Wednesday, August 1, 2012

TinselTown Rebellion

Tinseltown Rebbelion
This album features the 1980/81 live band attacking a wide variety of tracks, some new, some going back to Frank's early days. For the most part, these are some of Frank's more caustic tracks. He definitely had an axe to grind with record labels and various other groups of people, so if those kinds of tracks turn you off, avoid this album. Otherwise, I'd recommend it but would refer Zappa newbies to other albums like _Lather_. There are some great tunes here, but I feel you need to be somewhat familiar with Zappa's style first.

One thing no other reviewers have mentioned is that, along with _You Are What You Is_, this album was remastered in 1998 by Spencer Chrislu. When Frank was working on this album, he was apparently experiementing with some new digital effects and managed to mess up the audio in the process. After fans complained, this album was quietly remastered and re-released. Unfortunately, neither album has any sort of label on the front, although YAWYI has a blurb about the '98 remastering in its liner notes. To see if you have a bad version, check "For the Young Sophisticate." If the length is 2:36, your copy is the old one. If it's 2:48, it's new.

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