Steely Dan: "Steely Dan's name has been popping up as a hip musical crush. Remember, this glossy bop-pop was the indifferent aristocracy to punk rock's stone-throwing in the late 70's. People fought

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I hear a lot of Steely Dan in Tokyo Jihen. Offhand I can't think of another band with as many SD-like moments (but I've never gone looking for any either), although TJ is more upbeat. But at least some of the time they have jazzy/funky muso chops combined with real good accessible pop tunes.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 4 June 2006 13:06 (twenty years ago)

Last night, the lf and I happened to listen to Paul Simon's One Trick Pony, and found that a lot of the tracks are disturbingly similar to a lot of Steely Dan tracks... while there's no doubt that Simon can write songs and has a 'voice,' the whole thing had a scent of rip-off. Any thoughts?

― trees (treesessplode), Sunday, 4 June 2006 15:36 (twenty years ago)

there are some steely-like moments on the new scritti.

― cognitive discodance (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 4 June 2006 15:52 (twenty years ago)

(JBR, I think you'd like this new Tokyo Jihen album, even if you didn't like Shiina Ringo solo. There's hardly any of the Beatlesesque big orchestra orchestrations (?) that I think might bother you in some solo SR, although actually I think she uses orchestra a lot better than the Beatles generally did. I guess I should try to hear the new Scritti Politi, after having become somewhat of a fan only within the past couple years.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Sunday, 4 June 2006 16:04 (twenty years ago)

The whole thing was worth it for this:

Fagen: But isn't it true that the Leone films, with their elevation of mythic structures, their comic book visual style and extreme irony, are now perceived as signaling an aesthetic transmutation by a generation of artists and filmmakers? And isn't it also true that your music for those films reflected and abetted Leone's vision by drawing on the same eerie catalog of genres - Hollywood western, Japanese samurai, American pop, and Italian Opera? That your scores functioned both "inside" the film as a narrative voice and "outside" the film as the commentary of a winking jester? Put it all together and doesn't it spell "postmodern", in the sense that there has been a grotesque encroachment of the devices of art and, in fact, an establishment of a new narrative plane founded on the devices themselves? Isn't that what's attracting lower Manhattan?

Morricone: [ shrugs ]

― Carlos Keith (Buck_Wilde), Sunday, 4 June 2006 21:14 (twenty years ago)

I happened to listen to Paul Simon's One Trick Pony, and found that a lot of the tracks are disturbingly similar to a lot of Steely Dan tracks... while there's no doubt that Simon can write songs and has a 'voice,' the whole thing had a scent of rip-off. Any thoughts?

Probably it's that he used the same musicians as SD. And I think it's possible to hear Simon's first album as a folkier blueprint for what SD would do (studio obsessive, New York-centric snarky lyricism).

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 5 June 2006 14:52 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

best band ever

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 04:55 (nineteen years ago)

Besides Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 05:02 (nineteen years ago)

they are fucking great. can't take them all the time, but... a lot of the time.

i'm getting worried about how i feel about them, actually.

― trees (treesessplode), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 05:05 (nineteen years ago)

still crap

― Igor Adkins (Grodd), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 05:11 (nineteen years ago)

Greg Graffin looks like James Eckhouse from Beverly Hills, 90210 in those jerkoff pics.

I've got every Dan album besides Two Against Nature and Alive In America. My local store never seems to have those.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 05:20 (nineteen years ago)

i politely give you these, sir:

ihttp://theartoftithing.com/cropped%20Raspberry%20Hand%20working%20copy.jpg

― trees (treesessplode), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 05:20 (nineteen years ago)

oh the art of tithing.

― trees (treesessplode), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 05:21 (nineteen years ago)

'two against nature' is pretty sweet. crucial during this day and age of 'you me and dupree' as well.

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 05:21 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah I've got the Two Against Nature DVD anytime I want to hear Cousin Dupree, for now.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 05:29 (nineteen years ago)

if you don't have 'morph the cat' by fagen, you should grab it. it's tight, brah!

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 05:32 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah I've got that! I really need the other two Fagen CDs, though.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 05:34 (nineteen years ago)

yes, you do! they are both excellent.

― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 06:18 (nineteen years ago)

I still need Kamarkiriad, but my SD tide is currently low, so that purchase will have to wait til I get back into it.

― Das Spiel ist aus für Baaderonixx (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 07:05 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, it's weird. I want the first 2 Fagen albums, AIA, TAN, and Becker's solo album, but not enough to special order them, yet. Still, I would totally buy them if I happened upon them in a store.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 07:11 (nineteen years ago)

no one in the uk listens to steely dan - fact!

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 08:20 (nineteen years ago)

13 tracks of whack = not so good :/

― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 08:24 (nineteen years ago)

I really liked Morph the Cat at first but completely stopped spinning it after two weeks.

― Das Spiel ist aus für Baaderonixx (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 08:28 (nineteen years ago)

Wow it's been a long time since I considered giving Steely Dan another try.

Damn you opinionistas, now I've gotta go back and reconsider and probably waste a good three hours in order to write them off again.

I'll stick w/ wAkk AttAkk until then.

― Suzy Creemcheese (SuzyCreemcheese), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 12:32 (nineteen years ago)

Gods. Absolutely love 'em.

Stay away from Everything Must Go though. Stay VERY VERY away!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 17:29 (nineteen years ago)

I like Everything Must Go better than Two Against Nature, actually.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 17:39 (nineteen years ago)

Dear Mr. Snrub:

WHAT
EV
ER

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 17:40 (nineteen years ago)

'everything must go' is awesome.

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 17:50 (nineteen years ago)

go find "live at the record plant" or "live 74" and hear the countdown band tear shit up. so good.

everything must go is awesome.

― dan (dan), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

everything must go is great!

in order of necessity:
the nightfly
two against nature
kamakiriad
11 tracks of whack
alive in america

the first three are definitely worth a special order. '11 tracks of whack' is an odd one, and has a few duds, but the good songs (esp. 'junkie girl') make it worth hearing, i think.

― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

find the live on pbs show too!!! nu-dan kickin ass!

― chaki (chaki), Thursday, 10 August 2006 16:42 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

The Caves Of Altimira - nothing can live with it.

SD can't rock out? Check the Navasota album from 72 - ft. Becker & Fagen writing, arranging and playing on a biker band type stomper.

Sterile? Home At Last, Pixeleen, Almost Gothic... check their appearence on Thomas Jefferson Kaye 'First Grade' from '74 their song - American Lovers... a beaut'.

Best band ever.

― Kirk Degiorgio (Kirk), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:06 (nineteen years ago)

Welcome to the fold, brother.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:09 (nineteen years ago)

good to be here.. (i think)

― Kirk Degiorgio (Kirk), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:10 (nineteen years ago)

haha

― you want pastrami? (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:18 (nineteen years ago)

hehe

― Kirk Degiorgio (Kirk), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:28 (nineteen years ago)

heyhey

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:29 (nineteen years ago)

it will end in carnage no doubt

― Kirk Degiorgio (Kirk), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:31 (nineteen years ago)

I've barely heard any Steely D...but this is clearly one of the greatest threads (if not the greatest) in the entire history of ILM.

Reelin' In The Years and Blackjack are good songs, or at least they were 6 years ago when I last heard them. Place to start, anyone?

― Scourage (Haberdager), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:34 (nineteen years ago)

the greatest thread for the greatest band...

by Blackjack I presume you mean Do It Again... those 2 are from the 1st album so why not go at them chronologically.

― Kirk Degiorgio (Kirk), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:38 (nineteen years ago)

I do mean Do It Again, stupid, stupid, stupid :(...the album I heard also had Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Hey 19 and a coupla others I forget the names of. If you were to recommend one to really grab me by the cojones, which would you choose, though?

― Scourage (Haberdager), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:42 (nineteen years ago)

that must be a greatest hits as they are from different era's...

can't single one out - get them all.

― Kirk Degiorgio (Kirk), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:48 (nineteen years ago)

get pretzel logic

― a little knowledge can go a long way (lfam2), Friday, 25 August 2006 01:54 (nineteen years ago)

Pretzel Logic is the one that grabbed me as well, as I trawled their discography on Allmusic just now.

Once upon a time I looked for length in albums; I wanted them to be as long as possible so that any ideas the band had could be exploited to the maximum. I begged for songs to exceed the 7-minute mark (still do, in many ways), and I couldn't stand needless brevity.

More recently, however, I've realised that this isn't always what makes a truly great album; in fact, the skill required in creating something under 45 minutes long that still exploits those ideas fully is a far more impressive skill than sprawling them out into 75-minute extravaganzas. This is why Rock Action is Mogwai's best album, this is why Talk Talk's last two records pack such a punch.

Hopefully, Pretzel Logic will be a bit like that.

― Scourage (Haberdager), Friday, 25 August 2006 02:06 (nineteen years ago)

What? Aja is the best place to start.

― def zep (calstars), Friday, 25 August 2006 02:21 (nineteen years ago)

What? Get Katy Lied.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Friday, 25 August 2006 02:23 (nineteen years ago)

Actually, yeah, Katy Lied is also pretty concise. I'll get whichever one HMV has in stock. ;-)

― Scourage (Haberdager), Friday, 25 August 2006 02:27 (nineteen years ago)

Black Friday + Bad Sneakers + Doctor Wu = WIN

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Friday, 25 August 2006 02:31 (nineteen years ago)

i mean, they're all good, but i think that the horace silver tune that starts rikki don't lose that number makes such a good beginning.

― a little knowledge can go a long way (lfam2), Friday, 25 August 2006 02:53 (nineteen years ago)

good enough to hear it first!

― a little knowledge can go a long way (lfam2), Friday, 25 August 2006 04:01 (nineteen years ago)

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