Category: Music

UMV Playing FZ – and Vault News

The University of Vermont Jazz Ensemble will present the music of Frank Zappa at a concert on March 25 at 7:30 in the Grand Maple Ballroom of the Dudley H. Davis Center. Alexander Stewart, director of UVM’s Jazz Studies program, will lead the ensemble.

Live music for our American friends – for free, with tunes like Montana, the Idiot Bastard Son, King Kong, Peaches en Regalia, the Grand Wazoo, and Uncle Remus. The quality of the music lies in the fact that the orchestration was made by none other that Ep Palermo! Hey, a recording would be fine…

Some Other FZ News:

A 1966 concert from MOI is up at Wolfgang’s vault – thanks, hipbone!

Some Other Maybe Related DZ News:

New ZPZ releases are to be available: 1, 2, 3. Details? Noooo. Setlists? Noooo. Infos on the Official homepage? Noooo! Infos on the ZPZ homepage? Hey, forget it…

dEUS: Vantage Point

Legendary Belgian underground band dEUS have released a new album entitled “Vantage Point”. Featured above is their newest single “The Architect”. Quite the groove! — in an 80s Duran Duran sort of way.

Contrast this with what I consider to be one of their best songs ever, “Nothing Really Ends”:

… or perhaps their Best Song Ever is this one, “Suds & Soda”:

That skinny guy holding hands with Tom Barman while repeatedly chanting “Friday!” is Stef Kamil Karlens, now part of Zita Swoon. Compare:

Incidentally, dEUS lead singer Tom Barman is the author/director of a film called “Any Way The Wind Blows”. Do ask for it at your local DVD rental — it is a gem… Opening sequence:

Update: be sure to check out the official dEUS channel @YouTube for more video! (Ya know, before I get another C&D letter! I kid, I kid!)

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Australian sneer-rock vets Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have come out with their 14th studio LP entitled, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Though there’s no tracklist info just yet, the album’s artwork is provided by British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster. The disc was released in the UK on March 3 on Anti- (a U.S. release is due in the spring, though a date isn’t set yet).

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! is the first single from the album of the same name.

33% Zappa – in Linz, 2nd of April

Live music alert, in Österreich – the Hungarian Radio Symphonic Orchestra will play some Zappa in Linz, at the Brucknerhaus: 

F. Zappa: “Bogus Pomp”
B. Bartók: Der wunderbare Mandarin (Suite für Orchester) op. 19
L. v. Beethoven: Symphonie Nr. 7 A-Dur op. 92

Today’s news: Conductor Ádám Fischer just got the highest award (“Kossuth Prize”) given to any performing artist in all of Hungary!

The same orchestra played on the 100% Zappa event (remember David Ocker’s comments? ).

Mix-Tape Master

… is what I am, I is! 117 out of 180:

You are a music evangelist. (…) You understand the art of the segue, how the key to the best mix-tape isn’t just the songs you pick, but how they interlock with each other. You also know who the up-and-coming acts are and are quick to recognise where their influences lie and whether they will make it big. You work hard at the pursuit of this knowledge, scouring music blogs, magazines and record stores.

Well that was fun. How about you?

(via)

The Seeding Of Summer Lawns

Bless Andy Baio:

These are the unreleased demos from Joni Mitchell’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns, one of my favorite albums ever. Unlike the lush arrangements found on the album, these early versions are stripped down to only piano, and acoustic guitar.

He found this rare recording at Big O Magazine which has a bunch of other interesting things up for download (oh look: Loggins & Messina!). Just try to ignore the Japanese girl with the bouncing boobs to the right, and focus on the left part of the page…

The Cher Effect

You may think you don’t know it, but you most certainly do.
Hometracked has the skinny:

When used noticeably, an auto-tuner produces what most call “The Cher Effect“, named for her trademark sound in the song Believe. (In essence, we named the effect like scientists naming a new disease after its first victim.) Treated this heavily, a vocal track sounds synthetic, and obviously processed.

Could You Speak Up A Little?

failed-audio.jpg

This remarkable device was invented by Frenchman Jean Auscher as an acoustic navigation device in case of radar failure on small vessels. Shown at the 1960 Brussels Inventor’s Fair, and, one suspects, nowhere else ever again.

Want one! More fun at the Amplifier Institute’s page of failed projects.

Loggins and Messina @ Wolfgang’s Vault

For those of us who remember the unique vocal harmony of Loggins and Messina from their string of highly successful albums in the 1970s — in particular, their quintessential 1974 live album, On Stage — we will surely welcome this musical stroll at San Francisco’s Cow Palace on April 4th, 1976, during their Farewell Tour. It explains why they were such FM radio staples in the 1970s and beyond (they don’t make music like this anymore, do they?).

Go on, try it, Be Free.