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(Hot Poop, Lukewarm Poopfinal poop)

                                                                                                                    

(Last updated 4 January 2009)

Hot Poop

 

 

 

·        I assume many of you see this stuff on YouTube, but...the Mothers rehearsing in Sydney in June 1973, Joel Thome conducting The Shalom BSAL Orchestra with some very special guests in 1997, and Mauraxe fingerpicking his way to Cleveland are all goodies - that Gail will hopefully not get removed too soon.

 

·        “We are not groupies. You better understand that…I told Robert Planet CBE, I told Sir Elton John, I told all those big guys…”

 

·        As well as the Lumpy Money hold up, there have been delays in making the free MP3 downloads available from the ZPZ You Can’t Fit On Stage Anymore shows - Dweezil having underestimated the huge amount of work involved in getting the sonic quality of these just right. Well, his efforts are now paying off, as can be heard from this audio stream of Bamboozled By Love from the 17 October 2008 Chicago show on nugs.net.

 

·        Zappy new beer, everyone: http://www.legalbeer.com/2008/12/lagunitas-crusing-with-ruben-the-jets

 

·        Eddie Jobson‘s new band, UKZ, is to release its debut EP entitled Radiation on 6 January. This will be INTERNET ONLY (with the actual CD/EP release to worldwide retail following in March). See the video for the title track now on YouTube. The band - which also features Trey Gunn and Marco Minnemann – plays its debut concert on Saturday 24 January 2009 in New York City. More details can be found at www.ukzband.com

 

·        Seems Gail has been getting her henchmen to write to Internet Service Providers asking them to get their users to 'cease and desist infringement of copyrights owned exclusively by the Zappa Family Trust'. Jerry Scroggin (owner of Bayou Internet and Communications)’s response asked for their billing information 'so we can have a contract signed and full understanding of what I do. If you want me to work for you, you should expect to pay.’  Says Scroggin: “They have the right to protect their music, but they don’t have the right to tell me I have to be the one protecting it. I don’t want anyone doing anything illegal on my network, but we don’t work for free.”

 

·        ZPZ bassist Pete Griffin: "As you may have heard, Zappa Plays Zappa has been nominated for a Grammy. We're in the Best Rock Instrumental category for our live performance of Peaches En Regalia. Seeing as how I've always felt this song was three and half minutes of compositional genius, and that we painstakingly dissected the original recording to reproduce it live, I think we may have a decent chance of winning. The Roxy shows were a total blast, over 12 hours of Zappa music in 4 nights. Hopefully the footage we filmed on Friday will turn out well, it'll be interesting to see it in comparison to the footage of Frank at the same venue 35 years earlier." I'll probably be dead before I get a chance to compare it…

 

·        Some great new live videos of Keneally-Minnemann-Beller at http://www.kmblive.com/video.html

 

·        An XMASage from Bob & Thana Harris: Nate is almost 19, and he's just finished a punk rock album that'll be released on 24 February 2009. His band's name is Minor Authority. In the meantime, he re-recorded the vocal track for Nuttin' for Xmas and is offering it as a free download to his fans. We're getting the word out about him to any interested Zappa fans, especially the ones who met him at Zappanale in 2002. Therefore, here are some links: his record label and link to his free download Nuttin' for Xmas by Minor Authority http://www.popsweatshop.com/. His MySpace www.myspace.com/punksideup. Bob is in AXE, which is scheduled to do some dates for our troops in Iraq and Kuwait this spring. He is also teaching voice.”

 

·        Aynsley Dunbar is "excited to announce that my first solo CD in many years has just been released. This CD features many of the biggest rock and blues musicians in the industry today. There are some new songs and some surprises in there for some of you Journey and Zappa fans." It features his cover of Chunga's Revenge.

 

·        Project/Object featuring Ike Willis, Ed Mann, Don Preston & Denny Walley will be playing a few US dates in Jan/Feb 09…and P/O with Ike, Don and other special guests still TBA will play Zappanale #20 in Germany next August. Looks like the Arf Society is really pushing the boat out for the 20th edition of the festival – all being well, you should get to meet all of the actual people who recorded your fave Zappa-music – as well as Ike and Don, they should be joined by: Napoleon Murphy Brock; Denny Walley; Robert Martin; Roy Estrada; Terry Bozzio; and Peter Wolf. And also: Mats & Morgan and Sheik Yerbouti. How good is that?

 

·        Here’s the artwork for Warren C’s next album, now due for release from Edel Records in February:

 

 

·        They’re playing excerpts from Lumpy Money on Zappa Radio from a 30 minute promo CD. Track listing is as follows: Lumpy Gravy (Primordial): Mvt 1 – Sink Trap/Absolutely Free (1968 mono mix)/Lumpy Gravy (excerpt – 1984 UMRK digital remix)/Lonely Little Girl – The Single/Section 8, Take 22/Concentration Moon (1968 mono mix)/“What’s Happening of the Universe”/Mother People (1984 UMRK digital remix)/The Idiot Bastard Son (Instrumental)/Flower Punk (1984 UMRK digital remix)/Creationism/Lumpy Gravy (Primordial): Mvt IX – Teen-Age Grand Finale.

 

·        Derek at the Radar Station kindly sent me this link to a drawing/collage done by FZ when he was 18 that’s for sale on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com:80/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=120344291145. Would make a nice Christmas prezzie for someone.

 

·        Mike Keneally has put together a special little holiday presentation sort-of-preview of his upcoming Scambot CD (The Scambot Holiday Special). Says Mike "I've been obsessively listening to [FZ's] music in the car for several months without being specifically conscious of the upcoming significance of December 4, but when I realized what day it was, I was struck by how strongly Frank's presence has been exerting itself in my life lately. Sending out strong love and gratitude to Frank right now. Possibly as a result of all that, I think he had an unusually strong influence on the construction of The Scambot Holiday Special. It's about fourteen-and-a-half minutes long; five tracks, with tracks 1, 3 and 5 acting as framing devices for tracks 2 and 4, which are full-length studio recordings of the songs Holiday Face and Salve-Dependent Scorpions. Tracks 1, 3 and 5 are twisted little combinations of electronic music done on a Moog, other added effects, and dialogue/narration/singing which advances a peculiar narrative. There's some heavy Lumpy Gravy and Läther influence in there. I can't help it, sorry." You can get this special CD-R free from Mike if you order $50 worth of stuff from Moosemart.

 

·        Coldplay have been sued by Joe Satriani, who claims the band's song Viva La Vida uses "substantial original portions" of his 2004 instrumental If I Could Fly. Satch is seeking damages and "any and all profits" for the alleged plagiarism. Check this out, and I think you'll agree he's on to a winner: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofFw9DKu_I

 

·        Watch Zappatika playing Wino Man here and Leroy there. Over Crimbo, the band will be planning and editing various concert video footage for the 2009 DVD release of live material, and also deciding on what numbers they will choose for the next album release (“hot on the stubby little tail of the Dodo Album...early in 2009”), which will be an album completely filled with  FZ tracks called Strictly Frankly.

 

·        Chrome Dreams has just released its Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention: In the 60s DVD. This documentary includes new interviews with Jimmy Carl Black (sadly, his last filmed interview), Bunk Gardner, Don Preston and Art Tripp, as well as contributions from Kim Fowley, ANT-BEE/Billy James, Ben Watson, journalist Richie Unterberger and Alan Clayson. It also features archive interviews and seldom seen live performances of Frank and The Mothers from throughout the 1960s. For the archive stuff, Chrome Dreams has used short clips legally, under review and criticism fair dealing provisions (present in both European and American copyright acts). This is definitely a cut above the usual Classic Rock/Edgehill stuff.

 

·        Bryan Beller is “doing a full-song transcription of Frank Zappa's Alien Orifice, featuring bits of an interview I just did with the one and only Scott Thunes...”

 

·        New seven page FZ article in LA freebie mag, Record Collector News, here: http://recordcollectornews.com/images/RCN_1108.indd.pdf

 

·        Jeff’s bringing Vinnie back to the UK this summer – see Bastard’s Diary for details.

 

·        See Terry Bozzio, Ralph Humphrey, Chester Thompson and Chad Wackerman in an exclusive preview of Drum Channel's Drum Jams - featuring the Zappa Drummers, at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ruB1JplOmTw

 

·        Fred Tomsett has sent some more poxy references” to FZ. This time, from comics: “Just finished Nevada by Steve Gerber with sensational art by Phil Winslade. Stupidly complicated plot, but what you need to know is that Nevada is a dancer at a Las Vegas hotel/casino, with an ostrich named Bolero. She oftimes pisses Bolero off by singing dodgy songs from the 1960s and 1970s, but after she is abducted by the laser beam atop the hotel (did I say this was insane?), in her, umm, 'altered state', Bolero appears to her with the head of her friend Bianca who asks 'How could you stand that hippie shit anyway?' Nevada replies: 'I grew up with it... When my aunt died, my mother and father brought all her albums home. My father hated the stuff, but my mother used to listen to it when he was at work. She knew the words to all the Beatles songs - she even liked Frank Zappa. Makes me ill to think about it.' Bianca then tries to persuade her to listen to some Whitney Houston…Absolutely brilliant, though the ending is a bit forced, but dead funny. Published by Vertigo comics 1999, or in volume four of the actual comic. And I think we mentioned in TD itself that some volume or other of The Sandman by the great Neil Gaiman has the poster from Francesco Zappa on the wall of some teenage bedroom. Several times.”

 

·        Adrian Belew has been blogging some more on the Summer bust up betwixt André Cholmondeley and Zappa Plays Zappa at: http://elephant-blog.blogspot.com/2008/11/life-is-very-sh-part-iii.html. ZPZ will play Bluesfest 2009 down under in New South Wales next April.

 

·        “The ghost of Frank Zappa keeps appearing in my dreams and bugging me to do mass overdubs on stuff from his catalogue.” Read all about it at http://www.sandiegoreader.com:80/news/2008/nov/12/blurt3/ and listen to the results here. (Thanx, mighty D.)

 

·        The latest on the ZFT v Zappanale: if the festival is to keep going, the ZFT wants the Arfs to report the name of the artists playing and the FZ tunes they plan to play. GZ then has the right to stop anything she doesn't like. Another court hearing is thus scheduled at the Düsseldorf Landgericht where, as Thomas Dippel puts it, “things are in good hands”.

 

·        Why, it’s little Roddie on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB4DejSAc5Y

 

·        Our benefit gig for JCB in the middle of a strange industrial site in London’s Canning Town was successful. Read more about it here. We raised over £1K. We had a raffle for some great prizes (kindly donated by the Muffin Men, Wendy Bannister, the Thurston Lava Tube, G&S Music and meself) that generated £155. You can boost the funds for Jimmy’s widow, Moni, by buying some download-only albums; Jimmy authorised Crossfire to handle the distribution of his solo output, and he approved these remasters in August: http://www.idiotbastard.com/News/JimmyCarlBlack.htm

 

·        Lots of you keep telling me about 200 Motels coming out on DVD soon. Well, it’s being released by a company called Intergroove, who also released the Zeppelin Live At Earls Court 1975 DVD. Enough said?

 

·        Schott Music is now the worldwide representative for Munchkin Music, FZ's orchestral and ensemble works for hire.

 

·        Dale Bozzio - a well-known animal lover - has been charged with animal cruelty in Ossipee, NH. Police say a dozen cats had to be put down after being found in Bozzio's home. She has pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanour counts of animal cruelty and will be charged with nine more. Her manager said Dale had left the cats in the care of a friend.

 

·        The Gotan Project have released a live album that includes another rendition of their interpretation of Frank's Chunga's Revenge.

 

·        Geoff Wills thought we might be interested to know about the recently published autobiography of the eminent American composer John Adams (Hallelujah Junction: Composing An American Life. The Autobiography of John Adams, Faber & Faber). Says Geoff: "He devotes three pages to a discussion of Zappa, and thinks that Frank was ‘very much in the lineage of our best social satirists - Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, H.L. Mencken and Hunter S. Thompson.’ However, he says ‘I was always uncertain about Zappa and remain puzzled by him.’ He thinks that ‘In comparison to what was being accomplished at the same time by other contemporary composers, his orchestral music was hardly more advanced than what had been around for half a century.’ This despite the fact that Adams has conducted a number of Zappa pieces over the years with groups like Ensemble Modern. He also talks about his colleague Kent Nagano, and Edgar Varese and Charles Ives."

 

·        And this in from Donald: "The Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra put on a concert tonight (24 October) in the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto Canada and they played Dog Breath Variations & Uncle Meat - Yellow Shark style! It was a ZFT authorized performance. TYWO, in its 18th season, ‘strive to offer a professional-calibre performance, providing their audiences with a wide variety of programming, thereby encouraging appreciation for and knowledge of wind band music in our community.’ The ‘Youth’ in their title means just that…these were KIDS!! PLAYING ZAPPA…CLASSICAL ZAPPA! And the kids ripped it up! If just one of them plays some more Frank and continues on the musical journey like we have all been on… Besides Dog Breath Variations & Uncle Meat, tonight's programme included pieces by Bernstein, Ticheli, Hindemith, Tschesnokoff, Von Weber, Grainger and Anderren, Ulvaeus & Anderson (yes, ABBA). The special guest was Kathleen McLean, Bassoonist with the TSO, who conductor Colin Clarke introduced with a quote from Frank. Frank said: ‘The bassoon is one of my favourite instruments. It has the medieval aroma, like the days when everything used to sound like that. Some people crave baseball…I find this unfathomable, but I can easily understand why a person could get excited about playing the bassoon.’"

 

·        Somehow missed this one: A to Z of Jazz by the UK's Fine Arts Brass Quintet (Nimbus Records, UHJ Ambisonic NI 5703) includes Theme From 'Lumpy Gravy' and Dog Breath Variations.

 

·        Rick Musallam and Colin Keenan are Mother Eff, combining vintage rock groove with infectious pop quirkiness for an effing righteous sound. Their debut album, Are We Famous Yet?, features performances from bassist Bryan Beller, guitar and keyboardist Mike Keneally and drummer Joe Travers. See more butts…er, just go here: http://www.myspace.com:80/mothereffmusic

 

·        The Arf-Society has released a limited edition two-CD set of the legendary Grandmothers reunion concert from 28 July 2002. The price is just 15 Euros, with all proceeds going towards helping Jimmy Carl Black pay his medical bills. Order now from press@arf-society.de to ensure you get your copy of this special set in time for Christmas. The album features Don Preston, Roy Estrada, Bob Harris, Jimmy Carl Black, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Bunk Gardner, André Cholmondeley and Glenn Leonard performing: You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here/Lonely Little Girl/Motherly Love/The Duke Of Prunes/Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance/Son Of Orange County/More Trouble Every Day/Flower Bunk/The Idiot Bastard Son/Village Of The Sun/Echidna’s Arf (Of You)/In The Sky/Silicone Hump/Holiday In Berlin/Big Leg Emma/Lonesome Cowboy Burt/The Eternal Question/How Could I Be Such A Fool/I Ain’t Got No Heart/I’m Not Satisfied/Wowie Zowie/It Can’t Happen Here/Honorary Membership/Love Of My Life/Soft-Cell Conclusion.

 

·        Drumbo's new solo album, City Of Refuge, was released by Proper Records in November. It features his former Magic Band colleagues, Bill Harkelroad, Mark Boston, Greg Davidson and John Thomas.

 

·        As mentioned lower down the page, George Duke’s new CD, Dukey Treats (released in August), features Napoleon Murphy Brock on two tracks. It also features Vinnie Colaiuta on another two.

 

·        Bruce and Walt Fowler, along with Albert Wing, are the featured horn section for two tracks on the new Lucinda Williams album, Little Honey.

 

·        As well as giving me one set to be raffled off at ‘A Concert for Jimmy’ in November, Wendy Bannister is now offering readers of this website a ‘credit crunch special offer': you can buy the Bath and Knebworth Frank Zappa commemorative box sets by paying half (£29.99) plus the postage now - and the set is sent to you immediately - then you pay the remainder four weeks later. Email info@rockmusicmemorabilia.com for details. And don’t forget to say the Idiot sent you.

 

·        Waxed Oop, the second Fast 'N' Bulbous album, is due out from Cuneiform Records in January 2009. If it's half as good as their first, Pork Chop Blue Around The Rind, it'll be twice as good as most other recordings released that month.

 

·        Wendy Bannister: “We have recently discovered, in an old bag of original T-shirts, one from the 1978 Frank Zappa Knebworth festival. We have now reproduced and it is available in all sizes from small to XXXL and is priced at £11.95.” Anyone interested should email Rock Music Memorabilia at info@rockmusicmemorabilia.com

 

Click for T-shirt image

 

·        Little Scotty Parker has produced another book: The Zappa Supplement One: A Box Of History And The Mud Shark Saga. “The book is a Supplementary Volume to my first two books, Hungry Freaks Daddy and Strictly Genteel, which are part of my Recordings Of Frank Zappa series (the third volume, Blessed Relief, will be out later this year). The supplement is divided into two parts: part one takes an in-depth look at the unreleased 1969 History And Collected Improvisations Of The Mothers Of Invention box set (greatly expanded from the previous mentions in the Hungry Freaks book). Part two is the history of the all-FZ bootleg LP label Mud Shark, which issued a number of now-classic Zappa LP bootlegs from 1979 up to its demise in 1981, following an FBI bust.” See here for more.

 

·        Rhino has released the 'lost' Chicago album, Stone of Sisyphus. Recorded in 1993 in the wake of a series of commercial successes, and originally intended as Chicago XXII, the album was conceived by the band and its producer, ex-Zappa keyboard player Peter Wolf, as a return to the early approach the band utilized in creating original material arranged with room for improvisation.

 

  • According to Dr Dot, just before the great Zappanale climb-down (see http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,573478,00.html), Gail had been busy "sending ALL of the Zappa alumni, including all of them that she has filed lawsuits against, little presents (remastered DVDs/CDs and cards that say "Thank you" and "Peace")...even Ike Willis, who just two weeks ago received his gift from Gail via his record label.”

 

·        Check this from the McKinney North High School concert, May 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5cC8pBeVpI&feature=related

 

·        Curtis Sherwood left Germany to meet his distant cousin, Jim, for the first time. Read his story here. And meet Curt’s dad. Lou, and Jim’s brother, Ivan. Says Curtis: “Ivan is THE man behind his brother Jim. Jim knows why. We don't. Ivanhoe is a one in a million.”

 

·        Cinefamily presented Frank's The Amazing Mr. Bickford on the big screen at the Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday 24 August. Bruce was in attendance for a Q&A after this rare screening. Then on Tuesday 26 August, at the same theatre, Cas'l and other unreleased BB films were shown. Bruce was once more in attendance to perform one of his "blues raps", with musical accompaniment by Gerry Fialka (the guy who used to ‘wrap stuff so it doesn’t break’ for Barfko Swill). Warren Cuccurullo was asked to participate at the last minute, and said “I could help out with soundman/p.a. if they needed it...playing would be an option if I had some more time...way too busy right now...I'm in the middle of building my home studio with Eddie Clothier...swamped with new gear to learn....all good though. I would love for Bruce to animate Think Kartoonz great no plane track!" Warren has been posting more 911 "TV fakery" conspiracy videos online. Try these: 9/11 Inside Out – “Wings Of Steel” and The Ma$$ Murdering Media.

 

·        Bassboy Bryan Beller's second CD, Thanks In Advance (featuring performances by Mike Keneally, Joe Travers, Marco Minnemann, Scheila Gonzalez and Steve Vai's violinist, Ann Marie Calhoun, among many other fine folk), is now out.

 

·        Spain’s most experimental guitar player, J21 (aka Joseph Diaz, who put together the Eyeinhand Sampler CD a few years back), has just released his great first solo album, Yellow Mind: Blue Mind, mixed and produced by former T-Ride, Snake River Conspiracy guitar god Geoff Tyson. The album's title comes from Don Preston and the disc features Trey Gunn, Graham Bonnet and Ed Mann. The CD can be bought from his website (www.lawof21.com) as a digital download, and the booklet can be downloaded for free from there also.

 

·        The Open Fist Theatre Company in California presented the US premiere of Joe's Garage, a stage production based on the FZ album. Directed by Pat Towne, the production previewed at the Open Fist Theatre on 18 September. Joe's Garage was adapted by Pat Towne and Michael Franco and featured musical direction by Ross Wright. The show’s producers have gained permission to put this on from the ZFT. Ross Wright is a.k.a Elvis Schoenberg, leader of the Orchestre Surréal - whose members include Don Preston's pal and some time Grande Mother, Ken Rosser.

 

·        Mondo Hollywood is now out on DVD. For those that don't know, this 1967 film briefly features FZ & the Mothers, Vito, Rodney Bingenheimer, and Bobby Jameson with his then girlfriend, Gail Sloatman. Check it out here: http://www.chaletfilms.com/dvd/395-Mondo_Hollywood_ed._Collector.html

 

·        Jack Bruce was intimately involved in putting together Can You Follow?, a 6-CD set spanning his career from 1962 to 2003, which of course features Apostrophe. Now here's an extract from a 1992 interview with Jack by Polish rock magazine Tylko Rock regarding his involvement in said track: "At the time I was recording an album with Carla Bley, far more interesting one...so Frank, whom I met earlier, appeared one day in the studio and asked me: "Can you take your cello and go to my session?" So I turned up in a NY studio with my cello, I'm listening to his music, pretty awful, and just don't know what to do with myself, and Frank says to me: "Listen, I would like you to play a sound, like this... whaaaaaang!!!" So I did what he asked me to do. Whaaaaaang!!! That was all. That was my input to Frank Zappa's most popular record! (laughs)" (Bear in mind that this was found on Wikipedia, which also claimed that Jan Molby was openly bi-sexual and that Ronnie Hazelhurst co-wrote Reach for S Club 7.)

 

·        The Ed Palermo Big Band is recording a third FZ tribute CD. Hooray! Should be out in May. While you wait, read Ed’s message about not using Frank’s name to advertise future gigs at http://www.palermobigband.com/index.htm).

 

·        Warren Hayes: "The first two Zappa records I heard as a teenager were Apostrophe and Roxy And Elsewhere, both of which really changed my life and my open-mindedness about music. I think the most important thing that we can all learn from Frank is that music doesn’t have to be any certain thing, it can be whatever you make it. He was one of those people who was just so good that he forced people to pay attention to whatever he was doing. He often said he would prefer to make instrumental records and the only reason he wrote lyrics and sang was because people demanded it, that the world didn’t accept instrumental music. So if he was going to write lyrics, they were going to be his kind of lyrics which I love him even more for. I had the pleasure of seeing Zappa at the Fox Theater in Atlanta when I was a senior in high school in 1978. It’s still one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen."

 

·        For all you Xbox/Playstation doots, Steve Vai has made his virtual debut in Activision’s Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock, which features the "guitar slinger’s reflective For The Love Of God.

 

·        Thanks to Kill Ugly Radio, you can now read some of the papers read at Les Fils de l’Invention's Grande Freak in Paris at the beginning of July here: http://www.killuglyradio.com/storage/ICEZ-3-draft_2008.pdf

 

·        Bunk Gardner says “Hello, boys and girls!”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seaZMjnv7KU

 

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