Help me identify Steely-Dan-a-like pop music please

NB: If you don't dig the Dan, the above lite-rockers may be even rougher on your earhole.

Also search Boz Scaggs -- anything on 'Silk Degrees' is tops. And there's Barbra Streisand's version of the pre-SD Becker/Fagen composition "I Mean to Shine." Come to think of it, 'Dusty in Memphis' might not be *too* far afield. Or the Style Council?

Maybe a good dose of '70s soul, too -- Spinners, O'Jays, Al Wilson's "Show and Tell." Whenever I've DJed, I've found you can't go wrong with pretty much anything on 'Off the Wall.'

or play some hip hop that's sampled the dan:

Royal Scam: (ABC 1975)
* "Green Earring"
Zimbabwe Legit - "Legitimate Mix"
Ice Cube - "Don't Trust 'Em"
Organized Konfusion - "Walk into the Sun"
* "The Fez"
All Saints - "I Know Where it's At"
Brothers Like Outlaw - "Trapped into Darkness"

Countdown to Ecstasy: (MCA 1973)
* "Showbiz Kids"
Super Furry Animals - "The Man Don't Give a Fuck"

Aja: (MCA 1977)
* "Peg"
De la Soul - "Eye Know"
Goldie - "In the Land of Funk"
* "Black Cow"
MF Doom - "Gas Drawlz"
Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz - "Deja Vu"
Porn Theatre Ushers - "Me & Him"
Tatyana Ali - "Daydreamin'"
* "Home at Last"
Big Shug - "Stripped and Pistol Whipped"

FM soundtrack: (MCA 1978)
* "FM"
3rd Bass - "No Static at All"
3rd Bass - "Peg"
De la Soul - "Eye Know"

All over this stuff like now. More recs welcome. The Nightfly is so great!

There is some group that I heard five years or so ago. 21st century band, ~~maybe~~ from Chicago, with a one-word name like "Keys" or "Soup" or "Chords" or something really dumb and hard to search for.

They had that Dan sound to a tee and sounded pretty good out on the front porch. Have not been able to hear them since.

Who are they?

Huh. If they were from Chicago, you'd think I'd know who it was.

Baby Teeth?

You WOULD think

Right?

yes

Baby Soup?

Prefab Sprout a little bit...weren't there other British sophistipop bands that were sort of Dan-esque?

JD Souther- Black Rose

More in the Gaucho zone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlMpULQQmKA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bxe17439IQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqIvnXI7fbY

(Two of the guys in the second clip formed Mr. Mister.)

(Third clip not really in the Gaucho zone, but wouldn't sound out of place before or after "Time Out of Mind" or whatever.)

the brecker brothers - more like a funkified, fusionesque dan w/ plenty of horn vamps but really in the SD zone compositionally-wise

These are the guys who win best jazz solo at the Grammys every year?

Prefab Sprout a little bit...weren't there other British sophistipop bands that were sort of Dan-esque?

china crisis are prob the more dan-esque of the bunch. 3rd record produced by WB, btw

1st china crisis album is splendid mellow guitar pop but not v. Steely Dan-ish.

(imo)

I'm just saying "highly recommended"

man i loved this album when i was 19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hte1dIz8Ox0

Karate was who I was thinking of. They're from the Windy City of Boston.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opDlJZ5kfXk

Like if someone's favorite album was Double Nickels on the Dime, and their favorite song from that record was "Dr. Wu".

These are the guys who win best jazz solo at the Grammys every year?

― Ascot Fitzgerald (jaymc), Thursday, February 23, 2012 9:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also the guys who win best everything at music & life every year, bitch.

For your consideration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s-5FUfFFrk

Nice. Drums are too British tho.

Wow, nobody mentioned this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnbbG4Pd-0U

Spymob are the closest thing to a contemporary rock band that gives me a Steely Dan vibe

i see a big, big bob dylan influence in steely dan's music and sense of humor, so to me, whoever would be dan-ish would also have to be a little dylan-ish. who has that throughline? i hear the fugs in steely dan as much as i hear, say, some hot new whippersnapper with a lot of chords.

like, lcd soundsystem didn't sound anything like steely dan, but james murphy is a spiritual heir to the dan throne: dry sense of humor, jersey roots (like fagan), a consummate studio rat, great talent for writing melodies.

I haven't actually heard this album, but felt it most likely belongs on here:

http://www.theawl.com/2012/03/ian-mcshane-made-an-album-in-1992-would-you-want-to-listen-to-it

"Having the seductive Michael McDonaldisms of From Both Sides Now wash over you instead is an experience not unlike discovering Duke Silver and his extensive following of saucy moms. "

I finally got the China Crisis album last week.

Phoenix are sorta Steely Dan updated for the 00s, aren't they?

You're so foreign.

ecker and/or Fagen = fans of Ian Dury, Donna Summer's "Turn Out the Lights" and (if I'm remembering correctly) Dr. Buzzard.

where is this coming from? the Dan-Dury-Summer-Buzzard connection needs to be scientifically proven once and for all. damn it, that's Mount Popmore right there!

I can't believe this thread has existed for so long without anyone mentioning The High Llamas.

"Howzat" by Sherbert

Super Furries had their SteelyDan side (and not just because of..)

High Llamas - Santa Barbara

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 23 May 2005 21:04 (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

xp

the donna summer/dr buzzard/ian dury (and talking heads!) stuff is from here: http://www.granatino.com/sdresource/music1.htm

xpost and xpost: also Microdisney posted above is music by the High Llamas guy...

Sorry folks. I missed that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbCmMaqG8_Q

Chris Rea doesn't get a lot of love, but there's a couple of his songs that totally nail it.

Walter Becker also produced albums for Rosie Vela and Fra Lillo Lippi in the mid 80s, although I am a bit unsure if they really sounded much like Steely Dan. Same about the Gary Katz-produced debut album by Love and Money. All three had the same picture perfect sound and playing, but not quite the same level of musicianship in the songwriting and harmonies.

Wasn't Rosie Vela's basically with SDan as backing band?

I think so. They've been working together a lot after disbanding Steely Dan, so no wonder they regrouped for two new Dan albums around 10 years ago.

I reckon, btw, that Fagen's solo albums have sounded more Dan-like than Becker's and the one that as not produced by Becker as probably the most Dan-sounding of all (probably should have worked more with Gary Katz).

Becker's last solo album Circus Money is the best Steely Dan album of the last 30 years

Following up on the High Llamas comment, I think "Checking In, Checking Out" from Gideon Gaye is by far their most Steely Dan-like song. It sounds like a long lost track from Pretzel Logic.

High Llamas are Steely Dan meets Beach Boys and Herb Alpert.

Steely Boys are Herb Dan meets Beach Llamas and High Alpert

There is something about The High Llamas which keeps drawing me back to them. They still make good albums. Never quite as good as Gideon Gaye, but certainly never bad albums. I will probably love all their albums when I really am on old git.

Seriously, you guys, this Mayer Hawthorne album...

The Stepkids

The Stars Are Ours is basically an Aja/Gaucho version of Reelin In The Years

I've said it before but some Tokyo Jihen have a somewhat Steely Dannish sound. They are generally in Japanese though, so you if you are looking for lyrical similarity, that could be a problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDzzW6sH1qI

Noudouteki Sanpunkan

Konya wa Karasawagi