{"id":698,"date":"2016-07-16T00:05:22","date_gmt":"2016-07-16T04:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=698"},"modified":"2016-11-09T01:16:10","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T06:16:10","slug":"new-release-roundup-715-frank-zappa-and-joe-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2016\/07\/16\/new-release-roundup-715-frank-zappa-and-joe-list\/","title":{"rendered":"New Release Roundup 7\/15: Frank Zappa and Joe List"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MUSIC <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zappa.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Frank Zappa<\/a> \u2013 <em>The Crux Of the Biscuit<\/em> and <em>Frank Zappa for President<\/em><br \/>\nBeing a Frank Zappa completist is a damn near impossible task, and now that the archives are digitized, it\u2019s getting even harder. There have been several new released this year, and two more this week. Fans of <em>Apostrophe<\/em> will enjoy <em>The Crux of the Biscuit<\/em>, which is listed in the liner notes as \u201cproject\/object #4 in the series of 4tieth Anniversary FZ Audio Documentaries.\u201d The notes are extensive, and describe this as \u201ca snapshot of the <em>Apostrophe<\/em> album project as it was developing in mid-1973: a first draft of the first side of the album, featuring a very different sequence and different mixes.\u201d It shows how the songs were put together, with outtakes and basic tracks, taking an especially close look at \u201cEnergy Frontier\u201d (which eventually became \u201cApostrophe\u201d) and \u201cNanook Rubs It.\u201d There\u2019s also a bit of interview footage in which Zappa explains how \u201cDon\u2019t Eat the Yellow Snow\/St. Alphonzo\u2019s Pancake Breakfast\u201d was inspired by an awful TV commercial for Imperial margarine. Besides the historical value, this is just good music to revisit and hear in a new contact. And man, is it ever bracing to hear \u201cUncle Remus\u201d again, with the Ikettes and piano up front, and Zappa singing, \u201cI can\u2019t wait \u2018til my fro is full-grown\/I\u2019ll just throw away my doo-rag at home\/I\u2019ll take a drive to Beverly Hills just before dawn\/And knock the little jockeys off the rich people\u2019s lawn.\u201d <\/p>\n<div class=\"tidal-embed\" data-type=\"a\" data-id=\"62782263\"><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/embed.tidal.com\/tidal-embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Frank Zappa for President<\/em> isn\u2019t quite as involved. It includes some unreleased stuff Zappa composed on the Synclavier, a workstation\/instrument he found quite useful in his later years, a live version of \u201cWhen the Lie\u2019s So Big\u201d from 1988, a remix of \u201cBrown Shoes Don\u2019t Make It,\u201d and a soulful live take of &#8220;America the Beautiful&#8221; with Ike Willis singing. Unlike some rock stars who would run a gag campaign for president and maybe make a t-shirt, Zappa might have eventually run if it weren\u2019t for the cancer that took him in 1993. On &#8220;If I Were President,&#8221; he outlines how he would have run for office &#8212; raising just enough money to get on the ballot in each state and then not campaigning, relying on the media coming to him to ask what he thought about certain issues. You can read more about his political dealings in his autobiography, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Real-Frank-Zappa-Book\/dp\/0671705725\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Real Frank Zappa Book<\/em><\/a>. There is certainly a political void he could fill in this election year, and this album is designed, in part, to remind us of that.    <\/p>\n<div class=\"tidal-embed\" data-type=\"a\" data-id=\"62782279\"><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/embed.tidal.com\/tidal-embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>COMEDY <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comedianjoelist.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Joe List<\/a> \u2013 A<em>re You Mad At Me?<\/em><br \/>\nI had the privilege to see List in his early years in Boston, on his way to becoming the smart, pithy joke writer he is today. He\u2019s been on the rise the past couple of years, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/arts\/theater-art\/2015\/06\/09\/comic-joe-list-stays-grounded-even-career-takes-flight\/LxlR0HLDWtRI3U0AAXp8UP\/story.html\" target=\"_blank\">I caught up with him for the <em>Boston Globe<\/em> when he recorded his \u201cHalf Hour\u201d special for Comedy Central last year<\/a>. This is a strong set from List. He has a lot of anxiety, and a lot of people apparently want to tell him how to relieve that. One suggestion that didn\u2019t work? Yoga. \u201cIf you\u2019re not familiar with yoga,\u201d he says, \u201cit\u2019s usually me, two gay men, and twenty-five of the hottest women that I\u2019ve ever seen in my entire life. I can\u2019t be publicly horny, homophobic, and relaxed all at the same time.\u201d Below is a clip of his riff on meditation from the special. You can hear the full track from the album on the <a href=\"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2016\/07\/15\/department-of-tangents-podcast-ep-10-tom-snyder-and-new-comedy-from-joe-list\/\" target=\"_blank\">latest DoT Podcast, after my conversation with Tom Snyder<\/a>. <\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color:#000000;width:520px;\">\n<div style=\"padding:4px;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/media.mtvnservices.com\/embed\/mgid:arc:video:comedycentral.com:7102c3e7-e8f6-4442-a0a2-c48f25a9db6c\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MUSIC 1. Frank Zappa \u2013 The Crux Of the Biscuit and Frank Zappa for President Being a Frank Zappa completist is a damn&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,7,1],"tags":[33,415,88],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedy","category-music","category-uncategorized","tag-frank-zappa","tag-joe-list","tag-new-release-roundup"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/DoT-New-Release-Roundup-7-15-2016.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lGwW-bg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1177,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions\/1177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}