Church of the Big Sky (Free subscription) | yesterday
I'll be safely at home, not even pondering entering that terrifying frenzy and fray of commercial madness and vehicular hell. No thanks, no way, no how. However, in honor of the day, a little Steely Dan: Is it me, or does Donald Fagen increasingly look like some sort of keyboard vampire? Happy Turkey Day, friends, wherever you are. And seriously, stay home on Friday. Let the nut patrol unleash hell...
Jakob Montrasio's Net. (Free subscription) | 11/25/2009
Listened to I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) - Whitney Houston. Listened to Riding With The King (With B.B. King) - Eric Clapton. Listened to Summertime, Part 1 - Sam Cooke. Listened [...]
JamsBio (Free subscription) | 11/23/2009
In 1974, Steely Dan co-founders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker found that the sounds they heard in their head were often too expansive for the 5-piece band they had formed. So they hired a passel of session men for their third album and created Pretzel Logic .
Philadelphia Inquirer (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Live music and more, tonight through Thursday, compiled by Shaun Brady, Tom Di Nardo, James Johnson, Sara Sherr and Jonathan Takiff.
Cultural Offering.com (Free subscription) | 11/14/2009
I remember three important record stores. Threshold Audio in nearby Heath, Ohio. Beautiful Noise, which was around for a very short time during my formative years and Singin' Dog Records and Tapes in Columbus, Ohio (now that I think of it, there was also Finders Records in Bowling Green, Ohio where I purchased my first copy of Donald Fagen's Nightfly ). I spent hours in these shops flipping through...
Hidden Track (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
Originally, the purpose for The Midnight Rambles at Levon Helm’s Woodstock home-recording studio - otherwise referred to as The Barn - was to serve as a way for the legendary drummer of The Band to recoup money from his mounting medical bills after battling and overcoming throat cancer. Helm’s iconic and unmistakable voice was down to barely a raspy whisper after radiation treatments which...
Philadelphia Inquirer (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
Could Steely Dan have grown a heart? The group's "Rent Party" tour slouches into the Tower Theater Nov. 19 and 20. It's an audience-oriented affair: The band performs entire albums (the sainted Aja on the 19th and the scarcely less-celebrated Royal Scam the next night) and takes requests.
Radio Dupree (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
A short but fun interview from the Minneapolis Star Tribune with Steely Dan 's Donald Fagen & Walter Becker on tour. Just a couple of quotes: Q How's the tour going? Becker: We're at my favorite part -- the break. Fagen: Yeah, the break's going really well. Q Donald, how has Walter changed over the years? And Walter, how has Donald changed? Fagen: He's just about 40 years older than when I met...
Radio Dupree (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
Looks like a new solo record from Donald Fagen will be here before we get another Steely Dan album. According to this short article in The Cleveland Plain Dealer Donald have plans to record some new songs early next year: “I have a bunch of songs that I’m set to record sometime in the spring,” Fagen said. And as far as a new Steely Dan album go: "Walter and I keep tossing around...
Cincinnati Enquirer (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
for much of their careers, Donald Fagen and WAlter Becker preferred to toil in the dark confines of recording studios, tweaking their jazz-influenced songs into drum-tight perfection rather than spend 18 months on the road trying to replicate them live. Now, they're coming here.
WineFoodChat.com (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Pretzels are not just sold on the street corner, chowed down at the Yankees (or Mets) game, or served just with beer for Oktoberfest any more -- they have gone gourmet..
PopMatters Music (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (MCT) -- Bruce Springsteen is doing it. So are Van Morrison, the Pixies and Steely Dan. Playing a classic album in its entirety in concert — along with random favorites, of course. On tour this year, Steely Dan is rotating the three biggest albums from its 1970s warped jazz-rock heyday: "Royal Scam," "Aja" and "Gaucho." To get Rock and...
I Spent My Rent On Records (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Thought I'd ease myself back in with a fairly lightweight, and perhaps rambling post. The liner notes of Donald Fagen's 1982 album, The Nightfly, read: "The songs on this album represent certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties i.e. one of my general weight, height and build."...
Cultural Offering.com (Free subscription) | 11/01/2009
The making of a masterpiece. Donald Fagen, Michael Becker and friends discuss the interesting method to Steely Dan's madness: I love singer/songwriter, Michael McDonald. Steely Dan uses him on " Peg " for "certain words that they just wanted to hear a certain way". On Christopher Cross's " Ride Like the Wind ", he simply repeats "such a long way to go" over and...
Radio Dupree (Free subscription) | 11/01/2009
The Radio Dupree monthly chart is here! Some weeks ago we tossed in a couple of excerpts from Mike Oldfield's classic Tubular Bells, and heureka, one of them reached the number one postition. Then George Duke, Frank Zappa and Yes follow. The top 20 also includes two pieces each by Mahavishnu Orchestra and David Bowie. What about our Album of the Month then? Did you listeners enjoy Zappa's Hot Rats...
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