After many years away from the limelight, Shuggie Otis has gained lots of notoriety in 2013 as he's returned to touring and has seen his classic 1974 album Inspiration Information re-issued along with a disc of tracks he's recorded since that time called Wings Of Love. One of Shuggie's first big gigs was as bassist for the recording of Frank Zappa's legendary Peaches En Regalia track from 19692s Hot Rats LP. Shuggie and Frank spent lots of time together in L.A. and enjoyed collaborating [...]
In an attempt to save you (not to mention ourselves) from the general Monday-morning awfulness that tends to follow a lovely spring weekend, Flavorwire has compiled a playlist of indie/rock/generally guitar-based songs that are genuinely funny. These are 20 of the flat-out wittiest and most amusing songs we know - and we guarantee that at least one of them will make you chuckle. (Note: we're discounting actual comedy songs here, so no Lonely Island/Flight of the Conchords/etc.) Keep the hilarity going by adding to our list in the comments. [...]
Such is the curse of the esoteric, Cargo is pretty sparsely populated upon entry into the perfectly irrational world of Nashville lo-fi godfather R Stevie Moore . The deactivated confetti cannon shan't go spurting its load tonight although explosive onstage antics are seemingly sure to ensue, guitarist J.R. Thomason swigging liberally from Moore's bottle of red as he fiddles about with bits and pieces of obstreperous machinery. Naturally, this necessarily wacko scene is set to the soundtrack of James Chance's unapologetically demented Contort Yourself. And it's as its squiggly improv abates that Moore emerges in fairly unflattering [...]
With the rights to all of groundbreaking composer Frank Zappa ’s music back home with the ZAPPA FAMILY TRUST , fans can look forward to more freshly remastered music being released on vinyl. Last week (4/16), they released a vinyl version of Frank Zappa ’s Finer Moments , which was recorded in the early 1970s, but not released until 2012. Fans can find it on Amazon and it's available for stream at Spotify: In [...]
The good folk at Dangerous Minds are great at unearthing amazing YouTube rarities, and they outdid themselves last week with a 1971 performance by Ike and Tina Turner, which goes down in history as one of the most subtly filthy live performances we've ever seen — it's basically one long allusion to oral sex, with Tina spending most of her time doing very, very suggestive things to the microphone, and while Ike's ophidian glare still gives us the creeps, he does make some glorious slurping noises into his own mic. The crowd clearly knows exactly what's going on, [...]
Inspired by a release of composers and compositions influential to Frank Zappa and his work, Happy Puppy Records compiled a similar Creative Commons release for all ears. The Happy Puppy Records compilation is made of works by genuine mavericks of the world of 20th century classical music featuring works from 1899 to 1970. Regardless of one's opinions of Zappa, this is an important collection of modern compositions. Get Various Artists - The Classicality of /'Zəeppə/ [hpr049] from Happy Puppy [...]
The DHDFD's: French Fries - It seems that winter is finally giving up its vice like grip on us here in Chicago. There are birds chirping, suns shining, and there a few more degrees on the thermometer every day. Finally, spring is here, summer is nipping at its heels and I’m ready for another summer filled with great music and shows. On mornings like this, I get the urge to relinquish my seasonal depression, come out of hiding and greet the day. Accompanying me on this great day of returning to the outside world is [...]
Frank Zappa stuck his foot into the mainstream in 1971 when he appeared as a mystery guest on syndicated game show What's My Line. The episode aired on September 23rd and featured celebrity panelists Soupy Sales, Arlene Francis, Gene Rayburn and June Lockhart. Zappa emerges to a huge applause from the studio audience before Sales guesses who he is with surprising ease. Zappa, a longtime Southern California resident, had a few run ins with the more commercial end of showbiz starting with a 1963 appearance on the [...]
Pissed Jeans' Honeys BY JORDAN MAINZER Apparently they’ve been eating the yellow snow . Some of the best music of the past few months has expanded upon the wisecrack-heavy legacy of Tom Waits, Frank Zappa, Leonard Cohen, and The Modern Lovers. From lamenting about job prospects to apologizing for ogling women through punky, sarcastic humor, indie bands have lately avoided the self-righteousness that can occur when rockers explore "important" topics (in other words, these bands are even further from U2 in tone than in sound). [...]
We were fascinated to see yesterday afternoon that Dangerous Minds' latest YouTube discovery was... a vintage radio ad for The Velvet Underground. Quite apart from the fact that the ad in question is weird as hell, we were amazed by the simple existence of such a promo for a Velvet Underground album, and the whole thing got us thinking: If Lou Reed et al were getting plugged on radio back in the day, surely there must have been other, similarly unexpected slots? Sure enough, looking for radio ads for '60s and '70s bands turns out to be one hell [...]
Record Store Day returns on April 20th to independent record stores across this country and as we reported earlier Jack White will be this year's " Ambassador ." Today, the folks at Wax Poetic have given a preview of what we can expect in the way of exclusive RSD releases by posting a list of 144 Record Store Day titles that include releases by some of our favorite artists. You can check out the whole list HERE , but we've assembled some highlights... [...]
We here at the Dirty Bourbon River Show have been sifting through a bunch of old classic album covers this past week in an attempt to brainstorm the perfect imagery for our upcoming Volume Four CD cover, and along the way have unearthed some real gems we thought we'd thought you'd like to see ~ enjoy!:
I love Frank Zappa - I love him. His guitar playing is fabulous, his writing skills were out of this world, and he pretty much had a good vision about what music is, what music isn't and where it's going; he didn't really care about that much and did his own thing, but he knew. In this short video, he explains the decline and fall of the music business and comes to a surprising conclusion: the older, entrepreneurial "let's try this sh*t" generation was better for pushing new wave music that they didn't understand than the supposedly younger/hipper music executives [...]
Very early in Frank Zappa's career, way back in 1967, the soon-to-be legendary musician/composer provided the soundtrack for an animated TV commercial advertising Luden's cough drops. According to the ad's animator/producer Ed Seeman , FZ was paid $2,000 for his troubles. The ad went on to win a Clio award for "Best Use of Sound." Check it out... Click here to view the embedded video.
Tonight House of Blues will be graced by Zappa Plays Zappa, led by the late Papa Frank's oldest son Dweezil, who inherited some of his father's guitar skills. Zappa Plays Zappa is the preeminent ... Continue reading "Frank Zappa and Other Quicksand Artists" >
This is pretty self-explanatory, every year I try and get a quick snapshot on 1-Jan of the previous years' listening habits through Last.FM . 2012 was a bit different; I started using Spotify radio playlists, which explains how the Air, Mogwai, and Christopher Cross tunes ended up on the top tracks list for 2012, in the midst of a bunch of seemingly unrelated artists.
This happened a few days ago, but I figured I would wait a few days for the cluster of Christmas to settle down before expecting traffic on the site to pick up. Ray Collins , original member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention lineup passed away on December 24, 2012 after days of being in a medically induced coma I will always appreciate and remember Collins' falsetto contributions on Cruising With Ruben and the Jets , one of the earlier and often overlooked albums from Zappa and the Mothers; a full album [...]
Filed under: News , R.I.P. Evening Standard, Getty Images Ray Collins, singer and co-founder of the Mothers of Invention , has died at the age of 74. According to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin [via Billboard ] Collins was admitted to Pomona Valley Hospital in Claremont, Calif. on Dec. 18 after suffering a massive heart attack. Sadly, doctors took him off life support on Saturday, Dec. 22. Collins [...]
Mother Ray Collins, vocalist on the seminal Mothers of Invention recordings and a heavy influence on Frank Zappa during his formative period was found unconscious and slumped at the wheel of his van several days ago. All of us who knew him held a high degree of optimism that he would recover, but as of [...]
Even dead, Frank Zappa continues to push the boundaries of music marketing and sales, making the master recordings of two 1973 Roxy recordings available for purchase and even opening up the licensing of the recordings to allow for mass duplication and reselling. For a $1,000 licensing fee, fans can own a master duplication copy of the recording, which they can copy and sell for whatever price they'd like, with $1.20 per-CD mechanical royalty to be paid to Zappa Records. The proceeds from licensing these recordings will go towards the restoration and [...]
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Video: Kanye West – Black Skinhead / New Slaves (Live on SNL)
