Live Music

Gail Zappa: Only in it for the money?

Posted Mon 11/24/2008 @ 4:45 PM
It will be 15 years this December since we lost one of the most
prolific song writers the world of popular (and unpopular) music has
ever known: Frank Zappa. One of the bands continuing his live music legacy
is Project/Object, which has several members of Frank's live
band, The Mothers.
Frank's wife, Gail Zappa, in what she claims is an effort to protect his
legacy, only allows sanctioned CD releases and live performances.
Anything she doesn't personally approve, is threatened in the media and/or sued. This time, she apparently threatened a lawsuit against a live music venue for allowing Project/Object to perform a show. [photo credit: ink19.com]
Last Friday's Project/Object show in Boston was the most recent
evidence of the decade-and-a-half pissing match between the Zappa
Family Trust and Project/Object.
Maybe I'm biased and think she's a bitch with a capital C. While the Zappa Family Trust absolutely deserves whatever royalities they are due under United States copyright law, her tact certainly seems heavy handed, and doesn't jive with Frank's own attitude towards the industry, and his own musical legacy.
Music is best.
Andre Cholmondeley's post to myspace.com after the break.

Photos: Porter, Batiste, Stoltz feat. Page McConnell

Posted Tue 10/07/2008 @ 5:22 PM

I just posted some snaps from the Porter, Batiste, Stoltz featuring Page McConnell show at Revolution Hall from 9/24/2008.  A very funky time had by all!

A very apt show to get my feets wet with shooting live music again.

Two For The 2008 Jamtopia Concert Photo Contest

Posted Sun 09/21/2008 @ 6:34 PM

Not long after shooting the Echo Project for State of Mind last fall, I fell out of the habit of snapping photos of live music for reasons both personal and professional. Here are two snaps, one from each show I shot earlier this year. They were submitted to the 2008 Jamtopia Concert Photo Contest on a whim. The judges are good people, and the terms of the contest seem fair, so why not.

FLAC Installer for Windows

FLAC LogoFLAC stands for the Free Lossless Audio Codec. Created in 2001 by a dedicated group of developers led by Josh Coalson, FLAC has surpassed Shorten (SHN) as the most popular lossless audio codec in use today. The FLAC project is now under the direction of Xiph.org.

Many people contributed countless hours to create FLAC; I just (used to) maintain an installer to help keep things easy for Windows users. If you're a MacOS user, Scott Brown has created an handy audio tool for OS X called xACT.

Oshe's Final Show?

Posted Tue 02/14/2006 @ 11:54 PM

Billy over at Albanystage.com is floating the rumor of a very surprising disbanding of local favs, Oshe. Their tourdates page lists a show this Friday in Maine as the last scheduled, with the remainder of February's dates shown as canceled.