Steely Dan - New release / June 10th

I'm with Ben on Two Against Nature, I'm more of an Aja guy myself. I bought tickets for their upcoming tour, I'm seeing them for the second time in my life on August 14th in Toronto. I saw the Dan in San Jose many years ago, very much like seeing Zappa live. Lotsa musicians and the band was VERY tight. Having said that Becker was almost invisible and Fagen well... "Anthony Robbins teeth" when he sings and he seemed uncomfortable performing live. The "supporting" band members were exceptional musicians, that's why I laid out the green and will make the five hour drive for the August show.

Jeff, I had the honor of seeing Steely Dan at the Sony Studios on W54th St. in NYC. I was dating a young lady at the time, who used to have access to most of the performances held at Sony.

It's a small studio with extremely limited seating, so the performance was "in your face". I understand that the majority of the songs played in that performance were actually used on the "Two Against Nature" DVD. I have always meant to purchase it.

Needless to say, they were absolutely incredible. When you hear how tight those guys are, you have to wonder why they have never done a direct to disc recording. They don't even need a studio.

That will be an experience I will always remember.

And I should have never let that young lady go.....

Buscis2,

The "one" that got away? We all have regrets. An interesting anecdote, I got a request several years ago from a gentleman looking for some quality analog semiconductors to build a "headphone amp". I probed as to what his application was; he was an engineer at Studio Morin Heights who was working with Peter Gabriel at the time (Daniel Langois on the board). Suffice to say I hand delivered the parts at no cost!!!!!!!!!! Did you have the privilege of seeing Frank Zappa in concert?

No Jeff, and man I wish I could of. FZ was such a great guitar player and many people who actually did see him say he was so incredibly focused when he played. In his later years, when he was conducting, often the orchestra musicians would comment on his levels of perfection and expertise.

Frank, (I should say Dr.Zappa Phd) was an extremely significant musician in modern music history. You can consider yourself very fortunate having had the chance to see FZ.

I think I can speak for all of us when I say "your very respectfully missed FZ".

I just discovered a way to listen to the whole recording for free on their website: click on "Listen Now" and a pop-up appears where you can view weird video clips, but at the bottom click on "play songs from the new album". You can listen to each song in it's entirety. The quality is streaming audio, and a fast connection is probably needed, but I really like the sound of this new album...espcially "Green Book"

Happy listening!

Z