Elvis Costello’s Sundance Channel show really is a perfectly packaged hour for music nerds. EC is an adept interviewer, and never shy about joining in the jam during his guest’s performance segments. As at the wrap party, last night’s Spectacle had Costello perform with Jenny Lewis on her Acid Tongue cut “Carpetbaggers.” Only this time Zooey Gibbard was there to side-step and to sing and to guarantee that you click to watch the videos below. The whole hour had nice overlapping themes: Elvis started with a spin through “Show Biz Kids,” explaining the evening’s guests had familial industry roots (Jenny, Zooey, Jakob Dylan), later discussing Matt Ward’s Acid Tongue guitar solos during a cute interview with She & Him. They talk favorite records and guitar playing; Matt mentions John Fahey’s work as having a revelatory effect on his right-hand technique, and earlier today we mentioned Fahey for having created the new Sonic Youth album cover. (If you’re new, I’ll save you the Wiki search.) You really should have this show on your DVR, so go set a season pass. And then watch the clips:

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We don’t mean to dwell on Coachella, but when our plane touched down at LaGuardia late Monday night, they were playing Steely Dan’s “Hey Nineteen.” We notice things like this because we like Steely Dan … and that song could make a grown man cry. Looks like Cryptacize are fans as well. We’ve posted about the California trio previously, but for playing and singing along to their own Dig That Treasure tunes. Here, they take on the classic Dan track, “Peg.” Sacred! In case you can’t recall the original — for shame — here’s some history before you imbibe:

All caught up?

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Take our ink-stained hands and join us at the OldStand, where Jon McMillan goes to remind everyone what an honest-to-goodness music magazine is supposed to look like.

A hirsute James Taylor gets the Leibovitz cover treatment for RS #255, alongside Linda Ronstadt and super producer Austin Powers — er, Peter Asher. Seriously, ask your parents. Or ask the immaculately named Ben Fong-Torres, whose mammoth article/interview with the cover three is J-school (if not museum) quality, and a great reminder of why music fans used to live and die for this stuff every week. Proto-Klosterman Greil Marcus checks in with a post-gonzo take on Graham Parker, and Cameron Crowe gets all-the-way-famous with the mystery men behind Steely Dan. Donald Fagen is a golden god!

A review section includes Clapton (Slow Hand), Billy Joel (The Stranger), and The Ramones (“Rocket to Russia is the best American rock & roll of the year and possibly the funniest rock album ever made”). Dave Marsh’s catty takedown of a lame Rod Stewart gig at Madison Square Garden makes for much better reading (“Phil Chen, the diminutive Jamaican bassist, is so cute you’d like to punch his face in or sell him back to the Bee Gees.” What? Zing!), as does the “Random Notes” bit about Peter Gabriel trying to sing his way out of a Swiss prison (perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn’t work).

After the jump: RS critics picks for 1977, Pat Metheny’s transcendent unibrow, and perhaps the best (indie-rock free) cigarette ad copy of all time.

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It’s back to school time, but Graduation‘s in the air (okay, stop the groaning, we’ll stop the puns). You know hip-hop non-listeners haven’t paid this much attention to a rapper since, well, Kanye himself dissed George W. during that Hurricane Katrina telethon. As we’ve mentioned, ‘Ye knows how to pick his collaborators, especially when he’s on a quest to be cool.

At this point we all know what Mr. West has done to court your inner hipster, but still, big ups for presaging Daft Punk as this year’s hipster dance kings. We’re just surprised he didn’t hire Haruki Murakami (or, wait ? Dave Eggers?) to write liner notes complimenting the purple-y Takashi Murakami graphic design. And, dude, where’s the duet with Karen O (or, better yet, the Knife)?

Thing is, though, now that we have this baker’s dozen o’ new Kanye in front of us, the hipster brown-nosing feels less important. Like, now that we’re used to the Daft Punking, what’s with some of “Stronger”‘s lyrics? “You can be my black Kate Moss tonight”? Does that make Kanye the black Pete Doherty? Kanye, you’re inviting us to be your over-the-hill/looks-fading/cokehead girlfriend? Wonder if he’s just glancing at NME.com every day and not really reading the stories (still, a laugh out loud for rhyming “would do anything for a blonde dyke” with “Klondike” ? don’t think they teach that shit in NME.)

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Epistles of love for the Dan are nothing new to these parts, so quite obviously the Becker/Fagan freaks ‘n’ geeks in us perked up upon hearing Kanye had plans to appropriate the Steely ones on his recent quest to sample every song we’ve ever held dear. Who knows the backstory, but it probably came down to someone spinning The Royal Scam for ‘Ye, him hearing the line “Did you feel like Jesus?” in “Kid Charlamagne,” and West saying, “Why yes, yes I have.” So Mr. West is taking a page from Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz on “Champion,” replete with “Charlemagne” sample. Kanye omits the Jesus bit — been there, done that — building instead on “Did you realize you were a champion in their eyes”. Yes he did, so he packed it up and brought it back to the crib.

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Becker and Fagen are at it again:

Maestro, we give to you this Message: there was a time when Giants walked among us. And, damn, if you, Wes Anderson, might not be the one to restore their racial dominance on this, our planet, this Terra, this… Earth.

You may have heard that we have recently made it our personal project and goal to deliver a certain actor of no small importance to your past and present work from a downward spiral of moral turpitude from which it seemed there might be no escape. We are delighted to report that, with the news of Mr. ________’s participation in your new film (which we understand to be entitled, indeed, charmingly, ?Darjeeling Limited?), our efforts have been repaid, and How.

This unqualified victory has inspired us to address a more serious matter. Let’s put our cards on the table – surely, we are not the first to tell you that your career is suffering from a malaise. Fortunately, inasmuch as it is a malaise distinctly different than that of Mr.______ , and to the extent that you have not become so completely alienated from the intellectual and moral wellsprings of your own creativity, we are hoping that we – yours truly, Donald and Walter – may successfully “intervene” at this point in time and be of some use to you in your latest, and, potentially, greatest, endeavor…

I guess I can’t complain, ’cause I said I liked these things, but … well, Walter/Donald — it’s called beating a dead horse.

I think Steely Dan has gotten more press for their cheeky letter to Luke Wilson than they did for Two Against Nature. I saw it last week while Stereogum was down, and figured I missed my window to blog about it. But you know what? I’m opening a new window. ‘Cause I love me some Steely Dan. And they’re touring this summer with Michael McDonald.

First, in case you don’t want to read Don and Walt’s ten paragraph manifesto, the gist is that they claim Luke’s brother Owen’s new movie rips off the Dan’s six-year-old incest ditty “Cousin Dupree.” Why didn’t they address Owen directly? Beats me. Why’d they name their band after a dildo?

Here’s an excerpt:

“What we suspect may have happened is this: some hack writer or producer or whatever they call themselves in Malibu or Los Feliz apparently heard our Grammy winning song “Couspin Dupree” on the radio and thought, hey, man, this is a cool idea for a character in a movie or something. … When it came time to change the character’s name or whatever so people wouldn’t know what a rip the whole thing was, THEY DIDN’T EVEN BOTHER TO THINK UP A NEW FUCKING NAME FOR THE GUY!”

Shrewd publicity stunt. Or whatever.

Even shrewder? Becker and Fagen are crossing the country with former Dan sideman Michael McDonald. The ex-Doobie Bro is actually enjoying a pop culture comeback…

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No more Yacht Rock?! Sad news via Channel 101:

Yacht Rock enjoyed success on levels and in ways previously unattained by 101 shows, its title becoming a household phrase at radio stations, a bin at your local record store and a category on iTunes. But beneath its pop cultural triumph was an artistic one that often went undescribed: Yacht Rock’s stories were always clever and sometimes downright genius in their assembly, weaving trivia, common knowledge, exaggerations and fabrications into a rope strong enough to hold it at the #1 position for an unbelievable number of non-consecutive months, setting audience share records at Channel 101 that are unlikely to be broken any time soon and sweeping the 2005 Channy Awards. Ironically, Channel 101′s most memorable show came to its end quietly and unremarkably, not unlike some of the careers it saluted with a smirk. Instead of choking on its vomit in a Paris bathtub or overdosing on a Hollywood sidewalk, Yacht Rock simply told us one last story about Steely Dan, then hoisted its sails and drifted away while a satisfied crowd waved goodbye from the docks, exactly one incredible year after its historical debut.

We’ll miss you Hollywood Steve.

Steely Dan – “FM (Live On PBS Jan ’00)” (MP3 Link Expired)

Last week, we excerpted Rolling Stone scribe Mark Binelli’s sad profile of a heroin-snorting Pete Doherty. (The full article’s online now. Am I the only one who didn’t know it was pronounced Dockerty?)

In the same issue, Austin Scaggs plays the drug card on Donald Fagen to a decidedly more comedic effect.

AUSTIN SCAGGS: Have you ever dropped acid and listened to Steve Gadd’s drum solo on “Aja”?
DONALD FAGEN: No. That’s after my LSD moment was over. Have you?
AUSTIN SCAGGS: Yeah!
DONALD FAGEN: How was it?
AUSTIN SCAGGS: It was incredible!
DONALD FAGEN: [Laughs] I did drop acid and listen to Blonde on Blonde. That was pretty good.

Steely Dan – “Aja” (MP3 Link Expired)

Now, unlike you (I assume), I’ve been anxiously awaiting Morph The Cat, Fagen’s first solo disc in 13 years. I was a big fan of Kamikiriad and that’s a source of endless amusement to some esteemed journalist friends of mine. (They don’t dispute Steely Dan’s importance, but love to rib Indie Boy for listening to CD101.9 fodder). Ergo…

_____________________________________________ From: Stereogum Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 5:17 PM To: C. Subject: RE: Morph The Cat I actually clicked on that. Dick.  > _____________________________________________  > From: C.  > Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 4:22 PM  > To: Stereogum  > Subject: RE: Morph The Cat  >  > I think he’s streaming it on his myspace page.  >  > www.myspace.com/thenightfly   >>_____________________________________________   >> From: Stereogum   >> Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 4:19 PM   >> To: C.   >> Subject: Morph The Cat   >>   >> Go ahead, make fun of me. ‘Kamikiriad’   >> was great. If you get the new Donald Fagen   >> can you lemme know?   >> -s

Turns out Morph is a snoozer. After I bought “H-Gang” on iTunes my wife commented, “You’re actually listening to this … on purpose?” Stream it for free if you’re curious.

So I won’t try to sell you on the new Donald Fagen. But Steely Dan … please tell me there are some fans out there. “Reeling In The Years”? “Deacon Blues”? Even MF Doom and Sondre Lerche dig the “Black Cow.”

Spence back me up here.

If you are a fan, here’s a .zip of a 2000 concert for ya: “Two Against Nature: Live On PBS, January 2000″ (YouSendIt Link, 98.6 MB). (Via Aquarium Drunkard.)

Since it’s apparently Old Man week on the Gum, I should mention Paul Simon gives us Surprise on May 9. Produced by Brian Eno! Rolling Stone Q&A with a stoned Garfunkel TK.

Norwegian songwriter/guitarist Sondre Lerche looks back to greats like Steely Dan and Elvis Costello. Stream his new disc.