Steely Dan's "The Royal Scam" returns to Vinyl June 6 via Geffen/UMe

Steely Dan's wonderful album The Royal Scam is set to be reissued via vinyl next month. Get all the details via the official media release issued today...Robert Kinsler

 

PUT ON YOUR FEZ! STEELY DAN’S GUITAR-DRIVEN CLASSIC, THE ROYAL SCAM, RETURNING TO VINYL FOR FIRST TIME IN FORTY-FIVE YEARS

 

1976 ALBUM INCLUDES FAN FAVORITES “KID CHARLEMAGNE,” “THE FEZ,” AND “THE CAVES OF ALTAMIRA” 

 

AVAILABLE JUNE 6, THE ROYAL SCAM CONCLUDES GEFFEN/UMe’s EXTENSIVE REISSUE PROGRAM OF STEELY DAN’S CLASSIC ABC AND MCA RECORDS CATALOG – ALL OVERSEEN BY DONALD FAGEN

Los Angeles – April 22, 2025 – Steely Dan’s darkly cynical and musically intricate fifth album, 1976’s The Royal Scam, with such fan favorites as “Kid Charlemagne,” “The Fez,” “The Caves of Altamira,” and the biting title track, will return to vinyl for the first time in more than forty years on June 6, 2025 via Geffen/UMe, concluding the extensive reissue program of the band’s classic ABC and MCA Records catalog that began in November 2022 with the Dan’s legendary debut LP, Can’t Buy A Thrill. The series, which is personally overseen by founding member Donald Fagen, returns the group’s first seven records to vinyl, most of which haven’t been available since their original release.   Pre-order The Royal Scam now: https://steelydan.lnk.to/TheRoyalScamLPPR   The Royal Scam has been meticulously remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes for release as a limited edition premium 45 RPM version on Ultra High-Quality Vinyl (UHQR) from Analogue Productions, the audiophile in-house reissue label of Acoustic Sounds. Analogue Productions is also releasing this series of titles on Super Audio CD (SACD).   UMe’s standard 33 1/3 RPM 180-gram version has been remastered by Joe Nino-Hernes at Sterling Sound from high-resolution digital files and pressed at Precision. They will be housed in reproductions of the original artwork. Nino-Hernes’ new remaster of The Royal Scam will also be available to stream on the DSPs on June 6, joining the already available remasters of the rest of the catalog – Can’t Buy A Thrill, Countdown To Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied, Aja, and Gaucho - which were remastered by Alex Abrash from Bernie Grundman’s masters.    The 45 RPM UHQR versions will be pressed at Analogue Productions’ Quality Record Pressings on 200-gram Clarity Vinyl, packaged in a deluxe box, and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a certificate of inspection. Each UHQR is pressed, using hand-selected vinyl, with attention paid to every single detail of every single record. All of the innovations introduced by QRP that have been generating such incredible critical acclaim are applied to each UHQR. The 200-gram records feature the same flat profile that helped to make the original UHQR so desirable.   Led by the songwriting and virtuoso musical duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan released an extraordinary run of seven albums on ABC Records and MCA Records from 1972 through 1980. Filled with topline musicianship, clever and subversive wordplay, ironic humor, genius arrangements, and pop hits that outshone the Top 40 of its day, their records, which were as sophisticated and cerebral as they were inscrutable, were stylistically diverse, melding their love of jazz with rock, blues, and impeccable pop songcraft.   Released in 1976, The Royal Scam marked a pivotal moment in Steely Dan’s evolution toward studio perfectionism, delivering a darker, more cynical tone wrapped in complex jazz-rock arrangements. This album features some of the band’s sharpest songwriting and introduces legendary drummer Bernard Purdie to the fold—his first appearance on a Steely Dan record—bringing his signature groove to tracks like “Kid Charlemagne” and “Green Earrings.” Guitarist Larry Carlton delivers searing solos throughout the album, particularly on “Don’t Take Me Alive,” while Dean Parks adds talk box flair to the reggae-influenced “Haitian Divorce.” The album also includes standout cuts like the funky, offbeat “The Fez” and the epic title track, “The Royal Scam,” a scathing portrait of shattered American dreams. With contributions from bassist Chuck Rainey, keyboardist Paul Griffin, and the soaring background vocals of Michael McDonald, The Royal Scam combines biting social commentary with masterful musicianship, making it a cult favorite and a testament to Steely Dan’s uncompromising artistic vision.   Despite achieving gold record status and peaking at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, The Royal Scam was not as critically well-received as its predecessors at the time, or the band’s masterpiece, Aja, that would follow just a year later, but since its release more than 50 years ago it has become a favorite among the fans as well as the music press who have come to better understand its quixotic charms and cryptic characters. In 2004, Rolling Stone awarded the album five stars in their retrospective review, atoning for their original less than stellar review. More recently, in March 2025, four of the tracks (“Kid Charlemagne,” “The Caves of Altamira,” “Sign In Stranger,” The Royal Scam”) were ranked in the band’s top 25 in the magazine’s ranking of every Steel Dan song. “Kid Charlemagne” was ranked as the band’s second-best song (while Mojo ranked it as #3), exclaiming, “Drawing on the exploits of famed LSD manufacturer (and Grateful Dead audio engineer) Owsley Stanley, ‘Kid Charlemagne’ is an outlaw parable for the ignominious end of the Sixties counterculture. A bustling rocker juiced by a sprightly clavichord jump and laced with a first ballot hall of fame guitar solo from Larry Carlton. Donald Fagen tells the tale like a hippie noir — diamonds crossed with pearls and Technicolor motorhomes dissolving into darkly comic bumbling.” Meanwhile, The Royal Scam was ranked as Steely Dan’s second-best album by Stereogum, declaring it “their fiercest, funkiest record in their entire catalog, a classic that transitioned them from the uneasy company of the yacht-rock smooth to a mean unit that grooved like Stevie for pessimists.”

THE ROYAL SCAM (33 RPM Vinyl) Side A 1. Kid Charlemagne 2. The Caves of Altamira 3. Don’t Take Me Alive 4. Sign In Stranger 5. The Fez   Side B 1. Green Earrings 2. Haitian Divorce 3. Everything You Did 4. The Royal Scam

ABOUT STEELY DAN Steely Dan helped define the soundtrack of the '70s with hits such as "Reeling in the Years,” "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," "Peg," "Deacon Blues," "Babylon Sisters," and "Hey Nineteen," culled from their seven platinum albums issued between 1972 and 1980 (including 1977's groundbreaking Aja). Both their sound and their notoriety survived the '80s despite Walter Becker and Donald Fagen occasionally surfacing for a solo project. They reunited as Steely Dan in the early '90s, touring successfully throughout the decade and releasing a live album in 1995 (Alive In America). In 2000, they released their multi-GRAMMY® winner, Two Against Nature, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

New Music: Pete Yorn, Linda Hoover, Spygenius, Hank Williams, Jr.

Songcraft and style take center stage on four new must-hear releases.

Artist: Pete Yorn

Title: Hawaii (Shelly Music)

You might like if you enjoy: Pete Yorn, The Postal Service, R.E.M.

Tell me more: Singer-songwriter Pete Yorn is back with another fantastic batch of tuneful and enticing folk rock originals via Hawaii. Co-produced by Yorn with Jackson Phillips, the 10-track album is a phenomenal return for the New Jersey native. Standouts include the driving melodic opener "Elizabeth Taylor," sweeping "Never Go" with its burgeoning melodic build, wistful "'Til The End," shimmering dream pop gem "Also Roses" and luxurious closer "Stay Away." The piano-anchored "Ransom" is particularly affecting, Yorn's yearning vocals capturing his emotional pain on one of the disc's high points. Information: PeteYorn.com. 

Artist: Linda Hoover

Title: I Mean To Shine (Omnivore Recordings)

You might like if you enjoy: Nicolette Larson, Crosby Stills & Nash 

Tell me more: More than 50 years after Linda Hoover's debut album (I Mean To Shine) was recorded in the summer of 1970, the impressive album is finally receiving its commercial release in 2022 (an exclusive vinyl edition was issued on June 18; the audio CD and digital versions are coming June 24). Hoover was only 19 when she cut the album, but the ambitious young singer-songwriter was assisted by first-time producer Gary Katz and a rising songwriting and arranging duo by the name of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen (who would soon find fame leading Steely Dan). Not only were four of the album's tracks penned by Becker and Fagen, but future Steely Dan members Denny Dias and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter were among the players on the recordings. Hoover has a beautiful voice that resonates with the diverse material ranging from '70s pop ("I Mean to Shine," "Turn My Friend Away") and uptempo folk rock ("Roll Back the Meaning," "City Mug") to affecting acoustic ballads ("Autumn," "Jones"). The genre-defying "Roaring of the Lamb" and Stephen Stills-penned "4 + 20" are especially poignant. Information: OmnivoreRecordings.com. 

Artist: Spygenius

Title: Jobbernowl (Big Stir Records)

You might like if you enjoy: The Monkees, The Who, The Hollies

Tell me more: Listening to Spygenius' glorious Jobbernowl is to be transported back to the 1960s. The latest album from the celebrated Canterbury, England-based quartet is a bona fide thrill for lovers of top-tier songcraft, nuanced musicianship, lyrical depth and stylish retro-leaning rock. A follow-up to the foursome's 2020 double LP Man on the Sea and 2021's album of marvelous covers (Spygenius Blow Their Covers), the 11-track album finds the band delivering a mix of propulsive garage rockers, sophisticated baroque pop and timeless power pop — all bolstered by soaring vocal harmonies. The hard charging opener "I Dig Your New Robes, Pierre!," bewitching Baroque rocker "2020 Revision," lovely "All That Is Solid Melts Into Air," power pop swoop "Mandy Rice-Davies Applies" and immersive "Metamorphosis" collectively showcase a band that deserves to be heard far and wide. Spygenius features singer-guitarist/chief songwriter Peter Watts, keyboard player Matt Byrne, drummer Alan Cannings and bassist Ruth Rogers. Information: BigStirRecords.com. 

Artist: Hank Williams, Jr.

Title: Rich White Honky Blues (Easy Eye Sound)

You might like if you enjoy: Hank Williams, Jr., Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins

Tell me more: On his latest album Rich White Honky Blues, country legend Hank Williams, Jr. fully explores the blues with an authenticity and love sure to please his long-time fans as well as blues lovers. Featuring a mix of originals as well as covers from genre heroes ranging from Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters to Lightnin' Hopkins (the latter who used to visit Williams' family home when he was growing up), the album was produced by Dan Auerbach (lead singer and guitarist with The Black Keys) who also contributes his musical talents on the disc. Highlights abound on Rich White Honky Blues, including on the acoustic Delta-styled opener ".44 Special Blues" (penned by the aforementioned Johnson), rollicking "Georgia Women" (featuring some terrific slide guitar work from Kenny Brown), the county-inflused "Short Haired Woman" and buoyant "Fireman Ring The Bell." My favorite track is the Williams-penned "I Like It When It's Stormy," a Southern rock-meets-blues bolt where Williams sings "I like it when it's stormy / because it reminds me of my life." The album is an outstanding excuse to rediscover Williams. Information: EasyEyeSound.com. 

Robert Kinsler

Walter Becker Remembered

Walter Becker performing at Coachella in Indio, CA on Friday, April 17, 2015.
Photo: Kelly A. Swift

Posted by Robert Kinsler

Since the news broke yesterday (Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017), musicians and Steely Dan fans have been mourning the death of Walter Becker. The famed guitarist died after an undisclosed at the age 67.

Although I never saw Steely Dan back during their initial run spanning 1972-1981 when they were first breaking ground with their fusion of rock, jazz and R&B, I made up for it since the turn of the century catching the duo at Irvine Meadows in June 2000, at Gibson Amphitheatre in 2009, and at the Greek Theatre in July 2011.Fast forward to 2015 when I was especially fortunate to have caught Fagen and Becker at the Santa Barbara Bowl on April 15 and then at Coachella later that week on April 17.

You can read my review of the band's full-length performance of their album Aja in 2011 here. I consider that concert to be among the best I have ever seen.

You can read my review of the group's performance at Coachella in 2015 here.

Here are some tributes to Becker, starting with Donald Fagen:

Here is Donald Fagen's remembrance of his friend and musical partner originally posted on Rolling Stone's website:

"Walter Becker was my friend, my writing partner and my bandmate since we met as students at Bard College in 1967. We started writing nutty little tunes on an upright piano in a small sitting room in the lobby of Ward Manor, a mouldering old mansion on the Hudson River that the college used as a dorm. 

We liked a lot of the same things: jazz (from the twenties through the mid-sixties), W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, science fiction, Nabokov, Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Berger, and Robert Altman films come to mind. Also soul music and Chicago blues. 

Walter had a very rough childhood - I’ll spare you the details. Luckily, he was smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter. He was cynical about human nature, including his own, and hysterically funny. Like a lot of kids from fractured families, he had the knack of creative mimicry, reading people’s hidden psychology and transforming what he saw into bubbly, incisive art. He used to write letters (never meant to be sent) in my wife Libby’s singular voice that made the three of us collapse with laughter.

His habits got the best of him by the end of the seventies, and we lost touch for a while. In the eighties, when I was putting together the NY Rock and Soul Review with Libby, we hooked up again, revived the Steely Dan concept and developed another terrific band.

I intend to keep the music we created together alive as long as I can with the Steely Dan band."

Recording Academy™ Statement 
September 3, 2017
"With Steely Dan partner Donald Fagen, Walter Becker created some of the smartest, most artful rock to ever hit the charts. Brimming with irony and filed in with brush strokes of jazz and R&B, three of the group's albums—1977's Aja, 1980's Gaucho, and 2000's Two Against Nature—were nominated for the Album Of The Year GRAMMY^®, with the latter winning the award. Walter and Steely Dan set the standard for sophisticated progressive pop, and he will be greatly missed. Our condolences go out to his family, friends and colleagues."
Neil Portnow
President/CEO
Recording Academy

Peter Frampton (via Twitter on Sept. 3, 2017)

"#RIPWalterBecker The incredible wealth of inspiring music you gave us will always push me to be a better musician/writer. Thank you Walter."

Steve Lukather of Toto (via Twitter on Sept. 3, 2017)

"Really sad to hear Walter Becker has passed... Steely Dan music touched me deep. My desert Island music. RIP Walter. Condolences Donald..."

Geoffrey Downes of ASIA and YES (via Twitter on Sept. 3, 2017)

"The Royal Scam & Aja were particularly inspirational albums for me. Thank you for the music, Steely Dan. #RIP #WalterBecker"

Mark Ronson (via Twitter on Sept. 3, 2017)

"Rest in peace WALTER BECKER, one half of the team i aspire to everytime I sit down at a piano. thank you for your unparalleled contribution."

Nile Rogers (via Twitter on Sept. 3, 2017)

"#RIPWalterBecker Very sad news. They're one of my favorite bands."


Beck Pays Tribute to Walter Becker at Detroit Concert
Billboard reported that while opening for U2 on that band's Joshua Tree Tour 2017 at Detroit's Ford Field on Sept. 3, 2017, Beck and his band paid tribute to Becker during a performance of "Where It's At." You can read that full report here.

TJR (Music Worth Buying host)
Finally, watch my Music Worth Buying co-host TJR's tribute to Becker via the link below:

Sights and Sounds: Steely Dan, Eric Johnson

Here is a roundup of the latest notable releases to land in my inbox. I've reviewed and been blown away by both Steely Dan and Eric Johnson at concert settings, so it makes lots of sense to feature their latest updates here...

Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, left and Walter Becker.
Photo: Danny Clinch

STEELY DAN ANNOUNCES NORTH AMERICAN SUMMER TOUR

* * * * *

“Jamalot Ever After” Set to Begin on July 2  

Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Walter Becker and Donald Fagen have announced that Steely Dan will hit the road again in 2014, taking their “Jamalot Ever After” Tour across the U.S. and Canada.  Opening at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon on July 2, the tour is set to make stops in 47 cities before concluding at Baltimore, Maryland’s Pier Six Pavilion on September 17.

Tickets for the show in San Diego, CA at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay on July 13 and for Oklahoma City, OK on July 21 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena are on sale now. Fans should check local listings and www.steelydan.com for updated tour and additional ticketing information. Ticket purchase links for the tour can be found below.  

At “Jamalot Ever After,” concertgoers can expect an evening of the same high-level of musical excellence which, on recent tours, garnered raves from fans and critics alike:

"Everyone gathered Friday evening was a believer — and they were treated to something close to rapture." -The Los Angeles Times

Onstage, Donald and Walter will be joined by those same eight “brilliant” supporting musicians: Keith Carlock on drums, Freddie Washington on bass, Jim Beard on keyboards, Jon Herington on guitar, Michael Leonhart on trumpet and keys, Jim Pugh on trombone, Roger Rosenberg on baritone saxophone and Walt Weiskopf on saxophone, along with three “superb,” soulful songbirds: La Tanya Hall, Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery and Cindy Mizelle. Together, they will treat audiences to selections from The Dan's extraordinary four-decade catalog, rich with infectious tunes, bodacious harmonies, irresistible grooves, and sleek, subversive lyrics, punctuated by blazing solo work and rich ensembles.

 

Steely Dan has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and helped define the soundtrack of the '70s with hits such as “Reelin’ in the Years,” “Rikki Don't Lose That Number,” “F.M.,” “Peg,” “Hey Nineteen,” “Deacon Blues,” and “Babylon Sisters,” culled from their seven platinum albums issued between 1972 and 1980 (including 1977's groundbreaking Aja). They reunited in the early '90s, launching a string of sold-out tours. In 2000 they released multi-Grammy winner (including “Album Of The Year”) Two Against Nature, and released its acclaimed follow-up Everything Must Go in 2003. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Visit www.steelydan.com and https://www.facebook.com/SteelyDan for updated tour news and information.

ERIC JOHNSON AND PROVOGUE / MASCOT LABEL GROUP

ANNOUNCE JUNE 24 RELEASE DATE FOR EUROPE LIVE

Eric Johnson / Photo: Max Crace

New York, NY --- Mascot Label Group's Provogue Records and Eric Johnson announce a June 24 release date for Europe Live.  Guitar Player Magazine cited Johnson as “one of the most respected guitarists on the planet,” and the reasons why are many. Such primary ones as the lyrical beauty of his playing and compositions, his rich and colorfully broad palette of tones, his awesome instrumental agility, breadth and command, and the mesmerizing spell he summons up in concert.  All of these qualities can be heard on his new album, Europe Live.

The in-concert collection's 14 tracks draw from throughout Johnson's career and include two new compositions: The mesmeric "Intro" that opens the set, and the rollicking rocker "Evinrude Fever" (that alludes to his love for water skiing and boating). His Grammy-winning instrumental "Cliffs of Dover" and Grammy nominated "Zap" are performed with fresh and vigorous energy, and he shows his ever-deepening skills as a singer on such numbers as his soaring, blues-tinged salute to his hometown, "Austin," and the airy and glistening "40 Mile Town." Johnson's lifelong love of jazz and more recent forays into playing it emerges on his stunning nine-and-a-half minute interpretation of John Coltrane's "Mr. P.C." on which bassist Chris Maresh and drummer Wayne Salzmann also step out with power. The song selection ranges from an acoustic guitar rendition of "A Song For Life" which he initially cut on his debut studio album to the ferociously funky "Fatdaddy" from his most recent release, Up Close.  Johnson celebrates his side-project Alien Love Child with the hard-driving rock workout "Zenland," and the eleven-and-a-half minute multimodal suite "Last House On The Block." Originally released in 1996, the fan favorite "Manhattan" shines, while a gloriously cinematic rearrangement of "When the Sun Meets the Sky," titled "Sun Reprise" closes the set.

Europe Live was recorded in venues across Johnson's tour of the continent, with the majority of the album capturing his appearance at Amsterdam's Melkweg along with selections from  two dates in Germany at Die Kantine in Köln  and Bochum Zeche and the Paris show at New Morning.  Each appearance featured a unique set list, offering Johnson the opportunity to cull this track listing from a wealth of repertoire captured. 

Although he may be best known as the masterful studio craftsman behind his acclaimed million-plus selling breakout 1990 album Ah Via Musicom and its Top 10 hit "Cliffs of Dover," Johnson first made his musical bones and sparked a potent buzz in live performance from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s long before he ever issued an album and was heard on radio. As guitar legend Johnny Winter recalls of seeing Johnson perform back then, "When I first heard Eric, he was only 16, and I remember wishing that I could have played like that at that age."                                                                                               

Over his seven studio albums, Johnson has delivered three Top 10 hits ("Cliffs of Dover," "Trademark" and "Righteous") and two Top 40 singles ("Pavilion" and "High Landrons").  N.A.R.A.S. has celebrated his career with six Grammy nominations, while periodicals in the music space have honored with him for decades.  He is enshrined in Guitar Player magazine’s "Gallery of Greats," while Musician Magazine named him one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century.  He continues to refine and expand his musical brilliance in his own electric and acoustic tours (playing both guitar and piano), and his recent live collaborations on both electric guitar with jazz player Mike Stern and slide master Sonny Landreth.  Johnson is a frequent featured artist on the Experience Hendrix tours, as well as acoustic excursions with  the likes of Andy McKee and Peppino D’Agostino.

Johnson offers, "Working on this live record was kind of an epiphany for me because I realized that this is where it's at, no matter where you're playing, it should be a performance.  The more I do that the more I realize, wow, there's something special there. I'm enjoying playing more now because I am so committed to making sure that facet is really up front, one of the number one things. And I've been doing it in the studio when people send me tracks to play on, and I say, okay, hit record, and let's just do this all the way through. And I listen back and go, wow, that's just more interesting and enjoyable to listen to."

Avidly collaborative, Johnson first started recording with others in the 1980s on sessions for Cat Stevens, Christopher Cross and Carole King, and has since recorded and/or performed with Rodney Crowell, Richard Marx, Jennifer Warnes, Carla Olson, Chet Atkins, B.B. King,  James Burton, Steve Miller, Jerry Reed, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani (on the original G3 tour), John McLaughlin, Jimmie Vaughan, Sonny Landreth, Dweezil Zappa and Adrian Legg, and many more. He has paid homage in song to such players as Jerry Reed (“Tribute to Jerry Reed” on Bloom), fellow Texan Stevie Ray Vaughan (the Grammy-nominated track “SRV”) and Wes Montgomery (who Johnson saluted in his Ah Via Musicomcomposition “East Wes”). 

Throughout his career he has consistently won and placed high in numerous readers and critic polls conducted by guitar publications, most recently in 2010 when he was named Guitarist of the Year by Guitar International. Eric has also won more Austin Music Awards (33) than anyone else since they began in 1981, including Musician of the Year and Best Electric & Acoustic Guitarist plus Best Instrumental & Video, and was inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame in its first year in 1983.

He follows Europe Live with an album with his friend and fellow guitarist Mike Stern and is composing and recording tracks for both a new electric album as well as his first acoustic guitar release. Additionally, Johnson has embraced the digital age, releasing tracks via his site www.ericjohnson.com.  Currently, songs that include "To Whom It May Concern," "Imagination Of You - A Tribute To George Harrison" (featuring Christopher Cross) and his rendition of "The Wind Cries Mary" are available.  Johnson offers, "The Internet is a creative vehicle to get artist's music heard and level the playing field.  There is no barrier between the creative process and those compositions created reaching the fan."   Johnson continues to reach further and higher as a player, songwriter and singer, and considers being rated one of the greatest at his talents as simply a springboard to new levels of artistry and listener appeal.

You can read my feature story that featured an interview with Johnson that ran in The Orange County Register back in 2009 here.

Music Worth Buying: 'Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXIX' collection, 'The Dukes of September,' Break of Reality

Why would I include the latest Mystery Science Theater 3000 collection in a roundup of noteworthy new music titles?

Look no further than the first of four episodes on Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXIX (set for release by Shout! Factory on Tuesday, March 25), a rightful skewering of the 1957 teen exploitation flick Untamed Youth. The film not only features early rock 'n' roll hero Eddie Cochran ("C'Mon Everybody," "Summertime Blues") but has the distinction of boasting the first-ever on-screen performance of a rock song sung by a female (famed actress Mamie Van Doren). To be sure the movie itself is dated and campy, but thanks to the clever work of the writers and performers of MST3K, hilarity ensues. Among the extras on the new collection is an interview with the aforementioned Van Doren, and the original theatrical trailer for Untamed Youth. The other three films that get a well-deserved Satellite of Love treatment include Hercules And The Captive Women, The Thing That Couldn't Die and The Pumaman. Laughter aplenty! Information: ShoutFactory.com. 

Get Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXIX


Televised earlier this month as part of PBS' "Great Performances" series, The Dukes of September is now available on both DVD and Blu-ray courtesy of 429 Records. Captured live at Lincoln Center in November 2012, the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue (featuring Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs and a top-tier group of seven other musicians and two back-up singers) features not only some of the trio's biggest hits but rock and R&B nuggets such as "Love T.K.O." and "Sweet Soul Music."  There are all kinds of highlights on the disc (which looks and sounds fantastic), notably Fagen leading the way through Steely Dan's "Kid Charlegmagne" (which features some masterful guitar work from Jon Herrington) and an inspired "Lido Shuffle." For more information, visit www.429records.com/dukesofseptember.

Get The Dukes of September Live


Blending rock and classical with an authenticity rarely reached, cello-anchored band Break of Reality is back with a new collection titled Ten set for release on March 25 that features 10 instrumental compositions co-written by Patrick Laird (cello) and Ivan Trevino (drums, percussion). From the melancholy-blanketed rocker "Helix" to the more atmospheric "Star" and cinematic "Storm's End" and "Nine Deep," Laird, Trevino and cellists Laura Metcalf and Adrian Daurov, and several guest players, create a world that is at once familiar and new. Magic music making indeed. Information: www.breakofreality.com.

Purchase TEN here


Robert Kinsler