Background
After being released from his contractual obligations with Warner Bros. Records, Frank Zappa formed Zappa Records, an independent label. He released the successful double live album Sheik Yerbouti (1979, recorded 8/1977-2/1978), and began working on a series of songs for a followup album. The songs "Joe's Garage" and "Catholic Girls" were recorded with the intention that Zappa would release them as a single. Throughout the development of Joe's Garage, Zappa's band recorded lengthy jams which Zappa later formed into the album. The album also continued the development of xenochrony, a technique Zappa first featured on Zoot Allures (1976), in which aspects of older live recordings were utilized to create new compositions by overdubbing them onto studio recordings, or, alternatively, selecting a previously recorded solo and allowing drummer Vinnie Colaiuta to improvise a new drum performance, interacting with the previously recorded piece.
Midway through recording the new album, Zappa decided that the songs connected coherently, and wrote a story, changing the new album into a rock opera. Joe's Garage was the final album Zappa recorded at a commercial studio. Zappa's own studio, the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen, built as an addition to Zappa's home, and completed in late 1979, was used to record and mix all of his subsequent releases.
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