ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON Makes its Retail Debut on 9/5

Although "Saturday Night Live," "MADtv" and other sketch shows have captured some of the flavor of "Laugh-In," no other comedy show has matched it in terms of its hyper-speed outrageousness and offbeat sensibility.

-- The Los Angeles Times

"The frenetic, chaotic comedy still earns laughs 50 years later...

it's a wonderful time capsule of the era"

-- DVD Talk

From 1968 to 1973, anarchy reigned supreme on NBC,

and network television was never quite the same

-- Winston-Salem Journal

MORE LAUGH-IN FROM TIME LIFE?  

YOU BET YOUR SWEET BIPPY!

THIS SEPTEMBER, TV'S GROUNDBREAKING VARIETY SHOW LAUNCHES AT RETAIL WITH A ZANY, STAR-STUDDED

INAUGURAL SEASON DVD SET

ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN:THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

The 4-Disc Set Features 14 Remastered Episodes from the Landmark 

Emmy® and Golden Globe®-Winning Series - 64% of Which Have Never Before Been Available at Retail -- Hours of Bonus Programming Including the Pilot Episode and a New Interview with Creator George Schlatter; Guest Stars Include Harry Belafonte, Milton Berle, Johnny Carson, Cher, Tim Conway, Sammy Davis Jr., Sally Field, Jerry Lewis and Many More!

PROGRAM SYNOPSIS

The '60s gave us "in-crowds," "be-ins" and "love-ins," and starting in 1968, the happening place for free-form comedy was Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, broadcast from beautiful downtown Burbank. Straight man Dan Rowan and wisecracking co-host Dick Martin led a gaggle of goofballs through a rapid-fire assault of one-liners, skits, bits and non sequiturs that left viewers in hysterics and disbelief. Anything and anyone in the public eye was a target.  Political correctness?  Forget it!  The off-the-wall groundbreaking, Emmy Award-winning show would go on to anchor the Monday 8 p.m. time slot on NBC until March 12, 1973, transforming both pop culture and the medium of television. 

Following the acclaimed release of LAUGH-IN: THE COMPLETE SERIES (available exclusively through TimeLife.com/Laugh-In), the TV-DVD archivists at Time Life are making ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON available for classic TV aficionados

and comedy lovers alike.  Comprised of 4 DVDs and 14 complete episodes - 64% of which have never before been available at retail -- the star-studded set delivers audiences to the beginning of the landmark series which became an instant classic and one of the most popular shows in the history of television. 

Flip Wilson as Adam (now residing outside of the Garden of Eden); Tim Conway and Cher as John Smith and Pocahontas; a silent salute to presidential candidate George Wallace; a Mod, Mod World look at the Olympics -- these are just a few of the zaniest things crammed into Season 1.  Also making their appearances for the first time: Goldie Hawn's giggly blonde, Judy Carne's "Sock-It-To-Me" girl, Jo Anne Worley's anti-chicken-joke militant, Ruth Buzzi's perpetually-frustrated spinster and Arte Johnson's "verrry interesting" German soldier.  The biggest news, however, was the first national television appearance of Tiny Tim, the ukulele-toting, falsetto-singing throwback to a bygone era of American pop music.  He made the rest of the cast seem normal -- and Dan and Dick squirm.  The show's first season was also highlighted by long running fan favorite features including "Sock It to Me," "Cocktail Party," the "Joke Wall", and the first appearance of Johnson's elderly Tyrone F. Horneigh and Sammy Davis Jr. introducing the all-time classic sketch "Here Comes the Judge".

ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON includes hours of specially-produced extras, including the rare Laugh-In pilot, an all-new interview with creator and executive producer George Schlatter, 25th Anniversary Cast Reunion Highlights and Laugh-In Bloopers.

CAST 

Dan Rowan

Dick Martin

Pamela Austin

Ken Berry

Eileen Brennan

Ruth Buzzi

Judy Carne

Barbara Feldon

Henry Gibson

Goldie Hawn

Larry Hovis

Arte Johnson

Gary Owens

Jo Anne Worley

PROGRAM INFORMATION

Format: DVD/4 Discs

Running Time: 869 minutes

Genre:  TV DVD/Comedy

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Audio: Stereo

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead's "Source Tags & Codes" Expanded 15th Anniversary Vinyl Reissue Out On August 11

… AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD’S MODERN CLASSIC, SOURCE TAGS & CODES,RECEIVING EXPANDED 15TH ANNIVERARY VINYL REISSUE ON AUGUST 11

ALBUM TO BE RELEASED AS DOUBLE LP WITH GATEFOLD JACKET, 3 RARE TRACKS, ALTERNATE LP ART AND UNIQUE ETCHING

… And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead’s landmark album, Source Tags & Codes, will be released as an expanded vinyl edition on August 11 via Interscope/UMe to commemorate its 15th anniversary. Housed in a gatefold sleeve, the album, which will also be available digitally, will be pressed on black vinyl as a double LP for the first time ever and include three tracks previously only available on various rare and international releases (“Invocation,” “Life Is Elsewhere,” and “Blood Rites”). The back cover will be a replica of the Japanese version which features a drawing of a teenage boy while the iconic image of a cackling Henry Miller from the compact disc and North American back cover will be represented with a unique etching on Side D of the second LP. A very limited amount of 500 copies will be available on midnight navy vinyl exclusively via The Sound of Vinyl. The album is available for pre-order here: https://UMe.lnk.to/TODsource

 

Few albums in 2002 were as highly anticipated as Trail of Dead’s major label debut, Source Tags & Codes, which saw the band making the leap from venerable indie Merge Records to Interscope. Having already amassed a rabid fanbase off the strength of two acclaimed albums and their legendary, nihilistic live shows, the Austin, Texas-based band – fronted by dual vocal powerhouses and multi-instrumentalists Conrad Keely and Jason Reece and rounded out with Neil Busch and Kevin Allen – had many waiting with baited breath to see what their move to the majors would produce. Armed with the biggest recording budget of their career, the band teamed back up with producer Mike McCarthy who helmed their sophomore album, Madonna, and secluded themselves at Prairie Sun Recording Studio, in Cotati, Calif., a sleepy town located north of San Francisco in Sonoma County wine country. Free from financial and time constraints and the distractions of home they were able to focus, experiment and fully realize their distinctive sound.

 

“Source Tags & Codes was our moment to take a stab at creating a timeless album,” says founding member Reece. “We had the chance to have that freedom to experiment with new sonic possibilities while messing with the major label paradigm. It was truly a chaotic, strange and beautiful time in our young lives.”

 

Upon release on February 26, 2002, Source Tags & Codes thrust the band into the mainstream spotlight as it was met with glowing reviews from critics and fans alike who hailed the album as a masterpiece, lauding the band’s uncanny ability to create something at once beautiful and brutal, raw and refined. Pitchfork awarded the album a perfect 10 rating, putting it the rarefied company of such classic records as Radiohead’s OK Computer and Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Writer Matt LeMay proclaimed: “Dense, beautiful, intricate, haunting, explosive, and dangerous, this is everything rock music aspires to be: intense, incredible songs arranged perfectly and performed with skill and passion. Source Tags & Codes will take you in, rip you to shreds, piece you together, lick your wounds clean, and send you back into the world with a concurrent sense of loss and hope. And you will never, ever be the same.” Entertainment Weekly declared, “Hardcore punk outbursts alternate with art-rock feedback flights and dreamy bits of melody that somehow fuse into a coherent, often spectacular album,” while NME remarked, “Accordingly, Source Tags & Codes comes with an albatross-like weight of expectation round its skinny neck – yet happily, it’s supported by a band who have grown to match it,” adding, “their smash-and-grab dynamic manages the neat trick of sounding simultaneously untutored and highly focused, following new twisted threads out from the early-90s underground labyrinth.” In its “A” review, The Onion’s AV Club wrote, “When …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead wraps the project with the clanging title track, with its images of ‘the ruined landscapes that I once called home,’ it’s concluded more than just a collection of songs. It’s provided an experience.”

 

The 15th anniversary vinyl edition provides fans an opportunity to hear the album with the addition of 3 tracks previously not included on the US release. The plaintive piano piece “Invocation” gently begins the LP before shifting into the driving “It Was There That I Saw You,” providing a unique alternate beginning. The sparse instrumental “Life Is Elsewhere” serves as an intermission to the first act and evokes feudal Japan with its sound effects and Japanese dialog. The pummeling “Blood Rites” follows the title track and closes things out with orchestral strings that give way to a piercing guitar, Keely’s blood curdling scream and the band’s controlled sonic chaos. 

 

A decade and a half later Source Tags & Codes has stood the test of time and sounds as urgent, challenging, enthralling and explosive as Trail Of Dead’s influential opus did when first released. In recent years, retrospective reviews have continued to heap on the praise with Pitchfork including it in their “Top 200 Albums Of The 2000s,” the BBC calling it “one of the finest rock albums of recent history,” and XPN hailing it as “an unparalleled masterpiece of its time, an unbloated orchestral record during a time when punk bands weren’t supposed to be so worldly or indulgent.”

 

TRACKLISTING

 

LP1

[A]

1. Invocation

2. It Was There That I Saw You

3. Another Morning Stoner

4. Baudelaire

5. Homage

 

[B]

1. How Near, How Far

2. Life Is Elsewhere

3. Heart In The Hand Of The Matter

4. Monsoon

5. Days Of Being Wild

 

LP2

[C]

1. Relative Ways

2. After The Laughter

3. Source Tags & Codes

4. Blood Rites

 

[D]

Etching

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 35th Anniversary Gift Set Coming to Blu-ray and 4K on 9/12

STEVEN SPIELBERG’S TIMELESS CLASSIC CELEBRATES 35 YEARS AS ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST BELOVED FILMS 

E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL
35th ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION GIFT SET

AVAILABLE WITH 4K UHD AND BLU-RAY™ ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

FROM UNIVERSAL PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT

In 1982, acclaimed director Steven Spielberg created iconic movie magic with his classic film, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the unforgettable and emotional adventure of an adorable alien lost on Earth and the lonely boy who befriends him. Winner of four Academy Awards®, including Best Music, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial has become a cinematic touchstone for generations of moviegoers and one of the most beloved films of all time. Now, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment celebrates the film’s original theatrical release with a special gift set, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 35th Anniversary Limited Edition on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray™ + Digital available on September 12, 2017. This special gift set features premium packaging, includes a re-mastered CD soundtrack of the original Grammy Award®-winning album, is packed with over three hours of bonus features and includes a collector’s booklet with behind-the-scenes stories and rare images from the archives. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 35th Anniversary Limited Edition retains all the excitement, drama and warm-hearted humor that made it an instant worldwide classic.

Fans can also relive the adventure and magic of one of the most beloved motion pictures of all-time, with the 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack along with the new Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD editions that showcase new artwork of the beloved cast on September 12, 2017. All releases include  a code to redeem the film on Digital plus over three hours of bonus features such as deleted scenes and revealing interviews that bring back the film’s humor, suspense and wonder, making this a must-own movie for everyone’s library.

Captivating audiences of all ages, this timeless story follows the unforgettable journey of a lost alien and the 10-year-old boy he befriends. Join Elliot (Henry Thomas), Gertie (Drew Barrymore) and Michael (Robert MacNaughton) as they come together to help E.T. find his way home. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is “one of the great American films” (Leonard Maltin) that forever belongs in the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial returns to movie theaters nationwide for a two day cinema event on Sunday, September 17, and Wednesday, September 20. These special event screenings will feature an exclusive commentary from TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz. Tickets and participating theaters are available at www.FathomEvents.com.

BONUS FEATURES on BLU-RAY™ and DVD:

The E.T. Journals - Retrace the day-to-day experience of creating E.T from behind-the-scenes footage shot by Academy Award®-winning cinematographer John Toll.  

Steven Spielberg & E.T. - Watch an interview with Steven Spielberg, as he reflects back on the film and discusses his experience working with the actors, as well as his overall and current perspective on E.T.

The Music of E.T.: A Discussion with John Williams - Interviews and footage focused on the long-standing relationship between John Williams and Steven Spielberg.

Designs, Photographs and Marketing of E.T

E.T. Designs by Production Illustrator Ed Verreaux

E.T. Designs by Carlo Rambaldi

Spaceship Designs by Ralph McQuarrie

Designs by Production Illustrator Ed Verreaux

Production Photographs

Marketing E.T. A Look Back - A special insider’s look into the making of E.T. featuring interviews with Steven Spielberg, the cast, and others intimately involved with the film.     

The E.T. Reunion - The cast and filmmaker reunite to discuss their thoughts on the impact of the film.

The 20th Anniversary Premiere - Composer John Williams played the score of E.T. live at the Shrine Auditorium for the re-release premiere of E.T.   This featurette gives us a behind the scenes look at this presentation.

Deleted Scenes

Theatrical Trailer

Malcolm McDowell's Shocking Rock-n-Roll Thriller/Horror Film

AMERICAN SATAN!

From the son of legendary Academy Award winning director John Avildsen (ROCKY, THE KARATE KID) comes the highly anticipated supernatural thriller AMERICAN SATAN, and its new trailer just reached over two million views in less than 2 days. AMERICAN SATAN is shaping up to be the next rock-n-roll classic, starring Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), BooBoo Stewart (X-Men: Days of Future Past),Mark Boone Jr. (Sons of Anarchy), Andy Biersack(Black Veiled Brides), and John Bradley (Game Of Thrones). In theaters everywhere on Friday, October 13th, we'd love to set up an interview with director & writer Ash Avildsen and/or the film's stars (depending on availability) to discuss the evil twists and turns within.   

Please view the new trailer here: AMERICAN SATAN TRAILER 

Set in the land of dreams, AMERICAN SATAN tells the story of a young rock band, half from England half from the US, who move to the Sunset Strip to chase their music dreams.  Living in a van, their passion and talent exceed their means to survive when an enigmatic stranger (Malcolm McDowell) preys on the emotional turmoil lead singer Johnny Faust (Andy Biersack) finds himself in turmoil after learning of his mother's (Denise Richards) illness.  Manipulating this time of weakness for the band, he offers them a deal that will set them on a path of fame, fortune, and ultimately dark destruction. Caught in the middle of a pact with the devil himself, their music and controversial  altercations end up influencing society beyond anything this century has seen.

Embark on a Musical Pilgramage to the Deep South to Visit with America's Last Generation of Blues Devils in the Acclaimed Doc I AM THE BLUES, on DVD/Digital HD on 8/8

"An engaging, must-see documentary." 

-- Melinda Newman, Billboard

"Heartache never sounded so good." 

-- Chris Knight, National Post

EMBARK ON A MUSICAL PILGRIMAGE TO THE DEEP SOUTH

AND VISIT AMERICA'S LAST GENERATION OF BLUES DEVILS

IN THE ACCLAIMED DOCUMENTARY

I AM THE BLUES

Directly following its national theatrical release, this feature-length doc - which captured the "Best Feature-Length Documentary" and "Best Cinematography" honors at the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards -- 

Will Arrive on DVD and Digital HD on August 8, 2017

This August, hit the road with Film Movement for a vibrant, reverential, and nostalgic musical tour of the juke joints, back roads, and church halls of the Mississippi Delta with Daniel Cross' feature-length documentary, I AM THE BLUES.  Diving deep into America's last generation of blues devils, the film takes the audience on an enthralling journey through the swamps of the Louisiana Bayou, the juke joints of the Mississippi Delta, and moonshine-soaked BBQs in North Mississippi Hill Country to visit with many unsung living legends of blues, including 83-year old Bobby Rush - whose latest recording, "Porcupine Meat," won him his first GRAMMY Award for Traditional Blues Album in February. 

 

Following its national theatrical release, I AM THE BLUES, an official selection of Hot Docs International Film Festival and South by Southwest, will be available to documentary and music aficionados on DVD and Digital HD on all leading platforms. The DVD features 30 minutes of deleted scenes, including interviews and performance footage.

 

Crisscrossing unseen byways and back roads, I AM THE BLUES highlights a generation of veteran blues musicians rooted from the genre's heyday, many of whom are now in their 80s, still living in the American deep south and touring the Chitlin' Circuit, including Barbara Lynn, Little Freddie King, Lazy Lester, Henry Gray, Carol Fran, Bilbo Walker, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, RL Boyce, LC Ulmer and Lil' Buck Sinegal.  I AM THE BLUES is directed by award-winning writer-director Daniel Cross, a multi-disciplined filmmaker who also produced the award-winning Canadian films UP THE YANGTZE and LAST TRAIN HOME.

 

Daniel Eagan of Film Journal International calls I AM THE BLUES "pure magic" and says, "For blues fans, these are irreplaceable moments." And Barry Kerzner of American Blues Scene says, "This movie should not be missed. It is a gift on so many levels....this is an invaluable glimpse into the past, and a living record of the blues as it was, and as these greats lived it." 

 

A Rare Glimpse at Johnny Cash Through His Longtime Manager's Eyes

NEW BOOK REVEALS THE UNTOLD STORY OF JOHNNY CASH’S LONG-TIME MANAGER SAUL HOLIFF

In 1973, at the zenith of Johnny Cash’s career, his manager of thirteen years quit. Until now, no one knew why.

Before there was Johnny and June, there was Johnny and Saul. THE MAN WHO CARRIED CASH chronicles a relationship that was both volatile and affectionate between Johnny Cash and his manager Saul Holiff. From roadside taverns to the roaring crowds at Madison Square Garden, from wrecked cars and jail cells all the way to the White House, the story of Johnny and Saul is a portrait of two men from different worlds who were more alike than either cared to admit.

After Holiff’s death his son discovered a key to a storage locker, revealing a whole other side to Cash: Holiff kept a meticulous record of his life—which included audio diaries as well as taped phone calls with Cash. In addition to audiotapes, Holiff’s personal archive included hundreds of letters and photos and rare magazine and newspaper clippings, which give insight and perspective that interviewing people decades after the fact does not.

THE MAN WHO CARRIED CASH explores the dizzying success and rock-bottom depths the Cash-Holiff partnership faced over two decades, and reveals the differences that eventually pulled them apart. The book sheds light on several facets of Johnny Cash's legacy, including:

• Offering rare new material on the musical idol, illuminating a previously unknown but major side of his professional and personal life
• Exploring one of the least-known but most influential men in music; Holiff was one of the first promoters of many rock n’ roll artists such as Bill Haley, Paul Anka, Little Richard, Carl Perkins and Buddy Holly. He also managed Tommy Hunter and June Carter
• Presenting not only an in-depth exploration of the relationship between a famous client and his manager, but of two men faced with a variety of inner demons and conflicts

Part memoir/part showbiz drama due to the incredible fireworks the two shared, THE MAN WHO CARRIED CASH is the most in-depth and insider look at the unlikely, rocky relationship between an American country superstar and his straitlaced business manager!

THE MAN WHO CARRIED CASH

Saul Holiff, Johnny Cash, and the Making

of an American Icon

by Julie Chadwick

Dundurn Press

June 20, 2017

CALIFORNIA TYPEWRITER | Theatrical Doc starring Tom Hanks & John Mayer In Theaters Beginning Aug 18th

CALIFORNIA TYPEWRITER is a documentary portrait of artists, writers, and collectors who remain steadfastly loyal to the typewriter as a tool and muse, featuring Tom Hanks, John Mayer, David McCullough, Sam Shepard, and others.It also movingly documents the struggles of California Typewriter, one of the last standing repair shops in America dedicated to keeping the aging machines clicking.In the process, the film delivers a thought-provoking meditation on the changing dynamic between humans and machines, and encourages us to consider our own relationship with technology, old and new, as the digital age’s emphasis on speed and convenience redefines who’s serving whom, human or machine?

Those who haven’t adjusted ecstatically to all the wonders of modern technology will revel in the unorthodox and delightful documentary California Typewriter, one of the major discoveries at this year’s Telluride Film Festival...a loving valentine to all the iconoclasts who resist what the rest of the world defines as progress.” - Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter

“If California Typewriter doesn’t make you cry, laugh or experience an unexpected desire to bear hug actor Tom Hanks, call the police: Someone has stolen your heart and ability to recognize genuine soulfulness.”  - Lou Fancher, Oakland Tribune 

“Pure Typewriter Heaven”  - Don DeLillo

JAWS and ELVIRA Collections On Sale from Fright-Rags

Jaws & Elvira collections on sale now from Fright-Rags

Shop now at Fright-Rags.com

Fright-Rags' ever-growing line of horror apparel has two exciting additions. Expand your summer wardrobe with Jaws apparel and prepare for the fast-approaching Halloween season with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark shirts.

You're gonna need a bigger closet for Fright-Rags' Jaws collection. There are three new shirt designs - comic book-style art by Timothy Lim, a mechanical shark crew shirt by Christopher Franchi, and an ominous piece by Dan Mumford - and five enamel pins, including the iconic poster artwork with sliding shark action. Four older Jaws shirts have been reprinted as well.

Fright-Rags busts out a collection dedicated to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. It consists of three shirts by Ralf Krause featuring the likeness of Cassandra Peterson as the beloved horror hostess. Select designs are available as tank tops and baseball tees as well.

Jaws and Elvira collections are on sale now at Fright-Rags.com. Quantities are limited.

ADIOS, MOTHERFUCKER by Michael Ruffino (Anthony Boudain/Ecco; On-sale August 29)

ONE BAND. 250,000 MILES. METAL. 

From Anthony Bourdain and Ecco comes ADIOS, MOTHERFUCKER: A Gentleman’s Progress Through Rock and Roll (Anthony Bourdain/Ecco On-sale August 29, 2017)

The riotous and unbridled confessions of a Michael Ruffino, a debauched veteran of the 80’s hair-metal nostalgia circuit. An incendiary memoir, now updated and expanded from the version published in 2004 as Gentlemanly Repose!

With Ruffino on bass, The Unband emerged from the suburbs of late ‘80’s New England and drank, drugged, crashed, and burned their way across the United States. On the brink of the new century and with the help of their dominatrix manager, a drug-dealing patron bent on revolution, and a willful record executive or two, the band got their big break, in a collapsing music industry where boy-band pop ruled and rock music had been declared dead. ADIOS, MOTHERFUCKER is the epic chronicle of the Unband’s experience drinking, fighting, and playing loud music with ‘80s metal bands like Dio and Def Leppard, decades after their heyday. Into the volatile mix, the Unband brought illegal pyrotechnics, a giant red inflatable hand for making giant inflatable gestures, a roadie dubiously named Safety Bear, a high tolerance for liver damage, and an infectious love of rock & roll and everything it stands for. 

In this hilarious and candid account, which Anthony Bourdain recently called “the best Rock and Roll memoir of all time,” Ruffino takes readers along on a raucous tear across a surrealistic American landscape that includes mute Christian groupies, crack-smoking Girl Scouts, beer-drinking chimps, and thousands of head-bangers who cannot accept that hair metal died twenty years earlier--while offering uncensored portraits of Ronnie James Dio, Anthrax, Sebastian Bach, Lemmy, and others. From partying with OPEC executives in Lubbock, Texas to surviving--quite literally--off Def Leppard’s left-overs, ADIOS, MOTHERFUCKER is a reader’s backstage pass to the other side of rock & roll: a Mad magazine world infused with an unbridled, absurdist spirit.

Equal parts This Is Spinal Tap and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, ADIOS, MOTHERFUCKER is gonzo rock storytelling at its finest—excessive, incendiary, intelligent, hilarious, and utterly original. 

Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention's Revolutionary 1967 Album, "Absolutely Free," Celebrates 50th Anniversary With Expanded 2 LP Edition Featuring Rare and Unreleased Material, Due September 29 via Zappa Records/UMe

FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION’S REVOLUTIONARY 1967 ALBUM, ABSOLUTELY FREE,CELEBRATES 50^TH ANNIVERSARY WITH EXPANDED 2 LP EDITION FEATURING RARE AND UNRELEASED MATERIAL AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 29 VIA ZAPPA RECORDS/UMe

The Zappa Family Trust will mark the 50th anniversary of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention’s politically-charged, envelope-pushing sophomore album, Absolutely Free, with an expanded vinyl-exclusive edition on September 29 via Zappa Records/UMe. This double 180-gram LP version will include the original record mastered by Bernie Grundman cut directly from the original analog master tapes and a second disc with 20 minutes of rare and unreleased bonus material, including the “Why Don’tcha Do Me Right?”/“Big Leg Emma” single as well as vintage remixes and radio ads from The Vault on side one and a laser etching of Zappa’s visage from the album cover on side two. The package features Zappa’s original layout and a reproduction of the rare, highly sought-after “libretto,” an 18-page booklet with a foreword by FZ and lyrics to all the compositions, that was offered only by mail order when originally released. Absolutely Free is available for pre-order now: https://UMe.lnk.to/FZAbsolutelyFree

Released 50 years ago on May 26, 1967 on Verve Records, Absolutely Free was the Mothers of Invention’s follow-up to their landmark debut album, Freak Out! Brash, challenging and exhilarating, the record was revolutionary as it pushed the limits of what an album could be. A pop culture pastiche, the album leaps through genres – from psychedelic pop and progressive rock to free-form jazz and avant-garde noise to doo-wop and garage rock, often in the same composition as on album highlight, “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It,” and is filled with Zappa’s trademark biting political and social satire. Hailed by All Music as a “fabulously inventive record” that is “by turns hilarious, inscrutable, and virtuosically complex,” the album is divided into two “oratorios” or song suites – “Absolutely Free” and “The M.O.I. American Pageant” – and is rife with complex instrumentation, cutting edge experimentation and unconventional editing.

Produced by Tom Wilson (Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, Sun Ra), who first worked with the band on Freak Out! the year prior, Absolutely Free featured an expanded cadre of musicians working with Zappa and vocalist Ray Collins and included Jim Fielder on guitar, Roy Estrada on bass, Don Preston on keyboards, Bunk Gardner on woodwinds, and drummers Jim Black and Billy Mundi. The album was recorded the week before Thanksgiving, November 1966 in Los Angeles at the Sunset-Highland Studios of T.T.G. Inc., in a series of four sessions. It was edited and re-mixed in New York City at the MGM Studios in five sessions the following week. In Clash’s appreciation of the record, they exclaimed: “Amidst this high-brow inspiration and aggressive musical arrangement we have beautiful passages of melody, laugh-out-loud lyrics about vegetables and lacerating cynicism. Nonconformist, comedic and maverick, Absolutely Free establishes Zappa as a fantastical musical mutineer and pioneering bandleader.”

As Zappa wrote in the “libretto,” “The music of the MOTHERS speaks of the feelings of what might be described as THE VAST MINORITY. The feelings of the people on the fringe of everything . . . the ones who don’t care if they’re IN or OUT … don’t care if they’re HIP, HEP, SWINGIN’ or ZORCH. This is the audience the MOTHERS want to reach … those few have the power within themselves to cause or motivate social change but have never used it for one reason or another. If you are reading this and understand it (even if you have short hair and watch TV 18 hours a day), it is time that you realized WHO and WHAT YOU ARE. It is time you realized what the words to our songs mean.”

50 years later Absolutely Free resonates as strong as ever and has proven itself to be prescient and wildly ahead of its time.

ABSOLUTELY FREE TRACK LISTING

LP1 – Side 1
1. Plastic People
2. The Duke Of Prunes
3. Amnesia Vivace
4. The Duke Regains His Chops
5. Call Any Vegetable
6. Invocation And Ritual Dance Of The Young Pumpkin
7. Soft-Sell Conclusion

LP1 – Side 2
1. America Drinks
2. Status Back Baby
3. Uncle Bernie’s Farm
4. Son Of Suzy Creamcheese
5. Brown Shoes Don’t Make It
6. America Drinks & Goes Home

LP2 – Side 1
1. Absolutely Free Radio Ad #1
2. Why Don’tcha Do Me Right
3. Big Leg Emma
4. Absolutely Free Radio Ad #2
5. “Glutton For Punishment…”
6. America Drinks – 1969 Re-Mix
7. Brown Shoes Don’t Make It – 1969 Re-Mix
8.  America Drinks & Goes Home #2 – 1969 Re-Mix

LP2 – Side 2
Laser Etching

THINGS ARE WHAT YOU MAKE OF THEM: Life Advice for Creatives by Adam J Kurtz & NOCTURNAL JOURNAL by Lee Crutchley

THINGS ARE WHAT YOU MAKE OF THEM: Life Advice for Creatives

By Adam J. Kurtz (aka @adamjk)

On Sale October 3, 2017

Tarcher Perigee Paperback, an imprint of Penguin Random House

From the creative mind and heart of Adam J. Kurtz comes this quirky, upbeat rallying cry for modern day creators of all stripes, with a foreword by Grace Bonney. Expanding on a series of popular guides he's created for Design*Sponge, this is a heartfelt collection of hand-lettered notes that read like little self-affirmations you’d post to your mirror, laptop or cubicle wall, giving you direction and peace of mind when you’re floundering about in procrastination, struggling to comprehend your client’s harsh critique, or comparing yourself to your peer whose career is taking off while you’re getting rejection after rejection.

Sharing wisdom and compassion (and a fair share of snark), Adam acknowledges the dark underbelly of the creative lifestyle – self-doubts, fear, jealousy, obsessive comparisons to others, shifting technologies that can help or hurt your career, and the horror of looking back at past work –and then gives a swift kick in the pants to address those terrifying problems and move on. But most importantly, he lifts his readers up to explore and celebrate their creative community, to support one another, and to just be you in all your glory and neuroses. Things Are What You Make of Them is The Artist’s Way for this new generation of creatives and reads like a foul-mouthed struggling creative muppet on Avenue Q (bet you’ve never heard of a book described that way!).

Adam J. Kurtz (aka @adamjk) is an artist and author of 1 Page at a Time and Pick Me Up, which have been published in over a dozen languages. His “very personal” work for clients like Strand Bookstore and Urban Outfitters has been featured in NYLON, PRINT, VICE, BuzzFeed and more. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. View the complete media kit here for additional content (excerpts, images, facts sheet, etc.): kit.adamjk.com

What’s hiding under your bed? Kids aren’t the only one kept awake at night be scary monsters. Adults fight their own demons that keep them up too. According to the Center for Disease Control, 1 out of 3 Americans aren’t getting enough sleep, “enough” being the recommended 7 hours a night to “promote optimal health and well-being.” There are many causes for sleep deprivation: from dietary choices to stress and anxieties to sleep disorders to excitement and a creative mind that won’t turn off when the lights go out.

It can be easy to let these things become obstructions that rule your night and block you from much needed sleep, but as artist and illustrator Lee Crutchley proposes in his new 2-color release THE NOCTURNAL JOURNAL: A Late-Night Exploration of What’s Really On Your Mind (on sale September 5, 2017; TarcherPerigee Paperback), if you decide to accept and explore those late-night thoughts and feelings, you can benefit from a fresh perspective, assuage your fears, explore your creativity, confront your darkest feelings, and reconnect with your truest self. Here are just a handful of sample prompts from the journal that help rein in and navigate the night mind:

·       Write a resume that consists only of your failures and rejections. Which of these are still holding you back?

·       Fill this box with all of your worries. Now sort them into these boxes: productive worries & unproductive worries.

·       Write down every amazing idea you have tonight. Tomorrow, highlight the ideas that are still amazing.

·       What would you save in a fire? What would you burn to the ground?

·       What will you be remembered for? What would you like to be remembered for?

When the sun rises you will again be the version of you that people know and love, but armed with a fresh energy and perspective about what you want, where you are going, and who you are.