The Mothers new album, Just Another Band From L.A. seems to capture the spontenaity of the early albums, like Freak Out, Absolutely Free and We're Only In It For the Money, better than any other recent one….

Much has been made (by Zappa) of the Mothers being labelled a "comedy" group. Well if he thinks that's ironic, or he doesn't like it, tough shit, because this record is one of the funniest he has ever done. Zappa still pokes fun at the country he lives in, the West Coast culture, even (especially) the people who come to listen to him…. The humor is very adolescent (Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan only encourage this) but I like sophomoric humor when it comes off….

The first side of the album is taken up with a theatre piece, "Billy the Mountain," which is one of Zappa's most coherent allegories to...