Needles & Grooves

Proud new owner of Trout Mask Replica Vault Edition. Paid $60 for the whole package, which is fantastic considering they just reissued the standalone album for that price. Perks/drawbacks of working in a record store: having a ton of records in front of you, tempting all day.

Zappa was my gateway to having a deeper appreciation of Captain Beefheart too. In fact I'd probably put TMR above any Zappa album in terms of brilliance now.

@Hemotep Zappa had such a keen ear for making the zany accessible. I love his unique perspective. I think you are right, Zappa doesn’t have a full album that delivers on a singular idea like TMR does.

I have a vintage press, but I'd love to find the Vault version for a reasonable price.

Zappa produced Trout, right? I always felt like it influenced his own career afterwards. For me, Trout clicked after listening to a lot of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Col. Bruce Hampton. If you’re not familiar, check out the ARQ!