Revised Music for Marimba and Orchestra

Posted on March 28, 2010 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

From Simon Boyar:

We didn’t get the whole thing and its kind of wobbly but here is about 2/3 of The World Premiere (2/20/10) of Frank Zappa’s Revised Music for Marimba and Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Haas with The NYU Zappa Pickup Orchestra.

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Yellow Shark Rehearsal – September 16, 1992

Posted on March 24, 2010 by urbangraffito

Although in obvious pain and discomfort (you can hear it in his voice) – in this five part, never broadcasted rehearsal footage, one can easily see the tenacity with which Frank Zappa approached all of his musical endeavours, and the sheer enjoyment he’s having directing the Ensemble Modern the day before the opening night of the Yellow Shark tour, rehearsing such pieces as “Food Gathering In Post-Industrial America, 1992”, “G-Spot Tornado”, and “Welcome to the United States” at Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany, on September 16th, 1992 (By the way, the dancer in Part 4 is Louise Lecavalier, a well known Canadian dancer from Montreal, best known for her work with La La La Human Steps).


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Cucamonga Era Recordings Re-released

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

This just in, by way of Andrew:

Crossfire Publications is making the first six of 32 download-only albums taken from Paul Buff’s recordings made at Pal Studios and Original Sound Studios available at CDBaby.com and iTunes (others companies will also get these albums soon).

Here are details of the first batch as provided by Greg Russo, who says: “It took more than three years of work to restore and master more than 400 recordings, but we’re almost there.”

Posted in Frank Zappa, In The News, Music | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

RIP Herb Cohen

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Herb Cohen, the tough, litigious manager and label operator who introduced such notables as the Mothers of Invention and Tom Waits during the ’60s and ’70s, died Tuesday of unknown causes in Napa, Calif.

He was 77.

Posted in Frank Zappa, In The News | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

The Don and Bunk Show

Posted on March 20, 2010 by urbangraffito

This just in via Andre Cholmondeley:

The Don and Bunk Show…on tour!!

THIS SUNDAY – for those of you in the Wilmington DE, Philly, Baltimore area — Don’t miss an amazing and rare show with the two and only DON PRESTON & BUNK GARDNER from the Mothers Of Invention…

These guys have been playing jazz, rock, and experimental music for around 50 years! They know what they are doing!! Do not try this at home — instead – catch their shows….. I’ve had the pleasure of touring and recording with these gentlemen, and there is…simply nothing like it.

The tour opens at SCHOOL OF ROCK in Wilmington DE, General Admission only $10.

Other shows…
The Don & Bunk Show East Coast Tour
Mar 21 The Garage-Willmington, MD
Mar 24 Bearsville theater Woodstock NY
Mar 25 Rongovian Trumansburg, NY
Mar 26 The Magic Room Boston, MA
Mar 27, Toads Place New Haven, CT
Mar 31, The Hi Hat Providence, RI
Apr 1, Sullivan Hall, NYC

BE THERE. BE SOMEWHERE. JUST BE.

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The Senate Committee Hearing Video

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Have you ever wanted to watch the entire testimony of Frank Zappa, John Denver and others on the PMRC hearings? Because since C-SPAN has opened its massive 160,000 hours archive of videos dating back to 1985, now you can. Say goodbye to the next five hours of your life:

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The Voice Of Cheese Revisited

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Those of you who’ve been hanging around here long enough will remember KUR’s The Voice Of Cheese project. It ran for a couple of months back in 2007, featured some great music created by you and generally got wonderful feedback. Michael Pabst, one of the participants, dropped me a note yesterday saying his band, The Research Institute, now has its own official homepage — do check it out!

Now then… This got me thinking about putting together a “round two” of sorts, where the same principles would apply: your music featured here, up for scrutiny to KUR’s 1000-or-so daily visitors. As with the first VoC, there would be no restriction on genre or recording quality. With this post I’m just testing the waters to see if there would be enough (if any) interest from you – yes you! – to send in tracks.

All in favor: post a comment or drop us an email. Let’s see if we can get this show on the road! In the mean time, why not browse 2007’s Voice Of Cheese edition to get your creative juices flowing. 🙂

Posted in Community, Music | Tagged , | 15 Comments

Chat Roulette Piano Improv

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Barry's Imaginary Publisher

Ah, the wonders of Chatroulette: advertised as “instant video-chat” with complete strangers, in my experience it’s mostly a place where young desperate men log on to, erh, yank their crank for all the world to see. That and loads of badly lit, pasty white fat guys with watery eyes wearing day-old underwear. Some fun to be had there too though:

(via Marco)

Posted in Bizarre, Heh Heh, Pop Cult, YouTubery | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

Panzerballett Blitzes Zappanale

Posted on March 15, 2010 by urbangraffito

Panzerballett is a German ensemble that uses “an innovative, hard ‘n’ heady mixture of jazz, funk and metal, crossing complex polyrhythms with metal guitar riffing, funky grooves and jazz improvisation”. In the clip above, from Zappanale 19, they perform a medley of Zappa songs including “Oh No”, “City of Tiny Lites”, and “Evelyn, A Modified Dog”. Check out their website to hear some their other musical works.
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Posted in Miscellany, Music, Personal, YouTubery, Zappanale | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Immaculate Voodoo Butter Mix – Part I

Posted on March 14, 2010 by urbangraffito

You name it, this KUR mix has it all: keyboard solos, synth solos, drum solos, sax solos, bass solos, trumpet and trombone solos, and, of course, lots of guitar solos – those hypnotically esoteric air sculptures of Frank Zappa‘s which so often levitated his listener into altered states of audio consciousness (albeit all too briefly so) that only a handful of his contemporaries could accomplish to any degree.

Don’t dare skip a single track in Part One of what I call the ‘Immaculate Voodoo Butter Mix‘, 121 various soundboard recordings between the years of 1975 and 1984. Part One will remain posted until April 15, 2010.

Now, let’s put on our headphones-to-oblivion boys and girls and prepare to sniff…

Click here to listen to the mix.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music | Tagged , , , , | 26 Comments