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More Frank Zappa vinyl coming this summer

– May 13, 2013Posted in: New releases

We recently reported that the Zappa Family Trust will reissue two classic Frank Zappa titles on vinyl in june. Hot on the heels of this news comes the announcement of yet another Zappa vinyl release: a limited edition 12″ on red vinyl, including the original mono version of “Who Are The Brain Police?”.

The track listing for this 12″ is as follows:
Side 1: HELP I’M A ROCK / IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE – Original Stereo 1966 Mix
Side 2: WHO ARE THE BRAIN POLICE? – Original Mono Release
WHO ARE THE BRAIN POLICE? – Basic Trackings

This item is expected to ship in the week of 4 July 2013 and can pre-ordered here.

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Frank Zappa vinyl reissues coming this summer

– April 29, 2013Posted in: New releases

With the rights to all of groundbreaking composer Frank Zappa’s music back home with the Zappa Family Trust, fans can look forward to more freshly remastered music being released on vinyl. A vinyl version of Zappa’s “Finer Moments“, which was recorded in the early 1970s, but not released until 2012, is already available.

In June, look for new vinyl versions of Frank Zappa’s 1966 debut album “Freak Out!” and “Over-Nite Sensation” on Zappa Records/Barking Pumpkin Records. Joe Travers, vaultmaster for the Frank Zappa archives is working with Chris Bellman of Bernie Grundman mastering on the new vinyl projects. “Freak Out!” will be a 180-gram reissue of the original 1966 stereo mix of the album whose title still says it all. The album marked Zappa’s legendary debut album with the Mothers of Invention and proved to be rock ‘n roll’s first concept/double album.

Back on vinyl 40 years after its original release, Over-Nite Sensation will also be 180-gram vinyl; the album includes the tracks “Camarillo Brillo,” “I’m The Slime” and “Dinah-Moe Humm,” among others.

Last year when the rights to the iconic composer’s music reverted back to Zappa Records and the Zappa Family Trust – headed by Zappa’s widow Gail Zappa – the family made all his music available on iTunes for the first time.

Buy Frank Zappa albums from Amazon.com

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Zappa Family Trust reissues Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica

– March 31, 2013Posted in: New releases

The Zappa Family Trust has announced it will reissue Captain Beefheart’s legendary “Trout Mask Replica” album from 1969 in early may. The album will appear on both CD and vinyl.

Trout Mask Replica is the third album by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in June 1969. Produced by Frank Zappa, it was originally released as a double album on Zappa’s Straight Records label. Combining elements of blues, avant-garde, free jazz and other genres of American music, the album is regarded as an important work of experimental music and a major influence on genres such as alternative rock and post-punk.

We have no details yet on any bonus material or alternate versions for this reissue, but we can assume it will at least be a sonic upgrade from previous CD issues.

This new issue of “Trout Mask Replica” can be pre-ordered here.

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Former Frank Zappa band members record new album

– March 7, 2013Posted in: New releases

Lifelong Frank Zappa fan Wolfram Klug had a mission: to gather together legendary Frank Zappa band members Ike Willis, Ed Mann, Arthur Barrow and Tommy Mars for the first time in twenty years, harness their incredible talents and record a CD like no other.

Wolfram travelled from Switzerland to Southern California to record in LA with Ike Willis (vocals and guitar), Arthur Barrow (bass), Tommy Mars (vocals and keyboard) and Ed Mann (percussion and mallets). All of them are hugely talented musicians who featured heavily on Zappa’s greatest albums and live shows. This brand spanking new work is a colourful mix of vocal and instrumental tracks that fuse jazz, funk, electro, and spoken word. In other words, it’s packed with fun.

There’s only one catch: Wolfram needs to secure some outside funding to complete this great project. By supporting his campaign on Indiegogo.com you can help to put the finishing touches on this release.

Check out the funding campaign here or read more about the project at musicfromutopia.com.

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Tags: Arthur Barrow, Frank Zappa, Ike Willis, Tommy Mars
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Howard Kaylan autobiography out on April 16

– March 1, 2013Posted in: Books

Howard Kaylan is best known as a member of the Turtles, but his life in music is much more far reaching. From his recordings with fellow Turtle Mark Volman as Flo and Eddie, his tours with Frank Zappa, to his work on over 100 albums by artists like Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, the Ramones and Alice Cooper, Kaylan undoubtedly has a lot of stories.

Kaylan’s autobiography “Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc.” was written with Jeff Tamarkin and will be released on April 16 via Backbeat Books.

The publsiher writes: “If Howard Kaylan had sung only one song, the Turtles’ 1967 No. 1 smash hit Happy Together, his place in rock-and-roll history would still be secure. But that recording, named in 1999 by BMI as one of the top 50 songs of the 20th century, with over five million radio plays, is only the tip of a rather eye-opening iceberg. For nearly five decades, Howard Kaylan has been a player in the rock-and-roll revolution. In addition to his years with the Turtles, Kaylan was a core member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention and the dynamic duo Flo and Eddie, and part of glam rock history with Marc Bolan and T. Rex. He’s also given street cred and harmonies to everyone from John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and Alice Cooper to the Ramones and Duran Duran, to name just a few. Howard Kaylan’s life has been a dangerous ride that he is only too happy to report on, naming names and shedding shocking tales of sex, drugs, and creative excess. Shell Shocked will stand alone as not only one of the best-told music-biz memoirs, but one with a truly candid and unmatchable story of rock-and-roll insanity and success from a man who glories in it all.”

Pre-order “Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc.” from Amazon.com

[Source: www.vintagevinylnews.com]

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Orchestral version of Frank Zappa’s ‘200 Motels’ gets world premiere

– February 26, 2013Posted in: Festivals/Concerts, Films/Documentaries

The complete orchestral version of Frank Zappa‘s “200 Motels” will receive its world premiere on Oct. 23 at Walt Disney Concert Hall as the Los Angeles Philharmonic begins its 10th anniversary season in the venue. Conductor laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct.

Written mostly in motel rooms while Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were on tour, portions of the piece received a premiere in May 1970 at UCLA’s Royce Hall with Zubin Mehta conducting the L.A. Philharmonic. Portions of the score were used in Zappa’s film of the same name.

An abridged version was premiered in Holland in 2000 under the title “200 Motels: The 13 Suites.” It is written for a rock band with a full orchestra, chorale and 15 soloists. Gail Zappa says they have adapted the score to emphasize the orchestral elements and that the current musicians in symphonies are better equipped to play her husband’s music than the musicians of four decades ago.

After the L.A. premiere, BBC Concert Orchestra will perform “200 Motels” on Oct. 29 at the Royal Festival Hall with Jurjen Hempel conducting.

[Source: Billboard.com]

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Art Tripp remembers Ray Collins

– January 3, 2013Posted in: General news, Obituaries

We recently passed on the sad news that original Mothers of Invention vocalist Ray Collins had died on December 24th. A couple of days later we received a note from drummer Art Tripp (through his friend Christopher Garcia), who worked with both Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart. Here are Art’s memories of Ray Collins:

It’s not quite dawned on me yet that Ray Collins is no longer in this terrestrial world. Since the late 1960’s it had always been a type of comfort to me to know that Ray was around. And Ray did get around. A child of the 1930’s, he came of age in the 1950’s when times were good. He developed a free spirit and a resistance to labels and rules. His fine tenor voice got him work in prominent L.A. doo-wop bands; but he took other types of work as well. One of them was a good paying job building sets for the movie studios. He told me he quit because he got tired of the idiots.

He joined up with Roy Estrada and Jimmy Carl Black in the Soul Giants. When their guitar player quit they hired Frank Zappa, a musician Ray had worked with earlier in the 1960’s. Soon the Mothers of Invention were born, and Ray helped front the band, and was its lead vocalist for the next three years. His ribald and off beat sense of humor was a perfect complement to the unclassifiable group.

When I joined the band in 1968, it was as if I’d died and gone to heaven. The humor, the iconoclasm, the musicianship, and the wide variety of music were a perfect fit. And to me Ray was the fountainhead of the basic nature of the band. Yet later that year Ray’s distaste for the group’s musical direction compelled him to announce that he was leaving the group. I was stunned. Everyone was shocked. How could he quit when the group was getting so popular, and starting to provide us with so much work? But off he went, and I felt that he took the spirit of the Mothers with him.

Ray had his own convictions, and he was never one to veer from them. He resolutely held to his beliefs no matter what the popular course. As a man of the people, an everyman, Ray was a true free spirit—a Beatnik, and a wanderer.

I have many memories of Ray. We played the Grammy Awards in ’68 at the plush NY Hilton. Steve Allen was the host that year, Woody Herman and his Herd was the house band. When they drew the curtain up for our performance Ray walked over to Steve and said, “How’s your bird”? Allen let out a big horse laugh, and the guys in Herman’s band doubled over in stitches.

Ray joined us for a last gig in San Diego in 1969. During the show Ray improvised a gag which lampooned Jim Morrison’s “exposure” on stage a few weeks prior. Morrison’s antics had sent shockwaves throughout rock ‘n roll, and people suspected he’d gone too far. So Ray’s satire caused the entire audience to come unglued.

We kept in touch over the years. A few months ago my wife and I went out to L.A. to visit old friends. We got together with Ray down at the venerable Phillipe’s Restaurant near Union Station. Afterwards we spent some time at Olvera Street, then we walked down to Union Station to see Ray off on his train back to Claremont. After a few final words, he turned and walked down the tunnel to his train. As I watched him go, I knew that it would be the last time I was to see Ray. Yet I never would have dreamed that he’d be gone in six months. Goodbye, old friend. I can hear you singing to them in heaven.

– Art Tripp

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Mothers of Invention vocalist Ray Collins dies, age 75

– December 25, 2012Posted in: Obituaries

Singer Ray Collins, one of Frank Zappa‘s original Mothers of Invention, passed away on December 24, after being in a medically induced coma for several days.

Ray Collins started his musical career singing falsetto backup vocals for various doo-wop groups in the Los Angeles area in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including Little Julian Herrera and the Tigers. In 1964, Collins, drummer Jimmy Carl Black and bassist Roy Estrada joined with Frank Zappa to form The Soul Giants, which, under Zappa’s leadership, turned into the Mothers of Invention.

Ray was the lead vocalist on the Mothers’ early albums, including Freak Out!, Absolutely Free and Cruising with Ruben & the Jets. He contributed to other Zappa projects through the mid-1970s.

Ray Collins was 75 years old.

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More Zappa goodness: “Finer Moments” out in december

– November 19, 2012Posted in: New releases

Fans of iconic rock hero Frank Zappa are having the time of their lives: after an extensive reissue campaign by Universal Music Entertainment the Zappa Family Trust are treating us to some interesting archichal releases. Hot on the heels of the release of “Road Tapes, Venue #1” comes news about yet another double album: “Finer Moments”, to be released December 18th.

No official details are available yet, but judging from the track list that is doing the rounds it looks like we can expect more live recordings by Zappa’s original Mothers of Invention.

The track list of “Finer Moments” looks like this: Intro/Sleazette/Mozart Piano Sonata In Bb/The Walking Zombie Music/The Old Curiosity Shoppe/You Never Know Who Your Friends Are/Uncle Rhebus/Music From The Big Squeeze/Enigmas 1 Thru 5/Pumped And Waxed/There Is No Heaven From Where Slogans Go To Die/Squeeze It, Squeeze It, Squeeze It/The Subcutaneous Peril.

Buy Frank Zappa CDs from Amazon.com

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More Zappa news: ‘Road Tapes, Venue #1’ out soon

– October 31, 2012Posted in: New releases

Hot on the heels of the release of “Understanding America“, a new 2-disc compilation, comes the news that the Zappa Family Trust will release “Road Tapes, Venue #1”.

The new series of Road Tapes are “the more primitive audio documentary attempts to capture the essence of what was highly and improbably and even impossibly out there on the road in some of the worst audio terrain imaginable.”

“Road Tapes, Venue #1”, recorded in Vancouver B.C. in August 1968, can be pre-ordered here and should be shipping later this week.

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