Hola from Cuba!

So what's up with the updates here?

Well, Siggy is not much for blogging. He's busy updating the playlist. I am entering the second and final week in Habana, Cuba, where I spend my days staying alive in the heat and humidity and trying to learn the basics of the Spanis language as spoken in Cuba.

Not enough time to write here, but I have a couple of minutes to spare and will do my best.

You can get online in hotels for a decent sum of money. Roughly 6 dollars an hour. Cuba and Habana is as close to visiting another planet as you get. At least if you're from Sweden/Europe. So much different and so many strange things all around you. I'll probably fill you in a bit more later, but living in a "casa particular" - i.e. private home - is one step closer to at least get a whiff of the real Cuba/Habana.

The thing that will scare the tourists away are the "jineteros" = hustlers on the streets. You can rarely walk more than 10 minutes before somebodey asks you where you're from and when you answer "Sweden" they say "Aha! Estocholma!" and then start to ramble the same keywords that must be working as everybody seem to use the same scam; Hemingway, Mojito, cigars, Buena Vista Social Club and help me buy some milk to my kid/my sisters kid.

You can end up spendning a whole lot of money in a bar paying a lot more than you should for drinks. Find yourself with below average cigars you've just bought. All because these hustlers are so friendly and suck you in just like that.

Musically Cuba has a lot to offer. I couldn't tell a trova from a son or a rhumba, but promise to bring back at least a couple of tracks fit to get played on RadioDupree eventually.

Enjoy what's spinning on the station right now and I'll (try to) steer clear of the jineteros and wing my way back home in a week or two.

Adios!

More "Dirty Work"!

Two more Steely Dan-related records!

As mentioned on the recently updated RadioDupree homepage, Swedish pop artist Timo Räisänen has recorded a version of Steely Dan's "Dirty Work" appearing as a bonus track on his new single "Pussycat".
I went looking for it as a legal download and ended up finding two other cover versions of the same song!

Susan Marshall gives it a go on her "Firefly" (2005) and Jenna Mammina sings her version on "Meant To Be" (2005).

Susan Marshall, born and raised and still living in Memphis, did opera before going rock in the early 90s with a group called The Mother Station. But she sounds like she can do it all; with over 100 recording projects as a vocalist, she's released two albums under her own name. Both are available through cdbaby.com.

Over at cdbaby.com is also where you find Jenna Mammina's recordings.
Born in Michigan with mom and dad as well as her sister and brothers all musicians, it's no wonder Jenna became a singer. She moved to the San Fransisco Bay area in the mid 80s and has been performing on stage as well as doing session work.

Jenna leans towards jazz and her version of "Dirty Work" has a laidback groove to it. Susan keep it more singer/songwriter and slows it down with just a piano accompanying her.

"Dirty Work" is a classic Becker/Fagen composition, and at the same time very straight and "normal", so it's really no wonder it's become one of their most covered.

These discoveries will also give me the chance to say that it would've been great to hear a hi-fi version of the song as performed by the back-up singers during the last tour. A free soundfile over at steelydan.com would be a nice gesture while we wait for the live album/DVD ;-)

P.S. You can of course hear all the Dirty Work versions mentioned here - including the original - on RadioDupree. Just click on over and listen!

I've got EMG on vinyl!

The real deal: Vinyl!

Gotta get this on here as well. Just to prove that I do still buy the occasional vinyl album.
Got it a couple of weeks ago. Just took a couple of months after I ordered it online, and I was surprised to see it finally arrive. I expected to get a "sorry. sold out"- message.

It is - of course - the official European 33 RPM vinyl release of Steely Dan's 2003 opus Everything Must Go.
Haven't listened to it yet. But I expect it to be a nostalgic feel to sit down with the album, read the liner notes and listen as the vinyl pops and hisses...

For a closer look at the record; cover, insert and all, please look at the RadioDupree homepage in a day or two. I'll have it updated Wednesday at the latest.
And do come back to this blog tomorrow for a couple more Steely Dan related finds!

That "Live8"-thingy...

Saw parts of the big show Saturday.

Should I review some of the performances? Make a major effort in assessing the possible end result of Live8?

Or maybe just link to an article that show some of the complexities involved. It is against the way Africa is treated, but at the same time not necessarily pro-Live8:

John Pilger isn't celebrating victory

Weekend music

Possible Steely Dan connection here. Walter Becker is said to play on Rebecca Pigeon's new CD "Tough On Crime", but I couldn't confirm it looking at her site. No mention of him, but a picture of one Billy Preston.

The record is produced by Larry Klein who's worked with Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt as well Freddie Hubbard and Carmen McRae. The list goes on and on.

Rebecca herself is an actress and married to writer/director David Mamet.

"Tough On Crime" is her fifth album and has a nice acoustic groove. Hear for yourself over at http://rebeccapidgeon.com

***
Update July 4: Did look a bit closer at Rebecca's bio, and sure enough Walter is mentioned as one of the musicians on the album!

Donald's been busy

Steely Dan fans eager for news about Donald Fagen's next project - apparently a solo album with a latin flavor - have tracked down his named mentioned on the Avataar Studios homepage.

The studio have him listed among the artists doing work there in April, May and June.

"Avatar Studios, formerly known as Power Station, is a 33,000-square-foot multi-room facility on Manhattan's west side."

I got the news from The Bluebook where fans discuss Steely Dan and stuff.

But enough already! A new month is all but upon us. I've got an Album of the month to do as well as other updates to the RadioDupree homepage. Will happen this weekend...

Back home again!

Drivin'

A week on the road with stops to say "hi" to relatives and friends. Really glad I got the chance to do this, but a week was just about enough.

Tried to update this blog a couple of times using the cellphone and has been busy correcting the weird mistakes the T9-function adds when you're tired and typing your lines on that small, small screen. Already confused sentences get even more so.

Expect it to be even quieter here when I leave for Cuba in two weeks time... I won't be doing any blogging via the cellphone from there and may choose to join a salsa class instead of go searching for some internet café. ;)


Speed limits!


A week of sun, half an hour of rain and two minutes of rainbow

Back home I can once again listen to the neat mp3-CD I did a couple of years ago featuring all of the pre-Two Against Nature Steely Dan/Donald Fagen/Walter Becker. Put it on random and I get to go "reelin' in the years"...

Nice!

Photos thanks to my new Panasonic NV-GS75 DV-camera. OK with pics, but really a video camera. Hope it will live up to my expectations when it comes to making movies.

Oh! And by the way; if you should find that the paragraphs below the third photo is set in a smaller font it's a bug in the Blog system. Just won't change back from "small" to "normal" size how hard I try. "Small" to "large" works...

Rock n roll?

Not much. Besides the death of swedish blues-/rock artist Totta Naslund making the headlines earlier this week. We travel in my sisters car, and she keeps the radio tuned to Rix and its junkyard of pop. Number of fun vinyl stores we've bumped into so far = 0. Accordion postcards = 2!

Carcrashes, joyrides and murder

Nothing to do with us and our trip by car to the south of Sweden. Make that middle of the country. Still south of where we live. The headline refers to the place we stayed yesterday: Rimbo. Action all around us but we take it easy, letting the world pass us by.

Southbound in the heat

Three people in a car traveling south for a week. Great idea . . . At least until the heat took it's toll. A few days put in Motala will hopefully help us out of this zombie-like exhausted feeling.

Monday ... eh, Tuesday Evening Chart Show

Well ... they keep spinning. And "they" are the current top of the pops on RD:

1. Gazzara - Josie - Ultradolce
2. Frankie Laine - Maxwell's Silver Hammer - All This And World War II
3. The Tubes - Overture - What Do You Want From Live
4. Brian Auger - I Am A Lonesome Hobo - The Mod Years 1965-1969
5. Steely Dan - The Royal Scam - The Royal Scam
6. Leningrad Cowboys - Happy Together - Happy Together
7. Jeff Beck - Blues De Luxe - Truth
8. Frank Zappa & The Mothers - Satumaa (Finnish tango) - YCDTOSA 2 (Helsinki Concert)
9. Mark King - I Feel Free - Influences
10. Frank Zappa - Any Kind Of Pain - Broadway The Hard Way

A couple of Steely Dan covers from Storyhill

Storyhill: One is Chris Cunningham and the other one's named John Hermanson

That "magic" new way of buying music; iTunes, was finally available here in Sweden, and I decided to check it out. The local Swedish sites so far have been a meagre sight if you want anything but the latest hits. And you know you do!

iTunes do serve up a larger number of artists and songs, but I doubt if there will ever be a legal site with the diversity and range between the most pupular and the uttely strange that almost each and every illegal site seem to offer.

One of my searches was for "Steely Dan" and I found two tracks by a group called Storyhill. From an album titled "Duotones: A Tribute To The Duos Of The 70s". Acoustic versions of "Dirty Work" and "Reelin' In The Years" that I immediately added to the RD playlist.

Looking for more ino on Storyhill I found out that it's a duo from Montana that's been around since the late 80s and are back together again after a short break between 1997 and 2001.

Their sound recalls the harmonious interplay of Simon & Garfunkel; the pained, plaintive sound of Cat Stevens; and the acoustic juice of the Indigo Girls."
--Billboard Magazine

Not only have they been around for +15 years, but they've released 11 CDs so far. The easiest way to get them is through Peppermint where you can listen to short previews of the music as well.

I did like the folky versions of "Dirty Work" and "Reelin' In The Years". And you can hear them on RadioDupree.

More on Storyhill here:
http://www.storyhill.com/

Listen and buy:
Peppermint

Oral fixation: Chewing that bubblegum...

Another Sunday slowly passing by this so called summer...

While last years summer here in Sweden was officially recorded as the worst (= coldest) since the late 1800:s, this summer has started out chilly, rainy and lacking the warm weather we not only long for but demand as we live six months or more in complete darkness and goddam awful winter conditions.

I spent this semi-useless Sunday doing the laundry and surfing the net. One of the sites visited is Columbian singing star Shakira's, where I looked for whatever might be happening now that she's got a new album out.

Don't know if it was the Sunday-smooth instrumental that kept playing in the background, but I stuck around long enough to find the pics page and three photos quite far from the T&A-attitude of most female MTV-type artists these days.

The chewing gum pics sorta fits the name of her new CD; "Fijacion Oral 1" = Oral fixations 1. And made me smile. Smiling, btw, is considered a "good thing"!

The fact that she release a Spanish version of her new record instead of an English one is in my book also a "good thing".
The English version "Oral Fixation 2" will follow, but as far as I've understood it'll be a completely new set of songs; the ones she originally wrote in English.

Click the headline above or here for a larger view of the pics.

Weekend music

Your mission - should you decide to accept it - is to click on over to the search page of CD Baby. It's located here.

You can go looking for "artists who sounds like..." and get any number of unknown independent musicians to listen to and read about.
It's a bit of a hit-and-miss thing, but if you have an hour to spend and feel a bit adventurous you should check the site out.

You might not find a new Frank Zappa, Steely Dan or whatever, but chances are you'll find artists who play music in one way or other related to/inspired by your favourites.

And if you find some great music be sure to drop us a line and tell us about it!

If you're unfamiliar with CD Baby it's an online record store/business run out of Portland, Oregon. It's been around since 1998 and is the biggest seller of independent CDs on the web.
They distribute the records direct from the artists. No record labels involved.

"In a regular record deal or distribution deal, musicians only make $1-$2 per CD, if they ever get paid by their label. When selling through CD Baby, musicians make $6-$12 per CD, and get paid weekly."

Have a great weekend!

So you wanna be a rock 'n' roll star?

How about seeing a movie this summer? A documentary with a Zappa connection? Then you have to catch Rock School. It premiered in the USA June 3 and will not be as easy to find as the latest Star Wars epic or Disney movie.
But by the looks of it well worth the price of admission. If you miss it it should be out on DVD eventually. So what's it about then?

First time feature documentary filmmaker Don Argott traces the ups-and-downs of the Paul Green School of Rock Music, a unique institution founded in Philadelphia in 1999, dedicated to teaching children ages nine through 17 the ins-and-outs of rock and roll.

Rock School reaches its climax in Bad Doberon, Germany, where the School of Rock Music honor roll is invited to perform the music of Frank Zappa.

The official site (view a trailer!)

A page of reviews