Moris Tepper was an artist before he joined the Magic Band, and he still continues to paint and sculpt as well as play music.

For those of you who are within striking distance of Los Angeles you might think about dropping in to see his latest exhibition.

It's called "New Paintings and Sculptures of Moris Tepper", and is at MJ Higgins Fine Art, Los Angeles from June 24th-August 5th, 2006

All this info and more can be found at Moris's website: http://www.moristepper.com

Posted by Steve Froy at 8:10 PM  - 0 comments - post a comment

After over seven years of beaming it out from the Radar Station, I've finally decided to call it a day for our streaming radio show (only the radio show, the rest of the site is very much here to stay!).

The web is now awash with music and far better radio shows and there just doesn't seem to be any need for me to add to the hubbub any longer. It was a fairly innovative idea back in early 1999 when I first started broadcasting via the web - I wasn't aware of any other fan sites which gave their visitors something to listen to while browsing. This was before peer-to-peer sharing of music became notorious, before iTunes, and before the now seemingly infinite number of streaming audio services / radio stations began filling our lives with wall-to-wall music.

For the first few years the rather oddly named "Tromblown Orchestra" was an hour of music available via streaming audio, changing on a weekly basis, and bringing in a good share of favourable comments and loyal listeners. I will never forget Simon Smith's regular updates about his children's Saturday night Connect 4 tournaments for which my show used to provide a regular soundtrack. Nor Dara's recent message of nostalgia for his mid-teens when he "absolutely treasured" the show.

The name changed to the far hipper "Disco in an ambulance" as it moved to my now-defunct music site Clicks and Klangs, but the format stayed the same. Then I discovered Live365's services and decided to mutate into a constantly rotating and evolving mess of 7 hours of all kinds of musical japery.

My favourite bits were the special editions; 60s garage and the complete broadcast of Revenant's Grow Fins sampler in the early days through to extended Bush-bashing in more recent years. What started out as an optimistic kiss-off to the world's most dangerous man on election night turned into a defiant and angry howl of indignation as it gradually became clearer that there would be four more years of him to come and the play-list was adjusted to suit. Music is indeed the soundtrack to our lives.

But now, there just doesn't seem to be room for it on the web anymore and so I'm going to save myself cash and time and let it fizzle away. The subscription renewal at Live365 is now overdue and I'm sure they'll pull the plug fairly soon.

Thanks for your support for this project over a very enjoyable seven years, I'll miss it.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 8:33 PM  - 8 comments - post a comment

Anyone into downloading music legally but without the annoying restrictions that come with most online music services may be interested to know that several Beefheart and Beefheart-related albums are available on E-Music now.

E-Music offers top quality mp3s free of all DRM restrictions - you can copy them, keep them, burn them to CD, transfer them to a portable, delete them and download them again all at no extra cost. It's also very reasonably priced.

You will currently find the following Beefheart related items on E-Music:

• Grow Fins (essential Beefheart rarities box set from Revenant)
• 21st Century Mirror Men (excellent reformed Magic Band live album)
• Hot Rats (stunning Zappa album with Beefheart's vocals on Willie The Pimp)
• Bongo Fury (Zappa and Beefheart live album)
• Zoot Allures (Zappa album features Beefheart's harmonica on Find Her Finer)
• One Size Fits All (Zappa album features Beefheart on San Ber'dino)
• Cheap Thrills (Zappa album features Beefheart on The Torture Never Stops)
• Mystery Disc (Zappa album features numerous early collaborations with Beefheart)
• The Lost Episodes (Zappa album features numerous early collaborations with Beefheart)
• Neon Meate Dream Of A Octafish (tribute to Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band)

You can sign up for a free trial which includes 50 free mp3s to download and keep. I've been a loyal subscriber to E-Music since the very day they first started a subscription service - seven years ago - and there's still a tonne of great music there that I haven't heard yet.

If you know of any more Beefheart-related items at Emusic please post a comment and let us know.

Posted by Graham Johnston at 7:39 PM  - 4 comments - post a comment

Fast 'N Bulbous, The Captain Beefheart Project, featuring Gary Lucas and Phillip Johnston, have just announced a short European tour.




Friday, Nov. 17th BimHuis, Amsterdam, Holland
Saturday, Nov. 18th Taktlos Festival, Bern, Switzerland
Tuesday, Nov. 21st Porgy and Bess, Vienna, Austria
Thursday, Nov. 23rd Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia

I'll post more information here as I receive it.

Update: 6 August 2006
Two London dates now added to the Fast 'N' Bulbous tour

Wednesday, Nov. 15th Pizza on the Park, London
Thursday, Nov. 16th Pizza on the Park, London

Fast 'N' Bulbous, The Captain Beefheart Project featuring Gary Lucas and Phillip Johnston, with Richard Dworkin, Joe Fiedler, Rob Henke, Jesse Krakow, and Dave Sewelson - a 2 night residency as part of the London Jazz Festival

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 5:11 PM  - 2 comments - post a comment