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Duke of Madness Motors: New Firesign Theatre book with over 80 hours of radio shows!
01.17.2011
11:11 am
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Dear Friends,

You may or may not be aware that there is a brand new Firesign Theatre book and DVD-ROM with over 80 hours of audio material comprising ALL of their staggeringly genius radio shows from 1970 to 1972.

Well there is, and it’s called Duke of Madness Motors, the result of an over ten-year-long labor of love—indeed an odyssey of careful detective work—by their longtime archivist, and my pal, the grand and groovy Mister Taylor Jessen. The story is told of young Taylor locating a fan with a copy of one show he had not been able to track down otherwise. The problem was, the tape was in a shed that had fallen victim to a Malibu mudslide. For an entire day, Taylor tried to find the tape to no avail. So what did he do next? He returned the following week and and he DID locate the tape. That’s dedication! That’s school spirit!

It even has a blurb on the back from little old me: “This is comparable to being a James Joyce fanatic and finding not just one notebook where he’s working out the themes that would become fully developed in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, but an entire crate of ‘em. Some of the most mind-bending, thought-provoking and hilarious material of their career. A counter cultural treasure of the highest order.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself…

Here’s how Firesign Theatre put it on their website:

It’s been such a long exposition, you know. Countless hours spent poring through the personal archives of Firesign group members and devoted fans alike. Fragile, aging reel-to-reel tapes handled with great care and transferred to digital media for restoration. Information and images gathered, processed and refined. Interviews conducted, transcribed and edited. The whole enchilada cubed, reheated, inspected, injected, detected, filtered, digitized, edited and assembled to perfection.

Yes, thanks to the tireless efforts of official Firesign archivist Taylor Jessen, we are proud to present, for the first time anywhere, the complete, mammoth, authoritatively definitive and totally awesome Duke of Madness Motors: The Complete “Dear Friends” Radio Era 1970-1972 book and DVD-ROM combo pack.

The DVD-ROM disc contains high-resolution MP3 audio files of every Firesign radio broadcast from their three series’ of the early 1970’s:
The Firesign Theatre Radio Hour Hour (24 episodes);
Dear Friends (21 episodes); and
Let’s Eat (12 episodes)

...ending with their big final blockbuster, Martian Space Party. A total of 58 shows in all, 80 hours of audio, on a single DVD-ROM disc. Each broadcast is completely restored and remastered for your protection. There’s also the syndicated versions of the Dear Friends and Let’s Eat episodes, and a handful of additional goodies and surprises from the vaults.

The full color 108-page 7"x10” book contains:

Complete rundowns of every broadcast;
A lengthy and thorough historical/hysterical essay on the troupe;
New intereviews with each Firesign group member;
Interviews with long-time Firesign associates, producer Bill McIntyre and engineer The Live Earl Jive;
Collages by Phil Proctor;
Vintage found objects, original scripts and more.

This is indeed the cultural landslide of a lifetime, more pure unadulterated Firesign than has ever been available in a single package. You’ll revel in the lightning-fast word play, bon mots, sparkling repartee, inside jokes, jokey insights, non-sequitors, surreal flights of fancy, bizarre sound effects, social studies, poetic justice, and downright jaw dropping serendipitous synchronicity that this landmark institution of comedy managed to pull off from out of left field in a mere two-year period. Don’t miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity to own and experience this cornucopia of creamy Firesign goodness.

Here is the thing: Duke of Madness Motors has been published in a STRICTLY limited edition and when it’s sold out, it’s GONE for good (or will command top dollar on eBay). Snooze and you shall lose, in other words. My guess is that within a matter of weeks the entire run of this set will be gone. Order your copy of Duke of Madness Motors today! (My own copy should arrive this afternoon. I can assure you that I’ll be watching for the postman like a hawk!)

Here is Firesign’s Phil Proctor holding his copy of Duke of Madness Motors.

Below, my interview with Phil Proctor last summer when some of these shows were airing on WFMU.
 

 
More Firesign Theatre on Dangerous Minds

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.17.2011
11:11 am
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Firesign Theatre performing live this weekend in Los Angeles!
10.18.2010
03:33 pm
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Dear Friends, just a reminder that the legendary comedy troupe, Firesign Theatre will be performing at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater in Los Angeles this weekend, doing their classic album I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus (my personal favorite) in its entirety.

Get tickets for Friday here and for the Saturday night performance, here.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.18.2010
03:33 pm
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And speaking of Bozos on buses: The Firesign Theatre return to Los Angeles this month!
10.05.2010
09:50 am
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It’s a time of the year even better than Christmas in the Metzger household, as my comedic heros, the legendary Firesign Theatre will once again be playing a three-day residency in Los Angeles, Oct 21,22,23, at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater and performing my personal favorite album of theirs, I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus, in its entirety. YES!

Later this week, on October 8, the “4 or 5 crazy guys” will be performing at the Marin Center Showcase Theater, San Rafael, CA and Oct 9, at the Golden State Theatre in Monterey, CA. Don’t miss them if you are in the area(s)!!!

Get tickets at Firesign Theatre.com
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.05.2010
09:50 am
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Afghanistan Yes We Can’t
08.13.2010
09:07 pm
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Thank you Peter Bergman/Radio Free Oz.com

Posted by Richard Metzger
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08.13.2010
09:07 pm
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Rock or Roll Memory Bank or Firesign Theatre is Playing at My House
06.23.2010
12:43 am
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Dangerous Minds pal Taylor Jessen, the fabulously meticulous archivist for the Firesign Theatre is in the process of putting together the ULTIMATE collection of rare Firesign Theatre radio shows for a limited edition release via www.firesigntheatre.com. I’ve been raving about these programs (all recorded between 1968-72) on this blog for months and now you can hear them yourself, every Tuesday on WFMU radio at 7:00 pm in the New York area over the airwaves and streaming over the Internet on WFMU.org.

Below Taylor writes of what it was like trying to track down the audio cues used by the FST in an online essay on WFMU’s popular blog, with 30 mp3 files and a contest to win Firesign Theatre photographs signed by all four members:

For ten years or so, the Firesign Theatre has been engaging me in a friendly round of “Stump the Archivist.”

Between 1970-1972, Firesign did about seventy hours of original radio broadcasts. The shows were mostly an excuse for them to riff, but they also played a lot of music breaks, sound effects, incidental music, and total dada noise foofaraw. During those original broadcasts of The Firesign Theatre Radio Hour Hour, Dear Friends, and Let’s Eat, they put the needle on the record about 1000 times, and one of the most fun aspects of restoring all those airchecks (soon to be reissued, yes the whole schmear, in remastered digital audio with an accompanying 108-page comic-book-size color fan guide featuring complete show rundowns, an historical essay, new interviews with the 4or5 guys and their engineer & producer, never-published photos, collages, found objects, scripts, and good God make it stop, it’s just too awesome. Please check regularly here and at www.firesigntheatre.com for an official announcement; we’re only making 500 copies and they’ll never be sold in stores) – one of the most fun aspects, I say, of all this obsessive archival work was identifying those 1000 needle-drops.

To play along and try to identify these music cues—-some are easy: Beatles, Stones, Dylan, but others are pretty darn obscure—visit Firesign Theatre is Playing At My House (WFMU’s Beware of the Blog). You only have to be able to identify ONE of the musical mysteries to win!

Below, my recent interview with the Phil Proctor about the vintage Firesign Theatre radio shows being aired on WFMU:
 

 
Firesign Theatre on Dangerous Minds

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.23.2010
12:43 am
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Phil Proctor: Forward into the Past with The Firesign Theatre
06.09.2010
12:13 am
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Beginning June 15, vintage Firesign Theatre radio shows, dating from 1970-72 will be rebroadcast for the first time since their original air dates on WFMU radio. This is comparable to being a James Joyce fanatic and finding not just one notebook where he’s working out the themes that would become fully developed in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, but an entire crate of ‘em. Some of the most mind-bending, thought-provoking and hilarious material of their career and unheard for the past 40 years. A counter cultural treasure of the highest order. Firesign Theatre LIVE in Portland and Eugene, Oregon this weekend!

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.09.2010
12:13 am
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The Return of Radio Free Oz
04.22.2010
12:11 am
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Dangerous Minds pal, Peter Bergman is back on the radio! The Firesign Theatre funnyman has resurrected the Radio Free Oz moniker of his legendary KPFK radio show of the mid-1960s and is trying something new for 2010.

Broadcasting from his new homebase in Whidbey Island, WA, Bergman’s new incarnation of Radio Free Oz continues on with his unique take on freeform radio and features cameo appearances from his comrades in the Firesign Theatre (I even make an appearance in one of them). Currently a weekly program going out live on Sunday nights, Radio Free Oz will soon be on five nights a week.

The highlight for me are the segments about weirdo evangelist Tony Alamo by Philip Proctor in each show. I laughed so hard I cried. Co-hosted by David Ossman.

And speaking of Radio Free Oz, Proctor and Bergman, I found this unusual—and really interesting—piece on YouTube today and it features Peter Bergman and Philip Proctor reading from William Burroughs. Peter reads “Death Dwarf in the Street” on the old Radio Free Oz show in the ‘60s and Phil reads “The Saragossa Cafe” in a more recent recording. An excerpt from Nova Express, a film by Andre Perkowski.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.22.2010
12:11 am
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Firesign Theatre live in Washington this weekend
01.22.2010
08:02 pm
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Get tickets at www.firesigntheatre.com. And you can listen to an NPR interview with David Ossman and Philip Austin here.

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.22.2010
08:02 pm
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Firesign Theatre: Everything You Know is Wrong
11.15.2009
11:13 pm
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For the first time in a very long time, an interview with Philip Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman and Philip Proctor, the legendary Firesign Theater. (Jan 8 & 9, 2010 shows in Whidbey Island, Washington, see www.firesigntheatre.com for more information)
 

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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11.15.2009
11:13 pm
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Waiting For the Firesign Theatre or Someone Like Them
10.15.2009
11:58 pm
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Word of mouth “buzz” should prove strong for reunited comedy icons The Firesign Theatre’s four evening run at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater after Wednesday’s well-received opening night. Performing some of their “greatest hits” including the complete librettos for fan favorites “Don’t Crush That Dwarf Hand Me the Pliers” and their debut record 1968’s “Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him,” the troupe were in fine form, winning two standing ovations from the wildly enthusiastic audience. The second act consisted of scenes from “Anythynge You Want To: Shakespeare’s Lost Comedie” which the group has been working on and retooling for several decades and an appearance by their most popular character, Nick Danger, “America’s Only Detective.”

More from The Calendar: The Firesign Theatre returns to its Los Angeles roots

Here’s an extraordinary performance of the Nick Danger adventure Frame Me Pretty from an 1981 episode of Evening at the Improv:
 

 

The Firesign Theatre’s “Forward Into the Past”
Where: Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., L.A.
When: 8 p.m. Oct 14 to 17
www.firesigntheatre.com

Cross posting this item from Brand X

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.15.2009
11:58 pm
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Forward Into the Past: The Firesign Theatre Returns to Its Los Angeles Roots
10.08.2009
10:56 am
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I have a short article in the Calendar section of today’s Los Angeles Times. It was clear to me when I read what my editor there, Dean Kuipers, added to my original draft that he, too, was a big Firesign Theater fan:

The Library of Congress called the Firesign Theatre “the Beatles of Comedy” when its 1970 album “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers” was selected for the National Recording Registry.

An apt comparison, considering that, along with contemporaries Monty Python in Britain, the searing and psychedelic satirical troupe helped invent a literary brand of album comedy that lodged itself in the culture of college students across the country. The group paved the way for later arrivals such as Cheech & Chong, “Saturday Night Live” and Second City.

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of one of its most popular characters, detective Nick Danger, Third Eye, the four-man troupe makes a rare local appearance next week, performing Oct. 14 to 17 at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre with a new show, “Forward Into the Past.”


Read the entire article at the Los Angeles Times

Tickets on sale for the Firesign Theatre show in Los Angeles next week here

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.08.2009
10:56 am
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Reality Hacking w/ The Firesign Theatre’s Proctor & Bergman
09.27.2009
09:03 pm
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(Part I) In which P&B announce the upcoming Firesign shows in LA (buy tickets here), Richard reveals himself to be a “baby of the Firesign Theatre” (it’s true!),  Phil tells how the Firesign Theatre were the original computer hackers and we discover why Surrealism makes you smarter. As Peter says near the end, “You either never heard of us, or you have us memorized.” I fall into the latter camp and this one is for all my fellow Bozos on this Bus. I have done hundreds of interviews in my career and this one is in my top five favorites. Hopefully, schedules permitting, I’ll be speaking to all four Firesign Theatre members next month. Stayed tuned for Part II next week. (You can listen to David Ossman and Phil Austin on Air America recently here)

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.27.2009
09:03 pm
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Surrealism Makes You Smarter!
09.16.2009
12:50 pm
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In that case, so must growing up reading William Burroughs, the Illuminatus trilogy, conspiracy theory books, dropping acid and listening to Firesign Theatre records!

From Science Digest:

Reading a book by Franz Kafka ?

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.16.2009
12:50 pm
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