The Royal Scam
The Royal Scam is the fifth album by Steely Dan, originally released by ABC Records in 1976. The album went gold and peaked at #15 on the charts.The Royal Scam features more prominent guitar work than other Steely Dan albums since the departure of Jeff Baxter. Guitarists on the recording include Walter Becker, Denny Dias, Larry Carlton, Elliott Randall and Dean Parks.
The mood of the album stands in contrast with the band's more mellow and hugely successful follow-up, Aja.
In common with other Steely Dan albums, The Royal Scam is littered with cryptic allusions to people and events both real and fictional. In a BBC interview in 2000, Becker and Fagen revealed that "Kid Charlemagne" is loosely based on Augustus Owsley Stanley, the notorious drug "chef" who was famous for manufacturing hallucinogenic compounds, and that "Caves of Altamira" is about the loss of innocence, the narrative about a visitor to the Cave of Altamira who registers his astonishment at the prehistoric drawings.
LadybiRdS
LadybiRdS are an American pop rock band from Westchester, Pennsylvania.
History
Ley Royal Scam
Prior to LadybiRdS Tyler Pursel and Teeter Sperber were recording and touring with Ley Royal Scam, a short-lived group that had a successful run opening several shows for Taking Back Sunday at Bamboozle in 2005. They also self-released two demos, titled Pregnancy Scare and Sophomore Slump. Within that year the members of Ley Royal Scam separated, allowing Pursel to rejoin Gym Class Heroes.
Formation
In 2006 Pursel contacted Sperber to provide vocals for a new project; what would become LadybiRdS. Musical arrangements were made by Pursel, who was working on the East coast, while Sperber, since the breakup of Ley Royal Scam, had relocated to Oregon. Though Pursel initially envisioned the album to feature many vocalists, subsequent work with Sperber led them to write and record together exclusively, making Sperber the nominal frontwoman and lead singer of LadybiRdS. Production culminated by January 2007, when Pursel and Sperber put finishing touches on Regional Community Theater at a Creep Records basement studio in Pennsylvania. The album was released by Creep Records on 18 September 2007.
Podcasts:
