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

tweet from this week
bdicrescenzo brent dicrescenzo
Stereolab is gone sadly. At least I have the Sea & Cake for my duophonic groove fix. New one gets loose like the Fawn. Which is great.

The thing that irritates me so much about that review is the unchallenged assumption that making mistakes is a sign of REAL, AUTHENTIC, RAW music; sometimes it's just a mistake, dude!

Plus really, going on and on about the soulless perfection of a band whose lead singer is Donald Fagen is some "magnets fuck my shit up" level of irony.

his mistake about what a copyist does is what makes it a REAL, AUTHENTIC, RAW review dontchaknow

lol @ "cranking the fragile"

Real authentic musicians don't bother to tune their instrument, real authentic music critics don't bother to check facts, even those as basic as what words actually fucking mean in a specific context.

guys, I am pretty sure Brent knew exactly what copyist meant given the tenor of the rest of the review; in fact, a room full of musicians capable of reading music plays directly into the anathema displayed here, let alone someone getting credit for generating legible scores

hmmm yeah upon re-reading this you may be right

The most risible paragraph for me addresses SD's "silence" during the eighties. It doesn't occur to DiC that the decision to refrain from releasing albums that embarrass their fans or legacy is itself deserving of praise.

lol I don't know why I'm defending this review (well actually I do, it's more fun than actually working) but I'm guessing Brent's assertion is that the return album is just as poor as the albums released by the folks who stuck to a regular release schedule, only in the Dan's case their critical cachet and modus operandi plays into their mystique and allows for people to fall all over themselves and accept stuff that most others would consider nonsense. I don't agree with this position but I don't think it's an unreasonable one to take.

Really the opening paragraph where he's openly mocking a demographic he clearly does not understand (anyone of the generation he's talking about who was reading Pitchfork in 2000 was almost by definition a self-selecting group of tech nerds a good bit more tech-savvy than Brent himself) is the only part that's wholly indefensible/stupid.

The most risible paragraph for me addresses SD's "silence" during the eighties. It doesn't occur to DiC that the decision to refrain from releasing albums that embarrass their fans or legacy is itself deserving of praise.

― Hey Look More Than Five Years Has Passed And You Have A C (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 12, 2011 3:06 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

plus fagan released a perfectly awesome steely dan record in 82 called the nightfly

yep

Here, play with this shiny silver Nokia while I chat with somebody else..

"I know you've held silly suspicions, if just for a moment, that your ponytail was perhaps pulling back your hairline."

http://www.colum.edu/specialevents/cnfw/images/Brent_dicrescenzo_smt.jpg

haaaaaaaaaaaa

http://kidsaquariumsquotes.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/1-blobfish.jpg

^^^^ visual illustration for "Third World Man."

it's hilarious that that entire review is derived from him being just outraged that members of the Dismemberment Plan and Braid were into Steely Dan

haha waht is that just hypothesizing or some real inside dirt

Minutemen were also into Steely Dan iirc

haha waht is that just hypothesizing or some real inside dirt

― in my world of loose geirs (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, April 12, 2011 5:30 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

neither, Brent was just a big stan for the Dismemberment Plan and shortly before this review there was a post on their site about their shared enthusiasm for Steely Dan w/ some other bands, which i assume was the source of the "hip musical crush" thing.

Brent's love for Dismemberment Plan is itself a Hit Musical Crush.

http://twitter.com/DonaldFagen/status/56209367455891457

John Kyl lost his virginity to "11 Tracks of Whack"- last year.
High five, Senator! #notintendedtobeafactualstatement
6:58 AM Apr 13th via web

The Rudy's Bar and Grill website actually plays Black Cow:

http://www.rudysbarnyc.com/home.html

I think that's kind of funny

Found the quote this thread title always reminds me of:

Mark E. Smith (speaking to Luke Haines): "Your music's alright, but it's a bit Steely Dan. We fought wars to get rid of that stuff."

man people on ilm love to quote that dickhead

hahaha

good times

man people on ilm love to quote that dickhead

now that's what I call top-shelf bubble-bursting right there

XD

Hurting that is a great find. I will be paying Rudy's a visit soon.

Rudy's is a great bar. Free hot dogs!

I'm coming from a Microdisney direction, but am really happy w/the Steely Dan-isms of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWMauvNnI5s

Lately I'm really wanting more smart-pop-sheen stuff w/cynical et morbid lyrics...

the cheapest seats at tonight's steely dan show are $175?!

yeah, steely dan were always some anti-consumerist, diy, punks who ... oh wait a minute.

sadly that price is probably standard for a lot of big boomer-y acts?

Going to see them next week for $33. It's lawn seating at an amphitheater, though.

did the cheaper seats already sell out and only $175 ones remain? cheapest nyc tickets were around $75 with fees. which is a lot but not as crazy as $175!

oh, this is stubhub, so these are resale requests rather than official prices. still surprised that there's that kind of demand tho

i had lawn seats for the Dan's show on Tuesday -- my wife bought tickets for me as an anniversary gift, but the tickets say they were $35 dollars (well worth it, awesome show)

i enjoyed yr review, hopefully going to go see them at the mn state fair this year

Saw them last weekend at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods. Seats were $55, but we were pretty far back. Good show, tight horn section, but frankly don’t see the point in seeing them live again unless I’m down front. Pretty much sounded like carbon copies of the recordings. And Walter Becker’s soliloquies were pretty annoying.

The quickly established and towering consensus seen on this thread made me incredibly happy to read. My girlfriend got us tickets for my birthday to see Gaucho ("and other hits") performed in its entirety in a few weeks... I can't wait.

And Walter Becker’s soliloquies were pretty annoying.

I love these guys live but this is otm

To be fair most of the audience seemed to love his monologues (there was a long one during "Hey Nineteen"), but I found them fairly tedious.

what does he blather about? Fagan has always seemed like the more interesting one to me

When I saw them, Fagan hardly spoke, but Becker did give a long monologue - I think it was also during "Hey Nineteen" so maybe they had planned for that in the rehearsals. I can't remember what he talked about, but I remember it being somewhat droll and not that annoying.

he did a pervy monologue about wining, dining, and sexing your lady during "hey nineteen" when I saw them. it was pretty weird but not that big a deal.

but he also sang lead on "gaucho" which really did not sit well with me. one of my faves!

curious that you find him to be the more interesting of the two, shakey. care to expand on that? strictly as a personality? because on, say, the musical merits of their respective solo albums, I don't think it's even close!

Yes, that's the same story I heard. Definitely pre-written and rehearsed. I just didn't find it that amusing, but I rarely ever find long monologues interesting during concerts.

So reading through this I noticed I still hadn't come around to the Dan in 2004...not sure when it happened, probably a few years after that. Wondering how many other people arguing against them upthread have had similar changes of heart.