<<< BACKWARD (“Teahouse On The Tracks”) ||| ONWARD (“Big Noise, New York”) >>> *** STEELY DAN SUNDAY INDEX *** You can probably find a little bit of Ray Charles in most anything Donald Fagen plays, but on occassion, his affection for the music of America’s most important soul man is explicit. “Confide In Me” is one of those occasions.

This list is necessarily all over the map. Heck, in a lot of respects, there’s no map at all. You’ll find it in tatters down on the passenger-side floorboard. Delving into unsigned bands is like that.

A choice, not-so-obvious all-covers album from Philadelphia’s Mondo Topless, starting with a pretty rockin’ version of The Twilighters’ “Nothing Can Bring Me Down.” Elsewhere, an eclectic bunch of garage and rock bands are represented

Tom Gates, perhaps best known for his pan work with the Beach Boys, is trying to do for the steel drum on Comfort Zone what Steve Turre did for the conch some two decades ago: Move it into the jazz mainstream.