Steely Dan is an American jazz-rock band centered on core members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. The band reached a peak of popularity in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop. Rolling Stone magazine has called them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the Seventies". The band's music is characterized by complex jazz-influenced structures and harmonies played by Becker and Fagen along with a revolving cast of rock and pop studio musicians. Steely Dan's "cerebral", "wry" and "eccentric" lyrics are filled with sharp sarcasm which often touches upon such "dark" themes as drugs, crime, and their true-to-life "contempt of west coast hippies". In 2009 Steely Dan will be coming to the UK to perform three very special shows to fans in Edinburgh, Birmingham and London this July.