Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band

Now we're going to, uh, nip over to Hawaii, uh, to listen to a band called MU, just MU.

And, uh, they featured, uh, in their ranks Jeff Cotton, who was out of the, uh, s- Captain Beefheart's Magic Band.

I think he was the wing deal fingaling.

And, uh, uh, Merrill Frankhouser, who had his HMS Bounty band, and they kind of met up in LA and, uh, decided in, uh, the '70s, early '70s, to move to Hawaii, uh, where they s- lived for a while.

And I booked Captain Beefheart to the... to play Convocation Hall, two shows at Convocation Hall, sold out, like 1600 people.

Unfortunately, about a week before the concert, the Magic Band quit him.

They just left.

And he had no, he had to put a band together, which was made for the worst concert I think I've ever been to.

It was horrible.

They asked me to bring a record player to soundcheck so they could try to learn the magic band parts, which

is...

That's a red flag.

Possibilities and themes raised early on are dropped, new elements are brought in and then also dropped, and the proceedings grow increasingly, knowingly, winkingly ludicrous.

It all culminates with a feverish dump of new information and casting, and ends so abruptly that it must be asked, Is Na Hongjin fucking with us? All those fish the monster leaves in its wake, are they just literal red herrings? A reference to Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask replica, the weirdest album ever made that sounds like random musical chaos, but was actually transcribed from Don Van Vliet's untrained piano tinklings and exhaustively rehearsed for over a year? There's really no other way to read the movie to make it add up, except to declare that it doesn't add up.

It just adds, and adds, and adds.

A shaggy dog story that goes on as long as you keep listening.

The Noise Made by People, the name of that release from 2000.

And closing out his set, Captain Beefheart and his magic band doing Golden Birdies from the Clear Spot release from 1972.

Thanks again to Jowhead.

Massive, massive thank you for putting together that hour-long set of tunes.