There are two meaningful
Frank Zappa cover bands
operating In the UK, each of
them excellent in their
differing ways. But, as you
might expect, The Muffin Men
and Zappatistas have their
equivalent outfits over in
the States, and surely the
best of these must be
Project/Object, formed in
New Jersey, back at the
beginning of the 1990s.
Whereas Liverpool's Muffin
Men have toured regularly
with original Mothers Of
Invention drummer Jimmy Carl
Black (the Zappatistas keep
themselves to themselves),
Project/Object have
magnified this tendency
through collaborations with
around a dozen Zappa alumni.
Their latest spate of dates
find them accompanied by
singer, saxophonist and
flautist Napoleon Murphy
Brock, whose key period with
Zappa was in the middle
1970s.
Brock has been appearing on
the Zappa Plays Zappa tour,
fronted by Frank's offspring
Dweezil. Project/Object's
core five-piece line-up is
customarily augmented by
other guest players, as was
the case for this
barnstormer showing at The
Lion's Den in Greenwich
Village. Andre Cholmondeley
plays the FZ role, but isn't
tempted into direct
reproduction on either the
guitaring or vocal fronts.
Conversely, the rest of the
band have no trouble
negotiating the complex
high-speed chases of Zappa's
pieces, turning in a
wondrous glut of authentic
mimicry, playing as if the
music is freshly inked, so
vital is their delivery.
I can't believe the scene as
I walk into The Lion's Den.
It's the archetypal rock
joint, and the band have
only been onstage for
fifteen minutes, but the
crowd is already deep in
their grip, a motley bunch
in terms of ages, sexes and
clans, getting off on the
convoluted headbang
serialism like it's pop
music, which ultimately it
is, and Zappa kinda
perversely hoped it would
end up so. Folks are dancing
to the avant garde, and if
you've just arrived from a
John Cage gig around the
corner in Washington Square,
this is going to be one of
your weirdest evenings ever.
I can't believe this fucking
band! Clever contortions,
but brutally performed,
noodly twists, but heeled in
the testes, authentic Zappa
reproducing, but including
fresh improvisation, and the
man's solos, delivered on a
fucking electric mandolin,
fer chrissakes! Well, on a
few numbers, anyway.
Cholmodeley takes most of
the FZ solos on conventional
guitar. Moog maniac Eric
Svalgard stares into the
face of oblivion, and
drummer Eric Slick is the
absolute foundation here, a
powerhouse of accelerated
intricacy. And Napoleon
Murphy Brock? He's not
around for every number,
rationing his appearances
out, but when he's there
he's singing his high soul
croon, or blowing fruitily
R'n'B horn, or cool flute
jazz-waft.
The Sheik Yerbouti
album is clearly a favourite,
with tasty versions of
Broken Hearts Are For
Assholes, Jones
Crusher and (best of
all) City Of Tiny Lites.
Unlike the UK combos,
Project/Object are more
concerned with Zappa's
later, more commercial
period. There's not much in
the way of early Mothers
material here, or even the
extended jazzier
instrumentals that the
Zappatistas enjoy so much.
So, there's a neat reading
of Tinseltown Rebellion,
for instance. But, then it's
back to the '70s, for
I'm The Slime and
Brock's finest moment,
Inca Roads. The band
play two sets, and the crowd
throw themselves deeper and
deeper into the music.
There's a perfect
co-existence of sheer
absurdist fun and extreme
acrobatic improvisation, and
rarely do the four spheres
of these, the band and the
audience coincide so
completely into a beautiful
grave-robbing frenzy that's
at once nostalgic and
supremely of-the-moment.
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