first of all my best wishes & a zany zappy 2002 to all of you!

about: captain beefheart and his magic band, the residents, frank zappa and lots of (m)others.

articles:
- oor, december 2001 - a speciaal edition of the dutch music mag; edited by anton corbijn. It has a transcript of a phone conversation bono had with don van vliet
- gitarre & bass, december 20011 - the december issue of this german magazine has an article / interview with mike keneally and also the second part of an interview with steve vai.

New releases:
* zita swoon: live at the jet studio, brussels
(2001, cd, eec, wea 0927 41726 2)
don't now if I didn't mention this one before, but it's still I on my "big nOte" pile, so I guess not. Anyway, the latest zita swoon tour, november & december 2001 was accompanied by the release of "live at the jet studio, brussels". The album carries seven tracks plus a videoclip. I like it, but that probably doesn't surprise you.

* gary lucas: the edge of heaven
(2001, cd, fr, label blue lblc 2582 hm 83)
sub-titled "gary lucas plays mid-century chinese pop", you know what to expect. Gary has been playing a couple of these tunes in his live shows. The story behind these tunes is that gary lucas has lived in taiwan for a couple of years. He lived there with his chinese girlfriend and worked for his dad's company. The chinese music, and especially vocalists chow hsuan and bai kwong, made an enormous impression on him. 20 years later, when a friend asked him to do a couple of chinese songs for his wedding (with a chinese girl & in chinatown), gary did not hesitate. Shortly thereafter, gary placed a couple of these tunes on his "evangeline" album and also started including them in his live performances.
Positive reactions led to this album. Supported by his gods & monsters band and two fine vocalists (celelst chong and gisburg) gary lucas brings 13 chinese pop classics. Sounding very fresh, very chinese and very gary lucas at the same time, this is an exceptional album.

* dude: dude remembers #1: from early noises to lost melodies
(1997, cdr, fr, zonga records zr 060497-2129)
* dude: dude remembers #4: from orange lemonade to blue potatoes
(1999, cdr, fr, zonga records zr 020299-0036) - incl. various zappa compositions
Zonga records is dude's own, private label. Dude not only records most of his rehearsals and sessions, he also collects them on his 'albums'. "dude remembers #1" is dude enjoying himself on the guitar, playing various songs and licks that he likes, own compositions as well as various other stuff. As dude is into vai, satriani and zappa, the result sounds quite nice. It's a very low-fi thing as most of the tracks were recorded with one microphone only, but listening to it, is like taking part in a pop quizz, trying to find songtitles and names of artists. I really enjoyed listening to it, and for the data-sheets:
- on the first volume the included 'whyy don't you write me' is frank zappa's 'tell me you love me';
- the fouth volume has 'you are what yoou is','teen-age wind','doreen' & 'camarillo brillo'

true, the included music is not of the highest quality, but these collections, or 'albums', were never intended for release neither. The discs are subtitled 'a non-chronological retrospective of souvenirs fom the past'. In my opinion it could have read "a great-looking non-chronological retrospective...". I like these a lot - it makes you feel like a fly on the wall in dude's rehearsal studio. Thanx, dude.

* hugo race & the true spirit: valley of light
(1996, lp, ger, glitterhouse / efa) - incl. 'clear spot' (van vliet)
former member of nick cave's bad seeds, hugo race, has recorded don van vliet's 'clear spot'. It sounds good. Actually, the entire album sounds quite impressive. There's beefheart drumming all over the place. If you're into beefheart or tom waits, you should give this album a try.

* gotan project: santa maria (del buen ayre) / chunga's revenge
(2001, 10", fr, ya basta) - incl. 'chunga's revenge' (frank zappa)
* gotan project: la revancha del tango
(2001, cd, fr, ya basta) - incl. 'chunga's revenge' (frank zappa)
gotan project is quite popular in france, italy and spain. All of their songs sound as 'dub remixes': double bass plus tight 'dub' drums. The bizarre thing about gotan project is that they have a bandoneon and a violin playing the melody lines. As if that wasn't enough to raise your interest, they do a really fine version of frank zappa's 'chunga's revenge' as well. Released on 10" vinyl and a couple of months later on their latest album.

* terry edwards & the scapegoats: ice cream for crow / tailgating
(2000, 7", uk, damaged goods records damgood 146) - incl. 'ice cream for crow' (van vliet)
* terry edwards: large door
(2000, cd, uk, damaged goods records dg148) - incl. 'ice cream for crow' (van vliet)
terry edwards his version of beefheart's 'ice cream for crow' originally appeared on 7". A greenish, yellow vinyl 7" in a limited edition of 500 copies.
"large door" is subtitled "18 tracks from the golden age of vinyl". It collects previously released material, including the above mentioned 7". 'ice cream for crow' is one of my favourite beefheart tracks and terry edwards does nice things with it, with a british touch. I like it. "large door" has quite some variation in its 35 minutes. It even had me laughing out loud a couple of times. Recommended listening.

* 2001/12/27 radio show on belgian radio klara: 'textuur': dood paard: civilisation
theatre company dood paard performed "civilasation", a solo-piece performed by oscar van woensel and based on texts by frank zappa. The play premiered at the holland festival in 2000. in october and november 2001 a short reprise tour took place. To finish it all off, a radioplay version of the show was broadcast on belgian radio klara.

* farrel & black: 1999/02/28 - concert eindhoven, the netherlands
(2cdr - 95 min)
in 1996, farrel & black recorded and released "cataract jump": richard farrell on guitar, harmonica and vocal; jimmy carl black on drums and vocals and uwe jesdinsky on bass. Besides farrel compositions and a couple of blues classics, the album also carried one zappa and one beefheart track. Early 1999, the band toured and did a gig in eindhoven, holland. An audience recording of this show recently hit my mail-box. Great gig.

Short bits: the latest gary lucas album (yes, a new one already) is called "street of lost brothers"

talk again to you soon,

peter van laarhoven - belgium

* previous big nOtes, 'hot barfs' and other news at:
www.oocities.org/pdoelder/index.html


(©peter van laarhoven - belgium)

To BIG note november 1998
To BIG note december 2 1998
To BIG note januari 17 1999
To BIG note januari 19 1999
To BIG note januari 29 1999
To BIG note march 29 1999
To BIG note may 2 1999
To BIG note may 17 1999
To BIG note july 21 1999
To BIG note august 8 1999
To BIG note november 23 1999
To BIG note january 27 2000
To BIG note january 31 2000
To BIG note march 8 2000
To BIG note march 9 2000
To BIG note march 10 2000
To BIG note march 11 2000
To BIG note march 12 2000
To BIG note march 15 2000
To BIG note may 14 2000
To BIG note june 28 2000
To Big note august 9 2000
To Big note september 17 2000
To BIG note march 2 2001
To BIG note april 30 2001
To BIG note april 22 2001
To BIG note june 1 2001
To BIG note june 5 2001
To BIG note june 6 2001
To BIG note june 7 2001
To BIG note july 29 2001
To BIG note august 19 2001
To BIG note august 24 2001
To BIG note september 22 2001
To BIG note october 19 2001
To BIG note november 25 2001
To BIG note december 18 2001
To BIG note december 19 2001
Back
Terug