The single's here...

...at least if you live in the States. Then you can click on over to iTunes or Rhapsody and buy the radio edit and/or album version of H Gang for the bargain price of 99 cents a song.

A smart record company would of course have made it available to the world, but years after the possibility of charging for a download the record industry seems to be learning and acting more or less on a whim.
We can't help but get a vision of old teary eyed record company executives desperately clinging to their LP's, CD's and cassettes, horrified and scared of that glowing computer screen in the corner of the office.

Oh well...

In other news from the land of Steely Dan:

* Tickets for Donald's shows seem to be selling quickly. One or more of the shows could be recorded for a possible DVD.

* And a short item over at Billboard.com said that there might be a Steely Dan tour this summer. First the Fagen solo tour could be extended with additional dates added to the 18 scheduled for March.
Donald is quoted saying "It depends on how my shows go and if there's a demand for it."

* Morph The Cat will be released as a standard CD and as a CD + DVD double. The DVD is the 5.1 mix and high-resolution stereo mix.

Weekend music: Radio Free Dandom

This time around a suitable plug for a live365.com station that was there before we started.: Radio Free Dandom! What can you hear there? Let's quote station manager Hoops:

"Featuring the music of Steely Dan, as well as solo recordings from Donald Fagen, Walter Becker and The New York Rock and Soul Revue as well as tangentially Dan recordings from everyone from Duke Ellington to Chris Potter to Rickie Lee Jones and John Tabacco."

Check it out: Radio Free Dandom

And while you're at it why not check out what else dandom.com has to offer.

Have a Great Weekend.

H Gang is here!

Finally! The Donald Fagen promo single H Gang arrived today and is already added to our playlist.
We discovered that the promo included both a radio edit and the album version of the song, so ... which one to play on Radio Dupree?
The answer is of course "both!"

So when can you expect to hear it? Well, since the rules and regulations prevent us from announcing when a certain song will be played all we can say is that statistically H Gang should be heard every hour around the clock for a couple of days. We can't guarantee it.
But because we use a random type of playlist it could just as easily end up playing three times in a row.

It's a great song! And while you wait for it you'll be able to hear a lot of other great songs by great musicians on Radio Dupree.

Meanwhile...

Over at www.donaldfagen.com the dates for Donald's first ever solo tour has been announced. Starting in New Jersey March 1 and ending in California March 28. 18 shows and the tickets for a couple of the shows go on sale this Saturday (Janyary 21).

And www.walterbecker.com has been updated with a typically witty welcome where Walter tell us what's on his mind and in his plans. Sort of.
You can also sign up for the newsletter.

Who let the cat out?

Quote from the press bio:

The material that Fagen wrote for Morph The Cat goes back a number of years, but the project crystallized in the past two years as he began to ponder life and death issues in a new way. “I’m starting to get older, and began to think about mortality a little more,” says Fagen. “My mother died in 2003 and that was a big shock. When your parents start to die off, that’s going to be a revelation. So for me, this album – although it might sound quite cheery – is really talking a lot about death.”

The cover of the new CD - released March 7 or 8 depending on what part of the world you live in - sure fit the quote above. Although the record itself is supposed to sound a lot more "up" than the cover and quote might lead you to believe.

Anyways, it's nice to know what to look for in the record store come March!

Read the whole Fagen/Morph the Cat bio/pressrelease by clicking this sentece.

Weekend music; a dose of Fagen if you're lucky

While we at Radio Dupree sat sighing at the latest email message from the record company stating that the arrival of H Gang by Donald Fagen had been delayed, a New York based station decided to make Friday 13 anything but an unlucky day for fans of Steely Dan/Donald Fagen by playing H Gang not once but twice.

You might give 107.1 The Peak a listen. If you're lucky you might catch the track between tunes by artists like Sting, Peter Gabriel, REM, Paul Simon, Tracey Chapman, David Bowie, Counting Crows, The Dave Mattews Band, The Police, John Mayer, Coldplay ... you get the drift. They call it "World Class Rock".

Bozzio, Vai and Brock join ZPZ!

Zappa veterans Terry Bozzio, Steve Vai and Napoleon Murphy Brock are included in the Zappa Plays Zappa band for the Euro spring tour.

This is at least what arranger EMA Telstar announces for the Stockholm show on May 19.

Initially singers Flo & Eddie were supposed to be in the band but this will not happen. They are busy with other work.

Napoleon will do the lead vocals.

He can be heard on several Zappa albums, for example Roxy & Elsewhere (1974) and One Size Fits All (1975).

Drummer Bozzio was in Zappa's band between 1975 and 1978.

Guitar virtuoso Steve Vai played with Zappa in the early 80's.

Zappa Plays Zappa is a project by Frank's sons Ahmet och Dweezil.
The idea is to play their father's music and the tour will span over Frank's entire carreer.

Lookalike #1

While we waith for the record company to deliver that darned H Gang promo so we can add it to our playlist, we took a closer look at the cover of a new record just out. Must be inspired by some other record cover we're quite familiar with.

Exhibit number 1:
The Strokes First Impressions Of Earth (2006)



Exhibit number 2:
Steely Dan Aja (1977)



What do you think?

(hey, what's that noise...! was it the postman finally delivering that record?!?!)

Get the show on the road...

OK. One hour to go on the European clock and donalfagen.com still look the same.

What to do? Expected the preview today... maybe tomorrow. Or not at all...

Sigh...

Here's hopin' "H Gang" arrives on the playlists A.S.A.P.

Happy Birthday Mr Fagen!

Everything's cool over at donaldfagen.com with the pic above and the caption "Big news coming soon". Today is January 9, but we have hight hopes for the site to come alive January 10. The day Donald turns 58.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to hear at least a short clip of H Gang, the first song from the coming album being sent to radio stations this week? Of course we at Radio Dupree hope to get our hands on a copy ... but anything can happen and maybe the record company won't find us worthy.

Whatever happens our money is on something happening on donaldfagen.com this week.

Happy Birthday Mr Fagen!

* * *

And without further ado; the current Top 10 on Radio Dupree. Catch it now, tomorrow it's changed!

1. David Bowie - Space Oddity - Space Oddity
2. Frank Zappa - Watermelon In Easter Hay - Joe's Garage
3. Frank Zappa & The Mothers - Directly From My Heart To You - Weasels Ripped My Flesh
4. David Bowie - Day-in Day-out - Never Let Me Down
5. Jethro Tull - Bungle In The Jungle - Warchild
6. Frank Zappa - Imaginary Diseases (excerpt) - Imaginary Diseases
7. The Who - Summertime Blues - Live At Leeds
8. David Bowie - Bang Bang - Never Let Me Down
9. Frank Zappa - Apostrophe - Apostrophe (')
10. Frank Zappa - Anyway The Wind Blows - Joe's Corsage

Ultradank and superfine

Happy
New
Year!

And on the first day of 2006 walterbecker.com came alive as yet another sign that Donald Fagen is not the only Steely Dan man working on new stuff.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the official site steelydan.com. Up until spring of 2004 typing in donaldfagen.com or walterbecker.com sent you to steelydan.com. But last spring donaldfagen.com got its own look and started building to contain basic info and a few texts. Then nothing happened until it went completely off the air a couple of weeks before Christmas. It's not even redirecting visitors to steelydan.com

Most see this as a sign that it will be back with a major update to reflect the upcoming solo album Morph The Cat, due to be released late February/early March.
I expected the site to be back up on one of three dates; January 1 to celebrate the new year, January 10 to celebrate Donald's birthday and the first single from the new album being sent to radio stations or late February/early March to coincide with the release of the album.

I'd have to say that as nothing happened with donaldfagen.com on January 1, my money is on January 10, but in the meantime walterbecker.com suddenly popped into action. Not much happening there yet, but still...

All you find so far is a greetings page with a picture of Walter and the words Ultradank Superfine and 100% Ital. We'll see what he'll add to the site. Right now he's busy recording the follow-up to his 1994 solo album 11 Tracks Of Whack.