JUST ANOTHER BAND FROM L.A.

An album that returns to the early madness of the first Mothers era, and (IMHO) is a solid step backwards after Rats, Chunga and Weasels. This second version of the mothers is normally more impressive, with Preston, Dunbar and Underwood, but they rarely show the extent of their talents on this album. Released in 72, with a comics Studebaker-riding-on-hamburger artwork inciting potential fans rnto look up Meat and Ruben albums, but my advice is to look up the Zappa solo albums of that same era, instead of stinkers like this one.

Opening on the sidelong 25-mins Billy The Mountain, but we're far from an "epic" here, as we deal with a typical Zappa-esque humorous (if you fancy it), but it's mostly a big bore, AFAIAC. Lots of nearly grotesque moments, coupled with downright-weird passages and dumb Monty Python-like sketches, but relatively little music? to think that frank never smoked a doobie or dropped LSD or drugs other than tobacco and coffee, I'd hate to think what tracks like these would sound if he had done these substances. The flipside is indeed a bit more enthralling with the Vegetable, with those slight doo-wop choruses and yodelling rutabagas, but we're definitely not in Rats or Chunga land. Kidding Eddie fares no better with the grotesque music and Magdalena fails to arouse my curiosity. Only the closing Dog Breath does show some rather incredible drumming, keyboards and guitars, though. This is the only track of the album that would be worthy of Chunga's Revenge.

Indeed, just as bad as 200 Motels or Uncle Meat, LA Band is best avoided if you're looking at a proper music/price return, and I'm about to ask the Archives' owner to reimburse my rental of this album. At least, now I know why I ignored this album for years and even 15 years after my first listen, while writing this review, I wondered why I chose to give it a second chance.