Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band Trout Mask Replica 2lp

2lp
2007/1969
new
Ground zero for weirdness & avant art music in general. Blustery & squawking combination of twisted up shanty blues, virtuoso free jazz, surreal jokes. Van Vliet was a charming tyrant who knocked out the songs on a piano over the course of a few weeks, & then got Zoot, Rockette, Drumbo, and Antennae Jimmy to re-arrange & practice them for 14 hours a day over 8 months while not eating enough. Recording took place live in their compound, but with the Cap'n sequestered in another room so that he could only partly hear the band. Every member of the band (Vliet included) is sickly talented on their chosen instruments, & the result is a real fractured whirlyride that's both way out & down home. Tracklisting: Frownland, The Dust Blows Forward 'n the Dust Blows Back, Dachau Blues, Ella Guru, Hair Pie: Bake 1, Moonlight on Vermont, Pachuco Cadaver, Bills Corpse, Sweet Sweet Bulbs, Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish, China Pig, My Human Gets Me Blues, Dali's Car, Hair Pie: Bake 2, Pena, Well, When Big Joan Sets Up, Fallin' Ditch, Sugar 'n Spikes, Ant Man Bee, Orange Claw Hammer, Wild Life, She's Too Much for My Mirror, Hobo Chang Ba, The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica), Steal Softly thru Snow, Old Fart at Play, Veteran's Day Poppy.