Mallard on Rockpalast, 1976

In 1974, Bill Harkleroad (Zoot Horn Rollo), Mark Boston (Rockette Morton) and Art Tripp III (Ed Marimba) left Captain Beefheart‘s Magic Band to form the new band, Mallard. Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull fame), a Magic Band fan and friend of Mark Boston, financed their eponymous album, Mallard, which resulted in their signing with Virgin Records UK in 1975. A second album, In A Different Climate, was released a year later. On this second album, George Draggota took over on drums from Tripp, John Thomas took over keyboards from John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick. These two with Bill Harkleroad, Mark Boston and Sam Galpin were the band that toured Europe and performed the German TV Show ‘Rockpalast’ on September 7th, 1976.
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First Roxy, Then Son Of Roxy

Oooh look, a tweet from Charlie Boswell:

Roxy Tweet

Via @Weirdomusic.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Movies, Music, Official Releases | Tagged , | 26 Comments

Zappa Meets Dali

The Sancho Plan collective have created an animated short film entitled “The Black Page”. It is apparently quite an ambitious undertaking:

The Black Page is our first true interactive short film & by far our most ambitious project to date. Combining the highest quality musical and visual design, The Black Page is a new entertainment experience in which our live onstage band will control in real-time a cast of onscreen animated musical characters.

The Black Page Animation, Still

The short film tells the tale of a lost wanderer who stumbles into a surreal desert landscape, and learns that the door home can only be opened by an unusual guardian. “Frank Zappa meets Salvador Dali in this unique interactive entertainment experience.”

World premiere: 24th September 2009, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle UK.
More background here.

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Frank Zappa: The Interview Sessions

Available from Chrome Dreams:

Frank Zappa: The Interview Sessions

The disc contains:

…over 70 minutes of often hilarious but always thought provoking and stimulating interviews with Uncle Frank, during which he speaks eloquently on just about any subject thrown at him. From John and Yoko to the Sex Pistols, his political role in Czechoslovakia to his book, ‘The Real Frank Zappa’, among numerous other topics, this collection, featuring never previously heard recordings, will prove a delight for all Zappa fans as it reveals probably the sharpest brain in rock music at his very best.

Currently priced at £5.99.

Posted in Frank Zappa, Interview | Tagged , | 15 Comments

Beefheart Demos and Rarities

Long before Don Van Vliet was considered the Godfather of Punk for his avant-garde approach to music – it was first and foremost his unique blend of psychedelic blues that attracted me to his music. On these early demos, live recordings, and select tracks only found on his early albums (and nowhere else since) is the Beefheart sound distilled to its essential. Listen and decide for yourself:
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Son of Tweezer Glint – Part Two

Just when you thought KUR mixtapes couldn’t get any better. Monster solos. Interviews. Alternate versions. Cover versions. Proto versions. Live versions. Unreleased material. I bring you “Son of Tweezer Glint – Part Two“.

Savour this one slowly, it’ll be up for a month.

Click here to listen to the mixtape.

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

Slonimsky On Zappa

Slonimsky who? Nicolas Slonimsky.

(Via henningmusick)

Posted in Frank Zappa, Interview, YouTubery | Tagged | 2 Comments

Le Labostrophe Videos

Le Labostrophe is a fellowship between freelance audio/video freak technicians, whose goals are :

– To make available to present-day art makers an original & professional video and/or audio creation, in accordance with their own budget and complementary to their own creative universe;

– To combine on each project the most suitable human resources and work method;

– To contribute to display of artists offering an indispensable alternative to present culture;

– To cause an emulation among its members in order to create Labostrophe‘s own projects.
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Zappanale 20 – Highlights

I’ve recently come across a couple of highlight videos from Zappanale 20. The first (above) is of Project Object featuring the son of the late Jimmy Carl Black, Geronimo Black performing “Cosmic Debris”. The second video (below) is The Grandmothers performing “A Pound For A Brown”. Awesome live material.
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Posted in Alumni, Frank Zappa, Music | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Foutje!

Not suitable for the faint of ear.

Posted in Bizarre, Heh Heh | 13 Comments