Dive Bar Jukebox: All Steely Dan Edition
Featuring "Quantum Criminals" Author Alex Pappademas & Artist Joan LeMay
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Welcome back to Dive Bar Jukebox, where every Friday bartenders, writers, chefs, musicians, and a cast of cool characters answer the question: If we were hanging out together at a bar and I put ten credits on the jukebox, what songs would you punch in and why? The answers reveal thoughts on their favorite dive bars along with a hand-picked, annotated playlist for your weekend listening pleasure.
Please welcome today’s special guests…
Alex Pappademas & Joan LeMay
This Friday’s All Steely Dan Edition Dive Bar Jukebox was inspired by the new book, Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan (University of Texas Press). Brought to life by writer Alex Pappademas and artist Joan LeMay, Quantum Criminals vividly illuminates the Walter Becker and Donald Fagen “Daniverse.” LeMay’s striking paintings are inspired by the musicians and “vivid cast of rogues and heroes, creeps and schmucks, lovers and dreamers, and cold-blooded operators” from the Steely Dan songbook, and are accompanied by deep-dive (and thoroughly engaging) essays from Pappademas, offering cultural insights (and the occasional conspiracy theory) on Steely Dan tracks both classic and obscure. I’ve been pretty obsessed with this book since receiving a galley awhile ago—it’s already received high praise from NPR, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone—and I’m excited to share this terrific interview along with an expertly curated all Steely Dan playlist.
“Steely Dan has always sounded like the future, a phenomenon that makes me want to dissect their past to see how they got there… a strange and fascinating love story worthy of the Dan.”
—Aimee Mann
“Having made several attempts to concoct a blurb that might display some of the thoughtfulness, cleverness, craft, wit, style, and strong point of view that are the hallmarks both of this book and of the band it so fiercely and fannishly and lovingly analyzes, I'm just going to give up and write the simple truth: I adored it.”
—Michael Chabon
Alex Pappademas is the author of Keanu Reeves: Most Triumphant—The Movies & Meaning of an Irrepressible Icon and the writer and host of the acclaimed podcast The Big Hit Show. His work has also appeared in GQ, the New York Times, and Grantland.
Joan LeMay is an artist whose work has been published in dozens of publications and multiple books, and has been created for independent films and creative agencies. A lifelong music universe person, her artwork appears on several album covers. She is based in London, England and New York, New York.
The Quantum Criminals “Two Against Literature” book tour kicks off in New York City on Tuesday, May 23 at P&T Knitwear with Naomi Fry and Wednesday, May 24 at Unnameable Books with Jason Diamond (I’ll see you there!), with additional dates for Los Angeles, London, Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle.
Read on for Alex and Joan’s insights on Steely Dan and the music scene along with from-the-trenches tales of their favorite dive bars.