Yesterday, I changed my iTunes e-mail address as well as my back-up e-mail address.
Quite a hassle, if I may say so, but it worked and I was able to dowload some fine music.
I'm a big fan of polycarbonate and of vinyl, but sometimes you've got no choice.
On almost the same subject, the Off Records label recently announced that they will be offering their music through bandcamp, next to the regular iTunes, Spotify, ... shops.
Read about it here :
http://off-recordlabel.blogspot.be/p/bandcamp.html
Or go directly to:
http://stilll-off.bandcamp.com/
Monday, July 25, 2016
Sunday, July 24, 2016
BART MARIS - VOORKAMER - ACHTERKAMER
Earlier this month, the Off Records label released a new album by Bart Maris.
The album is entitled "Voorkamer - Achterkamer".
It was previously released on cassette in a (very) limited edition of 50 copies.
Now available as a download-only album for a couple of euros. Literally.
Two tracks.
40 minutes of experimental, improvised music.
Bart Maris on trumpet (and electronics)
http://off-recordlabel.blogspot.be/2016/07/odg053-bart-maris-voorkamer-achterkamer.html
SUN RA CHARTS
Check this out !
A collection of Sun Ra charts, probably used to get copyright, from the Library of Congress (probably).
http://davidmenestres.com/2013/07/sun-ra-charts/
A collection of Sun Ra charts, probably used to get copyright, from the Library of Congress (probably).
http://davidmenestres.com/2013/07/sun-ra-charts/
INVENTIONIS MATER - ZAPPING
- inventionis mater: zapping
(2016, cd, italy, private release)
Again, the Italian duo did an incredible job.
A couple of original pieces, some great Zappa arrangements and a bit of experimental fooling around with themes by Stravinski, Varèse and Zappa.
Superb. And funny as well. What else does one need on a Sunday morning? Or on any other moment of week?
For the occasion, Pierpaolo Romani (clarinet) and Andra Pennati (guitar) are assisted by Nazareno Caputo (vibraphone and percussion) on a couple of tracks. Beautiful.
Did I mention the great artwork by Antero Valério...
This is essential food for Zappa freaks.
www.inventionismater.com
Saturday, July 23, 2016
ZAPPANALE #27 - PART 5 - HAMBURG REVISITED
In my previous mail, I tried to explain that Hamburg event was a concert of two duos.
Inventionis Mater on the left side of the stage, and the Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow duo on the right side of the stage.
The took turns in the performance.
The setlist will make it a bit more clear.
There were lots of microphones and at least two video cameras to capture the event.
Eventually, some high quality recording will turn up.
In the meantime, for those of you who would like to hear some of it, an audio recording of the complete gig has been posted on the Zappateers website.
Here's the data :
line-up
Inventionis Mater
Pierpaolo Romano: clarinet
Andrea Pennati: guitar
the Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow duo
Sigline Koch-Sembdner: harp
Uwe Warschkow: chromatic harmonica
setlist
01 intro
02 Inventionis Mater: Zapping (Pierpaolo Romano)
Inventionis Mater: Duett nr.6 (Francesco Zappa)
03 I. Adagio, ma non troppo
04 II. Allegro
05 III. Minuetto
06 Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow: Largo (Siciliano) (J.S.Bach)
07 Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow: Ave Maria (J.S.Bach / Charles Gounod)
Inventionis Mater: How I Meat My Uncle (Michele Sarti)
08 I. In The Virgin's Garden
09 II. Zappateado
10 III. Lo Zio Mahler
11 Inventionis Mater: Marche Royal From 'L'Histoire Du Soldat' (I.Stravinski)
12 Inventionis Mater: The Modern Day Composers Refuse To Die (Frank Zappa / I.Stravinski / E.Varèse)
13 Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow: Prayer Aus 'From Jewish Life', Nr.1 (Ernest Bloch)
14 Inventionis Mater: Brown Shoes Don't Make It (Frank Zappa)
15 --- break ---
16 Inventionis Mater: Prelude, BWV 998 (J.S.Bach)
17 Inventionis Mater: Peaches En Regalia (Frank Zappa)
18 Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow: Cafe 1930 (Astor Piazolla)
19 Inventionis Mater: Wet T-Shirt Nite (Frank Zappa)
Inventionis Mater: Ondabass (Pierpaolo Romano)
Inventionis Mater: Why Does It Hurt When I Pee? (Frank Zappa)
20 Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow: Adios Nonino (Astor Piazolla)
21 Inventionis Mater: King Kong (Frank Zappa)
22 Inventionis Mater: Mom & Dad (Frank Zappa)
Inventionis Mater on the left side of the stage, and the Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow duo on the right side of the stage.
The took turns in the performance.
The setlist will make it a bit more clear.
2016 07 13 rehearsal in Hamburg
There were lots of microphones and at least two video cameras to capture the event.
Eventually, some high quality recording will turn up.
In the meantime, for those of you who would like to hear some of it, an audio recording of the complete gig has been posted on the Zappateers website.
2016 07 13 concert in Hamburg
Here's the data :
line-up
Inventionis Mater
Pierpaolo Romano: clarinet
Andrea Pennati: guitar
the Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow duo
Sigline Koch-Sembdner: harp
Uwe Warschkow: chromatic harmonica
setlist
01 intro
02 Inventionis Mater: Zapping (Pierpaolo Romano)
Inventionis Mater: Duett nr.6 (Francesco Zappa)
03 I. Adagio, ma non troppo
04 II. Allegro
05 III. Minuetto
06 Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow: Largo (Siciliano) (J.S.Bach)
07 Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow: Ave Maria (J.S.Bach / Charles Gounod)
Inventionis Mater: How I Meat My Uncle (Michele Sarti)
08 I. In The Virgin's Garden
09 II. Zappateado
10 III. Lo Zio Mahler
11 Inventionis Mater: Marche Royal From 'L'Histoire Du Soldat' (I.Stravinski)
12 Inventionis Mater: The Modern Day Composers Refuse To Die (Frank Zappa / I.Stravinski / E.Varèse)
13 Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow: Prayer Aus 'From Jewish Life', Nr.1 (Ernest Bloch)
14 Inventionis Mater: Brown Shoes Don't Make It (Frank Zappa)
15 --- break ---
16 Inventionis Mater: Prelude, BWV 998 (J.S.Bach)
17 Inventionis Mater: Peaches En Regalia (Frank Zappa)
18 Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow: Cafe 1930 (Astor Piazolla)
19 Inventionis Mater: Wet T-Shirt Nite (Frank Zappa)
Inventionis Mater: Ondabass (Pierpaolo Romano)
Inventionis Mater: Why Does It Hurt When I Pee? (Frank Zappa)
20 Koch-Sembdner / Warschkow: Adios Nonino (Astor Piazolla)
21 Inventionis Mater: King Kong (Frank Zappa)
22 Inventionis Mater: Mom & Dad (Frank Zappa)
Inventionis Mater has just released their third album, "Zapping", with a number of beautiful arrangements and performances of Zappa tunes.
Friday, July 22, 2016
ZAPPANALE #27 - PART 4 - THE HAMBURG ADVENTURE
By force of habit, my yearly Zappanale quest starts with a trip to Hamburg to catch the opening concert at St.Katharinen. The concert was scheduled around 20h00. Hamburg is about 525 km from where I live, so I left at noon. By car.
I took a couple of breaks (2) to stretch my legs to hit the Stau (traffic jam) in Essen at 17h00 where the police made everyone leave the highway. Still don't know why.
Leaving the highway took about an hour and I still had some 50 km to go. So I drove from one little village to the next, slowly moving forward.
The concert at St.Katharinen was scheduled to start at 20h00. Doors at 19h30.
You have to know that St.Katharinen is a really big church. Concerts in churches have to overcome resonance, echo and the like. If you're not seated in one of the front rows, you'll wonder why you're there.Furthermore, NDR radio wasn't there to make a recording so Steffen and a bunch of fellow Zappateers wanted to fulfill that task. Another reason to be there on time.
The concert itself was actually two concerts. There were four people on the stage. Some pieces (the Zappa ones) were performed by the Italian Inventionis Mater duo and the other pieces (non-Zappa) by Siglinde Koch-Sembdner and Uwe Warschkow.
The concert itself was great. A well-balanced setlist and superb performances, but most important: a sound guy that knew what he was doing. Minimum amplification. Just enough to get the instruments in balance.
Wonderful.
Max was there, as was STV and Margo, Ob, Clint, Christian, Martin, Kirsten, Steve and Mary-Jane, and Mick.
During the intermission even more familiar faces turned up: Luuk, Annemarieke, Chato,...
It looked like I wasn't the only one to have encountered this major traffic jam...
Nevertheless, an excellent start.
Here's Inventionis Mater, from a little while ago.
Pierpaolo Romani, clarinet and bass clarinet
Andrea Pennati, classic guitar
FRANK OUT! FEATURING ROBERT MARTIN AND ALBERT WING - ZAPPA SPIELT FÜR BACH
- frank out! featuring robert martin and albert wing: zappa spielt für bach
(2016, cd, ger, stiftung johann-sebastian)
The J.S.Bach Society has been organizing these "Zappa Spielt Für Bach" concerts for quite some years now. All in support of the restoration of the church organ and each time opening for the Zappanale festival.
In 2015, it was up to Zappa coverband Frank Out! and a series of special guests. My memories of the concert tell me that I wasn't too happy afterwards. Churches are not fit to host rock bands. There was way too much echoing and delay present, resulting in a very muddy sound.
Fortunately, German radio NDR was there to make a recording. The result, which I imagine to be taken directly from the soundboard, sounds really good. REALLY good.
I enjoyed listening to this concert again.
Lots of Zappa material. Great vocals by Robert Martin and Harry Seibel (!). Nice free jazz improv by Albert Wing. Excellent performances by all.
The band also performed a piece that was written by Robert Martin, called 'Devil Dance'. Nice.
frank out!
thomas jung: keyboard, vocals
kai rothfuchs: guitar, vocals
harry seibel: vocals
george rademachter: guitar
jürgen kocher: bass
dieter steinmann: drums
guests
robert martin: keyboard, vocals, french horn
albert wing: saxophone
siglinde koch- sembdner: harp
uwe warschkow: chromatic harmonica
- zoot allures (frank zappa)
- society pages / carolina hard-core ecstasy (frank zappa)
- trouble every day / zomby woof (frank zappa)
- what's new in baltimore? (frank zappa)
- arioso, f-dur, bwv (j.s. bach)
- siciliano, es-dur, bwv (j.s. bach)
- devil dance (robert martin)
- peaches en regalia (frank zappa)
- yo' mama / welcome to the united states (frank zappa)
- love of my life (frank zappa)
- whippin' post (greg alman)
Recommended !
Thursday, July 21, 2016
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART - PLASTIC FACTORY
- captain beefheart: plastic factory
(2016, 2lp, eec, parachute recording company para007lp)
Data has been added to the United Mutations Archives.
[1] 1966/05/20 concert 'avalon ballroom', san francisco, ca, usa, radio broadcast
[2] 1966 acetate
[3] pre-"safe as milk" demos
[4] 1968/01 bbc top gear
[5] 1968/05 bbc top gear
[6] 1973
captain beefheart (don van vliet): harmonica, vocals
alex st. clair snouffer: guitar 1-9, 11, 13, 14, 15-18
doug moon: guitar 1-9, 11, 13, 14
jerry handley: bass 1-9, 11, 13, 14, 15-18
paul blakeley: drums 1-9
john french: drums 11, 13, 14, 15-18
jeff cotton: guitar , 15-18
side one
- down in the bottom [1]
- don't start me to talkin' [1]
- the sun is shining [1]
- tupelo [1]
- somebody in my home [1]
side two
- oldfolks' boogie [1]
- st. james infirmary [1]
- evil (is going on) [1]
- harp instrumental [1]
side three
- somebody in my home [2]
- sure 'nuff ''n yes i do [3]
- call on me [3]
- yellow brick road [3]
- plastic factory [3]
- sure 'nuff 'n yes i do [4]
- yellow brick road [4]
- abba zaba [4]
side four
- kandy korn [5]
- john peel interview [6]
SUN RA ARKESTRA - LIVE IN WINSTON, SALEM, NC, JUNE 1990
- sun ra arkestra: live in winston, salem, nc; june 1990
(2015, lp, italy, sinner lady jada)
Limited release of 75 copies, plus 15 copies with a folder cover and additional pictures of the concert.
Data has been added to the United Mutations Archives.
DWEEZIL ZAPPA
He Who Plays Whatever The F@%k He Wants is touring.
July 8, 2016, the "Cease and Desist Tour 2016" took Dweezil Zappa and band to the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY.
Dweezil Zappa - guitar
Mikki Hommel - vocals
Scheila Gonzalez - keyboards, sax, flute, vocals
Chris Norton - keyboards, vocals
Ben Thomas - guitar, trumpet, trombone, vocals
Kurt Morgan - bass, vocals
Bryan Brown - drums
Adam Minkofff - guest vocals on "I Want to Ta-Ta You Baby"
James Santiago - guest guitar on "Cosmik Debris"
An almost complete video recording of the entire show is being posted over at Dime A Dozen.
July 8, 2016, the "Cease and Desist Tour 2016" took Dweezil Zappa and band to the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY.
Dweezil Zappa - guitar
Mikki Hommel - vocals
Scheila Gonzalez - keyboards, sax, flute, vocals
Chris Norton - keyboards, vocals
Ben Thomas - guitar, trumpet, trombone, vocals
Kurt Morgan - bass, vocals
Bryan Brown - drums
Adam Minkofff - guest vocals on "I Want to Ta-Ta You Baby"
James Santiago - guest guitar on "Cosmik Debris"
An almost complete video recording of the entire show is being posted over at Dime A Dozen.
- stage entrance / Incan Art Vamp (instrumental)
- Help, I’m a Rock
- Transylvania Boogie
- It Can't Happen Here
- You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here
- Harry, You're a Beast / The Orange County Lumber Truck
- Lemme Take You to the Beach
- What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning?
- She Painted Up Her Face
- Half a Dozen Provocative Squats
- Catholic Girls
- Doreen
- Inca Roads
- Holiday in Berlin, Full Blown
- 70's and 80's Medley
- Cosmik Debris - featuring James Santiago on guitar
- Dinah-Moe Humm
- You Didn't Try to Call Me
- The Illinois Enema Bandit
- five-five-FIVE
- Planet of My Dreams
- Eat That Question
encores - I Want to Ta-Ta You Baby (Johnny "Guitar" Watson cover) - featuring Adam Minkoff on vocals
- You Are What You Is
- Keep It Greasy
MIKE KENEALLY'S SCAMBOT 2 SONG DIARY, SIDE THREE !
from the Mike Keneally newsletter, July 19, 2016
Hi! I'm flying home from the Satriani tour right now. This has been perhaps the most enjoyable Joe tour yet. We had some 2 1/2-hour shows with intermission and some 2-hour shows with no intermission. Seven shows were G3 shows with Steve Vai and The Aristocrats, where I sang Police and Nirvana songs during the jam (seriously fun). We had festival shows of various lengths – Hellfest in Nantes and the Lasko Beer and Flowers festival in Slovenia being particularly enjoyable. It was just an extremely fun tour! And once again, everyone on the band and crew (as well as all the Vai and Aristocrats people) were glorious road-rat humans of endless capability and good humor. Cheers to every freaking one of them! And to every freaking one of you who came to a show, or several.
Now I'm very much looking forward to relaxing at home for a couple of days, and then I'll be signing and numbering huge stacks of Scambot 2 CD sets so that we can start shipping them to you.
I'm doggone grateful for the tremendous response to the Scambot 2 download (which comes your way immediately upon ordering the physical product). I appreciate all the good words with great fervor! (Steve Vai wrote me the nicest email with his feelings about each song on the album. It means so much to me.)
Shipping will begin soon, and I'm excited that people are about to hear the second album in the 2-CD package, Inkling. It really does have a character of its own.
Now I'll continue yammering a bit about the songs on Scambot 2, as I've been doing for the last two Keneallists. Let's take a look at "side three," shall we? Yes! Let's! Take a look!
Race the Stars
This is pop! Super pop. Pop as heck. (Well '70s pop, anyway.)
The chord progression was written on Scott's piano. I captured chunks of the progression on my phone as I was writing them, and it originally went under the working title "Fogerty," simply because I had been listening to a lot of Creedence in the car at that time, and not because I thought the song was especially Fogerty-y, musically. It was just a name that came to mind.
As I've said, working titles often have a way of sticking – and while in this case, the title "Fogerty" didn't make it to the final draft, it did have a singular impact on the song. I started imagining, as I was working on the backing track: what kind of vocal melody would John Fogerty actually sing over this progression? I then wondered if Kris Myers from Umphrey's McGee (who is a magnificent vocalist in addition to being a devastating drummer) might be able to provide some Fogerty timbre to the melody. I asked him to sing the song with me and he was way into it.
On the album, you're hearing me and Kris singing the melody in octaves: me down below, and Kris bringing Fogerty zang to the upper octave. Then Bryan Beller and Joe Travers brought their effortless brilliance to the rhythm track.
The guitar solo section has a really challenging set of chords to play over, so I decided to write the solo out. It took a number of takes, attempted over several months on several guitars, but ultimately it was Jesse the good old green Clapton Strat that provided the right amount of twinkle and twang. It's a finger twister and it was very satisfying to finally nail it. On the last part of the solo I thought it would sound good to bring back an earlier take of the solo (played on the koa Charvel) and have both guitars playing in unison – it kicks the arrangement into a higher gear right there.
Kris also joined me on the backing vocals to great effect, and it was his idea to do the overlapping "come on" harmonies at the end – a really nice touch. Thank you Kris!
Oh and the title was unquestionably inspired by a game called Race The Sun, which Sarah was playing with some regularity at the time I was writing the lyrics. I'll grab inspiration from all possible sources.
O
Here's one that allows me to say, with all the truthfulness on this airplane, that this album has been in the works since the late '90s. The basic bed of this atmospheric track was made at Lyle Workman's studio, for one of the television documentary soundtracks I recorded back then.
"O" originally consisted of the weird noises at the beginning, the bang midway through, and the long synth drone throughout. The acoustic and electric guitars, and the piano at the end, were overdubbed in 2013 for Scambot 2, making this a collaboration between 36-year-old me and 51-year-old me.
Roll
The basic track for this song was recorded in Scott's living room, by Rick Musallam, Kris Myers and myself, the day after we finished rehearsals for Nearfest Apocalypse 2012. (The same session also gave us "Cram," which is on Inkling, and which features Rick Musallam on the far-right electric guitar, a fact inadvertently left out of the Inkling booklet.)
I wrote the main lick for "Roll" on the spot after we finished recording "Cram." My inspiration was Tony Iommi, and the reason for that was the dropped-D black SG I was playing. We started jamming on that lick, and then the rest of the pieces of the song emerged through the course of the jam, which I edited way down after the fact to arrive at the final song form. The slow 3/4 lick that runs through the chorus was something I came up with while we were jamming, and I realized on the spot it would make a good chorus, so then I started alternating the two licks. The bridge section in 5/4 ("No one leads a charmed life") was not played during the initial session – the drums in that section are from the original jam, but everything else was written later and superimposed onto the drums. Lots of editing and shuffling and overdubbing went on to arrive at this final form.
The tone of the main guitar is a combination of my Rivera Quiana mic'd up, plus a DI'd signal going straight to the computer where Mike Harris put it through a SansAmp plug-in. The end result is one of my favorite guitar tones I've ever gotten on record.
I originally overdubbed a synth bass track that mostly conveyed the vibe I wanted in terms of notes, but sonically it just wasn't bringing the rock the way it needed to be brought, so Beller came in and did what was required by the universe. The final piece of the cake, or the icing on the puzzle, as they say, was having Ben Thomas sing the verses in unison with me. We slammed both voices together in the center of the mix to make a new mutant double-voice. This song requires maximum playback volume.
Oh and there's a bunch of Hendrix-inspired slowed-down vocal stuff that shows up during the guitar solos. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
Constructed
Finally, my first country waltz! (Unless "Never Ever Wrong" counts. Maybe it does. OK, then, my second!)
The seed for this song was a voice memo I recorded on my phone called "Constructed," which consisted only of the words "Constructed, constructed. Constructed, constructed" (as sung at the 3:00 minute mark of the final song by three overdubbed Mikes in the far left corner of the mix, in a tone and attitude intended to evoke The Jordanaires). In the studio with Mike Harris, I used the rhythm of the words as a starting point for the piano part (the intro piano is playing the same "constructed, constructed" melody that shows up at 3:00). Having recorded that intro in the studio with Mike Harris, I continued on writing sections and recording them, until it got to the ending, when it seemed like the right time to bring back that "constructed" motif. Then I improvised the little Thom Yorke-inspired piano coda, and et voila! A song form.
That little snippet on my phone – just me singing "Constructed, constructed" – originally struck me as so funny for some weird reason. It seemed to me that "constructed" was such a mundane word, not really emotionally redolent of anything, and not at all suitable for use as the main hook of a song. But I started writing lyrics for the song, and with God, Bob, and Dog as my various witnesses, I tried really hard to come up with a concept and title that would be something other than "Constructed." But the lyrics inexorably wended their way towards that inflexible destination, and gradually I came to feel that the idea of "Constructed" as a song concept ended up really working.
Everyone involved in this song treated it with great delicacy and respect. Kris Myers' drum performance is really masterful – Mike Harris, who is a drummer himself, was freaking out over it while we were making the song. It was one of the performances that Kris recorded in Chicago in his single-day marathon drum session that yielded seven of his drum tracks. There are so many subtle rhythmic touches to his performance here, little hesitations and incremental groove shifts, which propel the song so beautifully. In the wrong hands this drum groove could really just sit there on the ground like a beech nut, but he gave it so much life.
Pete Griffin, who brings incredible heft and power to his electric bass playing on both Scambot 2 and Inkling, was good enough to haul his stand-up bass down from LA to Chatfield Manor for this song, and it could not have been more perfect – in my recollection, it was Pete who suggested that acoustic bass would work for the song. Man, I am so grateful for that insight and for this performance, beautifully recorded by Mr. Harris.
Jesse Keneally provided angel voices. They float around in the back of the choruses just audible enough to be felt – sometimes when I hear this song I wish we'd mixed them higher, but then other times I realize they lend just the right presence to the choruses – haunting, just beyond reach, chilling and lovely. I just want to hear more of them sometimes, 'cause she's my daughter you see.
You'll hear a couple of ghostly western guitar parts, meant to evoke pedal steel.
Before I worked out the final lyrics, I actually did an instrumental version of the song with a guitar playing the vocal melody all the way through – I thought that it might work, but although I was infatuated with it for a day or two, it didn't make me the feel the way this version does. I needed to hear the words "snowy train" in order to see the snowy train. (Some remnants of that melody guitar track do remain in the final mix however.)
Thanks for reading all this. I'll talk about the last four songs on Scambot 2 in the next Keneallist, and then get into Inkling a little later on once you've all had a chance to listen to it.
MK/BFD gigs in October
Also, hey: I'm bringing the trio version of Beer For Dolphins (me, Bryan Beller and Joe Travers) to Chicago and the Northeast in late October of this year. I was a bit stunned to realize that this particular configuration, with whom I gigged so much in California in the '90s, has never played in the Midwest and Northeast as a trio. There is a certain ferociousness that takes hold on when it's just me, Bryan and Joe, and it's going to be fun to finally bring that vibe to the other side of the country for once. We might tack on a few more shows in other locations in the U.S. if the stars align, but our window is small because of Bryan's and Joe's prior work obligations. I'm jazzed about being able to do even this many shows though. The very wonderful Travis Larson Band will be opening for us in the Northeast.
In Chicago we're playing at Progtoberfest II which will be hosting a wonderful slate of adventurous bands. The night before the BFD gig, I'll be guesting at a tribute to Keith Emerson, which is going to be a heavy emotional situation for me but I'm really looking forward to it. (I don't think I need to go into much detail here about how much Keith Emerson means to me. But, boy, he means a lot.) I know that Luis Nasser of Might Could and Sonus Umbra, and Jonathan Schang of District 97, are also taking part in the Chicago Emerson tribute, which is nifty – I like those guys a lot but this will be my first time playing with them.
These are the dates! Date it up, date it up, date it up!:
MIKE KENEALLY
as special guest in a tribute to KEITH EMERSON
also featuring JONATHAN SCHANG of District 97
and LUIS NASSER of Sonus Umbra and Might Could
At Reggie’s Progtoberfest II, Chicago IL.
MIKE KENEALLY & BEER FOR DOLPHINS TOUR
trio with BRYAN BELLER and JOE TRAVERS:
opening all the Northeast shows is the TRAVIS LARSON BAND
Hi! I'm flying home from the Satriani tour right now. This has been perhaps the most enjoyable Joe tour yet. We had some 2 1/2-hour shows with intermission and some 2-hour shows with no intermission. Seven shows were G3 shows with Steve Vai and The Aristocrats, where I sang Police and Nirvana songs during the jam (seriously fun). We had festival shows of various lengths – Hellfest in Nantes and the Lasko Beer and Flowers festival in Slovenia being particularly enjoyable. It was just an extremely fun tour! And once again, everyone on the band and crew (as well as all the Vai and Aristocrats people) were glorious road-rat humans of endless capability and good humor. Cheers to every freaking one of them! And to every freaking one of you who came to a show, or several.
Now I'm very much looking forward to relaxing at home for a couple of days, and then I'll be signing and numbering huge stacks of Scambot 2 CD sets so that we can start shipping them to you.
I'm doggone grateful for the tremendous response to the Scambot 2 download (which comes your way immediately upon ordering the physical product). I appreciate all the good words with great fervor! (Steve Vai wrote me the nicest email with his feelings about each song on the album. It means so much to me.)
Shipping will begin soon, and I'm excited that people are about to hear the second album in the 2-CD package, Inkling. It really does have a character of its own.
Now I'll continue yammering a bit about the songs on Scambot 2, as I've been doing for the last two Keneallists. Let's take a look at "side three," shall we? Yes! Let's! Take a look!
Race the Stars
This is pop! Super pop. Pop as heck. (Well '70s pop, anyway.)
The chord progression was written on Scott's piano. I captured chunks of the progression on my phone as I was writing them, and it originally went under the working title "Fogerty," simply because I had been listening to a lot of Creedence in the car at that time, and not because I thought the song was especially Fogerty-y, musically. It was just a name that came to mind.
As I've said, working titles often have a way of sticking – and while in this case, the title "Fogerty" didn't make it to the final draft, it did have a singular impact on the song. I started imagining, as I was working on the backing track: what kind of vocal melody would John Fogerty actually sing over this progression? I then wondered if Kris Myers from Umphrey's McGee (who is a magnificent vocalist in addition to being a devastating drummer) might be able to provide some Fogerty timbre to the melody. I asked him to sing the song with me and he was way into it.
On the album, you're hearing me and Kris singing the melody in octaves: me down below, and Kris bringing Fogerty zang to the upper octave. Then Bryan Beller and Joe Travers brought their effortless brilliance to the rhythm track.
The guitar solo section has a really challenging set of chords to play over, so I decided to write the solo out. It took a number of takes, attempted over several months on several guitars, but ultimately it was Jesse the good old green Clapton Strat that provided the right amount of twinkle and twang. It's a finger twister and it was very satisfying to finally nail it. On the last part of the solo I thought it would sound good to bring back an earlier take of the solo (played on the koa Charvel) and have both guitars playing in unison – it kicks the arrangement into a higher gear right there.
Kris also joined me on the backing vocals to great effect, and it was his idea to do the overlapping "come on" harmonies at the end – a really nice touch. Thank you Kris!
Oh and the title was unquestionably inspired by a game called Race The Sun, which Sarah was playing with some regularity at the time I was writing the lyrics. I'll grab inspiration from all possible sources.
O
Here's one that allows me to say, with all the truthfulness on this airplane, that this album has been in the works since the late '90s. The basic bed of this atmospheric track was made at Lyle Workman's studio, for one of the television documentary soundtracks I recorded back then.
"O" originally consisted of the weird noises at the beginning, the bang midway through, and the long synth drone throughout. The acoustic and electric guitars, and the piano at the end, were overdubbed in 2013 for Scambot 2, making this a collaboration between 36-year-old me and 51-year-old me.
Roll
The basic track for this song was recorded in Scott's living room, by Rick Musallam, Kris Myers and myself, the day after we finished rehearsals for Nearfest Apocalypse 2012. (The same session also gave us "Cram," which is on Inkling, and which features Rick Musallam on the far-right electric guitar, a fact inadvertently left out of the Inkling booklet.)
I wrote the main lick for "Roll" on the spot after we finished recording "Cram." My inspiration was Tony Iommi, and the reason for that was the dropped-D black SG I was playing. We started jamming on that lick, and then the rest of the pieces of the song emerged through the course of the jam, which I edited way down after the fact to arrive at the final song form. The slow 3/4 lick that runs through the chorus was something I came up with while we were jamming, and I realized on the spot it would make a good chorus, so then I started alternating the two licks. The bridge section in 5/4 ("No one leads a charmed life") was not played during the initial session – the drums in that section are from the original jam, but everything else was written later and superimposed onto the drums. Lots of editing and shuffling and overdubbing went on to arrive at this final form.
The tone of the main guitar is a combination of my Rivera Quiana mic'd up, plus a DI'd signal going straight to the computer where Mike Harris put it through a SansAmp plug-in. The end result is one of my favorite guitar tones I've ever gotten on record.
I originally overdubbed a synth bass track that mostly conveyed the vibe I wanted in terms of notes, but sonically it just wasn't bringing the rock the way it needed to be brought, so Beller came in and did what was required by the universe. The final piece of the cake, or the icing on the puzzle, as they say, was having Ben Thomas sing the verses in unison with me. We slammed both voices together in the center of the mix to make a new mutant double-voice. This song requires maximum playback volume.
Oh and there's a bunch of Hendrix-inspired slowed-down vocal stuff that shows up during the guitar solos. It just seemed like the right thing to do.
Constructed
Finally, my first country waltz! (Unless "Never Ever Wrong" counts. Maybe it does. OK, then, my second!)
The seed for this song was a voice memo I recorded on my phone called "Constructed," which consisted only of the words "Constructed, constructed. Constructed, constructed" (as sung at the 3:00 minute mark of the final song by three overdubbed Mikes in the far left corner of the mix, in a tone and attitude intended to evoke The Jordanaires). In the studio with Mike Harris, I used the rhythm of the words as a starting point for the piano part (the intro piano is playing the same "constructed, constructed" melody that shows up at 3:00). Having recorded that intro in the studio with Mike Harris, I continued on writing sections and recording them, until it got to the ending, when it seemed like the right time to bring back that "constructed" motif. Then I improvised the little Thom Yorke-inspired piano coda, and et voila! A song form.
That little snippet on my phone – just me singing "Constructed, constructed" – originally struck me as so funny for some weird reason. It seemed to me that "constructed" was such a mundane word, not really emotionally redolent of anything, and not at all suitable for use as the main hook of a song. But I started writing lyrics for the song, and with God, Bob, and Dog as my various witnesses, I tried really hard to come up with a concept and title that would be something other than "Constructed." But the lyrics inexorably wended their way towards that inflexible destination, and gradually I came to feel that the idea of "Constructed" as a song concept ended up really working.
Everyone involved in this song treated it with great delicacy and respect. Kris Myers' drum performance is really masterful – Mike Harris, who is a drummer himself, was freaking out over it while we were making the song. It was one of the performances that Kris recorded in Chicago in his single-day marathon drum session that yielded seven of his drum tracks. There are so many subtle rhythmic touches to his performance here, little hesitations and incremental groove shifts, which propel the song so beautifully. In the wrong hands this drum groove could really just sit there on the ground like a beech nut, but he gave it so much life.
Pete Griffin, who brings incredible heft and power to his electric bass playing on both Scambot 2 and Inkling, was good enough to haul his stand-up bass down from LA to Chatfield Manor for this song, and it could not have been more perfect – in my recollection, it was Pete who suggested that acoustic bass would work for the song. Man, I am so grateful for that insight and for this performance, beautifully recorded by Mr. Harris.
Jesse Keneally provided angel voices. They float around in the back of the choruses just audible enough to be felt – sometimes when I hear this song I wish we'd mixed them higher, but then other times I realize they lend just the right presence to the choruses – haunting, just beyond reach, chilling and lovely. I just want to hear more of them sometimes, 'cause she's my daughter you see.
You'll hear a couple of ghostly western guitar parts, meant to evoke pedal steel.
Before I worked out the final lyrics, I actually did an instrumental version of the song with a guitar playing the vocal melody all the way through – I thought that it might work, but although I was infatuated with it for a day or two, it didn't make me the feel the way this version does. I needed to hear the words "snowy train" in order to see the snowy train. (Some remnants of that melody guitar track do remain in the final mix however.)
Thanks for reading all this. I'll talk about the last four songs on Scambot 2 in the next Keneallist, and then get into Inkling a little later on once you've all had a chance to listen to it.
MK/BFD gigs in October
Also, hey: I'm bringing the trio version of Beer For Dolphins (me, Bryan Beller and Joe Travers) to Chicago and the Northeast in late October of this year. I was a bit stunned to realize that this particular configuration, with whom I gigged so much in California in the '90s, has never played in the Midwest and Northeast as a trio. There is a certain ferociousness that takes hold on when it's just me, Bryan and Joe, and it's going to be fun to finally bring that vibe to the other side of the country for once. We might tack on a few more shows in other locations in the U.S. if the stars align, but our window is small because of Bryan's and Joe's prior work obligations. I'm jazzed about being able to do even this many shows though. The very wonderful Travis Larson Band will be opening for us in the Northeast.
In Chicago we're playing at Progtoberfest II which will be hosting a wonderful slate of adventurous bands. The night before the BFD gig, I'll be guesting at a tribute to Keith Emerson, which is going to be a heavy emotional situation for me but I'm really looking forward to it. (I don't think I need to go into much detail here about how much Keith Emerson means to me. But, boy, he means a lot.) I know that Luis Nasser of Might Could and Sonus Umbra, and Jonathan Schang of District 97, are also taking part in the Chicago Emerson tribute, which is nifty – I like those guys a lot but this will be my first time playing with them.
These are the dates! Date it up, date it up, date it up!:
MIKE KENEALLY
as special guest in a tribute to KEITH EMERSON
also featuring JONATHAN SCHANG of District 97
and LUIS NASSER of Sonus Umbra and Might Could
- Fri 2016/10/21
At Reggie’s Progtoberfest II, Chicago IL.
MIKE KENEALLY & BEER FOR DOLPHINS TOUR
trio with BRYAN BELLER and JOE TRAVERS:
opening all the Northeast shows is the TRAVIS LARSON BAND
- Sat 2016/10/22: Reggies’s Progtoberfest II in Chicago IL
- Tue 2016/10/25: River Street Jazz Cafe in Plains, PA
- Wed 2016/10/26: Iridium in NYC
- Thu 2016/10/27: Jammin’ Java in Vienna, VA
- Fri 2016/10/28: Kennett Flash in Kennett Square, PA
- Sat 2016/10/29: NJ Proghouse in Dunellen, NJ
- Sun 2016/10/30: The Wheelhouse in Narragansett, RI
SUN RA - LIVE IN THE LATE 80'S
- sun ra arkestra: live in the late 80's
(2015, lp, italy, sinner lady sammie)
Released last year in Italy. Limited release of 75 copies, plus 15 copies with a folder cover and additional pictures of the concert.
On the Sinner Lady record label. (= unofficial release)
Data has been added to the United Mutations Archives.
ECKHARDT GÜNTHER - A BUNCH OF PRELUDES & FUGUES AND OTHER CHAMBERMUSIC
- eckhardt günther: a bunch of preludes & fugues and other chambermusic
(2010, 2cd, ger, bynja produktion byn002)
This 2010 release by German composer Eckhardt includes a.o. Five Minirequiems For Rock Musicians: 'Frank Zappa', 'John Lennon', 'Kurt Cobain', 'Bob Marley' and 'Jimi Hendrix'.
Performed by a woodwind quintet.
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART UPDATE
With all of these radio broadcast albums coming out, it's hard to keep an overview...
I just learned that the "Somewhere Over Detroit" and the "Somewhere Over Kansas" CD's also have been published on vinyl.
Both CD's are out on Gonzo. The vinyl versions have been published by Let Them Eat Vinyl (in 2015).
Info has been added to the United Mutations Archives.
I just learned that the "Somewhere Over Detroit" and the "Somewhere Over Kansas" CD's also have been published on vinyl.
Both CD's are out on Gonzo. The vinyl versions have been published by Let Them Eat Vinyl (in 2015).
Info has been added to the United Mutations Archives.
VARIOUS ARTISTS - OPUS 3 - 30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION ALBUM
- various artists: opus 3 - 30th anniversary celebration album
(2007, xrcd24, japan, opus 3 / jvc victor company mxcd 99302)
Re-issued in Japan in 2007. As a xrcd 24 bit super analog release.
It includes The Omnibus Wind Ensemble performing FZ's 'Sinister Footwear, 2nd Movement', from the 1995 "Music By Frank Zappa" album.
IT CONQUERED THE WORLD
The movie (or one of) that inspired Frank Zappa to write Cheepnis.
From 1956.
And the recent Roxy DVD.
I got a DVDR copy of the "It Conquered The World" movie from a friend at Zappanale, so I was finally able to see the movie. Snippets of the movie as I fell asleep. But the fragments with the monster were indeed quite funny.
From 1956.
And the recent Roxy DVD.
I got a DVDR copy of the "It Conquered The World" movie from a friend at Zappanale, so I was finally able to see the movie. Snippets of the movie as I fell asleep. But the fragments with the monster were indeed quite funny.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
THE RESIDENTS - DAYDREAM B-LIVER
- the residents: daydream b-liver
(2016, cd, austria, klanggalerie gg222)
Klanggalerie recently re-issued the 1991 "Daydream B-Liver" album, originally released by the UWEB (uncle willie's eyeball buddies) Residents fanclub.
Great sound. Superb packaging.
The album includes one extra track : 'Hit The Road Jack (Special Almost Dance Mix)', previously released on 12" in 1987.
Those who enjoy such things should know that the first track, 'Daydream In Space', includes references to Sun Ra's 'Space Is The Place'. The album also contains The Residents' version of FZ's 'King Kong' (featuring Snakefinger and N.Senada).
Great stuff.
http://www.klanggalerie.com/
RANDY ROSE - BIGFOOT BEWARE / FOR MAURICE
- randy rose: bigfoot beware
(2016, 3"cd, ger, psychofon records)
Next to the series of 7" singles, the German Psychofon record label has decided to release Randy Rose's 'Bigfoot Beware" also as a 3"CD.
Randy Rose, as you might know, is the singer for The Residents.
This is his first solo release.
https://www.psychofonrecords.com/
SUN RA ARKESTRA TO PERFORM IN BELGIUM NEXT NOVEMBER
The Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen will be performing at jazz club 'De Singer' in Rijkevorsel, Belgium, on November 25, 2016 !!
https://www.desinger.be/programma/25-11-2016/the-sun-ra-arkestra-o-l-v-marshall-allen
Check out this clip, with Marshall Allen on the EVI near the end of the tune !!
ZAPPANALE #27 - PART 3 - TWO NEW ZAPPA BOOKS
Last year, I bought two books at the Zappanale festival:
joe's literage act 1ne - articles and interviews 1962 - 1979
and
joe's literage act 2wo - articles and interviews 1980 - 1993
The books collected Zappa interviews and articles as text files. Typed out interviews and articles. Just the text, no pictures. All in English.
Both books were hardcover books, the first one being 550 pages and the second one even 600.
A couple of months ago, I received a message about two new books. Similar in their content, but this time presenting high quality xeroxes of the actual articles.
Compiled by a German Zappa freak.
The covers might not look as impressive as the ones of the previous books, but the content sure does.
Volume One :
bizzare pages
(2016, book, ger, private release)
Collection of interviews and articles, all in English.
Articles from 1965 - 1979.
Hardcover book.
730 pages.
Released at Zappanale 2016.
And Volume Two :
bizzare pages 2
(2016, book, ger, private release)
Collection of interviews and articles, all in English.
Articles from 1980 - 1993.
Hardcover book.
740 pages.
Released at Zappanale 2016.
I don't know how many copies of these books got published, but as far as I understood, they had to be pre-ordered and no extra copies were made.
joe's literage act 1ne - articles and interviews 1962 - 1979
and
joe's literage act 2wo - articles and interviews 1980 - 1993
The books collected Zappa interviews and articles as text files. Typed out interviews and articles. Just the text, no pictures. All in English.
Both books were hardcover books, the first one being 550 pages and the second one even 600.
A couple of months ago, I received a message about two new books. Similar in their content, but this time presenting high quality xeroxes of the actual articles.
Compiled by a German Zappa freak.
The covers might not look as impressive as the ones of the previous books, but the content sure does.
Volume One :
(2016, book, ger, private release)
Collection of interviews and articles, all in English.
Articles from 1965 - 1979.
Hardcover book.
730 pages.
Released at Zappanale 2016.
And Volume Two :
(2016, book, ger, private release)
Collection of interviews and articles, all in English.
Articles from 1980 - 1993.
Hardcover book.
740 pages.
Released at Zappanale 2016.
I don't know how many copies of these books got published, but as far as I understood, they had to be pre-ordered and no extra copies were made.
ZAPPANALE #27 - PART 2
Last year's Zappanale was a pretty remarkable one.
The 2015 edition not only featured a fine selection of bands, it also presented an astounding number of people that had once worked with Frank Zappa.
Napoleon Murphy Brock, Ike Willis, Denny Walley, Craig 'Twister' Steward, Jeff Hollie, Robert Martin, Ray White, Tom Fowler and Albert Wing. Add Mats Öberg and Morgan Agren and you get a bunch of alumni that you'll never get to see again.
This year's edition, number 27, wasn't that impressive on paper, but it sure kicked ass as well.
But let's stick to the subject.
The 2015 edition was memorable and that was a good reason for the Arf Society to produce an album set with highlights.
3 CD's. 18 bands, 36 tracks.
The archives tell me that the previous Zappanale album is from 2008 (with highlights from Zappanale 18 from 2007).
I for one am glad that the Arfs approved another release. There's always fine arrangements of familiar tunes (and some great introductions of bands that you never heard of) to be found on these sets.
Let's just hope that it sells enough copies to keep this ball rolling for the upcoming editions...
compiled and postproduced by mick zeuner
edited, mixed and mastered by clemens schikling
liner notes by andrew greenaway
disc one
disc two
disc three
The 2015 edition not only featured a fine selection of bands, it also presented an astounding number of people that had once worked with Frank Zappa.
Napoleon Murphy Brock, Ike Willis, Denny Walley, Craig 'Twister' Steward, Jeff Hollie, Robert Martin, Ray White, Tom Fowler and Albert Wing. Add Mats Öberg and Morgan Agren and you get a bunch of alumni that you'll never get to see again.
This year's edition, number 27, wasn't that impressive on paper, but it sure kicked ass as well.
But let's stick to the subject.
The 2015 edition was memorable and that was a good reason for the Arf Society to produce an album set with highlights.
3 CD's. 18 bands, 36 tracks.
The archives tell me that the previous Zappanale album is from 2008 (with highlights from Zappanale 18 from 2007).
I for one am glad that the Arfs approved another release. There's always fine arrangements of familiar tunes (and some great introductions of bands that you never heard of) to be found on these sets.
Let's just hope that it sells enough copies to keep this ball rolling for the upcoming editions...
- various artists: zappanale # 26
(2016, 3cd, ger, arf society)
Just look at this track-list...
With Peach Noise / Napoleon Murphy Brock / Mats Öberg,
Panzerpappa performing 'RDNZL',
With Peach Noise / Napoleon Murphy Brock / Mats Öberg,
Panzerpappa performing 'RDNZL',
the Yellow Snow Crystals with some hilarious interpretations,
Univers Zero performing 'King Kong',
The Band From Utiopia, Zappatika, Z3, and more...
Univers Zero performing 'King Kong',
The Band From Utiopia, Zappatika, Z3, and more...
edited, mixed and mastered by clemens schikling
liner notes by andrew greenaway
disc one
- drei vom rhein: francesco (neumann)
- drei vom rhein: the treacherous torture never stops (zappa)
- die reise: something is bleeding (kuzio, bruch)
- the peach noise experiment feat. napoleon murphy brock and mats öberg: advance romance (zappa)
- the peach noise experiment feat. napoleon murphy brock and mats öberg: pygmy twylyte (zappa) / dummy up (zappa) / the message (fletcher, mel, robinson)
- panzerpappa: fundal (krabberod)
- panzerpappa: rdnzl (zappa)
- yellow snow crystals: fünfzig arten schmerz (zappa)
- yellow snow crystals: doberaner rennbahnfantasie (zappa)
- yellow snow crystals: robert braun (zappa)
- yellow snow crystals: strandgut (zappa)
- yellow snow crystals: verarscht (zappa)
- string trash: chunga's revenge (zappa)
disc two
- maos & wendt: voodoo chile (hendrix)
- univers zero: phobia (denis)
- univers zero: king kong (zappa)
- inventionis mater: prelude to the afternoon of a sexually aroused gas mask (zappa)
- inventionis mater: since i've been loving you crazy diamond (page, plant, jones & gilmour, waters, wright)
- zappatika feat. ike willis, denny walley, craig 'twister' steward and jeff hollie: eat that question (zappa)
- zappatika feat. ike willis, denny walley, craig 'twister' steward and jeff hollie: crew slut (zappa)
- frank out!: i promise not to come in your mouth (zappa)
- frank out!: georgie's whips (zappa)
- fried dähn & das onomatopoeia perturbation consort: twenty-one small cigars (zappa)
- fried dähn & das onomatopoeia perturbation consort: king kong (zappa)
- z3 feat. ed mann: teenage wind (zappa)
- z3 feat. ed mann: take your clothes off when you dance (zappa)
- z3 feat. ed mann: excentrifugal forz (zappa)
disc three
- stefan hüfner's zappata: montana (zappa)
- stefan hüfner's zappata: blessed relief (zappa)
- arf force one: ugly white folks' funk (händl, hubweber, segerer, steinhardt, zeuner)
- banned from utopia: dupree's paradise (zappa)
- banned from utopia: andy (zappa)
- banned from utopia: whippin' post (allman)
- goodbye session: heavy duty judy (zappa)
- jazzprojekt hundehagen feat. stephen chillemi: willie the pimp (zappa)
- jazzprojekt hundehagen feat. stephen chillemi: dirty love (zappa)
DWALMACAT 652
This week's Dwalmacat radio show
https://www.mixcloud.com/Dwalmacat/dwalmacat-652/
ALAN VEGA – Wipe out beat
THE MANSON FAMILY – Always is always
TIPSY – Papaya freeway
PTÔSE – Sticky soul (Instrumental)
THE AVALANCHES – Zap!
TIMO VAN LUIJK & KRIS VANDERSTRAETEN – High noon (excerpt)
L.VOAG – Hall
ZOOGZ RIFT – Kasaba Kabeza
PEAKING LIGHTS – All the sun that shines
BENE GESSERIT – Il faut souffrir pour être Belge
CRASH COURSE IN SCIENCE – Cardboard lamb
VAN KOOTEN & DE BIE – Ouwe lullen moeten weg
ENNIO MORRICONE – Se sei qualcuno è colpa mia
ARCHIE SHEPP – The original Mr. Sonny boy Williams
FRANCIS BEBEY – Bissau
SEKEHE GENGGONG – Permungkah / Frog song
AIR – La femme d’argent
https://www.mixcloud.com/Dwalmacat/dwalmacat-652/
ALAN VEGA – Wipe out beat
THE MANSON FAMILY – Always is always
TIPSY – Papaya freeway
PTÔSE – Sticky soul (Instrumental)
THE AVALANCHES – Zap!
TIMO VAN LUIJK & KRIS VANDERSTRAETEN – High noon (excerpt)
L.VOAG – Hall
ZOOGZ RIFT – Kasaba Kabeza
PEAKING LIGHTS – All the sun that shines
BENE GESSERIT – Il faut souffrir pour être Belge
CRASH COURSE IN SCIENCE – Cardboard lamb
VAN KOOTEN & DE BIE – Ouwe lullen moeten weg
ENNIO MORRICONE – Se sei qualcuno è colpa mia
ARCHIE SHEPP – The original Mr. Sonny boy Williams
FRANCIS BEBEY – Bissau
SEKEHE GENGGONG – Permungkah / Frog song
AIR – La femme d’argent
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
MIKE KENEALLY'S SCAMBOT 2 SONG DIARY, SIDE TWO !
Mike Keneally, July 7, 2016,
Hello all – I'm back on the bus, right now in the midst of an 18-hour drive to Gijon, Spain, on the heels of four G3 performances in Italy featuring Satriani, Vai and the Aristocrats. There are eight more shows on this tour, including another three G3 bills in Germany. This is continuing to be a very enjoyable European adventure indeed. The camaraderie is slamming (I wonder if anyone has ever utilized that phrase before) and the music and audiences every night are a thrill. Is my favorite part of the tour curling up in the bus bunk at night, strapping on the headphones and hitting "shuffle" on my seven-hour playlist of Radiohead B-sides and non-album tracks? Well, it might be tied for first.
As I mentioned last time, I'm going to take a look at the virtual "side two" of Scambot 2 [now available for exclusive pre-order] – "Clipper," "Forget About It," "Pretzels" and "Buzz." The prog side. A 14-minute side, for maximum fidelity should it ever hit vinyl (just like side two of English Settlement if I remember correctly).
Clipper
Why is "Clipper" called "Clipper"? Well, a lot of the songs were named before they had lyrics – when we'd start a new session, Mike Harris would ask me what the song was called, and very often there would be no name for it so I'd have to make one up on the spot. In this case I was thinking nautical, because I knew the Quiet Children were going to be in their yacht in this song, and the word "Clipper" came to me as a good working title, but one I expected to change somewhere down the line. Which of course hardly ever happens – nine times out of ten, working titles stick to a song and refuse to be displaced. This song is simply "Clipper" whether it makes sense or not.
(Actually, I later made "Clipper" the name of Campland Standish's engineer on his radio show…for the little excerpt from the Standish show heard in this song, I originally recorded a bit more material, and the part right after Campland says "It's a Monday" had him saying "Clipper, can you turn up my headphones please?"
But when I played a rough mix of this song for Sarah Crochet, she suggested that it would be better to cut the radio show right after "It's a Monday," which worked hugely better with the music in that spot, and also conveyed more than enough of the vibe of the radio show without overegging the pudding, as people who say things like that would say. Sarah was outlandishly helpful to me all the way down the line in suggesting things to improve the mixes as they were in progress, as well as the final sequence of songs, which I'd probably still be trying to figure out now if it weren't for her help. I'm especially grateful to her in the case of "It's a Monday," which delighted Bryan Beller to no end first time he heard it and resulted in "It's a Monday" becoming a running gag between us for a few weeks.)
Doug Lunn and Gregg Bendian played the bass and drums for "Clipper," recorded at Chatfield Manor. We were rehearsing at Scott's for some Southern California Keneally/Bendian/Lunn dates, and I took the opportunity to record them for this song (as well as "Pretzels" and "Scores Of People"). I'm terribly glad to have Doug's unique fretless bass tone on one of my records again for the first time since Boil That Dust Speck. And it's a real privilege to hear Gregg's compositional approach to drums and percussion applied to my music. This song has a very episodic feel, moving through wildly varied landscapes, and I knew these two were the ones to help me construct the skeleton for it.
Another important building block for this song and album were the two days Mike Harris and I spent at the studio of Jeff Berkley, brilliant San Diego guitarist/percussionist, taking advantage of his boundless collection of guitars and amplifiers. I'm the worst interview subject in the world for guitar magazines because I can never remember what gear I used for what songs, and that's amplified (so to speak) ten-fold in the case of this record, because I was picking up different instruments all over the place and recording bits with them, and all details would be wiped from my memory as I moved on to the next thing. But I do clearly recall using Jeff's six-string banjo (tuned like a guitar) for this particular song. It was a texture I've long wanted to get on one of my records.
I was very happy to get my daughter Jesse singing on this tune; in particular the sound of her crystal-clear voice, layered into a choir and delivering the line "You suck," is very pleasing.
The outro has a vibe that Scott Chatfield had previously mentioned to me as being hypnotic and worthy of preserving in its pure form (when I was wondering if it needed additional melodies, vocals, a solo or something), and I wasn't sure whether or not I should fade it out or let it continue to hypnotize until it stopped cold, but ultimately it worked best for me in the context of the record to have it fade away. And then J.D. Mack asked on Facebook if this is the first song on one of my records to actually fade to complete silence. Wow, is it? I can't think of another one. That's kind of amazing to me. (The original "Egg Zooming" mix comes close but doesn't get all the way there.) Only took me 23 years to have a good old-fashioned fade-out.
Forget About It
"Forget About It" is the sort of thing which feels so peculiar to me, makes me practically wonder if it's irresponsible to do, it's so idiosyncratic and odd (other songs in this category include "Eno And The Actor" and "I Guess I'll Peanut"), but it makes me so happy to hear. I love Evan Francis' saxes and flutes on this, which I recorded in the back room of the condo Sarah and I used to live in. Evan couldn't play too loudly because we didn't want to freak out the neighbors too badly, and I really enjoy the subdued tone of his playing here. My friend, the brilliant keyboardist/composer Matt Mitchell, says he hears something of the Uncle Meat album in the brief use of harpsichord on this track. Not intentional, but yep, can't deny the influence – I adore the way keyboards and woodwinds were arranged on UM and I imagine there are a lot of accidental echoes of it in my stuff through the years.
Pretzels
"Pretzels" (and the following track "Buzz") are where the Gentle Giant influence comes on strong in this album, possibly stronger than they ever have before in my stuff. On "Pretzels" it's in the main vocal melody and timbre, which absolutely nod towards Kerry Minnear, and on "Buzz" it's in the interlocking architecture of the instruments in the verses and the use of clavinet. It would be impossible to overstate how much I respect Kerry Minnear's work, and how much I love the music that he and Gentle Giant created.
"Pretzels" probably went through more re-workings and remixes than any other song on the album. At one point it had an entirely different lyric and vocal melody, and large swaths of additional background vocals. But it's such an intricate piece and I needed to not layer on so much stuff; I had to keep reminding myself of my stated desire to have this album be less dense and demandingly abstract than Scambot 1 was. Scott Chatfield mentioned to me, while he was listening to the album come together in his home, that he really couldn't see that this album was any less crazy and jam-packed with information than the first one had been, and I vowed internally to keep an eye on that while working through all these ideas and textures that were driving me forward. Once I stripped away the original lyrics and melody for "Pretzels" and went with a new melody that simply echoed already existing aspects of the layered piano parts underneath, it smoothed out the song a lot.
Of course I made things tough by needing to hear a guitar solo over the middle section of this tune, which is a crazy tower built out of multiple guitar, keyboard and vocal overdubs. Again I can't overstate the amazing work Mike Harris has done with the mixes on this album. He made it all work together beautifully and the final mix is pure honey to my ears.
You can hear "Pretzels" starting to come together in its very early stages in this "making-of" video we posted a couple of years ago.
Buzz
"Buzz" was the song that resulted in the most traumatic crisis of confidence during the making of the album. I was listening to a VERY early rough mix of the song while driving home from working on it, basically consisting of nothing but clavinet and click track, and became convinced that there was nothing of value in it, and that possibly the whole album was equally valueless. This is what you call poor perspective: I was just overworked and needed a few days off. Now I get a huge kick out of the groove of this song, and it's one I especially gravitate toward for headphone listening. Pete Griffin and Kris Myers sound especially huge on it. Kris does magical things on the drums on this song; subtle but so satisfying. I presented him with my fake drum tracks (drum patches played manually on a keyboard) as guides for the tracks he recorded on his own in Chicago, and gave him carte blanche to go off and try whatever he liked, but his general approach was to stick pretty close to what I had done on the demos rhythmically, but obviously make them sound like a real drummer, with soul and grit and a million beautiful embellishments. I could listen to just the drums on this song and have a fine old time forever.
The music underneath the part that goes "Who are you wearing? Who are you wearing?" was actually the first music written for this song, but I knew as I was writing it that it wasn't meant to be the beginning of "Buzz." I recorded it with Mike Harris then had him put it aside as we worked on the rest of the piece, while I continually wondered where that initial chunk was eventually going to fit in. I remember the feeling when I finally got to the part of the song where I thought that section would work, and I asked Mike to drop it back in – ahhhh. Listening to that fitting together was a highlight of the album-making process for me, like pushing in the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
NOTE! AN IMPORTANT NOTE!
This won't be relevant until you actually get the physical 2-CD set containing the booklet for the Inkling album, but I need to start atoning and spreading the word about this now: there's a song on Inkling called "Cram" which I am REALLY happy with, and which found its way on and off the main Scambot 2 listing multiple times until I finally decided that the main album flowed better without it. "Cram" is now a major highlight of Inkling, and it arose out of a session with Rick Musallam and Kris Myers which also resulted in the song "Roll" on Scambot 2 (which I'll get to in the next Keneallist).
Anyway, I'm mentioning this because I've just realized that I forgot to list Rick Musallam in the credits for "Cram" in the Inkling booklet, which is already printed. Arrrrrgggghhh. This is really galling…I spent hours proofreading these things and yet it repeatedly eluded me. It's just a dumb oversight from my original Word document, and it's especially upsetting because Rick played so beautifully on the track. I will continue to beat myself up in public over this because I really want people to know Rick is on "Cram." Heartfelt apologies to Rick, and to all of you, because this is going to get tiresome, I know it.
The exclusive Scambot 2 Exowax Pre-Order
http://www.keneally.com/
Again, in case you haven't already received this memo: we're currently taking pre-orders for the 2-CD Scambot 2 signed, limited edition of 2000. These will be shipped in late July (at this writing there are eight more shows on this Satriani European tour; then I'll come home, rest for a moment, and get to signing the CD-sets, which have just been shipped to Scott's place). The double-CD set consists of the Scambot 2 album (65 minutes of music) and the Inkling album (48 minutes of music) in a handsome digi-pak with two booklets. You'll get an immediate download of Scambot 2 as soon as you pre-order. (You'll have to wait until your CD set arrives to hear Inkling, which incidentally features Rick Musallam on the song "Cram.")
Scambot 2 itself will be available as a single-album paid download in late July. (Inkling won't be available as a download - it's only available as part of the 2-CD set.)
Hello all – I'm back on the bus, right now in the midst of an 18-hour drive to Gijon, Spain, on the heels of four G3 performances in Italy featuring Satriani, Vai and the Aristocrats. There are eight more shows on this tour, including another three G3 bills in Germany. This is continuing to be a very enjoyable European adventure indeed. The camaraderie is slamming (I wonder if anyone has ever utilized that phrase before) and the music and audiences every night are a thrill. Is my favorite part of the tour curling up in the bus bunk at night, strapping on the headphones and hitting "shuffle" on my seven-hour playlist of Radiohead B-sides and non-album tracks? Well, it might be tied for first.
As I mentioned last time, I'm going to take a look at the virtual "side two" of Scambot 2 [now available for exclusive pre-order] – "Clipper," "Forget About It," "Pretzels" and "Buzz." The prog side. A 14-minute side, for maximum fidelity should it ever hit vinyl (just like side two of English Settlement if I remember correctly).
Clipper
Why is "Clipper" called "Clipper"? Well, a lot of the songs were named before they had lyrics – when we'd start a new session, Mike Harris would ask me what the song was called, and very often there would be no name for it so I'd have to make one up on the spot. In this case I was thinking nautical, because I knew the Quiet Children were going to be in their yacht in this song, and the word "Clipper" came to me as a good working title, but one I expected to change somewhere down the line. Which of course hardly ever happens – nine times out of ten, working titles stick to a song and refuse to be displaced. This song is simply "Clipper" whether it makes sense or not.
(Actually, I later made "Clipper" the name of Campland Standish's engineer on his radio show…for the little excerpt from the Standish show heard in this song, I originally recorded a bit more material, and the part right after Campland says "It's a Monday" had him saying "Clipper, can you turn up my headphones please?"
But when I played a rough mix of this song for Sarah Crochet, she suggested that it would be better to cut the radio show right after "It's a Monday," which worked hugely better with the music in that spot, and also conveyed more than enough of the vibe of the radio show without overegging the pudding, as people who say things like that would say. Sarah was outlandishly helpful to me all the way down the line in suggesting things to improve the mixes as they were in progress, as well as the final sequence of songs, which I'd probably still be trying to figure out now if it weren't for her help. I'm especially grateful to her in the case of "It's a Monday," which delighted Bryan Beller to no end first time he heard it and resulted in "It's a Monday" becoming a running gag between us for a few weeks.)
Doug Lunn and Gregg Bendian played the bass and drums for "Clipper," recorded at Chatfield Manor. We were rehearsing at Scott's for some Southern California Keneally/Bendian/Lunn dates, and I took the opportunity to record them for this song (as well as "Pretzels" and "Scores Of People"). I'm terribly glad to have Doug's unique fretless bass tone on one of my records again for the first time since Boil That Dust Speck. And it's a real privilege to hear Gregg's compositional approach to drums and percussion applied to my music. This song has a very episodic feel, moving through wildly varied landscapes, and I knew these two were the ones to help me construct the skeleton for it.
Another important building block for this song and album were the two days Mike Harris and I spent at the studio of Jeff Berkley, brilliant San Diego guitarist/percussionist, taking advantage of his boundless collection of guitars and amplifiers. I'm the worst interview subject in the world for guitar magazines because I can never remember what gear I used for what songs, and that's amplified (so to speak) ten-fold in the case of this record, because I was picking up different instruments all over the place and recording bits with them, and all details would be wiped from my memory as I moved on to the next thing. But I do clearly recall using Jeff's six-string banjo (tuned like a guitar) for this particular song. It was a texture I've long wanted to get on one of my records.
I was very happy to get my daughter Jesse singing on this tune; in particular the sound of her crystal-clear voice, layered into a choir and delivering the line "You suck," is very pleasing.
The outro has a vibe that Scott Chatfield had previously mentioned to me as being hypnotic and worthy of preserving in its pure form (when I was wondering if it needed additional melodies, vocals, a solo or something), and I wasn't sure whether or not I should fade it out or let it continue to hypnotize until it stopped cold, but ultimately it worked best for me in the context of the record to have it fade away. And then J.D. Mack asked on Facebook if this is the first song on one of my records to actually fade to complete silence. Wow, is it? I can't think of another one. That's kind of amazing to me. (The original "Egg Zooming" mix comes close but doesn't get all the way there.) Only took me 23 years to have a good old-fashioned fade-out.
Forget About It
"Forget About It" is the sort of thing which feels so peculiar to me, makes me practically wonder if it's irresponsible to do, it's so idiosyncratic and odd (other songs in this category include "Eno And The Actor" and "I Guess I'll Peanut"), but it makes me so happy to hear. I love Evan Francis' saxes and flutes on this, which I recorded in the back room of the condo Sarah and I used to live in. Evan couldn't play too loudly because we didn't want to freak out the neighbors too badly, and I really enjoy the subdued tone of his playing here. My friend, the brilliant keyboardist/composer Matt Mitchell, says he hears something of the Uncle Meat album in the brief use of harpsichord on this track. Not intentional, but yep, can't deny the influence – I adore the way keyboards and woodwinds were arranged on UM and I imagine there are a lot of accidental echoes of it in my stuff through the years.
Pretzels
"Pretzels" (and the following track "Buzz") are where the Gentle Giant influence comes on strong in this album, possibly stronger than they ever have before in my stuff. On "Pretzels" it's in the main vocal melody and timbre, which absolutely nod towards Kerry Minnear, and on "Buzz" it's in the interlocking architecture of the instruments in the verses and the use of clavinet. It would be impossible to overstate how much I respect Kerry Minnear's work, and how much I love the music that he and Gentle Giant created.
"Pretzels" probably went through more re-workings and remixes than any other song on the album. At one point it had an entirely different lyric and vocal melody, and large swaths of additional background vocals. But it's such an intricate piece and I needed to not layer on so much stuff; I had to keep reminding myself of my stated desire to have this album be less dense and demandingly abstract than Scambot 1 was. Scott Chatfield mentioned to me, while he was listening to the album come together in his home, that he really couldn't see that this album was any less crazy and jam-packed with information than the first one had been, and I vowed internally to keep an eye on that while working through all these ideas and textures that were driving me forward. Once I stripped away the original lyrics and melody for "Pretzels" and went with a new melody that simply echoed already existing aspects of the layered piano parts underneath, it smoothed out the song a lot.
Of course I made things tough by needing to hear a guitar solo over the middle section of this tune, which is a crazy tower built out of multiple guitar, keyboard and vocal overdubs. Again I can't overstate the amazing work Mike Harris has done with the mixes on this album. He made it all work together beautifully and the final mix is pure honey to my ears.
You can hear "Pretzels" starting to come together in its very early stages in this "making-of" video we posted a couple of years ago.
Buzz
"Buzz" was the song that resulted in the most traumatic crisis of confidence during the making of the album. I was listening to a VERY early rough mix of the song while driving home from working on it, basically consisting of nothing but clavinet and click track, and became convinced that there was nothing of value in it, and that possibly the whole album was equally valueless. This is what you call poor perspective: I was just overworked and needed a few days off. Now I get a huge kick out of the groove of this song, and it's one I especially gravitate toward for headphone listening. Pete Griffin and Kris Myers sound especially huge on it. Kris does magical things on the drums on this song; subtle but so satisfying. I presented him with my fake drum tracks (drum patches played manually on a keyboard) as guides for the tracks he recorded on his own in Chicago, and gave him carte blanche to go off and try whatever he liked, but his general approach was to stick pretty close to what I had done on the demos rhythmically, but obviously make them sound like a real drummer, with soul and grit and a million beautiful embellishments. I could listen to just the drums on this song and have a fine old time forever.
The music underneath the part that goes "Who are you wearing? Who are you wearing?" was actually the first music written for this song, but I knew as I was writing it that it wasn't meant to be the beginning of "Buzz." I recorded it with Mike Harris then had him put it aside as we worked on the rest of the piece, while I continually wondered where that initial chunk was eventually going to fit in. I remember the feeling when I finally got to the part of the song where I thought that section would work, and I asked Mike to drop it back in – ahhhh. Listening to that fitting together was a highlight of the album-making process for me, like pushing in the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
NOTE! AN IMPORTANT NOTE!
This won't be relevant until you actually get the physical 2-CD set containing the booklet for the Inkling album, but I need to start atoning and spreading the word about this now: there's a song on Inkling called "Cram" which I am REALLY happy with, and which found its way on and off the main Scambot 2 listing multiple times until I finally decided that the main album flowed better without it. "Cram" is now a major highlight of Inkling, and it arose out of a session with Rick Musallam and Kris Myers which also resulted in the song "Roll" on Scambot 2 (which I'll get to in the next Keneallist).
Anyway, I'm mentioning this because I've just realized that I forgot to list Rick Musallam in the credits for "Cram" in the Inkling booklet, which is already printed. Arrrrrgggghhh. This is really galling…I spent hours proofreading these things and yet it repeatedly eluded me. It's just a dumb oversight from my original Word document, and it's especially upsetting because Rick played so beautifully on the track. I will continue to beat myself up in public over this because I really want people to know Rick is on "Cram." Heartfelt apologies to Rick, and to all of you, because this is going to get tiresome, I know it.
The exclusive Scambot 2 Exowax Pre-Order
http://www.keneally.com/
Again, in case you haven't already received this memo: we're currently taking pre-orders for the 2-CD Scambot 2 signed, limited edition of 2000. These will be shipped in late July (at this writing there are eight more shows on this Satriani European tour; then I'll come home, rest for a moment, and get to signing the CD-sets, which have just been shipped to Scott's place). The double-CD set consists of the Scambot 2 album (65 minutes of music) and the Inkling album (48 minutes of music) in a handsome digi-pak with two booklets. You'll get an immediate download of Scambot 2 as soon as you pre-order. (You'll have to wait until your CD set arrives to hear Inkling, which incidentally features Rick Musallam on the song "Cram.")
Scambot 2 itself will be available as a single-album paid download in late July. (Inkling won't be available as a download - it's only available as part of the 2-CD set.)
VARIOUS ARTISTS - FROM VIENNA WITH LOVE
- various artists: from vienna with love
(2016, cd, austria, klanggalerie gg211)
That's exactly how I like my samplers.
- eric random: intro (eric random)
- renaldo m.: rosa's still lonely (renaldo & the loaf)
- the burning hell: vienna (billy joel)
- rapoon: brown eyes (robin storey)
- r.b. russell: let there be more love / the man in the wood (r.b. russel)
- naevus: vienna (currie, cross, ure, cann)
- attrition & christopher richard barker: in every parting the shadow of death (attrition)
- roma amor: mama leone (benedetto arico, renate valpus)
- frenk lebel: systems collide (frenk lebel)
- the darkening scale: the digital larynx (david janssen)
- charles bobuck: valley waltz (charles bobuck)
- eric random: intermission (eric random)
- the residents: magic finger (the residents)
- schwump: einstein's regret (barry schwam)
- herr lounge corps & cadaverous condition: the gardens and graves (sleepwalking) (miro snejdr, wolfgang weiss)
- 7jk: taking hte 71 (7jk)
- bumps: aphids martian home (schwump)
- avery parks: what i thought was something turned out to be nothing (avery parks)
- natascha schampus & thomas fröhlich: between states (die neue dunkelheit) (natascha schamupus, william lee)
- paul roland: journey to the centre of the mind (paul roland)
- eric random: outro (eric random)
Monday, July 18, 2016
ZAPPANALE #27 - PART 1
It looks like this was my 15th visit to the Zappanale festival.
How time flies...
Listened to a lot of (excellent) music, saw a bunch of (fine) friends.
Thank you, Zappanale.
Here's a shot that was shared by Bonnie Benefield (Mrs. Gardner) : breakfast with Bunk Gardner and Don Preston.
How time flies...
Listened to a lot of (excellent) music, saw a bunch of (fine) friends.
Thank you, Zappanale.
Here's a shot that was shared by Bonnie Benefield (Mrs. Gardner) : breakfast with Bunk Gardner and Don Preston.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND HIS MAGIC BAND - LIVE IN KANSAS CITY 1974
- captain beefheart and his magic band: live in kansas city 1974
(2015, cd, uk, broadcasting radio records brr6010)
Here's another one.
Semi-official release.
The 1974 April 22 concert at the Cowtown Ballroom in Kansas City.
Same concert, different jacket.
Data has been added to the United Mutations Archives.
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART - FULL MOON HOT SUN
- captain beefheart: full moon - hot sun live in kansas
(2015, cd, uk, keyhole khcd9070)
Semi-official release.
The 1974 April 22 concert at the Cowtown Ballroom in Kansas City.
VALERIE MILOT - ORBIS
- valérie milot: orbis
(2016, cd, canada, analekta an 2 9880)
You'll have to admit that such a list of composers demands further investigation.
Most of the pieces are performed solo on the harp, but some of the piece do feature some additional musicians / instruments.
"Orbis" is a beautiful exploration of contemporary music.
Zappa's 'G-Spot Tornado' is performed on the harp but the cello, the flute and the viola in the lead.
What an amazing piece.
LABTRIO - FLUXUX
- labtrio: fluxus
(2013, cd, bel, out note records otn 020)
Here's "Fluxus", Labtrio's first release.
Lander Gyselinck (drums), Anneleen Boehme (double bass) and Bram De Looze (piano).
Contemporary, improvised, modern jazz.
Here's Labtrio in concert earlier this year, at the Jazzahead festival :
ED PALERMO - IT'S AN ED PALERMO CHRISTMAS! GOD BLESS US, EVERYONE!
- ed palermo: it's an ed palermo christmas! god bless us, everyone!
(2015, cd, usa, private release)
More than noteworthy is the superb 'My Favorite Things / Toads Of The Short Forest', a beautiful mix of the Hammerstein / Rodgers classic with a Zappa tune. Love it.
Merry Belated Christmas, everyone !!
STUFF - S/T
Just a quick not to say that the album has been released as a regular CD as well.
This one will keep me company the next days.
Monday, July 11, 2016
THE ARF DOSSIER VOL.88
The Arf Society not only organises the Zappanale festival. They also produce a little fanzine for its members.
Vol.88 got published a bit over a month ago. There's always lots of pictures, plus a bunch of reviews, articles and info in general. For the biggest part in German.
the arf-dossier no.88 - 2016/06
incl.
- leserpost
- the arf side of life by carsten ahrens
- the hot platters heaven from the arf office
- the rare pictures gallery
- the fine but unauthorized cd kaleidoscope by peter görs
- news from belgium - live from United Mutations
- the vinyl bootleg releases
- back in time, vol.V : the mothers 1967
- ullis ecke
VARIOUS ARTISTS - HAM SESSIONS 2015
- various artists: ham sessions - 2015
(2015, cd-promo, bel, private release)
This time, it's the 2015 edition that gets put into the spotlight.
There's one piece by every participating band on this album. All recorded during the Ham Sessions 2015 festival.
O.Orkin's Insect Zoo, W.O.F.O., Het Collectief, Andy Emler MegaOctet, Hijaz, Altertape, and Mâäk.
A superb introduction to what's happening in Belgium, jazzwise.
The next concert in the Ham Sessions series will be September 11, 2016 (at 15h00) :
W.O.F.O. : the return of Raymond Scott
http://www.hamsessions.be/
STEVE VAI - GREATEST HITS
- steve vai: greatest hits
(2013, 2cd, russia, favoured nations 32852 1/2)
I had never seen this album before. As one can imagine, it's a compilation 2CD set. Released in Russio, licensed to Favored Nations.
Added the data to the United Mutations Archives.
FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION - THE NEW MATERNITY
- frank zappa & the mothers of invention: the new maternity
(2015, cd, uk, sonic boom son0327)
Same recording, new package.
This disc presents the famous 1970 Uddel concert.
It has been released on numerous bootlegs and more recently on the "Transmission Impossible" box set.
FRANK ZAPPA - DUTCH COURAGE
- frank zappa: dutch courage
(2016, 2cd, uk, hobo hb005)
"Dutch Courage" presents recordings of the fm-broadcasts of the 1980/05/24 Rotterdam concert (complete), a couple of tracks from the 1980/06/11 Paris concert, and even a few from the 1980/07/03 Munich concert.
Sounds good. Too bad it's not an official release.
VARIOUS ARTISTS - POP LIISA - LIVE IN STUDIO - 03/04
- various artists: pop liisa - live in studio - 03/04
(2016, cd, finladn, svart records sre006)
In 1973, Finnish progressive rock band Taivaanvuohi did a studio concert for Finnish radio. Their setlist included Frank Zappa's 'Orange County Lumber Truck'.
The Svart Records label has been releasing studio sessions by various bands in their "Pop Liisa" series.
The "03/04" release in this series includes a session by Wigwam plus the above mentioned session by Taivaanvuohi !!
A fine addition to The Others Of Invention.
http://www.united-mutations.com/z/frank_zappa/fz_ooi_albums.htm
RUSS STEDMAN - ALERT BUT WITHOUT ACUTE DISTRESS
- russ stedman: alert but without acute distress
(2010, cdr, usa, private release)
My search for artists that recorded or that are influenced by the music of Frank Zappa regularly generates some fine discoveries and Russ Stedman is a perfect example.
I first heard of Russ Stedman when I found out about the DIY scene that also included people like Eugene Chadbourne, Dino Dimuro and Rudy Schwartz. Home tapers. Artists that recorded and distributed their music by themselves. On cassettes. And later on CDR's.
I also learned that Russ had released the "Where's My Waitress" compilation / tribute to the music of Frank Zappa. Russ re-released the cassette as a CDR a couple of years after that.
Russ Stedman's music is unpredictable and he throws in a nice guitar solo from time to time. Two things that I appreciate in music.
If you're not familiar with Russ' music, "Alert But Without Acute Distress" is a nice place to start.
Original, Zappa-inspired compositions, a couple of nice coverversions, and a superb version of FZ's 'Penis Dimenstion'.
Love it.
Recommended listening.
You can find it here :
http://russstedman.bandcamp.com/album/alert-but-without-acute-distress
VARIOUS ARTISTS - HAM SESSIONS 2014
- various artists: ham sessions - 2014
(2014, cd-promo, bel, private release)
The only band missing (for technical reasons) is the Balkan Quartet.
Just take a look at this selection. It shows that the Belgian music scene is something to investigate.
- laughing bastards: maxican flu (jan-sebastiaan degeyter)
- dans dans: gazelle (dans dans)
- gratitude: snakes (jeroen van herzeele)
- stuff: dogg (stuff)
- moker: sjeik of the ice ages (matthias van de wiele)
- xango tentet: part 1 (xango tentet)
More info (and shopping possibilities) over at :
http://www.hamsessions.be/
31 okt. 2014
Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force in a live remix by STUFF. As an AB Artist in Residence, STUFF. is recording live remixes from bands soon to perform at AB.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
SUNDAY CHOICES
Flat Earth Society is playing at the Ghent Jazz Festival (BE) this afternoon.
Sharing the bill with a lot of other interesting bands (like Roland).
They'll probably be performing material from their latest album.
Might even include a Zappa mash-up :-)
And then there's also Steve Vai performing at the Bospop Festival in Weert (NL) later today.
Followed by Carlos Santana...
What a luxurious dilemma...
GARY PANTER / / JUXTAPOZ
Browsing a couple of older issues of Juxtapoz, I noticed that I should mention the Gary Panter inverview in issue number 48.
From January 2004.
7 pages, with nice artwork.
Cover art by Rick Griffin.
From January 2004.
7 pages, with nice artwork.
ZAPPA * RARE GEMS FROM THE VAULT
- frank zappa: rare gems from the vaults
(2016, 4cd, uk, anglo atlantic)
"Rare Gems From The Vaults". Two concerts on 4 CD's.
1975/04/26 concert 'Providence College', Rhode Island
1981/11/17 concert 'The Ritz', NYC, NY
Superb shows. Excellent quality.
Someone tell Ahmet that we really need this ZFT "Radio Tapes" series...
Listening to 'Velvet Sunrise' from the Providence College show while typing this.
NEW 'SEMI OFFICIAL' ZAPPA ALBUM ANNOUNCED : VANCOUVER WORKOUT
Or did I already mention this?
"Vancouver Workout" will present a recording of the 1975/10/01 concert.
Semi official, meaning 'not approved by the ZFT', although that could mean a lot of things these days.
In this case, it means that a certain record company found a little loop in the legislation, making it possible to release recordings of radio shows...
"Vancouver Workout" will present a recording of the 1975/10/01 concert.
Semi official, meaning 'not approved by the ZFT', although that could mean a lot of things these days.
In this case, it means that a certain record company found a little loop in the legislation, making it possible to release recordings of radio shows...
FRANK ZAPPA * AHOY THERE
- frank zappa: ahoy there
(2016, 2cd, uk, refract)
The more that I think about it, the more that it makes sense :
The Zappa Family Trust should start a series called "Radio Tapes". It should be something like the Rhino Beat The Boots series, but with the original tapes as a source. The original tapes that got broadcast, that is.
"Ahoy There" presents the superb 1980/05/24 Rotterdam concert as broadcast by Dutch radio. I can't imagine that Co de Kloet wouldn't be happy to supply the original tapes to the ZFT to produce an official album.
As long as that doesn't happen, there will alway be rather obscure record labels (read: Refract) that will be issuing these 'semi-official' albums...
Saturday, July 9, 2016
THE ZAPPANALE UPDATE
Here's the updated Zappanale program.
Wednesday, July 13. 2016
14:00 – Am Markt 3 – Openning Exhibition
20:00 – HH St.Katharinen – Inventionis Mater, Siglinde Koch-Sembdner, Uwe Warschkow (IT/DE)
Thursday, July 14. 2016
10:00-14:00 – Am Markt 3 – Exhibition
16:00 - 17:00 – Kamp – Zappnoise (DE)
17:30 - 19:00 – Kamp – Paul Green’s Rockacademy (US)
19:00 - 20:15 – Kino – Guy Bickel (US)
20:15 - 21:15 – Kamp – Guranfoe (UK)
20:45 - 22:15 – Kino – Zappanale Film, Jörg Wulf (DE)
21:30 - 23:00 – Kamp – Bad Penny (DE)
Friday, July 15. 2016
10:00-14:00 – Am Markt 3 – Exhibition
11:00-11:45 – Am Markt 3 – Z.E.R.O. (US/DE)
15:00-16:15 – MainStage – Lex Bronkowitz Orchestra DE)
16:45-17:45 – Mystery – Cowboys from Hell (CH)
18:15-20:00 – MainStage – The Muffin Men feat. Denny Walley & Ed Mann, Special Guest: Candy Zappa (UK/US)
20:00-20:30 – Arf-Tent – red sofa interview ()
20:30-21:30 – Mystery – Stabat Akish (FR)
22:00-00:00 – MainStage – The Magic Band (US)
00:30-02:00 – Mystery – October Equus (ESP)
Saturday, July 16. 2016
10:00-14:00 – Am Markt 3 – Exhibition
11:00-11:45 – Am Markt 3 – Don & Bunk (US)
13:00-15:00 – Stage-Tent – Jim Cohen (US)
15:00-16:30 – MainStage – Hazmat Modine (US)
16:30-17:00 – Arf-Tent – red sofa interview – John French, 50 years Magic Band
17:00-18:15 – Mystery – Z.E.R.O. (US/DE)
18:45-20:30 – MainStage – Paul Green’s Rockacademy feat. Ed Mann (US)
21:00-22:00 – Mystery – BSG 9 (DE)
22:30-00:00 – MainStage – Zappy Birthday Mister Frank (FR)
00:30-02:30 – Mystery – SЮR BAND (SUR BAND) (UKR)
Sunday, July 17. 2016
10:00-14:00 – Am Markt 3 – Exhibition
11:00-11:45 – Am Markt 3 – Inventionis Mater (IT)
12:00-12:45 – Am Markt 3 – Frank Wonneberg "Frank freaks out" (DE)
13:00-14:00 – Arf-Tent – Versammlung Arf Society e.V.
14:00-15:30 – MainStage – The Dorf (DE)
15:30-16:00 – Arf-Tent – Red Sofa interview – Candy Zappa / Nolan Porter()
16:00-17:00 – Mystery – HyperCulte(CH)
17:30-19:00 – MainStage – The Grandmothers & The Yellow String Quartet feat. Ed Mann (US/DE/US)
19:15-20:15 – MainStage – Goodbye Session
20.30-21:45 – Mystery – Jazzprojekt Hundehagen (DE)
Wednesday, July 13. 2016
14:00 – Am Markt 3 – Openning Exhibition
20:00 – HH St.Katharinen – Inventionis Mater, Siglinde Koch-Sembdner, Uwe Warschkow (IT/DE)
Thursday, July 14. 2016
10:00-14:00 – Am Markt 3 – Exhibition
16:00 - 17:00 – Kamp – Zappnoise (DE)
17:30 - 19:00 – Kamp – Paul Green’s Rockacademy (US)
19:00 - 20:15 – Kino – Guy Bickel (US)
20:15 - 21:15 – Kamp – Guranfoe (UK)
20:45 - 22:15 – Kino – Zappanale Film, Jörg Wulf (DE)
21:30 - 23:00 – Kamp – Bad Penny (DE)
Friday, July 15. 2016
10:00-14:00 – Am Markt 3 – Exhibition
11:00-11:45 – Am Markt 3 – Z.E.R.O. (US/DE)
15:00-16:15 – MainStage – Lex Bronkowitz Orchestra DE)
16:45-17:45 – Mystery – Cowboys from Hell (CH)
18:15-20:00 – MainStage – The Muffin Men feat. Denny Walley & Ed Mann, Special Guest: Candy Zappa (UK/US)
20:00-20:30 – Arf-Tent – red sofa interview ()
20:30-21:30 – Mystery – Stabat Akish (FR)
22:00-00:00 – MainStage – The Magic Band (US)
00:30-02:00 – Mystery – October Equus (ESP)
Saturday, July 16. 2016
10:00-14:00 – Am Markt 3 – Exhibition
11:00-11:45 – Am Markt 3 – Don & Bunk (US)
13:00-15:00 – Stage-Tent – Jim Cohen (US)
15:00-16:30 – MainStage – Hazmat Modine (US)
16:30-17:00 – Arf-Tent – red sofa interview – John French, 50 years Magic Band
17:00-18:15 – Mystery – Z.E.R.O. (US/DE)
18:45-20:30 – MainStage – Paul Green’s Rockacademy feat. Ed Mann (US)
21:00-22:00 – Mystery – BSG 9 (DE)
22:30-00:00 – MainStage – Zappy Birthday Mister Frank (FR)
00:30-02:30 – Mystery – SЮR BAND (SUR BAND) (UKR)
Sunday, July 17. 2016
10:00-14:00 – Am Markt 3 – Exhibition
11:00-11:45 – Am Markt 3 – Inventionis Mater (IT)
12:00-12:45 – Am Markt 3 – Frank Wonneberg "Frank freaks out" (DE)
13:00-14:00 – Arf-Tent – Versammlung Arf Society e.V.
14:00-15:30 – MainStage – The Dorf (DE)
15:30-16:00 – Arf-Tent – Red Sofa interview – Candy Zappa / Nolan Porter()
16:00-17:00 – Mystery – HyperCulte(CH)
17:30-19:00 – MainStage – The Grandmothers & The Yellow String Quartet feat. Ed Mann (US/DE/US)
19:15-20:15 – MainStage – Goodbye Session
20.30-21:45 – Mystery – Jazzprojekt Hundehagen (DE)
MIKE KENEALLY ON SCAMBOT 2 AND INKLING
In his latest newsletter, Mike Keneally talks about the songs on his latest album : "Scambot 2".
I pre-ordered the 2CD version last week, so I've been listening the download version for a couple of days now.
Superb stuff.
Let me share MK's comments, taken from his recent newsletter.
Mike Keneally says:
I want to shine some light on Mike Harris, who engineered the majority of the recordings and who mixed all the songs on both Scambot 2 and Inkling. He really demonstrated angelic patience while I worked on multiple versions of some tracks, got microscopically obsessed with mix details, and re-recorded vocals after re-writing lyrics. Mike achieved a really warm sound, and the many layers don't overwhelm the ear – I've never enjoyed the sound of any of my albums as much as I enjoy this. And more light must shine on Scott Chatfield, who supported the entire undertaking in every way, with great patience and understanding as the songs took shape in his home, over a very lengthy gestation period.
I'm going to deal with the songs on Scambot 2 in order, over the next few Keneallists...
In the Trees
The first song is "In The Trees," which is the craziest song on the album – it was intentional, from a narrative/musical perspective, to start the album at maximum density and then gradually let more oxygen into the sound as the album progresses.
The skeleton of "In The Trees" is the main rhythm guitar part, played on a Fender Baritone. The opening melody came to me while standing next to a row of shopping carts in a soul-deadening department store, and I stood singing it into my phone whilst my girlfriend patiently waited for me to grab a cart and start shopping for sundries.
Months later I woke up too early with ideas for the next lick to follow that opening line. I snuck out to the living room with the guitar and phone and ended up recording something like 20 little instrumental segments, which I later took into the studio with Mike Harris and formed into the basis of the whole ten-and-a-half-minute epic.
My daughter Jesse and Ben Thomas helped me out vocally on this one, the one song on the album which is most explicit about vocalizing the different characters. I didn't want to have each song sound as though it was sung by the different characters (that would be more of a "rock opera" album than I cared to make) but for the dramatic, over-the-top nature of this song, it made sense.
Kris Myers recorded the drums for this song, as well as "Sam," "Buzz," "Constructed" and "Freezer Burn" (PLUS "Falafel," "Tom" and "Back It Up!" off of Inkling, the second album in the 2-CD special edition) in one single-day marathon recording session at Transient Sound in Chicago. Truly a super-human feat of endurance and skill. We recorded Pete Griffin's bass in his bedroom. This album encompassed a lot of locations and times and it was some work making it all sound cohesive – the Mike Harris magic at work.
Roots Twist
"Roots Twist" is one you might remember from a video we posted over two years ago of us recording the vocal parts in the living room. It sounded cool then, but really bloomed into awesomeness for me once we recorded Bryan Beller's bass and Joe Travers' drums for it last year. The rhythm section KILLS on this song. If we were releasing singles from the album, this would be the first one.
This one was also built from the guitar part up, and I wrote the part standing next to Mike Harris in the studio, section by section. I knew that I needed a song that felt like this one, but didn't know yet what the actual notes would be – it was fun coming up with the parts on the spot and having Mike H. capture them for me, listening back and deciding what the next part should sound like, and by the time I was done composing the structure, the main rhythm guitar part was already recorded. It's a fun way to write, and one that I employed for many songs on this album.
Sam
"Sam," on the other hand, was a fully composed piece prior to me bringing it into the studio, and it was based on a guitar chord shape I'd never happened upon before (if you'll permit me to get tech for a sec, it involves playing a triad with the 5th note of the scale on the fifth string, the 3rd on the third string, and the 1st on the first string – i.e., the first chord of the song, G major, has the D on the 5th fret of the A string, the B on the 4th fret of the G string, and the G on the third fret of the high E). That was a starting point, and then finding a second different but complementary chord shape, and moving that around the neck, very quickly gave me a chord progression I found really complete-sounding and pleasing, and somehow wistful enough to support a lyric about Ophunji actually displaying evidence of humanity (so to speak).
The guitar part in the chorus is obviously me channeling my inner Neil Young. And the guitar solo is a bit of a Coltrane injection, so if you recall the song "Wooden Smoke" which alludes to both of those titans, this song is kind of a musical reference back to that. I think Kris Myers initially thought I was insane when he heard how I chose to layer two different drum takes in the guitar solo in order to achieve a seriously undulating rhythmic ebb and flow for the guitar solo to float over, but over time he began to understand the method in my madness (I think. I hope).
Next Keneallist I'll deal with "side two" (speaking of which – when we asked you to take that survey about formats a while back, very few of you showed a specific interest in vinyl for this release, so initially at least, we're not doing vinyl. If the album seems to catch on with people in its 2-CD and download formats, we may revisit the idea of vinyl. We do really love vinyl and still have fantasies of releasing my music that way, but we've got to be sensible about it).
In closing I want to say a couple of things about the artwork – first off, the Scambot figurine on the cover was constructed by Dane Runyon, a musician/composer of wond'rous gifts whose debut album Looking Below () I produced. He gifted me figurines of Scambot and Ophunji. Scott photographed the Scambot figurine in the kitchen, and then Atticus Wolrab placed it, through the magic of art, into its present fantasy environment. Many thanks to you, Dane, for your gift, and for your contribution to what is my favorite album cover of any we've released.
And re: Atticus, who refuses to take art credits on my albums anymore, for reasons; he can't stop me from talking about him here. He's once again done stellar work with this album. And in addition to all the design work and his manipulation of my goofy drawings in the booklet, he also did the drawing which occupies page two of the digital booklet, a radical reimagining of my characters in an explosion of Aoxomoxoa-tude. I love it, and need to thank him openly for it whether he likes it or not.
Enough words for now? Sure!
The exclusive Scambot 2 Exowax Pre-Order
http://store.keneally.com/
But once again to recap, for those who haven't ordered the album – we're currently taking pre-orders for the 2-CD Scambot 2 signed, limited edition of 2000. These will be shipped in late July (after I get back from this Satriani European tour and can actually sign the ding-dang things). They consist of the Scambot 2 album (65 minutes of music) and the Inkling album (48 minutes of music) in a handsome digi-pak with two booklets. You'll get an immediate download of Scambot 2 as soon as you pre-order. (You'll have to wait until your CD set arrives to hear Inkling.)
Scambot 2 itself will be available as a single-album paid download in late July. (Inkling won't be available as a download – it's only available as part of the 2-CD set.)
For the moment, the music is only available through Exowax. It will go into wider release through other distributors and retailers starting September 9.
Thanks all d:9)
Mike
I pre-ordered the 2CD version last week, so I've been listening the download version for a couple of days now.
Superb stuff.
Let me share MK's comments, taken from his recent newsletter.
Mike Keneally says:
I want to shine some light on Mike Harris, who engineered the majority of the recordings and who mixed all the songs on both Scambot 2 and Inkling. He really demonstrated angelic patience while I worked on multiple versions of some tracks, got microscopically obsessed with mix details, and re-recorded vocals after re-writing lyrics. Mike achieved a really warm sound, and the many layers don't overwhelm the ear – I've never enjoyed the sound of any of my albums as much as I enjoy this. And more light must shine on Scott Chatfield, who supported the entire undertaking in every way, with great patience and understanding as the songs took shape in his home, over a very lengthy gestation period.
I'm going to deal with the songs on Scambot 2 in order, over the next few Keneallists...
In the Trees
The first song is "In The Trees," which is the craziest song on the album – it was intentional, from a narrative/musical perspective, to start the album at maximum density and then gradually let more oxygen into the sound as the album progresses.
The skeleton of "In The Trees" is the main rhythm guitar part, played on a Fender Baritone. The opening melody came to me while standing next to a row of shopping carts in a soul-deadening department store, and I stood singing it into my phone whilst my girlfriend patiently waited for me to grab a cart and start shopping for sundries.
Months later I woke up too early with ideas for the next lick to follow that opening line. I snuck out to the living room with the guitar and phone and ended up recording something like 20 little instrumental segments, which I later took into the studio with Mike Harris and formed into the basis of the whole ten-and-a-half-minute epic.
My daughter Jesse and Ben Thomas helped me out vocally on this one, the one song on the album which is most explicit about vocalizing the different characters. I didn't want to have each song sound as though it was sung by the different characters (that would be more of a "rock opera" album than I cared to make) but for the dramatic, over-the-top nature of this song, it made sense.
Kris Myers recorded the drums for this song, as well as "Sam," "Buzz," "Constructed" and "Freezer Burn" (PLUS "Falafel," "Tom" and "Back It Up!" off of Inkling, the second album in the 2-CD special edition) in one single-day marathon recording session at Transient Sound in Chicago. Truly a super-human feat of endurance and skill. We recorded Pete Griffin's bass in his bedroom. This album encompassed a lot of locations and times and it was some work making it all sound cohesive – the Mike Harris magic at work.
Roots Twist
"Roots Twist" is one you might remember from a video we posted over two years ago of us recording the vocal parts in the living room. It sounded cool then, but really bloomed into awesomeness for me once we recorded Bryan Beller's bass and Joe Travers' drums for it last year. The rhythm section KILLS on this song. If we were releasing singles from the album, this would be the first one.
This one was also built from the guitar part up, and I wrote the part standing next to Mike Harris in the studio, section by section. I knew that I needed a song that felt like this one, but didn't know yet what the actual notes would be – it was fun coming up with the parts on the spot and having Mike H. capture them for me, listening back and deciding what the next part should sound like, and by the time I was done composing the structure, the main rhythm guitar part was already recorded. It's a fun way to write, and one that I employed for many songs on this album.
Sam
"Sam," on the other hand, was a fully composed piece prior to me bringing it into the studio, and it was based on a guitar chord shape I'd never happened upon before (if you'll permit me to get tech for a sec, it involves playing a triad with the 5th note of the scale on the fifth string, the 3rd on the third string, and the 1st on the first string – i.e., the first chord of the song, G major, has the D on the 5th fret of the A string, the B on the 4th fret of the G string, and the G on the third fret of the high E). That was a starting point, and then finding a second different but complementary chord shape, and moving that around the neck, very quickly gave me a chord progression I found really complete-sounding and pleasing, and somehow wistful enough to support a lyric about Ophunji actually displaying evidence of humanity (so to speak).
The guitar part in the chorus is obviously me channeling my inner Neil Young. And the guitar solo is a bit of a Coltrane injection, so if you recall the song "Wooden Smoke" which alludes to both of those titans, this song is kind of a musical reference back to that. I think Kris Myers initially thought I was insane when he heard how I chose to layer two different drum takes in the guitar solo in order to achieve a seriously undulating rhythmic ebb and flow for the guitar solo to float over, but over time he began to understand the method in my madness (I think. I hope).
Next Keneallist I'll deal with "side two" (speaking of which – when we asked you to take that survey about formats a while back, very few of you showed a specific interest in vinyl for this release, so initially at least, we're not doing vinyl. If the album seems to catch on with people in its 2-CD and download formats, we may revisit the idea of vinyl. We do really love vinyl and still have fantasies of releasing my music that way, but we've got to be sensible about it).
In closing I want to say a couple of things about the artwork – first off, the Scambot figurine on the cover was constructed by Dane Runyon, a musician/composer of wond'rous gifts whose debut album Looking Below () I produced. He gifted me figurines of Scambot and Ophunji. Scott photographed the Scambot figurine in the kitchen, and then Atticus Wolrab placed it, through the magic of art, into its present fantasy environment. Many thanks to you, Dane, for your gift, and for your contribution to what is my favorite album cover of any we've released.
And re: Atticus, who refuses to take art credits on my albums anymore, for reasons; he can't stop me from talking about him here. He's once again done stellar work with this album. And in addition to all the design work and his manipulation of my goofy drawings in the booklet, he also did the drawing which occupies page two of the digital booklet, a radical reimagining of my characters in an explosion of Aoxomoxoa-tude. I love it, and need to thank him openly for it whether he likes it or not.
Enough words for now? Sure!
The exclusive Scambot 2 Exowax Pre-Order
http://store.keneally.com/
But once again to recap, for those who haven't ordered the album – we're currently taking pre-orders for the 2-CD Scambot 2 signed, limited edition of 2000. These will be shipped in late July (after I get back from this Satriani European tour and can actually sign the ding-dang things). They consist of the Scambot 2 album (65 minutes of music) and the Inkling album (48 minutes of music) in a handsome digi-pak with two booklets. You'll get an immediate download of Scambot 2 as soon as you pre-order. (You'll have to wait until your CD set arrives to hear Inkling.)
Scambot 2 itself will be available as a single-album paid download in late July. (Inkling won't be available as a download – it's only available as part of the 2-CD set.)
For the moment, the music is only available through Exowax. It will go into wider release through other distributors and retailers starting September 9.
Thanks all d:9)
Mike
Friday, July 8, 2016
GARY LUCAS
Friday, Jul 08, 2016
8:00 pm
Gary Lucas "The Goddess"
Known for his experimental and constantly shifting sound grounded in American folk-blues, Gary Lucas is back at Pioneer Works performing another original live score, this time accompanying the 1934 Chinese silent film “The Goddess”. Directed by Wu Yonggang and starring the incomparable Shanghai diva Ruan Lingyu, ‘The Goddess’ epitomizes the tragic tales common in the films from the ‘golden age’ of Chinese cinema. Lucas’ live score draws on his bluesy arrangements of 30’s Shanghai pop of the period as featured on his celebrated 2001 album “The Edge of Heaven: Gary Lucas Plays Mid-Century Chinese Pop”(Knitting Factory Records).
After the film, Gary will be joined by renowned Chinese vocalist Feifei Yang to perform renditions of classic Chinese Pop songs from the era.
Gary Lucas is a Grammy nominated composer, songwriter and solo-guitarist. Over the course of his career, Lucas has recorded and performed with artists such as Jeff Buckley, Leonard Bernstein, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, John Cale, Bryan Ferry, Patti Smith, Chris Cornell, Peter Hammill, John Zorn, Future Sound of London, Roswell Rudd. Recently, Lucas has composed original film scores for classic, artistic films, which he has performed and special screenings at The Havana Film Festival, The New York Film Festival, the London Jazz Festival, among other locations.
Feifei Yang is a celebrated Huqin (Erhu and Banhu) artist and an award-winning singer. She is a member of Chinese Musicians’ Association, Chinese Music Ensemble of New York, and a researcher of Digital Arts and Humanity Research Center at Pratt Institute. Ms. Yang has been invited to perform at notable institutions across the States, including Lincoln Center, the Barclays Center, the United Nations, Summer Stage, the New York Fashion Week among many others. She has served as a judge for the CCTV’s China Youth Talent Show Contests; the Fifth Annual American Youth Talent and Art Contests and China’s National Youth Music Competition. Feifei’s first self-composed and live Huqin music album, Dance of the Strings, was released in 2015. Her second album Vermillion Bird was released in 2016.
Tickets available from Pioneer Works
Friday, Jul 08, 2016
8:00 pm
Tickets $20
PIONEER WORKS
Pioneer Works is a center for research and experimentation in contemporary culture. Through a broad range of educational programs, performances, arts and science residencies, and exhibitions, Pioneer Works seeks to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, foster community, and provide a space where alternative modes of thought are supported and activated in tangible ways.
Pioneer Works, Center for Art & Innovation is located at:
159 Pioneer Street (between Imlay & Conover)
Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 596-3001
http://pioneerworks.org/
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