Captain Beefheart at The White House

The next time you're visting The White House please do have a glance at your hosts vinyl record collection. According to Rolling Stone magazine The White House Record Library includes at least one Captain Beefheart album, Trout Mask Replica. Whether The White House copy of Trout Mask has ever been played, or whether the collection has been added to since 1981 is not mentioned.

Mighty Boosh and the £23,000 Van Vliet

Noel Fielding of Mighty Boosh has reportedly bought his parents a painting on canvas by Don Van Vliet. The Sun newspaper writes that he paid £23,000 for the work, whose title is not disclosed.

Hot Rats vinyl re-issue

A re-issue of Hot Rats on 200g vinyl is out now. According to Classic Records, who are issuing it, this release is mastered and cut directly from the original analog master tape.

Captain Beefheart article in Record Collector

I'm told by Mike that there is a 9 page article about Captain Beefheart in Record Collector magazine for February 2009. It seems that there is input from John French and Gary Lucas, and there is mention of a CD reissue of Safe As Milk by Rev-Ola.

The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing

Captain Beefheart is the subject of an article by Mark Richard in The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing. Univ. of Arkansas. 2008. c.466p. ed. by Marc Smirnoff. ISBN 978-1-55728-887-5. $34.95

I got a brand new Cadillac, I got a Ferrari too...



...but click on the picture here for a magnified view of the customised backside of Gerard's Opel Kadett.

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Happy Birthday, Don

We wish many happy returns to Don Van Vliet who is 68 today.


Vliet interview in Zappa archive?

A video tour of Frank Zappa's hoard of audio, film and video treasures has been made available at YouTube. Bearing a marked similarity to bonus material on the Frank Zappa - Classic Albums - Apostrophe And Over-Nite Sensation release, this tantalising tease of a film shows only the packaging and the formats of the recordings, not the contents.

At about four minutes in, the presenter casually flicks his wrist to reveal a package apparently entitled Vliet Interview.

Closer inspection however reveals that the word Vliet has been scored out, and in a seemingly different hand the word Interview has been inserted. Later in the film you can see documents relating to the Trout Mask Replica master tape.

Maybe The Zappa Archive does contain all sorts of Don Van Vliet wonderment and Captain Beefheart rarities. Maybe the original Bat Chain Puller will one day be released by The Zappa Family Trust. Maybe one day Brickbats will fly at my fireplace.

Thanks to Peter Warner for his detective work


City of Refuge reviewed and defended

John French's new album City of Refuge has been gathering some very good reviews, as well as attracting the inevitable comparisons to Captain Beefheart albums.

The Independent review commented, 12 new songs voiced by Drumbo himself in full Beefheart pastiche mode. How can it work? Reasonably well, as it goes, given the absence of the Cap himself. Guitars cut and thrust, time signatures jerk around and the songs stand up for themselves.

Uncut magazine's full page piece about Drumbo's album included this, Does it add up to more than left-overs from a bygone era? If nothing else City of Refuge strikes a blow for musical intelligence and instrumental facility. Yes, it’s a tribute to the inspirational Van Vliet, but it’s also a tribute to the Magic Band itself.

The Sunday Times review pointed out that, The needling guitars of Bill Harkleroad and Greg Davidson, aka Zoot Horn Rollo and Ella Guru respectively, still stun, and Drumbo’s desert-wolf growl is more than passable. Beefheart’s largely unsung collaborators have every right to stake their sonic claims, but this odd exercise will infuriate as many fans as it delights.

One fan who reviewed the album for Smooth Jazz Superstars blog had his misunderstandings straightened out by John French himself at Drumbo's blog.

Among a great many other comments John wrote, Comparing "City of Refuge" to Beefheart albums totally misses the point. It's meant to scratch an itch that can't be reached with anything else – at least that I've heard. It's not meant to be a replacement – Van Vliet is irreplaceable. However, everyone must accept that Beefheart will not record again, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to lie down and die because some unenlightened journalist comes to the ridiculous conclusion that "City of Refuge" is "not Beefheart's."

I'm told that THE WIRE gave an excellent review. So did our resident expert Steve Froy here at The Radar Station.

John French's new group has now performed this material live on a couple of occasions. Let's hope that 2009 will see many more outings for this music. For more details watch John 'Drumbo' French's MySpace page where a complete song from the album, Bus Ticket Outta Town, has now been posted. A live version of Bogeyman, performed by the new band is also to be found there.


Fast 'n' Bulbous live dates

With Waxed Oop, the new Fast 'N' Bulbous album, due out on the Cuneiform label any day now comes news of several concert bookings for the band:

Tuesday March 10th Le Poisson Rouge, NYC
Saturday, March 14th Venster, Rotterdam Holland
Sunday, March 15th Barcelona, Spain
Monday, March 16th Stadtgarden, Koln Germany
Tuesday, March 17th Grand Theatre, Groningen Holland
Wednesday, March 18th Centre Culturel du Charlie Chaplin, Vaux-en-Velin, France
Sunday March 22nd Porgy and Bess Jazz Club, Vienna Austria

See the band's MySpace page for more information.


Trout Mask Replica and the Trout House

..the secret, really, to understanding, to dwelling within, Trout Mask Replica is to make sure it’s the first record you ever hear..

Marcello Carlin wrote some excellent music appreciation in his now defunct blog. He dealt with subjects from Laura Nyro to Gnarls Barkley, but what he wrote about Trout Mask Replica at The Church of Me in April 2006 will be of most interest here.

..Trout Mask Replica is really a set of hallucinatory nursery rhymes, thus “Ella Guru” and “Sweet Sweet Bulbs” and “Sugar ‘N Spikes” somersault their way through mathematical rods and make you want to slide down banisters and pass the parcel while chanting “Here she comes walkin’/Lookin’ like uh zoo”..

The house where 'Trout Mask Replica' was made has recently appeared in at least two blogs. At Confluence City you can read about a pilgrimage made to the Trout House and see some photographs taken there, while at unokhan's blog you can see a photograph of a painting of the house commissioned by the writer.

Another blogger, this time at the secret ingredient is water, has made a stab at commenting on Trout Mask Replica through the medium of a criticism of Kevin Courrier's book about the album.


Wedding at East Overshoe

Congratulations to Sandy Dillon and Ray Majors on their recent wedding, which took place on an antique carousel on the seedier side of the beach in East Overshoe. At their reception they entertained the guests by singing Captain Beefheart's 'This Is The Day', Ray on guitar and Sandy playing piano.

Sandy Dillon has often performed 'This Is the Day' and I would have liked to have linked here to the BBC video of a full Sandy Dillon concert which includes this song. That recording, made in 2001 at The Ocean in Hackney for Radio 3's ‘Mixing It’ programme, seems no longer to be available at the BBC website, which is a great pity. Here instead is a link to a recent informative interview with Sandy at Wears The Trousers magazine.


The Adventures of Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band

A new graphic novel, tentatively titled The Adventures of Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, is under preparation in Germany. This frame is taken from the second chapter.

Continuously updated information about the making of the work should be found on the site of Poste Aérienne

Captain Beefheart covers

Alison Mosshart of The Kills has again been committing her thoughts about Captain Beefheart to the media. This time, in The Independent, she fantasizes about Captain Beefheart dueting on Harry Irene with Kim Gordon, Moe Tucker on drums and Guy Picciotto on guitar. He sounds haunting, forceful, confident and humorous, of the future and of the past, all wrapped up in one whip of the tongue.

The Black Keys version of Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles will appear on a new compilation of classic songs taken from Warners back catalogue and covered by present-day Warners artists. Covered, A Revolution in Sound: Warner Bros. Records, is due out on February 24th. See Billboard for details.

Meanwhile Pontiak's version is available right now. As is a Grow Fins by Danish group Grow Fins.

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