Weekend music: The late, great Warren Zevon

And here's a link to everything you need to know about the song:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolves_of_London

What do you like?

The question lacking an answer for a week or so thanks to a major upgrade by the live365.com people that left all the statistics stuck in limbo around the midle of the month.

We usually look at the thumbs up, thumbs down and other assorted ways of making it clear to us what you like and what you don't like. If enough people push the "+"-button we'll leave the track playing and maybe add another couple from the same artist. If the "-"-butto is pushed enough times we'll delete the song and try something else.

With the slowly rebuilt statistics things are looking positive for that end-of-the-month chart on the updated Radio Dupree homepage. It's coming up this weekend, and while we wait let's take a quick glance at the favourites of the currently played tracks as of August 25 this month. (Most of them still won't make the August Top 10).

Listeners favourites August 25 (the freshest statistics available)

1. Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Theme From Burnt Weeny Sandwich - Burnt Weeny Sandwich
2. Captain Beefheart - Autumn's Child - Safe As Milk
3. Nouvelle Vague - Too Drunk To Fuck - Nouvelle Vague
4. David Bowie - Seven - Hours
5. Marian McPartland, Donald Fagen & Walter Becker - Hesitation Blues - Piano Jazz With Steely Dan
6. David Bowie - Station To Station - Station To Station
7. Bob Dylan - Someday Baby - CD single
8. The Beatles - For No One - Revolver
9. Steely Dan - Home At Last - Aja
10. Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Concentration Moon - We're Only In It For The Money
11. Carolyn Leonhart (pictured right) - If I Should Lose You - New 8th Day

"Don't download this song, even Lars Ulrich knows it's wrong!"

I tend to find his "song parodies" a bit predictable, but sometimes silly is just what I want. So without further delay I offer you the dramatic Weird Al Yankovic track Don't Download This Song in video form by clicking the title above or this still from the video itself:

You'll be sent to the video and can also download an mp3 of the song about how you shouldn't download songs from the Internet.
"Oh, that crazy Al and his crazy songs!" ;-)

Another great reason to watch the video is that it's made by Bill Plympton, animator with a distinctive style and twisted humour whose work I first came across in the 80's in the form of shorts on MTV like this one; Wiseman:



Have a great weekend!

Montgomery Burns picks his favourite music!

Yes, all week Mr. Montgomery Burns (pictured on the right) of Simpsons fame is playing his favourite tracks over on BBC 2.

Well, it's not Burns really, but the man who's done his voice on the animated TV series for all these years; Harry Shearer (pictured on the left).

Harry not only does the voice for Burns, whenever you hear Smithers, Principal Skinner and Reverend Lovejoy it's the very same voice; Harry Shearer!

Harry's done a lot of other stuff as well besides voices on The Simpsons. One thing is of course Spinal Tap. Read more on his official homepage www.harryshearer.com.

And check out the music he picks for BBC Radio 2's daily show hosted by Ken Burns. You can hear it live Monday - Friday, and each show is also availabl to listen to for one week after it's aired. The link to Ken Burns show is here.

So what has "Montomery Burns" picked?

Monday
You Won't See Me ~ The Beatles
Dinner Bell ~ They Might Be Giants

Tuesday
In The Midnight Hour ~ Wilson Pickett
What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love & Understanding ~ Elvis Costello

Wednesday
Boris The Spider ~ The Who
Playground ~ XTC

Thursday
I've Got You Under My Skin ~ Frank Sinatra
Train Out Of Hollywood ~ Judith Owen featuring Keb Mo

Friday
Pinball ~ Brian Protheroe
The Sweetest Girl ~ Scritti Politti

10 513 has signed the petition:

Whatever your view on Cuba and its future you should consider signing this international petition calling for respect for Cuban sovereignty.

Click the headline above or the link here to read more about it.

OK. Back to the music!

Askin plays Zappa in Montreux

A special event of Zappa music will happen in Montreux on September 1st. It's the composer/arranger Ali N. Askin (of Ensemble Modern fame) who has gathered a band to perform some of Frank's music. The band includes special guests keyboardist Mats Öberg and drummer Morgan Ågren. Mats tells that the band will perform Revised Music For Guitar And Low Budget Orchestra, Village Of The Sun, Echidna's Arf (Of You) and Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?, plus stuff from Zappa In New York.
Gustaf Hielm, former member of Meshuggah will play the bass.

The event includes music by Zappa and Varèse, including some arrangements and transcriptions of Zappa's music by Ali N. Askin.

In the early 1990's Askin was Zappa's assistant for the project The Yellow Shark with Ensemble Modern.

Donald Fagen the guest vocalist/musician

According to Mizar 5 Donald Fagen has lent his talents to an upcoming record from musicians Michael Leonhart and Daniel Yvinec.

Michael Leonhart has been one of the constants on Steely Dan/Donald Fagen albums for the past six years. And Fagen has apparently sung on three songs and even played a little keyboards on the as yet untitled Leonhart/Yvinec collaboration.

Zappa.com celebrates with Freak Out! documentary

In July Radio Dupree celebrated the 40 years anniversary of the historical Freak Out! album (The first release by Zappa & The Mothers of Invention).

Now zappa.com has woken up and announces the release of "the FZ Audiography and Documentary Evidence (for the first time this century) of those certain recording sessions that occurred in Los Angeles between March and April of 1966."

The limited edition contains "FOUR historically magnificent discs for your Audio Gratification. And a Gorgeous booklet - with the original art and lots of special surprises - and your name too."

Yes, it's the same deal as with FZ:OZ. Sign the pre-order and get your name in the release. But don't you expect too much of previously unreleased music, is the advise from the staff of Radio Dupree.

And there is more documentary type stuff in the pipeline: ""There will also be available a Very Wonderful Two Disc FZ Audio Documentary Release that might well turn up in greater convenience in your favorite record store (Is there such a Beast Anymore?)."

David Walley dead

Music journalist and author David Walley died recently.

He was connected to the LA Free Press for several years. He interviewed several of the big stars of the time.

In 1972 David Walley wrote one of the first biographies on Frank Zappa, No Commercial Potential: The Saga of Frank Zappa.

In the book Walley favored Zappa's early carreer.

It has been reissued several times.

He also ghosted books on Bob Dylan and David Bowie.

One could say that David Walley was the father of the contemporary rock and roll biography.

Read more on and by David here: http://www.walleyswitzend.com/
And here's a nice piece he wrote on Steely Dan's Two Against Nature back in 2000.

Over at Mizar 5: Nigey Lennon on David Walley:
Eventual time and those waves: David Walley, 1945-2006

New Lindsey Buckingham album!

Quel surprise!

It's been 14 years since his last solo album Out Of The Cradle and I had all but given up on a new one from Lindsey Buckingham. But ... this news item appeared on his official homepage two days ago:

"We are very pleased to announce that Lindsey has a new album coming out in October on Reprise Records. This will be an acoustic album titled Under The Skin.
Lindsey will also hit the road in October for about a month of shows across the US."

So there we have it! Although I don't expect anything sensational from the man who's "plundered" at least two solo albums to fill Fleetwood Mac reunion albums. Tango In The Night (1987) and Say You Will (2003).

The fact that the new one will be acoustic rules out too much overdubbing and studio trickery.
His three solo outings so far have been progressively more produced and less direct. From the fairly pop/rocky Law & Order (1981) via Go Insane (1984) to Out Of The Cradle (1992).

It'll also be interesting to see if any of the tracks from the unreleased Gift Of Screws that weren't used on Fleetwood Mac's Say You Will will pop up on the new acoustic one. Gift Of Screws being an album of tracks that has "leaked" and can be found on the Internet by the curious and investigative. Supposedly an album from 2000/2001 that never made it to the pressing plant.

Peter gets it, Michael doesn't ... or maybe he does?

It keeps popping up in columns and brief news items. That Steely Dan vs movie star Owen Wilson thing. If you're unfamiliar with it please read more about it here.

The public accusation in the form of a letter on Steely Dan's homepage was of course a joke. A joke that - understandably - didn't register with a lot of journalists reporting it. Owen delivered a funny reply. A funny reply that still didn't convince journalists that the whole thing isn't for real. What's even more disturbing is that I've read comments from so called Steely Dan-fans who missed the fun of it all.

One person that gets it is Pete Howell in the Toronto Sun. He puts it in perpective by calling it an inside joke and mentioning more examples:

"The best inside jokes are ones that have multiple layers of meaning. Such as the current slanging match between pop band Steely Dan and actor Owen Wilson, a feud that's playing out mostly on the Internet. It's an exchange of volleys that might look hostile to those not sufficiently clued in."
"But the really funny thing about this whole exchange is that Steely Dan, I think, were riffing on a classic Groucho Marx prank."

Read the whole column here.

Meanwhile over at The Cleveland Plain Dealer one Michael Heaton misses the point ... or decides to play dumb just to get a complete column based on people accusing other people for borrowing/stealing ideas.

I'm not really sure where I have Michael. He writes like he's familiar with the band: "But all Steely Dan songs have narrative lyrics." and "The very name Steely Dan comes from the novel "Naked Lunch" by William S. Burroughs."

But he also writes: "This piece of bellicose business between rock stars and movie stars doesn't surprise me one bit. I've seen so much of this kind of bickering between artists over the years, I've come to expect it."

Just to end the whole piece: "Owen Wilson talked to the press last week in an attempt to put the whole controversy behind him. He said he was unfamiliar with Steely Dan, never heard the song "Cousin Dupree" and that he just wanted to get back to work on his new movie. He said it's called "Hey Nineteen.""

Which could be seen as Michael getting the inside joke of that film title. Or maybe not.

Read Michael's column here.

And enjoy the weekend!

It's a dog's life: Dog destroys Elvis' teddy bear

Associated Press reports that Barney, a Doberman pinscher and guard dog at the children's museum near Wells, England, went berserk and ripped apart a collection of rare teddy bears that were on display.

Among the "victims" a bear made by German manufacturer Steiff in 1909 and once owned the young Elvis Presley.
According to the article the man who owns The whole teddy bear collection is valued at $900.000. According to the article the bear with Elvis connections was owned by English aristocrat Benjamin Slade, who bought it at an Elvis memorabilia auction in Memphis, Tenn., and had loaned it to the museum. He is not very pleassed at all.

That was today's News Of The Weird from the world of Rock N Roll... I just had to share it. Oh! And the bear pictured is not the Elvis bear. It's a younger relative.

August Update

It's the second day of August and the Radio Dupree homepage has some new stuff on it. Click on over to see what tracks ended up the most popular among our listeners for the past four weeks.

Good or bad compilation?

Read about all the different Steely Dan Greatest Hits compilations. Neb sorts it all out and you won't have to feel confused anymore.

Neb's also been listening to his childhood favourite Elton John's brand new single and ponders the new album from the man constantly on tour, often seen in the media - but these days rarely talked about because of his music. Can that change?

There's some news about Captain Beefheart and a link to a rare video with a Zappa connection!