Zappa Chiptunes

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Check out 8bitcollective:

We love chiptunes. We want more people to make chiptunes and we want more people to listen to chiptunes. That’s why anyone can upload or download their chiptune-related media at 8bc.org.

What’s a chiptune?

A chiptune, or chip music, is music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in real time by a computer or video game console sound chip, instead of using sample-based synthesis […]

Here’s Peaches En Regalia, done the Chiptune way:
[audio:20100503_Chiptune_Peaches.mp3]

More Zappa Chiptunes:

(Thx Adam Irving)

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music | Tagged , , | 24 Comments

Mumford & Sons

Posted on May 2, 2010 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

You know that feeling when you hear a band for the very first time, and your immediate reaction is “wait just a minute — wow, this is, this is, really really good”, and you just have to park by the side of the road to have a closer listen? Yes? Here’s one for you:

Mumford & Sons. They’ve become wildly popular in Europe over a short period of time — wanted to share this with our American non-Euro friends.
More Mumford & Sons on YouTube.

Posted in Music, Personal | Tagged | 5 Comments

21 Burnt Weeny Sandwiches

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

The Idiot Bastard:

20 artists were asked to condense the Mothers Of Invention’s Burnt Weeny Sandwich album down to 5 minutes. Some succeeded. The results were handed over to Pete Brunelli, who produced a megamix – an excerpt from which provides most of the soundtrack to this ‘promo video’ for the 21 Burnt Weeny Sandwiches CD that Cordelia Records will unleash shortly to mark the 40th anniversary of the Mothers’ album.

More info here!

Posted in Alumni, Frank Zappa, Music | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Frank Zappa – WBCN Interview, 1978

Posted on May 1, 2010 by urbangraffito

Frank Zappa stops by for an after gig radio interview at WBCN-FM, Boston, MA, on October 26th, 1978. Zappa apologizes for his lateness by producing a tape from the mixing board of the start of the prior night’s show of “Persona Non Grata” from North Shore Coliseum, Danvers, MA, followed by an interview. Another piece of fantastic Zappa history.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Interview, Miscellany, Music, YouTubery | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Tunes, Treats & Torrents – Peach Noise

Posted on April 28, 2010 by urbangraffito

Ever so often a cover band comes along that absolutely impresses me with their ability to interpret Zappa’s compositions in fresh, bold new ways. The French cover band Peach Noise is one such band.
Continue reading →

Posted in Frank Zappa, Miscellany, Music, YouTubery | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Tunes, Treats & Torrents – Fattore Zeta

Posted on April 26, 2010 by urbangraffito

Italian band Fattore Zeta describes itself as a “jazz tribute to Frank Zappa” band. Their unique covers, interpretations, and arrangements of Zappa’s compositions – with their use of instruments in unexpected combinations – is really quite extraordinary (Listen to “Oh No” and “Blessed Relief” on their website). The band released their first album in 2006, entitled “(R)umori Jazz“. Their second, entitled “Dio Fa“, released in 2009, captured the band’s concert at Zappanale 19.
Continue reading →

Posted in Frank Zappa, Miscellany, Music, YouTubery | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Spam 2.0

Posted on April 25, 2010 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Hey guys ‘n gals! Just wanted to warn you of a new comment-spam technique I’ve come to identify here at KUR. The M.O. goes something like this:

  • Spammer picks a random comment from a past post/thread
  • Spammer copies said comment
  • Spammer pastes said comment to the same post, with a signature link leading to what appears to be a harmless weblog
  • Ignorant KUR moderator (moi, that is) approves comment
  • Spammer happy!
  • Happy spammer turns harmless weblog into dubious link-fest

Lesson to be learned: be aware of “new” comments that already look familiar to you — the author/spammer’s signature link will be a dead giveaway, as their sites all look identical. I’m monitoring this closely so it shouldn’t be much of a problem. Still, if a comment you wrote shows up again, signed by someone else: you’ll know what’s going on. Feel free to contact me when that happens.

Posted in Personal, Site News | 4 Comments

Echinda’s Arf (Of You) – In Rehearsal

Posted on April 23, 2010 by urbangraffito

This video sent to KUR via Andrea “HotRats” Rizzardo of four unnamed Milan musicians rehearsing Zappa’s “Echinda’s Arf (Of You)”. Today, Milan. Tomorrow, Bad Doberan.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music, YouTubery | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Zappa, Prague, & Prazsky Vyber – Then & Now

Posted on April 20, 2010 by urbangraffito

While researching tracks for the next KUR mixtape, I happened upon some historical footage of Frank Zappa’s visit to Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1990 – and a chance to reacquaint myself with the metal group, Prazsky Vyber, with which Zappa performed one of his last guitar improvisations, “Improvizance v A dur s Franken Zappou” with guitarist Michal Pavticek in 1991:
Continue reading →

Posted in Frank Zappa, Interview, Miscellany, Music, YouTubery | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Theoretical5

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Balint

Live, Absolutely free form improvisation @ lo-tek studios in beautiful downtown Mar Vista.

THEORETICAL 5:
Tommy Mars (keyboards, vocals)
Warren Cuccurullo (guitar, samples)
Arthur Barrow (bass)
Larry Klimas (saxophone)
Andy Kravitz (drums, percussion)

See all six of their videos here.

Posted in Alumni, Music, YouTubery | 24 Comments