Ray & Ike Reunite On Upcoming Project/Object Tour

Check out Project/Object’s winter tour schedule. Ike Willis and Ray White will be touring together for the first time in over 25 years:

The 1984 tour ended on Dec 23, 1984, Universal Ampitheater, Universal City. Since then, as you well know, Ike Willis has toured with Project/Object for nearly 15 years, and in that time Ray White has performed with us a handful of times in San Francisco and at Festivals around the country. Those occasions remain the only times these legendary performers have shared the stage since Zappa Tour 1984. Now… we bring you an opportunity to see them on an exclusive New Year’s/Holiday tour with Project/Object.

More at Project/Object’s wonderfully re-designed website.

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

The Rondo Hatton Report #1

As announced back in October, the inaugural edition of The Rondo Hatton Report is now available for download. Topics explored are:

  • King Kong: A Conversational Analysis — Paul Carr & Michel Delville
  • The Bard Of Baltimore — Kanguy Chow
  • Zappa’s Music Is a Sphere — Guillaume Dauzou & Sabrina Bergamin
  • Author/Recipient Relationships in FZ Movies — Manuel de la Fuente
  • My Dogs Are Barking — Andrew Greenaway
  • Trouble With Pigs And Ponies — Andy Hollinden
  • FZ And The English Language — John Loska
  • When Zappa Played Like Coltrane — Philippe Mérigot
  • La Dérive Uncle Meat — Didier Mervelet
  • Waxing Lyrical; Why I Love Frank — Sarah Moore
  • Isn’t It Romantic, Punky? — Simon Prentis
  • Frank Zappa Versus the People — Pacôme Thiellement
  • Are You Hung Up? — Hugo Vanneck
  • On “Oh No” From Weasels Ripped My Flesh — Ben Watson

Direct link to the PDF.

Happy reading, and happy holidays!

Posted in Community, Frank Zappa, In Writing | Tagged | 24 Comments

Phones In C

Posted in Music, YouTubery | 1 Comment

On This Day

Posted in Frank Zappa, In Writing, Zappanale | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Emil Richards About Lumpy Gravy

From a documentary by the Wrecking Crew, – originally found on Dweezil’s (relatively) new homepage. A nice story, huh?

Posted in Alumni, Frank Zappa, Interview, Music | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

The Jack and Jim Show

Eugene Chadbourne and Jimmy Carl Black – the principle members of the Jack and Jim Show – perform a cover of Captain Beefheart‘s “Dropout Boogie” (first clip, below) at The Pit Inn, Shinjuku on June 6th, 2008 (available on their CD, Pachuco Cadaver), and a cover of the song, “One More Road To Cross” (second clip, below) from their 2007 DVD, The Jack & Jim Show: Live at the Stone, NYC.
Continue reading

Posted in Alumni, Bizarre, Captain Beefheart, Interview, Music, Pop Cult, YouTubery | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Blow Your Harmonica, Son


See some more covers here.

Posted in Heh Heh, Insane, Music, YouTubery | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Tom Waits: Musik & Mythos Box

Kids, if you’re not into Tom Waits, I suggest you skip reading this entry altogether. If you are though — or if you like the way Sharl and I illustrate — you may want to read on.
Continue reading

Posted in Personal, Pop Cult, Visual Arts | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Anatomy of a Field Recording

One of the most interesting things about acquiring Frank Zappa field recordings is that after a certain point of collecting and listening to them, one reaches a point of critical mass where particular questions keep popping into one’s mind again and again. How would an earlier version of a song sound with a particular drummer? Violinist? Percussionist? Or from an ensemble from a completely different era? I mean, after a point, the sheer number of individual versions of songs becomes quite incredible.
Continue reading

Posted in Frank Zappa, Music, Personal | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Num País Tropical

Viva Daniela Mercury! Gentlemen: check out them legs…

Posted in Music, YouTubery | Tagged , , | 12 Comments