There are few geniuses who have ever appeared on Earth and made a distinct mark. Aside from myself, the only other one that comes to mind is Frank Zappa. A lot of people thought of Zappa as a purient, sick fellow obsessed with sex jokes and fart noises. Well, yeah, there's lots of those. But how many of them go on to do seriously complicated orchestral compositions? How many of them testify before congress for your right to choose your entertainment? How many of them recorded over 60 albums, each one its own distinct work? How many of them died of prostate cancer? Not many.

Frank Zappa will never be mistaken for an alterna- flavor of the week, and The Lost Episodes is a neat glimpse into various pockets of time and music that have existed only as bootlegs. From a teenage Frank's rehearsal with Don Van Vilet (pre-Captain Beefheart) and brother Bobby to an outtake from 1979's masterpiece Sheik Yerbouti, this release reaffirms what we've known all along: Frank was one seriously creative motherfucker.

I could have done without the outtakes from Cruising with Ruben and the Jets (an album of 50's doo-wop parodies performed so straightfaced that the joke is lost on those who aren't familiar with Zappa), but everything else here is top notch. You get orchestral Frank ("Mt. St. Mary's Concert Excerpt"), rocking Frank ("Wonderful Wino"), experimental Frank ("The Grand Wazoo"), hidden tape recorder Frank ("Cops and Buns"), and I- hate- the- rock- and- roll- lifestyle Frank (the hilarious "I'm a Band Leader").

This is more of a fan's disc. For those of you who never got the chance to discover Frank and are now beginning to realize how retarded you've been all these years, try one or all of the following: We're Only In It for the Money, Hot Rats, Overnite Sensation, Sheik Yerbouti, Burnt Weenie Sandwich, One Size Fits All, You Can't Do That on Stage Volume 1, Zappa in New York, and The Yellow Shark. And remember... "Jazz isn't dead. It just smells really bad."

-Jason Josephes