Hey everyone,
Due to a recent mini-spate of trolling comments, I'm temporarily moving commenting to moderated status. What this means is that there will be a delay for comments to appear on posts, as I will be approving them before they are posted.
I'm sorry for this, but I try to make sure there's a consistent quality of discourse here, and the recent comments (now remove) on several posts do not live up to any reasonable level of mature discussion.
Thanks in advance for your understanding.
30 June 2008
27 June 2008
Looking back at my NEARfest acquisitions
Here's a quick look, one week later, at how I am faring with the new music acquired at NEARfest 2008:
Le Orme - Live in Pennsylvania 2-CD/1-DVD set. Sound quality is excellent. Video is also very very good...of course, I had a 20 minute tease of this on the NEARfest 2005 DVD. UNFORTUNATELY, this is not their full set, as it excises the material from Collage as well as their rendition of Rondo. Still, a wonderful reminder of seeing this great Italian progressive band.
The Red Masque - Fossileyes. Very good stuff. A bit shocking, actually...their last release had several expansive tracks. The material here is shorter, punchier, more metallic...and every bit as edgy and avant as their past efforts. This is a long awaited album indeed...
Pure Reason Revolution - Live at NEARfest. Post production helped boost what was an energetic set marred by level issues. Harmonies sound richer, thanks to the ability to bring Chloe's voice up in the mix. Are they prog? Who cares! They were energetic, trippy, and very cool.
Strawbs - Live at the Calderone on Witchwood Records. With yesterday's surprising yet not overly so announcement that John Hawken was leaving the Strawbs again, buying this live release (which does not feature him) seems almost...prophetic. Sound quality is a bit rough, as I think this was sourced from a multiple generation off air recording...but this is Strawbs at their rocking best. Well nigh essential.
DFA - Work in Progress Live and 4th. Haven't gotten in as many listens to these, but I like what I am hearing so far. Mostly instrumental Italian prog with a bit of a jazzier bent.
Progday 2001 2-CD set. Only one listen in, and there's a lot to swallow here. Only really familiar with the Muffins and Ars Nova, so there's some work to do here.
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Di Terra and Canto di Primavera. Two totally different sides to Banco. Di Terra is all instrumental and an unmitigated classic of the genre, while Canto di Primavera is shorter, song based vocal music, almost verging on pop. But both are excellent, and easily reward multiuple listens.
Kingfisher Sky - s/t. Haven't listened to yet :-)
Gerard - Sighs of the Water. Again, no listens yet. But I liked them when they played live at NEARfest 2002.
Le Orme - Live in Pennsylvania 2-CD/1-DVD set. Sound quality is excellent. Video is also very very good...of course, I had a 20 minute tease of this on the NEARfest 2005 DVD. UNFORTUNATELY, this is not their full set, as it excises the material from Collage as well as their rendition of Rondo. Still, a wonderful reminder of seeing this great Italian progressive band.
The Red Masque - Fossileyes. Very good stuff. A bit shocking, actually...their last release had several expansive tracks. The material here is shorter, punchier, more metallic...and every bit as edgy and avant as their past efforts. This is a long awaited album indeed...
Pure Reason Revolution - Live at NEARfest. Post production helped boost what was an energetic set marred by level issues. Harmonies sound richer, thanks to the ability to bring Chloe's voice up in the mix. Are they prog? Who cares! They were energetic, trippy, and very cool.
Strawbs - Live at the Calderone on Witchwood Records. With yesterday's surprising yet not overly so announcement that John Hawken was leaving the Strawbs again, buying this live release (which does not feature him) seems almost...prophetic. Sound quality is a bit rough, as I think this was sourced from a multiple generation off air recording...but this is Strawbs at their rocking best. Well nigh essential.
DFA - Work in Progress Live and 4th. Haven't gotten in as many listens to these, but I like what I am hearing so far. Mostly instrumental Italian prog with a bit of a jazzier bent.
Progday 2001 2-CD set. Only one listen in, and there's a lot to swallow here. Only really familiar with the Muffins and Ars Nova, so there's some work to do here.
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Di Terra and Canto di Primavera. Two totally different sides to Banco. Di Terra is all instrumental and an unmitigated classic of the genre, while Canto di Primavera is shorter, song based vocal music, almost verging on pop. But both are excellent, and easily reward multiuple listens.
Kingfisher Sky - s/t. Haven't listened to yet :-)
Gerard - Sighs of the Water. Again, no listens yet. But I liked them when they played live at NEARfest 2002.
26 June 2008
Strawbs: John Hawken leaves group
This is from a mail news flash courtesy of Dick Greener, webmaster for the Strawbs, also posted here:
John Hawken has decided that it is time to give up the rigours of life on the road with the Strawbs. It's not news that any Strawbs fan will welcome, but in view of his recent ill health, a decision which I'm sure we can all understand and accept.
For the last few years we've had the pleasure of seeing the full power and majesty of the Hero And Heroine/Ghosts line up back on stage in all its glory. But now it's time to move on.
Strawbs will continue as the core four piece line-up, Cousins, Lambert, Cronk and Coombes, and will review future electric shows over the next few weeks.
John Hawken commented:
"I regard the last 4 years as an unexpected bonus, filled with wonderful music and a lot of laughter.
This is not something I give up lightly, but each year I've found touring more exhausting than the year before and my recent health problem finally decided the issue. It's time to go.
I wish the remaining band members every success and happiness in their musical ventures - I hope we meet up again somewhere down the road."
John Hawken has decided that it is time to give up the rigours of life on the road with the Strawbs. It's not news that any Strawbs fan will welcome, but in view of his recent ill health, a decision which I'm sure we can all understand and accept.
For the last few years we've had the pleasure of seeing the full power and majesty of the Hero And Heroine/Ghosts line up back on stage in all its glory. But now it's time to move on.
Strawbs will continue as the core four piece line-up, Cousins, Lambert, Cronk and Coombes, and will review future electric shows over the next few weeks.
John Hawken commented:
"I regard the last 4 years as an unexpected bonus, filled with wonderful music and a lot of laughter.
This is not something I give up lightly, but each year I've found touring more exhausting than the year before and my recent health problem finally decided the issue. It's time to go.
I wish the remaining band members every success and happiness in their musical ventures - I hope we meet up again somewhere down the road."
NEARfest 2008 in review
NF 2008 was in some ways one of the more challenging ones for me from both a physical and emotional level. Through most of the weekend, my body seemed to be conspiring against me. Despite this, some of the most memorable musical things happened.
Koenjihyakkei was a solid Saturday opener. I had some issues with the vocal/sax interplay, both of which seemed to stay in very similar ranges, making it difficult at times to discern which was which. But they also had "the" drummer of the festival for me in Tatsuya Yoshida, and his performance was the benchmark by which I compared all others.
Sorry, Mike Portnoy.
Discipline. Not fair of me to say anything. They exceeded my expectations a thousand fold, and I wept for the first time during the festival as they played "Into the Dream." It was a transcendent set for me, one I hope will eventually see some kind of official release. I should add that the rest of the guys in the band are brilliant as well...I've known Matthew Parmenter for a few years, but Mathew Kennedy, Jon Preston Bouda and Pual Dzendel were all a joy to chat with too.
Peter Hammill was superb. It was one of the diverging performances of the weekend, as his particular brand of existential despair and doom is not for everyone. But he played 'In the Black Room,' and 'A Better Time,' and 'Still Life.' A perfect English gentleman to talk to as well. Brilliant man.
Liquid Tension Experiment was good. I know they wowed a lot of people who expected nothing from their set. I did about 90 minutes of their set, and had enough. It's just not for me anymore. But kudos for incorporating a full fledged and rearranged rendition of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" into their performance (Banco would echo this Sunday night, opening their encore with a soprano sax or clarinet solo that interpolated bits of the theme).
Morglbl on the other hand is LTE with Gallic humour. Cristopher Godin is a ham, and his stage presence was wonderful. Floral print tie and all. Great player, oozing character, and the bassist held his own! Very goofy, fun, party prog on the metal edge. Liked them a lot. I'll buy their albums I think. A perfect Sunday opener, and I think they got called out for two encores (and deservedly so), a first.
Radio Massacre International...I dig electronic music, but watching it can be tedious. It was somewhat here...and I was tired. And starting to hurt badly. Cyndee Lee Rule's violin additions helped, as did the occasional use of drums. But the set seemed disjointed.
Echolyn was also a lot of fun. they played several songs I'd never heard played before, like 'Winterthru,' 'The Great Men,' 'Entry 11-19-93' (or whatever the date in the title was). Very energetic set. No new material, but it was a blast. Again, I missed part, as before the encores I started to hurt so bad I was nauseous and crying (thankfully over the course of the rest of the evening I'd spend some time with the guys, which was brilliant as always. They are total class acts...).
Medication and food later, we had...
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso.
After their set, I walked around goofy saying "I just saw Banco." I'd walk up to someone and say "That was Banco." It was transcendent, and again, I wept. They were everything I heard on their albums and more. Far far more.
But for me, this year meant something more. This year I think I realised how important the people around me all weekend were. My friends helped me get through a very rough patch with kindness and concern and selflessness. That totally made it for me. Some of the past festivals' performances may have been individually superior, but I may remember NEARfest 2008 most fondly in the end.
Koenjihyakkei was a solid Saturday opener. I had some issues with the vocal/sax interplay, both of which seemed to stay in very similar ranges, making it difficult at times to discern which was which. But they also had "the" drummer of the festival for me in Tatsuya Yoshida, and his performance was the benchmark by which I compared all others.
Sorry, Mike Portnoy.
Discipline. Not fair of me to say anything. They exceeded my expectations a thousand fold, and I wept for the first time during the festival as they played "Into the Dream." It was a transcendent set for me, one I hope will eventually see some kind of official release. I should add that the rest of the guys in the band are brilliant as well...I've known Matthew Parmenter for a few years, but Mathew Kennedy, Jon Preston Bouda and Pual Dzendel were all a joy to chat with too.
Peter Hammill was superb. It was one of the diverging performances of the weekend, as his particular brand of existential despair and doom is not for everyone. But he played 'In the Black Room,' and 'A Better Time,' and 'Still Life.' A perfect English gentleman to talk to as well. Brilliant man.
Liquid Tension Experiment was good. I know they wowed a lot of people who expected nothing from their set. I did about 90 minutes of their set, and had enough. It's just not for me anymore. But kudos for incorporating a full fledged and rearranged rendition of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" into their performance (Banco would echo this Sunday night, opening their encore with a soprano sax or clarinet solo that interpolated bits of the theme).
Morglbl on the other hand is LTE with Gallic humour. Cristopher Godin is a ham, and his stage presence was wonderful. Floral print tie and all. Great player, oozing character, and the bassist held his own! Very goofy, fun, party prog on the metal edge. Liked them a lot. I'll buy their albums I think. A perfect Sunday opener, and I think they got called out for two encores (and deservedly so), a first.
Radio Massacre International...I dig electronic music, but watching it can be tedious. It was somewhat here...and I was tired. And starting to hurt badly. Cyndee Lee Rule's violin additions helped, as did the occasional use of drums. But the set seemed disjointed.
Echolyn was also a lot of fun. they played several songs I'd never heard played before, like 'Winterthru,' 'The Great Men,' 'Entry 11-19-93' (or whatever the date in the title was). Very energetic set. No new material, but it was a blast. Again, I missed part, as before the encores I started to hurt so bad I was nauseous and crying (thankfully over the course of the rest of the evening I'd spend some time with the guys, which was brilliant as always. They are total class acts...).
Medication and food later, we had...
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso.
After their set, I walked around goofy saying "I just saw Banco." I'd walk up to someone and say "That was Banco." It was transcendent, and again, I wept. They were everything I heard on their albums and more. Far far more.
But for me, this year meant something more. This year I think I realised how important the people around me all weekend were. My friends helped me get through a very rough patch with kindness and concern and selflessness. That totally made it for me. Some of the past festivals' performances may have been individually superior, but I may remember NEARfest 2008 most fondly in the end.
25 June 2008
Progday announces MIRTHRANDIR!
ProgDay is thrilled to announce the addition of MIRTHRANDIR to this year's lineup. With a style in the tradition of classic symphonic, melodic, driving progressive rock, the band also features a unique twin lead guitar attack that allows for added complexity and density.
The band formed back in the early 70's and released For You The Old Women in 1976, generally ranked as one of the top American progressive rock albums of the time. For a while it looked like MIRTHRANDIR would join the top tier of U.S. based progressive rock acts, but unfortunately the band broke up before that happened.
Reunited in the new millennium, critically acclaimed performances at the New Jersey Proghouse, Baja Progressive Rock Festival, and The Rights Of Spring Festival have gained the band a whole new generation of fans. ProgDay is proud to welcome this classic ensemble to the Storybook stage.
ProgDay, the world's longest running progressive rock festival, takes place this year on August 30th and 31st at Storybook Farm near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Other bands announced so far are Ain Soph (Japan), Canvas Solaris (US), CHEER-ACCIDENT (US), Holding Pattern (US), VonFrickle (US) and Abigail's Ghost (US). To hear music and get information about all the bands, please visit our website at www.progday.com.
The band formed back in the early 70's and released For You The Old Women in 1976, generally ranked as one of the top American progressive rock albums of the time. For a while it looked like MIRTHRANDIR would join the top tier of U.S. based progressive rock acts, but unfortunately the band broke up before that happened.
Reunited in the new millennium, critically acclaimed performances at the New Jersey Proghouse, Baja Progressive Rock Festival, and The Rights Of Spring Festival have gained the band a whole new generation of fans. ProgDay is proud to welcome this classic ensemble to the Storybook stage.
ProgDay, the world's longest running progressive rock festival, takes place this year on August 30th and 31st at Storybook Farm near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Other bands announced so far are Ain Soph (Japan), Canvas Solaris (US), CHEER-ACCIDENT (US), Holding Pattern (US), VonFrickle (US) and Abigail's Ghost (US). To hear music and get information about all the bands, please visit our website at www.progday.com.
Spock's Beard - autographed booklets available on Live pre-order
Los Angeles-based progressive rockers SPOCK'S BEARD will release a concert DVD, simply entitled "Live", this summer via InsideOut Music. The footage was shot by D'iMages on May 25, 2007 at De Boerderij in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands.
If you pre-Order either of the upcoming Spock's Beard releases, Live (2-CD) or Live DVD and get a limited autographed booklet with purchase! Go the Newbury Comics website by clicking here.
The group's setlist was as follows:
01. On A Perfect Day
02. In The Mouth Of Madness
03. Crack The Big Sky
04. The Slow Crash Landing Man
05. Surfing Down The Avalanche
06. Return To Whatever
07. Thoughts 2
08. Drum Duel
09. Skeletons At The Feast
10. Walking On The Wind
11. Hereafter
12. As Far As The Mind Can See Pt. 1 - Dreaming In The Age Of Answers
13. As Far As The Mind Can See Pt. 2 - Here's A Man
14. As Far As The Mind Can See Pt. 3 - They Know We Know
15. As Far As The Mind Can See Pt. 4 - Stream Of Unconsciousness
16. Rearranged
17. Encore: The Water/Go The Way You Go
View a trailer for the DVD here.
Unofficially official: DFA at ProgDay!
http://www.myspace.com/dutyfreearea
Under upcoming shows.
Aug 29 2008 9:00P Orion Sound Studios Baltimore, Maryland
Aug 31 2008 8:00P ProgDay Durham, North Carolina
Their 4th album, conveniently titled 4th has just been released, and it's a solid (mostly) instrumental Italian prog album which hearkens toward symphonic, jazz and space elements.
Under upcoming shows.
Aug 29 2008 9:00P Orion Sound Studios Baltimore, Maryland
Aug 31 2008 8:00P ProgDay Durham, North Carolina
Their 4th album, conveniently titled 4th has just been released, and it's a solid (mostly) instrumental Italian prog album which hearkens toward symphonic, jazz and space elements.
24 June 2008
NEARfest 2008 photos redux
I'm uploading the last of the pix now, so you can click on the following links to see the rest of the shots:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/5_morglbl/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/6_rmi/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/7_echolyn/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/8_banco/
The dearth of RMI pix is as much an indictment of the lighting (which suited the music but made photography a touch difficult) as anything else. Plus, let's face it...looking at 3 dozen photos of two synthesists flipping switches, pushing buttons and dialing in sounds would get a mite boring.
Anyway...enjoy.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/5_morglbl/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/6_rmi/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/7_echolyn/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/8_banco/
The dearth of RMI pix is as much an indictment of the lighting (which suited the music but made photography a touch difficult) as anything else. Plus, let's face it...looking at 3 dozen photos of two synthesists flipping switches, pushing buttons and dialing in sounds would get a mite boring.
Anyway...enjoy.
23 June 2008
NEARfest 2008 photos
Day 1 if you still think of Friday night as preshow, otherwise day two of NF pix are up and available to view here:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/1_koenji/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/2_discipline/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/3_hammill/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/nearfest_2008/4_lte/
I'll post day 2(3) tomorrow.
http://smg.photobucket.com
http://smg.photobucket.com
http://smg.photobucket.com
http://smg.photobucket.com
I'll post day 2(3) tomorrow.
NEARfest 2008 post-fest wrapup part 1
Yeah, I blew all the posting last week. A lot happened. I'm on a more even keel today though, so things should pick back up. In the first part of my festival wrap-up, I'm going to post my list of swag I brought back.
It's a significantly longer than I thought it would be...
MY MUST BUYS
I had a short list of titles I had to buy. If I got these the rest didn't matter. I got all three of my must buys:
Le Orme - Live in Pennsylvania 2-CD/1-DVD set. Sadly not the whole show...it misses Collage and Rondo. But still nice to have about 100 minutes of the 2 hour set.
The Red Masque - Fossileyes. Got it early enough to score the promo DVD along with it.
Nice.
Pure Reason Revolution - Live at NEARfest. Does what it says on the label.
'IMPULSE BUYS'
This is kinda everything else :-)
Strawbs - Live at the Calderone on Witchwood Records
DFA - Work in Progress Live
DFA - 4th (both of these I got at Moonjune on the 2 for $25 deal)
Progday 2001 2-CD set (for 5 bucks I complete the collection)
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Di Terra (my friend Mark Guenther kindly picked this up for me)
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Canto di Primavera
Kingfisher Sky (the preview on the screen and PA sold this one)
Gerard - can't remember the title (my friend Kevin Cosentino was kind enough to pick this one up)
Fireballet t-shirt (free! and not in my size!)
Fireballet CD sampler (free! and IN my size!)
NEARfest 2008 T-shirt (in progfan size! dark grey with the dual twisted dragon logo)
NEARfest 2008 programme (for which a story exists for later)
It's a significantly longer than I thought it would be...
MY MUST BUYS
I had a short list of titles I had to buy. If I got these the rest didn't matter. I got all three of my must buys:
Le Orme - Live in Pennsylvania 2-CD/1-DVD set. Sadly not the whole show...it misses Collage and Rondo. But still nice to have about 100 minutes of the 2 hour set.
The Red Masque - Fossileyes. Got it early enough to score the promo DVD along with it.
Nice.
Pure Reason Revolution - Live at NEARfest. Does what it says on the label.
'IMPULSE BUYS'
This is kinda everything else :-)
Strawbs - Live at the Calderone on Witchwood Records
DFA - Work in Progress Live
DFA - 4th (both of these I got at Moonjune on the 2 for $25 deal)
Progday 2001 2-CD set (for 5 bucks I complete the collection)
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Di Terra (my friend Mark Guenther kindly picked this up for me)
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Canto di Primavera
Kingfisher Sky (the preview on the screen and PA sold this one)
Gerard - can't remember the title (my friend Kevin Cosentino was kind enough to pick this one up)
Fireballet t-shirt (free! and not in my size!)
Fireballet CD sampler (free! and IN my size!)
NEARfest 2008 T-shirt (in progfan size! dark grey with the dual twisted dragon logo)
NEARfest 2008 programme (for which a story exists for later)
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