The simple answer is that nobody really has. Zappa definitely inhabited his own universe, and he was the sun.
The only comparison I’d draw (if I were feeling audacious) is to compare John Zorn and his NYC/Tzadik crew to Zappa, but they’re really an entirely different thing. Still, they’re similar in that they tackle a bazillion genres with a sense of healthy absurdity and humor, insane technical prowess, and a rotating cast around one central genius.
Re: ernie kovacs, you’re really going to have to go after something like the aforementioned Crumb, or another novelty record. There was actually a KILLER comp that came out a few years back of stuff like this, and it’s driving me nuts that I can’t remember the name. I kept meaning to buy it, and then it went out of print very quickly. If I remember the title, I’ll let you know. Other than that…maybe Tiny Tim or some other cultish figure. The problem with novelty/comedy records like this is that there aren’t really artists that specialize in them as much as compliations of forgotten 45’s, etc. of that sort of thing. Check out places that specialize in weird/novelty recordsings like these guys. Oh, you might also like the American Song-Poem Anthology, which is actually really great - check it out here
As for your second, that’s such a specific thing that I can’t really suggest an alternative.
I’ve been looking for something similiar to Neil Halstead’s “Sleeping on Roads.” I don’t really care for slowdive or mojave 3, but maybe you know of something on the more country side of Nick Drake.
Also, I liked the newest albums by The Chesterfield Kings, The Singles, and The Maharajas, maybe you can recommend me something similiar…always looking for something new.
Giant Sand (try “chore of enchantment”), Sparklehorse (try “good morning spider” or “it’s a wonderful life”), Richard Buckner (pick one, any one), Devendra Banhart (pick one), and Harry Nilsson (“nilsson schmilsson” to begin with).
If you’re looking for something like Zappa’s LSO albums, then you might give Edgar Varese a try . Varese was a big influence on Zappa, and while the music is quite different at times, the aesthetic is similar.
Honestly, no, mostly becuase they were recorded like crap, even by the standards of the time. I find that listening to Patsy on record instead of CD (i have a great double set from the early 70’s) seems to help. The Patsy CD’s simply sound bad.
I have to admit, i liked “sleeping on roads” more than almost any M3 record! I think what you’re looking for is Jackson C. Frank. Have you heard him? He was a pseudo contemporary of Nick Drake, but (ta-da!) with a more countryish, americana bent. You have to check out his record “blues run the game” - Drake even covered the title track! It’s an incredible record of super-dark folk. Vincent Gallo even elected to use “Milk and Honey” (from the record) in his upcoming film, “The Brown Bunny.”
Good tip! Varese is surprisingly listenable. It’s always good to go through an artist’s influences.
Sorry, I forgot to get to this one. Since these are garagey bands, I’m assuming you’ve already heard “Nuggets” and the countless garage compilations out there. You also can’t go wrong with the first, self-titled Modern Lovers record from '76. Also, it seems like “nuggets 2” flies under the radar a lot - it’s the one that plumbs japanese and european psych and garage from the same era as the original “Nuggets.” It’s a good one if you haven’t checked it out.
Very good: that’s exactly what I was thinking, but I held off because I wanted to see if you’d say the same thing. (It is your thread.) Zorn sounds nothing at all like Zappa, of course, but both men are wildly eclectic, experimental, adventurous, incredibly prolific…and have last names starting with Z. The only thing is that a lot of Zorn’s stuff makes me feel dirty after listening to it.
How about the Hoosier Hot Shots?
Thanks for the suggestions. I do love Sleater Kinney, but I didn’t mention them because I feel like they belong in a category all by themselves. (Plus I grew up in Olympia, so I drove on Sleater-Kinney regularly. Heh.) I also know The Donnas, but I’ve not been so impressed with their stuff; they seem to record the same three songs over and over and over. And the Go-Gos mention is interesting, because Sahara Hotnights strikes me in many ways as what the Go-Gos would be if they had formed today instead of back when they did.
I’ll check out the other groups right away. The descrips on X-Ray Spex and Pylon in particular sound extremely promising. Thanks again.
Any thoughts on the world-pop question re Sevara Nazarkhan?
This is completely wrong. Cline recorded at Decca Studios and with Owen Bradley in his famous film and music studio. Her early recordings came out of the abovementioned studios but were released on Bill McCall’s 4 Star label–not Decca. Because the masters were independently owned well into the '90s (and probably still are), they have been reissued by every fly-by-night budget label on the face of the earth. They sound like crap because these budget and import CDs either use nth generation masters or are unlicensed bootlegs. The 4 Star cuts on the Country Music Foundation’s Pasty Cline box set sound very clean.
Not to mention Spike Jones.
You may want to look backward to one of Zappa’s biggest influences, Raymond Scott. The man defines “ahead of his time,” combining classical and jazz in the 1930s and '40s into bizarre, complex music best suited for wild cartoon soundtracks. And of course, it was. You’ve already heard quite a bit of Raymond Scott if you’ve ever seen any old Warner Brothers cartoons scored by Carl Stalling. He also experimented with “space-age” electronic music long before Esquivel, and invented several instruments of his own (along with his friend and contemporary, Mr. Theremin!)
Check out http://www.raymondscott.com for further information, or search for Scott on Amazon.com, where you can read reviews and hear many more sound clips. They have a surprisingly good selection of his albums on there!
Interesting! I’m glad to hear it.
OK, what you want is the music of Márta Sebestyén or her band Muzsikas. You may already know her work from “The English Patient.” She’s absolutely amazing, and is a trailblazer on the Hungarian/Transylvanian/South Slav music revival.
If you like ethnic Eastern European music, but want something a little more peppy, you can always try Serb brass music. Good places to start are Boban Markovic, Goran Bregovic, and the soundtracks from the movies “Underground” and “Black Cat, White Cat” (which also feature these two bands.) Markovic is fairly straightforward Serbian wedding band music, while Bregovic is a bit more untraditional in his approach. But Bregovic is far more musically interesting, in my opinion.
While you’re at it, there’s also the album “Kayah & Bregovic,” which features a Polish chanteuse along with Goran’s music. It’s certainly not folk for purists, with all the electronic instrumentation along with the more traditional set-up, but it works really well.
If you decide you do like the mix of folk and electronic, then you might also like Anima Sound System, of Hungary. Their early stuff (like their debut “Hungarian Astronaut”) is a mixture of Eastern European folk melodies over a fairly minimalist dub, reggae, or jungle beats. It’s quite good. Their more recent work has less obvious ethnic influences, but they’re still there.
Back to traditional. Another popular folk band in Hungary is Ando Drom. They’re very well respected and fun to see live. Their music is gypsy folk culled from a wide variety of sources all across Eastern and Souther Europe. If you like Csokolom, I think you would like these guys.
Know any instrumental metal bands? Not Vai ect. Like Iron Maiden or Metallica without vocals.
Know anything in the vein of and as good as Ozric Tentacles?
Know any electronic music with lots of repeated arpeggios and cross (offset/ping-pong) delays that isn’t Tangerine Dream?
Know any electronic music similar to Jarre’s Oxygene?
I really like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and that Eastern Indian/Pakistani sound but I’m oblivious to any other bands or singers that compare. Any suggestions?
(…not necessarily traditional Indian folk music. I guess Indian ethnopop is more of what I’d be interested in.)
Also, do you know of any instrumental Funk (zero vocals), or Dub?