Gaucho Amigos

Office Culture frontman, music critic, and friend Winston Cook-Wilson joins for the first in-person episode of Gaucho Amigos. We trace some of the roots of our joint interest in Steely Dan, and Winston shares everything from his particular appreciation for The Royal Scam (for which he wrote the Pitchfork review) to the connection between Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell's mid-70's period.

Writer Alex Pappademas and painter Joan LeMay join the podcast to discuss their brilliant new book Quantum Criminals. The authors explain how the idea of structuring a Steely Dan book around the cast of characters sparked their collaboration, as we dive into the Dan-verse to talk about characters both real (Cathy Berberian, Keith Jarrett) and imaginary (The Gaucho, The Squonk).

My conversation with Evan and Ian of the Jokermen podcast reaches its thrilling conclusion in this second half of a two-part episode. We continue discussing a soundboard recording of a September 1994 show, highlighting some of the individual performances of songs ranging from beloved hits to some of the deeper cuts from Donald and Walter's respective solo catalogues.

Evan and Ian of the Jokermen podcast join for a discussion about Steely Dan's 1990's live act. Through the lens of a bootleg soundboard recording of a 1994 show in Dallas, we talk about some of Don and Walt's creative choices in bringing their studio output to a live setting, and discuss how the "reunion tour" shows became the blueprint for the Steely Dan concert experience. Note: this is the first half of a two-part episode.

Film composer Julian Wass shares his "Steely Dan journey" and talks about how getting into them while in music school completely altered his perspective as a student. He also recounts how seeing an ad for the "Reelin' in the Chips" Las Vegas residency inspired a road trip to finally see them live, as he and Alex compare notes on the Steely Dan concert experience.