Category: Music

A Frank Frazetta of Frank Zappa

2012-08-16, 10:30 pm
Categories: Movies, Music, Stream of Consciousness, TV

Image: Portrait of the Master
Image courtesy of manosinhd.com

Caught the Rifftrax of Manos: The Hands of Fate this evening. It was great fun; all new riffs, plus two fun new shorts.

Also, it closed with this:

Back to the subject of Zappa: Zappa, because he appreciated things that were awesome, was an MST3K fan. Purportedly he once described the experience of watching the show and suddenly hearing a reference to himself as "unsettling". (Unfortunately I can't seem to find the interview where I originally read that at the moment...)

Go Ask Alice

2012-08-15, 10:04 pm
Categories: Music

Local boy Alice Cooper talking about how Zappa signed him for his first record. It's an incomplete cell phone clip, recorded in 2010, but it's good stuff.

He's a good storyteller; I catch Nights with Alice Cooper now and again.

And Finally...

2012-08-12, 9:45 pm
Categories: Music

The closing ceremonies are airing on NBC, and, to close out my theme of Zappa material tangentially related to the 2012 Olympics, I give you: Zappa music actually performed at the 2012 Olympics.

That's Bamboozled by Love and Whipping Post, performed by Sarah Knight and the Blue Stones on July 31 in Hyde Park.

It's a cell phone vid; the video quality's poor and the audio's worse. I don't usually post stuff in this quality, but hell, it's just too perfect.

Next I'll be resuming regular, non-London Olympics-themed Zappa posting. There's plenty more British Zappa to go 'round -- concerts, BBC docs, what-have-you -- but from here on in it'll just be mixed in with whatever other interesting Zappa stuff I dig up.

Goodnight everybody.

Hello Teenage America

2012-08-11, 11:02 pm
Categories: Music

Per the uploader:

ThisTownIsASealedTunaSandwich"1968 & & "Cosmik Debris"1974 BeeBeeSea tv UK 1993 Zappa at the Royal Festival Hall London UK 1968

I think that means the first section is This Town is a Sealed Tuna Sandwich at the Royal Festival Hall in '68, the second section is Cosmik Debris in '74 on BBC.

Now, I already posted that Cosmik Debris vid on 6/19, in a version that is higher-quality and does not inexplicably cut off in the middle. But I can't find a video that's just the Royal Festival Hall segment, so here you go. Watch through to 3:35 or so and then, if you really want to watch the Cosmik Debris vid, click on over to the better version. Or, better yet, buy the Dub Room Special DVD.

A Little Sinfonietta

2012-08-08, 8:03 pm
Categories: Music

A short doc about the London Sinfonietta performance of Greggary Peccary.

I always love stuff like this -- I feel like I learn something. Plus it's nice to see that people who understand music know that yes Frank was a legitimate genius.

Underwood Interview

2012-08-07, 10:02 pm
Categories: Music, TV

Embedding disabled; clicky the linky: Ruth Underwood interview. It's a chunk of a BBC piece on Zappa from 1993; it's from a program called The Late Show which, presumably, is entirely unrelated to the American Late Show.

(Although speaking of the American Late Show, I did watch a bit of a Zappa appearance on Letterman the other night. I may post it later but honestly I thought it was pretty boring.)

Channel 4 Zappa Obit

2012-08-06, 10:21 pm
Categories: Music, TV

Well, bit of a downer, but a pretty good rundown of the man's life and career.

Plus the anchor looks like Bill O'Reilly and is named Jon Snow.

Miss you, Frank.