Serj Tankian Interview

Serj Tankian surges forward

America’s angriest Armenian 

wants to elect the dead

He’s certainly come a long way — from living a traditional Armenian childhood in Lebanon, to studying marketing at the University of California, to fronting one of world’s hottest-selling, stadium-fillingest hardcore outfits, System of a Down. Still, for Serj Tankian, it’s not a question of how far you’ve come, but how far you’re willing to go.

Setting the stage for a combined career of metal god and political gadfly, Tankian and his crew of angry Armenians (a.k.a. SOAD) captured the attention of a generation by channelling anxiety and outrage into blistering thrash punctuated with Tankian’s operatic rap-singing. Taking on issues from genocide to suicide over the course of five internationally renowned albums released between 1998 and 2005, Tankian is also the centre of filmmaker Carla Garapedian’s award-winning documentary Screamers.

“It’s primarily a film about the denial of the Armenian genocide,” Tankian explains, “but it also addresses other areas in the world today that are receiving the same treatment. It is a very exciting time, because we [in the U.S.] have the opportunity to elect the first non-white [or] non-male president. But, no matter who’s president, we all have a responsibility to collect knowledge and work towards a world we all want to live in.”

Never one to rest on his laurels, Tankian has recently written and produced a long-anticipated solo album, Elect the Dead. While his former bandmates may have been unsettled by his sudden desire to work with classical instrumentation, it was Tankian himself who was ultimately most surprised by the final result.

“I wasn’t planning on making a rock record, but that’s the way it turned out,” the singer-songwriter says with a chuckle. “I poured over hundreds of records and musical pieces — orchestral, classical, electronic, hip hop, goth, experimental, ballads — and these songs just worked out to be rock songs. I was playing around with dynamic orchestral music written for piano and strings, letting my stream of consciousness lead me, and at a certain point I was surprised because everything was becoming much more dramatic and powerful sounding. I thought ‘Wow! Cool. We’re going rock!’”

Taking his one-man orchestral rock opus out into the public spotlight presented a new challenge. Many of the album’s songs were created on the fly with guest artists and friendly neighbourhood musicians popping in and out of Tankian’s studio to put their own unique stamp on his self-proclaimed “art album.” Every track on Elect the Dead will eventually be accompanied by its own video, each from a different director. To bring his vision to life, Tankian has rounded up a road-worthy dream team to take on the task of re-creating his album live. Dubbing themselves the FCC (or Flying Cunts of Chaos) in a direct snub to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Tankian will be touring North America with Dan Monti, Mario Pagliarulo, Troy Ziegler, Erwin Khachikian and Primus’s Larry LaLonde, along with opening act Fair to Midland, on Tankian’s own Serjikal Strike record label.

“I put together the FCC to help me out on tour,” he says. “I’m really thankful for all they’ve done to make this the best show it can be. We like to give a classier kind of presentation when we perform. We’re known for wearing tuxedos and top hats. It’s kind of a taste of the English-gentleman-meets-Vaudeville.”

With a ready smile and without the begrudging glad-handing typical for a figure of his popularity, Tankain has a well-earned reputation as a really nice guy. Perhaps it is this willingness to meet humanity and all its woes head-on that has kept him engaged in social activism. Tankian continues the dialogue, promoting causes like Amnesty International and tracking his own efforts to run a “green” tour, on his homepage, www.serjtankian.com. It’s clear that Tankian is always willing to take things further.

By Christine Leonard

Originally published March 12, 2008 in FFWD Magazine

Silverstein - Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Silverstein takes Tokyo

Canuck screamo-rockers head overseas

February 1, 2008
by Christine Leonard

‘We enjoy immersing ourselves in foreign cultures, but these guys were on a mission to destroy us’ — Canadian post-hardcore rockers Silverstein find conspiracies everywhere they travel

They say that once you’ve made it in Japan, the rest of the world will fall in line. Even if it doesn’t, hey, you’ll always be big in Japan. Flexing their screamo-rock muscle and swooping down on the metropolis of Tokyo with Mothra-like fury, post-hardcore pundits Silverstein were all-too eager to bring their bold Canadian tidings to the land of the rising sun.

“It was awesome,” says drummer Paul Koehler of the band’s recent whirlwind nine-day tour of Nihon. “This is the second time we’ve been to Japan, which is incredible. Now that we’re kinda familiar with the place, we have friends to visit, specific things we want to do and places we want to visit. The more you go back, the more you get out of the experience. Especially when you’re in a place that’s so culturally different. The more different the better.”

Kicking back and taking in the scenery was just one highlight of Silverstein’s return voyage. Reconnecting with some of their favourite tour mates, the group performed before massively enthusiastic crowds who knew every word of their infectiously defiant lyrics. Along with vocalist Shane Told, guitarists Josh Bradford and Neil Boshart and bassist Bill Hamilton, Koehler confirms that playing live and connecting with audiences face-to-face has been the single most rewarding aspect of their careers to date.

“We just wrapped up a two-and-a-half-week run in Australia before we landed in Japan,” Koehler reports. “It’s been crazy, but fun. The kids are so energetic. The fans in Japan are unlike those anywhere else on Earth. So respectful and not totally hung up on images and gimmicks.”

Shrugging off their long-running trademark of being the sole Canadian band at any given multi-act hardcore concert series, Silverstein has steadily worked to build on the ironclad foundations they’ve laid out for themselves with their previous full-length albums, When Broken is Easily Fixed and Discovering the Waterfront. Striking while the iron was hot, they released the aptly titled Arrivals and Departures in July of last year. Their third turn on Victory Records debuted at No. 25 on the Billboard 200, commanding attention with its stark fusion of angst, anger and intelligence, and eventually topping the indie charts. According to Koehler, Arrivals and Departures represents a new outlook for a road-hardened Silverstein and a more mature approach to their collective craft.

“We’ve been through some pretty drastic and dramatic events over the past two years,” he explains. 

“[Arrivals] references the changes and stops we’ve been through in our own personal relationships, people entering and leaving our lives. We touch on some negativity, but we try to stay level-headed. We’re all pretty happy in our lives and realize that we have some young and impressionable fans out there. It’s great that we have this opportunity to try to share our music as a source of escapism, but we also want to use images and emotions to better ourselves and improve the lives of others. We really want to be a force for positivity and overcoming hardships.”

Holding their heads high and keeping up the good fight, Silverstein are prepared to embark on a full-scale North American tour, a comfortable home-coming for a quintet that bravely rose to meet a challenge of another sort when they recently found themselves at the mercy of Japanese-style hospitality.

“One night in Tokyo, our hosts, the local Japanese promoters, invited all of us out to an authentic restaurant,” a teetotalling Koehler recalls. 

“It was a beautiful dinner, and they just kept piling on the food and drink. These guys are considered very respectable in the music industry, and they can really put it away. They dropped quite a few sake bombs on us over the course of the evening. We enjoy immersing ourselves in foreign cultures, but these guys were on a mission to destroy us!”

Silverstein with Protest the Hero, Ill Scarlett & Devil Wears Prada at MacEwan Hall

Pennywise Interview by Christine Leonard

Punk Rock Karma

Pennywise use their powers for good

Stalwart punk rockers Pennywise, who have been pounding out their 

melodic hardcore for almost 20 years, join Rise Against in 

Calgary and Edmonton for the charity-driven Jingle Bell Rock tour

When it comes to the pursuit of money, Pennywise have always remained true to their name. From the California ensemble’s formative years in the late ’80s, when there was never enough of the green stuff to go around, through to their current status as a group of legendary proportions, Pennywise has maintained an unfaltering sense of artistic direction while keeping an eye on the coffers. Now, after writing hundreds of songs and blowing thousands of minds, these stalwart punk rockers are more than willing to repay some of their good fortune.

“When we got the call, we didn’t have to think twice,” says bassist Randy Bradbury of his band’s decision to join Rise Against for Union Events’ annual Jingle Bell Rock charity tour. “We’ve always been involved with doing shows for charities. In fact, we just filled a sports arena for a concert we did in L.A. where all the profits went to charities of our own choosing. It’s important to us to help out these organizations, and anytime we can associate with someone who’s doing some good, we’re always happy to do our part.”

Having recorded some eight studio albums, most recently 2005’s The Fuse, Pennywise are constantly working on new material, and three years of downtime between recording sessions has given the lads plenty of time to amass new material. Bassist Bradbury (who replaced original bassist Jason Thirsk after his 1996 suicide) and fellow band members Fletcher Dragge (guitar), Jim Lindberg (vocals) and Byron McMackin (drums) are in the process of whittling down the new track list, employing a time-honoured test to decide which tunes make the final cut.

“We like to throw a bunch of stuff against the wall and see what sticks,” says Bradbury with a chuckle. “There’s a lot to sort through and Jim has been writing like crazy, but I wouldn’t say the chances of this being a double-CD [as rumoured] are very good. We’ve always been very methodical about how we work. We want people to hear our music and give it as much exposure as possible, but at the same time, we don’t want to make any bad decisions or misrepresent ourselves. We want our albums to last. It’s a long, slow road to invest in them properly to make sure we’ll be staying around, rather than just jumping on the fast train like so many artists who are here today and gone tomorrow.”

Pennywise have consistently used their voice to speak out on the issues they feel are important. Whether it’s using cleverly derisive lyrics to malign authority figures or waxing melodic in tribute to a fallen comrade, the band’s reputation for telling it like it is, free from outside influence, has made them a touchstone for admirers of the true punk rock spirit.

“We’re really lucky to have a lot of control over the way this band is run on a day-to-day basis,” Bradbury says. “It’s important to us to keep it that way, and that goes back to the beginning of the band. These guys had it going on before I arrived on the scene, and they were already on an indie label. With the new album, I don’t think we have to take a step back from that.

“Epitaph has always given us artistic freedom. Most recently, we’ve been speaking with MySpace.com Records about a new deal. They are a widely known name, and they like what we do. They know our image and they want us to keep working just like we have been all of these years. We’ve realized all along that we want people to be able to hear our music, and now we’ve found a way to do that through MySpace… We feel that nothing is going to change, except that it will be a bigger release and bring more exposure to the band. We’re still working out the details, but the album will be available traditionally for purchase in music stores. I know if I like a band, I still want to have the disc in my hands and all the lyrics and cover art that goes along with it.”

Thrilled by the prospect of a rapidly expanding international listenership, Pennywise love to stir the melting pot. Like their contemporaries Black Flag, the Descendents and Bad Religion, they get their kicks from throwing a healthy dose of socio-political satire into their intelli-punk anthems. And while they may be a popular choice of kick-ass background music for extreme sports heroes, Pennywise are perhaps best known for lacing their raucous, mosh-pit-inducing performances with revolutionary tunes such as “My Own Country,” “Victim of Reality,” “Fight Till You Die” and many more.

“We know that no matter what we do, we’re always going to sound like Pennywise,” Bradbury acknowledges. “We always find a way to throw in a new dimension without changing too much. The idea is to use traditional elements in unexpected ways to expand the boundaries. Lyrically, we tend to project our perspective on whatever’s going on in the world, so you can pretty much guess what topics we’ll be addressing in the coming album. When we perform live, we try to give people a nice cross-section of our work, which is getting harder to do!”


by Christine Leonard

Originally published December 20, 2007 in FastForward Magazine.

The Blood Lines - drawing their own conclusions

From Moose Jaw to Beijing

The Blood Lines take the Prairies to the globe

Published December 13, 2007  by Christine Leonard

‘I think I had a combination of jet lag and culture shock when I arrived’ — The Blood Lines recently shared a stage with the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Public Enemy in Beijing

There’s something about a restless youth spent on the Canadian Prairies that tends to put a spark into the hearts of those who survive it. A creative cinder smouldering in a tinder-dry small-town environment, The Blood Lines burst onto the Saskatchewan scene with a fiery passion for the nouveau and a stripped-down old-school rhythm that spread like wildfire and carried the electronic-rockers far beyond their native borders. Introduced by a mutual friend, the dual sets of siblings who comprise Saskatoon’s latest claim to fame — brothers Paul and Barrett Ross and siblings Maygen (a CBC Radio 3 Bucky Award nominee for Sexiest Canadian Musician) and S.J. Kardash — were more than willing to give playing together a shot. It paid off, as they quickly went on to record a self-titled debut and embarked on a pilgrimage to the U.S. to perform at the CMJ Music Marathon. Winning over fans and critics alike with their modern take on the ’70s pop-rock sound, the quartet was startled by their own success as the awards and accolades began to roll in.

“Winning the WCMA (Western Canadian Music Award) for outstanding rock recording in Moose Jaw was probably one of the best experiences so far for me [and my brother Barrett],” says Paul of the band’s recent achievement. “Moose Jaw is our hometown, and a good chunk of our family was there with us for the event. It was like coming full-circle, and it’s a weekend I’ll never forget. Winning the award was totally unexpected, and the limelight was a surprise. Needless to say, it was nice to be recognized from people in the industry. Feedback was instant, and we have since been talking with a producer and have booked a spot at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. I’m not sure if it has changed any goals, but it certainly has galvanized them.”

Setting their sights on foreign climes, The Blood Lines recently joined forces with major players such as Nine Inch Nails, Public Enemy and Mando Diao to perform live at the prestigious Beijing Pop Festival. It was an experience that both tested their endurance and left a lasting impression on these emerging artists.

“Beijing was a blast,” Paul confirms with obvious enthusiasm. “After a long flight, I think I had a combination of jet lag and culture shock when I arrived, so that was the low for me. The high was playing our set at the festival. There is something to be said about travelling thousands of miles and playing in front of a large crowd who actually know some of your songs.”

As eager as they were to soak up the culture and gain a greater understanding of a strange new world, the political and economic policies of their host country inevitably played on The Blood Lines’ collective consciences. Their ultra-hip album is rife with what could be considered provocative and, in some circles, subversive songs like “End of the World,” “Not Enough” and “Revolution.” Putting their reservations aside, the group persevered and was justly rewarded with a sense of accomplishment from bringing a much-needed form of expression, release and enjoyment to an audience that could truly appreciate every single heart-pumping electrified supersonic note.

“Experiencing Beijing is hard to describe because it is a combination of shock and awe,” Paul elaborates. 

“There’s shock at the existence of very cheap labour, wealth and poverty right beside one another, and there is awe of all the culture, architecture, places and people. It’s just so different from what you’re used to — there is no frame of reference unless you’ve experienced it. Although we aren’t a ‘political’ band, per se, I believe one can’t be numb to what’s happening in the world. The experience of going to China was certainly an eye-opener for me. However, I can safely say that the bands there were great, and the audiences were very receptive. The most popular band from there played a type of ’70s punk, and they sounded great. The audiences there seemed as though they were starving for music. This made me happy to be there. There is a sense that the country is changing, however slowly, and I’m glad we could be part of that.”

The Bloodlines perform with Ghostkeeper & Lorrie Matheson

The Bled : Tight Lips and Loose Hips

You know what you did...

The Bled give their fans the Silent Treatment

Published November 29, 2007  by Christine Leonard

‘[Those bands are] great at what they do. We strive to be great at what we do’ — The Bled: great at standing in bushes

Tracing their roots back to Tucson, Arizona’s tight-knit music scene, music enthusiasts The Bled came together through a restless adolescence spent listening to bands like the Deftones, Converge and Refused. Hashing things out in a process that bass guitarist Darren “HeyGuy” Simoes describes as “natural,” The Bled went through some serious alterations before arriving at their current state as a five-piece thrash-punk ensemble. Singer James Munoz stepped into the role of the band’s front man and Simoes took up the position of bassist while guitarist Jeremy Talley, guitarist Ross Ott and drummer Michael Pedicone kept the original hardcore heartbeat going strong.

“We all know our jobs, so we just get them done,” says Simoes of their collaborative approach. “Usually Jeremy will come up with a few basic random riffs and will bring them to practice where we'll all jam on them for a while and arrange them how they seem fitting. If it sucks, we'll scrap it or alter it to make it flow better, but if it's cool we keep going. [All of us are guitar players first], so everyone seems to figure riffs and things out on a guitar before they're worked out at practice.”

Applying the no-nonsense, full-steam-ahead philosophy of their live shows to their studio sessions, The Bled (formerly Radiation Defiance Theory) have steadily delivered an album every two years since 2003, when they released their rowdy debut, Pass the Flask. Adding to both their prestige and their fan base, the group joined My Chemical Romance and other hotter-than-snot acts on a plethora of tours that have included more than their fair share of Canadian dates — a trend Simoes pledges will continue well into the future. “Canada is great,” he confirms with genuine enthusiasm. “We're trying to play there enough to gain citizenship, so we don't have to pay for health care.”

Preparing to traverse North America in the wake of their latest release, Silent Treatment, the band is geared up to present a dynamic and deafening array of their best material to date. Replete with hyper-intricate guitar runs, thundering metal fury and jarringly brutal vocals, The Bled’s Silent Treatment is anything but. Never afraid to experiment with abstraction and noise, the disc demonstrates a significant progression in the quality and complexity of their sound since their previous album, Found in the Flood, bobbed to the surface in 2005.

“Our main goal was to write a record that we would have fun playing live and not have to worry about it being overproduced, as far as extra effects and tracks go on a recording,” 

Simoes explains of their new 11-track triumph. “Lyrically, it has a lot to do with our lives as touring musicians and the relationships we have with people. It's definitely a difficult thing to maintain healthy relationships with your friends and family at home, not to mention girlfriends. There is a lot of pressure, and not too many ways to communicate other than the Internet or phones. [It’s also about] the relationships we have with each other as a band, touring together, living day in, day out with each other. We wanted it to be a brutally honest record — we didn't want to sugar-coat any of it.”

While that lack of communication is inevitable, Simoes readily acknowledges that giving someone “the silent treatment” as a form of punishment more often than not results in “chaos or alienation.” He much prefers to fill his life with sound and fury.

“We just put out the records we have fun making and have fun playing,” he says. “It just comes out that way. We're a heavy band, but we also want to keep it somewhat interesting and avoid easy clichés to follow, like a bunch of chugs followed by dissonant notes or familiar chorus chord progressions. All of us listen to an array of music from stuff like Radiohead to Fugazi to Meshuggah and even hip hop like Nas or Atmosphere, so we have no problem getting ideas from a broad spectrum other than the world of just metal or hardcore. We have always been our own band. [Those groups are] great at what they do. We strive to be great at what we do.”

KING COBB STEELIE

KING COBB STEELIE

As I speak with Kevan Byrne, guitar player and vocalist for Guelph’s King Cobb Steelie, he’s on Queen Street in Toronto, picking up guitar strings and getting minor repairs done in preparation for their imminent cross Canada tour. It’s been three years since we’ve seen or heard from them, and now they’re back.

Well, two of them at least – Kevan Byrne and Kevin Lynne, the original Ks from KCS, with the assistance of Michael Armstrong on drums, make up the collective’s current incarnation. And by the sounds of their newest effort, Mayday, King Cobb Steelie is a whole new band. Mayday is quite a departure from their previous albums, Junior Relaxer and The Twinkle Project. The songs are shorter and more direct, with uncharacteristically catchy choruses, and female vocal accompaniments. Singer/guitar player Tamara Wilson contributes to several of the tracks on the new album, and will be joining the band on tour. How does this dub-laden, trip-pop, rock ’n’ roll montage translate into a live performance? Lead guitarist and vocalist Kevan has several ideas in mind.

"We try and reinterpret the songs from the record into a live presentation. We don’t try and recreate what we did on the record. We try to give the songs another dimension, a greater depth."

Shrugging off suggestions that Mayday is a back-to-basics album, Byrne acknowledges some similarity to their past works.

"We’re playing very much like the way we used to play. With a live drummer, a bass, a couple of guitars and a percussionist. But we have a whole bunch of loops and samples and other things that we’ve thrown into the mix as well."

King Cobb Steelie is one ensemble that isn’t afraid to venture beyond their musical comfort zone in the quest for superior samples and source materials. They also thrive on leading audiences away from their pre-formulated expectations – for example there is the absence of a DJ on this album and tour.

"There are so many bands with turntablists now. And most of it is quite lame, I find. I don’t really want to add to the heap of mediocrity."

At the same time, Byrne is eager to separate King Cobb Steelie’s avant-garde image from the whole rock/rap fusion scene that has once again become so popular in the mainstream.

"There are some loops on the record that are kind of ‘hip-hoppish.’ I’m not really interested in bands that are combining rock and hip-hop in the sense that Limp Bizkit are. That was done 10 years ago – I can’t believe people don’t remember that! Anthrax did it with Public Enemy!"

Still, Kevan purports that blurring the lines between sample-based and live music is one of the most exciting directions an artist can take. The new release presents a somewhat distilled and concentrated version of KCS’s distinctive slash-and-sample guerilla music tactics. The tracks are more refined, lighter, increasingly poppy, and definitely marketable. Gone are the endless ambient grooves and experiments in human tolerance, replaced by brief musical vignettes with efficient titles like "Home" and "The Situation."

"We’re not doing the 10-minute explorations in sonic textures. There’s a fairly strong focus on the songwriting. The beats are pretty straight-up."

The diminished size of the band has facilitated their transformation, over the past three years, into a computer-orchestrated entity (after all, they do hail from Guelph, Canada’s answer to Silicon Valley). Kevan explains that he discovered a new musical language through composing on the computer, and in the process he came to the realization that KCS had to change with the times or perish.

"If you play long enough, you create a certain vocabulary for yourself. And it’s hard to get outside of that box. You have to create a new grammar."

King Cobb Steelie has apparently set aside their non-conformism and stepped through the commercial looking glass, hoping to score big in today’s international marketplace with the release of Mayday in Europe and the U.S. in the spring. King Cobb Steelie now find themselves standing on a corner of the busy intersection where rock, pop, electronica, dub, house, trip-hop, DJs and everything else come together, wearing brand new shoes and the tattered remnants of their old anti-commercial shroud.

by Christine Leonard

Originally published in Fast Foward Magazine
Performing with Hot Little Rocket and Slow Fresh Oil
Friday, November 17, 2000
The Night Gallery

Zappa Does Zappa = A Musical Primer

You still can’t do that on stage!!!

A Zappa primer for the uninitiated

by Christine Leonard

Zappa Plays Zappa performs at Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium November 22, 2007

Nearly 14 years after his untimely death from prostate cancer, Frank Zappa’s legacy of creative innovation continues to awe and inspire fellow artists and avid listeners around the world. Cited as one of the most influential bodies of work attributable to a modern artist, Zappa’s 50-album oeuvre of recordings, compositions and interviews is a vast and an incalculably complex testament to the twisted genius behind the famous moustache.

The Freak Out! began in the ’60s, when, straight out of college, the restless iconoclast formed The Mothers of Invention. Zappa’s penchant for physical theatrics and musical improvisation made him a natural performer and the band soon hit their stride. With Absolutely Free and We’re Only in it for the Money, they cultivated a small but fervent fan base over three short years. After his solo release Hot Rats, Zappa intensified his artistic focus and reinvented The Mothers, resulting in the über-bizarre groove-fest Chunga’s Revenge, before once again disbanding them.

Things were looking dark, and as Zappa himself put it, he was “tired of playing for people who clapped for all the wrong reasons.” An equipment-destroying venue fire and an overzealous audience member put a damper on Zappa’s activities just as he was finding a mainstream audience during the tolerant ’70s. In one live performance, a fan inexplicably pushed Frank from the stage, resulting in a one-year stint in a wheelchair. Turning his infirmity into opportunity, the digital pioneer took to the studio to record two more stunning releases, Apostrophe and One Size Fits All.

As Zappa’s popularity blossomed, he demonstrated an increasingly sophisticated command of different musical styles, fusing together elements of classical, jazz, rock, electronic and pop music like no other artist had before. His innate talent for delivering sarcastic and sometimes lewd lyrics, combined with his acerbic wit and irreverent spirit put Zappa on the cutting edge of a relatively new medium in an increasingly visual world. His 1979 epic, Joe’s Garage, prophetically mused about what would happen if the music were made illegal. Sure enough, the ’80s saw an unapologetic Zappa drawn into politics in order to defend the creative freedoms he so valued. He fought censorship at the highest levels, even testifying in front of the U.S. Senate, and later described the episode as an encounter with “Mothers of Prevention.”

Despite the popularity of his disco-mocking ’79 hit “Dancin’ Fool,” and the equally absurd “Valley Girl,” featuring daughter Moon Unit (sibling to Dweezil, Ahmet Rodan and Diva) yakking away with that gag-me-with-a-spoon mall-drawl, it is Zappa’s lesser-known successes, such as composing soundtracks for motion pictures and conducting a 52-piece orchestra, that best represent the quality and character of his artistic mettle. Embraced as a classical composer in his later days, Zappa demonstrated that he hadn’t lost his edge when he opened 1992’s Yellow Shark, performed at the Frankfurt New Music Festival by the Ensemble Modern, by instructing the high-brow attendees to “Please direct your underwear to the left side of the stage.”

Dually paying homage to his father’s legacy and showcasing his own musical aptitudes, Zappa’s son Dweezil has assembled a host of accomplished players, including Frank’s contemporaries Terry Bozzio and Napolean Murphy Brock, to join him in a massive tribute tour that encapsulates some of the highlights of his father’s illustrious and often conflicted career. Spanning a massive setlist, the sextet takes audiences on a three-hour, video-enhanced thrill ride into the extraordinary Zappaverse.

Just as Dweezil continues to carry the Zappa torch, others who share his admiration for his father’s work have done their part to preserve Frank’s memory. There are no less than two asteroids named for the man: 3834 Zappafrank and 16745 Zappa. In addition, versions of his moniker have been granted to a certain extinct mollusk, a jellyfish, a goby fish and a moustachioed spider. On a less glamourous note, the so-called ZapA gene belongs to a microbe responsible for causing urinary tract infections — a fitting namesake for the man who penned the songs “Imaginary Diseases,” “Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?” and the immortal “Don’t Eat Yellow Snow.”