Saturday, September 26, 2009

Mott the Hoople back on stage

Mott the Hoople is back, after 36 years! At least for five nights at the Apollo in London with two sell-out gigs in the rather less well known Blake Theatre in Monmouth on Friday and Saturday.
BBC reports that the line up is: Keyboardist Verden Allen, drummer Dale Griffin, lead singer Ian Hunter, guitarist Mick Ralphs and bassist Pete Overend Watts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8274698.stm

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Swedish parody on Joe's Garage

Since Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage is Album of the Month on Radio Dupree, we thought this might be of interest for you Zappa fans out there.
This is the cover of an LP by the Swedish artist Eddie Meduza. The music on this album does not remind of Zappa's music at all. The only similarity is that both Zappa and Meduza wrote explicit lyrics and had a somewhat droll kind of humor. But the Meduza album gives a hint of how popular Zappa was at the time. Garagetaper was released in 1980 and Zappa was more popular than ever in Sweden with his most recent albums Sheik Yerbouti and Joe's Garage. He was so popular that Eddie Meduza, who was the bad boy of Swedish rock music, chose to make a parody of the Joe's Garage cover, and everybody got the "joke".

Who was Eddie Meduza?
Eddie (
Errol Norstedt) was born in 1948 and died in 2002. His main audience may still be among people who enjoy driving around town in old american cars with dixie flags on etc, in Swedish called "raggare". But Meduza's silly songs, jokes and characters have also become a part of musicians folklore in Sweden.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Roger Rosenberg's Walter Becker produced Baritonality


We wrote about it over a year ago and it looks like Roger Rosenberg's Baritonality is finally released.

The cduniverse.com page and barnes&noble page says September 22 is the release date, while amazon.com says August 18. It's also August 18 on emusic.com where it is available to buy as a download now. We got our copy of the album there.

Sunnyside Records page for Baritonality comes up blank but the google-cached version has the following information:

The resonant sound of the baritone saxophone is a lovely voice when played by a master musician. It is unfortunate that the instrument hardly receives the attention that it deserves. There have been a number of great baritone saxophonists in jazz that have been able to bring their instrument to the forefront: Gerry Mulligan, Serge Chaloff and Pepper Adams to name a few. On his new recording Baritonality, Roger Rosenberg joins this illustrious list of bari players to record as a leader. As a highly sought sideman, Rosenberg has been a member of groups led by many of jazz’s most illustrious musicians, including Miles Davis, Tito Puente, and Chet Baker. He is also a long-standing member of Steely Dan. Walter Becker, founder of Steely Dan, produced this recording.
Joining Rosenberg on the recording are bassist Chip Jackson, pianist Mark Soskin, and drummer Jeff Brillinger. The leader provides seven, great original tunes along with a couple of standards. The group is joined by guitarist Peter Bernstein on the their fantastic take on the standard, “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most.”
Baritonality is a strong musical statement for Roger Rosenberg and his big saxophone.

Musicians:
Roger Rosenberg - baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet
Mark Soskin - piano
Peter Bernstein - guitar
Chip Jackson - acoustic bass
Jeff Brillinger - drums

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Bowie ... the spider

Photo: Senckenberg Museum of Natural History

Following Frank Zappa and Neil Young, David Bowie is the latest rock artist whos name has been borrowed to name a spider; Heteropoda davidbowie.

Full story here.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Steely Dan's "Things I Miss The Most" covered

When an artist covers Steely Dan it is usually one of the hits; Do It Again, Peg, Josie ... and a couple more. So it's always fun to find a cover of one of all those other songs that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have written.

We still enjoy Sara Colman's version of Walter Becker's Book Of Liars, and here's another one from the UK; Claire Martin and her take on Things I Miss The Most. The original Steely Dan version on the 2003 album Everything Must Go. Claire's version is on her new album A Modern Art.

Sad to say we've only managed to find a 30 sec clip of the song. And that clip doesn't do the version justice, but here's the link. (And the full version of the song of course on the Radio Dupree playlist!)

Beatles mono remasters reviewed

With the imminent release of the remastered albums from The Beatles, the reviews are starting to come in.

Here's the UK newspaper The Guardian's very positive review of the earlier Beatles albums, now back in more glorious mono than ever before. Apparently.

The Chicago Tribune review also gives the mono remasters the thumbs up, but is less impressed with the stereo ones as well as the packaging of the whole shebang. The article also explains the various versions you can get the records in.

Canada.com runs through the individual stereo versions here.

And no review but a couple of pics from NPR as the Beatles parcel arrive and is unpacked.

P.S.
The release date is September 9.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Steely Dan live 2009: More shows!

Looks like life on the road continues for Steely Dan; three more shows have been added to the list with a promise of more to follow.

Up until this news the Rent Party tour would have ended with the September 5 show in Detroit. Now we have

October 12 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre | Aja (Plus)
(AMEX presale September 8 - general on sale September 11)

October 13 - Seattle WA - Paramount Theatre | The Royal Scam (Plus)
(AMEX presale September 8 - general on sale September 11)

October 16 - Temecula, CA - Pechanga Resort & Casino
(On sale now)

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Joe's Garage - album of the month

If you're old enough, do you remember what you were up to 30 years ago? Well, if you were hip enough you were probably on your way to the record store to purchase your copy of the new Frank Zappa album, Joe's Garage, Act I. (Act II and III came two months later.)
A lot of things have changed since then. There are hardly any record stores left, for instance. But Joe's Garage remains one of Frank's strongest albums. It features a sort of low budget stage musical with a storyline, rather bizarre though. We get delicate funky pop songs and beautiful guitar solo pieces, played by a great band with Vinnie Colaiuta on drums.
So for September Radio Dupree will play all songs from Joe's Garage plus some additional stuff that we think belong there as well.
Enjoy!