Saturday, July 13, 2013

Steely Dan: A new album still not out of the question

With the start of the 2013 tour less than a week away Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have been doing interviews that are starting to appear here and there.

Here's one Donald did with Los Angeles radio station KLOS.
(Is that a Frank Zappa reference at the 1 minute mark?)

And here's Billboard's article on the upcoming tour.

If you've read/listened to interviews for previous tours they pretty much rehash the same subjects once more.

One such subject is the possibility of a new Steely Dan album. The most recent one titled Everything Must Go was released ten years ago back in 2003.
The Billboard article takes Walter's answer as the headline:

New Steely Dan Album? 'It's In the Air'

The quote in full reads

"It's in the air, it really is. It's just a smell now. The next thing is then you taste it, then you start to feel it. You know how this goes."


Donald Fagen added that they have "some songs, these really good ones that we only half-finished back in, like, 1984 that we keep threatening to work on."

And Walter added that they actually finished a couple of those.

"Any other band in the world would have finished or mixed these old things that were lying around and issued them with a great ta-da fanfare. But we just don't. We don't play it like that, necessarily. It's not the way we roll." 
 
Cue excitement from the fans, but even if it has been worded a bit differently in past interviews we've always known that ideas for a new album has been discussed and a new Steely Dan album a real possibility. News - and sad news at that - would've been hearing Donald and Walter say that they've decided that Everything Must Go is the final one from Steely Dan and whatever more music they make as Steely Dan will be touring.

As far as the 2013 tour goes we have speculated in the possible addition of dates abroad after they finish up in New York on October 8. Japan? Australia/New Zealand? Europe?
In our blog post in May our assumption was that it probably won't happen, and now that drummer Keith Carlock has updated his touring page with information saying he'll be playing in Europe with Mike Stern Band October 11 - 31, well...

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

UK all time best selling albums: ABBA inches past The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper!

It's old news. But we never got around to reporting it in May, so here it is two months later:

ABBA's Greatest Hits collection Gold has passed The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and is now the second best-selling UK album of all time. Queen's Greatest Hits is still #1.

Click this link for the current top 5.

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Dukes of September PBS special likely to air late summer/early fall.

The Dukes of September (Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs) recorded special for PBS that probably will air later this summer or early fall.

All according to Security Joan over on the dandom.com Bluebook. She says it's straight from the horses mouth, and we have no reason not to believe her.

The simultaneous DVD-release of the concert it will coincide with a PBS fund drive and be offered as a gift for pledging money.

Saturday, July 06, 2013

"Everything You Did" - Mark Masters Ensemble covers the music of Walter Becker & Donald Fagen

July 16 is the release date for Everything You Did: The Music Of Walter Becker & Donald Fagen. Worth keeping an ear (or two) open for.

Here's the people involved as well as the track listing:

Mark Masters, Gary Smulyan, Gary Foster, Pete Christlieb, Gary Foster, Billy Harper, Sonny Simmons, Oliver Lake, Tim Hagens, Gary Smulyan, Peter Erskine, Hamilton Price and Anna Mjoll.

1.Show Biz Kids
2.Bodhisattva
3.Do It Again
4.Charlie Freak
5.Black Cow
6.Josie
7.Fire in The Hole
8.Kings
9.Aja

More on Mark Masters over at the Capri Records page here.

And on a side note we couldn't help notice that Amazon and a couple of other online stores truncated the album title to "Everything You Did: The Music Of Walter Becker".


Now there's an album we'd love to see announced! :)

Monday, July 01, 2013

Radio Dupree Top 15 - July 2013

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

2.  The Who - Too Much of Anything
Odds & Sods

3.  Donald Fagen - Teahouse On The Tracks
Kamakiriad

4.  Jimi Hendrix - Tax Free
War Heroes

5.  The Doors - You're Lost Little Girl
Strange Days (Perception Remaster)

6.  Jimi Hendrix - 3 Little Bears
War Heroes

7.  Walter Becker - Somebody's Saturday Night (Radio Edit)
Somebody's Saturday Night EP

8.  Frank Zappa - Carolina Hard-core Ecstasy
FZ:OZ

9.  Lina Nyberg - Old Devil Moon
Saragasso

10.  Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic
Pretzel Logic

11.  Frank Zappa - Shall We Take Ourselves Seriously? - Buffalo
12.  Stevie Wonder - You Haven't Done Nothin' - Fulfillingness' First Finale
13.  Yes - America (single version) - Close to the Edge
14.  Four Deuces - W-P-L-J - Frank Zappa's Jukebox (various artists)
15.  Steely Dan - Peg - Aja

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

And it's a "Welcome back!" to Stackridge, who topped the Radio Dupree chart with the very same song back in April of 2011 (and another one in February that same year). Third time lucky and all that...

Our main artists; Frank Zappa and Steely Dan are pronouncedly featured as well as a fairly constant visitor to the chart the last six-plus months; Jimi Hendrix.
And look! Even our Album of the Month; Strange Days by The Doors makes the Top 10!

Other than that you might notice that the Top 20 ended up being a Top 15 this time around. No real surprise as the listening goes down during the summer months and with that follows fewer thumbs up and thumbs down from our listeners. And that's what in the end makes this chart tick.

Enjoy the summer and don't forget you can take Radio Dupree with you thanks to apps for both Android and various i-devices:

Android app


or





Saturday, June 29, 2013

The biggest ABBA auction ever: 25,000 items!

Photo: Stockholms auktionsverk.
The Swedish auction company Stockholms auktionsverk prepares for the biggest auction of ABBA memorabilia ever. They are selling the collection of ABBA's tailor Thomas Nordin that comprises 25,000 items!

The items were put on display on June 28 and the auction will be hold over the internet on August 10-11. Among the objects are the rare 12 inch records Hovas Vittne and Sång till Görel, pressed in 250 copies each. Other goodies are ABBA clogs produced for the US market, soap bars, paper dolls, clippings, books and posters.

Read more here (practise your Swedish):
http://auktionsverket.se/aktuellt/abba-memorabilia-pa-stadsauktion/

http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/abba-i-vara-hjartan-och-planbocker/ 

TV (no subtitles but you'll get a good view of some of the items):
http://tv.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/noje/article14657.ab

http://www.tv4play.se/program/utvalda-nyhetsklipp?video_id=2387588

http://www.svtplay.se/klipp/1313289/abba-under-klubban

Beatles' Help! movie released digitally

The Beatles' second feature film, 1965's Help!, makes its worldwide Blu-ray and digital release debut.
The digital release of the movie is available exclusively on iTunes.


http://www.thebeatles.com/#/news/Help_The_Beatles_Restored_1965

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Weekend Music: "Radio" - Towa Tei with Yukihiro Takahashi & Tina Tamashiro

Let's see... It's about radio ... or at least radio is mentioned a lot. It includesa nod to Funkadelic. Towa Tei was once a member of Dee-Lite. It has a certain summery feel to it. And it's slightly strange in a good way. And then there's that Casio VL-Tone calculator/music instrument.

We could go on but that's more than enough to give Radio by Towa Tei a blogpost.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Pink Floyd's catalogue available on Spotify

It did not take too long for Pink Floyd's track Wish You Were Here to reach one million streamings on Spotify, so now their entire catalogue is available.

Yes announce 2014 tour with three classic albums

The group Yes announce a tour that will take place in Europe and North America next year.
Prog Magazine reports that the group will play the music from three of their albums from the 70's: The Yes Album, Close To The Edge and Going For The One.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Steely Dan 2013 tour: Seven shows in New York + special setlist nights announced!

Steely Dan today announced seven shows at The Beacon, New York, with pre-sale tickets available today plus a handful of special setlist nights in the rest of the US. Here's a quick cut-and-paste from steelydan.com that have additional info as well as useful links.


Sep 30 New York, NY Beacon Theatre Aja - Plus Selected Hits
Oct 01 New York, NY Beacon Theatre Greatest Hits Night
Oct 03 New York, NY Beacon Theatre Royal Scam - Plus Selected Hits
Oct 04 New York, NY Beacon Theatre Gaucho - Plus Selected Hits
Oct 05 New York, NY Beacon Theatre Audience Request Night
Oct 07 New York, NY Beacon Theatre Aja - Plus Selected Hits
Oct 08 New York, NY Beacon Theatre Greatest Hits Night

American Express Cardmember Pre-Sale:
June 17 @ 10 am - June 21 @ 10 pm • Ticketmaster.com

General On Sale:
June 22 @ 10 am • Ticketmaster.com

Special setlist nights:
= Aug 24 Los Angeles, CA Nokia Theatre || Aja - Plus Selected Hits
= Aug 25 Los Angeles, CA Nokia Theatre || Greatest Hits Night
= Sept 7 Atlanta, GA Verizon Wireless || Aja - Plus Selected Hits
= Sept 20 Bristow, VA Jiffy Lube Amph || Aja - Plus Selected Hits
= Sept 24 Boston. MA Citi Wang || Aja - Plus Selected
= Sept 25 Boston, MA Citi Wang || Greatest Hits Night

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Pink Floyd soon available on Spotify

Pink Floyd is one of the big groups that have not yet made their music available on Spotify. But now one song is out on Spotify. And their entire catalog will be unlocked as soon as we have listened to the song one million times!
It's a 2011 remastered version of Wish You Were Here. Shouldn't take too long, what do you think?

Friday, June 14, 2013

Weekend video: Aja from Drum Fantasy Camp 2012

Steely's Dan's "Aja," performed live at Cleveland's House of Blues during the opening night concert for Drum Fantasy Camp 2012. Features Keith Carlock and Peter Erskine (drums), John Benitez (bass), Josh Dion (keys/vocals), Oli Rockberger (keys/vocals), and Vinny Valentino (guitar).


Thanks to Carsten who shared the link!

Monday, June 10, 2013

Celebrating Circus Money's Fifth Anniversary!

Five years ago today saw the release of Walter Becker's second solo album; Circus Money. A great album with a definitive reggae groove.
To celebrate it becoming five years old we're not only adding the complete album to our playlist, but also the alternative versions and bonus stuff that was released:

Bob Is Not Your Uncle Anymore (Radio Edit)
Bob Is Not Your Uncle Anymore (Demo)
Downtown Canon (Radio Edit)
Somebody's Saturday Night (Radio Edit)
Circus Money Dub
Circus Money (Hammerhead Remix - free download)
Dark Horse Dub (Bonus Track on the Japanese Edition)

Enjoy them all. We do!

(The photo is a mix of a photo shot by Danny Clinch and the mask from the album cover. For a view of both "unharmed by amateur  graphic artistes", please visit this page: http://walterbecker.com/cmelements.html)



Thursday, June 06, 2013

Radio Dupree Top 20 - June 2013

1.   Edgar Winter - Take it the Way it is
Edgar Winter Album

2.   Kansas - Stay out of Trouble
Monolith

3.   Jethro Tull - Cheap Day Return
Aqualung

4.   Stevie Wonder - You Haven't Done Nothin'
Fulfillingness' First Final

5.    Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention - Call Any Vegetable (Radio Dupree mix)
Absolutely Free/Just Another Band From L.A.

6. Andrew Lloyd Webber - Variations 7 & 8
Variations

7. Donald Fagen - Weather In My Head
Sunken Condos

8. David Bowie - Somebody Up There Likes Me
Young Americans

9. Santana - Treat
Santana

10. Santana - Transformation
Oneness: Silver Dreams Golden Reality

11. Linda Ronstadt - Tumbling Dice - FM (soundtrack)
12. Jimi Hendrix - Tax Free - War Heroes
13. Mahavishnu Orchestra - Eternity's Breath Part 1 - Visions of the Emerald Beyond
14. Gong - Sleepy - Expresso II
15. Donald Fagen - The Great Pagoda Of Funn - Morph The Cat
16. Sting - I Burn For You - Bring on the Night
17. The Beatles - Honey Pie - The Beatles
18. Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucia - Frevo Basgado - Friday Night in San Francisco
19. Donald Fagen - What I Do - Morph The Cat
20. Jimi Hendrix - Room Full of Mirrors - More Experience Vol. 2
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Chart compiled by listeners voting
on the songs they hear on Radio Dupree