![MarVista[1] copy](http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/MarVista1-copy.jpg "MarVista[1] copy")
Any fan of Tommy Mars‘ improvisational keyboards and scat filled solos within such classic Zappa compositions as “Pound For A Brown (On The Bus)” or “Little House I Used To Live In” will absolutely love the four tracks (“No Forest Fire”, “Prison Bush”, “Bitches Castle”, and “Here, George”) which make up The Mar Vista Philharmonic CD, No Forest Fire.
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Donald Macleod explores the life of Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) in this five part BBC Radio 3 documentary:
1. Looking West | 2. Wartime in Hollywood | 3. Craft |
4. A New Method | 5. Return to Europe
RIP Michael Jackson. Believe it or not, as a kid I was a big fan of his music. Billy Jean! Beat it! Thriller! Regardless of the wacky behavior he displayed in later years, this is a sad day for pop music… Take it away Mikey!
Zappa’s Universe (the album and video of the same title) documents the big tribute concert thrown for Frank Zappa over four nights (November 7-10, 1991, although the footage on the album and video are from the first two nights), organized by conductor Joel Thome, who assembled the Orchestra of Our Time at the Ritz in NYC. Mike Keneally and Scott Thunes were joined by other ex-Zappa sidemen Steve Vai, Denny Walley among many others including Frank’s son, Dweezil Zappa.
Kuiper en Berbée perform Charles Bukowski‘s poem “The Machinery of Loss” at the Leiden Poetry Festival on June 7th, 2009, accompanied by a medley of music by Frank Zappa, performed by Renk Jan Vissers (violin) and Ton Schijvens (drums and typewriter). Kuiper (the woman)= Klaas Bolhuis, Berbée (the poet)=Wilco Maas.
Technician: Lamp Wouda.
As a writer and a Zappa freak, I can certainly dig this — I mean, who else hasn’t dreamt of playing the Black Page on their manual Underwood or Smith Corona?
A little something to ease your Monday blues:
We’re an indie label digging through years of demo backlogs day by day. These are some of the choicest gems we’ve received. We know that some people worked very hard on these, but also that sometimes, things just don’t succeed…
Take for instance, this particular gem entitled Making Love.
Anyone who knows me, knows my affinity for Big Band Zappa, so whenever I get an opportunity to hear Ed Palermo Big Band arrangements of Frank Zappa’s compositions, it’s a real treat. Today was no different, when I uncovered Palermo’s February 6th, 2009, show at Five Towns College, Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, Dix Hills, NY (with guests Napoleon Murphy Brock, Bruce McDaniel, and John Tabacco) available for download.
In the above clip, Tom Waits appears on Fernwood 2 Night, a parody talk show, hosted by Barth Gimble (Martin Mull) and sidekick/announcer Jerry Hubbard (Fred Willard), created by Norman Lear as a spin-off/summer replacement from Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. The show ran from July 4th, 1977 to September 8th, 1977. On it, Waits performs “The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)” from his 1976 Elektra/Wea album, Small Change.
Beginning his career as the guitar playing half of the 1950s rock duo, Don & Dewey, Don “Sugarcane” Harris, put down the guitar and picked up the violin after the lack of success for Don & Dewey. Recorded in 1962, and produced by Sonny Bono (yes, folks, that Bono), Frank Zappa has said that Don and Dewey‘s single “Soul Motion” (see clip above) on Rush Records was one of the all-time great R&B records.
Founded in 1996, the North Mississippi Allstars is a southern rock/jam band from Hernando, Mississippi, composed of brothers Luther Dickinson (guitar, vocals) and Cody Dickinson (drums, keyboards, electric washboard) and Chris Chew (electric bass guitar). Their song, “I’d Love to Be a Hippy” is from their sixth studio album, Hernando. In the above clip, the song is performed live “in studio” of WBBB (better known as 96rock, a radio station out of Raleigh, North Carolina).
Incredible how little time it took for a band to mythologize hippies. Perhaps this was what Frank was ultimately getting at when he composed “We’re Turning Again”?
