JUST ANOTHER BAND FROM L.A.

Just Another Band From L.A. is just another Flo and Eddie-era Mothers album. Without the classical experiments of 200 Motels, the Hot Rats-tinged air of Chunga's Revenge, or the "life on the road" concept of Fillmore East, the album lacks cohesiveness. Oh, sure, there's Billy the Mountain, a sidelong rock opera dominated by Flo and Eddie's narration and vocal talents, though in order to fit onto a single side of vinyl the version here lacks the instrumental passages which flesh out live performances of this era. The second side is just a grab-bag of material with nothing really connecting it together.

Ultimately, I think the basic problem with the Flo and Eddie lineup of the Mothers was that Zappa never quite worked out a way to integrate them into the music, though he makes a good start on Billy the Mountain - it's just a shame that they overshadow most of the instrumentalists on this edit of that track. It always feels like it's "the Mothers, featuring special guest stars Flo and Eddie" as opposed to the pair being fully integrated members of the group. Either way, it's often cited as a low point in Zappa's career.

That said, recent archival releases have improved on the reputation of the Flo and Eddie band, largely by demonstrating that this release and the Fillmore East album, due to the edits needed to put them out as single-disc vinyl albums, don't really reflect what the band were doing on stage. In addition, the 2012 remaster of the album offers a significant improvement to the mix over previous CD versions, which is a big help.