MORE PAUL DAVIDS AND DWEEZIL ZAPPA

-- info: Jérôme Munnier

ASTRAL HAWK MACHINE - ASTRAL HAWK MACHINE

• Astral Hawk Machine: Astral Hawk Machine
      (2026, download / streaming, --, bandcamp)
      (2026, cd, --, black widow records)

Psychedelic space rock trio Astral Hawk Machine has just released their first album.
The band features Jay Tausig (USA), Bridget Wishart (UK) and Santtu Laakso (FI), which makes it a nice international mix. 

To be more specific, "Astral Hawk Machine" is Santtu Laakso's project. He will invite different collaborators as Astral Hawk Machine continues.

Anyway, I enjoyed this eponymous release, even if only for (former Hawkwind) Bridget Whishart's vocals.

FRANK ZAPPA BOOTLEG PICTURE DISCS

I recently got hold of 2 fine Frank Zappa picture discs.
The first one is a counterfeit of the "Greasy Love Songs" CD, the second one is the "Zappa World Tour 80" bootleg picture disc

KISS MY JAZZ - IN A SERVICE STATION

• Kiss My Jazz: In A Service Station
      (1999, cd, Belgium, heaven hotel)

Belgian band Kiss My Jazz started somewhere in the early ninetees.
The collective featured Rudy Trouvé, Heyme Langbroek, Elko Blijweert, Jacki Billet, and many others.

The main object of Kiss My Jazz was to make "jazz-crooners" in the style of Chet Baker and Nat King Cole. Soon the music became more experimental and rough with lots of improvisations, and influences from bands like Rip Rag & Panic, Marc Ribot, Louis Neefs, James White, Pavement and Chet Baker became more obvious.

"In A Service Station" was the band's third and final album.

The opening track, 'Truckdriving Song', will give you an impression of what to expect.
Lo-fi experimental crooner songs.

DIEGO PIÑERA 4+4 - ROMANIAN DANCE

• Diego Piñera 4+4: Romanian Dance
      (2026, download / streaming, --, bandcamp)

Drummer and composer Diego Piñera's 4+4 octet combines a jazz quartet (sax, guitar, bass & drums) with a string quartet.

The liner notes explain:
At the heart of the album lies an ongoing dialogue with the work of Béla Bartók. Rather than paying tribute in a historical sense, Piñera approaches Bartók as a living influence. Romanian Dance features new arrangements of Bartók’s Romanian folk dances and selected string quartet movements, alongside reimagined works by Alexander Borodin and five original compositions. Bartók’s fascination with folk traditions, rhythmic complexity, and harmonic experimentation resonates deeply with Piñera’s own musical language, shaped by his Afro-Uruguayan roots and a lifelong engagement with trans-cultural rhythms.

The result sounds fascinating.
I love the beautiful melodies and the polyrhythms.
Superb.

"Romanian Dance" will be digital download / streaming only and it will be made available on March 18.
Recommended.

SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS - THE PHANTOM OF CANTON

• Soft Hearted Scientists: The Phantom Of Canton
      (2025, download / streaming, --, bandcamp)
      (2025, cd, UK, the hip replacement)
      (2026, 3lp, UK, fruits de mer records)

Previously available as a download from Bandcamp and as a shiny compact disc in several different versions, the Soft Hearted Scientists' "The Phantom Of Canton" is getting a vinyl release.
A 3 LP release, to be more specific.

The Soft Hearted Scientists (love that name) are described as:

A Cardiff based psychedelic collective with 4 core members and 2 floating members. We blend all sorts of guitars, vintage synths and organs, electronics and sound effects, real drums, percussion, (including household items) and electronic beats. The lyrics are sometimes cryptic and surreal but always grounded in reality.

I really enjoyed listening to "The Phantom Of Canton".
Retro / psychedelic / pop.
Check it out !

NEW RELEASE FROM THE FURIOUS BONGOS

Excellent news from The Furious Bongos !!

The Furious Bongos just released "Third Room Live",

Performing the music of Frank Zappa.

Don't hesitate. You want to hear this.

A MESSAGE FROM MIKE KENEALLY

from Mike Keneally's newsletter:

Dear,

 Asti spumanti!

I write to you from a brief patch of breathing space between the shows I just played with EDDIE JOBSON/U.K. REVISITED in Japan, and the shows we’re doing next week on Cruise to the Edge (Miami > Key West > Nassau). If tickets are still available for the cruise (and I just looked at their website and tickets do indeed seem to be available - see the screenshot from their homepage below, which boldly declares “Book now”), and if there’s a part of you that’s saying to the rest of you: “the world is absolutely insane right now, I can’t think of anything I need more than a five-day prog cruise...self, we’re goin’ to Miami,” then yes, you should come see us.

I can’t even tell you how much I enjoyed the Jobson/U.K. shows in Japan, with the incredible Marc Bonilla and Marco Minnemann in the band, and Keith Wechsler and Robert Frazza our brilliant crew, and the utterly remarkable Eddie Jobson, and how much I appreciate our legendary promoter Leonardo MoonJune (see attached screenshot of him and us backstage in Osaka) and everyone from Billboard Live and all the beautiful people who came to the shows – I mean, I could tell you how much all of that means to me, it’s not like I’m legally barred from telling you – it’s more that it’s hard for me to find the words. I’m so excited to play on the cruise next week and I send love and gratitude to all involved.
But hey, let’s not get maudlin here! LOOK:

EPIC 2011 LIVE ALBUM bakin’ @ the potato! IS COMING TO BANDCAMP FRIDAY!

ALL THE SONGS FROM THE WHOLE SHOW
    (with four songs previously only on the DVD)

PLUS THE UNEDITED FULL RECORDING SESSIONS
    OF BOTH ORIGINAL COMMENTARY TRACKS

Yeah! It’s bakin’ @ the potato! for Bandcamp Friday!

This link to bakin’ @ the potato! (uncut) goes live at 11:59 p.m. PST this Thursday night, March 5,
https://mikekeneallymusic.bandcamp.com/album/bakin-the-potato
but now you can click here for a bunch more MK titles…
https://mikekeneallymusic.bandcamp.com/

This album captures the MIKE KENEALLY BAND (me, Bryan Beller, Rick Musallam, Griff Peters, Joe Travers) on a particularly good night at the Baked Potato in September 2010. It was a lucky night for us (we captured Bryan Beller’s live album/DVD Wednesday Night Live on the very same night), and Mike Harris and I dedicated ourselves afterward to making sure that the audio mix on bakin’ served the performance well. This is a really good live album – everyone in the band is at the top of their game, and it features some lush arrangements unique to this era, taking full advantage of the Keneally/Musallam/Peters triple-guitar combo.

The physical edition of bakin’! was a DVD/CD release, and it’s been out of print for a number of years, so we’re highly pleased to bring this title to Bandcamp. Crucially, the Bandcamp version features every song that was on the original DVD; four of them (“Hallmark,” “Cold Hands,” “Natty Trousers” and “Career Politicians,” all solid renditions) originally had to be cut from the CD for time reasons.

Also in the Bandcamp release are the complete, unedited recording sessions for the DVD’s two commentary tracks (one track with me, Joe, and Rick, and another one with me, Griff, and Bryan via Skype from a hotel room during an Aristocrats tour). Both of these unedited tracks contain entertaining previously unreleased stuff at the beginning and ends of them. Plus you’ll get our usual quirky digital booklet with unseen photos, ephemera and maybe a surprise or two.

We hope you enjoy this comprehensive bakin’ release, and we sincerely appreciate your patronage on Bandcamp Friday, the semi-regular day when the Bandcamp platform forgoes its pie slice, and all proceeds go to the artists/labels (a large percentage of whom are independent artists for whom this particular occasional Bandcamp event has become a crucial part of their/our survival).

Our gratitude to Bandcamp, my gratitude to Scott Chatfield and Chris Opperman for keeping the Exowax Bandcamp engine stoked while I’m gallivantin’ around, and of course our thanks to you for supporting our musical efforts.



IN CLOSING

Sorry to get all whatever, but – does humankind have to be a warlike species, y’think? Do our nervous systems/bloodstreams offer us no option of finally working out how to behave in another way; has it been scientifically verified that we have no choice but to inevitably and continually resort to war and violence and killing? (I could go online and research this myself, but you know, it’s a Sunday and I’m jetlagged and blah blah blah.)

Are we irreversibly programmed this way, with no real hope of ever reprogramming ourselves via any means or methodology, be it spiritual, medicinal, or what have you?

I surely don’t know, but I’m asking myself these questions a lot, and I guess I’m asking you here to ask yourself the same – maybe the combined energy generated by our collective musing could yield something positive. My heart goes to the families of the lost children at Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, and to the families of the troops who have already begun dying, and to all the people in Iran now experiencing and processing this moment, whether they be celebrating or mourning, or numb with disbelief.

My heart is with all of you, too – see you soon.

-- Mike

PAUL DAVIDS AND DWEEZIL ZAPPA

 

SATCHVAI PLAYS PAULO CONTE

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