Donald's been busy

Steely Dan fans eager for news about Donald Fagen's next project - apparently a solo album with a latin flavor - have tracked down his named mentioned on the Avataar Studios homepage.

The studio have him listed among the artists doing work there in April, May and June.

"Avatar Studios, formerly known as Power Station, is a 33,000-square-foot multi-room facility on Manhattan's west side."

I got the news from The Bluebook where fans discuss Steely Dan and stuff.

But enough already! A new month is all but upon us. I've got an Album of the month to do as well as other updates to the RadioDupree homepage. Will happen this weekend...

Back home again!

Drivin'

A week on the road with stops to say "hi" to relatives and friends. Really glad I got the chance to do this, but a week was just about enough.

Tried to update this blog a couple of times using the cellphone and has been busy correcting the weird mistakes the T9-function adds when you're tired and typing your lines on that small, small screen. Already confused sentences get even more so.

Expect it to be even quieter here when I leave for Cuba in two weeks time... I won't be doing any blogging via the cellphone from there and may choose to join a salsa class instead of go searching for some internet café. ;)


Speed limits!


A week of sun, half an hour of rain and two minutes of rainbow

Back home I can once again listen to the neat mp3-CD I did a couple of years ago featuring all of the pre-Two Against Nature Steely Dan/Donald Fagen/Walter Becker. Put it on random and I get to go "reelin' in the years"...

Nice!

Photos thanks to my new Panasonic NV-GS75 DV-camera. OK with pics, but really a video camera. Hope it will live up to my expectations when it comes to making movies.

Oh! And by the way; if you should find that the paragraphs below the third photo is set in a smaller font it's a bug in the Blog system. Just won't change back from "small" to "normal" size how hard I try. "Small" to "large" works...

Rock n roll?

Not much. Besides the death of swedish blues-/rock artist Totta Naslund making the headlines earlier this week. We travel in my sisters car, and she keeps the radio tuned to Rix and its junkyard of pop. Number of fun vinyl stores we've bumped into so far = 0. Accordion postcards = 2!

Carcrashes, joyrides and murder

Nothing to do with us and our trip by car to the south of Sweden. Make that middle of the country. Still south of where we live. The headline refers to the place we stayed yesterday: Rimbo. Action all around us but we take it easy, letting the world pass us by.

Southbound in the heat

Three people in a car traveling south for a week. Great idea . . . At least until the heat took it's toll. A few days put in Motala will hopefully help us out of this zombie-like exhausted feeling.

Monday ... eh, Tuesday Evening Chart Show

Well ... they keep spinning. And "they" are the current top of the pops on RD:

1. Gazzara - Josie - Ultradolce
2. Frankie Laine - Maxwell's Silver Hammer - All This And World War II
3. The Tubes - Overture - What Do You Want From Live
4. Brian Auger - I Am A Lonesome Hobo - The Mod Years 1965-1969
5. Steely Dan - The Royal Scam - The Royal Scam
6. Leningrad Cowboys - Happy Together - Happy Together
7. Jeff Beck - Blues De Luxe - Truth
8. Frank Zappa & The Mothers - Satumaa (Finnish tango) - YCDTOSA 2 (Helsinki Concert)
9. Mark King - I Feel Free - Influences
10. Frank Zappa - Any Kind Of Pain - Broadway The Hard Way

A couple of Steely Dan covers from Storyhill

Storyhill: One is Chris Cunningham and the other one's named John Hermanson

That "magic" new way of buying music; iTunes, was finally available here in Sweden, and I decided to check it out. The local Swedish sites so far have been a meagre sight if you want anything but the latest hits. And you know you do!

iTunes do serve up a larger number of artists and songs, but I doubt if there will ever be a legal site with the diversity and range between the most pupular and the uttely strange that almost each and every illegal site seem to offer.

One of my searches was for "Steely Dan" and I found two tracks by a group called Storyhill. From an album titled "Duotones: A Tribute To The Duos Of The 70s". Acoustic versions of "Dirty Work" and "Reelin' In The Years" that I immediately added to the RD playlist.

Looking for more ino on Storyhill I found out that it's a duo from Montana that's been around since the late 80s and are back together again after a short break between 1997 and 2001.

Their sound recalls the harmonious interplay of Simon & Garfunkel; the pained, plaintive sound of Cat Stevens; and the acoustic juice of the Indigo Girls."
--Billboard Magazine

Not only have they been around for +15 years, but they've released 11 CDs so far. The easiest way to get them is through Peppermint where you can listen to short previews of the music as well.

I did like the folky versions of "Dirty Work" and "Reelin' In The Years". And you can hear them on RadioDupree.

More on Storyhill here:
http://www.storyhill.com/

Listen and buy:
Peppermint

Oral fixation: Chewing that bubblegum...

Another Sunday slowly passing by this so called summer...

While last years summer here in Sweden was officially recorded as the worst (= coldest) since the late 1800:s, this summer has started out chilly, rainy and lacking the warm weather we not only long for but demand as we live six months or more in complete darkness and goddam awful winter conditions.

I spent this semi-useless Sunday doing the laundry and surfing the net. One of the sites visited is Columbian singing star Shakira's, where I looked for whatever might be happening now that she's got a new album out.

Don't know if it was the Sunday-smooth instrumental that kept playing in the background, but I stuck around long enough to find the pics page and three photos quite far from the T&A-attitude of most female MTV-type artists these days.

The chewing gum pics sorta fits the name of her new CD; "Fijacion Oral 1" = Oral fixations 1. And made me smile. Smiling, btw, is considered a "good thing"!

The fact that she release a Spanish version of her new record instead of an English one is in my book also a "good thing".
The English version "Oral Fixation 2" will follow, but as far as I've understood it'll be a completely new set of songs; the ones she originally wrote in English.

Click the headline above or here for a larger view of the pics.

Weekend music

Your mission - should you decide to accept it - is to click on over to the search page of CD Baby. It's located here.

You can go looking for "artists who sounds like..." and get any number of unknown independent musicians to listen to and read about.
It's a bit of a hit-and-miss thing, but if you have an hour to spend and feel a bit adventurous you should check the site out.

You might not find a new Frank Zappa, Steely Dan or whatever, but chances are you'll find artists who play music in one way or other related to/inspired by your favourites.

And if you find some great music be sure to drop us a line and tell us about it!

If you're unfamiliar with CD Baby it's an online record store/business run out of Portland, Oregon. It's been around since 1998 and is the biggest seller of independent CDs on the web.
They distribute the records direct from the artists. No record labels involved.

"In a regular record deal or distribution deal, musicians only make $1-$2 per CD, if they ever get paid by their label. When selling through CD Baby, musicians make $6-$12 per CD, and get paid weekly."

Have a great weekend!

So you wanna be a rock 'n' roll star?

How about seeing a movie this summer? A documentary with a Zappa connection? Then you have to catch Rock School. It premiered in the USA June 3 and will not be as easy to find as the latest Star Wars epic or Disney movie.
But by the looks of it well worth the price of admission. If you miss it it should be out on DVD eventually. So what's it about then?

First time feature documentary filmmaker Don Argott traces the ups-and-downs of the Paul Green School of Rock Music, a unique institution founded in Philadelphia in 1999, dedicated to teaching children ages nine through 17 the ins-and-outs of rock and roll.

Rock School reaches its climax in Bad Doberon, Germany, where the School of Rock Music honor roll is invited to perform the music of Frank Zappa.

The official site (view a trailer!)

A page of reviews

Fans of Steely Dan get together in Cincinnatti

A Steely Dan fan living near Cincinnatti? Interested in meeting other
fans? Why not check this one out:

***STEELY DAN FEST '05***

SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2005

Ramada Plaza

11911 Sheraton Lane
Cincinnati, OH 45246

Doors open 4:00 PM

AJA performs 6:00 PM

So outrageous! AJAmusic is proud to present the first annual
Cincinnati area Steely Dan Fest. We invite you to come celebrate 'all
things Dan' with a memorable day of music and more!

Highlights include:

***A performance by AJA - A Tribute to the Music of Steely Dan***

You got to shake it baby! AJA recreates the sounds of one of rock's
most legendary and enigmatic bands with stunning precision and
energy. The joint will be rockin' to all the Dan classics from
Reelin' in the Years to Hey Nineteen and beyond. This 10-piece
ensemble features former members of Pretzel Logic and includes some of the Cincinnati area's finest jazz, rock and session musicians. No static at all!

***Special guests***

Tom Barney - Bassist extraordinaire for Steely Dan since 1993

Pete Fogel - Editor of the Steely Dan fanzine Metal Leg

Jim "Hoops" McKay - "custodian/enabler" of the Dandom Digest and its companion website www.dandom.com.

** A chance to win an autographed guitar
** Screening of rare Steely Dan performances
** Tons of Steely Dan memorabilia to giveaway

For more information please visit http://www.ajamusic.net. Tickets go on sale Monday, June 13 at 10:00 AM online at www.ajamusic.net - $17 in advance, $20 day of show. An AJAmusic Production.

Monday Evening Chart Show - on Sweden's National Day!!!

Countin' 'em down! The top 10 right now. As soon as it's published it's old news, but what the hey!

1. Frank Zappa & The Mothers - Satumaa (Finnish tango) - YCDTOSA 2 (Helsinki Concert)
2. Steely Dan - The Royal Scam - The Royal Scam
3. Cream - Strange Fruit - Disraeli Years
4. Frank Zappa & The Mothers - Keep It Greasey (1976) - FZ:OZ
5. The Bee Gees - She Came In Through The Bathroom Window - All This And World War II
6. Adrian Belew - The Momur - Lone Rhino
7. Jethro Tull - Moths - Heavy Horses
8. David Bowie - Scream Like A Baby - Scary Monsters
9. King Crimson - Sartori In Tangier (edit) - Beat
10. Emerson Lake & Palmer - Fanfare For The Common Man - Works, Vol. 1

Sigurd has been and still is out of the country. I've been busy celebrating a friends 50th birthdy and today - June 6 - is National Day here in Sweden. If I get my act together you can expect a major overhaul of the music played as early as Tuesday evening.

New month, new sounds ...

May is gone and June is here! And the RadioDupree homepage is updated with a new chart and a new Album of the month. Our 40th. What it is? The clues are four letters; f, z, o and z again.

Step on over and get some reading done. It take a full four, five minutes. Maximum.

As far as the playlist goes we'll most likely add some summer sounds.