by Steve Huey

An uneven, nearly all-live double-record set, Tinsel Town Rebellion mixes new material and versions of Zappa oldies like "Love of My Life," "I Ain't Got No Heart," "Tell Me You Love Me," "Brown Shoes Don't Make It," and a reworked "Peaches En Regalia," titled "Peaches III." These songs, as well as the band's stellar instrumental work, provide the album's best moments. Elsewhere, the title track is an only partially accurate satire of punk; Zappa's intentionally smarmy crowd banter is featured on "Dance Contest" and "Panty Rap," the latter a bit involving the collection of female audience members' underwear. More problematic is the sometimes violent sexual juvenilia of songs like "Fine Girl," "Easy Meat," "Pick Me, I'm Clean," and "Bamboozled By Love"; if, as Zappa insisted, this part of his oeuvre simply mixes dumb fun and satire of both sexes' peccadilloes, with no underlying misogyny, it's rather difficult to tell.