I was recently sent a photograph of a Beefheart-related Cal Schenkel art work by Peter Warner who was sent the photo by Schenkel himself in 1981. A much larger version is also available.

Entitled "Apes Ma", it was produced in January 1979 and, although labelled "10 in a series" the rest of the series is not Beefheart related (according to Peter a couple of the others are Zappa related and the rest... who knows?).

The picture features (l-r) Don, unknown bearded person - possibly John Thomas, Jeff Moris Tepper, Denny Walley, John French and Apes Ma him/herself.

Many thanks to Peter for sending this along - does anyone have any more information about this? Does the original item still exist?

Posted by Graham Johnston at 5:34 PM  - 8 comments - post a comment

There are a good few items on the BBC website to help mark the first anniversary of John Peel's death this week. Most notable are:

• A chance to hear John Peel's first ever broadcast for BBC Radio 1 on Monday's edition of 6 Music Plays It Again, further tributes follow on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday editions featuring extended conversations with John Walters recorded in 1987 which are simply essential listening - many Beefheart references are included.
• Peel's autobiography, Margrave of the Marshes, is Radio 4's book of the week - you can listen to an abridged version online. Regrettably I couldn't cope with what appeared to be a very poor Ringo impersonation on the part of the reader so only listened to about two minutes of what is a great story.
• A special Peel tribute edition of Home Truths visits the Ravenscroft family at Peel acres to hear their side of the story.

How pleasing it is to discover that Peel played Beefheart on his first ever BBC broadcast, introducing "Yellow Brick Road" as being by "..one of my favourite bands in the whole world that you probably haven't heard of."

BBC radio shows generally remain online for one week, however Home Truths and Peeling Back The Years are permanently archived.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 1:58 PM  - 0 comments - post a comment

A fascinating concert programme which includes an unusual new arrangement of Bat Chain Puller has been announced by Zeitgeist, the eclectic new music ensemble from St Paul, Minnesota.

Zeitgeist's Bat Chain Puller is scored for MalletKat (a mallet keyboard synthesizer), another keyboard synthesizer, bass clarinet, and drums. Perhaps most interestingly the vocal part is taken by a soprano, Janet Gotschall Fried.

Heather Barringer, Zeitgeist's artistic director told me, "She doesn’t sound anything like Captain Beefheart. In fact, that’s why we decided to use a female as our vocalist. I wouldn’t have wanted someone to come onstage and do an imitation of Captain Beefheart, because our arrangment isn’t really an imitation of the original (though yes, all of the rhythms, notes, and voices are there)."

Zeitgeist chose to perform Bat Chain Puller because it incorporates so many elements that they already do well (such as multiple metres).

For the rest of the programme Zeitgeist selected other composers who accomplished their work outside the new music establishment. The title piece is the world premiere of Admirable Eccentrics by Twin Cities composer Carol Barnett. Works by Eric Stokes, Charles Ives, Giacinto Scelsi, Conlon Nancarrow and Hermeto Pascoal will also be performed. Hurry if you want to be there, as there are only 30 tickets available for each performance.

Studio Z, 275 East 4th Street, Suite 100, St. Paul,
Friday, October 28 at 8 p.m
Saturday, October 29, Benefit Party at 7 p.m., Concert at 8 pm
Friday-Saturday, November 4-5 at 8 p.m
Family Concert on Sunday, November 6 at 2 p.m

Call Zeitgeist at (651) 755-1600 or email hbarring(at)pressenter.com for ticket and disability access information.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 9:37 AM  - 0 comments - post a comment

Doug Moon, an early Magic Band stalwart, returns to one of Don Van Vliet's old stamping-grounds on November 5th when he performs at the Desert Song Music Festival at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster CA.

Look forward to Doug's fine blues guitar and his bluegrass banjo playing. As it is a song festival I presume he'll be singing as well.

The evening begins at 6.00pm and the suggested donation is $10.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 12:31 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment

At long last! I'm pleased to announce the re-opening of the bootleg section of the discography. A lot of re-coding, re-arranging, and rewriting has gone into making this a bigger and better feature than it was before. You can find it here http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/albums/boots/index.html .

However, it's not completely finished ... I've still got a few pages I'm working on but I thought as I'd done the bulk of it I'd make it available.

As with any other pages on the Radar Station if you have any info you can add, or found something that needs correcting please get in touch.

Posted by Steve Froy at 3:54 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment

I recently received a tip off from Colin B Morton about an item on PJ Harvey's message board which features an unusual interpretation of a tune from Trout Mask Replica which is, apparently, racist. Any idea which song on TMR features prejudiced beliefs that one race is superior to others?

Have a look at the posts from "pollyfan" on the PJ Harvey message board to find out. I think someone is a little confused...

Posted by Graham Johnston at 7:04 PM  - 13 comments - post a comment

This issue of Mojo (November) has a buyers' guide for Captain Beefheart featuring a readers' top ten of all his albums:

1. Trout Mask Replica
2. Clear Spot/Spotlight Kid
3. Lick My Decals Off Baby
4. Doc at the Radar Station
5. Dust Blows Forward (compilation)
6. Strictly Personal
7. Safe As Milk
8. Grow Fins (compilation of unreleased gems)
9. Shiny Beast
10. Mirror Man

Safe As Milk would appear higher than that in my top 10 of any albums, not just Beefheart, and I'm surprised at the poor showing of Shiny Beast, another firm favourite of mine.

This is something which Warner Brothers/Rhino should take note of: people would like to be able to buy Lick My Decals Off Baby. It was last issued on CD 12 years ago and it is high time Warners / Rhino let us feast our ears on it once more.

You can tell Rhino Handmade just how much you would like them to release this extraordinary album at their website. Do refer to the above poll in a magazine which has a very similar target audience to Rhino.

Many thanks to Tom Davidson for the tip-off.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 6:36 PM  - 14 comments - post a comment

One of my favourite labels, Revenant Records who released the "Grow Fins" treasure trove of unreleased Beefheart, released the second volume in their "American Primitive" series this week. Vol 1 was a stunning collection of gnarly pre-war gospel. Volume 2 features pre-war blues, hillbilly and jazz.

Reuters have a nice feature on it. Should the fancy take you, you can also read my piece about Revenant Records from our John Fahey tribute.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 6:30 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment

'Mixing It', with its impeccably selected range of new music, is one of the BBC's most interesting radio shows. Informed and witty commentary is provided by the hosts Mark Russell and Robert Sandall, who in their broadcast last Friday played a new Deerhoof track.

Deerhoof, they said, "...transmute the basic vocabulary of guitar based rock into an inexhaustably diverse sequence of fractional shapes." Their new CD, The Runners Four, "has a keen sense of fun."

"We're not quite calling this next album the Trout Mask Replica of the new millenium, but one of us is strongly tempted so to do."

You can hear that taste mistake narrowly avoided, along with the Deerhoof track and a host of other good things these name-dropping DJs played, at BBC Radio 3 until Friday.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 1:08 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment