Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - xasop

Pages: < Back  1 ... 109 110 [111] 112 113 ... 123  Next >
2201
Arts & Entertainment / Frank Zappa 1979 tour 35th anniversary extravaganza
« on: February 12, 2014, 08:58:21 AM »
Yes folks, it's time for another full-tour listen-through with a review per show! This time, we jump back to 1979, a year when Frank spent unusually little time performing due to overseeing the construction of his home studio, the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen.

Nevertheless, he did spend about seven weeks on the road in Europe during the early part of the year, producing some of the wildest improvisation a Zappa touring bands has ever seen. Just listen to Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar, Tinsel Town Rebellion and the rendition of the Yellow Snow Suite on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, vol. 1 to get an idea of what this band could do.

Sadly, these insane performances were balanced by having almost exactly the same set list for every show, something that isn't really conveyed in the official catalogue. The result is a series of good shows that all sound mostly identical, except for the odd spot where somebody would get to do something spectacular, and then the stage would seem to come alive for one brief, joyous moment.

Looking on the bright side, this monotony should make it easier to keep up with reviews this time around, since there's much less variation to cover for each show.

At this time, Frank didn't yet have his own mobile recording equipment. Unlike the two tours I've reviewed previously, only the four London shows from this tour were recorded onto 24-track tape, so that's where most of the official releases are concentrated. It is also noteworthy that most of the guitar solos on the Joe's Garage album are from this tour, recorded onto 4-track tape with the guitar on its own track and later placed onto studio backing tracks -- a technique Frank called "xenochrony", meaning "foreign time".


Meet the band

Denny Walley (slide guitar, vocals)

Denny originally joined Zappa's touring band in 1975, during the short time that Captain Beefheart was a part of the ensemble. While most of that band stayed with Frank after he and Beefheart parted ways, Denny instead joined Beefheart's own band. He finally returned to tour with Frank in 1978, and is here with us again for the 1979 tour. This would be his last time as a regular performer in the band, though he would continue to work with Frank on occasion for years to come. His slide guitar shaped the sound of many songs for this tour that would lose something special in years to come.

Ike Willis (vocals, guitar)

A relative newcomer to the group, Ike joined up in 1978, but had to leave the band before the end of the tour. Evidently, Frank was impressed with his abilities, as he asked him to return here in 1979 as lead vocalist. Ike would continue to work with Frank right up until his last ever rock concert in 1988. As the vocal representative for this band, he does a smashing job: it says something about his abilities that Frank was happy to release plenty of vocal material from the last London show, when Ike had a sore throat.

Tommy Mars (keyboards, vocals)

Tommy joined the band in 1977, and thereafter made an appearance for every single tour up to 1982. One of the most dedicated and versatile keyboardists ever to decorate a stage with Zappa, his presence never failed to liven up a tour. Here in the late '70s, his vocals are also a much more prominent part of the band's sound than they would be in the '80s.

Ed Mann (percussion)

Ed joined in 1977 at the same time as Tommy, but would continue to work with Frank up until 1988. His contribution to the band's sound is subtle; the bands without him (both 1980 tours and 1984) are missing that bit of sparkle that flew from his various percussive devices. This band's sound would have been very different without him.

Peter Wolf (keyboards)

Peter Wolf was another 1977 newcomer, although this would be his last tour with Zappa. He and Tommy complemented each other to the point where it's sometimes not easy to tell which one is playing a particular keyboard part, and Peter had a real knack for improvisation. However, the two keyboardists seem somewhat underused on this particular tour, so it's no wonder that Frank would settle for just one hereafter.

Vince "Vinnie" Colaiuta (drums)

Vinnie is perhaps the most technically competent, the least sane and the most underachieving drummer ever to tour with Frank. He joined the band in late 1978 and accomplished a lot in a very short time, but left at late notice before the first 1980 tour. After making a comeback late in 1980, he departed the band forever in 1981, to be replaced by Chad Wackerman. Had he spent more time on the road with Frank, he could have achieved so much more. Nevertheless, his accompaniment to Frank's guitar solos on this tour (see Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar) displays some of the most incredible musicianship I've ever heard.

Arthur "Artie" "Tink" Barrow (bass)

Arthur Barrow, the man of many nicknames, was one of Frank's personal favourite musicians. He initially joined the band in 1978 on a one-week probation period, but after hearing him play with the rest of the group, Frank told him he didn't have to wait until the end of the week. Initially hired as a bass player, he has also played keyboard and guitar parts for Zappa, as well as the occasional vocals, and served for a number of years as "clonemeister", the job of running band rehearsals when Frank was absent. As you might expect after such an introduction, the bass parts on this tour leave nothing to be desired.

"Sophia" Warren Cucurullo (guitar)

This is both Warren's first and last tour with Zappa, and as far as I'm concerned, he couldn't have departed too soon. It's not that he's a bad guitarist, he just doesn't bring anything special to the band. He can play the parts as well as any sequencer could, but when it gets to his solo spot in Cosmik Debris, he produces some of the worst meandering tripe my headphones have ever had the misfortune to reproduce. I generally think of his presence on this tour as a guitar-strumming robot. Perhaps I'm being a little unfair. He did do a pretty good poem recital at one of the London shows (which sadly got cut from the Stage release).

Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals, conducting)

The one and only guitar champion. Just listen to Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar to understand why this tour holds particular appeal for me.


I am now listening to the first show of the tour and will post a review later. I'm also going to come back and post pictures of the band members once I've collated some that don't suck. This particular band is very difficult to find any promotional material for at all.

2202
Technology & Information / Re: Ask Rushy about Bitcoins.
« on: February 12, 2014, 04:01:16 AM »
I'm sure if Microsoft decided to go into Bitcoin, that news wouldn't be taken too well with the opensource community.

Why?

2203
Arts & Entertainment / Re: Saturday Night Live (Rolling Stone's Top 50)
« on: February 08, 2014, 08:34:01 AM »
There's one of them there Saturday Night Live things with Frank Zappa on it. It has some good bits and some boring bits, but to be honest, it's some of the least interesting Zappa-related material I've seen, and one of the few things with him in it that I don't have much interest in watching a second time. My favourite parts are where he actually plays music, but even then, the selection of songs isn't very interesting and it doesn't take up much of the overall programme.

2204
Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Evolution of "Get Lucky" the 1920s - 2020s
« on: February 08, 2014, 08:24:46 AM »
This was actually pretty cool. I liked the '40s/'50s adaptations. I really need more music from those decades.

2205
Announcements / The Flat Earth Society Manifesto, version 2
« on: February 07, 2014, 03:01:51 PM »
Due to the original Manifesto having invalidated itself, here is a revised version without the self-invalidation clause. This has already been implicitly agreed to by all forum staff.

Canonical link (will always point to current Manifesto revision): http://forum.tfes.org/manifesto


                      Flat Earth Society Manifesto
                      The Flat Earth Society Forums
                         http://forum.tfes.org/
                      =============================

Author: Parsifal <parsifal@tfes.org>
Version: 2


Definitions
-----------

 1. "Forum" means the Flat Earth Society forums hosted by Parsifal
    at http://forum.tfes.org/.

 2. "Member" means any user account on the forum.

 3. "You" means any member entrusted with privileges to modify, delete or
    otherwise influence any other member's posts or account status on the
    forum.

 4. "Situation" means any circumstance which is being considered as
    justification for exercising your privileges on the forum.

 5. "Rule" means any individual directive in a thread on the forum which
    has been made sticky and clearly marked as a rules thread.

 6. "Offence" means violation of a specific rule. Multiple instances of
    violating the same rule are the same offence, but instances of
    violating different rules are different offences.

 7. "Manifesto" means this or any later version of this document, as
    published by Parsifal on the forum.

 8. "Publication", "publish" and "published" refer to the act of posting
    a document in any publicly visible place on the forum.



Terms and conditions
--------------------


1. Amendments to the manifesto

Amendments to the manifesto may only be made with the express
authorisation of both "Parsifal" and "pizaaplanet".
Every new revision must be given a new version number, which
shall be an integer that is numerically greater than every
previously published manifesto version.


2. Perpetual agreement to the manifesto

When you agree to abide by the terms of this document, you also agree to
abide by the terms of any future version of the manifesto for as long as
you are in a privileged position on the forum.

At any time, you may revoke your agreement to this or any other version
of the manifesto by resigning your position on the forum.


3. Validity of old revisions of the manifesto

This version of the manifesto shall be null and void in application to
any events which take place after the publication of a newer version.
However, no future version of the manifesto may apply to an event which
took place prior to its publication.


4. Deference to the forum rules

There shall be, no more than 30 days after the publication of this
version of the manifesto, a set of rules posted on the forum. In all
decisions, you shall defer to the rules as written rather than relying on
your personal judgment.

For clarity, this is not to prohibit the invocation of personal judgment
in your interpretation of the rules. However, situations should be
handled according to the written rules first, and according to your
judgment of them second.


5. Equivalence of all members

You shall apply the same rules equivalently to all members on the forum,
without invoking your personal opinion of a member, their posting history
or any factor other than the rules and their behaviour in the situation
at hand.

There is one exception to this, which is that prior warnings for the same
offence may be considered as context in the situation. However, note that
prior offences without warning are not to be considered, and nor are
prior warnings for other offences.


6. Moderator discretion

There will inevitably be situations which the rules have not accounted
for. In such circumstances, you may use your own discretion, but you
should consider that the ultimate objective is to maximise the enjoyment
of the forum for all its members.

2206
Technology & Information / Re: C++
« on: January 30, 2014, 06:33:13 AM »
What would the equivalent code in C look like?

I'll translate it when I get home. It's mostly similar, except that C doesn't pretend to be OOP.

2207
Technology & Information / Re: C++
« on: January 30, 2014, 06:01:58 AM »
Thanks for posting that and reminding me why I hate C++.

2208
Technology & Information / Re: Ask Rushy about Bitcoins.
« on: January 29, 2014, 11:00:56 PM »
Why are we even arguing about this? The value of anything, including currency, is determined by what people will exchange for it. The US dollar only has value for as long as a significant number of people continue to recognise it as valuable. It may only be regulated insofar as people acknowledge the legitimacy of its regulating body.

This is true of all things, but especially fiat currencies, which have no practical value to justify their legal value. Bitcoin is no different from the US dollar in this regard.

2209
Technology & Information / Re: Ask Rushy about Bitcoins.
« on: January 28, 2014, 08:58:08 AM »
If I install Bitcoin, will I get a virus?

2210
Suggestions & Concerns / Re: Mathjax support
« on: January 27, 2014, 08:01:46 PM »
Is there a resource that describes the various syntax required for posting the supported formulas?

This is pretty good, and it has a thing that lets you practise:

http://www.forkosh.com/mathtextutorial.html

2211
Technology & Information / Re: C++
« on: January 27, 2014, 01:57:48 PM »
What's the difference between C and C++?

C++ is a poor imitation of OOP hacked on top of C.

2212
Technology & Information / Re: C++
« on: January 27, 2014, 12:24:27 PM »
What would you recommend?

Most things that aren't C++.

More specifically, it depends on what you want to learn about programming. If you want to learn about how computers work, C is a great starting point. If you just want to write program logic without caring about what the computer is doing under the hood, a scripting language (Perl, Ruby and Python are popular options, in decreasing order of my personal preference) is a good way to ease into that.

2213
Suggestions & Concerns / Re: Mathjax support
« on: January 27, 2014, 11:48:38 AM »
Sorry it took a little while to get this going. I've been feeling totally crap the past month.

But now, at long last, we finally have LaTeX support on FES! Just enter your TeX like so:

[tex]\sqrt{69}[/tex]

And it comes out like so:

%5Csqrt%7B69%7D


The git commit to create this tag is here, for reference:

https://github.com/theflatearthsociety/forum.tfes.org/commit/e555893047c2ba79dc39acbba9a524155fe8d07b

It uses a LaTeX-parsing service I've set up at mathtex.tfes.org, which is served via CloudFlare so that it caches the result of image generation for super-speedy load times.

Any questions, feel free to ask myself or pizaaplanet.

2214
Suggestions & Concerns / Re: Mathjax support
« on: January 27, 2014, 11:11:02 AM »
Mathtex has made me never want to read C code ever again. That is all.

2215
Technology & Information / Re: C++
« on: January 27, 2014, 02:21:38 AM »
Irrelevant.

This is your universal sign of "I lost the argument."

I'd have to have an argument in order to lose it. The only retort you made to me pointing out your wrongness was irrelevant.

2216
Technology & Information / Re: C++
« on: January 27, 2014, 02:15:17 AM »
Incorrect. All coders code in binary.

Incorrect.

Incorrect.

When I write in English and translate it to Russian using Google, it doesn't mean I wrote Russian.

Irrelevant.

2217
Technology & Information / Re: C++
« on: January 27, 2014, 02:12:29 AM »
I've been thinking about learning C++ for programming stuff, since that's what someone recommended I learn.

Don't. Just don't.

I code in binary.

I draw the line of hyperbole at the impossible. No one codes in binary.

Incorrect. All coders code in binary.

2218
Technology & Information / Re: C++
« on: January 27, 2014, 12:41:39 AM »
I'm decent (though not an expert) with C, and I hate C++. I will be able to help with a subset of C++ code.

2219
Technology & Information / Re: Desktop/Homescreen Thread
« on: January 26, 2014, 11:20:35 PM »
>2014
>2013

Fuck you and your technicalities.

2220
Technology & Information / Re: Desktop/Homescreen Thread
« on: January 26, 2014, 11:18:27 PM »

Pages: < Back  1 ... 109 110 [111] 112 113 ... 123  Next >