“FWIW, Joe’s Garage is probably one of my favorite albums, and I absolutely hate parts of it, too. But it was very mind-opening for me when I was sixteen, moreso than the early Mothers albums or fusion stuff or post-Demento crap etc. New [Janelle] Monae reminds me of JG in weird ways — self-consciously flimsy conceit keeps getting in the way, mildly amusing in-song narrative … Continue reading Zappa (6)

I started responding in the comments box to something from Patrick regarding Zappa and the critics, but I ended up writing stuff I thought would make more sense in its own post, so — I’ll just post it here instead. Patrick mentioned Christgau’s “A” review of We’re Only In It for the Money (as partial proof against my contention that Zappa is the most “critically … Continue reading Zappa (5)

Some good email comments from Steven Rubio re: Zappa, which he said I could use here. …an interesting discussion might be had about Ruben and the Jets. [Zappa’s] love of doo wop oozes from the record, but he can’t help himself, he has to fuck with it, so the album works more as comedy than as doo wop. You could say he’s messing with our … Continue reading Zappa (4)

“Zappalytes say things in reviews like: ‘OK, by this point the humour was getting a little oafish, and the endless tales of groupies and on the road a little stale, and yes, perhaps we can even detect a mouse-peep of misogyny here and there, but — WOWee ZOWee — check out the model decelension in the five-minute solo on ‘Limburger Corporation Wowser’; it’s about the … Continue reading Zappa (3)

So, let’s start at the very beginning. Typically, my Zappa fandom started all wrong, with this MGM Golden Archive Series compilation (the Velvets had one too, I think), a hand-me-down from my brother, and, for a time, a record I listened to quite frequently, if selectively (I played the shit out of “Wowie Zowie” and “Mother People” but don’t recall ever sitting through “I Ain’t … Continue reading Zappa (2)

Over the course of the next several months, I’m going to do something a little — how would Stephen Colbert say it? — detourey, and post a bunch of stuff about Frank Zappa. Although in fact, it won’t be entirely a detour; many of my posts will do one, or more than one, of the following: a) quote things written about Zappa by various rock … Continue reading Zappa (1)