They are, Roddie Gilliard - bass, guitar and vocals, Carl Bowry - guitar, Martin Smith - trumpet, horn and dancing, Andy Friz - flutes, saxes, bass and vocals, Tilo Pirnbaum - drums and the mighty, 64 years of age, Jimmy Carl Black - vocals and percussion.
The Muffin Men have been playing together for over 11 years during which time they have gelled together as one mighty fine band playing the often complex, sometimes (well, often really) bizare music of one of the finest musicians ever to have graced our planet. The set started with the instrumental, 'Peaches En Regalia' and moved quickly into 'My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama'. Roddie then introduced 'Marqueson's Chicken' by saying that, "This one has an awful lot of notes and we're going to try and play them all - and maybe in the right order!"
Enter "the Indian of the group" in the form of erstwhile Mothers Of Invention drummer and sometimes vocalist, Jimmy Carl Black (yes the actual JCB!!). Providing his own style of hoarse vocals and providing more than just a little visual entertainment Jimmy's great to watch and listen to and he can still do the business 30 or so years on.
The blowin' (and dancing) section were in fine form, blending their tricky phrases together with precision and pure, brilliant, up-front, in ya face stuff. Precise drumming and excellent bassing (nice word!) pumped it up - "with a bullet!" Carl's guitar is just out of this world! Zappa's style and sound were so individual that you'd not believe that anyone would be able to follow it (not copy it!), but Carl managed; studious and the quiet member of the group he got sounds out of his guitar that had me looking for a synth or sampler or some other modern, technological device. But, there wasn't anything - it was just Carl with his guitar. Exceptional Zappaesque!!
'Road Ladies', 'Love Of My Life' and 'Flower Punk' followed, the latter being the great man's parody of the famous 'Hey Joe', 'Theme From Lumpy Gravy' and many more to round of a perfect two part set from one of the finest bands I've seen on Marr's.
It does help if you know and like the music of Frank Zappa, but if not then seek out The Muffin Men and just marvel at their skill and musicianship!
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