YOU CALL THAT
NEWS?
(Hot Poop,
Lukewarm Poop…final 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.
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“We
are not groupies. You better understand that…I told Robert Planet CBE,
I told Sir Elton John, I told all those big guys…”
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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
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Zappy new beer, everyone: http://www.legalbeer.com/2008/12/lagunitas-crusing-with-ruben-the-jets
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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
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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.”
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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
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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.
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Project/Object featuring Ike
Willis, Ed Mann, Don Preston & Denny Walley will be playing a few
·
Here’s
the artwork for Warren C’s next album, now due for release from Edel Records in February:
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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.
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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.
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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
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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...”
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New seven page FZ article in LA freebie mag, Record Collector
News, here: http://recordcollectornews.com/images/RCN_1108.indd.pdf
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Jeff’s
bringing Vinnie
back to the
·
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
·
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
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“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”.
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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
·
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
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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
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The
Gotan Project have
released a live album that includes another rendition of their interpretation
of Frank's Chunga's Revenge.
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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
·
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
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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
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The Arf-Society
has released a limited edition two-CD set of the legendary Grandmothers reunion concert from
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Rhino has released the 'lost'
- 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.”
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Check this from the
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Curtis
Sherwood left
·
Cinefamily presented
Frank's The Amazing Mr. Bickford on
the big screen at the Silent Movie Theatre in
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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.
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The Open Fist Theatre Company in
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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
·
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
·
Bunk
Gardner says “Hello, boys and girls!”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seaZMjnv7KU
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