Ani DiFranco may not be an obvious choice for an americana top ten list but to me, she embodies many of the qualities of americana music. ‘Puddle Dive’ was her fourth album which she released on her own record label (Righteous Babe Records) which she created when she was 19 years old. DiFranco has used her status as a musician to highlight social issues, human rights and does so while alternating between musical styles including folk and rock. ‘Puddle Dive’ is full of observations about American society mixing politically-themed missives with personal songs about identity and culture. Her experiences as a female musician and relationships are scattered throughout the album. The lyrics to ‘Willing to Fight’ sum up the album (and probably much of DiFranco’s musical themes throughout her prolific musical life.
“you’ve got your whole life to do something and that’s not very long so why don’t you give me a call when you’re willing to fight for what you think is real for what you think is right.”
Ani DiFranco takes on the tumult and anxieties of the current moment with her characteristic lyrical moxie and some of the lushest arrangements and finest vocals of her entire career.
The Dead Daisies, ‘Holy Ground’ made another personnel change for their fifth album, ‘Holy Ground.’ features former Deep Purple singer/bassist Glenn Hughes joins founding guitarist DavidLowy and relatively new additions Doug Aldrich (lead guitar) and Deen Castronovo (drums). They previewed new work over the course of 2020, including “Unspoken,” “Bustle and Flow” and the title track. ‘Holy Ground’ these tracks have appeared on Rock Charts and hundreds of playlists & digital radio stations around the globe. The album is set for release on January 22nd.
This album exudes an undeniable force that will please even the most hardened rock devotees.
Holy Ground is eleven tracks of pure unadulterated rock and is already receiving rave reviews. Moody, at times dark, powerful and rhythmic, the album raises the bar. Laden with chart-topping hits.
Glenn has this to say: “From the opening track “Holy Ground”, we were building a strong foundation. Each song has its own theme, full of drama, emotion and groove, all the way through to “Far Away” the autobiographical last song. We gave it our all, focused and passionate. Take this ride with us, maybe you’ll find yourself in the lyrics.”
The band can’t wait to play these songs live! When they hit the road, returning to the Daisies amazing line-up is the monstrous, hard-hitting, powerhouse drummer, Tommy Clufetos (Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne). So strap in, this is going to be one hell of a ride!
With Holy Ground, The Dead Daisies have ensured that they will no longer follow anyone. They stand, proudly, on Holy Ground.
Typhoon’s fifth studio album “Sympathetic Magic” is out now on all digital streaming platforms and available to pre-order below as Maroon-in-Yellow LP (ltd. to 500), Classic Black LP, CD, as well as in limited-edition bundles. Typhoon is a band from Portland, OR.
Members: Kyle Morton, Toby Tanabe, Dave Hall, Pieter Hilton, Alex Fitch, Tyler Ferrin, Devin Gallagher, Shannon Steele
My Dear Friend,
I hope you’re holding up. What a mess!, Small news in the big scheme, but we finished a record and I wanted to share it with you. I wrote all these songs while puttering around the house these past several months, because, what else was I going to do? The songs are about people – the space between them and the ordinary, miraculous things that happen there, as we come into contact, imitate each other, leave our marks, lose touch. Being self and other somehow amounting to the same thing.
Recording had to be adapted to the plague-times. I tracked the demos first and sent them out to the band. Then the improvised procession of friends dropping by my basement, one at a time, masks on. Other folks recorded their parts in their own homes with cell phone voice memos or GarageBand in the laundry room. Parts from the original demos remain intact. Like everything right now, it was all a little disjointed, but I think it came together in the end.
The record is called Sympathetic Magic and it’s a great joy to share it with you. To be honest, it’s a joy to share anything at all in these isolating times.
Yung have taken the long road to this second full-length. By the time they released their debut, A Youthful Dream, it felt less like a launchpad for the Aarhus four-piece and more like a culmination; of years of touring, of a multi-EP trajectory that began with Alter in 2015, and of a transition from a project chiefly centred around the song writing of frontman Mikkel Holm Silkjær to something more fully-formed. The upshot is, right when they should have been celebrating the opening of an exciting new chapter, they actually felt burned out. “It wasn’t that we didn’t like A Youthful Dream,” explains Silkjær. “We just weren’t quite proud of it.”
Accordingly, they took some time to gather themselves. “We were pretty worn down from a lot of touring,” says bassist Tobias Guldborg Tarp, “and there was a lot of banging our heads against the wall when it came to trying to write new songs. We had to step back and think about what we wanted to do as a band, and whether it even made sense to continue.” It was far from plain sailing once they eventually did regroup, towards the end of 2016, for more writing sessions; with Silkjær previously the primary songwriter, coming up with tracks that accommodated the polarised tastes of the individual members was a challenge. Guitarist Emil Zethsen takes his melodic cues from Prince and eighties pop; at the other end of the spectrum, drummer Frederik Nybo Veile is an avowed metalhead. “It was a struggle,” recalls Zethsen. “The four of us rarely agree on anything.”
Eventually, the breakthrough came. ‘Lust and Learning’ is a fizzing synergy of each of the four’s musical predispositions; chiming guitars from Zethsen, a strutting bassline from Guldborg Tarp and soaring backing vocals on the chorus accompany Silkjær as he spins a wistful tale of small-town inertia. It provided the spark for the sessions that birthed the nine tracks comprising Ongoing Dispute, the first Yung record in nearly five years and a compelling argument for the importance of taking your time. Following on from last September’s ‘Progress’ 7”, the album cleverly melds Silkjær’s penchant for krautrock with Zethsen’s handsome riffery and finds room for all four members to bring their influences to the table; the sweeping punk thrash of ‘Unresolver’, for example, gives way to woozy, reflective closer ‘Friends on Ice’ at the back end of the album, whilst elsewhere, the freewheeling rock and roll of ‘Above Water’ recalls Japandroids, and there’s a moody, post-punk edge to the furious ‘Such a Man’. Underlining everything is the atmospheric spectre of Killing Joke, one of the few bands that all four members of Yung cite as an inspiration.
Silkjær acknowledges that, had it not been for the difficulties the band faced in the wake of A Youthful Dream, Ongoing Dispute might never have been possible. “When I listen to it, I can hear a lot of that tension,” he admits. “It was a time when we were struggling financially, coming back off every tour actually owing people money rather than having made any. I can really hear the frustration that comes with an unstable economy in the songs. It was just a big, dark cloud that was hanging over our heads for a long time. We felt as if things were not going our way, and those feelings really manifest themselves on the record.
There’s more to the stormy atmosphere that runs through Ongoing Dispute than that, though, as Silkjær can attest. “I did get my own head out of my ass, for a change!” he laughs. “In the past, I’ve always written about me, and my life, and things that affected me, but this time, I started talking more about things that affect everybody. I was thinking about the things that aren’t working in the world; there are songs about those kinds of problematic structures. There’s a song on the album called ‘Dismantled’; we had to dismantle our self-image as a band to move forwards, and I had to dismantle my self-image as a songwriter, too.”
Recorded over two sessions at Dreamland Studio and the tiny, now-defunct Studio One (so-called, Silkjær jokes, because you can only fit one person in at a time) and produced by the band’s regular sound tech Neil Robert Young, “Ongoing Dispute” is an ode to perseverance, collaboration and triumph over adversity. It represents the dawning of a new era for the band, the one that A Youthful Dream should have, and the title, says Guldborg Tarp, perfectly encapsulates the dynamic that has driven Yung forwards, out from under that black cloud. “Ultimately, that’s what the writing of this record was – an ongoing dispute. We come in to write and we’re referencing completely different bands, but every time we wrap up a song, we’re excited about it. It reflects the lyrical side of the record, too; it’s like the last few years of coping with the world have been an ongoing dispute for us!”
Yung is Mikkel Holm Silkjær, Tobias Guldborg Tarp, Frederik Nybo Veile and Emil Korning Zethsen
If you’ve heard anything about Teen Creeps, it’s that the Belgian three piece loves the 1990s. Their sound is reminiscent of bands that era, like DINOSAUR JR, SUPERCHUNK or SONIC YOUTH with fuzzy guitars, melancholic vocals and fast-paced drums. That combo hit home on their 2018 debut “Birthmarks” (PIAS Recordings), that garnered interest from UK press outings like Upset Magazine, DIY Mag, Clash Music and GoldFlakePaint. Even getting some four stare reviews.
But on ‘Forever’ they do not simply repeat the formula. The fuzzy guitars and angsty lyrics are still here on ‘Forever’. But Teen Creeps are okay with slowing down, letting in some more melody and overall maturing their sound. Closing track ‘Crash Land’ is the closest they’ll ever get to a ballad and their longest track yet. ‘Defender’, ‘Toughen Up’ and ‘Brothers’ also let in the feels and turn down the pace. “I think we just got a little more mellow as we got older”, says guitarist Joram De Bock. “I’m just less angry”, says vocalist-bassist Bert Vliegen. “On “Birthmarks’ I was fuelled by anger and frustrations, now I’ve learned to let go and accept certain failings I have. Because they will always be there. Yes, forever.”
After recording their debut in London with producer Rory Attwell (Veronica Falls, Yuck, The Vaccines), Teen Creeps stayed closer to home this time around. They recorded ‘Forever’ in Audioworx, a studio in the Netherlands, with their long-time friend and collaborator Jesse Maes. Ramses Van den Eede (drums): “Jesse recorded all of our early stuff and mixed the last record, so he’s a natural fit. Plus, it made the recording sessions a lot of fun. That’s something we want to celebrate in the artwork and title of the record. ‘Teen Creeps Forever’ is like a battle cry, but also a celebration of our friendship. We even put a heart on the cover. We’re not afraid to get corny.”
Indie rock from Ghent, Belgium. New album ‘Forever’ out now!
Firestations return with the first instalment of a new multi-EP project titled “Automatic Tendencies” and their first new music on Lost Map Records since the 2018 album The Year Dot.
Released on November 6th, 2020, Automatic Tendencies is the first of three EPs set to be released digitally and on limited-edition CD-R over a six-month period, embracing a mixtape aesthetic with each release including alternative “sunken” versions by the band as well as covers and remixes of new Firestations material by other artists. Band member and visual artist Laura Copsey has curated collections of special artworks that expand on the ideas within each release.
Over the last two years, Firestations have refined their brand of conceptual alt-pop, and new songs are concerned with identity, belonging, progress and escapism. ‘Small Island’ is about finding ways to embrace an inclusive islander mentality when the dominant narrative seems to be stuck in slow motion or on repeat – the languorous but insistent groove providing the perfect “road-to-nowhere-fast” backdrop. It’s accompanied by a video from award-winning animator Jack Alexandroff, featuring striking time-lapse footage of clay statues melting, islands dissolving into seas of milk and watercress growing from clenched fists.
The first track on the Automatic Tendencies EP ‘New Device’ begins with a hooky synth line and moves along quickly, but hints also at a kind of fatigue and disillusionment with the progress on offer. With ‘Bedford Levels’ and ‘Greenmount’, songwriter Mike Cranny looks closer to home and examines ambivalent feelings towards his own sense of belonging and identity, and the pitfalls of outsiderness coupled with directionless escapism. Musically, the former has echoes of pastoral/ambient end kosmische, all gently nagging synth and light drum machine pulse, while the latter highlights the band’s deftness, a just-too-slow-to-disco chug with the subtlest interjections of Nile Rodgers-esque guitar. Last track ‘Just For A While’ offers a meditation on travelling, and the quiet joys of moving on towards infinite possibilities. It’s a reflective journey, punctuated by keyboard ripples and bent-note guitar twang. With this first offering in the Automatic Tendencies EP project, the band show a clear intent for their music – combining “big ideas” and pop songs in a new and unique way; this is the challenge that keeps them evolving.
About the art collections accompanying the Automatic Tendencies EPs, Laura Copsey writes the following:
“The music Firestations make together and the ideas we explore, have increasingly influenced the work I create. Sometimes it’s hard to see where the music starts and the art stops, and this cross-pollination comes from the time we spend together as a band – conversations, in-jokes and influences that we agree or disagree about. The way we work has become increasingly process-led, which has always been how I work as an artist. This way of working together grew out of our previous release Dream Home, which was the first time my visual work was so connected with the music.
“The songs on Automatic Tendencies reflect on ideas of cultural identity and belonging. A tendency for repetition, a desire to escape, but also a strong connection to place and the shared experience of being alive at the same time on this small island. The contents of the art collection work alongside the music to create a sense of belonging, yet there is an ever-present awareness of growing insularity. The waters surrounding the British Isles are increasingly politicised – viewed as a border, despite being fluid and acting as a connection.
Karl Wallinger has approved vinyl reissues of World Party‘s all five studio albums, including the acclaimed “Goodbye Jumbo” (1990) and the 1993 hit “Bang!”. The other long-players are “Private Revolution” from 1986, “Egyptology” (1997) and “Dumbing Up” which was the last studio album issued way back in 2000.
World Party is Karl Wallinger’s band. Born in 1957, the man has been immersed in music since his earliest childhood, favouring keyboards but practicing many other instruments. His career as a musician began in 1977 when he joined the band Pax. However, it was in 1983 that she took off when Mike Scott recruited him to play the keyboards on the tour of the Waterboys’debut album. He participated in A Pagan Place, showcasing his talents as a musician and producer and then played a decisive role on This Is The Sea, going so far as to influence the sound of the Waterboys. Indeed, while Scott was moving towards minimalist arrangements, it was Wallinger who opened the band to The Big Music by diversifying the instruments and arrangements.
He impressed Scott so much that he will eventually include one of his songs in the setlist of This Is The Sea (Don’t Bang The Drum). As a result, The Waterboys being Scott’s project, he sees Wallinger’s growing influence with a slightly negative eye. In 1985, he eventually ejected him from the band and replaced him with Guy Chambers for the This Is The Sea tour.
He created World Party in 1985 and arrived at Ensign. The following year, he released Private Revolution, Recorded at Wallinger’s home in 1986, his debut album a pop, folk, soul exercise not completely completed but very promising in which he does almost everything: instruments, production. Almost, because he still involves two Waterboys members to help him: Anthony Thistlethwaite and newcomer Steve Wickham (integrated into the line up in 1985). That same year, 1986, therefore, on the side of MikeScott will, during a tour in Ireland, fall in love with the country and completely change his optics for the folk rock music of the Waterboys. More a Celtic, rock, folk, sometimes minimalist orientation. This change is also accompanied by a change of record company. The band will leave Island for Ensign, label of World Party. Between World Party’s first and second albums, Wallinger aided a young female vocalist Sinéad O’Connor in recording her 1987 debut, The Lion and the Cobra. O’Connor, then an unknown, had appeared as a guest on World Party’s first album. She would go on to appear as a guest on the second LP as well.
Scott, will still be inspired by Wallinger and credit him for writing the song World Party on Fisherman’s Blues. One can therefore legitimately think that in 1988, Wallinger is in perfect position to begin the composition of “Goodbye Jumbo”.
It’s a shame because with Goodbye Jumbo, Wallinger releases an immediate classic. The kind of record that, despite its flaws, goes through the years without taking a wrinkle. In addition to the themes discussed, all are rather universal (love, nature, joy, disappointment, alienation by images, fear of the future), Goodbye Jumbo sweeps through all popular musical styles with an exceptional accuracy and talent. Whether he imprints on the Stones (the choruses of Way Down Now),the Beatles (Put The Message In The Box, the lyrics of Thank You World), to Prince (this voice perched high on the very soulful Ain’t Gonna Come or the funky Show Me To The Top), whether he’s doing poignant ballads (the magnificent And I Fell Back Alone),melancholic pop at will (When The Rainbow Comes),hits(Put The Message, Way Down Now),the Scotsman just aims and touches the heart to almost every song. It’s quite simple, once you’ve put your ears in the gear, it’s almost impossible to get rid of it. Wallinger collaborated with fellow songwriter Guy Chambers on some of the tracks. Goodbye Jumbo was voted “album of the year” by Q magazine and was nominated for a Grammy Award for “best alternative music performance” in the US.
Especially since Wallinger, as the perfect sound wizard that he is, thought Goodbye Jumbo for each song the optimism of Thank You World will contrast with the dull anxiety of Is It Too Late(last and first track of the album), the melancholy of And I Fell Back Alone to the lightness of Take It Up(last track of the face A and first of the B-side), Ain’t Gonna Come and Show Me To The Top will be two different re-readings of Prince (the first will see the very melancholy If I Was Your Girlfriend.
After the 1991 EP “Thank You World”, Wallinger recruited guitarist David Catlin-Birch and ex-Icicle Works drummer Chris Sharrock as fully-fledged members for 1993’s album “Bang!” It reached no. 2 in the UK Albums Chart, with the track, “Is It Like Today?” hitting the UK Singles Chart also becoming a moderately successful single in europe.
All the albums will be issued on 180g black vinyl and “Dumbing Up” (which will be a 2LP set) sees its debut on the format. The schedule is roughly one release a month, starting with Private Revolution in February. Self-produced and largely self-played by sixties-obsessed Wallinger, World Party has essentially been Karl’s solo project since he left The Waterboys in 1986. ‘They’ released an impressive run of singles in the late eighties and early nineties including ‘Ship Of Fools’, ‘Message in the Box’, ‘Way Down Now’ and ‘Beautiful Dream’ most of which failed to chart, although the sublime ‘Is It Like Today?’ did creep into the UK top 20 helping Bang! reach an impressive and unlikely number two position in the British album charts. ‘She’s The One’ from Egyptology was covered by Robbie Williams and reached number one in 1999.
It doesn’t look like there’s any CD reissues to go with the vinyl and anyone expecting some deluxe editions is probably out of luck. He also doesn’t like greatest hits, only grudgingly releasing 2007’s Best in Show in the USA and Australia when told he needed something to support the tour.
Their fourth album, “Egyptology” (1997), written following the death of Wallinger’s mother, was commercially unsuccessful, although “She’s the One” won an Ivor Novello Award and was subsequently recorded by Robbie Williams. Sharrock left the group after the recording of this album, leaving Wallinger on his own. Wallinger took a three-year break from World Party, before the release of “Dumbing Up” in 2000. However, in February 2001 he suffered an aneurysm that left him unable to speak. After a five-year rehabilitation, in 2006 Wallinger re-emerged onto the scene. With his back catalogue reclaimed from EMI, a distribution deal was agreed (via his own Seaview label) with Universal Music.
These release supposedly will be remastered, even though Karl also told us “I’m not really in to remastering tracks we’ve heard before, I don’t really agree with that”. We’ll confirm when that information is forthcoming. All the albums are great, but Goodbye Jumbo is probably World Party’s masterpiece, wonderful catchy pop songs, beautifully recorded, exhibiting a brilliant mesh of influences (Prince, Beatles etc.) and lyrically powerful with a hippy heart delivering messages around ecology and love.
The reissue campaign starts with Private Revolution due on 26th February 2021 and moves through the albums every three or four weeks. These are issued on Karl’s own Seaview label. Bang! has the ‘new’ cover art from 2000, which is a bit of a shame. I can’t find any pre-order links for Egyptology, yet.
Private Revolution (1986) is the first album by the British band World Party – originally released in 1987. It features the hit singles “Ship Of Fools,” “All Come True,” and “Private Revolution.” This is a new 180-gram audiophile re-issue LP. It has been out of print on vinyl for years in the US.
Goodbye Jumbo (1990) Bang! (1993) Egyptology (1997) Dumbing Up (2000)
Australian four-piece Flyying Colours are set to release their sophomore album ‘Fantasy Country’ on the 19th February via London-based independent label, Club AC30. Taking inspiration from the early 90s UK psych/shoegaze scene, ‘Fantasy Country’ is rich in sonic texture and shimmering atmospherics with a heavy dose of melody.
Formed in 2011 by school friends Brodie J Brümmer and Gemma O’Connor, Flyying Colours released their debut single ‘Wavygravy’ in 2013 with a self-titled EP following later that year. Honing their explosive sound on the Melbourne live scene and picking up numerous accolades along the way, the ‘ROYGBIV’ EP followed which received heavy rotation across worldwide radio including BBC Radio 6 Music and KEXP.
Having released their critically acclaimed debut album ‘Mindfullness’ in 2016, Flyying Colours have spent much of their time on the road with headline shows across the UK and Europe. “While it’s been a long time seemingly between records it doesn’t feel like that so much for us. We have previously been able to throw ourselves into recording over a period of time, however with this record was about creating that time in between touring and life. We are real people who work to pay our rent and to be able to go on tour,” says Brümmer.
From the swooning, sludgy ‘Goodtimes’ and urgent noise-fest of ‘Big Mess’, to the gorgeous melodic pop of ‘OK’, Flyying Colours look to redefine noise within the context of pop music. Elsewhere, ‘It’s Real’ is perfect, summery dreampop while the crushingly loud ‘White Knuckles’ and chugging ‘Boarding Pass’ is a hazy, echo-laden spaced-out affair.
“This album was supposed to now be 6-12 months old. We take touring and supporting our music live pretty seriously so it would have been very difficult for us to put out this album during the early stages of the pandemic. We are very lucky to be in Australia right now where shows are starting up again, and we of course hope to be touring internationally again soon,” says Brümmer.
Flyying Colours have toured with Johnny Marr, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Black Angels and A Place to Bury Strangers and are set to return to the UK in 2021 with a 7-date April tour.
Flyying Colours is Brodie J Brümmer, Gemma O’Connor, Melanie Barbaro and Andy Lloyd-Russell.
Paul Jacobs, drummer from the Montreal indie rockers Pottery, is continuing his own musical efforts with new single “Half Rich Loner” off of his first album “Pink Dogs on the Green Grass” which will be out April 30th. With the touring world shutting down, Paul had the chance to put the finishing touches on this new record. The song saunters in with a very cool guitar lick before the drums kick in and we get some rambling psychedelic sounds swirling and tangling with the music. Paul begins to sing and it seems the title character is pretty lost in what they should be doing with their life.
I feel there is going to be many of these types of songs coming in the coming months, but I don’t know if they are going to swing like this does. The song has British Invasion vibes circa 1966 just as old school rock and roll was changing into a bigger sound
There was no one quite like Frank Zappa. He sucked the expected seriousness right out of rock ’n’ roll and triumphantly turned the genre on its head, injecting comedy and fusing other genres to it, like pop, jazz, psychedelia, proto-metal and more. He recorded more than 60 albums throughout his career as a solo artist and with his band, the Mothers of Invention, and he produced nearly all of them. A man who wore many hats, he also directed films, music videos and designed album artwork.
For Frank Zappa fans, his multi-night run at The Palladium in New York City back in October of 1977 is the stuff of legend. It came in the midst of one of the guitarist/composer’s most fertile creative periods, which would yield a dozen live and studio albums over the next five years as well as the feature film Baby Snakes, built from footage captured at one of these vaunted Halloween shows in ‘77. These performances were also a showcase for what is arguably Zappa’s best backing band of his lengthy career, an ensemble that boasted future Talking Heads/King Crimson member Adrian Belew on guitar, percussion master Ed Mann and, most crucially, the outrageously talented drummer Terry Bozzio.
The Zappa Family Trust is unleashing “Halloween ‘77″, the full performances from this small residency at The Palladium via a wonderfully-designed boxed set that includes a kitschy ‘70s-style costume (plastic Frank Zappa mask, plastic pull over top) and all the audio on a USB stick made to look like a candy bar. It’s charming as all get out, aimed directly at the hearts and bank accounts of (are they any other kind?) FZ super fans. There’s also a truncated three CD version for those not wishing to expend that much dough.
For the casual listener, it’s a lot to take in. The complete audio runs to just under 16 hours, and almost all the shows feature the same set list. The music, too, can be plenty imposing. Zappa’s compositions are full of quick time signature shifts, executed with almost rigid yet limber precision by a very well rehearsed band. The songs themselves are dizzying, braiding together jazz, psychedelia, proto-metal and contemporary classical. There are enough pop-style hooks to draw you in, but you’d better be prepared to hold on tight.
Zappa fans are more than familiar with his October 1977 residency at New York’s Palladium Theater. Zappa produced and directed a feature film around these shows called “Baby Snakes”, featuring backstage tomfoolery and stop-motion clay animation, as well as a live album box set, titled Halloween ‘77: The Palladium, NYC.
If you’re unfamiliar with Zappa’s work, it might be a little off-putting to listen to him invite audience members on stage to whip each other or delight in the uncomfortable sexual oddities of “Bobby Brown Goes Down,” the weird gay panic wrapped in “Punky’s Whips” or the tittering reference to mooning people in the title of instrumental “Pound For A Brown”...Luckily, much like the discomforting stage banter within, the music overshadows all of that nonsense. Especially when it is presented with such care and wit as with this set.
There’s also the matter of his conservative outlook, which peppers these performances, particularly the first show of the set, recorded on October 28th. In his intro to the song “Flakes,” he says, “This is a song about people who don’t do what they’re supposed to do. There’s a large concentration of these denizens in the state of California. The problem, simply stated, is that everybody who moves to California, moves there to collect unemployment or welfare or both.” He also makes clear what he thinks of his main character in “Bobby Brown,” calling him a “schmuck” for being “the first guy in town to say ‘Ms.’” Whether Zappa truly believed those things or not or was aiming for provocation, the cheers of the New York crowd in response is off-putting enough.
For those folks acutely familiar with the Zappa canon, this is the kind of treat you want someone to drop in your candy bag. All of the shows sounds spectacular. Working off of some great source material, the remixing and remastering work, overseen by Ahmet Zappa and Joe Travers, shows off each instrument with precision and clarity. There’s added allure here with the inclusion of rarely heard live tracks like the leisurely instrumental version of “Conehead” (a showcase for a particularly effusive solo by Zappa), a premiere of future single “Dancin’ Fool” and the only live performance of “Jewish Princess.” I can also see some fans debating over which epic version of “Wild Love” (each one ranges between 24 and 28 minutes in length) is the best or which Bozzio drum solo reigns supreme (I’m partial to the double kick drum-heavy antics of the first show on October 29th).
This Halloween-themed release comes along at a strange time for the Zappa family. Ahmet and Dweezil continue to fire off furious open letters to one another, and just as they keep reissuing FZ’s work in new formats, including freshly cut vinyl remasters, they’re going to attempt to bring the man himself back on tour via hologram. Those odd turns could tarnish this somewhat for long time supporters or leave a sour taste for someone looking to dive into this expansive body of work for the first time. Luckily, much like the discomforting stage banter within, the music overshadows all of that nonsense. Especially when it is presented with such care and wit as with this set.
Players:
Frank Zappa – Guitar, Vocals
Adrian Belew – Guitar, Vocals
Tommy Mars – Keyboards, Vocals
Peter Wolf – Keyboards
Ed Mann – Percussion
Patrick O’Hearn – Bass, Vocals
Terry Bozzio – Drums, Vocals
The Fat Angel Sings 