Prog Rock

that gizmodrome track is fucking horrendous yikes

"the band’s proggiest album turns out to also be their most visceral and vital"

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/king-gizzard-and-the-lizard-wizard-murder-of-the-universe/

lead singer was wearing a Yes/Fragile t-shirt for their set at glastonbury - became obvious as to why as i sat through 10 minutes of it.

not often you see those on stage

new FLOATING POINTS album is pretty good. "kelso dunes"!

well it's not perfect but weigel's book is really really good. wish it were longer and covered more bands

Supposedly, he was at the King Crimson show last night in Red Bank, NJ, but I didn't see him.

Confirmed

If you’re in NJ, go see King Crimson at @CountBasieThtr tonight at 8! Caught the first show last night and it owned https://t.co/qQPgGJDZqj

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 10, 2017

anyone know of some good funky prog rock break records?

Soft Machine 3 through 6
Trevor Watts Moiré Project--With One Voice
Bill Bruford--Feels Good To Me; Gradually Going Tornado
Brand X--Unorthodox Behaviour
Association PC--Erna Morena; Mama Kuku

Giles Giles and Fripp and McDonald and Giles has some super funky breaks iirc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UPk3kIr_wA

Actually, the entire "Prague Rock" ep still sounds outstanding.

Haha, I see I made the same comment in this thread 13 years ago.

plastic people of the universe "zacpa" breaks funky

Thoughts on Sunday night's King Crimson show.

Now, see, as a fan of almost everything the band has done, I was very much glad I did not go, since I saw them in 2015 and this line-up and approach seems (more or less) the same. The question remains: if Fripp is so interested in keeping things, well, interesting, then why is this current line-up so (very relatively) restrained? I recall the racket made by the double-trio, or the improvisation of the ProjeKCts ... this/these tours might be playing older stuff, but I still think they're playing it sort of safe.

plastic people of the universe "zacpa" breaks funky

This one always feels like a cool modification of the "Bitches Brew" bassline to me (the one around 3:00). The intervals are different but there's a similar rhythm and feel. Do you know if they commented on whether they were making an intentional allusion?

finished Weigel's good; it's alright but I have a feeling editing butchered the second half. There are blatant mistakes, like he says "belew" when he clearly meant "levin"; he covers a lot of MIck Pointer in Marillion but never mentions his replacement (Ian Mosely), there's a passing reference to Andy Ward but unless you knew they tried him out in between it makes no sense which makes me think something got removed from the text. He also completely skips Gabriel's So, even in passing; but spends a lot of time going over Collins' pop career. Also, zero mention of Kate Bush, who I would have thought warranted some kind of mention. The book basically centers around Fripp and Keith Emerson, which is fine; Fripp comes across as the person who survived all of this with the most integrity, and Emerson (and Lake) is (are) the most tragic figure(s). I'd like to see an expanded manuscript. It's really the stuff that's excluded that is a bit bewildering; very little on the Lamb; no mention of the awfulness of Love Beach. Dunno. wait for the paperback, I suggest.

oh also, he was still working on this through the time that KC 'reuinted' in 2014/2015, I think that would have made a better ending to the book.

Any Saint Just fans? This first album is really good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcpOuPSM3Og

https://www.karismarecords.no/karisma-records-signs-norways-leading-symphonic-proggers-wobbler-album-details-revealed/

Awesome, those dudes are tight

Anyone like Family?

Bought a copy of their album Fearless, mostly because it has multiple diecut levels that fan out really cool

Any I dig em a lot, def prog but from a different, more blues/RnB perspective...um... Hard to pin down I guess, they definitely have chops and get out there but it's not fancy pants or fantasy oriented....I guess Jethro Tull is the closest, but sub the jazz flute for almost Stax gone prog horns, or maybe Blood Sweat & Tears as a heavy prog band. Singer is really something, has that feral quality of Ian Anderson or Peter Hammil

Anyway, interesting group worth checking out. Had some big names pass through their ranks, John Wetton, Ric Grech & Jim Cregan

I've been trying to get people here interested in Family for ages! Are they really a prog band though? They seem pretty unclassifiable to me.

have a really hard time getting into them.

i dig Family. roger chapman is a beast. they're up there for me with Audience, Comus, and (not the NYC one) Spyrogyra in deep woods british yodel folk prog

totally unrelated by prins thomas' remix of dungen's häxan is the hot stuff

I've been trying to get people here interested in Family for ages! Are they really a prog band though? They seem pretty unclassifiable to me.

― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Sunday, August 27, 2017 7:15 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah...I guess I feel like they are but they def don't fit in a way, but where else do you put them? They are definitely too complex and eccentric to be just another 70s hard rock band

Is Jethro Tull considered prog by most?

yes, jethro tull is prog

also it's always better than you think it's going to be, like the simpsons (but less good than that)

Tom you know I like Family!

actually thick as a brick is about as good as a good simpsons episode and probably contains a similar level of decent satirical humour

oh shit, this actually happened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmWq6yTcXNo

wanna check out one record each from a.) Patto and B.) Family that shows 'em at respective peaks etc etc…help me ILM…

oh shit, this actually happened

Ha, wow

this isn't 'the best' by any stretch but given what's going down with harvey . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwzSB_Mcr6o

Family Entertainment is very good, and stylistically diverse, although the band had no input on the final track listing or mix. That's the only one I'm familiar (har!) with.

Family - Music In A Doll's House is the one to start with

I started there but I was a little underwhelmed after hearing it's such a classic.
"Mellowing Grey" was totally worth it though, great song.

I love Family. I only first heard them when their stuff was reissued in late 90s. I like 'em in this order:

A Song For Me (Reprise, 1970)
Music In A Doll's House (Reprise, 1968)
Fearless (Reprise, 1971)
Entertainment (Reprise, 1969)
Anyway (Reprise, 1970)
Bandstand (Reprise, 1972)

Thanks for the heads up on the Wobbler release. Right after it's released on Oct 21 they play down the street from me at Reggie's for Progtoberfest III. I won't get to see Motorpsycho so this'll have to do!

Alas, I thought the Weigel book was ultimately a missed opportunity. Besides the occasional (and avoidable) factual errors, it just kind of peters out to an almost dishonest "death of prog" conclusion, conveniently ignoring the fusion of prog and metal in all but the most cursory of ways (there's a bit on Opeth, but I think Iron Maiden earns just one mention, as a favorite band of Dream Theatre, and I'm not sure Metallica gets mentioned at all, major oversights when odd time signatures and epic suites are constantly cited hallmarks of prog) and also ignoring (entirely?) a vital prog pump primer like "OK Computer." Also weird how it gives maybe a sentence to Krautrock, or how it focuses so much on Vangelis but not how new age (a la Vangelis) was really just a watered down form of prog, via vectors like Yanni, Mannheim Steamroller, etc. Maybe that's for a different book, but as for this book, it felt like a hunk was cut out (or ignored) in search of a narrative shape.

I hate it when they do that.

yeah, the book seems cursory, or severely edited. i was expecting so much more.

for me, the best part of the book was the fripp narrative weaving in and out

I agree, as sort of progs prickly conscience.

i would have liked to have seen legit reckoning with contemporary prog (glass hammer, battles, thinking plague, these new puritans, teeth of the sea, motorpsycho, godspeed, wobbler, etc) but probably it's asking too much that a guy who's fortunate enough in other ways to wind up a 'washington post' reporter would win the karma lottery twice and be clued into the really good new stuff too. not a lot of people are in on the secret that prog started not sucking again a while ago. he's a pretty smooth writer though and it's a nice read for what it is

There's a really good column in (I think) Prog magazine called "Prog or Not Prog" iirc, where they address bands like Talk Talk, say, and sort of theorize around whether or not they fit the bill.

Still say overlooking the impact of OK Computer was kind of weird. Or even (going backwards) the Fairport et al. folk-rock stuff, which definitely played a huge part in prog.

Anyway, clearly (per the title) the book was structured around the rise and fall of ELP, with Fripp as a sort of purist through line.

There's a really good column in (I think) Prog magazine called "Prog or Not Prog" iirc, where they address bands like Talk Talk, say, and sort of theorize around whether or not they fit the bill.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 22 September 2017 02:40

I liked it when they profiled Sparks because they were actually interviewed about it and they said they were surprised more people hadn't picked up on their prog influences.

have we talked about the Physics House Band?

I guess you could say they were math rock, like Battles or something, but they feel more prog in some way to me than Battles...I dunno, it's a fine line. Dudes are monsters though and I like it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgLB_t2DcfU

I don't know--you guys keep bringing up all these recent bands, but how many of them wear capes?

street prog

How many prog guys who aren't Rick Wakeman wear capes?