King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

he keeps talking through the show and I'm thinking hey guy, this is the last time you or anyone else is going to get this or anything like it.

haha yeah. i like how into it the crowd sounds!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFAENQ2uVzs

Merry Christmas all

Just bought the CD/DVD 40th Anniversary Edition of USA. Here are the differences between the CD and the previous CD, track by track:

1. Walk On...No Pussyfooting - was 0:35, is now 1:40
2. Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part II - unchanged, still 6:24
3. Lament - unchanged, still 4:22
4. Exiles - unchanged, still 7:25
5. Asbury Park - was 6:54, is now 11:44
6. Easy Money - was 7:12, is now broken into two tracks as follows - Easy Money 2:25/Improv 8:41
7. 21st Century Schizoid Man - was 8:11, is now 9:01; also, has been moved to track 10 on the new CD
8. Fracture - was 11:20, is now 11:02
9. Starless - was 14:55, is now 15:51

Original running time: 1:07:11
New running time: 1:18:31

From what I can tell (I've just started listening), the mix is slightly toned down relative to the previous version I have (the 30th Anniversary CD); less harsh, slightly fuller, granting everyone more or less equal space in the mix. The drums in particular are less harsh and cracking than they once were.

If you're a KC nerd, but not enough of one to buy the Road to Red box (which contains all this stuff), worth getting I think.

I had a $100 gift certificate to Newbury Comics and almost sprung for The Road to Red. Almost.

So, Fripp's tweets today then...

Real or hoax?

Fake, per DGM News.

Yeah that was never going to happen.

And they said what exactly?

Ok, this:

April Fool seems to have come a little early this year. A twitter account bearing the name of Robert Fripp has announced KC69 are reforming for a one-off concert. Obviously there NO truth to this tweet and we are taking steps to have the account closed down.

Hmm, this is probably old news, but I had no idea the new line-up is intended to be live only, with no studio work planned and no new material (yet), just performing "reconfigured" versions of existing material. I suppose that's intriguing.

OK, so I recently bought the 40th Anniversary CD/DVD edition of USA, as detailed above; now I want to get the other albums by that lineup. The CD/DVD versions of Larks and Starless are obvious picks, but there seem to be two competing versions of Red - there's the 40th Anniversary edition, which is a CD/DVD like the aforementioned, but there's also a newer 2CD version with an alternate mix by Steven Wilson. WHICH DO I BUY???

I love those albums but I'm in the same boat, I'm just not buying any more of these

Hmm, this is probably old news, but I had no idea the new line-up is intended to be live only, with no studio work planned and no new material (yet), just performing "reconfigured" versions of existing material. I suppose that's intriguing.

Where'd you gather this from?

http://www.uncut.co.uk/king-crimson-unveil-new-line-up-and-2014-tour-plans-news

Agh, I thought that was a new article...

http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/06/king-crimson-set-2014-reunion-tour-dates/

king crimson at the best buy theater is a strange sentence

2000 seats, sounds good.

More dates posted at DGM this morning.

Tue 9 Sep          Albany, NY                The Egg
Wed 10 Sep       Albany, NY                The Egg
Fri 12 Sep         Philadelphia, PA            Verizon Hall
Sat 13 Sep        Philadelphia, PA            Verizon Hall
Mon 15 Sep      Boston, MA                  Colonial Theatre 
Tue 16 Sep       Boston, MA                  Colonial Theatre
Thu 18 Sep       New York, NY               Best Buy
Fri 19 Sep         New York, NY               Best Buy
Sat 20 Sep        New York, NY               Best Buy
Tue 23 Sep       Madison, WI                  Barrymore Theatre
Thu 25 Sep       Chicago, IL                   The Vic Theatre
Fri 26 Sep         Chicago, IL                   The Vic Theatre
Tue 30 Sep       Los Angeles, CA           Orpheum Theatre
Wed 01 Oct       Los Angeles, CA           Orpheum Theatre
Fri 03 Oct          San Francisco, CA        The Warfield
Sat 04 Oct        San Francisco, CA        The Warfield
Mon 06 Oct       Seattle, WA                   Moore Theater

are we getting a studio album?

I don't think so.

I'm not holding my breath for European shows either.

YES, SF!

how random that they're actually playing madison. i guess i should go??

Definitely, I can't see them touring again. Fripp's obviously not afraid of forming a band, playing 3 gigs and calling it quits.

of course the current tour is already more extensive than I would have imagined.

I have never seen KC live. Was a huge fan of the 70s stuff, but got off the bus in the 80s. Wonder how much of their catalog they're going to dig into and "reconfigure." Mel Collins being back is interesting to me.

Good question. 00s redos of classic Crim tracks were hit & miss- Frakctured was a snooze, Dangerous Curves was alright, but anytime they add a new chapter to LTIA I'm in - Level 5 was one of the better entries imo.

I liked Frakctured better than the original! Dangerous Curves was a remake of what, Talking Drum? I mean if we're going to count that then most of their recent instrumental work just dates back to Red or Discipline (the songs)

I'm also very curious as to what's going to be played here. Fripp has always insisted on being in the "now" and not looking back but if they're not writing any new material I'm not sure what that means exactly. I guess I'll have to go to the Madison show as well.

Dangerous Curves = Devil's Triangle with a disco beat. Looks like we'll be getting Starless, which is cool as hell. That was on my list of classic tracks that could do to be resurrected.

How do we know we're getting starless? (My 2nd favorite KC track)

Fripp posted a pic on Facebook today w/caption " the Back Line at work on Starless..."

I think his Facebook page is a new thing.

https://www.dgmlive.com/news.htm?entry=4664

that's fucking great, it's my favorite KC song. Surprising that Fripp would go for a whole-hog retrospective show, and I was certainly hoping they'd be doing a new album.

what's fripp's fb page?

oh, it's linked there. ok

Looks like the page itself isn't new, but it's news to me that he's posting stuff to it himself. I thought his diary at DGM was his only direct online communication.

looks like his personal page since you can't add him or follow him

could this be where KC finally does a full-on nostalgia show? they've certainly earned it, and knowing Fripp I don't see why he would prefer 10-year old material over 40-year old material as they're both firmly in the past by his standards.

http://d1ya1fm0bicxg1.cloudfront.net/2014/05/king-crimson-tickets_10-04-14_3_5387a435cbf52.png

From the looks of this it sounds like the nostalgia trip. I'm not complaining.

been giving this a listen all day:

http://iapetus-store.com/album/sultry-kissing-lounge-crimson-projekct-tour-2014

Reuter is a pretty great Fripp clone, that's for certain.

Did we ever find out what happened between Fripp and Gunn? I remember there being some rumor of some falling out but never anything definitive.

It sounded like Gunn was just worn down by Fripp being Fripp. I always got the feeling he left for much the same reasons as Bruford. In any event it's too bad because I think on balance I'd prefer Gunn to Levin on this outing.

http://prog.teamrock.com/news/2014-07-01/king-crimson-release-first-new-music

Pretty good

Yeah I'd like to hear a whole album of that stuff, sans Jakko.

well if you were to tell me the lineup for KC was the one on this track then I'd say we're doing just fine. Anyway I have no complaint with this minute, and do hope it leads to a new album.

Sounds good. What the heck will Pat have to do, what with Bill keeping the time and Gavin playing like three drummers?

(This is a perfect time to note that the first Rieflin solo album, with Fripp and Gunn, is pretty great. Rieflin sings like Sylvian!)