With songs like “Call Any Vegetable” and “Who Needs the Peace Corps,” the average Frank Zappa fan knows you’re not talking about Top 40 music.
So do the members of Uncle Meat, a Frank Zappa tribute band that will celebrate their one-year birthday at Bonzai Bob’s in Lake Orion on July 18.
Lake Orion resident Andy Turpen said he first learned of the band after seeing an advertisement for members in the Detroit weekly newspaper The Metro Times.
“(Uncle Meat member) Scott Schroen placed the ad for a Zappa tribute band, not necessarily including him…He wanted it to be true to the format, which meant only the best musicians are in the band.”
Turpen tried out three separate times for the band, with members chosen through a form of “Zappa Survivor,” which eliminated potential members based on the consensus of the group, much like the popular game show it was named after.
“I’ve been playing in bands since I was 15,” Turpen said. “But this was totally different. It was a consensus method.”
Turpen said the band started out with six members but is now down to four.
“You have to do your homework every week,” he said. “It’s not like any other music. It’s completely unique.”
Turpen has been a Frank Zappa fan since first hearing the music when he was 13 or 14 years old. He calls Zappa a “pioneer” of a number of different musical and political movements.
“He really was the first to integrate many different elements into one format,” he said. “Way before Beck, there was Zappa…He used humor, social commentary and satire.”
Zappa died at age 53 of cancer in 1993, but Turpen said the music lives on, and Zappa fans are “loyal for life.”
“Zappa’s fan base is very critical,” he added. “They don’t just come to ‘listen to the Blues’…Apparently we’re pulling it off.”
The “we” also includes, besides Turpen (vocals, some keyboard and kazoo) and Hazel Park resident Schroen (guitar), Uncle Meat members Livonia resident Vinny Le Blanc (drums) and Ann Arbor resident Preston Parish (bass), who all do vocals with the group as well.
“We do four-part harmonies, which are crucial,” Turpen said. “It’s a very high energy show. I come from a punk band background, so my approach is very physical.”
Turpen said if you come to an Uncle Meat show, you shouldn’t expect to just be sitting in the audience listening.
“It’s very interactive, we call people up on stage,” he added.
Currently the band has 33 Zappa songs in its repertoire, and Turpen said some of them might be considered “R-rate material,” although Zappa’s point was never to just be dirty.
“He was one of the first to fight censorship,” said Turpen. “He was probably misunderstood by the common folk because he wasn’t a mainstream artist.”
According to Turpen, the goal of the band is to keep Zappa’s music alive for the fans.
“(Zappa’s music) had a very big effect on myself and the guys I’m playing with as well,” he said. “It came to light pretty quickly that this would be totally a Detroit approach to this…raw rock-n-roll.”
Turpen said it was very important to the members of Uncle Meat that they get the music just right.
“Zappa articulated his musical ideals through 12-member bands, typically,” he said. “He was the first rock orchestrator.
“There’s just a couple of other groups that are doing this, and they’ve played with ex-Zappa personnel.”
Turpen calls the band’s rehearsal schedule “militant.” Band members hope to possibly do a tour after playing eight shows since they formed.
“I’ve played in a bunch of different bands, but there’s definitely a chemistry,” he said of Uncle Meat. “We’re all single…this band is essentially our girlfriend.”
The name of the band hails from a Zappa album and song that was made into a film.
“It just sounded raw and it represented what we’re doing as far as our approach to it,” Turpen said. “I hate the term ‘tribute band,’ because it implies that we’re dressing up like him or something…we’re just trying to keep the music alive, and we want to do what he did justice.”
Uncle Meat will perform at Bonzai Bob’s, located at 29 Front Street in downtown Lake Orion, on July 18 at 10 p.m. For more information on Uncle Meat, visit www.unclemeat.com.