Frank Zappa’s Orchestral Subculture: “Zappa was a hopelessly conflicted practitioner of absolute-music aesthetics in a world that chose to hear him as a rock star–he was a “serious†composer who made it to the top ten and won a Grammy (for the album Jazz from Hell, 1986) at the very point in his career when he found such industry honors most hateful and embarrassing.” (Go read the article and then come back to explain the word “Darmstadtian” to me)
Category: Zappa Articles
Alain Rieder: Montreux, Fire!
Francis of FrenchPowered asked if I could translate an interview he had with Swiss musician Alain Rieder where he talks about music, drumming and Zappa, but mostly about his experiences at the infamous ’71 Montreux Casino concert. So here now is the English version of that interview. S’il vous plat!
Weekend Edition
Good morning! Some various bits and pieces to keep you occupied during the weekend: Mike Keneally has launched radiokeneally.com featuring “non-stop streaming audio featuring music from all of my albums (including titles long out of print), unreleased live and studio recordings, collaborations with other artists, demos and alternate mixes, schoolchildren singing Keneally songs and, I think, more!”. Go rip him off! You might also enjoy a complete live broadcast of italian band Orchestra Spaziale performing Zappa (grazie evaristo)! Lastly, I’m transcribing an interview Dweezil Zappa had with Sound On Sound Magazine (Sept issue) about the technical side of things at The Vault – many thanks to Ian for sending me the scans. Class dismissed!
Sofanic messages…
An interesting investigation into some of the not exactly do re mi aspects of the editing and construction of the fz audio-scape. From grow-a-brain.
Captain Glasspack and the Magic Mufflers
Zappa Of The Month Club
LA Times: “Not Just In It For the Money” (subscr. req.). A notable quote: “The details are still being worked out, but Gail Zappa, Frank’s widow, says that the concept is pretty simple. Fans will pay an annual fee (probably around $100) and receive a set number of new releases each year (probably five), some of which will not be available elsewhere. Subscribers will have some level of choice as to what titles they receive from an ever-expanding catalog, and will also likely get bonus material and other special merchandise.”
Alice
Alice? Who the f* is Alice?
Anything, Anytime
Billboard has a look at the “Zappa Vault Series”: Indeed, Gail Zappa estimates there are 40 albums’ worth of material that could see the light of day, including complete live concerts. “But ‘Joe’s Corsage’ the series will be separate,” she says. “It could be anything, anytime, for no reason at all. We already know what the next one is. I hope it will be available before the summer is out.”
Zappa-alumnis here and there
G3 tour with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Robert Fripp has just started – there are rumours that Terry Bozzio joins them (this info is not really sure for me – we’ll see). And there are some news about the Indian Of The Group as well.
A hearing for the PMRC
The infamous PMRC hearings seem to have been heard by a committee relating to commerce, science, and transportation. Since this is not supposed to have been a commercial question, and i doubt it is related to transportation, i guess this was about the science of the influence of words.
…Mtley Cre are attempting to practice in a rehearsal room in Hollywood.
“You know what’s wrong with those guys?” asks Nikki, walking off the sound- stage shaking his Revlon Blue/Black head sadly. “They have no sense of humor.”
In [sic] December 8, 6:38 p.m., a 1972 Pantera driven by Mtley Cre’s lead singer Vince Neil skidded into a lane of oncoming traffic in Redondo Beach, hitting a Volkswagen containing a 20-year old man and an 18-year-old woman. Both suffered severe injuries. Neil’s passenger, Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas Dingley, was pronounced dead en route to the hospital. Neil, who was not hurt in the accident, was arrested on charges of drunken driving and vehicular homicide. He is currently free on $2500 bail.
Got Your Mojo?
As you may know, there was a large article on Frank Zappa in Mojo Magazine last January. With many thanks to thebignote honcho Magic Fingers, here it is now in all of its warts ‘n all scanned glory: pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Happy printing!
Hannes, Hannes! wake up! Its me Frank Zappa…
FZ: No. You dont. You havnt the faintest fucking idea what Im talking about, anyplace in Europe, not even in England. You dont have any idea and dont kid yourself.
FZ: I dont have any curtains. I have.. I have a nice.. I have a bay window which is looking out onto garden. The sky is blue, some puppy white clouds. Theres bunch of flowers out there and.. its pretty bright room. The only bright room that I hang out in. All the rest of the places where I work are pretty dark.
Some interviews from scandinavia…
Aloha Zappa
In january this year, Dutch mag “Aloha” ran a nice posthumous article on FZ. Here it is, scanned: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I may translate this one if the mood strikes me (in other words: look for it somewhere early 2010). Also, you may be interested in this (scanned) article from Music Technology, Feb ’87: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. (Found at zappa.com forums)
Baby Moon Unit
Well, it seems it wasn’t easy to be a child in a family as openminded az FZ’s. It’s interesting, because his music (his bands) always means to me a kind of togetherness, a kind of care for each other, to make everyone bring his best – but it seems this mentality also brought some suffer and pain in the family. Was it his fault? Or the circumstances? Or is it only the question of a “famous father”?
This Is Frank Talking?
Bob Marshall: This is Frank talking?
Frank: Yes.
Bob Marshall: Was rap, what’s called rap music the last few years, fresh air?
Frank: Some of it. Some of it is good. Most of it is a waste of time. But, you see, rap is more a political statement than it is music.
Bob Marshall: Would you consider it an offshoot like Grunge and Punk?
Frank: As what? Where are they? Where’s Punk? Where did it go? It gave up. You can’t give up on music. Can’t give up.
Bob Marshall: Has Grunge given up?
Frank: Yes. Look at it. What is it? Where is it? Not that it didn’t break ground. Where’s its fresh air? Where’s its verve? Where’s its causing a person to move?
:: Posthumous Frank Zappa Talks