Captain Beefheart Up Sifter

Through the Eyes of Magic - update

2009-07-04T15:56:00.002Z

The Radar Station just been told that John French's book is still on course for a Spring 2010 release ... although the exact date has yet to be confirmed.

However, what's new is that Proper has decided that it'll now publish Through the Eyes of Magic as ONE BIG book instead of the two volumes they had originally planned. This probably make more financial sense. It also means we'll get the whole book without the danger of the second volume never seeing the light of day!

They've also promised that no editing will be done to make it fit one volume ... which is good news too.

Now roll on spring 2010...

More Beef Art

2009-06-28T10:45:00.005Z

As you're probably already aware the Radar Station has the largest collection of images of Don's artwork on the web and we continue to add to it whenever we can. As we're obsessives we don't want to miss out on the other doodles and sketches of his that turn up all over the place so we've started trying to capture these all in one place too.

Take a look at the Pictures, photos, bits & bobs page and check the Assorted sketches by Don section which includes a great piece of grafitti on a wall of the Armadillo as well as photos of Don displaying pages from his sketchbook. If you know of any others please let us know.

One of the myths surrounding Don has been his supposed early training with a sculptor called Agostinho Rodrigues. Little is known about what really happened but I've put together an article that covers everything we do know - read it here: Don Vliet and Agostinho Rodrigues

Follow beefheart.com on Twitter

2009-06-09T19:34:00.005Z

You can now follow beefheart.com on Twitter and get all of our Up Sifter updates and anything else Beefheart-related which we decide to shunt your way. Find us and follow us: @CaptBeefheart. We also have an RSS feed available too if you prefer.

I also have my own personal Twitter account - @prawntot - so feel free look me up and say hi. I tend to use it more to see what others are up to than to tell the world when my left buttock cheek needs a scratch so there's not much going on there apart from the occasional passing tumbleweed. Perhaps you like tumbleweeds, pop by if so.

Late notice: Gary Lucas / Gods and Monsters anniversary show

2009-06-09T18:58:00.003Z

Gary Lucas (Magic Band and Fast 'n' Bulbous guitarist) is playing with Gods And Monsters this Thursday night at the Gramercy Theatre, NYC:

Click the image for a bigger, readable version.

Mirror Man Mini Me

2009-06-08T09:54:00.001Z

Two of Beefheart's earliest albums have been given the Japanese mini LP treatment. You can now get exact copies of the original Safe As Milk and Mirror Man vinyl albums but as compact discs. These are exquisite ... you even get a mini version of the SAM bumper sticker and MM comes complete with the gatefold die-cut shattered mirror effect cover.

Although the packaging replicates the original album the tracks on them are the remastered versions with the extra songs that were released in 1999.- so the sound quality is excellent. In fact, SAM sounds even better than the 1999 copy I have.

These are available individually but they can be bought together as part of a 'promo' package. With this you get the two albums and a chunky box to put them in. The box is printed to look like a fat copy of Safe As Milk and is constructed like the Grow Fins box.

The fact that this box is big enough to hold four or five of these mini albums makes me wonder if there's plans to issue some more ... but which other Beefheart albums does BMG Japan have the rights to?

2009-05-23T16:15:00.002Z

Chrome Dreams have just released Captain Beefheart’s Jukebox, a collection of songs (mainly blues) that have been an influence to Don and the Magic Band – read our review of it. You may remember their previous Beefheart offerings – the Under Review DVD and the Classic Interview CD.

A (very belated) review of the most recent Fast n Bulbous CD Waxed Oop is also now available. Apologies to the band for taking so long getting this on the site.

We’ve had a few more cover versions brought to our attention. Dimthingshineon has taken on Beatle Bones n Smokin Stones and Magazine who recorded a version of I Love You You Big Dummy back in 1979 have been playing it again, 30 years on, as part of their recent reunion tour.

Copies of the catalogue from Don’s art exhibition Paintings and Poems with a foreword by P J Harvey have sold like the proverbial hotcakes at Other Music. Not surprising considering the very cheap price … I wouldn’t be surprised if some start turning up on eBay soon at much higher prices. They've sold out once but seem to have some new stock in ... get it while you can!

the stars up above are runnin' on love

2009-04-05T19:42:00.003Z

John French revisits the Trout House

We received a mail from John French who recently went back to the house where Trout Mask Replica was created.

I thought beefheart.com might be interested in a picture of Ian McArthur, my Scottish friend, and I up by the "Trout House" as I call it. We visited the place on February 3rd and as you can see, it was a beautiful day. The present owner was aware of the house's history and kind enough to take this picture and send it to me.

The house was built on the middle lot of three adjoining lots that was part of the original property. The present owner is building a new 3-story home down and to the right of the original house. He's living in the original house with his wife and showed us around. They are doing extensive repairs and the place is really looking a lot better. I think the paint on it is the original paint that was on it forty years ago, but they are re-painting.

We are very grateful to John French, and to the present owner who readily agreed that we could use his photograph here (click on the photograph to enlarge it). The owner tells us that he may be doing a website on the Trout House at some point, with photos and stories that he's gathered since living there.

Gary Lucas is performing again

Great news from Gary Lucas who recently fractured his right elbow in a fall on ice in Montreal. Luckily his hands were unscathed and his injured arm is mending so well that he has already been back at work, conducting a guitar masterclass at The New School, and even performing in concert again last night in New York, with another appearance scheduled for City Winery on April 6th.

Among Gary's forthcoming gigs is a headline solo appearance at The Jazz Cafe in London on Saturday 16th May, with Southampton based electronic duo The Dark Poets sitting in on his set. Tickets will be on sale from Tuesday, April 7th.

Other appearances include the world premiere of a new silent movie score for Abel Gance's silent anti-war film "J'accuse" at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam on June 23rd and June 24th
A two hour retrospective of Gary's work will be broadcast on German national public radio Deutschlandfunk on June 6th midnight to 2am GMT. This will be available on the internet on the "Nachtradio-Soundcheck" programme and includes interviews, live recordings,and selections from forthcoming releases. http://www.dradio.de/ (click on Deutschlandfunk)

All of Gary's tour schedule is available at his website and his MySpace page, as are links to all sorts of downloads of his music, such as a video for the Wild Rumpus Rock the Joint single now on YouTube, which was hand animated by Tabitha O'Connell.

"Beefheart's work ... used to make me feel ill" - PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey's new album A Woman A Man Walked By, recorded with long-time musical collaborator John Parish, features former Magic Band member Eric Drew Feldman on keyboards.

John Parish and PJ Harvey are both Captain Beefheart fans and significant musical similarities to the work of Captain Beefheart have been noted by most reviewers. Even the publicity material for the album at PJ Harvey's MySpace page flags the Beefheart connection.

In a video at Island Records website John and Polly can be heard talking about their musical influences. Polly explains how she first came to appreciate Captain Beefheart:

I'd heard Beefheart when I was really young through my father and my mother ... they had all of Beefheart's work, but when I was a child it just used to make me feel ill. I didn't understand it. And then when I met John when I was sixteen / seventeen he introduced me to many things, one of which was re-introducing me to Captain Beefheart, and he gave me a cassette of Shiny Beast which I still have.

Lowside of the Road

An extract from Barney Hoskins' new biography of Tom Waits has appeared at The Quietus. It deals with the change in Waits' music which happened at the time of his marriage to Kathleen Brennan, and Swordfishtrombones the album which resulted. Here Hoskins skates over the vexed question of Captain Beefheart's influence on Waits:

Waits has even claimed he'd never really listened to Captain Beefheart before meeting Kathleen – that, despite being signed by Beefheart's manager Herb Cohen and supporting the Captain's mentor Frank Zappa on tour, he was oblivious to the gruff-voiced Dadaist genius born Don Van Vliet. Where the bruising 'Heartattack and Vine' hinted at Beefheart's influence, Waits' new songs made the debt clearer still.

Whether or not it was Kathleen who turned her husband on to Beefheart matters less than the fact that she was the catalyst for change. "It was certainly not the first time that a relationship with a strong and well-organized woman has had that kind of effect on an artist's life," says Mike Melvoin, keyboard player on The Heart of Saturday Night (1974) and Nighthawks at the Diner (1975). But Melvoin also believes Brennan "put a stake through the heart of various things" in order to free Waits from his past.

Barney Hoskyns' Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits is out now, published by Faber & Faber

How To Be

Back in August I wrote about the inclusion of Clear Spot on the soundtrack for the British indie film How To Be. The soundtrack album has now been announced and is available for pre-order through Dreamboat Records.

The film itself will be showing at a few screenings in the US leading up to a wider release on IFC Festival Direct. For full information see the How To Be website.

The Spring Collection

A new collection of shirts from New York design house Rotter and Friends features several variations on the Trout Mask Replica cover.

Here modelling one of them are Gustav Ejstes from the Swedish band Dungen and Susannah Lipsey designer for Windy Freda.

All of the shirts from the collection can be seen and ordered at Rotter and Friends website where there is even a video showing how well the shirts perform to Zig Zag Wanderer.

photo taken by Jeaneen Lund (click on photo to enlarge it)

And finally....

Dirty Blue Gene - the videogame version.

Through the eyes closed

2009-04-02T19:15:00.003Z

I'm afraid we've had bad news about the publication of John French's book. It's now no longer going to be published this June.

Proper Records have not taken the decision lightly. But as this was their first foray into the world of book publishing they have now realised that a book cannot be turned around as quickly as a CD and marketed effectively in that short time. Ultimately they want to do what's best for John and his book ... but it's still a bummer none the less!

The book's now likely to be published next year. We'll bring you news, of course, as soon as we hear any.

We've been told that a new website will be appearing with photos and extracts from the book to whet our appetites (as if they weren't already whetted, I've been drooling like a rabid dog for months!) ... details will appear on this blog when we get them.

Seeing thru you to me…

2009-03-14T08:43:00.002Z

For several years here on the Radar Station we’ve been telling you that Drumbo has written a book about his time with the Magic Band called 'Beefheart: Through The Eyes Of Magic'.

It's taken him a while to finish it and, at last, we can finally say there’s not much longer to wait.

Proper Records (who released his recent solo album) have taken on the publication of this two volume masterpiece and plan to release Volume One on 1 June 2009.

They’ve set up a some ‘teaser’ pages here … http://www.propermusic.com/epk/teaser/vol1.html
and here ... http://www.propermusic.com/magic/utter_chaos.html

For more information … and a review (when we get are hands on a copy) check out this page http://www.beefheart.com/zigzag/books/french.htm

Update 24 March 2009: the latest 'teaser':-
http://www.propermusic.com/magic/resentment.html

Fast 'N' Bulbous tour

2009-03-07T23:28:00.010Z

We've just received an announcement about the Fast 'N' Bulbous performance scheduled for Tuesday, March 10th in New York.

Fast 'N' Bulbous performs at (Le) Poisson Rouge Tuesday March 10th 2009.

NOTE: GUITARIST GARY LUCAS HAS FALLEN ON THE ICE AND INJURED HIS ELBOW. HE IS EXPECTED TO MAKE A FULL RECOVERY, BUT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO APPEAR AT TUESDAY'S PERFORMANCE. HOWEVER FAST 'N' BULBOUS WILL STILL PERFORM AS SCHEDULED, AND PLAY MUSIC FROM THE NEW RECORD. GUITARIST PAT IRWIN (B52s, Raybeats. Eight-Eyed Spy) WILL FILL IN FOR GARY FOR THIS GIG. COME ON DOWN FOR A GREAT SHOW!

Celebrating the release of their new CD, Waxed Oop (an impetuous stream bubbled up) on Cuneiform Records, F&B makes a rare New York appearance on the eve of a European tour.

Here is what Troy Collins had to say about it in All About Jazz:"In addition to nuanced precision and shrewd arrangements, the ensemble's most impressive feat is their ability to excavate the tuneful kernels buried in Beefheart's labyrinthine tunes. Translating the Captain's raspy diatribes into pithy horn charts, they transpose oblique tendrils of melody into opulent sketches of timeless, surreal Americana..."

(Le) Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleeker Street, New York City(212) 796 0741 Tickets: $15 - buy tickets.

Information/audio samples/video clips:

Opening will be Sxip Shirey w/Adam MattaDoors open: 6:30PMSxip Shirey/Adam Matta: 7PM Fast 'N' Bulbous: 7:45PM, promptly

Fast 'N' Bulbous: (for tonight)

Pat Irwin - guitar
Jesse Krakow - bass
Richard Dworkin - drums
Phillip Johnston - alto saxophone
Rob Henke - trumpet
Jacob Garchik- trombone
Dave Sewelson - baritone saxophone

In a subsequent mail which we received from Phillip Johnston we have learned that although Gary Lucas will be out of action throughout the Fast 'N' Bulbous European tour he will make a full recovery.

It is hoped that the tour will go ahead with Pat Irwin on guitar, although some promoters want to cancel the gigs if Gary is not able to play. Fast 'N' Bulbous hope to do all of the gigs.

While Gary is undoubtedly the star soloist of the band, there are a lot of other good reasons to see Fast 'N' Bulbous: the arrangements, the many other formidable musicians in the band, who are quite well-known and well-regarded in their own right, and the great music of Captain Beefheart. It's possible that this could be the last chance to hear the band live in any form. If any fans are in areas near the venues and want to come, they should contact the venues and show support.

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

See the band's MySpace page for more information.

Lemme tell yuh 'bout it

2009-01-25T19:18:00.005Z

Captain Beefheart at The White House

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

Mighty Boosh and the £23,000 Van Vliet

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

Hot Rats vinyl re-issue

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

Captain Beefheart article in Record Collector

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

The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing

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

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

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

Happy Birthday, Don Van Vliet

2009-01-15T00:00:00.010Z

Happy Birthday, Don

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

Vliet interview in Zappa archive?

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

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

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

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

Thanks to Peter Warner for his detective work

City of Refuge reviewed and defended

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fast 'n' Bulbous live dates

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

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

See the band's MySpace page for more information.

Trout Mask Replica and the Trout House

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

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

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

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

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

Wedding at East Overshoe

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

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

The Adventures of Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band

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

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

Captain Beefheart covers

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

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

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

Jimmy Carl Black remembered

2008-11-03T18:28:00.001Z

Jimmy Carl Black died this weekend. He was seventy years old.

Art Tripp, one of the few other musicians to have played with both Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, sent the following message:

I hardly know what to say about the demise of the great Jimmy Carl Black. I Emailed Roy Estrada that the world just won't seem the same without The Indian. He was one of those rare guys who lit up the whole room when he walked in. When you met Jim you liked him; and he was your friend for life. Jim was basically a good ole Texas boy with a little flower power mixed in. He was an open book to a fault, and was quick with his praise of others. I had some of the best times of my life around Jimmy Carl Black, all the while learning a little bit about rock n roll drumming. When we spoke on the phone a couple of weeks ago, I had a feeling that would be the last time. I'm very grateful that I had that opportunity.

Art Tripp

The benefit concert planned for Sunday 9th November in London will go ahead, as will another benefit celebration in California on 7th December.

There is a brief biography of Jimmy at his website and two recent interviews with Jimmy appear at The Idiot Bastard's website, here and here. At the time of writing the only mainstream obituary to have been published appears at the website of Norwegian broadcasters NRK, although tributes are pouring in at Zappateers, The MuffinMen and Zappa.com

Please feel free to add your memories of Jimmy to the comments section below.

Let go flocks of them

2008-10-28T18:44:00.000Z

Diggin' the Smithsonian Institute news

The Smithsonian Institution investigates the meeting of pop culture and palaeontology in a new blog at its website. In one of the first entries Captain Beefheart's song The Smithsonian Institute Blues (or the Big Dig) has its skeleton made good by a dinosaur expert.

For all you need to know about La Brea Tar Pits and what they contain see the entry Dinosaur Blues at Smithsonian.com's blog Dinosaur Tracking.

From Genesis P. Orridge to Oh Bamalam

I seem constantly to be linking here to Gary Lucas website because of the seemingly endless Captain Beefheart related information to be found there. At his tour page, for example, you can check out how the 2009 Fast 'n' Bulbous tour is shaping up. Three European concerts of Captain Beefheart compositions are so far listed for March - in Holland, Czech Republic and France. There will be more news of that tour later I'm sure.

Gary recently mentioned at his blog that the only punk/new wave band checked by Captain Beefheart/Don Van Vliet as being any good was Throbbing Gristle, which was news to me.

I soon found an interview with Genesis P Orridge in which Genesis placed Don Van Vliet alongside Aleister Crowley, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Brian Jones in his pantheon, so I asked Gary about this mutual admiration.

Gary told me that someone came up to The Magic Band at York University during their soundcheck in November 1980 and asked Don if he rated any of the punk or new wave groups. He scoffed at them all (this was the period of "case of the punks" and Don's general derisive attitude toward the whole thing--ie "the new wave is just an old Toni" (a "toni" was a kind of permanent wave hair application goo for women) but then said the only group he liked and respected was Throbbing Gristle.

Genesis later told Gary that he had heard from someone close to the band that Don used to paint listening to Throbbing Gristle's Second Annual Report.

Now for the plug. Gary is keen for it to be known that his new digital only EP Rise Up To Be is out on digital portals worldwide through IODA (including emusic, rhapsody, and iTunes) . This is a collection of some of his original compositions which he gave to Jeff Buckley (one of Gary's first singers in Gods and Monsters, in 1992), music that became the instrumental basis for some of the well-known Lucas/Buckley songs like Grace and Mojo Pin. More information is available at Promonet and a free track can be downloaded here.

Also, The Du-Tels (Gary Lucas and Holy Modal Rounder Peter Stampfel) salute their favourite presidential candidate in a video clip at YouTube.

John French update

Two more entries have appeared at John French's blog.The third and final part of his story about his new album City of Refuge is supplemented with news about his new band which will soon be touring to promote the album. Go to his MySpace page for all the details.

City of Refuge will be released in Europe on November 10th and in North America on November 18th.

Meanwhile, Sebstian Palmer got in touch to promote an interview he did with John 'Drumbo' French during the 2005 tour of the reformed Magic Band. He has made it available at Sounds From the Funky Goat.

Zoot grows Finnish

Mikko Kapanen, lead singer and guitarist of Helsinki, Finland based "psychedelic hard rock" band Spektriis wrote in. The band is currently finishing up work on its debut album which they are hoping to have released some time in the first half of 2009.

"The reason I'm telling this," Mikko wrote, "is that we had the immense pleasure of getting Bill Harkleroad to record a guitar solo for one of the tracks. We have uploaded five out of the ten tracks on the album to our MySpace profile at http://www.myspace.com/spektriis including the track in question, called "Black Hole Eyes". We made a point of not mentioning Harkleroad's participation on our MySpace at this point, because the last thing we want to do - out of respect to him and ourselves - is to appear to be riding on his name. However, since we have made the track available, I just can't keep this from my fellow diehard Beefheart fans until the album's release."

Just a minuet

That Don Van Vliet's compositions are danceable is without question. Two German comedians, Ulan & Bator, have formalised that pleasure by getting close to a diamond (or a rabbit) at YouTube.

City of Refuge

2008-10-10T06:55:00.001Z

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.

Fast goes fast, slow goes slow

2008-09-27T09:37:00.004Z

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

Tom Waits, ".. had the nerve to think he could sing like me," says Don Van Vliet

2008-09-04T18:41:00.005Z

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."

2008-08-29T18:20:00.006Z

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.

Bag of tricks and candy sticks

2008-07-29T07:15:00.002Z

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.

It Comes To You In A Plain Brown Wrapper - July release

2008-06-18T20:35:00.003Z

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

Drumbo's drumkit for sale

2008-06-13T10:20:00.001Z

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)?

Two scratchproof albums and some CDs

2008-06-08T12:24:00.002Z

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.

Big Eyed Beans from Athens

2008-05-20T21:17:00.003Z

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.

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.