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It’s good to see that some people have taken the time to acknowledge Trout Mask’s 50th anniversary. Here we have two online radio shows, both available on Mixcloud,  taking different approaches to celebrating the greatness of the band’s landmark album. Both are well worth a listen. Firstly we have the London based Resonance FM. The host discusses the album with Beefheart biographer, Mike Barnes and the show is described as: Freewheeling music series with Ivor Kallin. This week we celebrate fifty years since the release of Captain Beefheart’s Troutmask Replica, with special guest Mike Barnes, author of the seminal work on the good captain. ExpectRead More →

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Classic Live Recordings From the 1960s & 1970s A cynical attempt to get fans to buy copies of boot CDs they’ve probably already got! It’s a ‘4 CD Set’ of three previously released albums with exactly the same packaging. All that’s happened is that a thin card box has been printed up and the three albums have been shoved inside. So what you have here is: Full Moon in Cowtown – Live 1974 Radio Broadcast Plastic Factory – Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco 1966 plus bonus tracks The Muffin Man Goes to College – Rhode Island 1975 Bongo Fury Tour Follow the links above if youRead More →

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Song List Nowadays A Woman’s Gonna Hit A Man Abba Zaba Hot Head Ashtray Heart Dirty Blue Gene Best Batch Yet A Carrot Is As Close As A Rabbit Gets To A Diamond Doctor Dark Bat Chain Puller Sheriff of Hong Kong Kandy Korn Big Eyed From Venus Cover blurb: Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band toured Europe and North America to promote their critically acclaimed album, Doc At The Radar Station. This would be their final tour together. A year later, Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart, turned his back on the music business to focus on painting. Broadcast live by CBC at theRead More →

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Liverpool’s Bluecoat Gallery continue their support of all things Beefheart with a special event to mark Trout Mask Replica’s 50th anniversary. Beefheart biographer Mike Barnes will be leading a discussion about the album and artist Derek Tyman will be creating a scale model of the Trout House! Bluecoat Artistic Director Bryan Biggs chairs the event, which continues Bluecoat’s relationship to Beefheart, from his first ever exhibition of paintings at the venue in 1972 to a special weekend in 2017 that explored him as a ‘total artist’ who embraced music, art, writing and performance. The event is on Sunday 16th June 2019. For more details andRead More →

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May 11 – June 8, 2019 • Fast & Bulbous: The Art of Victor Hayden, curated by Anthony Ausgang Lisa Derrick Fine Arts will be presenting Fast & Bulbous, an exhibition of drawings and paintings by Victor Hayden (1948-2018), aka The Mascara Snake, with an opening reception May 11, 2019, from 6pm to 9pm. The gallery is located at 961 Chung King Road, in Los Angeles Chinatown. Victor was an ephemeral member of The Magic Band (Don and he were cousins). He contributed both art and music to Trout Mask Replica and  also painted the artwork on the cover of the band’s 1974 release BluejeansRead More →

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There are not many opportunities these day to hear Don’s music played live but luckily there are a few musicians out there keeping the flame alive. Here’s a couple of chances to experience this music live, one in the US and one in the UK. UPDATE: Gary has contacted us to say that the Cutting Room gig has had to be POSTPONED. We will post details when it is rescheduled. Gary Lucas is presenting his THE WORLD OF CAPTAIN BEEFHEART show featuring legendary soul diva Nona Hendryx (Labelle) on vocals. You can catch this in NYC at The Cutting Room 44 East 32nd St onRead More →

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One of the great pieces of footage showing the band at full throttle is their performance of I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby on the German TV music programme Beat Club back in 1972. Then in 2012 The Lost Broadcasts DVD revealed footage form the complete studio session – a couple more run throughs of Booglarize plus versions of Click Clack (twice), Golden Birdies, Steal Softly Thru Snow and Rockette Morton’s Bass Solo. Amazing picture and sound quality! Now, the Beat Club YouTube channel has revealed even more footage from that session. Sadly there are no more songs. But what we do have here is theRead More →

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That Petrol Emotion Hot Head 1988 UK 12″ Cellophane / Think of a Woman / Hot Head on Virgin Records VST 1116 see also Fast ‘n’ Bulbous Tribute Album Zig Zag Wanderer 1985 UK 12″ Keen / A Great Depression on a Slum Night / Zig Zag Wanderer on Pink Records PINKY 13T The Three Johns Moonlight on Vermont 1988 UK vinyl The Death of Everything on Trance Records 1988 UK CD The Death of Everything on Line Records TCDD 9-00671 One of the Johns was Jon Langford, founder of Leeds punk legend The Mekons, who de-camped to Chicago and are still performing. Another Beefheart connection is that he played withRead More →

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  Sacred Cowboys Click Clack 2008 Australia CD Nailed to the Cross 1982-85 on Savage Beat/Loaded Skull Discs SB/LSD001 This track was only released as part of this 2CD retrospective but was recorded back in 1983 as part of a live set played at the Seaview Ballroom and broadcast on radio The Sacred Cowboys played a tough rock tinged with country and were part of the healthy Aussie scene that also included The Scientists and The Beasts of Bourbon.   Satantango Clear Spot 2004 Italian CD Mr Bore on Wallace Records wallace 53 Included on as this CD as track 0, a pre-gap hidden trackRead More →

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Native & Silencers ZigZag Wanderer 1995 French CD Duos Taratata on Barclay 529509-2 A compilation album of material played on the French TV show ‘Taratata’. It looks like bands were encouraged to play together hence the ‘duos’ part of the album title. The song is actually listed as ‘Zig Zag’. Native is a French soul and funk band, they are two French black sisters Laura and Chris Mayne and The Silencers is a Scottish rock band. This was recorded on February 15th, 1995 and broadcast on March 24th, 1995 on French second channel. You can see a video of this on www.mytaratata.com Thanks to Daniel Mercurin for extra information about this one. NectarineRead More →

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Mark Lanegan Band Clear Spot 2003 US CDEP Here Comes That Weird Chill (Methamphetamine Blues, Extras & Oddities) on Beggars Banquet Records Ex-Screaming Trees and Queens Of The Stone Age frontman, Mark Lanegan has put his own band together. Originally intended as a single from the album this release has grown into an 8 track EP of session out-takes that includes a version of ‘Clear Spot’. Thanks to Dave Crunelle for telling me about this one. Andrew Lange Sure Nuff ‘n’ Yes I Do 2008 live (unreleased) Andrew Lange does a fine energetic one-man-band version, playing guitar, bass drum, snare drum and high-hat. It’s on Youtube if you want to take a look.Read More →

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Alvin Youngblood Hart Ice Rose 1998 US CD Territory on Hannibal HNCD1431 In an interview with Down Beat magazine (September 2003) Hart said:- Beefheart is a major inspiration. Maybe a lot of people don’t get it, but I feel like I get it. He’s a cartoon character, just like Rocky & Bullwinkle. He’s part Howlin’ Wolf and part Ornette Coleman. It just “always seems to come out right”. Jesse Hartley Drop Out Boogie 2016 UK CD Extraordinary Renditions on Deek Recordings Released as part of an oddball various artists covers compilation this is the only Beefheart cover. It’s best listened to whilst watching the very inventiveRead More →

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Terry Edwards & The Scapegoats Ice Cream For Crow 2000 UK 7″ Ice Cream For Crow/ Tailgating on Damaged Goods Records DAMGOOD146 2000 UK CD Large Door on Damaged Goods Records DG148 Saxophone player honks his way through ‘Ice Cream For Crow’ in a sort of punk/rockabilly style on a limited edition (500 copies) yellow vinyl. Manically good fun.   Erase Errata Clear Spot date? German 7″ vinyl on Tomlab TOM U/103 Erik 4-A & Friends Frying Pan (instrumental) 2001 US CD Hold The Vocals. A tribute to the instrumental hits of the 50s 60s 70s on Go-Kustom Records GKR008-2 An interesting album this one but I can’t help thinking thatRead More →

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C Cat Trance Orange Claw Hammer 2005 UK CD Karadara – Best Of on Cherry Red Records CDMRED280 This cover was recorded some time ago by John Rees Lewis, singer/sax player with the band Medium Medium, who were part of the punk/funk scene along with A Certain Ratio, 23 Skidoo and Rip Rig & Panic in the 1980s. The band cited Beefheart as an influence although Lewis was the bigger fan. It was with his next band, C Cat Trance, that he recorded Orange Claw Hammer to which he added “a bassline and stuff to it”, for an album that didn’t get released because the record company, Red Flame, folded. Unofficial cassettes ofRead More →

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The 012 Blabber ‘n’ Smoke 1981 UK tape White Patterns On Her Dress on Funky Weird Tapes FW001 19?? UK vinyl Various Artists : We Couldn’t Agree On A Title on ICR001 Funky Weird produced a series of deliberately lo-fi (before the term was used) cheaply recorded tracks and released them on cassette only. This is probably the first cover version of Blabber ‘n’ Smoke attempted. It’s not bad considering the guitars and drums are being played in what seems to be an attempt at out of tune punk version of the ‘Trout Mask’ sound. The compilation album is of artists who recorded at London’s Street Level studio. Thanks to Arild Stromsvag forRead More →

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“That’s right, The Mascara Snake!” The Radar Station was saddened to hear that Victor Hayden (aka The Mascara Snake) had died on 7th December 2018. His death was announced by Pamela Des Barres on her Facebook page. She had known Victor since high school and called him her ‘soulmate’. In recent years she had acted as agent for his artwork. However, she gave no details about the cause of his death but Steve Brewster contacted us to tell us the tragic news that Victor had been hit by a van ten days ago and never recovered. Victor was Don Van Vliet’s cousin. During the lateRead More →

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Yes, it’s 50 years since the band’s second album, Strictly Personal, was released. It was October 1968 in the US and December 1968 in the UK. The recording of the follow-up to Safe As Milk had begun back in November 1967 not long after Jeff Cotton had joined the band to replace Jerry McGee. However, these recordings were destined to remain unissued for a few years and the band had a second go at recording the album in May 1968. It was these later  sessions that were to be eventually released by Blue Thumb in the US and Liberty in the UK as Strictly Personal.Read More →

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Ever since Don started complaining about the ‘bromo seltzer’ that had been added to the Strictly Personal album fans have wondered what it would have sounded like without Bob Krasnow’s pyschedelicized production. Surely the pristine untreated master tapes were tucked away in storage somewhere people thought. Not so. Gary Marker said that it was highly unlikely because Krasnow had used the master copy for all the phasing etc. he had added to the album’s sound which meant the original raw recording of the band was lost. Over the years various collections of alternate versions of many of the Strictly Personal songs have turned up andRead More →

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IT #41, 4 – 17 October 1968 From John Peel’s ‘Perfumed Garden’ column in the legendary sixties ‘hippy’ newspaper IT (International Times). This review of Strictly Personal takes up half of the column space and appears to be based on an acetate version given to him by Beefheart himself – this would have been during the band’s tour of the UK in July 1968.  Other bands mentioned by Peel after this review included Duster Bennett, MC5, Principal Edwards Magic Theatre, The Liverpool Scene, Bridget St John and Brian Jones. The autumnal air is heavy with promise – a new Beefheart LP is on the way.Read More →