Product Review
Successive generations of revisionists may argue to the contrary, but rock's best performers often draw upon a rich historical consciousness. That's the driving sensibility of this compilation of favorite Frank Zappa performances from Phish drummer Jon Fishman; the irony, of course, is that the result is a mixed sense of musical nostalgia and inspiration that veteran iconoclast Zappa himself would scarcely have subscribed to. Thus the tracks here arguably say more about Fishman's artistic ethos than they do Zappa's, with the drummer's eclectic tastes ranging from the manic prog-noodling of "Extcenrifugal Forz" and "Apostrophe" to the overt theatricality of "Magdalena," the evocative Nixonian cabaret, "Son of Orange County," and Zappa's loopy tribute to low-budget horror films, "Cheepnis"; if Zappa waxed nostalgic about anything, it was no-brow pop culture of bad '50s monster films--and maybe do-wop. Given his own band's road mania, it's not surprising to find Fishman leaning heavily on live Zappa recordings (and Just Another Band from L.A. and Roxy and Elsewhere in particular), with a trio of Sheik Yerbouti (featuring Terry Bozzio on the drum throne) constructions getting special attention. If it's not definitive Zappa, it is an intriguing way to approach his daunting, musically expansive catalog. --Jerry McCulley

I bought this because I wanted to know more about Zappa, but there were *lots* of ways to do that and, I confess, I chose to do it by taking a strange drummer's choices. Many of the selections were different from the Zappa to which I had previously been exposed - and different enough that I probably *have* learned something about Zappa, without really realizing it. But I've also learned a bit about Fishman: Not only the song selections, but even the order of the tracks, are less phat and more faht. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)