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JAMOOOL posted:Some good modern prog recs: All great recommendations, and honestly *every* Echolyn album is great. The new one is fantastic! Heard it in full about a week and a half ago on my dad's big-rear end audiophile stereo system with a tube preamp, and drat. The production on the drums in particular is stunning. In addition to your list, I would offer up Big Big Train - English Electric: Full Power (2013) as one of the greatest progressive rock albums of all time, and it's over two hours long. Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL5qSj26NvU
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Aug 6, 2015 05:08
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Optimum Gulps posted:All great recommendations, and honestly *every* Echolyn album is great. The new one is fantastic! Heard it in full about a week and a half ago on my dad's big-rear end audiophile stereo system with a tube preamp, and drat. The production on the drums in particular is stunning. I remember hearing the first Echolyn album and thinking, "if this is their worst album, then this might be one of the greatest bands ever"...honestly I still feel that way. Have not heard the BBT discs yet - I have heard The Difference Machine and thought it was kind of dull, but based on the song you posted it seems like they finally learned to rock out a little bit. One band I've been into a lot is The Tangent - though The Music That Died Alone is their most famous, the other albums sounded better to my ears. Andy Tillison once said something to the effect of "I think there are more prog rock bands now than there are prog rock listeners" - he's got a point, there are a ton of bands out there right now, you just have to find them!
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Aug 6, 2015 14:48
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Earwicker posted:I mean they were certainly very good musicians but a lot of their stuff even during their good period was completely ridiculous I think they hold up well in comparison with the other five of the "big 6". Critics accused them of being the most pretentious band of all when in fact they were probably one of the least pretentious prog rock bands. They just seemed like they were having fun with prog and not taking seriously at all, which often came across as silly, which it often was, let's be honest. They were also, along with Yes and Pink Floyd, probably the most accessible prog rock band (okay not always, but then Yes and PF weren't always accessible either). Also the "big 6" isn't supposed to be the best and most respected prog rock bands, those are just the bands that kind of defined the genre in the early 70s because they were the most popular. Gentle Giant often also gets listed along with them, but I think they were a little too "out there" to be included. Hell, even Genesis and King Crimson are probably a little too out there for the list, but it's hard not to include them considering how big Genesis became and just how important that first King Crimson album was. Gianthogweed fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Aug 11, 2015 |
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Aug 6, 2015 23:14
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I got into prog via being forcefed King Crimson and Zappa tunes as a kid, but I still haven't been able to get into any of the ELP albums I've heard. I expect one day I'll wake up and things'll just click, especially since I like just about all of their contemporaries, but if critics had a hard time getting into them, I can see why. On a less respectable and probably more critically panned note, I haven't gone to a gig in well over a year, but I'm strongly considering going to Fish's Farewell to Childhood tour. I already saw him play Misplaced Childhood in its entirety maybe 10 years ago, and the non-Marillion material he's playing these days is basically an anti-draw for me, but I love Misplaced Childhood an unreasonable amount and worry I'll have bad luck if I don't go and listen to him tell me that there is no childhood's end one last time.
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Aug 8, 2015 12:40
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Skjorte posted:On a less respectable and probably more critically panned note Won't get any argument here.
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Aug 8, 2015 13:00
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Gianthogweed posted:I think they hold up well in comparison with the other five of the "big 6". Critics accused them of being the most pretentious band of all when in fact they were probably one of the least pretentious prog rock bands. They just seemed like they were having fun with prog and not taking seriously at all, which often came across as silly, which it often was, let's be honest. They were also, along with Yes and Pink Floyd, probably the most accessible prog rock band (okay not always, but then Yes and PF weren't always accessible either). ELP are the most accessible of the "big 6" popular prog rock bands in the sense that if you bake six cakes but one of those cakes is made entirely out of frosting, some people would probably consider that cake the most accessible one, even though eating the whole thing would induce vomiting To me it's not really an issue of pretentiousness exactly. It's more that bands like Yes and Genesis while they had their over the top moments were still putting their music to what comes across, to me, as an artistic purpose, some greater concept or story. Whereas ELP, who I do enjoy on a technical level, feels much more hollow in comparison (I don't think stuff like Tarkus counts as much of a concept or story) and thus their excess is less forgiveable, in terms of their overall compositions and aesthetic. Earwicker fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Aug 8, 2015 |
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Aug 8, 2015 14:55
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I put an ELP playlist on today cause I've never really listened to them outside of radio stuff like Lucky Man. Not very interesting except one song that my echo called Reworks 7, which kinda sounded like Combustication-era Medeski Martin and Wood until some really corny big rock riff came in at the end.
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Aug 8, 2015 17:55
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Other prog bands make good music (usually) despite the virtuosity. ELP uses songs as vehicles for the virtuosity (usually) and as a result most of it just lacks emotional resonance. 'From the Beginning' is a rad track though. So is 'Jerusalem'.
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Aug 8, 2015 18:01
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Earwicker posted:ELP are the most accessible of the "big 6" popular prog rock bands in the sense that if you bake six cakes but one of those cakes is made entirely out of frosting, some people would probably consider that cake the most accessible one, even though eating the whole thing would induce vomiting I think the thing is that their songwriting core never quite got a hold of how to write for the group. Emerson and Lake were nearly always going in two separate directions, and you had bits that were either way more obviously Keith (Trilogy) or way more obviously Greg (The Only Way). It's rare for them to have something where the band really cooks AND the vocal has the same sticking power as with Greg's nearly-solo stuff (From the Beginning, Still...You Turn Me On, etc.), usually one or two per record, and almost never the stuff that ends up on the greatest hits record. On the first four records (before Peter Sinfield comes in and, IMO, helps the songwriting congeal a bit), I'd say it's something like Knife-Edge A Time and A Place The Endless Enigma and probably a couple others I can't remember right now. This isn't to say that the other tracks are bad, they just can feel disjointed at times, like the core of the idea is one of the three guys, and the other two are just there to help make it happen. This is part of why I like Works I, simply because they dispense with the pretense and actually DO let each guy take the wheel for a while and have the other two help out (apart from the piano concerto, obv.) Palmer's side is probably the most fun the group ever gets, with Food For Your Soul being the great lost 70s action movie soundtrack, and LA Nights having Joe Walsh wander in from the mystery zone to start singing scat lines. FFYS is also probably the peak of Palmer's recorded drumming output, as well. Hallowed Be Thy Name (over on Lake's side) is also great, goofy, stomping fun. Eeesh, I just went full wordswordswords with that, didn't even mean to. Welp, that's prog.
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Aug 8, 2015 18:12
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BigFactory posted:Reworks 7, which kinda sounded like Combustication-era Medeski Martin and Wood until some really corny big rock riff came in at the end. I've been back and forth through ELP's stuff since I was a kid, and I've never heard of any track by that title.
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Aug 8, 2015 18:14
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Reworks was a way late album in like post-reunion years where all of the tracks were just called Reworks 1 thru 10 and IIRC it involves some kind of remixing of their earlier poo poo in a really hokey way. its bad
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Aug 8, 2015 18:18
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Earwicker posted:Reworks was a way late album in like post-reunion years where all of the tracks were just called Reworks 1 thru 10 and IIRC it involves some kind of remixing of their earlier poo poo in a really hokey way. its bad It was definitely bad but also not what I was expecting from ELP, until the end where it was absolutely what I was expecting. It sounds hokey and dated, but in a late 90's way instead of a mid 70's way.
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Aug 8, 2015 18:34
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Oh gently caress, it's terrible. It's mostly Trilogy with a lot of doofy echoes at first, then there's some other stuff and then that terrible riff that I can't place at the moment but probably comes from the post-reunion output... gently caress, this is miserable poo poo.
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Aug 8, 2015 20:55
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ELP would be a lot better if they were Lake, Palmer, and someone else who didn't poo poo up everything with cheesy garbage keyboard solos.
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Aug 9, 2015 02:04
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Punch Card posted:ELP would be a lot better if they were Lake, Palmer, and someone else who didn't poo poo up everything with cheesy garbage keyboard solos. Yeah, even if you kept it in the realm of Keiths, I'd probably rather listen to Sweat, Lake and Palmer or Hernandez, Lake and Palmer.
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Aug 9, 2015 03:01
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Yeah technicality isn't interesting when it's isolated as one band member doing all the difficult stuff. I like bands that work together more seamlessly and densely as a band.
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Aug 9, 2015 03:12
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BigFactory posted:Yeah, even if you kept it in the realm of Keiths, I'd probably rather listen to Sweat, Lake and Palmer or Hernandez, Lake and Palmer. Dr. Octogon, Lake and Palmer
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Aug 9, 2015 06:15
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Or H.E.L.P. Hendrix, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, which would surely have reached a critical mass of virtuoso players, causing the Earth in implode - in a very prog rock fashion. (This combination was actually planned - for a jam at least, probably not a full album - but fate intervened. As far as ELP songwriting goes, I really like the first almost which was largely ripped off from Bartok, Dvorak and so on. I felt that was really successful - more successful than Pictures at an Exhibition - because it loosely blended different tendencies. I don't mind the solos in that album because they hang with the songs and the album as a whole. If the songs themselves have enough of a groove and the solos can follow that groove they have sufficient propulsion to pull through. Or maybe I just prefer the first album because I grew up with it. 
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Aug 9, 2015 08:13
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Josef K. Sourdust posted:Or maybe I just prefer the first album because I grew up with it. Growing up with a thing can make its faults irrelevant. (I really like the first record, too, apart from Three Fates, even though I didn't grow up with it)
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Aug 9, 2015 08:46
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Allen Wren posted:Growing up with a thing can make its faults irrelevant. (I really like the first record, too, apart from Three Fates, even though I didn't grow up with it) The first album sold me solely on the strength of its second track, "Take a Pebble". Greg Lake gets sole writing credit, but it's clear the rest of the band had a heavy hand to play in why that song was so good. It proves that the band really had a lot of potential, and I think they lived up to it to an extent, but burned out very quickly. Allen Wren posted:Oh gently caress, it's terrible. Wow, this is my first time hearing this ... I don't know if I hate it or love it yet ... some great moments followed by some awful moments, don't know what to think of it. edit: BigFactory posted:I put an ELP playlist on today cause I've never really listened to them outside of radio stuff like Lucky Man. Not very interesting except one song that my echo called Reworks 7, which kinda sounded like Combustication-era Medeski Martin and Wood until some really corny big rock riff came in at the end. Yeah I think that "big rock riff" you were referring to was from "Paper Blood" from their 1991 "Black Moon" album. Terrible song from a terrible album. Gianthogweed fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Aug 11, 2015 |
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Aug 11, 2015 01:15
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Reworks is one of the worst purchases I've ever made. And I like ELP (although I agree that they burned out really quickly)
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Aug 11, 2015 15:36
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Chilling in the Catskills again with Belew/Levin/Mastelotto [Timg] http://imgur.com/a/5rmpc[/timg] Pat's kit
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Aug 11, 2015 17:04
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Is Trey Gunn doing anything these days? I always thought he was good. Even his solo stuff wasn't too far up his own rear end.
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Aug 11, 2015 18:29
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Gianthogweed posted:The first album sold me solely on the strength of its second track, "Take a Pebble". Greg Lake gets sole writing credit, but it's clear the rest of the band had a heavy hand to play in why that song was so good. It proves that the band really had a lot of potential, and I think they lived up to it to an extent, but burned out very quickly. I would like Take a Pebble a lot better without the pointless deviation into pastoral acoustic guitar hoedown nonsense in the middle. IMO the best track on their first album is the first one, the Bartok cover, which is excellent. and I still think Lucky Man is a great tune
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Aug 14, 2015 19:01
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSm5IQFaTZA Great band.
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Aug 14, 2015 20:27
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Not just for ELP, but I wish someone would or could put together all the extant footage of the California Jam into one set---hell, dig up CalJam2 as well. You've got Sabbath, Purple, Earth Wind & Fire, Rare Earth...most of the bands at that first festival really cooked.
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Aug 15, 2015 04:33
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Allen Wren posted:Not just for ELP, but I wish someone would or could put together all the extant footage of the California Jam into one set---hell, dig up CalJam2 as well. You've got Sabbath, Purple, Earth Wind & Fire, Rare Earth...most of the bands at that first festival really cooked.
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Aug 15, 2015 05:34
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This YouTube channel has a ton of California Jam videos: http://youtu.be/m5dHVpD4jVQ
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Aug 15, 2015 07:26
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Saw Yes in Alpharetta. Steve Howe is still amazing.
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Aug 24, 2015 00:02
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RC and Moon Pie posted:Saw Yes in Alpharetta. Steve really seemed to have stepped it up this tour, at least the youtube videos I've seen. Definitely a lot more fluid and nailing parts he had trouble with in the last few years.
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Aug 24, 2015 05:24
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How was Billy Sherwood on bass? I feel like Yes could really bring back the fire if Alan White would step up his game too. They should bring back Bruford to help him out.
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Aug 25, 2015 04:08
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Gianthogweed posted:How was Billy Sherwood on bass? I feel like Yes could really bring back the fire if Alan White would step up his game too. They should bring back Bruford to help him out. Bruford is out the game entirely (and apparently working on his PhD in music now...) I read something that the last time Bruford was involved with Yes at all was during demos of the "Drama" period when Alan White broke his foot before pre-production. If there's one set of tapes I'd give my left nut for...
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Aug 25, 2015 14:26
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Noise Machine posted:Bruford is out the game entirely (and apparently working on his PhD in music now...) Drama? 1980? I didn't even know he was involved with Yes at all back then. But if so, that wasn't his last involvement with Yes. He was still involved with Yes as late as 1993. I remember seeing him performing Roundabout with Steve Howe on Regis and Cathy Lee. They were promoting that Symphonic Music of Yes album YesEast put out (back when Yes was broken up into two East / West factions). I wonder if that album was meant to fill a contractual obligation because I think he wanted out right after the Union debacle. https://youtu.be/jutQgWScjQ8 https://youtu.be/3HWo-YB94LQ (this is why Steve shouldn't sing lead on Yes songs)
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Aug 25, 2015 17:53
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Gianthogweed posted:Drama? 1980? I didn't even know he was involved with Yes at all back then. But if so, that wasn't his last involvement with Yes. He was still involved with Yes as late as 1993. I remember seeing him performing Roundabout with Steve Howe on Regis and Cathy Lee. They were promoting that Symphonic Music of Yes album YesEast put out (back when Yes was broken up into two East / West factions). I wonder if that album was meant to fill a contractual obligation because I think he wanted out right after the Union debacle.
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Aug 25, 2015 18:36
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Holy christ that singing was terrible!
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Aug 25, 2015 19:44
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Steve Howe's cd of Dylan covers is one of the worst CDs I own. He's not much of a singer.
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Aug 25, 2015 19:45
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Vulture Culture posted:The description on the very first link you posted states outright that neither member was in Yes at the time the video was recorded. The guy that uploaded the video was wrong. I actually remember seeing this live at the time and they were still officially members of the post-union mess of a lineup. It wasn't until 1994 when the Talk lineup was finally solidified (and for a little bit Rick Wakeman was in that lineup) that the BWH of ABWH was officially out of the band. I remember this because I used to post on the prodigy Yes message boards at the time (god I'm old) and there used to be fan battles over which lineup was better, YesWest or YesEast. There were two Yeses. ABWH was YesEast (because they mostly lived in England) and the Rabin lineup was YesWest (because they lived in California). Jon Anderson would just hop between both lineups when they would do projects like these. It was pretty funny. I think he was actually supposed to do some promotion for this album (he was actually on it) but couldn't make it which is why Steve wound up singing Roundabout. He should have just left it an instrumental.
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Aug 25, 2015 21:37
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I love you but there is such a thing as knowing too much about the various lineup changes in Yes
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Aug 25, 2015 22:28
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Earwicker posted:I love you but there is such a thing as knowing too much about the various lineup changes in Yes I know  but I have to do something with all this useless knowledge.
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Aug 25, 2015 22:38
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Gianthogweed posted:Drama? 1980? I didn't even know he was involved with Yes at all back then. But if so, that wasn't his last involvement with Yes. He was still involved with Yes as late as 1993. I remember seeing him performing Roundabout with Steve Howe on Regis and Cathy Lee. They were promoting that Symphonic Music of Yes album YesEast put out (back when Yes was broken up into two East / West factions). I wonder if that album was meant to fill a contractual obligation because I think he wanted out right after the Union debacle. Ah yeah poo poo you're right, but I kinda forget about "Union" because it was literally just a cash-grab for him to fund future EarthWorks projects. They barely show him at all in the Union DVD, and even then it's just on the edge of the frame, with the most bored look imaginable on his face.
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Aug 26, 2015 00:01
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