Captain Beefheart Up Sifter

Hey Captain, I Dig Your Tweed Coat

2008-05-04T21:27:00.004Z

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.

Unravelling the Knit

2008-04-19T18:18:00.003Z

Beefheart Night at New York's Knitting Factory on April 9th has prompted many eye-witness accounts, photographs, and audio and video files from the event. Here are links to some of them.

David Lynch reads Pena

Robyn Hitchcock & Gary Lucas perform Sure 'Nuff 'N' Yes I Do

Glenn Kenny's account

Photographs from Prefix Mag / Lori Baily

Gary Lucas's blog Monday April 14, 2008

'An Inspired Evening of Beefheartiana' by Steve Holtje

As soon as Culture Catch's film of the event is released, we'll link to it here.

Peter Warner wrote this review of the evening:

For the Love of Don…

And what a glorious night it was. After all the sub dude talking, which was all very charming and a bit of a revelation to hear the words spoken in a NYCity accent, Lucas cranked up the volume for the big payoff. The pulsing, shimmering KANDY KORN was certainly a highlight, sending shock waves through the audience. Building to its magisterial climax, I could not but help step closer to the stage as toupees flew by, pushing up into the corners of the room. Truly powerful sensory overload and deeply moving, this had to be one of the finest moments of live music I have ever experienced. At one point, Philip Johnston made a knob turning gesture, pleading with Gary to lower the volume, begging for tolerance, but a smirk declared the mission and there was no turning back. The crowd was a good mix of young and old (I guess we would call that middle-age these days), and a surprising number of fine ladies were in attendance, which is always a good sign. Of the new numbers, THE PAST SURE IS TENSE proved a natural (can’t you hear the horns on your head?) and the sheer oddity of BLABBER & SMOKE almost made it difficult to hear the music in this often overlooked, seemingly throwaway tune. It is safe to say it is an improvement on the original (sacrilege, I know). WOE-IS-UH-ME-BOP introduced a decidedly non-Beef clarinet (the most human of instruments). This was one curious arrangement and I desperately need to hear it again. YOU KNOW YOU’RE A MAN was a cool selection, having all the gusto, swagger, and playful testosterone-fueled flirtation of the original. Much appreciation goes to Mr. Holtje for his CultureCatch column, but I gotta pipe up and say I loved bassist Jesse Krakow’s A CARROT IS AS CLOSE AS A RABBIT GETS TO A DIAMOND. Oh, and EVENING BELL, anyone? At frickin’ Pete Townsend volume? Hooray! It was clear that Gary meant to rip the roof off the place, and all night long he let loose like the Old Mentor was off in the wings cracking the whip. Heavenly.

Hmmm, and as if this all was not enough, the hardcore got a special treat in the way of the Robyn Hitchcock/Gary Lucas Duo. Mr. Hitchcock has an obvious love for the material, and if he altered the words to SURE ‘NUFF, it probably had more to do with teenage memories than anything else. I even caught him singing CLICK CLACK for his own amusement long after he left the stage. What else? Oh yeah, the paintings! A real nice touch, these projections, many of which I have not seen and wish I owned. Don’t know why, but I like Don’s visual work more and more the older I get. I think it has something to do with being less frightened of silence and more at peace with Death. God Bless you, Don Van Vliet.

......and thank you Peter Warner. If anyone else has any further comments or contributions please add them to the comments box or send me a mail. Thanks. This post was updated on 21st April 2008.

Even more treats at The Knit

2008-04-02T21:15:00.002Z

Beefheart Night at The Knit, the April 9th tribute to Captain Beefheart in New York, promises to have even more treats and surprises than we listed at Up Sifter here on February 23rd.

There are so many more treats and surprises in fact, that Fast 'N' Bulbous: The Captain Beefheart Project's performance of Don Van Vliet compositions has been put back from 10.00 to 11.00 to fit them all in. Fast 'N' Bulbous, incidentally, will be previewing some arrangements from a planned second CD, as well as playing material from their first CD.

Among the additional speakers to have been added to the already burgeoning line-up are:

Giorgio Gomelsky (Yardbirds producer and the Stones first manager) will reminisce (he knew both Don and Zappa).

Fred Perry, who was pictured on the "Safe as Milk" inner sleeve coming out of the baby's right ear dressed in shades and a pilot's helmet, will appear. His brother Richard was the producer of the album. It was Fred who first introduced the schoolboy Gary Lucas to the name of Captain Beefheart.

Roswell Rudd will now play a solo trombone tribute in lieu of reading a poem or reminiscence, which will be a special treat for jazz fans.

David Lynch, the film director, has sent a tape of himself reading Pena, in the Trout Mask Replica style. Gary Lucas tells me that this sounds "really cool".

An addition to the playlist of unreleased Captain Beefheart recordings may be a preview of part of a set of recently discovered master tapes which has been licensed for release as a double LP later this year. This material consists of previously unheard out-takes from the Mirror Man sessions. It was for this album that I requested photographs at Up Sifter back in January. As soon as we receive more definite information about this release we'll be posting it here. Meanwhile, Beefheart Night at The Knit offers the best chance to hear some of this album now, as I understand that the record company has sent along an advance copy.

Lastly, it is hoped that a very special guest will be joining the proceedings at some late hour, after Fast 'N' Bulbous's performance.

The evening will be recorded by Dusty Wright from Culture Catch, who will film and cover the event and post a podcast about it on his website a few days after the event.

Beefheart Night at The Knit, Wednesday 9th April at The Knitting Factory Main Space, 74 Leonard Street, New York City.

A little conglomeration table

2008-03-23T21:12:00.005Z

Recent music links

Here I Am I Always Am played by The Black Keys at SXSW 2008 in Houston on March 12th.

Andy Haas (former Martha and the Muffins saxophonist, now better known through his work and associations with the NY downtown music scene) offers an unusual and reflective version of Abba Zabba (two minute sample here) on Radio I-Ching's new CD, The Fire Keeps Burning, available from CD Baby.

Another Abba Zabba involving several other NY downtown musicians performing as Fast 'n Bulbous was recorded at WFMU in 2004. Here it is at YouTube.

Benjamin Horrendous has just put up 4 Beefheart covers, and another 5 tracks from his album 'Fourfathers Live' (2000), as streaming mp3s at his website.

Orange Claw Hammer performed by Eugene Chadborne and Stefan Neville was featured during a Pumice session on Dennis Tyfus' radio show, Radio Centraal. Orange Claw Hammer begins 30 minutes into the programme.

Phil Reavis recorded a long version of Trust Us sometime in the mid-eighties. It has recently surfaced as 7 separate mp3s at The Internet Archive and is also available at WMRecordings.

Liverpool and Captain Beefheart

It was good to read in The Daily Telegraph that The Bluecoat in Liverpool, the venue for Don Van Vliet's first art exhibition in 1972, goes from strength to strength.

Beatles Story press officer Jamie Bowman wrote at The Word that in Liverpool, " record collecting seems to take huge significance from an early age. I can't think of many other cities where you see Captain Beefheart grafitti on bus shelters."

Anyone with memories of Don Van Vliet's Bluecoat show, or photographs of vandalised Scouse bus shelters, please contact me.

What Was Lost

Catherine O'Flynn's first novel, 'What Was Lost', has been picking up all manner of nominations, prizes and sales. One of the characters seems to have a mission to educate people in music, so for the record here are two links to an extract involving 'Lick My Decals Off, Baby' - Costa Book Awards (page 55), British Book Awards (page 11).

Don Van Vliet, 'Zig Zag Wandering'

2008-03-10T21:50:00.003Z

Earlier this year eleven works on paper by Don Van Vliet were exhibited at Galleria dell'Arco, Palermo, Sicily. The exhibition was called 'Zig Zag Wandering'. Here are all eleven works.

Sizes vary from 28 x 21 cm to 148 x 122 cm.

Some works are available for sale from the gallery.

Galleria dell'Arco Via Siracusa 9 Palermo

Tel / fax +39091 6261234

http://www.dearco.it/ info@dearco.it

Trout and proud

2008-03-09T16:54:00.005Z

The Times divided music fans into two camps in today's paper: critics who love music which nobody else likes (trouts, named after you know what) and those who love music which the critics don't like (bats, named after a multi-million selling album by Meatloaf).

Read the full article, Music critics love albums that the public hates, on the Times website, should you so desire.

Beefheart Night at the Knit

2008-02-23T21:55:00.008Z

This item has been updated with a new post, Even more treats at The Knit, 2 April 2008.

Update - 9 March 2008

Wednesday 9th April at The Knitting Factory Main Space, 74 Leonard Street, New York City.

Gary Lucas curates Beefheart Night at the Knit, a salute to the Music, Poetry and Art of Don Van Vliet, a/k/a Captain Beefheart.

Proceedings beginning at 8:00pm with a screening of rare Beefheart videos and documentaries and the spinning of unreleased tracks.

This is followed by a reading of Don Van Vliet's poetry, and reminiscences by special guests including:

Lee Ranaldo
Alan Vega
Roswell Rudd
Kurt Loder
Danny Fields
Mike Edison
Hal Willner
Jamie Cohen
Billy Altman
and more tba

"This man is a very sophisticated lyricist!" - Jerzy Kosinksi, Yale University 1973.

At 10pm, the return of Fast 'N' Bulbous, the Captain Beefheart Project, featuring Gary Lucas, arranged and conducted by Phillip Johnston, with Jesse Krakow (bass), Joe Fiedler (trombone), Rob Henke (trumpet), Dave Sewelson (baritone sax), and Richard Dworkin (drums).

"Like bluegrass only weirder"

2008-02-11T21:08:00.000Z

During the filming of The Magic Band DVD Mark Boston (Rockette Morton) remarked that the music of Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band was, "like bluegrass only weirder".

Mark Boston's potential epithet sprang into my head last night when I read an article by Danny Barnes, the former Bad Livers frontman, and guitarist and banjo-player of blue-grass, alt-rock-country, jazz-frisell, and various other gen-res.

In his essay, Danny describes his take on what Don Van Vliet achieved in his recording of Trout Mask Replica. Danny is particularly interested in Captain Beefheart's synthesis of different musical and sonic elements and he points out some potentially exciting musical departures for American country musics, based on Trout Mask Replica's methodology.

Danny was kind enough to respond immediately and enthusiastically to my suggestion that he let us reproduce his essay at this blog. Here it is:

a re-appreciation of captain beefheart's trout mask replica and the potential applications of Its experimental ideas in american country musics

By Danny Barnes

for some years this record has been in my mind. I became aware of it in the middle seventies, although it was released some years prior, in 1969. a very interesting albeit strange friend of my oldest brother adored this record and couldn’t speak of it without laughing. it became one of my all time favorite musical works and my vote for one of the greatest recordings ever. there is something so far out in the music on this thing.

In the last few years, my thinking in regard to currently produced american country musics has come to rest on the idea that there could be more interest created by changing the order and composition of certain archetypical structures, and by utilizing different approaches in the recording methodology, as demonstrated to great effect by the experiments on trout mask replica. (see the term granular synthesis in wikipedia as an example of another technique that has yet to become a part of the set of recording ideas for these musics. american country music forms could be approached with ideas such as granular synthesis to a stunning result).

having grown up with american country, folk and similar forms of music, i didn’t really notice the constant repetition of certain musical motifs, even more so in contemporary statements of these forms. some might argue that, like haiku, the beauty is in the constant rearranging of these basic units of sound, or limiting factors. i don’t use the word limit as a negative phrase, only to describe the process. for example if we say, let’s arrange a piece of music for resonator guitar and washboard and voice, we are limiting or dithering things down so they can be dealt with. compositionally and arrangement-wise this must be done, as the entire cosmos is hard to write music for. (john hartford once told me that style was based on limitation). so i guess i’m using this phrase in a quantitative way rather than a qualitative way.

there are certain thematic objects that are the basis of the language of traditional american country musics. for example (this is obviously tremendously simplified) in a bar of 2/4, in bluegrass music for example, the bass has a specified figure, the fiddle, banjo and mandolin typically play modal scale patterns in sixteenth notes, the strum of the guitar and the path of the vocal melody are architecturally similar from one piece of music to the next.

much of the variation consists of regional dialect. as in the different accented rhythms that ralph stanley and earl scruggs and don reno would use to play the same melody. it’s almost like comparing differing accents of the speaking voice.

this is indeed a fascinating study, of course. differences in the way a person from georgia, virginia, louisiana, and missouri, and new york would say a certain phrase can be a very interesting thing to observe. the different ways they might play the same melody on a fiddle are likewise interesting, and to my way of thinking, can be related to speech patterns.

this is all well and good, and continues to hold our attention to a certain extent. however my feeling is that some new ideas would be healthy for everyone, because in the above example, the artists are, after all, saying the same thing. and i think that the type of experiments developed by the good captain can and should be brought to american country music forms. his is an unrestrained playfulness and open-mindedness in regard to structural components, in opposition to a stylistic dogmatism.

the experiments on trout mask replica have been banging around in the back of my mind for several decades. i recently went back to it and have been listening to it quite a bit. the way the music was apparently de-constructed and re-assembled, produces a most striking result. (i have no idea of his actual process, other than what i have read, but the music reminds me of working in a garage for some reason). some of the lo-fi technology, while i doubt the term existed then, has become the language of much of the interesting pop music of the more current timeframe ( not that these contemporary artists consciously copied captain beefheart, but i can still hear a certain thematic unity in the latin playboys first cd, samples of vinyl noise that run throughout certain hip hop tracks, wu tang, the fractured bass sample that busta rhymes if you really want to party with me is based on, dj spooky, the way turntablists reconstruct music architecturally, the list goes on for quite some time).

there are raw elements of traditional american blues and jazz in the music of trout mask replica, but a whole new type of language was created from the arrangement of the musical monads, or within the atomic structure, the micro view. the recording techniques themselves also become a part of the composition. example, in one of the spoken word pieces, the portable tape recorder used to gather sounds, produces some audible thumps as the switch is turned on and off, and becomes a component of the overall effect. captain beefheart didn’t try to hide the brush strokes, as it were.

i think that alternative country, or whatever that is called, americana, current folk, bluegrass music, and american country musics in general could well benefit from more experimentation of the rhythmic, melodic, and sonic concepts, along these lines. the procedures of how these musics are recorded could use some new thought. my take on it is that we are faced with a copy of a copy of a copy, and the original aristotelian archetype, if you will, has perhaps been lost. the societal relevance perhaps comes into question, the essential context. the typical newer versions of the music sound okay but what is being said? and why? what is the relation between the poetry and the actor, or the singer and the song?

there are so many things that can be done with the basic tonal ideas of american country musics. the potential is limitless. but if the same basic homogenized building blocks get used over and over again, the overall point can become unclear. then what is the purpose of this music? most especially when so many of the back catalogs are available in boxed sets with copious notes, and contain perhaps better renditions and more interesting recording techniques.

at one point, even the music that is now being copied was new and different. my understanding was that bill monroe was quite the innovator. so was muddy waters. and johnny cash. this could be a very long list. to which i would add captain beefheart.

on trout mask replica, the innovations come dripping out of the speakers. every song is de-constructed and re-assembled in the most intriguing way. captain beefheart’s music still sounds fresh and new to me. trout mask replica is such an interesting stew, it’s hard to place it on a time line. it could totally come out today, yet it has some pastiche of 78 rpm delta blues, and contemporary cut and paste art techniques, found art, outsider art, beatnik poetry, and hard to classify sonic weirdness and gleeful experimentation, contemporary composed music and avant-garde.

an aside========

a fellow living up here near me is buell neidlinger. i consider him to be one of the greatest musicians that i have ever witnessed. his resume has him playing with the greatest figures of western music. buell told me of sitting in with captain beefheart at their rehearsal studio, i believe, and declared the music to be the “greatest erector set ever constructed!” buell is a musician of the highest caliber and never spoke very highly of anyone’s music to me except for igor stravinsky, cecil taylor and cats like that (buell played and recorded with them both, as well as hundreds of other of the heaviest musicians).

once, while buell played on a recording of some music i had written (which is an activity quite like trying to go a few rounds with joe louis), the engineer said, referring to buell’s track, ” i think he made a mistake in that middle section.” upon listening to the playback, i realized buell had reconstructed the fundamental idea on the fly and turned the whole bass part around, it was awesome! (interesting to note that the engineer heard this as a mistake). these types of connections began to occupy my mind at that point. buell, to me, had re-invented the role of how an acoustic bass could be played in an american country type setting. we kept the track just like it was. it really lifted the whole piece up into the stratosphere. this is a one measure example of what can happen when a musician knows a form so well that he or she can innovate within and without the parameters. (this is what i am trying to do with my banjo playing in case you were wondering).

on trout mask replica this goes on in virtually every bar of music for the entire twenty six tracks. with parts stacked vertically on other parts. it’s like finding the ruins of an ancient civilization and realizing that it is perhaps more advanced than yours.

on this, captain beefheart’s masterpiece, there is hardly a section of music that you can really tell what is going to happen next. yet it sounds strangely familiar. it’s kind of like listening to all music at once. the effect is interesting and invigorating. it’s kind of beautiful and ugly at the same time. man, i love this record.

Thanks to Danny Barnes and FolkTronics for permission to reproduce this article, which was first published at FolkTronics on February 10th, 2008.

Sumptin' fo' me sumptin' fo' you

2008-02-04T22:55:00.000Z

Gary Lucas plays Don Van Vliet

Gary Lucas was in Hilversum for a few days recently, recording his own specially commissioned composition for National Dutch Radio. This piece will be broadcast as accompaniment to a radio interview which Co de Kloet conducted with Don Van Vliet in 1993.

In Gary's weblog entry for February 2nd we learn that, "....the work went amazingly quickly, I played my heart out and utilized both my electronic fx, 1966 strat, and 1928 National steel guitar for my score (I had worked out the major themes in NYC beforehand but left lots of space for spontaneous improvisation), in tandem with occasional judicious and welcome input from producer/director Co...."

Fans of Gary Lucas's brand of spontaneous bop prosody will be the first to learn when the recording will be broadcast. This Village native hipster promises to list the date at his website.

Meanwhile, some unaccompanied excerpts from that 1993 interview can be heard at the National Dutch Radio website.

Covers corner

Video of The Kills performing Dropout Boogie turned up on YouTube the other day.

An article about local band Shortstack in Washington City Paper included an mp3 of their version of Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles.

The Guardian hosted a piece about the unclassifiable Lewis Taylor, A tip of the hat to the soulman who was more Captain Beefheart than Jay Kay, while at Soul Strut there was discussion about Lewis Taylor's version of Trout Mask Replica which had been made available for download.

You're a me and you're a me and you're a me........

An interview which Ian Anderson had given to an un-named Jethro Tull fanzine in 1990 was posted at Zappa.com's discussion group. In the interview Ian held forth at length on his experiences and impressions of Don Van Vliet and The Magic Band. Not all of what Ian is reported to have said about Don was entirely complimentary but, as one contributor to the discussion pointed out, Ian Anderson had himself been criticised by Lester Bangs for precisely the same reasons. Read the discussion and the interview at Zappa.com

Don in Sicily

2008-01-30T19:23:00.000Z

Don Van Vliet's first Italian exhibition opened last night in Palermo, Sicily.

The show, 'Zig Zag Wandering', is being held at Galleria dell'Arco until 15 February 2008.

Four reproductions of pictures from the exhibition are shown at Galleria dell'Arco's website.

Galleria dell'Arco Via Siracusa 9 Palermo Tel / fax +39091 6261234 www.dearco.it info@dearco.it

Thanks to Roberto for mailing me with news of this show.

Blue Plaques & Media Dreams

2008-01-23T19:29:00.001Z

Frank Freeman's Dancing Club in Kidderminster was one of the venues to which John Peel drove Captain Beefheart during his British tour in 1968. Recordings from this venue can be heard on the Grow Fins boxed set.

Get Your Kicks on the A456 by John Combe is a book about the venue and the acts which appeared there. It is available online only, in pdf format, from http://www.kidderocks.com/.

In 2006 a blue plaque to Frank Freeman (pictured) was set up at the location of his club in Mill Street. Among those paying homage at the unveiling was Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant, whose Band of Joy had been among the many groups to have played there.

Is Plant Potty?

Captain Beefheart is one of Robert Plant's heroes, as I mentioned here in November. The Sun newspaper this week carried their own story about Plant's admiration for Captain Beefheart.

In his Bizarre column, Gordon Smart wrote that Robert Plant was drinking in a London bar when he publicly ridiculed the music being played there. Radiohead was "rhyming crap", The Red Hot Chilli Peppers music was like "a nursery rhyme" and Plant demanded that Captain Beefheart be played instead.

This entirely understandable and reasonable request led The Sun to speculate whether Plant is potty. They described Captain Beefheart as a weirdo and suggested that Robert is losing the plot. You can read the full story, and comment on it, at The Sun's website.

Secrets & Lies of 30 Rock

Another mainstream media reference to Captain Beefheart occurred recently on contemporary prime-time American TV. It happened 9:48 into Secrets & Lies (episode 208) of the series 30 Rock. Those unable to see the event at this NBC link can read a review of sorts at Best Week Ever TV .

Mastermind, the actor and Captain Beefheart

BBC television's popular quiz show, Mastermind, broadcast a celebrity edition on New Year's Eve. Paul Bradley, the television actor, faced a number of questions about Captain Beefheart and performed very creditably.

If you would like to pit your wits against the Mastermind quizmaster, you have two minutes to answer these questions about Captain Beefheart........starting NOW.

1) Name of the projected film where the name Captain Beefheart originated.
2) Name of Beefheart's school chum from Lancaster, Calif.
3) Location of Blue Coat gallery where his first UK art exhibition took place.
4) Name he gave to Elliot Ingber when he joined The Magic Band
5) Name of album with string and paper design.
6) Name of songwriter of 'Moonchild'
7) German Airport where they were diverted when refused entry to the UK
8) Name of album where the Blackberries sang backup
9) Name of guitarist who left band before Monterey
10) Beatles song mentioned in Beatle Bones and Smokin' Stones
11) Song which Muddy Waters claimed was ripped off from him
12) Pop festival where Beefheart appeared in 1975 (careful!)
13) Instrument on which Beefheart composed Trout Mask Replica
14) Name of band who left Beefheart in 1974.
15) Projected first name of album with string and paper design.
16) Dedicatee of one album (not too sure of this question)
17) Song in which he sings 'Gimme dat ol' time religion'

Thanks to Fireparty member Mike Godwin for noting and paraphrasing these questions during the broadcast.

What Mariah Carey, Minnie Riperton and Captain Beefheart have in common

The New Straits Times carried a report about singer Kat de Luna which included a most remarkable assertion. Students of the enduring powers of mythology read on.

“I am different,” she said.

“I have integrated opera with R&B, hip hop and latin sounds,” said the singer who has a five-octave vocal range, a quality found in vocalists like Mariah Carey, Minnie Riperton and Captain Beefheart.

Recent videos & mp3s

Greg 'Ella Guru' Davidson performs I Told You So and Fat Back on YouTube. Steve Froy's interview with Greg is at Frog's Eye.

The completion of Matt leGroulx's version of Alice in Blunderland, with Henry Kaiser on guitar, marks the end to his Captain Beefheart Project. All six completed Captain Beefheart tracks, known collectively as Baboons, Rhinos, Fools 'n Buffoons, can be heard at Matt's MySpace page.

Also at MySpace, something called Beef Jerky by Mokum and Yooper. You be the judge.

This last snippet, of a May 1968 Captain Beefheart performance in Rome, is by the same Magic Band line-up who performed at Frank Freeman's Dancing School. If anyone has any photographs of this band, in performance or elsewhere, taken between about August 1967 and June 1968, please contact me urgently.

Petition to the Zappa Family Trust

"We the undersigned petition the Zappa Family Trust (ZFT) to cease and desist from making threats of legal action against FZ tribute bands, FZ fan sites, Zappa music festivals and other related activities................................................"

The full text of the petition can be read here: http://www.petitiononline.com/ZFT/

Happy 67th Birthday, Don

2008-01-15T21:01:00.000Z

Everyone here at The Radar Station wishes Don Van Vliet a very happy birthday today.

We hope that visitors to this website will join us in raising a glass of Green Chartreuse, or some other luxurious beverage, in honour of an artist who continues to astound and impress, even in his retirement.

Many Happy Returns, Don Van Vliet.

Gary Lucas and Wild Rumpus

2007-12-16T11:44:00.000Z

Gary Lucas wrote in with news of a splendid review of his new 12" vinyl leftfield dance single 'Purple Somersault'. The record is released under the name Wild Rumpus and also features DJ Cosmo. Kris Needs, writing at DMC Update.com described the track as:

"..... a funked groove set up then sand-blasted by Gary's guitar, which manages to recall anyone from Link Wray to the Misunderstood with a melody recalling Hendrix's 'Third Stone From The Sun' ..... some of the most devastatingly-effective guitar pyrotechnics heard all year ..... the Beefheart connection rears in club-world and it is indeed magical."

Gary told me a little about Wild Rumpus:

"..it's me and dj cosmo (colleen murphy)--with sometimes guests (singers, percussionists, vj's)--we've played some great live gigs in india, romania, london, brussels, nyc to date over the last couple years--our first 12 inch vinyl single "musical blazeup" sold out its initial run of 2000 copies in 2 days-- and was picked as one of the Best of the Week by iTunes UK last summer...we're currently working on a full album, in fact i'm coming to london next week to do some more recording with her."

There is more information about Wild Rumpus at Gary Lucas website, there is film of Gary talking about Captain Beefheart at YouTube, and seven of Gary's albums can now be bought at iTunes. And while I'm so busy plugging Gary Lucas, do check out his most excellent album Coming Clean, recorded with Gods and Monsters, which has become one of my personal favourites.

News Update

2007-12-03T12:35:00.000Z

For a few days last week tickets were on sale for a Magic Band concert scheduled for September 2008 in London. Ticket sales for this concert are now stopped and the concert will not take place.

This post replaces an announcement about ticket sales for that concert.

Kit 'n' Kaboodle...

2007-11-12T21:19:00.000Z

Trout Mask Replica promo pack

These poems by Don Van Vliet are from a Trout Mask Replica promo pack which was recently auctioned at eBay. I am uncertain whether there was originally a poem for John French as well, but as he was famously uncredited on the album this seems unlikely. Click on the images for clearer versions. Thanks to Gary L. for alerting me to these.

Uncut manipulation

Uncut magazine for November 2007 has a five page article about, "the men who made Trout Mask Replica and survived. Just..."

John French, Bill Harkleroad, Mark Boston and Gary Marker were interviewed by David Cavanagh who paints a lurid picture of the making of the album. Brainwashing, control and manipulation are the major themes explored here. John French draws an analogy between Don Van Vliet and Charles Manson in which Don is by far the more powerful figure.

Small details are brought to light for the first time. It was news to me that mirrors were placed on Don's piano so that he could see whether his musicians were paying attention to his playing. Details of the victimisation of Jeff Cotton are also revealed.

New photographs and an old Stingray

The Uncut article includes a photograph of Don which will be new to many of us. Unfortunately Uncut does not say anything at all about the image, so I will.

The picture shows Don Van Vliet at the wheel of his "orange pumpkin-coloured" 1972 Chevy Corvette Stingray. Caroline Boucher remembers that Don bought the car with the advance which he received from Virgin Records. "'Very dangerous car,' he'd rumble, appreciatively. 'All the fuel tanks run under the seats.'"

The photograph of Don and his Stingray is one of several which Chuck Krall took at Arcata – Eureka Air Terminal, and these can be seen, along with many other shots of Don and The Magic Band, at Getty Images website. Caroline Boucher's recollections of writing a song with Don in the vicinity of the Stingray are at the Observer website and Moris Tepper's memories of the colour of the car can be found in Mojo from February 1998.

Another previously unseen photograph of Don, taken in the desert at Palmdale in 1983, can be found in Neal Preston's photo essay Iconic Photos.

Video and film watch

Footage of Don, Jan and The Tragics emerging from an airport arrivals hall, getting into their transport and arriving at their hotel prior to performing Mirror Man at Pinkpop in Holland in 1974 has turned up at YouTube. It starts at about 4 minutes into the clip. I suppose this has been taken from the DVD, 'Pinkpop - Volume 1: The Vintage Years 1970 - 74'

Also from Holland, Rosa Ensemble perform two vintage Beefheart numbers, Blaat en Rook and Somberland.

In 1977, at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, there was a performance of Gimme Dat Harp Boy given by The Tubes.

The soundtrack of a new feature film Things We Lost In the Fire includes Captain Beefheart's Clear Spot.

...and the kitchen sink

I'm pleased to note that The Idiot Bastard has at last come up with a sensible domain name. For all things Frank Zappa (and a few things Beefheart besides) click on his shiny new website at http://www.idiotbastard.com/

'The Boy Who Cried Freebird: Rock & Roll Fables and Sonic Story Telling', a recent book by Mitch Myers, is said to include some Beefheart related content. At any rate there is a chapter entitled Captain's Orders, which may or may not be the "quick Captain Beefheart review disguised as the prelude to a marital spat" referred to in a review at City Paper.

I mentioned some time ago that Rockette Morton was back in the recording studio, working on a Roger "Hurricane" Wilson album. Blues Strom Records now plan to release the record in spring 2008.

Miles Massicotte intends to completely transcribe Trout Mask Replica, all instruments, in its entirety. It is his hope to make the transcriptions available at this website. He asks anyone with any tabs or licks to send them to him at beefhearttranscriber@yahoo.com

"Do you want to meet Captain Beefheart in Waitrose?"

I'd just received word of a completely unsubstantiated story that Don Van Vliet had been spotted at Safeway in Arcarta when I stumbled across some remarks made by Robert Plant. He was talking to The New Zealand Herald about meeting his heroes, or rather not meeting them even though they were present.

"...sometimes it's fantastic just to stay a fan and not have your bubble burst. I mean, do you want to meet Captain Beefheart in Waitrose? Of course not."

Works On Paper - Don Van Vliet exhibition in LA

2007-10-26T10:29:00.000Z

An exhibition entitled 'Don Van Vliet Works On Paper' opens tomorrow at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Michael Werner Gallery and includes Van Vliet works from the mid-1980s to the early 90s. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, October 27th from 6 to 9 pm, and the exhibition will be on view until November 24th.

Further information can be found at David Kordansky Gallery's website.
David Kordansky Gallery, 510 Bernard Street, Los Angeles, CA. 90012 Tel. 323-222-1482 Fax. 323-227-7933

Dancing to Captain Beefheart

2007-10-16T14:49:00.000Z

In June of 2007 I read a plug for “I Wanna Find Me A Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have To Go" in Kyle Gann’s blog. The composer Art Jarvinen had used Don Van Vliet’s composition to illustrate an article which he had written about metametrics.

This aroused my interest because it didn’t strike me that Captain Beefheart was a normal point of reference in the contemporary new classical music or conservatoire world. My feeling was, that in that milieu, Beefheart was more of a footnote than an example. If he was used as an example, wouldn't he exemplify a particular professor's or composer's youthful musical exuberance and folly rather than anything else?

I found another article by Art Jarvinen which concerned Captain Beefheart. In February 2006, also at Kyle Gann’s blog, Art wrote:

"I always wondered why I couldn't dance. I couldn't dance to The Twist,
or "I Wanna Make It With You." But I could not NOT dance to Captain
Beefheart. "Lick My Decals Off Baby" is my disco record. I have to move
when I hear it, both knees going in different rhythms, one arm not
knowing what the other one is doing - until it all comes around after…a
while - or not."

That resonated with me. I too find joy in dancing to Captain Beefheart, but inability in dancing to other music.

I invited Art to elaborate on these issues in an article for this blog, which he was very happy to do.

DANCING TO CAPTAIN BEEFHEART
by Arthur Jarvinen
© 2007, used by permission

You might be surprised to know just how many composers of my generation (I was born in 1956) are Beefheart fans. It's not hard to understand, really. I was in high school when Lick My Decals Off, Baby came out. Junior high and early high school. Those are the formative years for many musicians. Maybe not the ones who grew up on classical symphonies and played viola in the school orchestra. Not the precocious ones from musical families who were playing Chopin mazurkas in grade school and had the best piano teachers right from the start. I'm talking about the ones, like me, who grew up with pop music, were self-taught, and in eighth or ninth grade started playing drums or guitar or Farfisa organ in garage bands. If you're one of those kids, and have the kind of mind and ear and imagination that eventually lead you down the path to composition, you're going to discover and latch onto the more sophisticated and progressive manifestations of what rock music can be.

You might not yet have much of a clue how the music is made, or the skill to play it yourself. But you're going to discover artists like King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Yes, Frank Zappa, and Captain Beefheart. You're not going to turn your back on the Who, the Stones, or Led Zeppelin, because they're great bands and that's exciting music. But it's the likes of Beefheart and Zappa that are really going to get inside your mind and change the way you think about music. And that influence doesn't go away.

Bang-On-A Can clarinetist and composer Evan Ziporyn once said to me "It would be weird if Beefheart's influence wasn't apparent in your music".

From what I have observed though, there is a difference between Beefheart fans who are musicians and composers and those who are not. The non-musicians mostly agree that Trout Mask Replica is by far the greatest Beefheart album ever made, if not the best album ever made, period. No one, Beefheart fan or not, can dispute the record's importance in the history of rock. But musician/composers like myself will not hesitate to tell you that Decals is by far the better record. Beefheart never got better than that. Decals probably wouldn't and couldn't have happened without Trout Mask. But from any way you look at it – the performance, the recording and production, the song selection, the band's instrumentation, and especially the composition – Lick My Decals Off, Baby far surpasses Trout Mask Replica in my opinion. And that is clearly the concensus among the many composers I know who are Beefheart fans.

So much for composers and influences. What about dancing?

The simple fact of the matter is that very few male musicians dance. Most of the women do, but the men tend not to. At least that has been my observation since I was in grade school. And I don't think it's always because we don't want to. Most of us just don't know how, don't really have a feel for popular dancing.

When I was about ten or twelve I remember a friend of mine saying I really ought to learn to dance, especially if I wanted to get close to girls, which I did. So we went to his place and he put on a bunch of records and showed me some moves. I tried, but it just wasn't working. I felt awkward and silly. So I concluded that I just can't dance, and probably couldn't learn. So me and most of my friends would stand on the sidelines at school dances, just listening to the music and watching the girls we were lusting after dance with each other.

But then Lick My Decals Off Baby came out. That was 1971, but I don't think I got it right away. Spotlight Kid came out after Decals, and a friend of mine already had Spotlight. He was way into that record, so he ordered Decals from his record club. But he hated Decals, just couldn't get into it AT ALL, so he gave it to me. It was my "Damascus Road", if you will, my Enlightenment. Decals instantly became my favorite record, and it still is. My "desert island with only one record" record. And one of the things I discovered with Decals was that I actually can dance, if it's music that "moves me", as it were.

I have a way of explaining this for myself. It might not stand up to scientific scrutiny, but it's an interesting model to think about.

In the acoustics of music there is a phenomenon called "difference tones". Every pitch has a frequency, the number of cycles-per-second at which it vibrates. When any two pitches are played together a third pitch is produced which vibrates at the difference between the other two frequencies. That's the difference tone.

Difference tones are weird. You don't usually hear them, but under certain conditions you can. In fact, they don't really exist, which is to say they're not actually producing sound waves in the air. They are illusions manufactured in your inner ear. Your brain does the math.

Church organists have a neat trick. They will sometimes play the lowest note on the pedal board, C, and the G above that. That produces a C an octave below the lowest pedal. By exploiting difference tones they can make you hear a note that isn't even on the organ! Personally, I think that is very cool, like the fact that the stars we see now disappeared eons ago, and the light is just getting to us now.

On many of the tunes on Lick My Decals Off, Baby Beefheart sets up different patterns, rhythmic cycles of different lengths, licks played in different tempos. John French (Drumbo) has talked a lot about his approach to constructing his drum parts. He was trying to reinforce with his four limbs as many of the other parts as he could. You can hear this on Trout Mask. But on Decals you also had Art Tripp (Ed Marimba) playing drums. So the rhythmic textures, the layering of the different patterns and tempos, is much more complex.

I think it's possible that those overlapping rhythms behave like pitches, their combinations and interaction producing what we might call "difference rhythms", different pulses in the brain. My body picks up on those things in the brain, and I find myself moving in complex ways, not just moving my whole body to one beat or tempo, but different limbs going almost independently, trying to account for and respond to everything that is being generated in the music.

Like I said, this is just how I think about it. It might not be valid from any scientific perspective,
but who cares? I didn't think I could dance, but Decals got me moving, and always does. And it feels good.

Probably wouldn't impress girls much, but I'm way past needing to do that anymore.

Arthur Jarvinen is a composer/musician based in Los Angeles, currently on the composition faculty at the California Institute of the Arts.
www.arthurjarvinen.com

If you got ears...

2007-08-12T17:47:00.000Z

Had an email from Grant who plays in a Canadian band called The Surfdusters, and does a radio show on CJSF Radio. This Tuesday, August the 14th, he's doing a show of Captain Beefheart covers from various singles and compilations. It’s on from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, Pacific time – listen if you can.

CJSF can be found on the web at http://www.cjsf.ca/.

I'll give it a listen if I can convert Pacific time to British Summer Time...

Bickershaw Boot

2007-08-05T18:06:00.000Z

If you went to the 1972 Bickershaw festival you probably have great memories of it. There were some excellent bands playing and the Beefheart set was supposed to have been particularly inspiring.

For years an audience recording of the performance has been circulating and despite it's sound quality failings you can still hear that the band were on top form.

This recording has now been released commercially by Ozit. What do we think of it ... what do you think? Read the full review

The Captain Beefheart Story

2007-08-01T19:58:00.000Z

Scary Go Round, John Allison's long-running internet comic strip, has this week turned its attention to The Captain Beefheart Story.

A warning caption states that this is a difficult and complex yarn and is not for weak minds. How true this is.

The notorious deal made between Don, Frank Zappa and the cat-starved Arabs is described in more detail than I have ever encountered, while the quotations from Captain Beefheart's lyrics can only have been sourced from previously unheard out-takes in the Zappa vaults. All that being as it might or might not be, this is a compelling account of a story which all too often is taken far too seriously. I can't wait for tomorrows episode.

The Captain Beefheart Story is Scary Go Round Chapter 38. Thanks to Doug W. for letting me know about it.

Frank Zappa Strasse

2007-07-30T18:09:00.000Z

According to Gary Lucas in a 1996 interview for Seconds magazine, Frank Zappa and Don Van Vliet's last meeting was embarassing and distressing. Frank owned the rights to Bat Chain Puller, tracks from which Don wanted to use on Ice Cream for Crow. After some fruitless negotiation Don and Gary decided to confront Zappa face-to-face and ask for the use of the material. Zappa refused, saying, "Unless you buy all the masters back from me, it's not worth it for me to split up the set. It won't be worth that much out there in Beefheart-land."

Frank Zappa is generally acknowledged to have been a shrewd businessman and none of Captain Beefheart's Bat Chain Puller has yet been released. Nor has even more Captain Beefheart material which some people suspect is contained in the famous Zappa vaults. It is now, of course, to Frank Zappa's widow that any question of permissions should be addressed and anyone having anything to do with Frank Zappa's music is aware of this.

It is strange then, that when on Saturday a street in Berlin was renamed after Frank Zappa, the organisers of the accompanying festivities were in receipt of a letter from lawyers representing Mrs Zappa. Somehow it had escaped the organisers attention that there were protocols to be followed in dealing with the widow of a famous composer, as Ed Mann, former Frank Zappa stalwart, explained to Kill Ugly Radio.

I am told that the celebration of the street-naming was, however, a great success.

Photograph of Frank Zappa Strasse sign © Peter Laskie 2007

"I never knew you were into such intelligent art ..... Paris Hilton & Captain Beefheart"

2007-07-26T12:36:00.000Z

Paris Hilton & Captain Beefheart, a new record by Knights of Infinite Resignation was released this week on the Next Best Records label.

The record was inspired by this picture of Paris Hilton holding a copy of Trout Mask Replica. You may remember that about a year ago we mentioned the picture here. Since that time the image has been reproduced at countless websites and blogs. Screenshots of some of these reproductions were even used in a video.

The photograph has been a source of much wonder and speculation, astonishment and disbelief, and not least mirth and dismay. Could Paris Hilton, icon of everything shallow, really appreciate the complexities of Trout Mask Replica? For some fanatics Captain Beefheart's iconic album is at the opposite end of the musical and cultural spectrum from Paris Hilton's world. "Cognitive dissonance" and "cultural juxtaposition" are just two of the less rude comments which have been applied to the image.

Knights of Infinite Resignation have taken this high art/low tart idea and turned it into a song of frustrated love and cultural reconciliation. In a pastiche of Jan & Dean, the lyrics tell of the admiration of an indie-music loving teenage boy for his unattainable schoolmate Paris Hilton. They leave school and go their very different ways, until one night the narrator comes across Paris guest-DJ-ing in a pretentious bar. "You put Trout Mask Replica on, the paparazzi was dismayed, and you've been blowing minds to this day."

Although the singer on this record is no Jan or Dean the songs hook is more than equal to the best of surf music . The chorus line, "Paris Hilton and Captain Beefheart" is so catchy and is used so humourously that once heard it is very hard to shake off. This might just make the record essential listening for more than Captain Beefheart (or Paris Hilton) trivialists.

Another self-penned song completes the release which is downloadable from your local digital retailer. A cover of Pere Ubu's Ice Cream Truck is included on the CD.

Beefheart and Zappa prizes to be won in raffle

2007-07-24T19:14:00.000Z

A number of Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa albums and CDs have been donated for a charity raffle and signed by some of the musicians who recorded them. The raffle is in aid of the Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF).

Kitty Tripp, organiser of the raffle, says that among those who have donated so far are John French (Drumbo), Mark Boston (Rockette Morton), Cal Schenkel, Bill Harkleroad (Zoot Horn Rollo), Denny Walley, Roy Estrada (Orejón), Jimmy Carl Black, Ed Mann and, of course, Art Tripp (Ed Marimba himself).

There is no quality grading of the items to be won, so expect vinyl to be well played and CDs to have been opened for signing. Tickets cost $5.00 each and can be bought through PayPal. The draw takes place on August 25 at Satori in Mobile , AL . Ticket holders are invited to attend. Winners who cannot be present will be sent their prizes.

Full details are at satoriarf's myspace page.

Updated 31 July to show a signed vinyl Clear Spot. Click on the image for details.

Idling with Captain Beefheart

2007-06-05T16:44:00.000Z

The latest edition of The Idler magazine contains a nice piece about Captain Beefheart accompanying a series of quotes from the man himself. It's only a smallish piece and many of the quotes may already be familiar to you, so just consider this a flimsy excuse to plug one of my favourite things.

The Idler is undoubtedly the finest publication I have ever had the pleasure to read. Published approximately twice a year in colourful nice-smelling A5 soft-back book format it extols the virtues, pleasures and techniques of a more contemplative, less pointless existence.

I've been an avid reader for almost all of my adult life - just looking at all their coloured spines lined up on my bookshelves is an idle pleasure in itself. I recently tried to persuade them to publish my "musical autobiography" (a series of musings about significant stages of my life intertwined with ruminations about the music which gripped me at the time) but they were wisely having none of it. I say wisely because, even if they had been worth reading, there was very little likelihood of me getting round to ever producing more than one or two of the things.

It's a minor joy to see that Beefheart looms large in their world too. Indeed, the only boob in their 14 year history was a credulous interview with Uri Geller and I can forgive them even that.

If you would like to muse upon the pleasures of writing with wooden pencils, playing the ukulele, freedom from consumerism, peeing in your back garden, the horrors of the full-time permanent job or Louis Theroux's latest adventures then you need an Idler subscription today.

To test the water, you can order the latest issue (the one with Beefheart in) from amazon.co.uk.

New York Don Van Vliet exhibition

2007-05-31T19:18:00.000Z

A new exhibition of 15 of Don Van Vliet's paintings opens today and runs until 6 July at the Anton Kern Gallery in New York. There is a catalogue of the exhibition and it includes a preface by Polly Harvey.

More information, a press release and nine paintings from the exhibition can be viewed at the Anton Kern Gallery website.

How I would love to attend - if you make it to the exhibition please do let us all know by posting a report to this blog.