frank zappa Archive
17 Nov 2016
Outside Now: A Conversation with Dweezil Zappa, Part 1
Last month I interviewed Dweezil Zappa; I wrote three features based upon that interview: one each for papers in Chicago, Richmond and Pittsburgh. But even with that, a great deal […]
17 Mar 2016
DVD Review: Frank Zappa and the Mothers — The Lost Broadcast
For an artist who seemingly documented nearly every moment of his live and studio performance – and, not unlike John Lennon and Yoko Ono, considered the entirety of it as […]
25 Jan 2016
Hundred-word Reviews January 2016: Archival Live Albums
It’s time once again to take a stab at clearing out the massive backlog of worthy CDs clogging my inbox. Today, it’s quick reviews of five archival live albums, all […]
06 Jan 2016
Album Mini-review: Dweezil Zappa — Via Zammata’
File next to: Frank Zappa, Primus, Tenacious D Today, Dweezil Zappa might sound like a chip off the old block, but it wasn’t always so. On his first release – […]
31 Dec 2015
Best of 2015: Video (DVD and/or Blu-ray)
It takes a good bit more time and effort to screen a DVD or Blu-ray than it does to check out an album. With the latter, I can let the […]
22 Dec 2015
Video Review: Frank Zappa — Roxy: The Movie
There’s no consensus among Frank Zappa fans as to which album is his “best.” But most will agree that the 1974 double-live LP Roxy & Elsewhere is a high point. […]
10 Dec 2015
Box Set Review: George Duke — The Era Will Prevail (Part Two)
Continued from Part One… Vol. 3: Feel Released in October 1974, Feel again featured bassist John Heard and drummer Ndugu alongside George Duke, but his guest artists lent a decidedly […]
09 Dec 2015
Box Set Review: George Duke — The Era Will Prevail (Part One)
George Duke (1946-2013) was one of the most fascinating figures in music during the second half of the 20th century. Duke was a jazz-and-classically trained musician proficient on any number […]
13 Apr 2015
Book Review: Geek Rock
Rock’n’roll and scholarship make strange bedfellows. At first blush, the idea of approaching the work of rock bands from a scholarly point of view is patently absurd; such juxtapositions give […]
09 Apr 2015
DVD Review: Freak Jazz, Movie Madness and Another Mothers
The back catalog of Frank Zappa is massive, and massively intimating. Never the most commercially-minded of artists, the virtuoso Zappa recorded and released more than fifty albums during his lifetime. […]