Pop music fact: Same sounding and loud

Spanish researchers have trawled through pop melodies and lyrics using an archive named the Million Song Dataset.
Conclusion? Pop music has become louder and more same-sounding as the years have passed.

More on the progressive homogenization of the musical discourse in this article from Reuters.

The Beatles rock on new compilation

This is the cover of an "online album". (No, you can't flip it over to read the liner notes on the back!)

The "exclusive" part of a collection of online files is more or less lost on someone used to physical media when it comes to music. But we expect quite a few aging fans of The Beatles will buy this latest repackaging just to keep the collection complete. And most likely younger fans as well. EMI says that

Tomorrow Never Knows is an exclusive iTunes digital LP featuring 14 of The Beatles' most powerful rock songs spanning their entire catalogue.

And there's no denying that the rock songs collected here are good:

1     Revolution
2     Paperback Writer
3     And Your Bird Can Sing
4     Helter Skelter
5     Savoy Truffle
6     I'm Down
7     I've Got A Feeling
8     Back In The USSR
9     You Can't Do That
10   It's All Too Much
11   She Said, She Said
12   Hey Bulldog
13   Tomorrow Never Knows
14   The End

Still ... we tried printing the "cover" on a piece of paper and sat there holding it. It's not the same thing as a vinyl album or even CD album...

Donald Fagen: Sunken Condos coming October 16

So here it is; the title of Donald Fagen's new solo album. Sunken Condos. Not that the record company or his own site has anything about it. Instead it was found today by fans for pre-order on amazon.com as well as Norwegian platekompaniet. Amazon listing the release date as October 16 and Platekompaniet saying October 12.

At the time of writing the amazon.com link seem to be down with a 404-document not found message, but we're pretty sure this is the real deal. As far as title and release date goes.

: : : : : : : : :

How about a stroll down memory lane thanks to the Pinterest board titled Donald Fagen's fourth solo album:

Source: cleveland.com via pergunnar on Pinterest

UPDATE July 28: 

With the listing on amazon.com gone within a day or so people have been unsure about the actual release date and/or title. Well ... it is still listed on the Norwegian site pladekompaniet.no but we did a further look and here it is available to order as an import on

HMV in Japan:

(Click the pic to enlarge)

Amazon in Germany:

(Click the pic to enlarge)

It is not unheard of albums getting a release date just to be delayed for a few weeks or months, but with the arrival of the Internet this whole thing of announcing and releaseing a new record has become a difficult thing to manage for record companies, artists' management, PR-people et cetera. Here fans find information that in the pre-Internet days would've stayed with just a few persons.

Sometimes record companies "leak" stuff to get a buzz going about a new release, but our general feeling is that most of the time the info is published and someone somewhere in the chain of the business gets pissed off and may or may not have the power to retract something. Like a pre-ordering page online. All under the assumption that it somehow made all the pre-planning useless and down the line will hurts sales.

UPDATE August 9:

A bit more on the album here: 9 tracks, one cover.

For all our Donald Fagen posts click this link. 

Jon Herington's Time On My Hands coming August 3

It's about time we pointed you, dear reader of this blog, in the direction of Jon Herington's soon-to-be-released album. We've played (and continue to play) tracks from his shine, shine (shine) released late 2010, and are looking forward to get our hands on the new one titled Time On My Hands.

It will be out August 3, but you can go to Jon's homepage and listen to short snippets of the songs. It is promised to be reflecting "the bluesy, driving rock that had its gestation in the club scene" as well as "sly humor in the lyrics." And "the real treats here are the extended guitar solos, and for the first time on a record of his own Jon has decided to 'stretch,' though never at the expense of the songwriting, which remains focused, thoughtful and fun."

Guest spots on the album from Donald Fagen, Jim Beard, Danny Louis and Rob Morsberger.

A review on the album is available on Inside MusicCast's Facebook-page and they also have an interview with Jon done back in 2008 that you can listen to here. as well as an interview from early 2011 where you can learn more about the Jon Herington Band  = Jon, Dennis Espantman (bass, vocals) and Frank Pagano (drums, vocals).

Entering Steely Dan country?

Can that Steely Dan country album become reality?
It was mentioned in a 2000 radio interview Donald Fagen and Walter Becker did at the time of Steely Dan's comeback album Two Against Nature. Mentioned jokingly. Or so we've always thought. We've even had some fun with the thought of a Steely Dan country album on this blog over the years.

But consider this:
On the dandom bluebook a danfan "JT" reports that during the current Dukes of September tour Donald Fagen together with Carolyn Leonhart yesterday performed a "beautiful, jazzy version of Love's Gonna Live Here (Again)", a big hit for country legend Buck Owens in 1963!



And Walter Becker in an interview for Mojo Magazine in 2000:

Country music can be quite funny without breaking step, it's sort of part of the songwriting tradition. When we were starting out, we were writing rock songs that were too funny and it just confused people and the humor in the lyric undercut the authenticity in the song I think.

And if not a Steely Dan album full of country songs, then what about Donald's forthcoming solo album? He's said that it won't have anything to do with the previous three albums that formed an entity. It's a new start. Perhaps that Buck Owens song during the show in San Antonio, Texas was Donald trying out a track from the solo record?

(Not actual cover of forthcoming Fagen album.)

We're not hanging up our leather chaps just yet!

Yee-haw!

The Who announce Quadrophenia tour

The Who will do a US tour this fall, performing the Quadrophenia rock opera.
"We've been anxious to work together before we drop dead", guitarist Pete Townshend said in a press conference on Wednesday.
Read Rolling Stone's story here.

Jon Lord of Deep Purple dies

Jon Lord, keyboardist of the group Deep Purple, has died, BBC reports. Lord suffered from pancreatic cancer. He died at the age of 71.

The Dukes of September play three shows in Japan!

The Dukes of September tour will go to Japan for three shows later this year:

October 29: Nagoya
October 30: Osaka
November 1: Tokyo

More information here (in Japanese!).

Telstar!

June 10 and we celebrate 50 years since the very first commercial communications satellite was launched! It could relay telephone calls, images and television pictures.
Back in 1962 that was big enough to warrant an instumental hit. Titled Telstar it was performed by The Tornados and released just five weeks after the satellite flew off into space.

It stopped working February 1963 but is still up there in orbit around the earth.

More on Telstar - the satellite and Telstar - the song.

Radio Dupree Top 6 - July 2012

1. Return to Forever - Vulcan Worlds
Where Have I Known You Before

2. Genesis - Behind The Lines
Duke

3.  Chicago - Feelin' Stronger Every Day
VI

4. The Doors - The Celebration of the Lizard
Absolutely Live

5. David Bowie - Soul Love
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

6.  Steely Dan - Babylon Sisters
Alive In America

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

July's Album of the Month; The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spireds from Mars, provided one track to this almost-forgot-to-publish chart. So short we've doubt that we've had a shorter. And that's one reason why it was forgotten and not published a week ago.

Oh, well. It's also a first for us having Return to Forever at number one. A track from the album released in 1974. Read more about it here.

The Dukes of September on a Sunday

From the show in Los Angeles June 28, 2012 and thanks to uploader Heisenberg002 here's a special mellow Sunday treat; Love TKO featuring Boz Scaggs on vocals:



"But wait! There's more!"

Heiseberg002 has 17 song from the show and we lined them up in the form of a playlist:

"New" Steely Dan Box Set for 2012

Already announced and/or released artists in the new box set series titled Classic Album Selection by Universal Music are artists like Elton John, Thin Lizzy, Soundgarden and Motörhead.

And now it looks like Steely Dan will get the Classic Album Selection treatment as well. Which basically consists of five or six albums in thin cardboard sleeves chucked into a sturdy box and served at a budget prize.
We found a somewhat fuzzy pic with a track listing on a couple of online record stores. No release date though.

The Steely Dan box set features the albums Countdown To Ecstasy (1973),  Pretzel Logic (1974), Katy Lied (1975), The Royal Scam (1976) and Aja (1977).
The groups 1972 debut Can't Buy A Thrill didn't make the cut.

No bonus tracks, no fancy booklets or other extras included. Let's say that the Classic Album Selection series seems to focus on the music. So no newly remastered versions of any of the albums as far as we understand.

Donald Fagen on Toast to Freedom

A 4 minute interview with Donald about the Amnesty Toast to Freedom project he took part in earlier this year. Also a bit about Amnesty and musical freedom of the late 1960's and early 1970's.