Radio Dupree celebrating five years in April

Radio Dupree is celebrating five years on the web this month. So until our website is updated, here is some information on what's going on:

We are going to sound better. Not as in changing the music we play, but rather as in changing our bitrate.
That will take place this coming weekend. Listen in and let us know what you think.

The 5 year anniversary makes us extra generous: We are giving away a brand new copy of our Album of the Month. So what album is that? Look in here tomorrow (Tuesday April 1) to find out more about the album and how you can win it.

During April we'll also have a couple of extra shows. It's been quite some time since we last did an hour or so focusing on a single artist, music style or whatever. This month is the perfect month to celebrate some of "our artists", i.e. artists we've been playing since we first started our little station here on the Internet. More on these shows this weekend.

As always you're welcome to write us at radiodupree@yahoo.se

Derringer on tour

1970's group Derringer is back. The original lineup; Rick Derringer, Kenny Aaronson, Vinny Appice and Danny Johnson, is back doing some live gigs this year.

The members have all played with too many musicians/groups to mention here, but let's just mention the Steely Dan connection: Rick can be heard on the band's Countdown To Ecstasy, Katy Lied and Gaucho as well as Donald Fagen's The Nightfly.

April
22 - Niagara Falls, NY - The Bear's Den at the Seneca Casino
23 - Niagara Falls, NY - The Bear's Den at the Seneca Casino
24 - Long Island, NY - The Crazy Donkey
25 - NYC, NY - BB Kings
26 - Springfield, VA - JAXX

May
10 - Stateline, NV - Harrah's
16 - San Juan Capistrano, CA - The Coach House
17 - Hollywood, CA - The Key Club

June
5 - Malmo, Sweden - Sweden Rock
6 - London, UK - The Astoria
7 - Sheffield, UK - The Academy
8 - New Castle, UK - The Academy
9 - Crewe, UK - The Limelight
10 - Bristol, UK - The Bierkeller
11 - Madrid, Spain - Heineken
12 - Barcelona, Spain - Apolo

Walter dubbing it up?

The first article on Walter Becker's Circus Money can be read here.

Looks like we'll get a mix of Steely Dan and dub reggae this time around(!?). We also learn that he might tour behind the album later this year.

The article also includes an update-of-sorts as far as any new Steely Dan album goes. And a couple of hints regarding the band's summer tour.

: : : : : :

Then there's the new FAQ about the album on walterbecker.com

: : : : : :

And finally... Go here:

http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/features/yupik/

Click the "view the masks"-link and click your way to slide number seven. Looking familiar?

Steely Dan live 2008: A fourth New York date

June 18 - Beacon Theatre - New York, NY

http://steelydan.com

Circus Money's label: 5 Over 12

Continuing the info from publicist Bob Merlis via Mark Bialczak's blog:

Circus Money will be released June 10 on the 5 Over 12 label, an imprint of Mailboat Records.

The full blog post is here.

Beatles' pal Neil Aspinall dies

Neil Aspinall, 66, who ran the Apple Corps music empire for the Beatles has died in a New York hospital.

BBC reports that Aspinall actually played background instruments on tracks including Magical Mystery Tour, Within You Without You and Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite. But it was for his stewardship at Apple Corps that he will be best remembered.

Aspinall was behind successful retrospective albums such as Beatles Anthology and Beatles One.

Steely Dan live 2008: Added and changes

And here's another update with a couple of new dates as well as a couple of changed dates:


June:
08 - Seminole Hard Rock - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
09 - Ruth Eckerd Hall - Clearwater, FL
11 - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - Atlanta, GA
13 - Beacon Theatre - New York, NY
14 - Beacon Theatre - New York, NY
17 - Beacon Theatre - New York, NY
23 - Bank of America Pavilion - Boston, MA
25 - Chevrolet Theatre - Wallingford, CT
27 - Borgata Event Center - Atlantic City, NJ
28 - Susquehanna Bank Center - Camden, NJ
July:
01 - Festival International de Jazz de Montreal - Montreal, QC
02 - Festival International de Jazz de Montreal - Montreal, QC
04 - Casino Rama - Toronto ON
05 - MBNA, Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa, ON

"More to come"...

Steely Dan live 2008: Five more dates

Here's five more dates added to the Think fast, Steely Dan tour:

June 08 - Seminole Hard Rock - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
June 11 - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - Atlanta, GA
June 25 - Chevrolet Theatre - Wallingford, CT
June 27 - Borgata Event Center - Atlantic City, NJ
June 28 - Tower Theatre - Philadelphia, PA

No tickets for sale yet for these dates. Check steelydan.com for more info.

Becker's Circus Money arrives June 10

It's official and up on walterbecker.com:

The Release Date for CIRCUS MONEY is June 10, 2008.

So a mere 11 weeks to go until we can hear what Walter has come up with for his second solo album.

That also means that he'll have a chance to promote the record during the Steely Dan summer tour, a tour that looks like it'll be named Think fast, Steely Dan.

And in related Walter Becker news the signature wlm posted on the BlueBook that he/she had found the link to Walter's recent memo and the title of the solo album; 1950's monologist Lord Buckley!

The memo on walterbecker.com starts To: My Lords, My Ladies of the Royal Court. A direct quote from Lord Buckley's The Hip Ghan. A monologue where you also find the following lines:

Knock a little patch on the cat's pants,
Swing a coat on grandma,
Get a little juice on the table,
Swang up get a little circus money.

We have to admit that we were unfamiliar with Lord Buckley's work, but will add a few choice numbers to the Radio Dupree playlist this week.
Both Zappa and The Beatles seem to have been fans of his spoken word performances. Zappa compiled an album; A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat, in 1969 and Buckley sort of pops up in the outro to the Beatles Hey Jude. And George Harrison wrote a song named after Buckley's home; Crackerjack Palace (1977).

Steely Dan 2008: Three more dates

Three dates at The Beacon Theatre in New York added to the 2008 tour. June 13, 14 and 17. Go to steelydan.com for more info/links.

First Queen CD without Mercury

BBC reports that the group Queen will release its first studio album for 13 years, and the first without the vocals of Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991.
The CD, Cosmos Rocks, will feature ex-Free singer Paul Rodgers, who has toured with Queen since 2005.
In September the band will go on tour in Europe (including Russia).

Circus Money here late May/early June?

A clarifying update to the previous post about what record company might release Circus Money:

Not only did Radio Dupree end up being mentioned on his blog for writing to Mark Bialczak, but he was kind enough to say yes, Mailboat is Jimmy Buffett's label, that late May/early June is the expected date of arrival and that even if Mailboat distributes the CD it might come on a different label/imprint.

Read Mark's blog reply here.

Oh, and if you're wondering who "Per-Gunnar Eriksson" that wrote Mark on behalf of Radio Dupree is, we can explain. He works in the mail department of the station and must have a light work load as it gives him time to surf the net, sign up for blogs and write people regarding matters better handled by our crack team of investigative reporters.

From now on we'll make sure that he's busy doing what he should be doing and not gallivanting around the Internet like this.
Did you hear that, Per-Gunnar? It's back to the salt mines for you!

Idiot Bastard orgy on one disc

We just received the 20 Extraordinary Renditions CD in the mail today. It's a CD featuring 20 artists doing their own interpretations of Frank Zappa's song The Idiot Bastard Son.
Some of the artists may be familiar to Radio Dupree listeners: Nigey Lennon, John Tabacco and Ensemble Ambrosius.
We've just added a couple of tracks from the disc and more will follow. How appropriate since we are commemorating the 40 year anniversary of the release of the Zappa/Mothers album We're Only In It For The Money where the original version of the song is found.
The 20 Extraordinary Renditions CD is released on the Cordelia Records label and it started out as an idea by Andrew Greenaway who is the guy behind the excellent website http://www.idiotbastard.com/
Enjoy!

Walter takes the mailboat?

Walter Becker's Circus Money:
One question raised is what record company will be involved after the following paragraph from walterbecker.com:

"As it is, I have taken a little extra time to wrest the thing away from the "major label" who was at one time my sponsor and establish a new relationship with the kind of right-on comrades who will, I think , shape the future of the music business.
My new partners, and New-Paradigm Music companies of every stripe, may eventually find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and break all of our hearts, but they will scarcely be able to do worse than their predecessors, "the majors", in any way that I can imagine."

The major label in question was most likely Warner Bros/Reprise. And if we're to believe this blog entry Circus Money will be out on Mailboat.

It that the same Mailboat Records started by Jimmy Buffett in the late 90's? Time will tell.

UPDATE: We wrote Mark and he wrote back.

'66 Mothers show on Wolfgang's Vault

The web site Wolfgang's Vault offers yeat another Zappa/Mothers live recording. It's a tape from Fillmore Auditorium, San Fransisco June 24, 1966.
This is said to be the earliest Mothers of Invention concert in the Wolfgang's Vault archives. "It was recorded on an evening when the Mothers opened for comedian Lenny Bruce."
This concert took place the night before the one that wound up on disc 3 of the Zappa Family Trust's release MOFO (the Making Of Freak Out!)
It's a rather short tape, only 13 minutes. It is divided into four tracks:
1. Zappa Talks To Crowd 0:20
2. Toads Of The Short Forest 0:48
3. I'm Not Satisfied 2:20
4. Handsome Cabin Boy Jam 10:07

Two more Zappa shows are already available for listening on the site http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/sc/about/wolfgangs-vault.html
One from 1970 and one from 1977.
Wolfgang was the legendary concert promoter that is well known as Bill Graham. Over the years he preserved lots of stuff that came from all the shows he arranged (art, photography and recordings).

Zappa Plays Zappa 2008

Dweezil Zappa hits the road again with the Zappa Plays Zappa Project: "You can expect many new songs as well as a lot of fan favorites from the first two tours."
The band is a seven piece one plus special guest Ray White on guitar and vocals.
The tour includes the US and Canada and starts off in Minneapolis, MN, on June 6.
The tour then goes south to Missouri and Louisiana etc, then to Canada for shows in Ottawa and Quebec. The last concert (that we know so far) takes place in Peekskill, NY, on August 9.
For complete touring schedule and list of band members go to http://www.zappa.com/

Some more Crimson Collectors Club

The record company Discipline Global Mobile (DGM) keeps releasing vintage live recordings with their main act King Crimson.
The most recent release is a live recording from Oxford, England, featuring the legendary 1972 line up.

This was the band that recorded one of Crimson's classics, Larks' Tongues In Aspic, and this audience recording captures the band just two months before the recording of the Larks' album.
There are 45 minutes of music but only five tracks:

1. Larks' Tongues In Aspic, part I
2. Robert Fripp announcement

3. Book of Saturday
4. Improv

5. Exiles

Judging from the preview snippets on the DGM site the sound quality isn't too good. The recording was made on a cassette by an audience member.

Steely Dan 2008: Clearwater, Florida

Not up on steelydan.com yet, but the Ruth Eckerd Hall homepage has Steely Dan inked in for June:

June 9: Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, Florida.

According to the site tickets go on sale to the general public March 28, while members can get them March 25.

Update: Added to steelydan.com's list of shows today (March 18).

ABBA drummer dies in accident

Ola Brunkert, drummer of ABBA has been found dead in his home on Mallorca, Spain.
Several newspapers report that Brunkert, 62, was found dead in his garden with cuts to his throat.
The police believe that Brunkert cut himself on a broken window.
Ola Brunkert played with ABBA both live and in the studio and BBC reports that Brunkert and bass player Rutger Gunnarsson were the only musicians to appear on all the group's albums.

Walter Becker: Circus Money

Radio Dupree slows down Mother People

Since Radio Dupree has chosen We're Only In It For The Money as Album of the Month we figured "What extra stuff can we offer our listeners except just playing the songs from this classic Zappa/Mothers album?"
How about a version of Mother People slowed down to its "original" pitch?
Well there are a number of cover versions of "Money" songs around, performed by Jean-Luc Ponty, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Ensemble Ambrosius and not to forget the brand new various artists CD with 20 different versions of The Idiot Bastard Son. It's entitled 20 Extraordinary Renditions and is released on Cordelia Records to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the release of the album it first appeared on.
There are also other versions of the "Money" songs performed by Zappa live.
But we have allowed ourselves to experiment with one of the songs on the album. Since Zappa chose to speed up a couple of them we thought we could try to pitch them back to "normal" again, just for fun.
Such a version of Mother People is now spinning on Radio Dupree. The vocals sound "normal" and the key seems reasonable if you play along on a guitar, but the orchestral interlude may have now been pitched down below its original speed, I don't know, it's hard to tell. I'm so used to hear it the way its done on the CD.

/Siggy

Weekend music: Scandinavia

OK. So we're living in Sweden. It's part of Scandinavia where we also place Norway, Finland,(*) Denmark and Iceland. A great place to live. Or is that great places to live?

For our weekend music we picked a guy and a video that has been watched close to 8 million times, so chancs are you've already seen this, But we're new to Norwegian Lasse Gjertsen's talent of making music without being able to play any instrument BUT being able to cut and paste video.

He says he recorded each and every note and sound here. THEN cut it up and made it into this piece of music:



Have a great weekend!

(*) = Correction! After our friendly Finn here on Radio Dupree; carpenter Heikki, in his surly matter-of-fact way instructed us that while Finland may be one of the Nordic countries it is by no means part of Scandinavia, we could but strike that country from the above post.
We stand corrected and find ourselves pondering if our close-but-oh-so-far-away neighbour to the east might in reality be the first visible black hole...

Steely Dan live 2008: Boston added!

A third date has been added to the 2008 tour:

Jun3 23: Bank of America Pavilion, Boston, MA.

Tickets go on sale March 24. See steelydan.com for link.

Donald on Sirius: Said and played

It's not the definitive word-by-word transcript of Donald Fagen's three shows on Sirius Radio i February.
But for now it's the most complete and in detail review of what was being said and played.

Please, visit this page for what we have to offer:
Donald on Sirius

Additionally:
There's a text from jazz.com titled The Nightfly revisited well worth reading. Catch it on donaldfagen.com's news page.

Beatles engineer dies

Sound engineer Norman Smith who worked with The Beatles and Pink Floyd has died at the age of 85.
Smith recorded The Beatles' Rubber Soul and several Pink Floyd albums during the 1960's.
BBC reports that Smith was actually the one who signed Pink Floyd:
"I can't in all honesty say that the music meant anything at all to me," he later recalled. "In fact, I could barely call it music. A mood creation through sound is the best way that I could describe Floyd."

Radio Dupree website updated at last

Some you you Radio Dupree listeners may have thought "What ever happened to the Radio Dupree website? Did they forget the monthly update?"
Excuse the delay, folks, but today we finally updated it!
You may want to check out the Radio Dupree Top 20 which offers a couple of surprises: Buddy Miles (R.I.P.) is topping the chart (closely followed by Becker/Fagen). Two tracks from the new remastered edition of E.L.O:s Out Of The Blue have also found their way to the RD Top 20.
The delay has been caused by the preparations for the FIVE YEAR anniversary of this radio station, which takes place in April. You can expect a couple of surprises coming up next month, but more about that later.
Speaking of anniversaries...Album of the Month for March is a classic Zappa/Mothers album that is celebrating 40 years now...We're Only In It For The Money. Songs from that one plus some related material are already spinning on Radio Dupree.

/Siggy

Steely Dan in Montreal: Tickets on sale now!

Here's the link to the tickets page for the two Steely Dan shows at the Montreal jazz festival July 1 and 2.

So how much are the tickets?
There are three different prices; 121.35 $, 101.35 $ and 91.35 $. All prices in Canadian dollars.

With the added taxes and an "Internet service charge" the total for a prime ticket adds up to 168.92 while the "cheap ones" go for 126.04.

According to this currency converter that equals:

US Dollar: 127.00 - 170.22
Euro: 83.50 - 111.90
British Pound: 64.00 - 85.77
German Mark: 83.50 - 111.90
Japanese Yen: 13 157.50 - 17 633.90

In related news the official Steely Dan Newsletter arrived March 5 announcing the Montreal gigs adding:

" ... and stay tuned for more
Live in '08 news coming soon!"

Official: Steely Dan live in 2008!

And the first two dates have just been announced on steelydan.com:

It's the Festival International de Jazz in Montreal on July 1 and 2. Tickets go on sale March 6. That's just one day away! Click the jazz festival link above for more info.

Donald Fagen on Martha's next one

Donald Fagen will make an appearance on Martha Wainwright's next album; I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too due June 10.
Also on bord for her third album: Pete Townshed (The Who), Garth Hudson (The Band), her brother Rufus Wainwright and mother Kate McGarrigle.
Full track listing on Filter Magazine's homepage.

All this has us wondering when the record by Michael Leonhart and Daniel Yvinec will see the light of day. Apparently Donald sung on three songs and even played a little keyboards on the album first set for an early 2007 release.

Weekend music: Where do you get your music?

>> Click the pic to play the video <<

Music. Do you download it online? Buy it from an store on the Internet? Visit your local record store?

We're old enough to still prefer our music on a vinyl or CD rather than mp3 or other file format. So we should buy most of our stuff in regular record stores, right?

From time to time we still go looking for used records in stores, but as far as new releases go we have turned to the cheaper and more convenient online stores for most of our purchases.

Maybe we should support our local record store by buying more music there. Hitting the search-button online just isn't the same thing as flipping through the albums looking for that record you just have to have...

Which leads up to the choice of weekend music on this blog. The brand new video from Erykah Badu. It takes place in a record store and she gets to digitally visit some famous and less famous record covers. Below are just five of them. Watch the video and tell us what other albums you spot!

Enjoy the weekend! ... and support your local record store...