Ensenada Drive road sign

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Many thanks indeed to Angel for sending along these splendid pictures and story of her and husband Chris’ visit to Woodland Hills to see the house where the Magic Band lived and Trout Mask Replica was endlessly rehearsed. See also John French aka Drumbo’s response to these photographs! Angel writes: [wp_quote] Well the whole thing was more exciting than I thought it would be. Just getting to the house is an adventure. It’s tucked away in a canyon(!) with very steep, narrow windy roads (not yer typical LA neighborhood, to be sure). We made a right off Canoga Avenue onto Arcos which took us straightRead More →

Eazy Teeth

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A one-off collaboration between Magic Band drummer Robert Williams and roadie Paul Young. The 7″ single was released in 1980 on Dental Records. The tracks being Car Noise and Her Blade are both synthesizer based. ‘Eazy Teeth’ was a nickname given to Paul Young by Don because he was always smiling. It’s not known if Don drew this specifically for the cover or whether it had been done at some earlier point and given to Paul.Read More →

Blorpe Esette cover

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Blorp Esette was the name of some legendary releases on vinyl, and later gathered together on a four CD set, by LAFMS (the Los Angeles Free Music Society). The artwork included some sketches by Don Van Vliet. See the booklet See the CD labelRead More →

Sketch in Conjunctions #3 1982

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Appeared in Conjunctions, a bi-annual publication of new writing. This one may be familiar because it was also published to accompany Lester Bangs’ article in Musician. However, on this version there are whiskers on the cat’s right side as well as Don’s signature and a date. Why are they missing on the other one?Read More →

Sketch in Conjunctions #3 1982

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Unknown tite, unknown year. Appeared in Conjunctions, a bi-annual publication of new writing. In this edition not only are there four poems by Don – Hollow Smoke, Dopedinstunnedmirages, Popplin’ Gas Hearts and The Smith That Cleans Our Stars – there are three drawings and a painting in full colour on the cover.Read More →

Sketch in Conjunctions #3 1982

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Unknown title, unknown year. Appeared in Conjunctions, a bi-annual publication of new writing. In this edition not only are there four poems by Don – Hollow Smoke, Dopedinstunnedmirages, Popplin’ Gas Hearts and The Smith That Cleans Our Stars – there are three drawings and a painting in full colour on the cover.Read More →

A message to Zigzag readers (Jan 78)

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This appeared in the legendary UK music mag, Zigzag (named after the Safe as Milk song) – Issue 80, January 1978. It accompanied an interview with Don by Kris Needs when he was passing through London in November 1977 having performed a single show in Paris. Kris Needs wrote about this ‘close encounter’ in Record Collector #359 (Feb 2009).Read More →

Armadillo 78 grafitti

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It’s well known that Don was always drawing with a black felt tip pen in the sketch pad he carried with him. He famously spent his downtime on stage during the Bongo Fury tour with Zappa and the Mothers doodling away. In 1978 Don and the Magic Band toured to promote the Shiny Beast album. On Saturday 2 December they played the Armadillo HQ in Austin, Texas. At some point Don decided he’d take a break from his sketch pad and draw on the wall backstage instead using the wiring conduits as a makeshift frame … Thanks go to Keith Bardin for sending this photographRead More →

Unknown sketch

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Captain Beefheart’s Iridescent Logic was an article written by Lester Bangs that appeared in Musician #29 in 1981. Three of Don’s sketches were scattered through the article.Read More →

Unknown sketch

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Unknown year. Captain Beefheart’s Iridescent Logic was an article written by Lester Bangs that appeared in Musician #29 in 1981. Three of Don’s sketches were scattered through the article.Read More →

Unknown sketch

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Unknown year. Captain Beefheart’s Iridescent Logic was an article written by Lester Bangs that appeared in Musician #29 in 1981. Three of Don’s sketches were scattered through the article. This one may be familiar because it was also published in Conjunctions in 1982. However, on this version there are no whiskers on the cat’s right side, nor Don’s signature or date.Read More →