You did it: You helped save the Vault! Thanks to you, the most at-risk materials in Frank Zappa's private archives are being preserved, and we're making the definitive doc about his life.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
The Return of POWDERED TOAST MAN: Art from John K. and Cal Schenkel!
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 11:20:20 PM
Hey Freaks!
As you may have already noticed, artwork has been rolling in from a few of my favorite artists in the Zappa world — FZ fans and collaborators alike! A couple weeks ago, we saw a sneak peek at what the Amazing Mr. Bickford has whipped up for us.
Now, I want to share two more excellent prints with you guys... just in case you haven’t already seen them in your Reward Order Form. I am so excited these exist now — can't wait to hear what you think!
Pope Frank
First, John K., who brought us the great American classic Ren & Stimpy, put together this Zappa masterpiece exclusively for the Kickstarter campaign — a nod to that perfect moment when FZ was the voice of the Pope in the beloved "Powdered Toast Man" episode of R&S.
Exclusive art from Ren & Stimpy creator John K.
I'm excited to say that we’re making a limited number of prints (on really nice paper, and, if you want, signed by John K.), and, every print ordered means more funding to preserve the contents of the Vault and tell Frank's story.
If you want one but you haven't grabbed it yet, find these in “Add-Ons” section of your Reward Order Form (Yes, that’s still possible even if you’ve already submitted it — just head back to your survey and scroll down to “Edit Add-Ons” on your confirmation page).
You also might have seen...
A new Zappa illustration from Cal Schenkel!
We know Cal from, among other art, the many stand-out Zappa album covers he designed. He wanted to contribute to the effort to help save the Vault, so, here’s his latest FZ-inspired opus, a new portrait of Frank just for us:
Exclusive art from Zappa album cover designer Cal Schenkel
Cal happens to love hearing from Zappa fans, so be sure to drop him a line or check out more of what he’s up to lately at his website, ralf.com.
There's more info on both of these prints (plus a few others) in the Add-Ons section of your Reward Order Form. If you haven’t tackled it yet, here's everything you need to know!
Don't forget: Get it back to us by the November 7 deadline so as not to delay your rewards!
And if you’ve emailed us with a question recently, keep an eye out for a response this week!
That's all for now, Freaks — Keep those great ideas and questions coming.
Rock on,
Alex Winter
IS THAT ALL THERE IS? The first new stills from the Vault!
almost 8 years ago
– Sat, Jul 30, 2016 at 09:35:16 PM
Well, Freaks:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Preservation is kind of a slow, expensive, and largely uneventful process. That said, it is pretty gratifying to see this amazing stuff on the monitors in the archiving suite when it’s finally screenable, and know that we’re part of preserving Frank’s legacy for the benefit of all.
I’m excited to be able to use this material in our documentary, but honestly, I’m even more excited when I remember that without us, it might not have existed for much longer, and now it’ll be safely archived for the future.
You know what else will be gratifying? Reading your comments, if you freak out half as hard as I did when you see the brand new screenshots I’m about to share – the very first images we're able to share from the material our Kickstarter is preserving.
From the Vault: FZ with Captain Beefheart... and Hendrix!!
You may recognize those gentlemen in the hats as Don van Vliet – aka Captain Beefheart – and his Magic Band cohorts Mark Boston and Bill Harkleroad.
Joe Travers tells me that the 16mm footage these are taken from was shot at the Zappa house and at LAX airport in 1969. I’m finding a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes Beefheart footage, and as a lifelong fan, it’s kinda like heaven. Excited for you guys to see more stuff like this, both in the doc and as part of the "Digital Vault Pass" reward once we're able to share some clips for you to download.
I also want to share a few of screenshots from the soundcheck at Royal Albert Hall in London in 1967:
I’m not sure who those gentlemen in the third to last frame here are (holler if you know), but you can see FZ laughing it up, his band setting up for the gig.
Last but not least, there’s a brief but very jovial exchange between Frank and the guy on the right in the bottom frame — Jimi Hendrix. Gold!
Financing the Doc: Progress Update
I also want to give you guys an update about something else I've been working on: Like I said during the campaign, we knew all along that if we didn't raise the full $3MM we needed, we'd need to get the rest of the budget from film financiers.
And, since we promised to use basically all of the funds we raised to preserve material from the Vault – the work that was most urgent – I've now started working on securing the rest of the funding we need to produce the full documentary. My producing partner, Glen Zipper, and I have been taking early meetings, and I'm excited to say that some of those conversations are already yielding fruit! If you’re interested to hear more about that, it won’t be too long before I can share news about some cool partnerships and other plans for the film itself!
That’s all the news that’s fit to print for now, Freaks.
Stay tuned as we prep more stills to share, and in the meantime, can’t wait to hear what you think of these!
Onward,
Alex Winter
STINK FOOT: July preservation update, Apostrophe(’) audio documentary!
almost 8 years ago
– Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 03:38:22 PM
Hey Freaks!!
Here in the Vault, and in the archiving suites, we press on in the heat of an LA summer. Batch Two is moving through the preservation pipeline, and Batch One is almost done in the archival pipeline. That means all I have left to do is screen this stuff, and then I can share some glimpses with you guys — So stay tuned!
Also, despite the age and condition of some of this film and video material we’ve been working with, I am happy to report that so far we have had a 100% success rate transferring the contents! Even in the case of some 'pinching' on the video, our master preservationists were able to remedy that video and perfectly archive the media. Kudos to them and to you guys for making this happen — I’m really proud to say that this is historic material that will now live on!!
Cassette Rescue Mission
So, yes, preservation can be extremely tricky. But when you have access to experts, expert equipment, and the funding to pay for it (no small thing!), you can do things right. In fact, thanks to these resources, we were able to operate a little rescue mission this month on something that never even made it into the Vault, it was so fragile:
I got a tape in the mail from an LA DJ named Rich Capparela (DJ KUSC), who had interviewed Zappa at his home for NPR on New Year’s Eve 1980. Here's what he said:
"It was for a wind band series or something and I was to ask Zappa about Varese and his approach to composing specifically for wind instruments. As a major Zappa fan, it was a highlight of my career. At the end of the interview (during which Zappa became more and more exasperated with my fallow interview prowess) I was bold enough to ask for a photo. Gail took my Argus C3 and complied. It is one of my most treasured mementos. Not sure which is me and which is Frank…"
Years later, Gail contacted Capparela about getting a copy of the interview for the archives. She warned him not to play the tape — as it was so old, there was a possibility it might just break, and that would be that. She’d said she would run it on a cassette machine once, and hope it held up enough to be copied.
He couldn't take the idea of it being destroyed without ever even being heard again, so he hung onto it hoping he would find a way to safely preserve it himself. When he heard about what we were doing he mailed it over, and we included it with our first batch of media to be professionally archived.
We’ll be able to get him a digital archive back and include a digital transfer of this interview (which hasn't been heard since it aired in 1980) safely with the original Vault contents! I'm pretty psyched about this — Everybody wins!
New Zappa Albums Out Today
I can’t emphasize enough, these processes are laborious, and it takes time for all this stuff to be watchable / listenable... but while we do, there's good news! There’s something that was rescued from the Vault we can celebrate right now!
Two “new” albums of previously unreleased FZ recordings mined from the Vault over the past fifteen years are out (and streaming) today.
As we’re collectively some of the biggest Zappa fans alive, this seems like a good place to nerd out about these.
I asked Joe T. about them and here’s what I know:
For the Synclavier buffs among us, the new album Frank Zappa for President is great news. The thought of Frank running for president also continues to make me happy (in a pained, longing kind of way).
As for the other title, you guys might recognize that lyric from "Stink-Foot" on Apostrophe(’). Joe had been working on this for years (in collaboration with Gail) leading up to Apostrophe(‘)’s 40th anniversary (2014), but it’s only just coming into the world today. I haven’t heard it yet but it’s full of rare Apostrophe(’) alternate mixes, live performances, and studio outtakes which explains its full title, The Crux Of The Biscuit: The Apostrophe(') Project/Object Audio Documentary.
Best news yet? We can dive in right now, thanks Spotify:
.
. Now, just to be clear, none of these new albums — along with Lumpy Money and Road Tapes, which came out last month, and anything forthcoming from Universal and the ZFT — are the result of any of our work in the Vault.
While I will be rounding up as much rare, unreleased, FZ audio as I can to share as part of the Vault Pass, our efforts are still very focused on odd, historic media artifacts that help tell the story of Frank’s life — like the home movies with Captain Beefheart and backstage video footage we’re working on right now (!!!) — as opposed to commercially viable audio that could stand alone as a new music release.
But happily, Joe T. and the ZFT were already chipping away at archiving Vault contents for 15 years before we ever showed up, excavating and rescuing these previously forgotten and unknown tracks, and we get to enjoy the fruits of those labors too!
On that note, Joe also brought to my attention (some of you may have already seen this) that next month Hot Rats is being re-issued on 180gram vinyl. It was remastered by Bernie Grundman (the guy who mastered Tapestry, Thriller and Purple Rain, among other things) a couple years ago so I’m guessing this will sound pretty fucking good.
As if we didn’t have enough to look forward to!
Got something FZ or Zappa Movie related you want to talk about? Send me a message — it’s been great hearing from you guys with thoughtful questions and Zappa experiences. And have a rockin’ weekend, freaks!
More soon!!
Alex Winter
EAT THAT QUESTION: Something to tide us over
almost 8 years ago
– Fri, Jul 08, 2016 at 02:33:53 PM
In his honor, let's spend a few minutes rocking out. I'm not sure what FZ's favorite Stravinsky piece was, but here's one Frank played when he DJ'ed the BBC's Radio 1 show, 'Star Special,' in 1980:
. Best enjoyed back-to-back with Frank's namesake homage: of course, "In-A-Gadda-Stravinsky." Happy birthday, Igor!!
A Dispatch from The Vault
In other news, the archival companies are working away on batch #2 of film and video from The Vault. Meanwhile, batch #1 is being preserved on LTO archival tape and back-ups. Not much to share on that at the moment as nothing’s been logged, catalogued, or even transcoded to be watchable yet, but I can’t wait to see that stuff and tell you more about it.
Yeah, it can be a slow, laborious process... but if that’s what we’ve got to do to make sure it gets preserved as safely as possible, it'll be worth the wait!!!
In the meantime...
And while you're waiting, GOOD NEWS: There’s a way to get your Frank fix right now! If you’re in the U.S., you can go out and support the brilliant new documentary Eat That Question, from director Thorsten Schotte.
Gail was super invested in this movie. She was excited to show it to me last year — and frankly, it’s phenomenal. She wasn't ready to give Schotte's team access to the Vault, but she did give them her full blessing… and like us, they are super concerned with this footage from Frank’s interviews, rehearsals, and impromptu everyday moments.
If you get a chance to watch it, you’ll understand why: It’s a very cool approach to exploring how complex Frank was and how much happened in his life, musical and otherwise. And it's a great example of why all this non-music footage — not the concert films or the recordings, but the real life stuff that we’re so concerned with preserving — is so valuable in telling Frank’s whole story.
It opens in the U.S. next Friday, June 24. Check out the killer trailer:
. Interested to hear what you guys think!
And that’s it for now, freaks. More news in a couple weeks!
More soon!
Alex Winter
Freak Out! It’s June 27, 2016, and that means...
almost 8 years ago
– Fri, Jul 08, 2016 at 12:45:33 AM
Freak Out, Freaks!
You’re probably wondering why I’m here, in your inbox, today of all days… As some of you may have noticed, today’s a milestone in the history of FZ:
That's right:
Today is the fifty-year anniversary of FREAK OUT!
On June 27, 1966, the Mothers of Invention brought us their debut record, the first rock and roll double concept album – Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde came out about a month before but that sure as heck ain’t a rock concept album – and created massive waves in the water of popular culture when Zappa dropped “Wowie Zowie” and “Who Are The Brain Police” on an unsuspecting planet.
I love this album so much. Maybe it's because the record cover, with its mash-up of psychedelic and comic book tropes, is one of my earliest memories. Maybe it's because this was Zappa ushering in the Freak movement that is so near and dear to my heart, and the only movement I proudly call myself a member of. Or, maybe it's because it’s such a sardonic, groundbreaking, entertaining, truly subversive work of sonic genius.
No one, including the labels, knew what to make of it when it came out. But when the dust settled, one thing was clear; The Mothers of Invention had fucking arrived.
Wherever you are this momentous Monday, hopefully you can take a few minutes to enjoy it for yourself:
Here’s one review of Freak Out! — referenced by FZ in his book — that I particularly appreciate:
"Mothers and Dads, you thought the Beatles were bad. You got up in arms about the Rolling Stones. Sonny & Cher made you cringe. Well, as the man said, you ain't seen nothing yet. The Mothers of Invention are here with an album called 'Freak Out!' (someone suggested it should have been called 'Flake Out!') They come from Hollywood. Their clothes are dreadful -- and I dig mod clothes. Their hair and beards are filthy. They smell bad. You just can't believe it -- So, Mothers and Dads, next time the Beatles, the Stones, or Sonny & Cher come to town, welcome them with open arms. Next to the Mothers Of Invention the other groups come on like the Bobbsey Twins."
— Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, July 15, 1966
Would love to hear your Freak Out! memories, and how it made a dent for you guys.
Oh, and don’t forget to go see Eat That Question: Frank Zappa In His Own Words in theaters while you can. It came out this past Friday here in the U.S. and audiences are, well, totally freaking out — rightfully so!
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
