Heavy Vanguard: Recent Episodes
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Frank Zappa, sadly, remains one of those artists whose work hasn't gotten the attention it truly deserves. Although he has gotten some acclaim for what he's done, it all has a vague, cultish feel to it, as if the mainstream has never completely been in love with what he did. And maybe that's exactly how Zappa wanted it, being a musical, social, and political iconoclast from his starting days with The Mothers of Invention to his 2001 passing from complications relating to prostate cancer.
The truth of the matter, however, is that Zappa stands out as one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century; he was one of the first artists to bring together the works of the modern classical movement and the more popular music of the time, such as R&B, rock, and jazz. On top of this, he was a guitar virtuoso and a relentless artist whose output remains as one of the most prolific discographies in music.
The album we chose today, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, isn't usually given much attention as opposed to other bright stars in the Zappa catalog—Freak Out!, Hot Rats, Joe's Garage, and Apostrophe (') come to mind—partially because of its status as a post-breakup Mothers of Invention album culled from numerous live performances. However, these forty-three minutes of music go through nearly everything Zappa was musically capable of, and therefore serves as the ideal Zappa album to start. (Not to mention it has one of the greatest album covers of all time.) Weasels has everything from free improvised jazz, electroacoustic experimentations, and straight-up rock tunes, all strung together with Zappa's infamous sardonic wit and general irreverence towards the norms of modern society. While there are arguably more fleshed-out Zappa recordings out there in terms of musical cohesion and thematic concepts, this has a little bit of everything for one to try out.
We’ve covered a lot of ground with Heavy Vanguard, from improvisation to sound art, and nearly ever genre someone has ever played around with, but you might notice there isn’t a whole lot of diversity in terms of nationality. Most of the acts we’ve gone over have been American or European. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course—good art is simply good art, and we shouldn’t put so much emphasis on the person creating the music as opposed to the music itself—but music knows no borders or boundaries, and this counts exponentially so for the avant-garde. There are free jazz scenes all over the world, and radical music being created in every country. This is why we finally decided to cover one of the countries best known for their experimental music, Japan, with one of the country’s best rock bands ever, Boredoms. If the name sounds familiar, it’s probably because of Yamataka Eye, who’s part of the band, and whom I’ve name-dropped quite a few times for his relation to one John Zorn. Boredoms is anything but what its name suggests, however—they’re a band that constantly plays around with what they do. Vision Creation Newsun is their latest album (despite being released in 1999), and is probably described best as a caffeinated, Japanese interpretation of Krautrock, blended with noise rock and shoegaze. Really, I wish that somebody had turned me onto this album years ago, because this is what I always expected/wanted/prayed for Sonic Youth to sound like.
We have some gripes with this album (namely it’s runtime), but overall it’s a great album, and it’s a good gateway to checking out more “out there” Japanese rock.
While the public—and even myself years ago, if I’m going to be honest—can still seem prone to dismissing psychedelia as nothing more than idiot hippies getting high and wasting their lives, the true reality of the situation is that the psychedelic rock movement of the 60s was arguably one of the most important times in the history of modern music. It was the first time that experimental musicians from the classical tradition and “pop” artists were able to cross over and shake metaphorical hands, and the experimentation from that period created music that was (arguably) years ahead of its time. The crazy colors, spirituality, and sociopolitical tension of the 60s overshadowed its music, because, when you really dive down deep into bands like The Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and The Doors, you come back up with musicians that were incredibly forward-thinking and still unique to this day, that upended what we considered “normal” in favor of artistic discovery and individuality. Which brings us to our album this week: The Parable of Arable Land by experimental rock/psych band Red Krayola, made in collaboration with “The Familiar Ugly”—a group of the band’s friends. RK consisted of Texas art school students, and this “outsider” influence (i.e. not trained musicians) shows up in their music in the best way possible. Lo-fi? Check. Tons of tracks that sound like noise (referred to as “Freak-Outs”)? Double check. If you like your music psychedelic, experimental, and given to flights of all-out, Brötzmann-esque free jazz, this is your record. Let’s go!