New Pineapple Thief EP due in October

This just in from Bruce Soord and The Pineapple Thief:

“September 7th, 2010 EP | The Pineapple Thief We’ve just finalised the master for the Show a Little Love EP. This WILL be available to buy when we tour in October with a full world wide release shortly after. This includes 16 minutes of brand new stuff, some acoustic versions plus a fantastic version of 'Dead in the Water' by Worldengine – who were the remix competition winners.

Here’s the deal:

EP TITLE: Show A Little Love

Tracklisting:
1 Show a Little Love (single edit) (3.38)
2 To Live and Die to the Familiar Sound of… (16:18)
– I Can Only See the Lights (2.21)
– A Million Miles off Course (5.04)
– Counting the Cost (4.25)
– To Live and Die to… (4.22)
3 Wake Up The Dead (acoustic) (4.03)
4 Someone Here is Missing (acoustic) (3.57)
5 Dead in the Water (Worldengine remix) (5.04)

TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 32.57

It’s an EP, but to me it’s more of a mini album and marks the end of the SHIM sessions. I’m now going to take some time off, do the tour and then start thinking about where to take TPT for album number 9.

We’re all off to London now to shoot a video for Show a Little Love, which should be available by the end of this month. Don’t worry, we’ll keep you up to date!

Cheers all

Bruce”

The Pineapple Thief - Euro tour dates

17 Oct - Spazio Aurora, Rozzano/Milano, Italy
18 Oct - Z-7 , Pratteln, Switzerland
20 Oct - Colos-saal, Aschaffenburg, Germany
21 Oct - Substage, Karlsruhe, Germany
22 Oct - Zeche Carl, Essen, Germany
23 Oct - De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
24 Oct - De Pul, Uden , The Netherlands
25 Oct - Logo, Hamburg, Germany
26 Oct - C-Club, Berlin, Germany
28 Oct - Spirit of 66, Verviers, Belgium

PINEAPPLE THIEF: NEARfest 2010 photo gallery

A small selection of photos, like before, this time of The Pineapple Thief at NEARfest 2010. Like previous galleries, you can check out more photos of the same performance at the following link:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/NEARfest2010/08_PineappleThief/

CD REVIEW: The Pineapple Thief - Someone Here is Missing (2010, KScope)

I have twice offered up slightly extended bits of opinion on The Pineapple Thief.

For those of you not patient enough to trawl through the archives (or too busy to use the handy dandy search tool on the right hand side), here are those thoughts, in brief:

1) In their own way, The Pineapple Thief is a progressive rock band, even as their music draws from the indie and post rock scene more than traditional symphonic rock. While Bruce Soord’s vocals are every bit as self aware and self conscious as many of the 1980’s neo-proggers, they are set against a musical backing that has more in common with bands like Radiohead and their ilk. As such, they’re seen as prog-lite by many, and not prog at all by an equal group.

3000 Days (2009, KScope Records) is a 2-CD set compiling the band’s chosen best moments from a career that has spanned close to the 3000 days referenced in the album’s title. Featuring some remixes, alternate versions, and so on, it’s a career spanning retrospective that offers long time fans a little bit new while presenting a fairly complete look at what the band has achieved since spinning off the group Vulgar Unicorn. As such, it’s a perfect way to become acquainted with a group that certainly merits a closer look by fans of the more melodic side of progressive rock. Don’t be afraid that there aren’t mellotrons akimbo and lyrics about fantasy subjects…drink deep of a dark and melancholy musical draught that would make the members of Anekdoten or Landberk green with envy.

(http://billsprogblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/cd-reviews-pineapple-thief-and-knight.html , 21 Nov 2009)

2) Band 2 on day 3 was THE PINEAPPLE THIEF from the UK. I have 2 of their albums…the 2 CD compilation 3000 Days and the newest studio album Someone Here is Missing. I was somewhat less than impressed with the albums after repeated listens, but still was hoping that perhaps the band would be more energetic on stage. I went in with no expectations of hopes, and discovered something…it is in fact possible to have zero expectations and still not have them met. It was shoegazer music of the worst kind, with whiny vocals and a plodding morose mid tempo beat that only succeeded in beating into my head just how gray their music is. I don’t mind maudlin, morose music…I love the darker Cure stuff, and Depeche Mode, and Radiohead, and so on, but this was just blah in extremis. Comparing them to Radiohead is an insult…to Radiohead. In the end, and trying to say something positive…I enjoyed every minute of their performance…that I spent outside, getting fresh air. I didn’t like them, and am not ashamed to admit it.

(http://billsprogblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/nearfest-2010the-last-5-bands.html , 24 Jun 2010)

This is a review of Someone Here is Missing, their newest album. Where does my opinion lie, taking in what I wrote above?

Honestly, somewhere in the middle.

Time and repeated listens to the band have not brought me close to loving them; I find their weaknesses continue to be weaknesses, while I simply cannot connect with what others hear as strengths. I can’t say they write meandering, overlong songs, because they don’t. I can’t say that they are amateurish in playing their instruments, because they are not. But I listen, and everything remains a flat shade of grey coming out of the speakers. I feel like I am missing something…and so I put the CD in again. And again. Each time I hope to hear something that I missed before…and each time the CD ends, I scratch my head. And I then look at the very cool Hipgnosis cover, sigh, and try again.

Bruce Soord is earnest; I believe that when he is singing he is living every bit of emotion that comes dripping off each tortured word he sings. His guitar playing is energetic and almost thrashy in a way…he pounds out chord after chord with raw abandon. Thankfully, the songs on Someone Here is Missing tend to be a bit more upbeat and uptempo rhythmically than on past efforts, and Keith Harrison and Jon Sykes do a good job ratcheting up the pace on drums and bass. Steve Kitch is more of a texturalist on keys than a soloist, and as a result his playing is not always immediate and in your face. I suppose it’s that, combined with the somewhat more depressing, melancholy lyrical viewpoints (and, admittedly, the slower pace of a good bit of their older material) that brought the Porcupine Tree comparisons to the fore. I still don’t see or hear those comparisons at all; nor do I see the comparisons to Radiohead or Coldplay as valid. The Pineapple Thief doesn’t sound like any of these bands; they sound like themselves, and that is something worth emphasising.

Having gotten this far, and given my proclivity for voicing my opinion of this band without hesitation on other forums, I suppose it is natural that one would think this review would only be filled with bashing and criticism and embellished, exaggerated claims about how Someone Here is Missing destroyed my childhood. But I can’t and won’t do that. Not only is it a degree of irreverence I find distasteful, it’s not at all wholly true. There are a few songs on here that I feel stand out above the crowd on this release. I do like the opening of ‘Nothing at Best,’ which had me thinking that we had a full on rock album coming out from these guys, and gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, I’d have a breakthrough with them. ‘The State We’re In,’ despite the melancholy, is a gorgeous song, and it almost sounds orchestrated. Vocals are layered, and add dimension and depth to the song. This is one I like a lot.

Sadly, it’s followed by the 7 and a half minute dirge ‘Preparation for Meltdown.’ Less said the better.

‘Barely Breathing’ is another very pretty song, with acoustic guitar, piano, laid back drumming, and fragile Soord vocals. And it seems odd, doesn’t it, that the two songs I single out are laid back, when I had said that I was hoping for some balls and rock on this album? I’m not sure what to make of it either, other than to say that I have returned to the 3000 Days compilation, as well as a few other discs that I’ve borrowed from friends following the NEARfest performance, to see how my opinions had changed, and found that they really haven’t. While I still feel that TPT is overly melancholy to the point of sameness, I can’t fault these two tracks, I do find them to be the ones I like the most on the album, and they still account for only a little more than seven minutes of a 45 minute long album.

I hate writing reviews that reek of negativity. While I won’t say good things about an album just to say good things about them, I do try to be fair and balanced in what I write (and that’s fair and balanced before the term was co-opted by an entirely different element of ‘journalism,’ for whom fair and balanced is only lip service). I know that there are thousands of Pineapple Thief fans out there who genuinely love what they write, record and release, and for them this review will mean nothing. For everyone else, well...I just don’t see the fascination, the appeal, whatever. Someone Here is Missing won’t get that many spins from me here on out, but I may well add those two individual songs to my iPod to listen to when the mood hits me.



Track Listing:
1. Nothing At Best 4:08
2. Wake Up The Dead 4:23
3. The State We're In 3:18
4. Preparation For Meltdown 7:27
5. Barely Breathing 3:44
6. Show A Little Love 3:59
7. Someone Here Is Missing 3:52
8. 3000 Days 6:09
9. So We Row 8:16

Musicians:
Bruce Soord - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Jon Sykes - bass
Keith Harrison - drums
Steve Kitch - keyboards

NEARfest 2010...the last 5 bands

This meant it was time for...

THREE FRIENDS, essentially Gary Green and Malcolm Mortimore from Gentle Giant, with a bunch of other musicians. This was going to be a nostalgia trip, and nothing more, but it was a wonderful one. Gary’s a stunning guitar player, Mortimore was pounding the skins with abandon, and the rest of the current crew were excellent, playing very intricate and complicated Gentle Giant material like they were born to do so. I don’t recall the name of the guy who sang (they brought in a new singer 2 weeks before the show), but he was excellent. I was thrilled to hear Boys in the Band and The Advent of Panurge and Prologue/School Days and Proclamation and…so many other songs. Gary was dead chuffed to be on stage playing to 1000 people, and his comment about this being more than three friends now, and how that probably means having to do a new album (‘Oh shit, what did I just say?’) was met with much applause and laughter in the audience. They were wonderful to talk to after the show as well…relieved, I think, that it went off so well, and genuinely touched by the response they got.

Saturday night ended much like Friday…drive home, offload pictures (this time so tired I left the camera on overnight, plugged into my PC), sleep. Sunday morning came earlier than Saturday did, and again, I posted a few teaser photos, tried to eat breakfast, and we headed off, a bit later than the day before, but all in all not too bad. I did my last purchasing for the weekend, and ambled into the theatre for MORAINE. Coming from Cascadia (the Pacific Northwest), their music is occasionally melodic, occasionally angular, occasionally noisy, but played with a lot of skill and subtlety. I think they have loads of room to grow, and they have great potential to be a force in the years to come if their first album is any indication. I do not think this performance will be spoken of in the same kind of reverent tone as other Sunday openers from the past (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum 2003, Hidria Spacefolk 2004, Guapo 2006), but this only means that there’s time for them to grow and evolve and progress.

Lunchtime came again, and again it was a burger from the outside tent. I was too lazy to go anywhere, and it was too hot. In any case, the burger was again good, and I risked some cheese on it. It was nice to get some air, and relax, and talk to people, and not feel rushed at all. I had no idea how much fresh air I’d be getting.

Band 2 on day 3 was THE PINEAPPLE THIEF from the UK. I have 2 of their albums…the 2 CD compilation 3000 Days and the newest studio album Someone Here is Missing. I was somewhat less than impressed with the albums after repeated listens, but still was hoping that perhaps the band would be more energetic on stage. I went in with no expectations of hopes, and discovered something…it is in fact possible to have zero expectations and still not have them met. It was shoegazer music of the worst kind, with whiny vocals and a plodding morose mid tempo beat that only succeeded in beating into my head just how gray their music is. I don’t mind maudlin, morose music…I love the darker Cure stuff, and Depeche Mode, and Radiohead, and so on, but this was just blah in extremis. Comparing them to Radiohead is an insult…to Radiohead. In the end, and trying to say something positive…I enjoyed every minute of their performance…that I spent outside, getting fresh air. I didn’t like them, and am not ashamed to admit it.

For me, tension was starting to mount a little bit. THE ENID was the band I had most wanted to see (in case you’d not already guessed), and honestly I was beginning to think that maybe I was building myself up too much. I was trying to will the time to pass more quickly so they could hit the stage. When we finally got in there and were seated, I had about 90 seconds of pure, unadulterated, undistilled terror sweep over me…’there’s no way they’re gonna live up to my hopes oh dear sweet merciful Yahweh what have I done to myself?’ I had been talking them up to all of my friends, and how would I face them after they failed to live up to my glowing and running commentary?

Well…

The first 6 or 7 minutes were sublime. I was totally unfamiliar save for a listen that morning in sleep induced coma of the new album, so my first real listen was when they played. And it was interesting and different…a melding of Something Wicked This Way Comes and Six Pieces. Lots of layered, processed, vocodered vocals, and tympani and guitars and layers of keys, and I was getting into it, and…


Then disaster struck.

The PC that handled the band’s effects and sound processing/shaping crashed. The band stopped. There was no way they could continue. And I died a little inside. Whilst the crew tried to get them band off and running again, the audience began calling out for a drum solo. Dave Storey obliged, adding in Summer Holiday as last seen on the Hammersmith live DVD. I think the fact that they didn’t all leave the stage, but tried to entertain and keep the audience happy in the midst of crisis, was a huge factor in their favour. When things finally got up and running again, instead of picking up where they left off, the band started from page one and began their set all over again. Journey’s End was intense stuff, and at the end of that part of their set they got a loud and rapturous ovation from a very appreciative crowd. The second part of their performance was a selection of mostly older material, going all the way back to In the Region of the Summer Stars. They started things off with Judgment and Under the Summer Stars, and my jaw dropped when the tympani drum opening on Judgment led us into the second set. I see that as an encore piece for some reason, so it was ballsy (to me) to kick things back off with it. Robert John Godfrey also offered up a lovely piano rendition of The Lovers, also off In the Region, and Sheets of Blue was another excellent piece. At some point I did start floating around the theatre…I was gobsmacked.

I know after the performance people asked me if my expectations had been met, and honestly, as lofty as they were, not only were they met, but exceeded. So much so, in fact, what when RJG and the band got up to the tables, I had a hard time expressing how much the music meant to me. I got to hug RJG as well, which is insufficient means for expressing my love of his music, but it has to do.

Dinner break, last day, and most of us went our separate ways. I ended up at Campus Pizza, as I usually do, and had a couple slices. I was already beginning to feel the crash coming as the end of the weekend approached. Finally making it back to the venue, I ran into Jon Yarger, who asked if I was ready to have my ass musically kicked. I said that honestly I was probably gonna end up hanging out with Brett Kull in the recording booth, and was told he’d not be there, as the headliner had specifically demanded no filming or recording. This, coupled with the strict no cameras policy for his performance, started leaving a bad taste in my mouth…a bad taste that would be build up as an 830 pm start slipped to 9 slipped to 930…when we were finally let into the theatre. As we waited, another film showed, similar to the one screening each morning, about how NF is all about the people, and this is where I got nervous. I had images of ill-advised chestbumps on screen, and when I saw the first one, I feared mine would be in there. I was relieved that instead people were only subjected to me saying this was my ninth NEARfest,and my rambling semi-lucid ramble about why NEARfest is so special. Then I watched as Ray and Jim and Kevin and Tom, in my eyes clearly uncomfortable, began stalling for time. I don’t care who you are, there’s no excuse for rock star attitude and prima donna acts. I was growing increasingly disgusted with the situation, and when the lights finally went down, and I watched 5 lighting trusses descend to the stage, I think I was done.

I still gave EDDIE JOBSON AND THE ULTIMATE ZERO PROJECT (alternatively Eddie Jobson and the Eddie Jobson Ultimate Eddie Jobson Zero Eddie Jobson Project, starring Eddie Jobson) a chance. 7 minutes of noise which I assume was actually impressive (to someone) violin playing led into individual introductions for Billy Sheehan and Mike Mangini and T.J. Helmerich and Marco Minnemann. The band shifted into King Crimson’s Indiscipline, and while I’ll admit the song choices were good (a bunch of UK, including Ceasar’s Palace Blues, Nevermore, In the Dead of Night, Danger Money, and more; Crimson’s Indiscipline and Starless; ELP’s Bitches Crystal), the playing left me cold, save for Billy Sheehan’s always enjoyable bass playing, and Minnemann’s excellent drumming. Jobson was more impressive on keys than violin, but on Starless all the life and space was sucked out of it, leaving it dense, overpacked, and less than the original. When you have a guy like Helmerich who can play 8-finger tap guitar, you do not have him playing the staccato violin part while you play Robert Fripp’s lines. It was a vanity and ego stroke of epic proportions, and it feels awful and horrible saying this about a band signed as a headliner, but I felt nothing from it. At all. So much nothing, in fact, that not only did I step out early, I didn’t go to get any signatures. Instead I spent the last hour of the performance talking to some friends and hanging out. After the festival finally let out, and most everyone queued for signatures, I waited, chatted with a few more people (Adam and Don and Andre, Cyndee and Jeff, Jen from PE, Adam, and far too many others to remember them all), and started feeling the comedown actually coming down.

CD REVIEWS: Pineapple Thief and Knight Area

The Pineapple Thief occupies an interesting place in modern progressive music, for reasons that I hope will soon become clear.

Modern prog fans seem to have forced a dilemma in a number of ways. The giants of the past…the bands that were the foundation of progressive music, have cast such a long, dark shadow over the genre that bands seem to have had a huge issue coming out from under that shadow. Bands that tend to forge their own way, drawing from different influences and as such sounding different from those forefathers, are in their own way every bit as progressive as those initial bands. But because they don’t sound like those older bands, some people have major issues considering them prog. It’s a dilemma, and it’s one that bands as disparate as The Mars Volta, Tool, and The Pineapple Thief all encounter. In their own way, The Piuneapple Thief is a progressive rock band, even as their music draws from the indie and post rock scene more than traditional symphonic rock. While Bruce Soord’s vocals are every bit as self aware and self conscious as many of the 1980’s neo-proggers, they are set against a musical backing that has more in common with bands like Radiohead and their ilk. As such, they’re seen as prog-lite by many, and not prog at all by an equal group.

3000 Days (2009, KScope Records) is a 2-CD set compiling the band’s chosen best moments from a career that has spanned close to the 3000 days referenced in the album’s title. Featuring some remixes, alternate versions, and so on, it’s a career spanning retrospective that offers long time fans a little bit new while presenting a fairly complete look at what the band has achieved since spinning off the group Vulgar Unicorn. As such, it’s a perfect way to become acquainted with a group that certainly merits a closer look by fans of the more melodic side of progressive rock. Don’t be afraid that there aren’t mellotrons akimbo and lyrics about fantasy subjects…drink deep of a dark and melancholy musical draught that would make the members of Anekdoten or Landberk green with envy.

Highlights: Snowdrops, Too Much To Lose, Tightly Wound (Acoustic), We Love You, 137, God Bless the Child, the very minimalistic, yet wonderfully evocative cover art and packaging, including full lyrics for every song (!)

Musicians on this release:
Steve Kitch
Bruce Soord
Jon Sykes
Keith Harrison
Wayne Higgins
Matt O'Leary

CD1
1. God Bless The Child
2. Shoot First
3. Part Zero
4. 137
5. We Love You
6. Clapham
7. Dead In The Water
8. Kid Chameleon
9. Tightly Wound (Acoustic)
10. Remember Us

CD2
1. The World I Always Dreamed Of
2. Wretched Soul
3. All You Need To Know
4. Vapour Trails
5. How Did We Find Our Way
6. I Will Light Up Your Eyes
7. Subside
8. Private Paradise
9. Snowdrops
10. Too Much To Lose






The Netherlands’ Knight Area popped onto the radar of progressive rock fans around the world in 2004, following the release of their debut album The Sun Also Rises. Showcase gigs at stages across Europe, as well as the prestigious NEARfest festival in the United States, contributed to a heightened awareness of this newcomer to the front lines of symphonic and neo-progressive music. Three years passed before the release of the band’s sophomore effort, the well received Under a New Sign. Showing a maturing band from both musical and song writing standpoints, the album was greeted by several award nominations. The band toured the release across Europe, including major performances at the Night of the Prog festival in Loreley.

Autumn sees the release of Realm of Shadows (InsideOut, 2009), the band’s third album. One would expect for, and hope for, continued growth and maturity from the band, and Knight Area delivers this. While Knight Area does not ride the cutting edge of musical intricacy and intensity, those are not their motivations. Three albums have shown that their impetus is crafting well written, melodic progressive music, filled to the brim with interesting keyboard textures, incisive guitar, and lyrics that touch the heart as much as they engage the mind. From excursions into ambience and shade through fairly intense instrumental workouts, Realm of Shadows showcases a band that is continuing to grow and expand their style in a genre that has a tendency to try and compartmentalize its artists to a pretty extreme degree. While certainly one could point to elements of some songs and say that this sounds like (insert band name here), at no point do any songs actually mimic an artist throughout. Knight area takes these blocks and makes their own constructions.

Realm of Shadows is a solid, enjoyable release from this band, and shows them continuing to hone their craft, deserving of mention in the same breath as the bands that preceded them 10 to 15 years before.

Highlights: Occlusion, A Million Lives, Dark Souls, Momentum

Musicians on this release:
Gijs Koopman
Gerben Klazinga
Mark Smit
Pieter van Hoorn
Mark Vermeule

1. Ethereal (6:51)
2. Antagony (7:52)
3. Two Of A Kind (5:11)
4. Momentum (2:21)
5. Awakening (2:50)
6. Dark Souls (5:29)
7. Realm Of Shadows (5:51)
8. A Million Lives (6:52)
9. Occlusion (11:15)

Coming soon to a BPB near you...

Reviews:
The Tangent
Shadow Gallery
Redemption
Makajodama
Neal Morse
Magma
Bosch
Robin Taylor
The Red Masque

General looks/not quite reviews:
Blackfield
Porcupine Tree
The Pineapple Thief

Interviews:
Who knows?


You have all been very patient. More patient that perhaps deserved. It is appreciated, even when I haven't quite been able to say so.

Night of the Prog IV bands announced

NIGHT OF THE PROG IV: The line-up for the 4th Night Of The Prog Festival has been finalised. The festival will be held at 10 and 11 July at the World Heritage listed Loreley Freilichtbühne in St. Goarshausen, Germany.

Tickets can be bought at the Wiventertainment shop or via www.ticketmaster.de where you can pay by credit card.

NIGHT OF THE PROG IV

Friday 10. July 2009:
Also Eden
Arena
Agents of Mercy (feat. Roine Stolt, Nad Sylvan)
Riverside
Gazpacho

Saturday 11. July 2009:
Subsignal
The Pineapple Thief
Lazuli
Pure Reason Revolution
Pendragon
Steve Hackett & Band
Mick Pointer & Friends playing Marillion's Script For A Jester's Tear