pretazzo

Well...godbowl, I understand your argument, but I don't see the need to extend the meaning of the word rock to include any "quality" modern music (I'm not targeting you in particular, but this has become quite a common habit lately)...Zappa is universal...but the Popol Vuh, as I see it, are THE DENIAL OF ROCK! (I'm having these discussions with the awareness that we're essentially just engaging in mental gymnastics) ;-)

@ Sfascia: thank you very much! :-) @ Fest: "The review is ultra-precise as usual." <<< ahah, see that I keep my promises! :-D

I got it back! Oh how cute... aside from the first three songs, it's all played in a comic register... there's even an alternative version of Humour Me and a completely TRANSFORMED Modern Dance! (it has NOTHING to do with the official version). In some tracks, like Not Happy and Heaven, they are rehearsing for stuff like Ubu Dance Party... basically, for the most part, we find some pretty silly Ubus, but always genius... The first three songs, on the other hand, are serious: Heart of Darkness and 30 seconds are somewhat the link between the VU and the new wave, still very original... Final Solution could already fit on Modern Dance: it's an incredible song because, in terms of composition, it’s pure garage rock (it could have been written by, I don’t know, the Dead Boys), but the arrangement and execution are something unheard of, both for the rhythm (very unique), for the use of the synth, for the tones of the guitars... there's a cold, rough, icy, dirty sound that has never been heard before (it was '75!)... and the drumming in Heart of Darkness is masterful, almost post-rock... ah, and Thomas is already Thomas... A must-have!

You know what I miss? I only have angel dust (which I like) and real thing (which I don't like). Caffeeeeeeeeiiiiine!

oh really?

Incredible! They seem to be from 2006. A fundamental record, maybe a bit naive, but with an overwhelming modernity. The only "dated" elements are the vocals and some vague references to psychedelia. Cute also is Contact, maybe a little desperate, with some country guitar riffs, but still enjoyable. A band to be rediscovered, absolutely!

Easy, I believe that a "Zappian" approach is at the heart of much music from the last four decades, both in rock and in other fields (more in other fields than in rock, to be honest). It’s clear that Zappa, as a genre-transgressor and anti-purist, could not have influenced raw rock as much as Neil Young or the CCR. I think Zappa taught us to dare, to transcend, to break patterns and conventions... The buffoonish-exterior aspect, I repeat, is perhaps the least original element of his figure (the '60s were full of freaks and weirdos; just think of the various Fugs, HMR, Deviants, Bonzo Band, David Peel, Beefheart, and even Barrett, why not?). That’s why I believe that Zappa's influence on modern music is subtle, implicit, deep, radical, and particularly concerns artists who, at first glance, seem to have nothing "Zappian" about them, like the apocalyptic Faust, the grim Residents, the neurotic Foetus, the cerebral Vampire Rodents, etc... Anyway, Easy, it seems we are in agreement overall: we are just expressing the same concept with different words. :-)

Well, Easy, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I believe Zappa has influenced people like the Dead Kennedys, to mention a name that, apparently, wouldn't have a damn thing to do with good old Frank...

mmm, I need to get these as soon as possible... and I'm also missing the No Trend, but those will be hard to find... I've heard that the live shows of TM were something disgusting! :-)))

Exactly Easy: Zappa didn’t do rock (but he influenced it).