Kevin Hoover: Now playing: Zappa’s musical legacy...
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Kevin Hoover: Now playing: Zappa’s musical legacy, with Scatchard,
Beller & Stedman – Sept. 23, 2008
Frank Zappa gave the musical world – and all of us, really –
permission to be creative, funny and serious all at once. And have a
good time doing it. Because that’s how his music was.
No, not was – is. Frank music is a living, throbbing thing. It’s still
an industry, with lots of blogs (try killuglyradio.com for starters),
tribute bands and even a Friday night radio show dedicated to his
music, right here in Humboldt on KHUM 104.3/104.7 FM.
After I ceased Zappa’s Grubby Chamber (because I was tired of the
endless, bitter feuding with John Matthews), listener Mark Scatchard
endured the deprivation of Frank-less Friday nights for a while, then
“kicked in the door and demanded that Frank Zappa music be put back on
the air.” This, apparently, is considered a routine job interview at
Radio Without The Rules, and he then took over the slot seven weeks
ago with Zen Through Zappa.
Mark’s having a blast, and it shows. Last Friday’s show kicked off
with some choice live cuts, then meandered through various studio
works, all of it bizarrely majestic as only Zappa music can be.
Remember that Frank was the master of conceptual continuity, so his
stuff is festooned with idea-nodes you can use to hook songs together
all kinds of different and logical ways, for conceptual continuity. It
might be something obvious like a riff or one of Frank’s little
phrases, a texture or just a feeling.
“I enjoy it,” Mark says. He’s also tapped into the far-flung, ever-
fervid Zappa community which enjoyed the Chamber and to Digital Dan
before that via online streaming before that. “I’ve gotten calls from
L.A. to Richmond,” he says.
So, to hear Frank Zappa music played by someone who understands it –
and who takes requests at (707) 786-5486 – tune into Zen Through Zappa
at 10 p.m. Friday nights.
Late update: Mark has asked me to sit in for him on the Oct. 10 Zen
Through Zappa, and I shall. Call it Zen Through Zappa’s Grubby
Chamber. And by the way, arf.
They still talk ’round these parts about Mike Keneally’s two mind-
engulfing shows at the old Jambalaya in the 1990s and the Six Rivers
Brewery show and few years back. Mike, Zappa’s final “stunt
guitarist,” turned out to be so much more than a monster guitar
mechanic, but is now known as a huge composing/arranging/performing
talent in his own right, with his own thing.
And now, one of Keneally’s supporting staff, his longtime bass player
Bryan Beller, is emerging as a similarly complete artist. The trickle-
down brilliance finds full flower on Thanks In Advance, Beller’s
second solo album.
When an album is described as “jazz-rock,” a faint sense of dread
overtakes me. It’s usually either some intonation-challenged
community college ensemble laboring through charts or another earnest
display of music-school technical virtuosity that’s work to listen to.
While Thanks In Advance certainly fuses jazz and rock genres, it does
so with the abandon, exuberance and richness (and yes, consummate
musicianship) to which we Zappa fans are accustomed.
How could it not? Bryan is part of a small galaxy of Zappa music-
tested muso supremos. Bryan, Mike and drummer Joe Travers (who also
appears on the album) evolved their chops and ’tude in the enduring
culture of nonstandard expression Frank created. (Bryan and Mike just
came off their tour playing as Dethklok, the cartoon-based death metal
band. The reviews were excellent.)
Thanks In Advance defies glib summary. Rich in melody and texture, the
album soars with gorgeous instrumental explorations (“Casual Lie
Day”), the jazzinest jazz (“Blind Sideways”), innovative neoclassical
bass stylings (“Life Story”) and an incredibly detailed and raging 10-
minute data-rock opus featuring the incomparable Keneally on guitar,
titled “Love Terror Adrenaline/Break Through.” “Cave Dweller” is an
oozing wall of musical lava that wants to eat your complexion, while
pop-rock nugget “Play Hard” might be straight off a Keneally album.
If I had to name one comparison, there’s perhaps a certain overall
Dixie Dregsian elegance and musicality to this album. But you know
what? Thanks In Advance simply represents emerging Bellerism, and it’s
Editor’s Choice. bryanbeller.com
Russ Stedman is a very unusual South Dakotan – one of those
compulsively creative multi-instrumental tinkerers who puts stuff out
for the amusement of sympathizers but doesn’t aspire to rock-godhood.
His homebrew albums will immediately win over anyone who has converted
their garage or basement into a studio.
On Fear of a Podunk Planet, Stedman just loves Republicans, lavishing
attention on the Grand Old Party’s most prominent practitioners and
fellow travelers, from Larry Craig to Ted Haggard. The lampoonery of
their buffoonery makes for a modern-day Broadway the Hard Way, but
maybe somewhat less indulgent to the powers that be.
Stedman’s happy to deploy the cornball arrangements – some of them
wonderfully elaborate – but also plays requisitely ripping guitar.
“Jerry Falwell’s Dead,” for example, mixes what might be described as
John Philip Sousa-metal with, literally, irreverence.
There are lots of keyboard layerings, abundant percussion, caustic
lyrics, samples, pastiches, catchy riffs and laughs, Bushco
skewered... yep, works for me.
Other highly Zappaesque bits include the Uncle Meat-y “Maynard ’n’
Stan” and the “You Are What You Is”-like “Keep Your Religion Out Of My
Government.”
Here’s what else is cool – Stedman is an anti-gearhead. He doesn’t
care about having a fancy guitar – his Flying V is from a pawn shop.
He’s one of those guys everyone knows – big, loud, literal and
immediately likeable, like, say, a Lewis Black or Joel Mielke. So, my
recommendation is that you go to russtedman.com, download, listen and
laugh your ass off.
