the stars up above are runnin' on love
John French revisits the Trout House
We received a mail from John French who recently went back to the house where Trout Mask Replica was created.
I thought beefheart.com might be interested in a picture of Ian McArthur, my Scottish friend, and I up by the "Trout House" as I call it. We visited the place on February 3rd and as you can see, it was a beautiful day. The present owner was aware of the house's history and kind enough to take this picture and send it to me.
The house was built on the middle lot of three adjoining lots that was part of the original property. The present owner is building a new 3-story home down and to the right of the original house. He's living in the original house with his wife and showed us around. They are doing extensive repairs and the place is really looking a lot better. I think the paint on it is the original paint that was on it forty years ago, but they are re-painting.
We are very grateful to John French, and to the present owner who readily agreed that we could use his photograph here (click on the photograph to enlarge it). The owner tells us that he may be doing a website on the Trout House at some point, with photos and stories that he's gathered since living there.
Gary Lucas is performing again
Great news from Gary Lucas who recently fractured his right elbow in a fall on ice in Montreal. Luckily his hands were unscathed and his injured arm is mending so well that he has already been back at work, conducting a guitar masterclass at The New School, and even performing in concert again last night in New York, with another appearance scheduled for City Winery on April 6th.
Among Gary's forthcoming gigs is a headline solo appearance at The Jazz Cafe in London on Saturday 16th May, with Southampton based electronic duo The Dark Poets sitting in on his set. Tickets will be on sale from Tuesday, April 7th.
Other appearances include the world premiere of a new silent movie score for Abel Gance's silent anti-war film "J'accuse" at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam on June 23rd and June 24th
A two hour retrospective of Gary's work will be broadcast on German national public radio Deutschlandfunk on June 6th midnight to 2am GMT. This will be available on the internet on the "Nachtradio-Soundcheck" programme and includes interviews, live recordings,and selections from forthcoming releases. http://www.dradio.de/ (click on Deutschlandfunk)
All of Gary's tour schedule is available at his website and his MySpace page, as are links to all sorts of downloads of his music, such as a video for the Wild Rumpus Rock the Joint single now on YouTube, which was hand animated by Tabitha O'Connell.
"Beefheart's work ... used to make me feel ill" - PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey's new album A Woman A Man Walked By, recorded with long-time musical collaborator John Parish, features former Magic Band member Eric Drew Feldman on keyboards.
John Parish and PJ Harvey are both Captain Beefheart fans and significant musical similarities to the work of Captain Beefheart have been noted by most reviewers. Even the publicity material for the album at PJ Harvey's MySpace page flags the Beefheart connection.
In a video at Island Records website John and Polly can be heard talking about their musical influences. Polly explains how she first came to appreciate Captain Beefheart:
I'd heard Beefheart when I was really young through my father and my mother ... they had all of Beefheart's work, but when I was a child it just used to make me feel ill. I didn't understand it. And then when I met John when I was sixteen / seventeen he introduced me to many things, one of which was re-introducing me to Captain Beefheart, and he gave me a cassette of Shiny Beast which I still have.
Lowside of the Road
An extract from Barney Hoskins' new biography of Tom Waits has appeared at The Quietus. It deals with the change in Waits' music which happened at the time of his marriage to Kathleen Brennan, and Swordfishtrombones the album which resulted. Here Hoskins skates over the vexed question of Captain Beefheart's influence on Waits:
Waits has even claimed he'd never really listened to Captain Beefheart before meeting Kathleen – that, despite being signed by Beefheart's manager Herb Cohen and supporting the Captain's mentor Frank Zappa on tour, he was oblivious to the gruff-voiced Dadaist genius born Don Van Vliet. Where the bruising 'Heartattack and Vine' hinted at Beefheart's influence, Waits' new songs made the debt clearer still.
Whether or not it was Kathleen who turned her husband on to Beefheart matters less than the fact that she was the catalyst for change. "It was certainly not the first time that a relationship with a strong and well-organized woman has had that kind of effect on an artist's life," says Mike Melvoin, keyboard player on The Heart of Saturday Night (1974) and Nighthawks at the Diner (1975). But Melvoin also believes Brennan "put a stake through the heart of various things" in order to free Waits from his past.
Barney Hoskyns' Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits is out now, published by Faber & Faber
How To Be
Back in August I wrote about the inclusion of Clear Spot on the soundtrack for the British indie film How To Be. The soundtrack album has now been announced and is available for pre-order through Dreamboat Records.
The film itself will be showing at a few screenings in the US leading up to a wider release on IFC Festival Direct. For full information see the How To Be website.
The Spring Collection
A new collection of shirts from New York design house Rotter and Friends features several variations on the Trout Mask Replica cover.
Here modelling one of them are Gustav Ejstes from the Swedish band Dungen and Susannah Lipsey designer for Windy Freda.
All of the shirts from the collection can be seen and ordered at Rotter and Friends website where there is even a video showing how well the shirts perform to Zig Zag Wanderer.
photo taken by Jeaneen Lund (click on photo to enlarge it)
We received a mail from John French who recently went back to the house where Trout Mask Replica was created.I thought beefheart.com might be interested in a picture of Ian McArthur, my Scottish friend, and I up by the "Trout House" as I call it. We visited the place on February 3rd and as you can see, it was a beautiful day. The present owner was aware of the house's history and kind enough to take this picture and send it to me.
The house was built on the middle lot of three adjoining lots that was part of the original property. The present owner is building a new 3-story home down and to the right of the original house. He's living in the original house with his wife and showed us around. They are doing extensive repairs and the place is really looking a lot better. I think the paint on it is the original paint that was on it forty years ago, but they are re-painting.
We are very grateful to John French, and to the present owner who readily agreed that we could use his photograph here (click on the photograph to enlarge it). The owner tells us that he may be doing a website on the Trout House at some point, with photos and stories that he's gathered since living there.
Gary Lucas is performing again
Great news from Gary Lucas who recently fractured his right elbow in a fall on ice in Montreal. Luckily his hands were unscathed and his injured arm is mending so well that he has already been back at work, conducting a guitar masterclass at The New School, and even performing in concert again last night in New York, with another appearance scheduled for City Winery on April 6th.
Among Gary's forthcoming gigs is a headline solo appearance at The Jazz Cafe in London on Saturday 16th May, with Southampton based electronic duo The Dark Poets sitting in on his set. Tickets will be on sale from Tuesday, April 7th.
Other appearances include the world premiere of a new silent movie score for Abel Gance's silent anti-war film "J'accuse" at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam on June 23rd and June 24th
A two hour retrospective of Gary's work will be broadcast on German national public radio Deutschlandfunk on June 6th midnight to 2am GMT. This will be available on the internet on the "Nachtradio-Soundcheck" programme and includes interviews, live recordings,and selections from forthcoming releases. http://www.dradio.de/ (click on Deutschlandfunk)
All of Gary's tour schedule is available at his website and his MySpace page, as are links to all sorts of downloads of his music, such as a video for the Wild Rumpus Rock the Joint single now on YouTube, which was hand animated by Tabitha O'Connell.
"Beefheart's work ... used to make me feel ill" - PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey's new album A Woman A Man Walked By, recorded with long-time musical collaborator John Parish, features former Magic Band member Eric Drew Feldman on keyboards.
John Parish and PJ Harvey are both Captain Beefheart fans and significant musical similarities to the work of Captain Beefheart have been noted by most reviewers. Even the publicity material for the album at PJ Harvey's MySpace page flags the Beefheart connection.
In a video at Island Records website John and Polly can be heard talking about their musical influences. Polly explains how she first came to appreciate Captain Beefheart:
I'd heard Beefheart when I was really young through my father and my mother ... they had all of Beefheart's work, but when I was a child it just used to make me feel ill. I didn't understand it. And then when I met John when I was sixteen / seventeen he introduced me to many things, one of which was re-introducing me to Captain Beefheart, and he gave me a cassette of Shiny Beast which I still have.
Lowside of the Road
An extract from Barney Hoskins' new biography of Tom Waits has appeared at The Quietus. It deals with the change in Waits' music which happened at the time of his marriage to Kathleen Brennan, and Swordfishtrombones the album which resulted. Here Hoskins skates over the vexed question of Captain Beefheart's influence on Waits:
Waits has even claimed he'd never really listened to Captain Beefheart before meeting Kathleen – that, despite being signed by Beefheart's manager Herb Cohen and supporting the Captain's mentor Frank Zappa on tour, he was oblivious to the gruff-voiced Dadaist genius born Don Van Vliet. Where the bruising 'Heartattack and Vine' hinted at Beefheart's influence, Waits' new songs made the debt clearer still.
Whether or not it was Kathleen who turned her husband on to Beefheart matters less than the fact that she was the catalyst for change. "It was certainly not the first time that a relationship with a strong and well-organized woman has had that kind of effect on an artist's life," says Mike Melvoin, keyboard player on The Heart of Saturday Night (1974) and Nighthawks at the Diner (1975). But Melvoin also believes Brennan "put a stake through the heart of various things" in order to free Waits from his past.
Barney Hoskyns' Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits is out now, published by Faber & Faber
How To Be
Back in August I wrote about the inclusion of Clear Spot on the soundtrack for the British indie film How To Be. The soundtrack album has now been announced and is available for pre-order through Dreamboat Records.
The film itself will be showing at a few screenings in the US leading up to a wider release on IFC Festival Direct. For full information see the How To Be website.
The Spring Collection
A new collection of shirts from New York design house Rotter and Friends features several variations on the Trout Mask Replica cover.Here modelling one of them are Gustav Ejstes from the Swedish band Dungen and Susannah Lipsey designer for Windy Freda.
All of the shirts from the collection can be seen and ordered at Rotter and Friends website where there is even a video showing how well the shirts perform to Zig Zag Wanderer.
photo taken by Jeaneen Lund (click on photo to enlarge it)
And finally....
Dirty Blue Gene - the videogame version.
Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 7:42 PM - post a comment
