Drumbo's publicity people at Proper Records have recently been trickling information and soundbites from his new album City of Refuge, due for release on November 10th. This is of course the album which features five former Magic Band members - John French himself, Bill Harkelroad, Mark Boston, Greg Davidson and John Thomas.

Now for the first time Proper Records has posted an entire track from the album. Get So Mean can be heard at a new page at Proper Records website, where you can also download some high resolution photographs and read the press release for the CD.


At John French's MySpace page there are two new blog entries where John writes about the background and the making of the album. A third instalment is expected soon.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 6:55 AM  - 3 comments - post a comment

Don Van Vliet drawings

Some of Don Van Vliet's drawings are now on show at Michael Werner Gallery in New York until October 25. An exhibition there, called Series Drawings, juxtaposes historic and contemporary works on paper by artists including Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Aaron Curry, André Derain, Peter Doig, Jean Fautrier, Jörg Immendorff, Per Kirkeby, Markus Lüpertz, Henri Michaux, A.R. Penck, Francis Picabia, Sigmar Polke, Eugen Schönebeck, Louis Soutter and Don Van Vliet.

Michael Werner, 4 East 77th Street, New York, NY 10075 Tel: +1 212 988 1623 Fax: +1 212 988 1774 info@michaelwerner.com


Jimmy Carl Black Benefit Concerts

A benefit concert for former Mother of Invention and Magic Band member Jimmy Carl Black has been arranged for November 9 at Bridge House in London. Jimmy recently underwent an operation for lung cancer in Germany and the proceeds from this event will go towards his expenses. Among those appearing will be Zappa and Beefheart cover band The Muffin Men and Zappacademic writer Ben Watson. Tickets cost £20.

The Muffin Men are contributing to several other JCB benefit gigs. The first of these is Stockport For Jimmy - Indian Aid on Sunday October 26, 4-8pm, Bakers Vaults, on the Market in Stockport. Like A Concert For Jimmy, this gig was approved and sanctioned by Jimmy personally. Tickets are £10, limited to 100. Contact arnie.furniss@hotmail.co.uk
More information from The Idiot Bastard (who also lists Jimmy Carl Black CDs for sale)


Another John French sample

Proper Records have posted another sample from John French's forthcoming album, City of Refuge. They also tell me that Drumbo will be blogging on MySpace in the near future to let everyone know about the album, the new band and possibly the first part of his book.


January release for new Fast 'N' Bulbous album

Waxed Oop, a new Fast 'N' Bulbous album, is due out on the Cuneiform label in mid January 2009. The Fast 'N' Bulbous MySpace page is currently playing a cut from the album, a jaunty toe-tapper of a Woe Is Uh Me Bop.

Meanwhile, over at YouTube, Seam Crooked Sam has posted some video of Fast 'N' Bulbous in action at The Knit earlier this year when they previewed some more of their new arrangements of Don Van Vliet compositions.

Gary Lucas, incidentally, tells me that there is a new Gods and Monsters MySpace page with rough mixes of new tracks from a studio album in progress.


Wanna buy a Grunt with a third party check?


Some time ago Barry's Imaginary Publisher produced a poster to be used as a prop in the documentary film, Freak Out in Cugamonga. There is a short illustrated article about the making of the poster, Captain Beefheart vs. The Grunt People, at moonbug.org.

Copies of the poster are now available from Cafe Press, priced at $19.99.




Captain Beefheart as Play Station soundtrack?

A review at IGN.com of a new HD version of WipEout, a Play Station game, contains some tantalising information about the custom soundtrack, "which is a cinch to port over, though from our experience Captain Beefheart doesn't make the best accompaniment to the world of anti-G racing and homing missiles."


Jamie Cohen

Jamie Cohen, a popular music industry mover and shaker, artist, performer and poet suffered a heart attack and died on September 11. He was 55.

As a student at Syracuse University in 1975 Jamie encountered Don Van Vliet at a press conference given by Frank Zappa to promote the Bongo Fury tour. Jamie's verbal exchange with Don can be heard at Gary Lucas' website.

Jamie's interest in the work of Don Van Vliet continued throughout his life. At his MySpace page Jamie wrote, "Don and I have a very bizarre relationship going back to the mid 70's, But that my friends is another story."

Jamie's reading of the Don Van Vliet poem Hollow Smoke was one of the highlights of Beefheart Night at the Knit in April. According to his partner Donna Love, Jamie was quite proud of his reading, and also proud that his reading made Dusty Wright's cut for the vidcast at Culture Catch.

A biography of Jamie appears at Charles Blass's blog and an obituary can be read at The Sante Fe Reporter

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 9:37 AM  - 1 comments - post a comment

John 'Drumbo' French's new album City of Refuge is scheduled to be released on November 10th. At Proper Records website you can now hear short clips from the tracks, 'Bogeyman', 'Abandon' and 'Whose Side Ya On'. As we've previously mentioned, you can also hear some of the track 'Get So Mean' at John French's MySpace page.

Last night's broadcast of Don Van Vliet's 1993 interview with Co de Kloet, with musical accompaniment recorded in 2008 by Gary Lucas, can be heard until 10th September at the Dutch radio station NPS website. The programme is two hours long. Tom Waits, says Don, ".. had the nerve to think he could sing like me."

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 6:41 PM  - 10 comments - post a comment

Film

The Guardian says that Captain Beefheart is among the "oddballs" whose work will be featured in London's The Barbican's upcoming film season, Pop Mavericks. The season runs from 2 Sept-2 Dec.

At MoMA in New York there is also a season of music films now running in conjunction with the exhibition Looking At Music, on until the end of this year. MoMA says that rapid changes in technology can be traced in early music videos by The Beatles, David Bowie, Captain Beefheart, The Residents, and Devo, all drawn from the Museum’s collection. The New York Times review gives more details.

A new feature film How To Be by director Oliver Irving includes Captain Beefheart's 'Clear Spot' in the soundtrack. Oliver explains how he came to select the music for this film about Art, twenty something, living at home and hitting a "quarter-life crisis".

I was looking for artists that had a deft simplicity to their music - the kind of thing that Art might aspire to. I knew from the start I wanted to use Captain Beefheart - I love his raw child-like (yet extremely sophisticated) quality. In terms of the score, this was a development of the songs that Art plays in the film. We had this integral idea to both kind of mock the serious sincerity of his lyrics but also to show that within his quite simple songs there is actually a very hooky and effective tune and dynamic - there is masses of potential there!

There is a trailer for the film at the How To Be website.

Video

The long-awaited video of April's 'Beefheart Night at The Knit' has now appeared as a vidcast at Dusty Wright's Culture Catch. Appearances include those of Fast 'N' Bulbous with Gary Lucas and Phillip Johnston, Sonic Youth's Lee Renaldo, Suicide's Alan Vega, Kurt Loder, David Lynch and our very own correspondent, Peter Warner.

Six songs from Mallard, recorded for German television in 1976, have now been placed at YouTube. 'Back On The Pavement', 'One Day Once', 'Reign Of Pain', 'A Piece Of Me' and 'Mama Squeeze' can be viewed in sequence here. 'Road to Morrocco' is also available.

Robert Williams and John Lydon appear before Judge Judy at YouTube.

Audio

John 'Drumbo' French's track, 'Get So Mean' from his forthcoming album 'City Of Refuge' will be released in the UK on September 1st on a bargain-priced Proper Records sampler CD.

The Roger Hurricane Wilson recording of 'Sure Nuff N Yes I Do', featuring Rockette Morton on bass, has now been placed at Roger Hurricane Wilson's MySpace page where the album 'Exodus' can be ordered. It is also available at CDmojo.

Radio

As 'Daffy Duck's Rhapsody' faded out, Bob Dylan introduced the next record on his Theme Time Radio Hour - Birds

Mel Blanc did a lot of voices - our next artist just did one - but it's a heck of a voice. Don Van Vliet was born in Glendale, California - he stopped performing in the 80s to focus on his painting. He's a really good painter but I wish he'd made more records. [tangent about the Corvids - crows and rooks etc] Here's a song that goes as straight as the crow flies - Captain Beefheart and Ice Cream for Crow.

Bob had previously played 'Click Clack' in his show More Trains


Text

Also at Culture Catch is Steve Holtje's extended Captain Beefheart Album Survey - begin here with Part One and follow the links to Part Two and Part Three.


"He is the great Beefheart. When the radio’s fast casket and mild rage hit all-time crumbling, the high-hat’s pollution and drums plunged like a hacksaw through an ice age."

For more of this recent blog entry, see Backwards Gavelling.

Medicine

The Idiot Bastard reported yesterday on the medical condition of Jimmy Carl Black, known to Don Van Vliet as Indian Ink.

I spoke with Jimmy Carl Black this evening (Thursday 28 August) following his operation last week to remove a tumour on his lung. He confirmed that, despite what he had been told (see our recent interview), the tumour WAS in fact cancerous. He sounded fairly chipper, but they say they can now only treat him with more chemotherapy. He comes out of hospital on Monday (1 September) and will soon start his treatment as an out patient. To help Jimmy pay his mounting medical bills, there's a special limited edition CD (Stick Man For Ever!) and some nifty apparel and other stuff available to buy here: http://www.cafepress.com/jimmycarlblack. Please do what you can to help the dear old Mother.


Thanks to Simon P for transcribing Dylan's Beefheart intro and to the various Fire Party members who continue to give heads-ups about all manner of interesting and curious Beefheart related items. If you come across anything which you think will fit in this space, please write in.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 6:20 PM  - 2 comments - post a comment

Gary Lucas and Don Van Vliet - I Have A Cat

'I Have A Cat', the broadcast of Don Van Vliet's last lengthy interview in 1993, combined with Gary Lucas' specially commissioned guitar score recorded earlier this year, will receive its world premiere on Wednesday, September 3rd, 10pm to midnight Dutch time, on NPS Radio 6. An internet connection will be available at the NPS website. The date of this broadcast was changed on August 6th.

Also in Holland, in March 2009, will be Fast 'N' Bulbous, The Captain Beefheart Project, featuring Gary Lucas and Phillip Johnston. Two dates have so far been announced at Gary Lucas' website, more are to be arranged.

John French's City of Refuge

It was in 2005 that we first mentioned the forthcoming John French album 'City of Refuge', which John has recorded with Rockette Morton, Zoot Horn Rollo, Greg Davidson and John Thomas. Now in 2008 we can announce that a one minute clip from the album has just been posted at John French's MySpace page.

A release date for the whole album is awaited. I'm told that this will coincide with the publication of John's book, 'Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic, Volume I', and should be sometime this autumn.

Rockette Morton and Hurricane Wilson

A track from the new Roger "Hurricane" Wilson album 'Exodus' which features Rockette Morton on bass and Michael Traylor on drums and percussion is now previewing at Roger Wilson's MySpace page. The album is predominantly blues and will include a version of Captain Beefheart's Sure ‘Nuff N Yes I Do.

Denny Walley and the Idiot Bastard


An excerpt from an interview which the Idiot Bastard is conducting with Denny Walley has appeared at the Idiot Bastard's website. Denny is looking forward to the Zappanale 19 in August, where he will be playing with Paul Green’s School Of Rock in a programme of both Zappa and Van Vliet compositions.

Herb Cohen and The Grunt People

Currently on offer at eBay is Herb Cohen's copy of a 'Captain Beefheart Vs. The Grunt People' script. You can preview the text here at The Radar Station.


Billy Bob Kills Waits


Here are three musicians who have recently uttered the B-word in connection with the pursuit of increased album and ticket sales.

First up is Tom Waits, who interviewed himself for his record company's publicity machine. The interview has been much recycled, probably because it is very readable. Tom's creative life has been shaped by a great many artists, he says, including Don Van Vliet. To be fair, Tom Waits has consistently applauded Don's work, sometimes quite eloquently. In an interview for The Observer in 2005 he said this about 'Trout Mask Replica'.

The roughest diamond in the mine, his musical inventions are made of bone and mud. Enter the strange matrix of his mind and lose yours. This is indispensable for the serious listener. An expedition into the centre of the earth, this is the high jump record that'll never be beat, it's a merlot reduction sauce. He takes da bait. Dante doing the buck and wing at a Skip James suku jump. Drink once and thirst no more.

Alison Mosshart of The Kills waxes not quite so eloquent about Captain Beefheart in her interview for The Independent earlier this month. Her favourite album is 'Ice Cream For Crow' and she would love to perform with Don Van Vliet, him just talking and talking down the microphone the way he does, real slow and cool.

The actor Billy Bob Thornton is a bit of a music intellectual, according to an article by Matthew Lewis at Reuters. Plugging his band The Boxmasters album and tour, Billy Bob tops all recent celebrity Beefheart name droppers. Not only do his favorite artists include Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, but he is phone friends with Don Van Vliet.

Very few people talk to him, and I got the opportunity to become friends with him over the phone, said Thornton.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 7:15 AM  - 3 comments - post a comment

It Comes To You In A Plain Brown Wrapper was intended to be the name of the second Captain Beefheart album, a double album recorded late in 1967. This album never saw the light of day, which has given rise to not a little speculation and discussion among fans of Captain Beefheart.

Tracks from the original sessions have been used on several re-release and compilation albums, but until now no record company has attempted to reconstruct It Comes To You In A Plain Brown Wrapper as an album in its own right.

On July 22nd, Sundazed Records will do just that, when they release a Captain Beefheart double album called It Comes To You In A Plain Brown Wrapper featuring what they say is, "a wealth of unedited takes never before on vinyl".

There are thirteen tracks, including two takes of Moody Liz of which one doesn't seem to have been released before. John French has written the sleeve notes and Cal Schenkel has designed the cover (which is presently under wraps).

Sundazed Records has an enviable reputation for their catalogue of re-releases, but this seems to be the first time that they have ventured into the business of reconstructing an album which was never released. I'm sure that the finished product will be a talking point for some time to come.

There is more information at Sundazed Records website.

Update: 23 July 2008

A review of this release is now available on the Radar Station:-
http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/albums/official/wrapper.htm

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 8:35 PM  - 14 comments - post a comment

John French, the legendary Magic Band drummer, has bought a new set of drums and hopes soon to be playing them on tour.
We await an announcement about the name and line-up of John's new band (this will not be a Magic Band tour).

In the meantime John has let us know that after over twenty years of musical partnership with his Rogers Holiday drums he has decided that now is the time to let them go.

Here is your chance to become the proud possessor of a genuine piece of Magic Band / O Solo Drumbo / Crazy Backwards Alphabet / French, Frith, Kaiser, Thompson history. Simply click on this link for eBay, read all about the drumkit and place your bid before the auction closes on June 18th.

Can the lucky winner then expect a visit from John French delivering the drums in the shovel of his JCB (pictured)?

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 10:20 AM  - 0 comments - post a comment

Rhino release a downloadable Beefheart sampler

In a flurry of no publicity at all, Rhino Records have released their first scratchproof Captain Beefheart album. It is available only as a download.

Rhino Hi-Five: Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band is a compilation of five tracks recorded between 1969 and 1978. It includes two live cuts and what Rhino describe as a remastered LP version of the song Bat Chain Puller.

Bat Chain Puller was remastered to its sonic advantage for Virgin/EMI's 2006 Captain Beefheart re-release CDs. The live tracks are from Rhino's limited edition Beefheart CD, My Father's Place. The other two tracks are taken from Trout Mask Replica and Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller).

As all of these tracks are already issued on vinyl and/or CD, some may wonder whether the "lossy" WMA file format of Rhino's album is the most suitable on which to listen to this material.

This curiosity is available for money at Rhino's Digital Store but in some territories it can be downloaded under license, without charge.

Crazy Backwards Alphabet II

Henry Kaiser is known here as a fine guitarist and composer who has often demonstrated a keen interest in the music of Captain Beefheart. He has recorded several cover versions of Don Van Vliet compositions, has researched Captain Beefheart recordings and other material in the Warner vaults, and has worked on various musical projects with John 'Drumbo' French. The 1987 album Crazy Backwards Alphabet, which Henry Kaiser recorded with John French, Michael Maksymenko and Andy West, among others, is a splendid realisation of post-Beefheart musical possibilities.

Crazy Backwards Alphabet II, consisting of previously unheard tracks taken from the original sessions, was released in September 2007 on Henry Kaiser's new digital label There Records / A Train. A good many other Henry Kaiser albums have also been compressed for that label.

There Records / A Train have kept very quiet about their "lossy" product, and there does not seem to be a vinyl or CD version of Crazy Backwards Alphabet II.

As far as I know, just one track from Crazy Backwards Alphabet II is available in a non-scratchproof format. Ten Year Anniversary is on Michael Maksymenko's 2008 retrospective CD from ReR Megacorp, Businesscide - MP3 and WMA samples at Juno Records. The Kräldjursanstalten MySpace page gives a taste of some of Michael's other recordings.

And while I'm mentioning Swedish musicians with a Beefheart bent, erstwhile Beefheart cover guitarist Jimmy Ågren has a new album called Various Phobias. His MySpace page should point the way.

Frank and Don: "envy, admiration, jealousy, arrogance and paranoia"

July's Mojo magazine has a long article by Dave di Martino about the long and troubled relationship between Frank Zappa and Don Van Vliet. Drawing heavily on old music press stories, including his own 1993 interview with Bill Harkleroad, Martino supplements his research with fresh quotations from Pamela des Barres, Cal Schenkel and Gary Lucas. Gary's story about the final meeting between Don and Frank is fleshed out in great detail, while Pamela des Barres and Cal Schenkel provide historical context. Several rarely seen photographs complete the piece.

Captain Beefheart album reviewed in Record Collector

The cover of the June issue of Record Collector magazine suggests that it contains an piece about Captain Beefheart. Well ..... yes and no.

The promised article turns out to be not much more than a review by Alan Clayson of a re-issue of the compilation CD, Electricity. Clayson roundly plugs fellow Record Collector contributor, Harry Shapiro, who, Clayson says, has written an "engrossing and informative essay" for the CD's sleeve notes. An extremely short Q&A between Grahame Bent and John French completes the less than half page piece.

The revisited Electricity compilation contains three 'bonus' tracks which were not included on the original: Safe As Milk (Take 5) , 25th Century Quaker, and Korn Ring Finger.

There is an extract from Clayson's review at Record Collector's website.


Alton Kelley

The death of graphic designer Alton Kelley has been announced. With collaborator Stanley Mouse, Kelley helped to define the face of west coast rock 'n' roll. Mouse and Kelley's iconic images were used on hundreds of posters, albums, fliers and logos from the sixties onwards.

The Mouse and Kelley artwork pictured here advertises a Captain Beefheart two-night residence at San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom in 1966.

and finally.....

Hello to Manchester band Beep Seals, named after the Don Van Vliet poem and thanks to Trond Einar Garmo for mentioning the new Swedish CD releases to me.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 12:24 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment

It has been a while since we last had news of a performance from Big Eyed Beans from Venus, the Athens, GA based Captain Beefheart tribute band. This week there are two.

This Thursday, May 22nd, sees them play at Lenny's in Atlanta, "This we be the most awesome show yet heard by man or woman alike," as Lenny's website informs us.

On Friday, May 23rd, Big Eyed Beans from Venus turn up at their old floppy boot stomping ground in Athens, Caledonia Lounge. I'm told that the set list will be mainly compositions from Trout Mask Replica and earlier.

At Southern Shelter you can hear recordings of the band in action in 2006, including on-stage contributions from Rockette Morton and Denny Walley.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 9:17 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment

Alex Waterhouse-Hayward took this photograph of Don Van Vliet wearing a Harris Tweed jacket in Vancouver during the last days of the final Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band tour in January 1981.


Two more of Alex's photographs of Don can be seen at Alex's website. I particularly like the concert shot which shows Don in eyeball to eyeball contact with a member of the audience who had had too much to think.

Many thanks to Alex Waterhouse-Hayward for allowing us to reproduce his photograph here.




Hot Head at the High School Talent Show


A spirited rendition of Hot Head was recently performed at Daphne High School Talent Show by Safe in a Ditch, a trio of 15 and 16 year olds.

Despite evident appreciation from one sector of the audience, Safe in a Ditch failed to be placed by the Daphne judges. Nothing daunted, a video of their performance was then put up at YouTube where real connoisseurs can come to their own conclusions about whether these boys have talent.


I asked Bradley Bittinger, one of the two guitarists with Safe in a Ditch, to tell me about their choice of material.


We chose Hot Head mainly because we all liked it, and it seems to "rock" a bit more than the other Beefheart songs we thought we were capable of playing. Another factor that influenced the song choice was the 3 minute time limit for our performance. We all figured out our parts to the song by ear.


Bradley and James Wamble (who sings and also plays guitar on Hot Head) get together regularly to play music. Among other recordings at their MySpace page are a spontaneous jam to China Pig, and a version of Poofter's Froth, Wyoming, Plans Ahead.

Time's runnin' out

This still is from Bernd Hansen's stylish video for Captain Beefheart's Click Clack. Catch this now before Mrs Grundy finds out about it. There is more from Bernd at his website.

Another Captain Beefheart tribute with a short life-span is The Black Keys cover of I'm Glad. This is downloadable only until Friday 9th May at The Black Keys MySpace page or at Stereogum. A video of The Black Keys live broadcast for KCRW includes another outing for their cover of Here I Am I Always Am at about 22'30".

The Curable Interns (Special Beefheart Edition) announce another short shelf-life for their collection of covers and tributes at MySpace. On April 22nd they said that this material would only be available "for a week or two".

I've no idea how long video of five Mallard numbers from a 1976 German TV show will be available at Zapateers but from that broadcast One Day Once is now at YouTube.

Posted by derek@beefheart.com at 9:27 PM  - 1 comments - post a comment