Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania-born LA drummer talks Zappa collection, upbringing
![Pennsylvania-born LA drummer talks Zappa collection, upbringing Pennsylvania-born LA drummer talks Zappa collection, upbringing](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/joe-travers-web.jpg)
(WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com) — An Erie-born expert drummer and also archivist for the Frank Zappa Household Estate lately functioned to put together a collection of Frank Zappa performances that were carried out in Erie and also Edinboro.
The “restricted version” collection includes a 1974 show from Gannon College and also an additional from that exact same year at Edinboro University. A 3rd show from 1976 at the Erie Area Fieldhouse additionally is consisted of.
The collection was collected by Erie-born artist Joe Travers that acts as the Zappa Household Depend On “Vaultmeister.” Travers additionally is an expert drummer that has actually had fun with Duran Duran, Lisa Loeb, Billy Idolizer, a number of teams and also models of Zappa household tasks, and also various other musicians.
2 crucial items of his Erie childhood years led Travers to his existing career: he was elevated by a family members of artists, and also he was presented to Frank Zappa.
Travers clearly keeps in mind the very first time he listened to Frank Zappa. It was 1979 in Erie.
“Someday in 1979, I was socializing with a close friend that had an older sibling that made use of to pay attention to rock-and-roll — eventually, on a Saturday mid-day, he was paying attention to an university radio terminal… and also they played the track called ‘City of Tiny Lighting’ from Frank Zappa’s document ‘Sheik Yerbouti’ which had actually simply been launched, and also I dropped in my tracks,” Travers claimed. “I had actually never ever listened to anything like that. I visited the stereo and also I was simply paying attention to it and also I listened to the DJ state that was from the brand-new cd by Frank Zappa. I had never ever come across Frank Zappa… I went house and also I claimed, ‘That’s Frank Zappa?’ and also my uncle claimed, ‘Oh, that’s the individual that suches as to chew out his target market.’”
“I was very first paying attention to that at ten years old and also my mind blew up right into lots of little bits and also items, and also I haven’t coincided given that. That was the one that did it. What a cd… The wit and also the filthy words — it’s impressive when you’re that age.”
Travers matured in a music household in Erie. He played drums, his daddy played drums, his relatives were drummers, his grandpa was a drummer, his mom was a vocalist — as he goes over the music family tree in his household, it feels like every arm or leg on the family history had some expertise for songs. That music skill took Travers to the Berklee University of Songs in Boston. In Boston, Travers began benefiting Tower Records.
It was an all-natural choice to transfer to Los Angeles, Travers claimed. After university, he wished to function as an expert drummer and also Tower Records permitted him to move from its Boston area to its L.A. area.
“I was satisfying brand-new individuals, and also networking, and also having fun, and also it was a procedure, yet I’m satisfying individuals in the process, and also it was essential since when I reached L.A. I currently had some calls. Among them being Mike Keneally that remained in a band with Dweezil and also Ahmet Zappa in the band Z. And also they required a drummer, 6 months after I transferred to community,” Travers claimed. “I was 23 years of ages, staying in Los Angeles, and also I was earning money to be an expert drummer, which’s just how it began.”
Which’s basically where his globes clash. He satisfies Dweezil and also Ahmet Zappa (Frank Zappa’s kids, and also artists in their very own right) and also consequently is worked with as the drummer for their band, Z. Travers after that was linked to the Zappa household.
Frank Zappa passed away in December 1993. When he passed away, he left a comprehensive collection of individual recordings. According to Travers, Zappa basically intended to tape and also maintain virtually every show he played. Those recordings were maintained in a “safe.” After Frank Zappa’s fatality, the safe’s team took Travers on an excursion of the safe and also the Erie-born drummer’s understanding of the collection amazed them.
“They informed Gail Zappa (Frank Zappa’s other half), ‘Dweezil and also Ahmet’s drummer understands extra concerning the materials of the safe than any one of us or you incorporated,’ and afterwards Gail claimed, ‘Great, well after that he’s the brand-new Vaultmeister.’ Which’s just how it began,” Travers claimed.
Travers has actually invested the last couple of years functioning as an expert drummer and also dealing with Vaultmeister tasks when he wasn’t on trip. He additionally checked out friends and family in Erie two times annually.
“Erie has actually been excellent to me throughout the years when I get home. Individuals that I recognize that remain in bands, as well as additionally places when I head out. When I head out, they’re constantly extremely kind. I obtained a life time accomplishment honor, think it or otherwise, from Erie. From the Rock Erie Songs Honors, when that was a point,” Travers claimed. “Erie is excellent. I’m really extremely satisfied to be in a placement to beam a bit of a limelight on this community that was so great to me maturing.”
After that the COVID-19 pandemic shown up. The entire globe came to a stop. Worldwide, many individuals had time on their hands as they waited on life to return to typical — their social lives got on time out, and also in a lot of cases so were their expert lives.
While some individuals saw every episode of every program offered on every streaming solution, or used up baking, or obtained actually, actually proficient at making Rube Goldberg makers, for instance, Travers ultimately had time to deal with a job he’d been looking at for years. In the safe were recordings of performances from his home town.
“I found out about them during, it’s simply that I had actually never ever actually focused on recording them till the COVID-19 pandemic hit and also I located myself with a great deal a lot more added time than typical. I simply started handpicking and also getting points that I hadn’t reached yet, and also the Erie tapes was just one of the lots of points that I hung out on.”
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A six-CD collection qualified “Zappa/Erie” was birthed.
According to a Wanderer publication write-up “Frank Zappa’s Astounding Mid-’70s Run of Corrosion Belt Gigs Collected for New ‘Erie’ Box Establish,” released online on April 8, the collection consists of record in South Bend, Indiana, Toledo, Ohio, and also Montreal, Canada; nonetheless, a mass of the tracks are from Erie and also Edinboro performances.
“It’s interesting to listen to the manner in which he dealt with the target market that was really extremely rowdy throughout that program at Gannon, sadly. He needed to quit the program like 3 or 4 times to obtain these individuals to loosen up — ya recognize, hand battling in the front row… a number of things that doesn’t make me incredibly happy concerning the Erie target market in 1974, yet it drops in background,” Travers claimed. “To incorporate those programs with each other in one launch would certainly be something that would certainly be actually enjoyable. With me belonging of the Zappa Count on for as long, and also with me being from Erie and also it being my home town…”
The Zappa Household Count on internet site claims the collection includes 3 different band line-ups that have actually been “freshly blended” from the initial 4-track tapes.
Travers had Erie author and also neighborhood chronicler Dan “Chip” Schell compose the lining notes for the collection.
“He composed a publication concerning the background of the Erie Area Fieldhouse,” Travers claimed. “It was excellent to have a neighborhood Erie author be included in this around the world launch. I’m happy to have actually had the ability to obtain Chip included.”
The limited-edition six-CD box collection gets on sale for pre-order currently and also starts delivering on June 3.
An article on the Edinboro College Facebook web page saw homeowners thinking back concerning going to the program.
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Pennsylvania
Man tased after climbing into press area of Trump rally in Pennsylvania
![Man tased after climbing into press area of Trump rally in Pennsylvania Man tased after climbing into press area of Trump rally in Pennsylvania](https://mediaproxy.salon.com/width/1200/https://media2.salon.com/2024/08/trump-rally-johnstown-taser-2168550452jpg.jpg)
A man was tased by police after attempting to enter the press area of a Donald Trump rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on Friday.
The failed storming of the press corral came after Trump criticized CNN’s interview with Kamala Harris as overly deferential, according to the Associated Press. In a video shared by CBS News’ Taureen Small, the man can be seen climbing the riser before being pulled down by a gaggle of sheriff’s deputies.
In the clip, Trump supporters can be heard jeering the man, with one attendee shouting, “Cut his head off.” Attendees also cheered when police escorted the man away, leading the president to remark from the stage “Is there anywhere that’s more fun to be than a Trump rally?”
Trump’s comments follow his campaign’s line of attack against the interview, which drew 6 million viewers to the cable news outlet. Senior campaign adviser Jason Miller told Newsmax earlier this week that Harris didn’t “look presidential.”
“There’s a certain threshold that you have to meet,” he said. “Can you lead this country? Other candidates in the past have had it. I don’t see that with Kamala Harris.”
The former president’s speech was full of inflammatory language directed at Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. He repeatedly referred to the vice president as “Comrade Kamala” and told attendees that she wants to “outlaw your car and truck and force you to buy electric vehicles” as part of a “radical left war on Pennsylvania.”
Trump worked blue at certain points throughout the rally, which was held less than 80 miles from the site of a rally where he was nearly assassinated in July. He told the crowd that “every place [Harris] has touched has turned to s**t.”
Pennsylvania
Police Tackle, Tase Man at Trump Rally in Pennsylvania
A chaotic scene—and police intervention—played out during Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on Friday, just 75 miles from the town of Butler, where a would-be assassin shot at the former president last month, killing one rallygoer and injuring two others.
As Trump spoke onstage, a man in the audience attempted to enter the cordoned-off press pen, according to multiple reports and videos from the scene. The individual was able to breach a barrier of bicycle racks surrounding the pen, and was climbing a riser on which reporters and cameramen were stationed when he was tackled and subdued by security officers and law enforcement officials, who eventually tased him.
Law enforcement officers detain a rallygoer who tried to climb onto the press riser during a campaign event for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 30, 2024.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
The unnamed man was subsequently taken into custody, the Johnstown Police Department told the Daily Beast on Friday night, but has subsequently been released. No information concerning his identity or potential motive has yet been made public; speculation on social media has presented him as either an incensed Trump supporter or a radicalized counter-protester. Pick your poison!
(The Daily Beast has reached out to the Johnstown Police Department and the Cambria County Sheriff’s Department for further comment.)
At the time of the incident, Trump was criticizing the media for its coverage of his campaign and the election more broadly—and, in particular, attacking CNN’s recent interview with his opponent, Kamala Harris.
As the man was detained and removed from the rally, the former president quipped, “Is there anywhere that’s more fun to be than a Trump rally?” per the Associated Press.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Democrats quietly change website page recruiting poll watchers after GOP called out ‘disinformation’
![Pennsylvania Democrats quietly change website page recruiting poll watchers after GOP called out ‘disinformation’ Pennsylvania Democrats quietly change website page recruiting poll watchers after GOP called out ‘disinformation’](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/88525516.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024)
Pennsylvania Democrats quietly updated their website Thursday night after Republicans accused them of publishing “misinformation” on the site’s recruitment page, which appeared to be enlisting out-of-state poll watchers in violation of the battleground state’s election law.
The Republican National Committee sent a letter to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt earlier in the day Thursday, pointing out that the Pennsylvania Dems’ “Voter Protection” page on their website said that poll watchers on Election Day “must be physically present in PA for their shift, but do not necessarily have to be PA voters.”
That language contradicted Pennsylvania election law going back to 1937, which states, “Each watcher so appointed must be a qualified registered elector of the county in which the election district for which the watcher was appointed is located.”
“The misinformation on the PA Dems’ website threatens the integrity of November’s general election,” the RNC’s letter to Schmidt reads, explaining that the Democratic Party cannot be allowed to “flood polling places with unqualified out-of-state poll watchers.”
The Pennsylvania Department of State told The Post that poll watchers are “specifically defined as individuals appointed by candidates or political parties to observe inside a polling place on Election Day,” not outside.
In other words, Pennsylvania poll watchers must not only be Pennsylvania voters, but they can also only serve in the polling place in the county they are registered to vote.
That’s a far cry from what Pennsylvania Democrats were telling potential volunteers, thus sparking Republicans’ complaints of “misinformation.”
In a statement to The Post on Friday, the Pennsylvania Dems clapped back at their Republican opponents.
“Our Party takes our democracy seriously, unlike the MAGA Republicans that are busy launching bad faith attacks on voters and our volunteers,” said Mitch Kates, PA Dems’ Executive Director.
“Poll watchers may be located inside or outside of polling locations, and outside poll watchers can be volunteers from any state,” Kates said. “We have always made this distinction in assigning our volunteers on Election Day.”
But Pennsylvania Democrats didn’t make this distinction on their recruitment page – until it was changed Thursday night.
Still, the Republicans are urging Schmidt, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, to correct the PA Democrats’ “misinformation and disinformation” on the state’s “Fact-Checking Election Claims” page, and order them to “cease and desist” from publishing inaccurate election information.
Both Democrats and Republicans recruit voter protection volunteers from out of state, and both parties are recruiting armies of volunteers to monitor polling places to make sure their team’s ballots are counted, and contest questionable ballots on the opposing side.
An Emerson poll released Thursday showed Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump tied at 48% support in the Keystone State.
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