Bizarre, Straight Underground Story
By Record World
LOS ANGELES – The major portion of art's creative effort has always been underground. Art exists in a natural state of limited exposure; its emergence onto a mass or even exclusive level being ultimately a monetary profit-loss function.
Which, to wrap it all up neatly, is one of the really good reasons for an alternative corporation like Bizarre, Inc., its two record companies, Straight Records and Bizarre Records and related subsidiaries.
A recently concluded distribution agreement Straight Records and Warner/Reprise (similar to the one Bizarre Records has with Reprise) has enhanced Straight's competitive position, and has led Frank Zappa, who with Herb Cohen heads Bizarre/Straight, to remark, "It's my feeling that with the talent we have, the exploitive forces we've assembled, and our enhanced competitive position, something's bound to happen." "That would be nice," Cohen was heard to reply.
Straight, since it began nearly a year ago, has released eleven albums. Four issued last month could be viewed as representing what might someday designate "Straight Pop Power for the '70's". Tim Buckley's first album for the label, "Blue Afternoon" has received excellent critical acclaim with noted pop journal The New York Times commenting that while "he's made good records before, this one is far and away his best to date."
The debut offering by "supergirlpopstars," the GTO's, called "Permanent Damage," has met with remarkable street level response, especially hefty on Sunset Strip and other regions of mid-class suburbanity.
Tim Dawe, a poet of merit, has attracted favorable attention with his first outing "Penrod." And Jeff Simmons, whose Zappa produced lp "Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up" has stirred up Corvallis, Oregon, continuues to burgeon with waiting to be tapped popgod appeal.
Singles activity has been dominated by Straight's exponent of the country and western idiom, Mayf Nutter, who has clicked with a version of "Everybody's Talkin'" and re-clicked with a timely tribute to Johnny Cash, "Hey There Johnny".
Straight Pop Power will further ravage the teen market later this month, with the release of two additional LPs. "Easy Action," the second set by flash-glitter environmental rock troupe, Alice Cooper, will be launched with a multimedia campaign of dazzle and folderol. An acapella album by the Persuasions, who lay claim to being the greatest vocal group in the world, could open a whole new door on the musical horizon.
Meanwhile, activity within Bizarre Records has not flagged. Zappa has unfurled his own challenge to the medium, his first album without the Mothers, but with various other players called "Hot Rats". Grasping for further teen points, he was even able to induce Captain Beefheart to vocalize one number. The Mothers, who of course are defunct, had completed a final album before their disbandment and that work, "Burnt Weenie Sandwich," now a collector's item so to speak, will be released later this month. "Pop Power" gets in there again.
On a more expansive plane, Bizarre Inc. will continue to unearth and display relics of subterrania. Through Bizarre's film wing, Zappa is producing a full length feature on the Mothers of Invention. Titled "Uncle Meat," the film will chronicle in Cinemascope, color, and 4 track stereo sound, the Mothers and their relationship to developing forms of pop weirdness during the '50's through till practically now.
An event which will undoubtedly generate reaction throughout literary circles will be the publishing of the Zappa edited "Groupie Papers," a definitive study of the phenomenon including the diaries of Miss Pamela of the GTO's and noted pop figurine, Cynthia Plaster Caster.
At another level, Bizarre Management will continue to chart the personal appearance of its artists. Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Linda Ronstadt, Tim Buckley, the Persuasions, Penrod, and the Moody Blues (in the U.S.), thus assuring the public at large, an opportunity to personally avail itself of the genuine article.
In conclusion, as the great spot poplight gradually bestows increasing brilliance on activities of the nether regions, or in reality translation, as the insurance company beacon down the block alternately sweeps red and white across their rainy 17th story windows, a new concept is being readied at Bizarre, Inc., "Pop Power for the '80's".