giving to you

free downloads of new and rare Gary Lucas MP3s and Videos

• Listen to two Gary Lucas interviews for Outsight Radio Hours

• Check out a podcast interview with Gary about mixing up Jewish music at Jewish leadership website leadel.net

• See clips of Gary's performance of "The Golem" at the 53rd International Valladolid Film Festival in Valladolid, Spain, 10/27/08 here, and the rehearsal here

• Check out Gary being interviewed and playing live on Harold Channer's celebrated public access tv show "Conversations with Channer"

• Listen to an excerpt of a press conference with Frank Zappa and Don Van Vliet (a/k/a Captain Beefheart) held in the spring of 1975 at Syracuse University's music school during the Zappa/Beefheart "Bongo Fury" tour, where Gary's friend Jamie Cohen asks Zappa how Don came to join Frank's group The Mothers for the tour

• Gary Lucas on Captain Beefheart (video) - Gary discusses working with Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) in the early 80s, and the making of the track "Cardboard Cutout Sundown" from the 1982 Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band album "Ice Cream for Crow" — interview filmed at the Swiss Cottage Hotel, London, September 2005, from the 2006 DVD documentary "Captain Beefheart: Under Review" (Prism Productions), d. Tom Odell

• Cardboard Cutout Sundown (Van Vliet) - Gary Lucas (solo guitar) in the right channel; Jeff Moris Tepper (guitar), Richard Midnight Hatsize Snyder (bass), and Cliff R. Martinez (drums) in the left channel; Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) - vocal in the center channel; Recorded at Amigo Studios, North Hollywood, Ca.; produced and arranged by Don Van Vliet; engineered by Phil Brown from the 1982 Virgin album "Ice Cream for Crow"

• The Weakness in Me (Lucas/Brucken/Humphreys) - excerpt of a new song from Onetwo's latest album "Instead"; Onetwo are Claudia Brucken from Propaganda and Paul Humphreys from OMD; for more info click here; Gary Lucas - electric guitar and fx; Claudia Brucken - voice and lyrics; Paul Humphreys - keyboards and programming; Produced by Onetwo

• The Mad World (Zhuang Hung/Yen Huan) - Gary Lucas plays his arrangement of this classic of 1930's Chinese Pop (originally recorded by Chow Hsuan, and featured on Gary's album "The Edge of Heaven") and talks about his music in a clip courtesy of the New York Guitar Festival, Produced and recorded summer 2003 NYC by David Spelman, Gary Lucas - 1946 Gibson J-45

• Gary Lucas Plays "Sounds of the Surreal" (video) - excerpt from "The Cameraman's Revenge" (d. Ladislaw Starewicz, 1912, Russia); Music composed and performed by Gary Lucas on National steel guitar; Recorded live at the James River Film Festival, Richmond, Virginia 3/25/06

• Swamp T'ing (Lucas) - Gary Lucas & Gods and Monsters Live at CMJ, Bowery Poetry Club, NYC, 11/4/06, Gary Lucas - guitar and vocals; Ernie Brooks - bass and vocals; Jerry Harrison - keyboards and vocals; Jason Candler - alto sax and vocals; Billy Ficca - drums, from their forthcoming new live DVD/CD

• Gary performs his song "In a Forest" and Arthur Russell's "Let's Go Swimming" solo acoustic live on downtownTV.com here, Steve Paul's Puppet Music Hall show recorded NYC 3/21/07

• One Man's Meat (Lucas) - clip of Gods and Monsters jamming with Roswell Rudd at Winterjazzfest, Knitting Factory NYC, 1/20/07: Gary - acoustic and electric guitars, Ernie Brooks - bass, Billy Ficca - drums, Jason Candler - alto sax, Roswell Rudd - trombone

• Watch a Gary Lucas Podcast (interview and performance) on CultureCatch.com, interview by Dusty Wright, filmed 3/06

• Rise Up to Be (Lucas) - Gary Lucas solo at Club Lek, Amsterdam, filmed live for VPRO 2/28/01

• Gary and Jozef Van Wissem (video), performing live on National Dutch tv channel VPRO on the program "Free Sounds", hosted by Hans Flupsen, broadcast on 10/1/06

• Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro (Abdullah Ibrahim) - Gary Lucas solo guitar, recorded live at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, absolutely no overdubs - taken from his EP "Gary Lucas @ Paradiso"

• A Toi La Seule (Lucas/Pigeard) - recorded by Tanger from their 2000 album "Le Detroit" (Mercury/Universal France); Produced by Gary Lucas and Philippe Pigeard; Recorded at Studio Vega, Carpentras, France; Pro Arte Orchestra arranged and conducted by David Whitaker (Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra, Marianne Faithfull, Nico, et al), recorded at Olympic Studios, Barnes, England; Philippe Pigeard - vocals, lyrics; Gary Lucas - acoustic guitar; Christophe Van Huffel - electric guitar; Didier Perrin - bass; Billy Ficca - drums

• Ice Cream for Crow video - Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band; directed by Don Van Vliet (with much uncredited assistance from producer Ken Schreiber), cinematography by Daniel Pearl (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre); Don Van Vliet (vocals, harp), Gary Lucas (guitar), Jeff Tepper (guitar), Rick Snyder (bass), Cliff Martinez (drums); filmed on location in the High Mojave Desert near Lancaster, California; clip rejected by MTV USA as "too weird" upon release, now in the Permanent Film and Video Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; track taken from the 1982 Virgin album "Ice Cream for Crow"

• (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance (Bacharach/David, arr. Lucas) - Gary Lucas - National steel guitar; recorded by Jason Candler at Sound Dimensions NYC, rare version from the Street of Lost Brothers sessions, 2000; In Memory of Gene Pitney (2/17/41-4/5/06)

• Skin the Rabbit (Lucas/McGinty) - video directed by Ken Greenblatt with Gary Lucas (guitar, standing in for Rolo McGinty on vocals) and Gods and Monsters '93 (Jared Michael Nickerson, bass, and Jonathan Kane, drums) and featuring Ernest Rosenfelder as Sigmund Freud, Jon Langford, Tom Greenhalgh, and Mitch from the Mekons, Tony Maimone, Peter Keepnews, Irene Trudel, Robert Gonzalez as the Grim Reaper, Christina Kouta as the Rabbitess, and a cast of 1000's - filmed in Dumbo, Brooklyn and Studio Akiva 1/2/03; track taken from the Gary Lucas album "Gods and Monsters"; shown on European MTV 1993

• Alice in Blunderland (Van Vliet) - recorded live at the Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, England, July 6, 2004; The Magic Band (Gary Lucas - guitar and solo, John French - drums, Denny Walley - guitar, Mark Boston - bass); taken from the album "21st Century Mirror Men"

• "Gary Lucas Plays The Golem" - a 5 min. clip from the 1920 silent film classic directed by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese, with original solo guitar soundtrack performed by Gary Lucas live, no overdubs; music by Gary Lucas and Walter Horn; the full DVD of The Golem with Gary's soundtrack is available here

• Vampire Circus (video) (Lucas) - Gary Lucas video clip directed and edited by Pascal Plantinga, track taken from Gary's 1994 "Bad Boys of the Arctic" album; Gary Lucas - guitar, vocals, samples, words and music; Sammy Merendino - drum programming; filmed on location in Manhattan in the 14 St. Meat Market District, Times Square, St. John the Divine, UN Plaza, and Wall Street with Veronica Vera, Maja Wilder, Jeni Beck, Peter Keepnews, Irene Trudel, Mike Knuth and Ken Hurwitz as Les Vampires

• New Video Clip: Medley, "Level the Playing Field/Amazing Grace/It's Like a Wheel" Gary Lucas solo acoustic and electric, live in Saint Petersburg Russia at the SKIF Festival, Baltiskey Dom, 4/25/04; "It's Like a Wheel" was one of John Peel's favorite tracks by Gary, and he played it on one of his last BBC shows — taken from Gary's new DVD "Russian Fireworks - Gary Lucas Live in St. Petersburg", buy it now!

• Verklarte Kristallnacht (Lucas) - Gary Lucas - solo guitar; recorded live at the Berlin Jazz Festival at The Delphi, Nov. 4 1988, to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Kristallnacht (11/9/38). Never Again!

• Wonderland (Lucas/Coyne) - Gary Lucas - slide guitar, electric guitar, music, Kevin Coyne - vocals, lyrics, Tom Liwa - keyboards, guitar, Ali Neander - guitar, Willy Wagner - double bass, Ralf Gustke - drums; a tribute from Gary to the late great Kevin Coyne, from Kevin Coyne's album "Knocking On Your Brain"

• English Rose (Lucas/Coyne) - Gary Lucas - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, music, Kevin Coyne - vocals, lyrics, Tom Liwa - keyboards, guitar, Ali Neander - guitar, Willy Wagner - double bass, Ralf Gustke - drums; taken from Kevin Coyne's album "Knocking On Your Brain"

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - Ice Cream For Crow Ice Cream For Crow Gary Lucas' first music video appearance was in the 1982 video for "ICE CREAM FOR CROW," the title cut of the last album from CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND THE MAGIC BAND. Directed by Don Van Vliet himself (with uncredited assistance from Ken Schreiber) and with cinematography by Daniel Pearl ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), the band is seen cavorting in the Mojave Desert with occasional interruptions by a runaway tumbleweed which gathers much disjecta membra and desert detritus (used kleenex) as the video unfolds. Gary is featured in both color and black and white sequences flailing his '63 Stratocaster and 1920's National Steel; planting flowers in the desert soil; and sporting an oversized cowboy hat which is mysteriously yanked from his head in the midst of the cactus bachannal. The clip also features several lush Beefheart paintings, prefiguring Van Vliet's decision to chuck his music career for a paint-spattered existence. The video has the distinction of being rejected by MTV on the grounds of being "too weird," but it found a home in the permanent Film and Video collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). It was also included on a video sampler given away by England's New Musical Express in 1982.

Gary Lucas - Skin the Rabbit Skin the Rabbit Gary's first music video under his own name was the 1993 clip for "Skin the Rabbit," a featured cut from his 1992 GODS AND MONSTERS album. Filmed in bitter cold weather in Brooklyn, and boasting a cast of many die-hard fans including the Mekons' Jon Langford and Tom Greenhalgh, the clip begins with Gary being psychoanalyzed by none other than Sigmund Freud (Ernest Rosenfelder in a diabolical cameo) on the couch where he is busily perusing the latest copy of LEG SHOW magazine. Freud asks in his thickest Viennese accent, "MEESTER LUCAS! WHY ZIS OBZESSION MIT SKEEN UND RRRABBITS?!" The clip then breaks into a rococco fantasy sequence as Freud hypnotises Gary with the old swinging watch trick, and we are plunged into a pagan world of dancing sprites and dithyrambic spectators whirling around a midnight bonfire; hotblooded Latino beauties stamping their feet and flashing their eyes in the flamenco break; Gary and Freud pursuing and alternately being pursued by a fetching Rabbitess; shots of Gary playing electric and acoustic guitars joined by Jared Michael Nickerson on bass and Jonathan Kane on drum(s); and eventually the whole thing exploding into psychedelic ecstasy as Gary's guitar bursts out beautiful streamers of unearthly sound. Not to be missed! Directed by Ken Greenblatt for Akiva Films, the clip was actually shown several times on European MTV during the spring of 1993 much to Gary's shock and astonishment, and he still occasionally gets greeted in small towns in Germany with cries of "Hey Gary...Skin the Rabbit!"

Gary Lucas - Vampire Circus Vampire Circus The latest Gary Lucas video clip is for the trip-hop apocalypse "VAMPIRE CIRCUS" from the BAD BOYS OF THE ARCTIC album. Filmed on location in NYC by Dutch madman Pascal Plantinga in such locales as the 14th Street meat market, Times Square at midnight, Wall Street at rush hour, and the U.N. Plaza, Gary is seen lipsynching to the track (a denunciaton of this exploitative world) in the midst of chaos, cops, random passerbyers, and vampires and vampirellas who do their best to turn him into one of themselves. The clip boasts an appearance by post-porn modernist Veronica Vera at home in her lair, salivating over her latest victim and his trusty guitar (the everpopular black Strat). The clip features incredibly sophisticated rapid editing with over 300 cuts alone, a secret sex-cameo on the Sony Jumbotron in Times Square, a reappearance of Gary's pals Peter Keepnews and Irene Trudel (who met on the set of the "Skin the Rabbit" video and are scheduled to marry in the spring of 1996) essaying the roles of psychotic vampires (along with Maija Wilder and Jeni Beck, Kenny Hurwitz of Kenny & Larry fame and ENEMY label president Michael Knuth), and lots more riotous fun in this, the most frenetically raucous and blasphemous of the Lucas video oeuvre (check out the sequence in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which was shot via a smuggled camera inside the holy tabernacle as Lucas and Plantinga posed as tourists). The clip has been shown in its entirety on local cable outlets in NYC and regionally (VIDEOWAVE, etc.).

Gary Lucas - Guitar Unbound I Want To Play Your Guitar This TV special was first broadcast on Holland's Dutch Arts Channel in October 1995. Chock full of historic footage (that's Gary's parents Adele and Murray smooching in the clip!), rare photos, incisive interviews and behind-the-scenes clips from his video productions as well as a large chunk of the 1920 "The Golem," the program boasts long uninterrupted sequences of the solo Lucas in action playing his heart out before a boisterous Amsterdam audience. There are also mini video treatments of "Bad Boys of the Arctic" songs like "I Want to Play Your Guitar" and "Out From Under," charmingly illustrated by impressionistic home video footage of the 1940's and 50's from the Lucas archives. An invaluable, fascinating document.

Gary Lucas - Live Performance Live Performance (Knitting Factory 7/21/95): This clip is taken from Lucas' opening salvo at the 1995 Macintosh New York Music Festival held in July at NYC's Knitting Factory, and shows him swinging into action. Gary transmits his ethereal guitar fantasia to set the mood for the intense, rocking band set which followed.