The Dantrack Mobile Guide

Following yesterdays entry on The Steely Dan Infographic Project, we got a tweet from Joan Smith about the Dantrack Mobile Guide.

To use it you should ideally have an iPhone and use the app.

But while we're still in a non-iPhone pre-apps mobile/cellphone state here at Radio Dupree, we noticed that as long as you've got an email account you can join in the fun.
But what's it all about?

Quote from the Joan's blog entry:

As a longtime Steely Dan fan this has been on my mind for many years. I had my own epiphany on New Year's Eve 2006. I walked into a busy PA State Liquor Store and found Deacon Blues playing, with patrons and employees apparently oblivious to the chorus "Drink Scotch whisky all night long / And die behind the wheel." Then and there I determined that I must, somehow, initiate a worldwide tracking system to preserve this, and other golden Dan-in-retail moments, for posterity. I set up a database and put a website together containing a form for people to input the when and where of their Steely Dan retail encounters.

Fast forward to the creation of the ici mobile app. Geo-located data? User generated mobile content? Yes, ici and the Dantrack project are a match made in heaven.

...

Imagine walking into a Rite Aid, pulling out your iPhone, and learning how many times Hey Nineteen has been played here, or learning that Dr. Wu (which features a strung-out junkie, BTW) once graced the audio backdrop at the prescription counter. Perfection and grace, indeed.

More:
http://blog.icihere.com/introducing-the-dantrack-channel.

The Steely Dan Infographic Project

Check out the The Steely Dan Infographic Project. Where they plan to "create a chart, diagram, graph or other visual aid inspired by each and every Steely Dan song".

Phoebe Snow 1952 - 2011

Phoebe Snow passed away April 26 from complications of a brain hemorrhage she suffered in January 2010. She was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for her 1975 hit Poetry Man.

Wikipedia entry here.

Associated Press obituary here.

Here's a couple of videos:

UPDATE May 1:

Thanks to Ray who posted this link in the comments to an NPR All Things Considered remembrance including clips from a 1998 interview:
http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2011/04/20110426_atc_18.mp3

Jon Herington release party for shine (shine, shine)

With Jon Herington's official release party for his latest album shine (shine, shine) coming up tomorrow Saturday April 23 at Bitter End in New York, we'd like you to read this article by Joan K. Smith in the Huffington Post.

If you're in the New York area please head on over to the release party! The facts:

Place: Bitter End, New York. 147 Bleeker Street (between Thompson and LaGuardia)

Time: 11 PM, August 23.

The whole album shine (shine, shine) will be performed.

Bitter End homepage and Bitter End Facebook.

We have Jon Herington on the Radio Dupree playlist. And not just the lastest album, but songs from previous ones as well.

And to end this a performance of the song shine (shine, shine) that was written after the album was finished. The album title was a good song title and so it was written!



(Having had the opportunity and privilege to meet Jon once we'd like to join the Huffington Post article commenters in stating that he is a very nice and humble person. A real "mench"!)

Steely Dan live 2011: Aja for Ravinia + August date for Portsmouth, VA

Here are two items not confirmed on steelydan.com regarding the Shuffle Diplomacy Twenty Eleven tour:

* From the Ravinia Festival's Facebook page:

ATTN STEELY DAN FANS: Steely Dan is doing two different concerts at Ravinia on Aug 12 & 13. For the first show, the group will perform its milestone album Aja in its entirety, along with select greatest hits. Then on the 2nd night, they will perform songs requested by their fans on the internet plus select greatest hits.

* Over on the nTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth, Virginia homepage there's a listing for Steely Dan August 1. Just like the previous item not official and on the band's homepage.

(Thanks to sharp-eyed pixeleen and Danny R!)

/Click Shuffle Dimplomacy Twenty Eleven for all our posts regarding the tour. /

April 20: Breithaupt Brothers Songbook revue in New York

It's time for the annual Breithaupt Brothers Songbook revue at Joe's Pub in the East Village. It will feature great singers like Carolyn Leonhart and Catherine Russell!, Greg Naughton, James Naughton, Tyley Ross, Kelli O'Hara and more.

7:00 p.m. $25 tix. Afterhang at Phebe's, corner of Bowery and East 4th.

Facebook page.

Zappathon 2011

Currently on air:

WUSB-FM will once again host a twelve hour celebration of composer, guitarist, rock and roll star (of a kind), visionary, and cantankerous social critic: Frank Zappa
Put together this year by musician/producer John Tabacco with the able assist of Mr. Edison, Kevin Kovarik, Nigey Lennon (hopefully) and improbable surprise guests.
This event will once again be simulcast all over the globe via the web at

http://wusb.fm/

Rolling Stone: Previously unseen Jerry Garcia interview footage

One minute and twentyfour seconds where he talks about how he learned to play the guitar.

(Click the pic to view the video on rollingstone.com. While we can embed it here Rolling Stone has decided to force autoplay of the clip. Which means that everyone that lands on the Radio Dupree blog will have the video playing wheter or not they want to view it.
The correct thing to go about this would of course be to let the viewer press play if and when.
Linking this way is also a way to get rid of the additional stuff + slowdown in loading the page an embedded Rolling Stone clip seem to include. /End of rant.)

David Byrne settles song case

BBC News reports that musician David Byrne has reached a legal settlement with Florida's ex-governor over the unauthorised use of the Talking Heads song Road to Nowhere in an election campaign.

Byrne had sued Charlie Crist after the song appeared in a YouTube video attacking Marco Rubio, Crist's opponent in last year's US Senate race.

Photo: copyright Danny Clinch, 2008.

Zappa's secretary releases memoir book

Pauline Butcher worked as Frank Zappa's secretary between 1968 and 1972. She lived with the Zappas and the Mothers of Invention and met many other interesting music profiles during that time.
Her memoir book Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa is planned for release in October by Plexus Publishing.

In 2008 she told BBC about her time with Zappa:
"At one point there were 12 of us living there, always people coming and going. Captain Beefheart would jam all day with Frank, Eric Clapton... Frank collected people, all through his life, you see. I'd work from ten at night to three in the morning, then get up at two - that's how it was."

Roger Nichols passed away April 9

Recording engineer Roger Nichols passed away April 9 after being diagnosed with pacreatic cancer in May 2010.

He worked with Steely Dan and a number of other artists including John Denver, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Frank Zappa, Crosby Stills And Nash, Roy Orbison, Cass Elliot, Toots Thielemans, Rickie Lee Jones, Kenny Loggins, Placido Domingo, Gloria Estefan, Diana Ross, Eddie Murphy, Michael McDonald and James Taylor.

Radio Dupree started with the decision to always have Steely Dan and Frank Zappa on the playlist. And Roger's engineering and mixing work with Steely Dan is completed with his connection to Frank Zappa:

From a 1993 interview from the Steely Dan fanzine Metal Leg:

I went to high school in Cucamonga, the same one Frank Zappa went to. Frank actually used to come over to my house and mess around with guitars and things.

Read the whole interview here.

For more see:
Roger Nichols on Wikipedia
Roger Nichols official site rogernichols.com
A 1992 interview transcript

Frank Zappa would come over to my house and play guitar, and we would do multiple passes of guitars and bounce them together. And that was a lot of fun.

UPDATE April 12: And here's a nice article from Crawdaddy! Magazine.

UPDATE April 13: Obituary in the Los Angeles Times.

"The records that we did could not have been done without Roger," Steely Dan's record producer Gary Katz said Tuesday. "He was just maniacal about making the sound of the records be what we liked.... "

UPDATE April 15: Roger gets a mention on BBC:s Last Word. The segment mainly Elliott Randall and the recording of Reelin' In The Years. You can download a 13MB podcast here:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/lastword/lastword_20110415-1800a.mp3
(Available for 30 days)

Regarding the Crawdaddy article liked to above: Ray commented and pointed out that it does include a factual error. The story of Roger and the mustard mentions the wrong track. It is not Rikki Don't Lose That Number from Pretzel Logic but The Boston Rag from Countdown To Ecstasy.
The whole mustard story told in Donald & Walter's liner notes to the 1999 remasters of the albums. Read it here.

We scanned and linked the Crawdaddy article a bit quick and missed that error. But Ray caught it. Thanks for the correction.

April 19: Another link supplied by Ray in the comments. This one to a 4 minute radio segment on Roger. Donald Fagen joins by phone. Link to read, listen and download here. (Thanks to Ray for the link!)

Steely Dan Shuffle Diplomacy Twenty Eleven: What's new?

It's been a while since we updated this blog with the latest Steely Dan 2011 tour news. And the truth is that there isn't that much to report.

The past month has consisted of adding, removing and/or changing pre-sale and on-sale ticket dates and links over at steelydan.com. No additional shows have been added.

Most likely to happen (without even any rumours to hang this on):

1) Added dates at The Beacon in New York. There is still a gap in the schedule September 18 - 26. And if not The Beacon maybe some other venue(s) on the east coast.

2) A short stint abroad after the US tour wraps up in September. We think that at that time of year Becker, Fagen, Brats et al would prefer a glass of wine in the southern hemisphere rather than some cold German beer. Maybe some saké before beer as well.

3) Donald Fagen plays a few gigs before Christmas to promote his new solo album that may or may not have been released this summer.

4) Stevie Wonder joins the tour to take care of the Melodica solos.

5) Walter Becker's "solo project" proves to be the Walter B Signature Edition iPad 5.12 delivered with 11 Tracks Of Whack and Circus Money multitracks and a special Revolution Dub remix software.

6) Tour recorded for live album and Blu-ray. In 3D of course.

/Click Shuffle Dimplomacy Twenty Eleven for all our posts regarding the tour. /

Aja and Trout Mask Replica "worthy of preservation for all time"!

Steely Dan's Aja and Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica are among the 25 latest additions to the Libary of Congress National Recording Registry, making it part of 325 recordings "deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and worthy of preservation for all time."

Here's the full list of the latest additions:

NATIONAL RECORDING REGISTRY 2010

1. Phonautograms – Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville (1853-1861)

2. Take Me Out to the Ballgame – Edward Meeker (1908)

3. Recordings of Ishi, the Last Yahi Indian – Ishi (1915)

4. Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground – Blind Willie Johnson (1927)

5. It’s the Girl – The Boswell Sisters (1931)

6. Mal Hombre – Lydia Mendoza (1934)

7. Tumbling Tumbleweeds – Sons of the Pioneers (1934)

8. Talking Union – The Almanac Singers (1941)

9. Jazz at the Philharmonic Nat “King” Cole, Les Paul et. al. (1944)

10. Missa Papae Marcelli…Roger Wagner Chorale (1951)

11. The Eagle Stirreth Her Nest – Rev. C.L. Franklin (c. 1953)

12. Tipitina – Professor Longhair (1953)

13. Mort Sahl: At Sunset – Mort Sahl (1955)

14. VOA Jazz Radio Broadcasts – Willis Conover (1956)

15. Theme from “Peter Gunn” – Henry Mancini (1958)

16. United Sacred Harp Musical Convention in Fyffe, Alabama (recorded by Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins (September 12, 1959)

17. Blind Joe Death – John Fahey (1959, 1964, 1967)

18. Stand By Your Man – Tammy Wynette (1968)

19. Trout Mask Replica – Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band (1969)

20. Songs of the Humpback Whales – Roger Payne (1970)

21. Let’s Stay Together – Al Green (1971)

22. Black Angels (Thirteen Images from the Dark Land) for Electronic String Quartet – The New York Strings Quartet (1972) (Composers Recording Inc)

23. Aja – Steely Dan (1977)

24. 3 Feet High and Rising – De La Soul (1989)

25 GOPAC Audio Instruction Series – Newt Gingrich, et.al. (c. 1986-1994)

More here:
http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2011/04/your-life-flashes-before-your-ears/
http://www.loc.gov/index.html

Buffalo Springfield going out on tour

They broke up in 1968, but are back on the road for a short June tour. Original members Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay plus Rick Rosas (bass) and Joe Vitale (drums).

Rolling Stone has more.

Radio Dupree Top 20 - April 2011

1. Stackridge - Purple Spaceships Over Yatton
Do The 'Stanley'

2. Focus - No Hang Ups
Mother Focus

3. David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
David Live

4. Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - She Painted Up Her Face
200 Motels

5. Frank Zappa - Society Pages
You Are What You Is

6. Twiggy - Over And Over
Britain's First Top Model

7. Genesis - The Chamber Of 32 Doors
Genesis Archive 1967-75

8. Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - For Calvin
The Grand Wazoo

9. Hiram Bullock - Pretzel Logic
Give It What You Got

10. David Bowie - An Occasional Dream
Space Oddity

11. Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Dog Breath - 1969 single b-side
12. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
13. Soft Machine - 10.30 Returns To The Bedroom - Volume Two
14. The Doors - Waiting For The Sun - Morrison Hotel
15. Genesis - In The Cage - Genesis Archive 1967-75
16. Annette Peacock - Questions - X-Dreams
17. Frank Zappa - What's New In Baltimore? - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 5
18. Frank Zappa - I Promise Not To Come In Your Mouth - In New York
19. Electric Light Orchestra - Mister Kingdom - Eldorado
20. Brand X - Blackmoon - Masques

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

They topped the chart in February with another track from the same album, and now Stackridge is back again at the top spot. Congratulations! (And it makes us wonder why we waited almost eight years before adding the first Stackridge song to our playlist...)

Frank Zappa is no stranger to Radio Dupree's Top 20. And charting with six songs is nothing unusal for Mr. Zappa. Let's see what happens now that his The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life is our Album of the Month.

It is also nice to see that one of our less predictable additions to the playlist; Twiggy, got enough thumbs up to make number six on this month's chart. And taking a glance at the chart it does have a distinctly British feel this time around. Jolly nice!

If you listen please make your voice heard by clicking the various like/disklike options. Not only does these help compile this chart, but more importantly it is our way to know what you want to hear more of and no more of (!). And feel free to suggest an artist/artists we should play in the comments to this post. Or wite us at radiodupree@yahoo.se