Trout Mask Replica Replica, by The 180Gs

Trout Mask Replica Replica

by The 180Gs

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feraldo The greatest album in the entire history of rock music brought back to its most authentic stage, the wild and primitive one.
This is a record to be passed down orally for when the human race returns to the Stone Age (not that far from happening).
Stone age music, timeless, eternal. Favorite track: Frownland.

mccc What an incredible project. Amazing. Thank you David. One of my all time favorite albums and your interpretation is fantastic. I just played your version of Frownland and the original at the same time. WOW! It was wild. Thanks again.

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Comes in a jewel case with the cover painting by Jill McVarish, photography and art design by Josh Silverstein and liner notes by Steve Froy: www.beefheart.com

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Trout Mask Replica Replica, Trout Mask Replica Replica (medley), Suave Side of the Moon, There's Good Cud (Cardiacs cover), Junior Is a Jitterbug (Cardiacs cover), Commercial Album, Singin' to God, Reverse Engineering: Remix Contest Music 2009-2012, vol. 1, and 8 more. , and , .
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1.	Frownland 01:42 video	info	buy track
2.	The Dust Blows Forward N the Dust Blows Back 01:50 video	info	buy track
3.	Dachau Blues 02:24 video		buy track
4.	Ella Guru 02:28 video		buy track
5.	Hair Pie: Bake 1 04:58 video		buy track
6.	Moonlight on Vermont 03:56 video		buy track
7.	Pachuco Cadaver 04:40 video		buy track
8.	Bill's Corpse 01:49 video		buy track
9.	Sweet Sweet Bulbs 02:20 video		buy track
10.	Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish 02:25 video
11.	China Pig 04:01 video	info
12.	My Human Gets Me Blues 02:47 video
13.	Dali's Car 01:23 video	info
14.	Hair Pie: Bake 2 02:25 video	info	buy track
15.	Pena 02:34 video	info	buy track
16.	Well 02:07	info
17.	When Big Joan Sets Up 05:22	info
18.	Fallin' Ditch 02:05
19.	Sugar 'n Spikes 02:29
20.	Ant Man Bee 03:51		buy track
21.	Orange Claw Hammer 03:38		buy track
22.	Wild Life 03:07		buy track
23.	She's Too Much for My Mirror 01:42		buy track
24.	Hobo Chang Ba 02:00 video		buy track
25.	The Blimp (mousetrapreplica) 02:06		buy track
26.	Steal Softly Thru Snow 02:19		buy track
27.	Old Fart at Play 01:52		buy track
28.	Veteran's Day Poppy 04:32		buy track

about

The 180Gs' "Trout Mask Replica Replica" is an accurate a cappella cover of Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band's 1969 double album "Trout Mask Replica". The 180 Gs began working on this project in July of 2018 and completed it in December 2023.
WITHOUT the help of AI, the Gs painstakingly break each song down to its basic elements and put it back together using only their voices! The result is an album that while completely respecting the original material, offers an unexpectedly rich musical journey through this avant-rock masterpiece.
Some have commented that it can function as a "translation" of the original album.

Below are the official liner notes by Steve Froy:

The 180Gs - Trout Mask Replica Replica

Cover versions of Beefheart songs …. aaargghh! That will set some fans screaming 'blasphemy' and foaming at the mouth!

I'm not one of those fans, despite having documented over 600 cover versions of Captain Beefheart songs for the “Radar Station” website (www.beefheart.com). I find that covers often give you a new insight into a song, allowing you hear it from a different perspective. No one would cover a Beefheart song with the intention of having a 'hit'! Beefheart songs are recorded by musicians who care about the music and want to express their love of it and bring it to the attention of other people.

Beefheart covers come in many forms: there's the young band who has more enthusiasm than competence having a thrash at one of the simpler songs (which accounts for the many versions of 'Zig Zag Wanderer' and 'Sure Nuff 'n' Yes I Do' out there), there's the more measured approach of a band trying to sound as close to the original song as possible, and there are the musicians who have taken Don's lyrics and placed them within a completely different musical arrangement .

The 180Gs’ a cappella cover version of the entire “Trout Mask Replica” double album has seriously upped the ante. The 180Gs have totally reimagined the sound of “Trout Mask Replica” while remaining faithful to the original music. Here are the songs that Beefheart fans are intimately familiar with, existing in a completely different sound universe.

An a cappella version of TMR? It doesn't seem possible, does it?

My first comment to the band when I became aware of this project was they must be very brave or very foolish to attempt such a project. Then I found out that The 180Gs have never taken the easy route. Their first release back in 2008 was '180d'Gs to the Future' on which they tackled some of the chaotic experimental found-sound collages produced by Negativland and reinterpreted them as a cappella pieces. After achieving that seemingly impossible project they progressed to works by Cardiacs (covering their 1996 double album “Sing to God”) and then on to The Residents (covering their 1980 album “Commercial Album”).

David Minnick, the arranger and producer of the group, told me: “Trout Mask Replica” seemed to be the next logical step in the series of albums the Gs had already released. It is music that we respect; music which instils in us a certain sense of awe. NONE of the music the 180Gs have covered lends itself easily to a cappella treatment; to the point that the results are difficult to imagine until one actually hears them. “Trout Mask Replica” is the most challenging project we have undertaken.”

At this point I asked the question that is probably on most people's lips when someone tells them that they intend creating an a cappella version of Trout Mask Replica – that question is, of course: 'Why?’
David answered: “When we first considered the idea, it was so ridiculous and impossible that we couldn't resist it. The absurdity of the idea creating an accurate a cappella version of TMR made us start giggling. If the concept for the album brought laughter, we reasoned, than the actual album (when finished) would bring joy. All of our projects have been chosen this way.

The 180 Gs knew at the outset that in order for this project to be successful, it had do be done as accurately as possible; note for note, all of the intentional and unintentional tempo changes, all of the parts where the instruments and vocals aren’t in sync with each other: it ALL had to be there. These are not paraphrased renditions of the songs! What you hear on the original “Trout Mask Replica” is what you will hear on the 180Gs’ cover version of it.

In recent years the intricate structure of the songs on “Trout Mask Replica has been revealed through the AI deconstruction of each track. The 180Gs, however, did not use any AI in the creation of this album. They were already more than halfway through the project when these AI tracks became available. The 180Gs felt that engaging with these tracks could change the sound of the record midstream. Thus, they continued trying to pick out bass lines, drum parts and guitar parts a few seconds at a time from the album version they had.

Crazy! But all that hard work paid off. These covers are so precise that you can play them at the same time as the originals and they will match perfectly!!

The songs were recorded from the outside in: starting with “Frownland”, then “Veteran’s Day Poppy”, “The Dust Blows Forward”, “Old Fart At Play” and gradually working their way to the middle finishing with “Pena” (what a song to save for last!). This was a clever piece of forward planning to give the album a more consistent sound because the band knew that over five years of working on it, the sound of the arrangements and recordings would gradually change. Yes, that's how long it took to put this album together ! Indeed a labour of love … or obsession !!

This album does for me what the original Trout Mask Replica does. Despite some dark moments, the album is a joyous experience and a celebration of life. It's a sonic overload that makes me smile and even laugh out loud sometimes. One thing that tends to get forgotten about “Trout Mask Replica” is that there is a lot of humor in the music and lyrics. The 180Gs have managed to keep the humorous element, even subtly highlighting it in places.

And there are harmonies !

“Trout Mask Replica” is a notoriously 'spiky' album and although the 180Gs smooth some of those spikes they add an extra layer of otherness to the music, an otherworldliness that is exhilarating.

In a parallel universe somewhere this is the album that would have been made if Donnie Vliet had been more interested in the doo-wop that Frank Zappa and he listened to rather than the R&B and blues records.

Minnick sums is up, saying: “The result is not 100% perfect but we did the absolute best that we could. Simply put, this album is a seemingly unimaginable musical idea which now exists in audible form (much like the original album).”

Why ??

Why not !!

“dum – diggidy – dum – diggidy – dum”

Steve Froy
Radar Station – www.beefheart.com
February 2024

credits

released July 17, 2024

The 180 Gs “Trout Mask Replica Replica”

Recorded July 2018-December 2023 at Crabid Studios: Waterford Michigan and Center Line Michigan, USA

Voices and body percussion: The 180Gs

Vocal arrangements: David Minnick

Cover design and photography: Josh Silverstein

Cover painting: “Billy Bigmouth Trout” : Jill McVarish, 2024, oil on canvas www.jillmcvarish.com

180Gs curator and stylist: Noel Storey

Liner notes: Steve Froy www.beefheart.com

Produced, engineered and mixed by David Minnick

Special thanks for encouragement and support: John “Drumbo” French, Chris Minnick, Kelly Minnick, Patricia Minnick, Isaac Silverstein, Brian Bowie, Andy Birko, Noel Storey, Joe Menchaca, Robert Davidson, Mike Puterbaugh, Brett Magdovitz, Kevin Beech, Mark Borkowski, Dave Faloon, Beth Burkhart, Geoff Burkhart, Kathy Elliot, J Elliot, Alice Margatroid, Chris G, Lauren Miller, Marina Organ

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about

David Minnick Detroit, Michigan

David Minnick is obsessed with choosing seemingly impossible musical projects and seeing them through to completion. He creates music in a multitude of genres (orchestral, blues, ska, free jazz, gamelan, klezmer, psychedelic pop, pirate music, a cappella, to name a few) and plays several instruments.
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