Dweezil and Zappa Plays Zappa are live in studio on Rockline Replay, which includes five individual on air segments, wherein Dweezil answers questions from callers as well as from the host Bob Coburn, in between performances of FZ’s and Dweezil’s music. Ever wanted to know if Frank played with Hendrix? Click and find out.
Ever heard a high school marching band play G-Spot Tornado and Pound For A Brown? These kids pulled it off. Also check the video!
Hat tip: Francesco G.
Indeed: the time has come to lay to rest The Voice Of Cheese. Over the past months, no less than 35 participants have had the guts to submit a track, knowing full well their entry would be scrutinized and critiqued before an audience of die-hard Zappa fans. That’s saying something.
To all who participated: kudos! You are the best, and I hope your submission got you some exposure.
“Is this the end of KUR Audience Participation?”, you ask? Mmmh, well I do have an idea that involves nothing much more than a webcam and a YouTube account… I’ll keep you posted.
By the time Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan joined Frank Zappa’s second incarnation of the Mothers, not only had the Turtles disbanded, but their legal troubles had reached such epic proportions that they had lost rights not only to the band’s name, but their own ‘noms de plume’ as well so that while these cases were before the courts, neither of them could tour or perform as themselves. Thus were created the Eddie and the Phlorescent Leech (aka The Sanzini Brothers) personae out of sheer necessity.
In this clip from the Happy Together (Documentary) (1990), Volman and Kaylan explain their now famous “Manager Story” which led to their major legal entanglements.
Remember, this is not an Elton John concert!
For my birthday Dr Sharl got me a wicked little Wacom drawing tablet. Takes some getting used to, but with a bit of help from Jackson Pollock, adequate results are obtained in a snap:
Opening bid at 10,000 euro. Anyone?
The members of our rockin’ teenage combo don’t know this right now that we’re not gonna open the show the normal way we usually open it.
Gonna start with Green Genes… the whole show backwards.
And it’s 1 March 1973, Daytona Beach, Florida – more infos here (from aaafnraa.de).
A message from the ZFT Marketing Dept:
gz: Frost is on the Pumpkins
And you know what that means. Maybe even sooner than 10 questions from Jayp.
Hat tip: Michael P.
This week’s boot takes us back to Melbourne, 22 january ’76. Apologies for the rudimentary naming of the tracks (i.e. Track 01, 02 etc) but I haven’t had time to listen to this one yet myself! Besides, today’s my birthday so I’ve other things on my mind. Whew, that went fast…
Are you sad? Take a pill. Stressed out? Take this pill. Depressed? Take that pill. Did Zappa envisage the present-day mass marketing of drugs like Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil — drugs designed and marketed to modulate your brain chemistry and intended to make you less depressed, more sociable, more happy at work; aimed at altering your mood or “changing†the way you think, feel and act: with over tens of billions of dollars in annual sales and 35 million users worldwide — when he composed the song “I Come From Nowhere“?
According to The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA):
Listening to music for at least 20 minutes each day can help slow down your heart rate and other body functions and can help you deal with the root causes of depression, such as anger, frustration, sadness or anxiety.
I don’t know about you, but not only does 20 minutes of Frank Zappa each day do good for my bodily functions, but the image of that pussy in headphones alone brings a smile to my face…
In my dream Frank and I were laughing and talking, having a lively conversation about music and things. It felt good, like a friendship.
A real nice story by Adrian Belew – Anectode nr. 46.
VOC #35 has our buddy SOFA chiming in once more. He says:
The band is called “Reckless” and it is the brainchild of my buddy Scott, and the drummer Jim. The idea is for this band to play American Country-Pop covers – because that’s what’s “hot’ around these parts (besides Karaoke, and synthesized-midi-driven dreck) and that’s what will get you hired – not that I’m Only in It for the Money, or anything…
When we were putting together a list of tunes, I suggested “Stealin” (sorry, I’m really just a dumb classic rocker at heart and I love Uriah Heep) because it was an old hit, it had ‘country’ lyrics, and it wasn’t Rascal Flats – who are great, don’t get me wrong, but enough is fucking enough…
This band’s “history” (we were ‘together’ for a little over a year) is too much like Spinal Tap to get into – our drummer never spontaneously combusted is the only difference.
I loves me some classic rock! Have a listen:
[audio:035_Reckless_Stealin.mp3]Like it? Download it!
How old were you when you figured out there was something seriously different with you? When did you discover that the world was going in one particular direction, and you the other? That age for me was around eight or nine years old. The same time I discovered the music of Frank Zappa. The album, Just Another Band From L.A. to be exact. It just made sense to me. Then and now. It was also plainly obvious, even to my young mind at that time, that I was different from my peers. I was a Freak.
The freaks, by Zappa’s reckoning, resisted the binaries of right versus left, dominant culture versus counterculture, or squares versus hippies, preferring instead to align themselves with an aesthetic not narrowly defined by fashion or political leanings.
Of course, it drove my family to distraction and despair as my collection of Zappa records grew, and many a Zappa album found it’s way shattered against the wall like a frisbee, or gashed with long scratches across the vinyl from being too hurriedly de-needled. But by high school, my Zappa fix was a close as the nearest record store (or for those who couldn’t afford them — the nearest public library).
Where do you fit along the Zappa continuum? Passing Zappa listener? Zappaholic? Full fledged Zappa Freak? Then read Ben Watson’s paper, “Houston … Fort .. Marcuse: Sin Versus Archetype in Zappa” addressed to the International Conference of Esemplastic Zappology on 16 January 2004 at Theatro Technis, Crowndale Road, Camden Town, London.
Some Zappa Freaks are really out of this world…
Made by Nándi – thanks, man!!!
100% extasy! I’ve just arrived home. A real Zappa-celebration, a celebration of Music, with 3 concerts in a row. Beginning with the warm-up concert of Mike Keneally and Ed Mann, playing in duet – jazzy, improvisational, zappaesque: fun. Then came the Symphonic Orchestra, conducted by Adam Fischer – amazing! Smiling musicians, rich texture, carefully elaborated details, big laughs and power. Better than the LSO!
The day was closed by the Modern Art Orchestra (a Big Band), featuring also the two guests above. Cletus Awreetus Awightus, Big Swifty, Zomby Woof and more – can you imagine? Orchestrated by Tom Trapp, who also made a good job as a conductor – lively gestures, big smiles, collective improvisations.
The message of the day was: Music is the Best!
You’re Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain!
With an affinity for floating down the river, you see things in black and white. The world is strange and new to you and the more you learn about it, the less it makes sense. You probably speak with an accent and others have a hard time understanding you and an even harder time taking you seriously. Nevertheless, your adventurous spirit is admirable. You really like straw hats.
… or so says The Book Quiz…
