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The Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK) is a recording studio built in 1979 by musician, composer, songwriter, and bandleader Frank Zappa at his home in Los Angeles, California. The home and recording studio was sold to Lady Gaga in 2016, and later purchased by Elizabeth Jagger in 2021.
Frank Zappa built the studio in his 6,759-square-foot home in Laurel Canyon, completing it on September 1, 1979. The studio was custom designed by Rudi Breuer with input from Zappa and his technical staff. The estimated construction costs ranged between $1.5 and $3.5 million. [1]
Soon after the studio was completed, Ken Scott engineered the four song debut EP by Missing Persons at UMRK. [2] In 1982 two tracks from the EP were re-issued on the band's debut studio album, Spring Session M .
In July, 1980, Zappa began recording at the UMRK several songs that were eventually released on the album You Are What You Is . [1] Zappa would use the studio regularly until his death in 1993.
In 2016, Lady Gaga purchased the Zappa homestead, [3] including the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen. It is one of the studios she used for the recording of her sixth album, Chromatica . [4] In 2021 the house was sold to Elizabeth Jagger.
The UMRK Mobile Studio was a remote recording bus purchased from Mike Love of the Beach Boys. The studio bus needed extensive repairs and upgrades after years of sitting idle at Love's home. [1] The mobile studio was used in the first cable TV / FM "Simulcast" for Zappa's Halloween show on October 31, 1981. The show was broadcast live on MTV from the Palladium in New York City, with the audio-only portion broadcast over FM's new "Starfleet Radio" network. The broadcast was engineered from the UMRK bus by Zappa's longtime audio engineer Mark G. Pinske.
The first known mention of "Utility Muffin Research Kitchen" was in the 1975 song "Muffin Man" on the album Bongo Fury .
In the conclusion of Zappa's Joe's Garage , Joe, the protagonist, gives in to conformity and gets a job on the assembly line at the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen; the narration describing his job there is nearly identical to the opening narration from "Muffin Man".
Joe's Garage is a three-part rock opera released by American musician Frank Zappa in September and November 1979. Originally released as two separate albums on Zappa Records, the project was later remastered and reissued as a triple album box set, Joe's Garage, Acts I, II & III, in 1987. The story is told by a character identified as the "Central Scrutinizer" narrating the story of Joe, an average adolescent male, from Canoga Park, Los Angeles, who forms a garage rock band, has unsatisfying relationships with women, gives all of his money to a government-assisted and insincere religion, explores sexual activities with appliances, and is imprisoned. After being released from prison into a dystopian society in which music itself has been criminalized, he lapses into insanity.
Missing Persons is an American rock band founded in 1980 in Los Angeles by guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, vocalist Dale Bozzio, and drummer Terry Bozzio. They later added bassist Patrick O'Hearn and keyboardist Chuck Wild. Dale's quirky voice and heavy makeup made the band a favorite on MTV in the early 1980s.
Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in May 1982 and digitally remastered in 1991. It features five tracks composed by Zappa, and one song, "Valley Girl", co-written with his then-14 year old daughter Moon Zappa, who provided the spoken monologue mocking Valley girls, including phrases like "Gag me with a spoon!".
Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar is a series of three albums - Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar Some More, and Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar - released by Frank Zappa in 1981. The albums consist solely of electric guitar instrumentals and improvised solos (mostly) played live by Zappa and featuring a wide variety of backing musicians.
Strictly Commercial is a compilation album by Frank Zappa. It was released in 1995, two years after his death. The album was named as part of a 2011 lawsuit by Gail Zappa towards Rykodisc, claiming the label released several vault masters without the permission of the Zappa Family Trust on this and other releases, specifically the single edits of some songs, such as the 12" disco Remix of "Dancin' Fool". The disc is currently out of print and has been replaced in Zappa's catalog by the 2016 compilation album ZAPPAtite.
The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and last operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including the New York Dolls' New York Dolls, Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run, Blondie's Parallel Lines, Metallica's Load and Reload, the Eagles' Hotel California, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP, Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction, and Kanye West's The College Dropout. More recent albums with songs recorded at Record Plant include Lady Gaga's ARTPOP, D'Angelo's Black Messiah, Justin Bieber's Purpose, Beyoncé's Lemonade, and Ariana Grande's Thank U, Next.
WBLM is a classic rock radio station licensed to Portland, Maine. The station has a studio in One City Center, along with co-owned Townsquare Media stations WJBQ, WCYY and WHOM. The station also serves as the Portland market affiliate for the New England Patriots Radio Network. WBLM is one of only a few FM Stations in New England licensed to operate at 100,000 watts, meaning that the station can be received from almost anywhere within a 90-mile radius of its transmitter. WBLM broadcasts from a tower near Route 121 in Raymond that is the second tallest man-made structure in Maine.
Pal Recording Studio (1957–1964) was an independent recording studio that operated in Cucamonga, California, an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County that later merged with the communities of Alta Loma, and Etiwanda to form Rancho Cucamonga. The studio was started by engineer/innovator Paul Buff. It was known for its instrumental Surf music recordings such as "Wipe Out" and the original demo recording of "Pipeline." It was located first at 8020 North Archibald Avenue and later moved a few doors down to 8040.
Gary Kellgren was an American audio engineer and co-founder of The Record Plant recording studios, along with businessman Chris Stone.
"Orange Colored Sky" is a popular song written by Milton Delugg and Willie Stein and published in 1950. The first known recording was on July 11, 1950, on KING records catalog number 15061, with Janet Brace singing and Milton Delugg conducting the orchestra.
The Dub Room Special is an album by American musician Frank Zappa, released in August 2007. It is a soundtrack for the film of the same name, and combines recordings from a TV-show performance on August 27, 1974, and from a concert in New York City on October 31, 1981. The album, originally prepared for vinyl release by Zappa, was first sold at Zappa Plays Zappa shows in the United States during August 2007. Shortly thereafter, it became available for mail order.
"Muffin Man" is a song recorded live by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. It appears on his 1975 mostly live album Bongo Fury made with Captain Beefheart.
Tinsel Town Rebellion is a double live album released by Frank Zappa in May 1981. The album was conceived by Zappa after he scrapped the planned albums Warts and All and Crush All Boxes, and contains tracks that were intended for those albums.
You Are What You Is is a 1981 double album by American musician Frank Zappa. His 34th album, it consists of three musical suites which encompass pop, doo-wop, jazz, hard rock, reggae, soul, blues, new wave and country. The album's lyrics satirize a number of topics, including hippies, socialites, fashion, narcotics use, cultural appropriation, religion, televangelists and the military draft.
The Old Masters is a box set series by Frank Zappa, released in three volumes on Barking Pumpkin Records from April 1985 to December 1987, consisting of studio and live albums by Zappa and The Mothers of Invention originally released from 1966 to 1976 on other labels, as well as "Mystery Discs" which contained previously unreleased material. The graphics on all three sets was airbrush illustrated by Larry Grossman. 200 Motels was not included in the series, as it was the only Zappa/Mothers album for which Zappa was unable to secure the rights.
Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood was an American rock musician notable for being a member of the original version of Frank Zappa's band the Mothers of Invention, providing soprano, tenor and baritone saxophone, tambourine, vocals and vocal sound effects. He appeared on all the albums of the original Mothers line-up and the 'posthumous' releases Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, as well as certain subsequent Zappa albums. He also appeared in the films 200 Motels, Video from Hell and Uncle Meat.
Feeding the Monkies at Ma Maison is an album by Frank Zappa, which was released posthumously in 2011 by The Zappa Family Trust on Zappa Records.
Roxy by Proxy is a live album by Frank Zappa, recorded in December 1973 at The Roxy Theatre in Hollywood, California and released posthumously in March 2014 by The Zappa Family Trust on Zappa Records.
"A Little Green Rosetta", by Frank Zappa, is the final song on the 1979 concept album Joe's Garage Acts II & III. The main character from this triple-album rock opera is faced with the decline of the music industry, and is forced to work on an assembly line placing little frosted rosettes on top of muffins at the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen facility
"I Have Been in You", by Frank Zappa, is the opening song on the 1979 album Sheik Yerbouti. Taking the structure of a love song pastiche, Zappa used the composition to ridicule Peter Frampton's 1977 album and single I'm in You. Zappa's parody was directed at Frampton's change from the earnest musician to teen pop idol, replete with bare chested album cover, and syrupy love ballads. The song is in the same vein as the Mothers of Invention's lampooning of the Beatles with We're Only in It for the Money.
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