danmohr wrote:Sorry, dude - I think this one is written on stone tablets somewhere

Oh, are all of your C++ API references written on stone tablets too? HE HE HE HAW HAW!!!

Angus Jung wrote:I'd be up for suggestions.

Waka/Jawaka is my favorite. Many will disagree. It's currently my favorite. The opener, "Big Swifty" blows Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" out of the water. The first minute of that is the best thing I've ever heard recorded. The dissonance between the tubular bells and horns is crazy, not to mention the Fender Rhodes run through a ring modulator. The sheer power and agression in that part with the bells and horns is so strange for a jazz song... and it's so awesome, it can only be an ephemeral thing. This isn't resuscitated later, or used as some corny verse/chorus/verse crap... It slaps you around and runs away forever.

Waka/Jawaka was right before Zappa put together a mini-big band (I think it was 21 people), but it's a lot of musicians on this one. He was confined to a wheel chair after an insane fan pushed him off stage in London. The immobility really produced some of his best work.

The title track has the best Mini Moog solo ever. Props to Don Preston for that one.

The two middle tracks are filler, and are relatively short songs, and are there more for levity. I usually skip these. They're 15% of the album...

The end pieces are ~20 minute jazz masterpieces. It post-dates Davis' "Bitches Brew" but Zappa did stuff better than that, earlier. It's just that Zappa is not known for jazz or modern compositions... Just absurd rock and profanity. I guess he's sort of to blame for that a little too. Maybe he shouldn't have done that stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I love "Bitches Brew". If you like stuff like that, you'll love "Waka/Jawaka"... "Big Swifty" will make your skin crawl with it's creep-o weird-o jazz-ness.

If you want rock songs, go for (') or Overnight Sensation. Shit, St. Alphonzo's on (') is so sick. I love the super fast unison between the xylophone, synth, and trumpet(?).

Oh and... listening to "waka/jawaka" right now, I'm pretty blown away by how great the recording is. I mean, none of the little "pip" snare drum shit you hear so much in early recordings. Well done. Damn fine recording for 1972. For how many people are in this band, there's no noise on this... With the ring modulator, church bells, horns, whatnot... Eno's recordings sound like shit on a tin plate compared (and I enjoy a fair amount of his stuff). It's just that Eno is considered this audio deity. Gimme a fucking break! His stuff isn't that great. It's better than Radiohead, though. Shit, I'd take the Fat Boyz over Radiohead. At least I can enjoy them on a humor level...

stewie wrote:Thought this was funny - from this weeks Onion:

Frank Zappa Fan Thinks You Just Haven't Heard The Right Album

NEDERLAND, CO?In spite of your insistence that you are not into Frank Zappa, avid fan Roger Von Lee believes that you would change your mind if you heard the right album. "You're prejudiced, because the only Zappa you know is 'Valley Girl' and 'Don't Eat The Yellow Snow,'" Von Lee told you Tuesday. "Seriously, you need to check out Hot Rats or Absolutely Free. Zappa and the Mothers were at their peak, and Zappa's jazz-rock fusion experiments predate Bitches Brew. That'll totally convince you that Zappa's the shit." Von Lee added that if those two don't get under your skin, he can recommend another 15 to 20 albums that will for sure.

This is true, though. My good friend and former co-worker from the Intuit days is a composer and she worked for Other Minds. She worked with Susan, who was Zappa's secretary, and stays at her place when she's in the city. They had 2 days of their festival dedicated to Zappa. She hasn't heard much. I played her some stuff and she thought it was fantastic. Then again, it's a case of someone who's a talented software engineer and composer herself, so she was intelligent enough to see the brilliance.

I can see people who won't get it. It's not the emperor's new clothes. Most people will say Zappa is naked, when really he's wearing a long johns, 5 layers of t-shirts, courdoroy pants and a snow-suit (not to mention python boots and 2 pairs of socks).

i guess there's something wrong with me. i've been told i should like his stuff. maybe i haven't heard the right album yet or something.

i think he sucks

total crap.

coat wrote:i guess there's something wrong with me. i've been told i should like his stuff. maybe i haven't heard the right album yet or something.

i think he sucks

total crap.

What have you heard? I'm interested as to what exactly constitutes bad Zappa. I have my opinions, and it's his most obvious and popular stuff... The stuff with Ike Willis singing is bad. I really like Joe's Garage, Act 1 only, of that era...

Hey!
Down in Joe's Garage
We didn't have no dope or LSD
But a coupla quartsa beer
Would fix it so the intonation
Would not offend yer ear
And the same old chords goin' over 'n' over
Became a symphony
We would play it again 'n' again 'n' again
'Cause it sounded good to me
ONE MORE TIME!

{... now at "crew sluts"...}
It looks just like a Telefunken U47... You'll love it.

Catholic Girls, wet t-shirt... Yeah!

It's really good, though I don't recommend this as a good place to start. Start with the artistic stuff he did. Disc 1 of Uncle Meat is fantastic!!!

That said, Merci is probably one of the best selling Magma albums, and I refuse to buy it. I've heard it. It's crap. It's the only reason people think Magma is crap.

I like Nirvana's "Bleach" album a lot. I don't like any other ones. To me, if someone told me to listen to "Nevermind", I would have never liked them at all. Thank goodness I heard them and saw them live before they put that out. Otherwise, I would have never known they were any good at all... So put that in your pipe and smoke it...

Also, Matt Groenig, creator of the Simpsons loves Zappa. He calls Zappa "his Elvis", and Simpsons satire is such a rip off of Zappa. Even Mr. Burns "a hoy hoy" is lifted from "Pojama People" (One Size Fits All)

Wernehm_Zackariaah wrote:Also, Matt Groenig, creator of the Simpsons loves Zappa. He calls Zappa "his Elvis", and Simpsons satire is such a rip off of Zappa. Even Mr. Burns "a hoy hoy" is lifted from "Pojama People" (One Size Fits All)

Okay, now you're going a bit too far. "Ahoy ahoy" was the original preferred way to answer the telephone in its earliest stages. You see, Mr. Burns is very old, and he does things that are old-fashioned...

On with the Zappa arguments!

Dylan wrote:On with the Zappa arguments!

Seven words:
My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mamma

Brilliant...

OK, that's 8 words, if you count the "brilliant". I like the original FZ version, and not the Dweezil version so much...

I thought Mr. Burns was saying "ahoy hoy" and not "ahoy ahoy" but I could be wrong... Maybe FZ is alluding to the same thing, since Pojamma People sound like they could be quite old fashioned. But yes, maybe it was the shandy talking. My damn booze habit got me kicked out of Fugazi. I think they know they need a keyboard player. It must have been the booze.

BTW, Pojamma people do exist. I was just at Costco (working at home rules) and it was full of 'em. In their PJ's, scrounging for 2 oz. samples of mango juice and creating quite a po-jamma-traffic-jamma. I just wanted to wrap 'em up, roll 'em out, get 'em out of my way...

Speaking of the Simpsons, has anyone noticed the striking similarities between Ned Flanders and TV cooking personality Rick Bayless? I guess all you all in the Chi town are familiar with this hometown hero. He is Ned Flanders...

Wernehm_Zackariaah wrote:BTW, Pojamma people do exist. I was just at Costco (working at home rules) and it was full of 'em. In their PJ's, scrounging for 2 oz. samples of mango juice and creating quite a po-jamma-traffic-jamma. I just wanted to wrap 'em up, roll 'em out, get 'em out of my way...

Speaking of the Simpsons, has anyone noticed the striking similarities between Ned Flanders and TV cooking personality Rick Bayless? I guess all you all in the Chi town are familiar with this hometown hero. He is Ned Flanders...

Yeah, I'm really hoping my wife will take me out to Topolobambo-diddly-oh some time. Has anyone else dined there, and how was it?