Bongo Fury – Shock Theatre, 1978

In the three short years since Zappa’s 1975 release of his mostly live album with Captain Beefheart and the Mothers at Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas on May 20th through 21st, 1975, it’s affect upon popular culture is astounding…

…Beware, Bongo Fury! Mwwwahhhhhahahaha!

The Whip It Out Ensemble

The Whip It Out Ensemble is a Frank Zappa tribute band located in Alberta, Canada. In the clip (above) they perform a medley of songs from The Mothers of Invention album ‘We’re Only In It For The Money‘ including “Lonely Little Girl“, “Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance“, and “What’s the Ugliest Part of Your Body?
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Fair Use versus Corporate Avarice — A Rant

Consider the following case, of Stephanie Lenz, who made a home video of her 13-month-old son dancing to Prince’s song “Let’s Go Crazy” and then posted the 29-second video on YouTube:
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John Cassavetes & Company, in the Studio

A tiny bit of studio-presence, that supposed to be a “talk show” – if they were normal people. I love John Cassavetes, by the way, my favorite director – check out his film “Husbands”, if you can.  Or any of the others.

See the other parts: part 2 | 3 | 4

My favorite moment is at 7:48 in part 2.

You Ef What You Zee — The Eternal Question

In one of the previous posts, “The MOI – Conflicted Histories“, I was struck by one of the questions posed to Jimmy Carl Black:

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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

Dummy Up: a/k/a Tommy Chong

Tommy Chong appears on Alex Jones‘ nationally syndicated radio show to discuss the recent FBI raid of Spectrum Labs and the seizure of 10,000 DVDs of Chong’s documentary, a/k/a Tommy Chong. Also on the show is Kevin Booth, creator of American Drug War: The Last White Hope; Josh Gilbert, creator of a/k/a Tommy Chong; and Matt Stevens, owner of Spectrum Labs. The show is guest-hosted by co-producer of the Loose Change documentaries, Jason Bermas.

At the height of popularity of the Bush administration (huh?) — the federal government entrapped and subsequently imprisoned Tommy Chong. Josh Gilbert began documenting the federal case against his long time friend, for the terrible crime of selling bongs. This film (broken down here into four clips) examines the personal effects on Tommy, the motivations and tactics of the politicized Justice Department under George Bush, set against the back drop of the War on Drugs and the legal issues involved.

(Parts Two, Three, Four)

Listening to Jones’ radio show, followed by Gilbert’s film, one can easily see how one can become a target of a vengeful government bent on teaching someone a very public lesson. Just imagine, if the U.S. Federal government could view Cheech & Chong’sUp In Smoke” as a threat, how might they have viewed Frank Zappa’s “Pygmy Twylyte/ Dummy Up” (from WSTM-FM’s ‘FZ as DJ’ broadcast, 21 Nov 1974) and treated him if he were alive post 9/11:

[audio: http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/Pygmy-Twylyte-Dummy-Up-MOI.mp3]

Planetshakers – Majesty (Live)

Somewhere in the far reaches of the cosmos, the spirit of Frank Zappa just…spewed. Perhaps this was exactly what he was warning us all about with such releases as ‘Broadway The Hard Way’.

While searching for something completely different, I happened to stumble across this clip of the Christian music group Planetshakers performing “Majesty” (Live), presumably at one of the Planetshakers conventions (yes, a Christian youth movement whose stated mission is to “empower a generation to win a generation”).

The flashiness and MTV quality of this video really makes me think of a line of verse I read once: “Does the Christian use the Devil’s device to obtain freedom?”