Peter Gabriel's "Melt" for Album of the Month

It's 30 years ago since Peter Gabriel's third solo album ("Melt") was released, but I still have a fresh memory of the feeling of hearing it back then. The album is considered one of the groundbreaking recordings of that time with those gated drums and the absense of hihats and cymbals.

It was not easy to fall in love with this dark album, but it grew on me. The same year a friend took me to Peter Gabriel's concert in Stockholm which was a great experience.
At the time Gabriel had plans to record his songs in other languages than English. I don't know if they released any other version of the "Melt" album than the one in German (Ein Deutsches Album). You can hear both the English and German versions on Radio Dupree in June.

/S.H.

Yes, it's available on wax cylinder

A band called The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing will have one track of their next album, called Now That's What I Call Steampunk - Volume One, available on a wax cylinder.

Look for the CD album and single wax cylinder track in all good record stores June 1.

Read the whole story here and/or watch the video:



(Sorry about the somwhat ill-fitting BBC player. They seem set on having it 512 pixels wide and since it's Friday I can't be bothered trying to wrestle the code into submission to make the player fit this page.)

Donald Fagen 2010 tour update

Two more dates have been found and posted by the signature Tour Plotter over on the Steely Dan Fan's BlueBook:

September 2 - PNC Bank Arts Center, NJ

September 3 - Jones Beach, NY

Meanwhile Minnesota State Fair has added a Facebook page for the previously announced September 6 show.

Video: Michael Leonhart & The Avramina 7 - Dreams Of An Aquarian

A brand new video:


Michael Leonhart & The Avramina 7 - Dreams Of An Aquarian
Uploaded by orchardmusic. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Here's an article on Michael from allaboutjazz.com. Including a bunch of links to more Michael on the web.

Donald Fagen playing Minnesota State Fair!

Donald Fagen will be on stage at the Minnesota State Fair September 6.

Tickets go on sale noon June 5 and cost $45. For that you not only get Donald but also Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs under the collective name of Dukes of September Rhythm Revue.

Is this a one-off or could there be more dates? Maybe even an autumn tour?

Wild Man Fischer live on stage

Wild Man Fischer live on stage in 2010?
The record store Rhino Records on Westwood Boulevard in Los Angeles, which closed in 2006 will reopen for a short while (May 17-30). They will have a series of concerts there which include appearances by Wild Man Fischer, Dr. Demento and Ruben & the Jets. (All of them were involved in Frank Zappa's works, more of less.)

http://www.examiner.com/x-19141-Hollywood-Concerts-Examiner~y2010m5d11-Legendary-Los-Angeles-record-store-Rhino-Records-resurfaces-for-2-weeks-with-concerts

Keith Richards autobiography coming in October + Exile On Main Street returns next week

Yes, Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards started writing his memoires in 2007 and is now apparently done.

Quote from a press release:

"It’s kind of weird writing about your own life. Who’d be interested in that? But then I realised there is a lot of interest, so… talking to some of the people that were there and their version of events to try and correlate it all was very interesting, a kind of kaleidoscopic bunch of experiences."

We'll see ... or read, this coming October.

: : : : : : : : :

And speaking of The Rolling Stones. The groups 1971 album Exile On Main Street is re-released in variety of remastered expanded box set CD online vinyl de luxe versions next week.

NPR has four of the unreleased bonus tracks plus a segment where artists pick favourites from the album online. Listen here. And next week there'll be interviews with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Happy Birthday Stevie Wonder!

He's 60 today!

Four albums for Mother's Day!

To celebrate Mother's Day (or Mothers Day), the day when Frank Zappa named his band 1964, Barfko-Swill is making four more albums available via digital download.

Those are Buffalo, FZ:OZ, Imaginary Diseases and Everything Is Healing Nicely.

http://barfkoswill.shop.musictoday.com/Dept.aspx?cp=971_35084

Which one should you get first? Well, the Radio Dupree Zappa staff recommends Imaginary Diseases (live 1972) if you're a fan of albums like The Grand Wazoo. If you're more into Joe's Garage and Tinseltown Rebellion you should go for Buffalo (live 1980).

The iNightfly Speed Art Painting

And while we wait for news about the new solo album a clip from 2008 inspired by his classic The Nightfly.
Donald Fagens album cover given a little twist with a i-pod. Painted for Ismet Mustafic by Stephen Quick.



Follow this link for a closer look att the finished painting.

John McLaughlin - a funny guy too

The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter runs an interesting interview with the equilibristic British guitar player John McLaughlin where he shows that he also has a lot of humour.
McLaughlin plays a gig in Uppsala, Sweden tonight (May 8) and the newspaper has called him up for an interview. He talks about humour in music and mentions the special features section on a dvd box released five or six years ago, featuring bloopers from the shootings: "At the same time as I'm a teacher in master class I'm also a silly, incomplete person. Me and my wife watched all those bloopers and we doubled up with laughter."
He also talks about the 70's when a band like Mahavishnu Orchestra could be on the bill with anything from heavy metal bands like Aerosmith to comedy acts: "Ever heard of Cheech & Chong? Totally dope humour, but since I'm an old hippie I found them very funny."

Practise your Swedish: http://www.pastan.nu/konsert/stjarnan-som-garna-bjuder-pa-sina-misstag-1.1089706

Our Album of The Month # 100!

We've reached album number 100 of our featured albums. And it is the 1995 record B'Boom from King Crimson. All tracks up and spinning throughout May on Radio Dupree.

Phil Collins headed for the basement?

Phil Collins seems to have had it with critics.

In an interview in Rolling Stone he is quoted saying:

All my life I've put out music and people have criticised it. Why keep doing that? I don't need the money. In the future I think I'll write songs in my basement and never play for anybody.

Yep. And if he ends up actually doing that we'll eat or hats ... or record collections.

In related news singer Phil Collins has a brand new album titled Going Back and featuring Motown covers released later this year.

While you wait for that one we suggest you track down a copy of the Swedish 1974 softcore movie Flossie. It has music by Brand X & Janne Schaffer. One of the Brand X members is ... Mr. Collins!

Radio Dupree Top 18 - May 2010

1. Steely Dan - Bad Sneakers
Katy Lied

2. Human Instinct - Black Sally
Stoned Guitar

3. Mahavishnu Orchestra - Lila's Dance
Visions Of The Emerald Beyond

4. Keith Moon - When I'm Sixty-Four
All This And World War II (various artists)

5. The GTO's - I'm In Love With The Ooo-ooo Man
Permanent Damage

6. Steely Dan - With a Gun
Pretzel Logic

7. Donald Fagen - On The Dunes
Kamakiriad

8. Jimi Hendrix - Red House
Valleys Of Neptune

9. Frank Zappa - Would You Go All The Way?
Philly '76

10. Rudder - Floater
Rudder

11. The Beatles - Baby's In Black - Beatles For Sale
12. Steely Dan - Kings - Can't Buy A Thrill
13. David Bowie - Moonage Daydream - Ziggy Stardust (soundtrack)
14. David Bowie - Always Crashing In The Same Car - BBC Radio Theatre
15. Walter Becker - Paging Audrey - Circus Money
16. Bryan Ferry - 2 HB - Let's Stick Together
17. King Crimson - Formentera Lady (edit) - Islands
18. Paul Simon - Duncan - Paul Simon

-------------------------------------------------------

Chart compiled by listeners voting
on the songs they hear on Radio Dupree

Once again the usual suspects appear on the Radio Dupree chart as-voted-by-the listeners:
Our Album of The Month; Valleys Of Neptune from Jimi Hendrix, pops up once with that old familiar chestnut Red House.
We were a bit surprised to find that a couple of tracks from that featured album got thumbs down, as we were under the apparent false notion that everybody likes Jimi. At least among our listeners.

The Zappa quotent on the chart this month is a track from Philly '76 landing at 9 + the Zappa-related GTO's at 5.
But can you spot the Steely Dan-related track?
No, it's not as easy as Fagen at 7 or Becker at 15. We're thinking about Floater from Rudder at 10. The New York band has four members, one of them being Steely Dan drummer Keith Carlock.

The only other name on the chart that might have you wondering is The Human Instinct at 2. Answer: A New Zealand band that's been around since the late 60's.

Oh. And David Bowie manages two songs in the short but sweet chart for May 2010.

The Ronnie Wood Show

Here's the first episode of Rolling Stone Ron Wood's radio show:



At the time of writing there are three more episodes of him talking about and playing favourite artists and songs. He sometimes strums a few notes on the guitar as well.
You find it all here: http://www.ronniewoodradio.com

So why a radio show? We'll let Ronnie answer that one: