Ant-Bee, New Material, 1991

Ant-Bee, New Material, 1991

PERSONNEL:
“The Ant-Bee”/Billy James: all vocals, drums, percussion, mellotron, tablas, tambora drone & tape manipulations
“Herman Monster”/Roy Herman: guitars
“Mr. Lambchops”/Paul Lamb: bass, French Horn, Gismo
“Lunar Egg Clips”/Greg Brosius, keyboards
with…
“Purple Plastic Penguin”/Rick Snyder (from Captain Beefheart): bass on “Do You Like Worms?”
“Millet Rantin”/Bob Harris (from Zappa): noises

Songs recorded at DH Studios, Hollywood, CA 1990–1991.
“Who slew the beast” — 1/2 studio / 1/2 live material
“Uncles mannequin” — 8 track recording, 1/2 studio / 1/2 rehearsal material with heavy tape manipulations

*Written by Billy James
All songs produced, arranged and struggled with by Billy James

TRACK LIST
Side A
The girl with stars in her hair*
Do you like worms
Here we go’round the lemon tree
Who slew the beast*
Uncles mannequin*

Another wildly ambitious and imaginative outing by Billy James! Three original compositions are included, as well as covers of “Do You Like Worms” by the Beach Boys (often confused with the original recording on Smile), and The Move‘s “(Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree” from that band’s self-titled 1968 debut.

Typically, James pulls in a couple of guests from the Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart demimonde: Bob Harris, who worked for Zappa from September to December 1980 (not to be confused with the Bob Harris who played keyboards with Zappa from May until August 1971 and was married to & played with Judee Sill); and Rick Snyder, who played with The Magic Band as “sudden guitarist” for Beefheart’s 1980 Doc At The Radar Station tour and as bassist on 1982’s Ice Cream For Crow.

Ant-Bee hasn’t released any new music in many years, but he’s still keeping busy; you can learn more by visiting his delightfully antiquated web site — his bio is quite a trip! Speaking of which, dig this trippy video (directed by Fred Goss, who went on to write and direct many episodes of the popular network comedy series Sons & Daughters)!

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