Roger Steen Interview @ Ultimate Guitar

Posted on August 21, 2008 by urbangraffito

Any fan of The Tubes will seriously enjoy Ultimate Guitar‘s interview with Roger Steen entitled, “The Tubes: Bizarre Is As Tubes Does”. Steen speaks of the band’s beginning in Pheonix, Arizona, their move to San Francisco in the early 1970s, and the band’s unique mixture of sounds and styles:

When we were first starting in the 60’s, my group of friends were not only listening to the radio, but also to original blues and jug-band recordings. We incorporated all these rootsy flavors with Motown, Hendrix, Cream, Zappa. When we all lived together in San Francisco, the influence came heavily from Beefheart, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Mile’s Bitches Brew.

Click here for the rest of the interview.

Posted in Interview, Miscellany, Music | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Uh-Oh

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

muxtape - RIAA trouble

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

’56 Fender Stratocaster

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

For sale on eBay, opening bid US $34,995.00: the guitar that “influenced a teen Frank Zappa to move away from drums & vibes to guitar!!!”

Used and played by Wally in the Blackouts (Frank Zappa’s 1st high school band) this rare ‘1956’ Fender Strat was used regularly by Wally & members including Frank to play thru “The Blackouts” shows and “The Omen” band before Frank Zappa started “The Mothers” & “The Mothers of Invention”.

ALSO: ALL CAPS AND EXCLAMATION MARKS!!1!!

(Hat tip: Tim Haines)

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music, Pop Cult | Tagged , | 15 Comments

Zappanale: It’s A Wrap

Posted on August 18, 2008 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

…and therefor I’ve removed the banner above. Since we couldn’t make it this year — we really really wanted to though! — I’m curious to see if any pictures or video’s will pop up in the coming week. If you know of any, drop a comment. In the mean time here’s an impression of Zappanale‘s 14th edition:

On to the 20th!

Posted in Community, Frank Zappa, Zappanale | Tagged , | Comments Off on Zappanale: It’s A Wrap

Avatar Redux

Posted on August 17, 2008 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Back in May, I encouraged you to grab yourself an avatar and register it with Gravatar so that with every comment you make here, the image of your choice would show up along with it. Some of you did, but not nearly enough. Which is where this handy tool may be of service!

Here’s some Sharl and I prepared earlier:

balint avatarbarry avatar
sharleena avatar
urbangraffito avatar
magic fingers avatar
sofa avatar


In order of appearance:

  • Balint
  • Yours Truly
  • Sharleena
  • Urbangraffito
  • Magic Fingers
  • SOFA

Why not have a go yourself?

Posted in Community, Miscellany, Personal | Tagged , | 13 Comments

MST3K

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Eighties cult show Mystery Science Theater 3000, which had among its fans one Frank Zappa, has all its episodes available for download here in .avi format. (via)

Posted in Frank Zappa, Pop Cult | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Announcement about the Zappa Plays Zappa Fall Tour

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Balint

• Hand-picked intimate venues;
• Every attendee will be able to get a free MP3 concert download
within a week of performance;
• Hagstrom guitar giveaway at every show;
• Submit your song requests for each show.

Well, sounds good, if you ask me…

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music, YouTubery, Zappa Plays Zappa | Tagged , , | 36 Comments

Voodoo Child

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

When Tallan “T-Man” Latz was 5, he saw Joe Satriani playing guitar on TV. “I turned around to my dad and said, ‘That’s exactly what I want to do.'” Three years and countless hours of practicing later, 8-year-old Tallan is a blues guitar prodigy. He’s played in bars and clubs, including the House of Blues in Chicago, and even jammed with Les Paul and Jackson Browne. He has a summer of festivals scheduled and has drawn interest from venues worldwide.

The kid’s a genius. Awesome.

(Hat tip: SOFA!)

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Interview With Jimmy Carl Black

Posted on August 11, 2008 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

A few months back Just a week ago, Andrew Greenaway did an interview with Jimmy Carl Black. Despite health problems, Jimmy’s in good spirits, performing with The Muffin Men and recording with various other artists across Europe. Just one project he’s worked on:

The CD is called The Jimmy Carl Black Story. It is due out anytime. I basically went into the studio one night and told my life story. It took me about one and a half hours to do it. He [Jon Larsen – ed.] then used some blues players from Oslo and also some of the guys from the Strange News CD for the background music.

Jimmy won’t make it to Zappanale this year, but has already set his mind on next year’s edition. Which is cool, since Sharl and I won’t be able to make it there either this year, for reasons that we may well expound upon at a later date. Read the whole article here.

Posted in Frank Zappa, In Writing, Interview, Music, Personal | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Re-burnt Weeny Sandwich

Posted on August 10, 2008 by Balint

Fraz Knapp came up with a wizard wheeze to follow-up the unqualified success that was the 20 Extraordinary Renditions CD. And Cordelia Records is happy to do the biznis again. So I’m now liaising with 20 artists, asking them to condense the whole of the Burnt Weeny Sandwich album into a 3-5 minute piece – with as much artistic licence as they want. They don’t have to use a bit from every song, but at least something from their fave bits of this wondrous album. Once done, a knob twiddler will concoct a remix of extracts from the 20 resultant pieces to create a whole new 21st interpretation of the BWS album.

From the news section of The Idiot Bastard.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Re-burnt Weeny Sandwich