Frank Zappa Vault Team Drops Rare ‘Barfko-Swill Goods’
The Frank Zappa Vault Team have unearthed rare, authentic merch, much of it related to the recent ‘Apostrophe (‘)’ 50th anniversary edition.
Last Friday, Frank Zappa’s Apostrophe (‘) was re-released for its 50th anniversary. This week, Zappa has announced a special drop of rare, vintage merch.
The drop includes a 1974 Apostrophe (‘) promo LP, a “Zappa As President” t-shirt, a “Don’t Mess With Me I’m A Registered Voter” t-shirt, and much more. As the Zappa website puts it, this marks the “Return of the Doo-Dad Department! BARFKO-SWILL in conjunction with BARKING PUMPKIN RECORDS… has unearthed a treasure-trove of strange and wonderful vintage Zappa items. This new old stock has been hidden away for decades and will now be made available once again… until it sells out.” Additionally, the team promises more drops in the future: “Expect fun stuff & utterly paper trinkety identity boosters such as shirts, out-of-print limited edition records, stickers, posters, and whatever else we managed to salvage.”
Shop the Barfko-Swill collection.
As mentioned, this drop comes in the wake of the release of the 50th anniversary of Apostrophe (‘). Apostrophe (‘), which originally came out in 1974, was Zappa’s first ever certified Gold album and peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 Chart. Its biggest single “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” found its way to No. 87 on the Hot 100, but Apostrophe (‘) also featured key Zappa tracks like “Cosmic Debris,” “Uncle Remus,” and “Stink-Foot.”
All 50th anniversary editions of the album have been newly remastered by Bernie Grundman. The 1LP gold metallic vinyl contains the remastered version of the complete original album. The 2LP + 7-inch expanded set is printed on “Yellow Snow” color vinyl, and contains the remastered original album, session outtakes from the Vault, highlights of the bonus tracks and a “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” single reissue. The Super Deluxe edition comes as a 5-CD + Blu-ray Audio set featuring the original album remaster, session outtakes from the Vault, and two bonus live concert recordings from 1974. The Blu-ray contains the new remaster in hi-res formats, brand-new Dolby Atmos remixes by Karma Auger and Erich Gobel and FZ’s 1974 Quadraphonic mix, back in print for the first time in 50 years. The package features new historical essays by Simon Prentis & Vaultmeister Joe Travers, along with never-before-seen images from the archive of Sam Emerson, who shot the now iconic front cover photo.
“With Apostrophe (‘), Zappa continued to carve out his own genre in music, while celebrating ten years in the business,” Vaultmeister Travers shared in a statement. “Nobody sounded like Frank Zappa. This album, and specifically ‘Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow’ brought that unique wonderful sound to the masses in a way that nobody, including Frank, would expect.”
