As with just about every post mortem Zappa release, some strange things are happening with the latest Zappa’s Halloween DVD-A release. First, and most awkward: there was (and is) no solid release date at zappa.com (you’ll have to excuse me for overusing the word “release”). Why the hell aren’t they promoting this over at the official place? Second: seems like you can’t buy it at barfkoswill at this time of writing. Well informed sources tell us that, about a month ago, the DVD was for sale at CDuniverse at about half the price you’ll pay now. Third: seems like you need one heck of an advanced audio DTS system in order to get the damn thing to play properly. Four (yet optional): the entire recording is only about 1:10h; when the actual Zappa 78 Halloween concert is known to well exceed the 2 hour limit. Oh, and Five: desperate Europeans: monitor this page.
Zappa Halloween track listing:
- NYC Audience (Halloween)
- Ancient Armaments (Halloween)
- Dancin’ Fool (Halloween)
- Easy Meat (10/27/78, Show 2)
- Magic Fingers (10/27/78, Shows 1&2, Halloween)
- Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow (Halloween)
- Conehead (10/28/78, Show 1)
- “Zeets” (Halloween) Excellent drum solo from Vinnie and Frank
- Stink-Foot (Halloween)
- Dinah-Moe Humm (10/27/78, Show 1)
- Camarillo Brillo (10/27/78, Show 1)
- Muffin Man (10/27/78, Show 1)
- Black Napkins (The Deathless Horsie) (Halloween)
One more thing: many fans seem to not have a clue where to buy this DVD; for those puzzled ones among you, check out this Amazon.com link.
I get the feeling this was sort of a “hobby” project for Dweez and his drummer buddy to see how this new technology would work. Now completed, the boys seem to have moved on to other parts of the playground.
I’m not quite sure how you found the above at Amazon. The best I could do with them was one of their Z-shops (16.95 + 9.00 s&h USD – NOT cheap). I passed on that one.
This DVD-A format seems to be confusing enough to retailers they don’t even quite know what to do with it if they have it. The one retail operation I know that does carry DVD-A’s, maybe 25-30 titles, keeps moving them from the DVD section to the audio section of the store, mixed in with the artisits’ CD’s, and then in a separate section. It might be a cool technology (Halloween is getting high marks for sound quality, if not for actual content, from listeners) – I am beginning to smell beta-max here, though. Someone once said, “Here we go again.” We’ll see…
The DTS site could shed some light on some of these questions.
One thing I noticed that might answer the show time question, is that with DVD-A discs, to cater to a few different players, the actual music may be on the disc in up to 5 different formats.
MLP 5.1 music tracks for new DVD-Audio players
DTS 5.1 music tracks for all DTS-capable 5.1 sound systems*
Stereo music tracks for compatibility with all DVD-Video players
Special menu screens and video extras for all DVD-Video players
Also an interesting article over on The Mix has a little insight into what exactly Dweezil is up to with the projects coming up.
FZ had mentioned a lot of tape degredation of some of his masters (the drum overdubs done for the early recordings when they mastered them to CD), maybe there was a problem, or maybe their recorded version of the show just sucked (or parts of it!). Just some thoughts.
Thanks Jason. This looks like a great article after a quick skim. I’ll give it a more thorough read when I get the chance.