Of Zappa and Sparks and David M., with a special detail on Ron Mael's moustache

...So on March 12th, David M. (of NO FUN, the Beatles of Surrey) is heading back to his Surrey stompin' grounds for a gig at the Central City Taphouse, the newest live music venture of Mr. David Bowes! This will happen three days before the Sparks show in Vancouver (see David cover Sparks' "The Decline and Fall of Me," here, at what I believe was his last gig - a belated celebration of his 65th birthday last summer in New West). For the occasion, I have asked him to perform "Oh, To Be on Heroin," off Snivel tape 1, because a) it is a NO FUN song I have never heard played live and because b) it is a song in which he mentions "Don and Dewey," wherein the Don is Don "Sugarcane" Harris, whom he met and shared a bill with - this bringing him, of my friends, as close as anyone has gotten to Frank Zappa (unless you count Rob Frith knowing Jeff Simmons). Y'see, Sugarcane Harris was fiddler for Zappa for awhile, not appearing on many albums by him, but staking out some distinctive turf, playing fiddle on the Hot Rats album and even doing lead vocals on a song on Weasels Ripped My Flesh. He was apparently a bit of a pioneer in the realm of using electric amplification on the fiddle. It would only be much later in my music fandom that I learned of any of that, mind you. For me, my first taste of Sugarcane was in the sorely under-appreciated California band Tupelo Chain Sex, for whom NO FUN opened at the Luv-a-Fair, during which set the members of Tupelo Chain Sex came up front to watch NO FUN do their thing, which included the aforesaid "Oh To Be on Heroin." This gets slightly strange: as I understand it, M.'s lyrics, in this verse, are merely referencing the singer's celebrity fantasies - also involving the Everly Brothers - which in no way implicates said celebrities in heroin use --  and very clearly M. was riffing on anything that rhymes with "kablooey," hence, "Phil and Don and Don and Dewey." But Don Harris did apparently actually have a history with dope, so when David pointed out the namecheck to him ("I mention you in one of my songs") this may have had weird resonances for Harris. Was Harris bemused, confused, mortified, horrified or just plain weirded-out? We'll never know - Sugarcane left us in 1999 - but David says he will gratify my request and perform "Oh, To Be on Heroin" at the show on the 12th. (We would also love to hear him do "Snog," "Not In Your Town," "Paisley Brain Bolts of the Mind," "Ambivalence," and other NO FUN classics, some of which can be heard on NO FUN's official bandcamp page... the rest of them being on the link to Snivel tape 1, above, or maybe 1894, also on that not actually legit but tolerated site).

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This is not, however, the only gig we're excited about in March - not even the only Zappa-related once. On that very night, March 12th, Zappostrophe' - will perform at the Fox Cabaret, doing covers of classic Zappa. There will be more on that gig here tomorrow; I've interviewed Blair of that band. 

And of course, three days after that gig, Sparks -- Ron and Russell Mael, who grew up roughly in Frank Zappa's old stompin' grounds (and Brian Wilson's!) -- will be in town for a gig at the Vogue. And to spiral back to him, David M. and I interviewed Ron and Russell Mael for the newest issue of Big Takeover (also featuring Part Two of my piece with Butthole Surfers' guitarist Paul Leary and the second half of a big piece on Dinosaur Jr. that features a question contributed by BC actor Tom Scholte - though I am not sure if that's in Pt. 1 or 2). 

This interview, pleasingly, was done on a Zoom call, so I actually have video of it, though for the magazine, the Mael brothers, via their management, expressed a preference for publicity shots and not screengrabs from the actual interview. They said nothing about me using screengrabs of David and myself, however, so this is how the Maels saw us - with David in a Social Distortion shirt and me in my Famous Monsters' Night of the Demon tee (the Tourneur, not the bigfoot). 

Now, much of the conversation was spent on Annette, actually, with some fun revelations, like how the film was sort of inspired, at least in its use of singing, by The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. But M. - a much deeper and more knowledgeable fan of Sparks than I, a relative noob, am -  brought things to the interview of which I knew nothing. For instance, the extent of my knowledge of Stravinsky was that Ron's new moustache looks a bit LIKE Stravinsky's (we talked a bit about how he came to lose his infamous Hitler 'stache, so it was a productive line of exploration). All of this is apropos of "Stravinsky's Only Hit," one of the more attention-getting tunes off A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip, Sparks' rich and wonderful album of a couple of years ago. 

Igor Stravinsky

Ron Mael

But why stop at Stravinsky? M. had questions and observations about Schoenberg, too, and 12 tone music, and about how Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Zappa and Brian Wilson were all based, for a time, in the same part of California that Sparks came out of. Russell has a story of the closest the band came to Zappa - a connection to Girls Together Outrageously - the GTO's - which was also discussed in the Sparks documentary, while Ron talks about his closest encounter with Brian Wilson, and Schoenberg and Stravinsky sort of hover in the background, elevating the tone of the piece (thanks, M.!). It makes for a fun interview - longer than the Maels were anticipating, and yet still not touching EVERY base I hoped to - but it's worth seeking out the magazine prior to Sparks' concert. Here is a little taste - an excerpt, a sneak preview, a REWARD FOR HAVING READ THIS FAR. I observed, as I say, to Ron that he was starting to look a bit Stravinskylike these days, to which he responded, 

Ron: I’ll take that as a compliment, yeah – kind of that “eagle” look. Yeah, maybe you kind of morph into who your idols are, at a certain point. He was also another guy that moved to LA and lived close to Schoenberg, but they never met, which is kind of weird. But in any case, I take that as a compliment.

Allan: Did you change your moustache deliberately to look more like Stravinsky’s moustache?

Ron: No, I – y’know, I changed the moustache from the ‘70’s kinda look when a French TV host didn’t want us on, because he thought I had too much appearance to a certain German person of history, so I thought, “Well, this is kind of ridiculous, if we’re not getting opportunities just because of a moustache," so I altered it then, but it wasn’t in particular Stravinsky, nah…

Allan: I mean, who among us has had Shelley Winters and Pete Townshend talk about their facial hair on television? Not I.

Ron: Yeah, that was quite an honour! Boy, you can’t get two more disparate kinda people in the same room talking about your moustache. 

(For more than that, you'll have to read the whole interview! Neptoon and Zulu both sometimes stock Big Takeover, for those of us here in Vancouver). 

There are many more gigs I am excited to share deets about, and I hope to have something here with Brock Pytel of the mighty SLIP~ons soon - performing three times this month, once on a bill at the Rickshaw with ATD, Bison, and the Dreadnoughts, once apparently at the Railway, and once with La Chinga and Rebel Priest at a Chris Walter booklaunch at LanaLou's. There is also, of course, the EXTC gig coming up at the Rickshaw, which I blogged about a few months back - see here and here. There also seems to be a new gig at the former SBC Cabaret, now being called "Buddha's," with the AK-747s, - celebrating the release of their very ambitious new album, I Love What You've Done with the Place, as well as (killer live band) BRASS and Nigel Young - this guy, maybe? - performing. 

It is truly great to have live music back, and to be able to dance and mingle and all those other things we haven't been able to do for a couple of years. Better take advantage of it before the next variant crashes down on us! (What's that line in "I, Predict" about cancelling Saturday night?). So get out and see a show - there are lots to see... and more blogging on them to come...!

PS - looks like there still might actually be tickets for the Vancouver date... not listed as "sold out!"