Video: steely dan my old school

This Friday and Saturday night, Steely Dan is playing at the Tower Theatre. Knowing that the members of Work Drugs are fans of the Dan, we asked then to give us a video preview of the upcoming shows. (Work Drugs, meanwhile, will perform at World Cafe Live next Monday during our first ever Key Studio Sessions Live concert with Black Landlord and Hezekiah Jones + Andrew Lipke. The show is free, but you need to RSVP for it here .) Below, Ben Louisiana of Work Drugs weighs in on some of his favorite Steely Dan songs. [...]

As Alice Cooper once sang, "School's out for summer." And we've heard that song played again and again and again on the radio on the last day of school ad infinitum every year since. And I'm sure we'... Continue reading "Five Songs For That Glorious Last Day Of School" >

In the movie Knocked Up , there's a scene where the characters played by Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd (playing an A&R man) argue about Steely Dan . I think the exact line that Seth Rogen says is that "Steely Dan gargle balls." It's a funny scene, but I'll admit that as I watched it in the theater, there was a part of me that wanted to shut his bitch ass up. Because Steely Dan are awesome. Why are they awesome? Because they sound so goddamned [...]

...of silent party #1 (via marathonpacks )

Originally I was just going to post a quick link to this astounding live bootleg of Steely Dan in London in 1974 , where the band cranks up for performances of tunes like "Bodhisattva" and "My Old School" that are so raw and totally wired they're almost punk. (You know, in the context of Steely Dan.) Though it took me awhile to set aside my own pubescent punk prejudices against Becker and Fagen's whole aesthetic, I now want Katy Lied played at my funeral, and while you know my blogging partner and I agree on most things, [...]

Steely Dan always has been - and always will be - super uncool in the coolest way ever. Despite the somewhat poor picture quality of this 1973 footage, I think this is very much worth a peek. Watch them perform the jolly 'My old School'. Singer/pianist Donald Fagan's sunglasses wouldn't be out of line today, would they? Especially if he had bothered to place them straight on his head...