It Against Them“.
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