The State of the Blog 9 October 2010

Hello and welcome back to another installment of the State of the Blog.

This week’s is going to be brief, but it’s also somewhat important if for no other reason than to ensure those of you reading at home that everything is actually quite OK.  However, next week BPB will be ever so briefly on holidays.  Yr. Obd’t blogger needs to catch up on some writing and other things, and while I do not feel burned out at all, I am a bit worn down, and taking the week will let me catch up on the things that need catching up, and allow me to ensure that I don’t reach that critical burn out stage.

I am not going away!

This is not one of those 3 or 4 or 5 month long hiatuses where the blog goes fallow.

This is a chance for me to decouple for a week, clear out the cache and spoolers, and do a much needed reboot on the 386 I call my brain.

I am very lucky to have some incredibly loyal readers and it’s because I know that that I wanted to pass along this info rather than just take off.  I’ll put it this way…I have a half dozen CD reviews written in my head that I haven’t typed yet because they’re all jumbled up.  I’m a bit blocked, and that’s no good for me or for you.

The new poll will still be going up this evening.

I do not have a Magma Monday post queued for this week, but I’ll see if I can’t scare up something special for you all.  Of everything, the regular Magma Monday posts are the ones I feel strongest about ensuring get out there.  And if all goes well, there may be a few other surprises coming your way that are less from me specifically but done just for this blog.

The current plan is to resume regular operation on 18 October.

If you have any questions, I’m easy to get in contact with…either through comments here, my e-mail address (which can be found on this blog somewhere), or for the majority of you on Facebook, there as well.

Now, if you’ll allow…there’s a fruity tropical drink with an umbrella in it with my name on it somewhere…see everyone in a week!

The State of the Blog 2 October 2010

Hello and welcome to our first October State of the Blog report, fuelled today by Gatorade and Rum.  Don’t knock it till you try it.

September ended up by far the busiest month in the blog’s history, and frighteningly had almost as many posts in it as the entire year of 2009.  Yes, 2009 was a crap year for posting, but there you have it.  Heck of a month, September 2010…102 posts, the release of Opeth’s career-spanning live DVD/CD boxed set, and a drummer leaving a major prog metal band.  For the entire month of September, we had (looks at numbers) over 7000 visits (7166 to be exact) and over 10000 page views.  To say I am absolutely gobsmacked by these numbers is an understanding of epic proportions.  Looking at stuff like that, it makes me more motivated to keep things going (not that I needed it, mind).  Thank you so much for enjoying the effort I have put into making this blog as successful as it has been.

There’s more coming in October, of course…I will not tip my hand, but so much more heading your way.  I’m working on a few major interviews (fingers crossed!), there’s a ton of great CD reviews coming, and all the stuff you’ve come to expect here.  I have a ton of Magma stuff for Magma Monday (finally dug the rest of my discs out of boxes, so a good bit of the Akt Records discog is in hand now again!), some great symph and metal and avant CDs sitting in my pile to be reviewed, and so on.  A half dozen interviews completed and ready to share.  Concert reviews…so much proggy goodness.  At times I want to post it all right away, but then I’d have no backlog ;-)

Last week I shared a top 10 list of overall pages viewed…this week our top 10 is the top 10 accessed CD reviews to date…


1 Steve Morse/Sarah Spencer – Angelfire
2 Frogg Café – Bateless Edge
3 Hawkwind – Blood of the Earth
4 Opeth – Live in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
5 Jose Carballido – Requiem
6 Edensong – Echoes of Edensong
7 American Hollow – Whisper Campaign
8 Trey Gunn – Modulator
9 Renaissance – The Mystic and the Muse
10 Eloy – Visionary


And as has become tradition of late, my listening list…


Shadow Gallery – Whispers and Screams
Canvas Solaris – Irradiance
Delain – Lucidity
Soft Machine – Drop
Electric Sorcery – II
Enslaved – Axioma Ethica Odini
Enslaved – Vertebrae
Enslaved – Ruun
White Willow – Ignis Fatuus
Half Past Four – Rabbit in the Vestibule
19 A.D.D. – Dead River
Magma – Les Voix

Vacuum Tube Head - Thirteen!


Going to be away most of the weekend, I wager…but a regular week ahead without worry.

Take care, have fun, prog out!  See you on Magma Monday!

The State of the Blog 25 September 2010

It’s Saturday.

And we all know what that means.

So sit back, relax, pop a cold one of your choice (me, it's Pepsi today) and get ready for this week’s State of the Blog address.

I have to admit that week after week saying ‘wow, it’s been a busy week’ might seem to get a little old, but it’s true.  It’s been a busy week.  We had a major new live album release on Tuesday and three of the heaviest traffic days on the blog to date.  And if you’re a fan of live progressive music, the past 8 days have been almost like the promised land…Magma last Saturday in Washington DC (with the Muffins), and then again Monday in NYC…Porcupine Tree doing a 3 hour set at Radio City last night, Univers Zero and Miriodor in Washington DC tonight, Ray Weston of echolyn in Boston tonight, and Magma/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum/Aranis in Germany today as well.  Of course, I missed everything but the new major live album, but those are the breaks, I suppose : )

This week’s been a busy one on the writing front as I’ve been trying to catch up on CDs that have been patiently awaiting reviews.  I’ve also been working on setting up a few new interviews, and hopefully the fruits of those labours will become evident soon.  I have some feelers out for what would be a pretty major one for me and the site, so keep your fingers crossed that it comes through.

Oddly, despite all this busy-ness, I don’t have as much to update you on.  Most of this is just stuff you’ll be seeing in the coming days and weeks.  It’s standard stuff.  Yet it feels like so much more at times.  SO instead of trying to dredge up exciting bon mots to share with you, I’ll offer up a quick top ten for the most accessed pages this week on the blog, my usual what am I listening to this week list,and get back to picking some retro reviews for this week.

First off, this week’s top ten:

1. OPETH: In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall due in September (254 hits this week!!!)
2. More Than 10 Questions With Ray Weston
3. Keith Emerson Health News Japan Shows Cancelled
4. Transatlantic New Live CD/DVD Info
5. Greg Lake Updates On Keith Emerson’s Health
6. CD/DVD REVIEW: Opeth - In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall (2010, Roadrunner Records)
7. CD REVIEW: Frogg Café - Bateless Edge (2010, 10T Records)
8. More Than 10 Questions With Guy Manning
9. Arjen Lucassen's Star One: Victims Of The Modern Age
10. James Labrie: new album cover art, track listing, more

Secondly, this week’s listening:

Shadow Circus: Whispers and Screams
Soft Machine: Drop
Electric Sorcery: II
TM+MR: Descending
SimakDialog: Demi-Masa
Jack Jeffrey: Passage to Agadir
Caravan: In the Land of Grey and Pink
Caravan: The Battle of Hastings
Caravan: The Unauthorised Breakfast Item
Camel: The Snow Goose
Camel: Moonmadness
Gong: Angel’s Egg
Gong: You

Time to get back to work work…and then back to the apartment for a nice in depth listen or five to a certain Magma album from 1992 for Monday…

See you soon!

The State of the Blog 18 September 2010 (now with added critical content!)

Good morning and welcome to our occasionally weekly (but not always) State of the Blog post.

It’s been another busy week here at BPB, and I’m feeling it a little bit. I hope everyone enjoyed this week’s posts as much as I did getting them together for you. I know I (hopefully) have a busy weekend of writing ahead of me to get some more reviews written for you, covering a wide range of musical styles (symphonic, fusion, avant, and yes, even some heavier prog metal), and I’m rather hopeful that when they’re ready, they’ll be as response provoking as some of my recent posts have been.

Yesterday’s extreme/prog metal day is a great case in point. While you may not see it in the comments (and why won’t you guys use the comments section? I love getting comments on posts!), I got a lot of replies elsewhere (Facebook, e-mail, et cetera), and I know a good number of you enjoyed it. I know some of you didn’t as well, and that’s perfectly fine. Not everything is for everyone. But I do want to bring up something that I’ve mentioned in passing at least once or twice in some of my posts over the years which I think is germane here.

I’ll quote from my concert review that I posted Sunday:

“Prog is NOT about 15 minute long songs in 7/4. It is NOT about mellotrons and violins and flutes and racks of keyboards and triple neck guitars. It is NOT about costumes or lyrics about marmots coming out of the sky and then standing there. It’s about interesting music that does something different. That’s my definition of prog, and I’m sticking to it.”

My experiences show, despite progressive music being such an expansive category of music, that listeners tend to be very compartmentalised. Symphonic prog listeners are just that. Avant listeners are just that. Neo listeners are just that. And so on. There are time I think some listeners (not at all every listener, mind) find a style they like and close out everything else with a wave of the hand and a snide ‘how can you listen to that?’ kind of comment…

How can you listen to Present? There’s no melody!
How can you listen to Marillion? It’s just cloying with no depth!
How can you listen to Magma? It’s Klingon Space Opera!
How can you listen to Opeth? The singer is ridiculous!

And so on.

Maybe I’m lucky in that I’ve reached a point where I find enjoyment in all those various styles of progressive music, and then some. I like to think that there is something good in all kinds of music. Unfortunately, since Sturgeon’s Law applies equally everywhere, 90% of everything is typically crap, and often it’s that 90% that gets the most attention. My point is this…progressive music is happening all across the board, in more that one style, and closing one’s self off to those possibilities is incredibly limiting.

And that’s enough of that!

Lots of stuff coming soon, as we get back to the blog in general. I’m working up some new interviews for you…again, if you check the interviews archive page, you’ll get a hint of what’s to come. New music is coming in almost daily, and You’ll be reading about a lot of different things soon. We’ll also be talking about hype and the genre’s fear of it, looking back at some great albums from the distant past, and reposting some retro-reviews of albums I’ve listened to and enjoyed (or perhaps not!) over the past few years that have never run here on Bill’s Prog Blog. So lots of good stuff.

I’ll wrap it up for this week with my now seeming to be obligatory now listening list for the week…

Effloresce – Shades of Fate
District 97 – Hybrid Child
Edensong – The Fruit Fallen
Goldbug – The Seven Dreams
SimakDialog – Demi-Masa
We Sell Seashells – Be Excellent
Half Past Four – Rabbit in the Vestibule
All Over Everything – Inner Firmaments Decay
Stig – Biodiversity
Le Orme - Contrappunti


I have a few other small posts for today. Otherwise…see you all Monday!

The State of the Blog 11 September 2010

For a variety of reasons, I never got a chance to post a State of the Blog post last week.

I’m making it up to you all this week.

You. Have. Been. Warned.

I came home Monday to 16 new albums sitting in my mailbox. Between those, and the ones I already had, and the ones that have popped in since then, I’ve got 32 albums in queue to listen to and/or review. If you’ve sent me something, and you’ve not heard back from me, just keep that in mind. 32 albums. I will not miss out on yours...it just may take me a little bit to get to yours. But I will.

This is not meant to discourage you reading out there from asking if I’d be interested in reviewing your band or album! All I want to express is that this is (still) a one-man operation, and as such I have a lot of responsibilities…finding news pieces to post, reviewing, formatting stuff, posting it, doing interviews, et cetera. But hey, I’m sure you and me, we can make this work, right? We just gotta keep talkin’, you and me. And it’s gonna work out fine.

It’s been a busy week. A lot has happened this week, including some frankly pretty shocking stuff. Let me put it this way…Wednesday night I was watching Episode 3 of Series 2 of The Lakes (a really awesome British series from the 90’s starring John Simm, among others), and popped on line to check e-mail to find a message posted from Facebook that Mike Portnoy had just left Dream Theater. When the drummer in a progressive rock/metal band is a trending topic on Twitter and Google and Yahoo search results, you know that at least one band has risen to a level of public awareness that is mostly uncommon for non-Big Six bands. I know tens of thousands of people are talking about it (as of 1240 on Friday 10 September 2010, there are 48,886 people looking at the thread on Mike Portnoy’s website announcing his departure). Those are staggering numbers for me to even conceive of.

Here in the little backwater of Bill’s Prog Blog, we’re seeing lots of hits and page views too…not the same numbers (thank dog), but a huge increase over last week. I know the news yesterday has something to do with it, but even before this happened we’ve been seeing an increase in visitors, and I chalk that all up to you. I don’t know if you’re telling others to check the site out, or what…but whatever it is, it’s working, and I thank you for helping keep this successful. I do this for myself, but I also do it for all of you.

We’ll be getting back to a more regular schedule this coming week, including a proper Magma Monday post (and apologies for the lack of one this week…needs must and all). I’ll be breaking my no Sunday posting rule for a review of Friday night’s Shawn Persinger is Prester John concert (and photo gallery) (and if you are in the area and didn't go, well, you missed one HELL of a show. but more about that soon!), since I’ll probably not have it all together for today. And as for the rest of the week, the usual mix of news, concert dates, new CD release bits, interviews, CD and DVD reviews, and everything else you’ve come to love and expect from this site.

A week or two ago I posted a ‘what am I listening to’ list. I’ll do the same this week for ya:

Edensong: Echoes of Edensong
Edensong: The Fruit Fallen
Stig - Biodiversity
District 97: Hybrid Child
SimakDialog: Demi-Masa
Goldbug: The Seven Dreams
The Wrong Object: Stories from the Shed

Perhaps not as lengthy a list, but there’s a lot to work through, so I’ve been more…precise.

Anyway, back to the regular grind. I’ll see everyone on the blog!

The State of the Blog, 28 August 2010

Saturday, here on the blog, I think it was the…28th of August?

No, that doesn’t flow. At all.

Anyway. Carrying on.

It’s State of the Blog day, and for a change I actually have a few things of import to impart to you. Much of this will be dealing with posting schedules the coming week, but there’s some other odds and sods tossed in for good measure as well. Buckle in…while I won’t promise that there’ll be no turbulence, I will do my best to make the ride as smooth as possible.

First, and most important in this case…posting schedules. Next weekend is Labour Day weekend here in the States, and I will be away starting Friday and running through the Monday following. While there’ll be no impact on the regular week posting coming up, there’ll actually be no Saturday posts next week (I can hear that sigh of relief out there), and there is a possibility that Magma Monday will either be extremely late, or postponed in its entirety, depending on when I return from a weekend away. I am hopeful that the worst case scenario is another photo gallery, but fair warning is fair warning. As mentioned, the rest of the week’s posting should be unaffected.

I have a lot of interviews coming up…one thing I have done is post a list on the interviews archive page of the ones that are in the works (so go there and look!). I usually hate doing stuff like this because it will come back to bite me on the arse, but I’m taking the risk. In any event, it is very likely that I will be moving to a twice weekly interview schedule simply to keep things flowing. This won’t affect anything like CD reviews, which seem to be stuck on a 3 times a week posting thing right now…I just don’t want the interviews sitting around. There’s already one or two that have sat way too long as it is.

Speaking of stuff like this…I don’t know if you’ve ever clicked on the little triangles that open up past month and year post archives, but if you did, you’ll notice that this month has been the highest post count month since this blog started. That’s not saying much in some ways, considering how often I’ve let things lie fallow, but still…lots of posts. Part of that is down to you…your enthusiasm and energy (in comments on posts, e-mails, comments on other forums) encourages me to continue. So as usual, thanks. You keep me doing this.

Continuing on the enthusiasm thread for a second…the polls. Right now with 3 days left, we’re over 125 votes on the poll, and that blows me away. I didn’t pay much attention on the first poll, mostly because people were allowed to vote for more than one choice, but I believe we had around 45 to 50 total responses with 87 total votes or something like that. Again…thank you for your response to the poll. I’ll make sure the next one goes up faster than this one did!

Monday this week is Magma Monday, as usual. I’ve got something special and a little different planned…I am not going to say what it is, you’ll just have to pop over and check it out Monday.

Before wrapping up this little news post, I’ll offer up something a little different…a list of the stuff I’ve been listening to the past week or so. Most of this you’ll see on the blog in one form or another, so consider this a teaser…


American Hollow – Whisper Campaign
Mehran – Angels of Persepolis
Glass Harp – Live at the Beachland Ballroom 11.01.08
Goldbug – The Seven Dreams
TM + MR – Descending
Matt Stevens – Ghost
Heavy Glow – The Filth and the Fury
19 A.D.D. – Dead River
TANGENTS – A Little Light Year
Also Eden – Differences as Light
Jose Carballido – Requiem


OK, time to get to work at the job that allows me to do this for you. I’ve got a long weekend of music and writing to get to later.

See you all on Monday!

The State of the Blog, 21 August 2010

It’s been a while since I’ve done a State of the Blog post, so now seems as good a time as any for another one. You. Have. Been. Warned.

Things have been busy, as I am sure you can tell. I’ve been working on a number of projects for the blog, some of which have not yet come to fruition but are in varying stages of completion. You’ll know them when you see them. Having said that (I can hear the groans now…thank you peanut gallery), I figured I’d outline some of the things you might have already seen, some of the things you haven’t, and some of the things that have not yet come to pass, yet still might.

I’ve been trying to change things up a little bit with some different kinds of posts here and there…I love the 1500 word album review, but it can get a little difficult from time to time to force that many words from what I like to think of as a semi-functioning cerebral cortex. And frankly, from time to time I find time slips away. So you get what you got last week for a Magma Monday post…a photo gallery. From time to time, and when it makes sense, I’ll post another one (like this week’s Moraine gallery to accompany their interview, or the Pineapple Thief gallery to accompany the review).

I’ve also posted the occasional video when I know it is band sanctioned, like the From.UZ trailers for their new DVD, or the District 97 videos, or what have you. I’ll continue to do that from time to time when something looks worthwhile and is band/artist sanctioned.

One thing I have made an effort to do more of are themed days, like the infamous Frogg Café Day. I had a blast with that, and it was nice to spend a day focusing on a single artist. Moraine and Pineapple Thief had sort of similar type things, and we sort of had another theme day yesterday with the pair of Ascent of Everest reviews. I can say that there will probably be a few more of them as we go along, so keep your eyes peeled, as you never know when I’ll do something similar.

I’m also working on another series of posts, which at this point will remain secret, but which I hope will allow me to cover some things I might not normally do (in order to focus on the present) while adding in a bit of the irreverence that I rather seem to enjoy from time to time. I’ve generally kept the serious snark on the non-main pages (the F.U.Q. is filled with it), and while I won’t go full blown stark raving loony on you, these pieces will hopefully inject a little levity in what can sometimes be a rather stuffy, studious arena. Again, keep reading, you’ll know when it starts when you see the first post.

Interviews are still an ongoing project, as you have seen. I enjoy doing them, and there’s more to come in the following weeks. There are 2 in queue right now that I think you’ll enjoy, Constant Reader, and more that I am working on setting up (EDIT: since writing this line, I’ve confirmed 3 additional ones…i.e., there are questions that just went out to the artists in question, and there’s two other musicians working on things now in the midst of studio sessions for a new album…so there’s a total of 7 interviews coming your way sooner or later). You’ll know them when you see them. I’ve been posting interviews in Tuesdays for no better reason than that was when I started doing it this go around, but if I start getting in too many completed ones again, we’ll figure out how to schedule them twice a week or something.

Let’s see…what else?

Oh, yes.

Loads of new stuff coming your way. There are some great album and DVD reviews coming up (music has been flowing in fairly steadily the past week or so), as well as a book review (something I haven’t done since I was in college writing for the school newspaper). I’m hoping the concert calendar opens up for me and I can hit a few shows for y’all as well…there are some great performers coming to the area, I just need to work on availability and scheduling. Keep your fingers crossed!

I do have a new poll up, as you have hopefully seen. Please vote. Early and often as the early Chicago political machines would have. Your enthusiasm motivates me to post more polls as the older ones end. As always, the finished polls will be posted to the polls archive page on completion. And if you have any ideas for polls, please drop me a line and let me know, either as a comment here, or whatever. I’m always open to suggestions from the people reading at home.

And it’s Saturday, and while I’ve said in the past ‘no Saturday posts’ I haven’t exactly followed through on that. I’m not trying to make a habit of it, but Saturdays have been good for catching you up on tour dates and stuff like that.

Oh! Before I go. Neat factoid bit for you. In the past three days, the blog has had visitors from 42 different countries. That blows my mind. Some don’t surprise. Germany, the UK, Canada, Japan? Sure, I’d expect that. Same of course with the US…if no one here was visiting, I’d be worried. But South Korea? Tunisia? Egypt? That was awesome, and makes me more enthused to keep going. Thank you all…I mean it.

Anyway…going to post this. I’ve already spent over 900 words blathering on. Then take the rest of the day off.

In theory, anyway.

See you on Magma Monday!

The State of the Blog, 3 August 2010

You will have noticed, perhaps, that there was no State of the Blog post on Saturday last week.

This was perhaps less than intentional, yet I will admit that there was a bit of relief in not writing one, and instead simply posting some release news.

Tonight's SotB post will likely be a brief one, but I did want to draw your attention to the right hand side of the site, where I have a series of links to other pages on my blog. It's right there, under where the poll was, and above the Google Search box. See it now? Well, there's a new page there.

As polls complete, I'll be archiving the results on a new page, creatively entitled "Past Poll Archives." Pretty witty, huh? I thought so too, actually. Seriously now, any polls I run from here on out will have their results posted there, with the newest poll posted at the top. This way it will be easy to see what we've voted on in the past, and have a record of those results.

For those too busy to hit the page to see the final results of the first poll, I'll copy and paste them below just for you. But this will be the last time. Next time, click the link, OK?

Anyway...

Who was your favourite band at NEARfest 2010:

Steve Hackett 20 (47%)
The Enid 19 (45%)
Iona 11 (26%)
Three Friends 10 (23%)
Forgas Band Phenomenon 8 (19%)
Riverside 7 (16%)
Eddie Jobson/U-Z Project 7 (16%)
Astra 6 (14%)
Moraine 5 (11%)
The Pineapple Thief 1 (2%)

As always, I want to thank you for stopping by, for reading, for voting, for taking part. There's a lot of very cool stuff coming up, including some more insightful interviews, some great albums and reviews, and hopefully a contest or two in the not so distant future. Keep your eyes peeled, and keep visiting!

Thanks, and have a proggy night!

The State of the Blog, 24 July 2010

It’s Saturday, and that means it’s time for another State of the Blog post.

It’s been a very busy week here at Bill’s Prog Blog, as I am sure you have all seen. I admit that Frogg Café day was a bit of a surprise, but I hope it was as cool a surprise for you as it was for me. I really want to take the time to thank Andy and Frank from the Café for their generosity of time and in allowing me to share the score with you. Which reminds, actually...I will be sharing the whole thing with you very soon now...I’m just working out those final details. I hope it’s something that is a nice little extra for those of you out there reading at home.

There are a lot of cool things in the pipeline for the next few weeks. I’m always loathe to share specifics because so much can change as events occur. But I can share a few generalities, I think. Among the pieces that are in the works...

• A number of interviews, including at least one that’s been in the works for a little while now.
• The beginning of a series of pieces looking at progressive/art rock boxed sets of value.
• Some DVD reviews, including both new and older titles.
• Reviews of a pair of very good instrumental albums that have come out this year on two ends of the musical spectrum.
• The usual mix of CD reviews and news articles.

As always, we’ll be kicking things off with Magma Monday. I’m still working out a flow for the rest of the week, but be assured, it’ll be well worth it.

And now for a few less blog news-esque words…

I obviously posted a lot of stuff this week, and the response I’ve gotten was pretty overwhelming. That’s something I can only mark up to you out there in Constant Reader land. I don’t do this for response, I don’t do this to get a pat on the back...but that doesn’t mean that I am not dead chuffed when it happens. Its very gratifying to get positive response from those of you reading at home, and all I can say in return in a sincere thank you for taking the time to read, to comment, to send e-mails, or whatever. It makes me want to work that extra bit harder to make sure that I keep things going smoothly. So...thank you. Your energy and enthusiasm drives me to keep on keeping on.

Enough of my blather...I have some Magma to listen to!