Not only will Steely Dan tour again this summer, highlighted by another string of intimate gigs at New York’s Beacon Theatre, but Walter Becker will release Circus Money, the long-awaited follow-up to his amazing album from ‘94, 11 Tracks of Whack. “I’ve been listening to a lot of Jamaican music from the Sixties and Seventies, so that was the jumping-off point,” Becker tells the Smoking Section. “Everything from Lee Perry to the Wailers, ‘Style’ Scott, Sly and Robbie, ‘Flabba’ Holt. Those rhythm sections are the ultimate, and I’m a rhythm guy.” Becker lays down some mean bass lines (backed by a crack band of Steely vets) on rock-steady tracks, and busts out awesome phrases such as “lachrymose musings,” “puke-streaked tunic” and “Kundalini now!” He even name-drops “muscatel,” a sweet, fortified wine on the track “Darkling Down.” “I remember using muscatel in the Sixties,” says Becker. “For a headache that I didn’t have yet.”
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Most New Yorkers — including Rufus Wainwright — have fond memories of August 14th, 2003, the day that 40 million Americans lost power in a blackout and Manhattan morphed into a peaceful candlelit party. “I was just out of rehab at that point,” says Wainwright. “So I watched enviously as others lost their minds. It was like watching Chekhov.” To re-create that rad vibe, Wainwright has posited that June 21st be celebrated without electricity. Joined by his sis Martha, Beth Orton and Harper Simon, Wainwright touted his cause, performing a candlelit, mike-free concert, belting out “Stayin’ Alive,” “California” and “Bye Bye Love.” The gig was shot by documentarian Albert Maysles, who is working on a film about Wainwright. “Things are gonna take a bit of a left turn, because he wants to film me telling my mother my life story,” he says. “I hope it doesn’t turn out to be like Grey Gardens — or Gimme Shelter, for that matter.”
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When Arctic Monkeys toured with fellow Brits the Little Flames in 2005, love blossomed between the bands’ guitarists. “Me and Alex grew a best friendship,” says Miles Kane about the Monkeys’ singer, Alex Turner. The two young prodigies — who worship Scott Walker, Nick Drake and Burt Bacharach — began writing together, named themselves the Last Shadow Puppets and will release their debut, The Age of the Understatement, in April. Bolstered by orchestral arrangements, the disc sounds like a rocked-out film score. “It’s sophisticated and classy,” says Turner over lunch in New York, adding that they made the disc in the French countryside. “We were in the middle of nowhere. Like, I saw a dog eat a kitten.”
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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.
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