An Uncle Roddus Album Review
As I was working in my office the other day with my Ipod sitting on my desk still playing with the headphones attached, I happened to hear the most excellent "Directly From My Heart To You" seeping out of the phones. I decided that, as I had the time, I would dig out the offending album from which it came and give it a listen, as I hadn't heard it in quite a while.
In light of some of the Sun Ra and John Zorn I have been getting into lately, " Didja Get Any Onya", The opening track from this first period Mothers of Invention album fits quite well, with its free sounding Jazz madness and Avant-Garde leaning and other all round weirdness. A prime slab of Zappa weirdness. It then segues into something completely different with the aforementioned "Direct...", a Jean Luc Ponty violin led slow blues number which along with the brilliant psych rocker"My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama" are the two most normal sounding tracks from this disc.
Culled from both live and studio material recorded between 1967-1969, "Weasels..." is one of The Mothers albums that never really got a lot on my attention(apart from the two brilliant "Normal" songs mentioned above)due to the difficult experimental material that comprises most of this LP.
Listening now, later in life, with much more listening experience under my belt, I am able to appreciate this kind of music more(although I have always enjoyed much of Zappa's weirdness) and i must say that the opening track is a most enjoyable and classic peice of Zappa weirdness. After the interlude of "Direct...", track three resumes the Avant-free jazz style, sounding almost industrial in its manufacture and hits some of those brilliant 60s Zappa rhythms before getting even more bizarre with the vocal antics, but starts to loose the plot with the infamous piggy noises towards the end.
'Toads of the Short Forest" is a more conventional sounding instrumental with discernible melody and reminds me a bit of some of the stuff Zappa will do much later with his Sinclaver, before degenerating in to more Jazzy wackiness with impressive free sounding Sax. Another Zappa, Varese, Coleman hybred.
"Get A Little" is a pleasant shot number with Zappa presenting some nice guitar noodling over a good backing track. The "E.B.M.B" is a slower Jazz/Rock fusion type of instrumental with Vibes played in the beginning before descending into more avant territory and then oscillating between the two styles a bit . Pure Zappa and incomparable.
The next track is similar in style to the above mentioned "Toads..." for about 45 seconds before lapsing into some aimless sounding weirdness and then segueing into the aforementioned wonderful "my guitar...".
"Oh No!" is a sort of Zappa ballad with a kind of Doo-wop cum operatic vocal, an interesting little dittie.
"O.C.L.T" is one of those great Zappa guitar instrumentals with Frank letting rip on the strings for some nice pyrotechnics, a minor Zappa classic and we end this set with the title track consisting of a minute and a half of wall of noise that would make Throbbing Gristle proud, recorded at the end of a concert, before Frank bids us all goodnight.
Not the best Mothers record from this period, but still a classic of of 60's freak rock and chock full of signature Zappa. My Rating 4/5
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