For over twenty years, British neo-prog stalwarts Pendragon have bucked commercial trends in favor of exploring the classically-minded, folk-influenced style originally forged by bands like Genesis, Strawbs, and Renaissance. Unlike contemporaries Marillion, Pendragon has never achieved a great amount of chart success in the U.K. but rather are revered by loyal audiences in countries like France and Poland.
Neither band ever made much of a splash with American prog-rock aficionados, but in Pendragon’s defense, there hasn’t been a lot of their music made available to audiences on this side of the pond. Originally released exclusively in Poland and enjoying a brief U.S. release back in 2001, The History: 1984-2000 has been compiled from a half-dozen Pendragon albums and should whet the appetite of stateside proggers to seek out the band’s other excellent work as import discs.
Pendragon’s The History: 1984-2000
The History: 1984-2000 is a fine showcase of Pendragon’s chosen milieu. Although guitarist/frontman Nick Barrett and keyboard wizard Clive Nolan, along with bassist Peter Gee and drummer Fudge Smith, are all superb musicians, it is the band’s enormous musical chemistry that drives these songs. Although some jaded U.S. prog fans may find Pendragon’s unique sound to be less aggressive than they like, with less emphasis on technical virtuosity and more importance placed on the song, these four gifted artists are incredible musicians nonetheless.
Pendragon reminds me a lot of early ‘70s Pink Floyd, with each song’s lyrics, structure and underlying soundtrack considered above mere instrumental interplay. As such, mesmerizing tunes like “Total Recall” or the eerie medieval “The Black Knight” represent a finely crafted combination of intelligent, imaginative lyrics and unpredictable musical composition.
Pendragon’s The History: 1984-2000 includes two haunting acoustic performances of songs from early albums, “The King of the Castle” and “Paintbox,” that were recorded exclusively for this volume. Stripped of electricity, the songs are redefined as soaring folk ballads with a pastoral edge. The album also includes an ultra-cool performance video of “The Last Waltz” culled from the band’s 1997 album and DVD Live At Last! that you can watch on the old computer. The History: 1984-2000 is an excellent introduction to the many charms of Pendragon, and hopefully the band will receive its overdue welcome from American audiences so that we can see more of their work reissued stateside. (Metal Mind/MVD Audio, released 2006)
At the time, it seemed to be an intriguing collaboration between two of rock music’s most interesting “artistes.” The reality of 1973’s No Pussyfooting, however, left many fans perplexed. The initial pairing of King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp and former Roxy Music gadget wrangler Brian Eno ended up being a little of the best of both and, yet, something of neither.
The experimental trappings of No Pussyfooting, recorded while Eno was working on his solo debut, Here Come the Warm Jets, would be the first steps by the future superstar producer towards the creation of what he would term “ambient music.” Using what would become known as “Frippertronics” – a seemingly endless tape loop spinning through infinite delays – it would lay down a foundation of sound on which Fripp would embroider his spacey six-string figures and Eno would add jolts of synthesizer.
Fripp & Eno’s No Pussyfooting
This, then, is the total of No Pussyfooting, two intricate and mind-blowing compositions, each representing a breathtaking exploration of sound and electronics. “The Heavenly Music Corporation” is the better of the two, taking many more death-defying leaps of faith, but “Swastika Girls” has its charms, particularly when Eno coaxes an orgiastic sigh from what sounds like an oscillator.
Fripp’s fretwork on “The Heavenly Music Corporation” is simply mesmerizing, the guitarist stretching out and taking chances, the resulting sound a terrifying mix of prog-rock, heavy metal, and outer-space pyrotechnics that would influence a generation of punters to follow. Accompanied by Eno’s perfectly-timed punctuations of synth, the result is a glorious din. “Swastika Girls” sounds more laboratory-bred, with a colder vibe and more interplay between electronics and guitar wankery.
Legend has it that British deejay John Peel once accidently played No Pussyfooting backwards on the air, the result of an incorrectly threaded reel-to-reel tape. The material proved to be as equally intriguing backwards as it was forwards, and this deluxe two-disc reissue of the album includes reversed versions of both “The Heavenly Music Corporation” and “Swastika Girls” for those wishing to relive the experience. The second disc here also includes a half-speed version of the former, a dirge-like 42-minute curiosity that reminds one of a slowly-poured, molasses-speed DJ Screw production, sans vocal rhymes, of course...
Fripp & Eno’s Evening Star
Two years after No Pussyfooting, the pair would create Evening Star, a mix of the previous album’s Frippertronics (especially the 28-minute “An Index of Metals”) and shorter, atmospheric experimentations similar to those that Eno would create with German avant-gardists Cluster a couple of years hence. Listening to the album again after many years, it’s obvious that Evening Star, even more so than No Pussyfooting, was the precursor to the rise of “new age” and space music in the ‘80s.
Whereas the pastoral “Wind On Water” provides nothing but pure Baroque ambience, the brilliant, shining title track is a marvelous pastiche of gentle tones and chiming synth drones set against Fripp’s masterful guitar imagery. Emotionally rich and hauntingly beautiful, the song is a one-in-a-million mutant hybrid of progressive rock and John Cage-inspired musical theory that succeeds beyond anybody’s wildest dreams.
Not that the rest of Evening Star is chopped liver, mind you. “Evensong” provides nothing less than a blueprint for new age music with its electronic drone and recurring riff-like themes, while “Wind On Wind” is a blustery, baritone-rich thunderstorm on a spring day. The extended work-out “An Index of Metals” provides a jarring conclusion to the album, the song weaving transparent waves of shimmering dissonance upon a cacophonic soundtrack of distorted guitar and squealing, albeit often melodic, synthesizers.
Less aggressive than No Pussyfooting, but no less inventive, Evening Star would be the last collaboration between Robert Fripp and Brian Eno for nearly thirty years. (Opal Records/DGM, both CDs reissued 2008)
British folk-rock innovator Dave Cousins passed away on Sunday, July 13th, 2025 after a lengthy illness; he was 85 years old.
Cousins is best known as the frontman and creative force behind the Strawbs, the ground-breaking and influential 1970s-era British rock band. Cousins and the Strawbs took on many faces over the years. The band’s first incarnation was as the Strawberry Hill Boys, a traditional bluegrass band formed in 1964 by Cousins, guitarist Tony Hooper, and bassist John Berry, who would later be replaced by double-bass player Ron Chesterman.
The band changed its name to the Strawbs for a 1967 concert, and gradually began to move towards an original folk-rock sound fueled by Cousins’ imaginative lyrical prowess. The trio added singer Sandy Denny to the group and recorded 13 songs in Denmark for a proposed debut album, All Our Own Work. When the band couldn’t find a record deal in the U.K. Denny left to join Fairport Convention. All Our Own Work was later released in 1973 by budget label Pickwick Records, the album including one of Denny’s most beloved songs, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?,” which she later re-recorded with Fairport Convention.
The Strawbs were the first British band signed to the American A&M Records label, the trio releasing their self-titled debut album in 1969, accompanied in the studio by bassist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) and pianist Nicky Hopkins. The Strawbs followed up its debut a year later with the critically-acclaimed Dragonfly, after which Chesterman left the band. The Strawbs expanded its sound, adding keyboardist Rick Wakeman, bassist John Ford, and drummer Richard Hudson for the mostly live album Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios, which was the band’s first charting album, peaking at #27 in the U.K.
After recording 1971’s From the Witchwood, Wakeman left the Strawbs to join Yes, replaced by keyboardist Blue Weaver for the band’s 1972 breakthrough, Grave New World. Peaking at #11 on the U.K. charts and inching onto the Billboard ‘Top 200’ albums chart stateside, songs like Cousins’ “Benedictus” and Ford’s “Heavy Disguise” received heavy FM radio airplay. Feeling that the band was moving away from folk and deeper into rock ‘n’ roll, Hooper left after the release of Grave New World, replaced by guitarist Dave Lambert of the psych-rock band Fire.
During a short summer hiatus, Cousins recorded his 1972 solo album, Two Weeks Last Summer, with guest musicians like Deep Purple’s Roger Glover, Miller Anderson of the Keef Hartley Band, and Jon Hiseman from Colosseum as well as members of the Strawbs. Underpromoted by A&M, the album failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic. Returning to the Strawbs, Cousins pursued a harder-rocking, almost proggy sound for 1973’s Bursting At the Seams, scoring hit singles in the U.K. with Cousins’ “Lay Down” and the Hudson/Ford song “Part of the Union.” The album proved to be their most commercially successful, hitting #2 in the U.K. while also charting in the U.S. and Canada. Tensions grew during the album’s supporting tour, however; afterwards Hudson and Ford left to form the pop-oriented Hudson Ford band while Weaver went to work for the Bee Gees.
Cousins and Lambert recruited keyboardist John Hawken of the Nashville Teens and Renaissance along with bassist Chas Cronk and drummer Rod Coombes of Juicy Lucy. This is the line-up that recorded 1974’s classic Hero and Heroine and 1975’s Ghosts, the former being the last Strawbs’ album to chart in the U.K. while the latter achieved the band’s highest position on the U.S. chart, rising to #47 as the band toured heavily in North America. Released in late 1975, Nomadness found critical acclaim but continued the band’s commercial slide; it was their last album for A&M Records.
The band’s tenth album, 1976’s Deep Cuts, was released exclusively in the U.K. by Deep Purple’s Oyster Records imprint, while the following year’s Burning For You was picked up for North American distribution by Polydor Records. Cousins intended Burning For You to be the band’s swansong, but the band’s management got them a deal with Arista Records and the singer was convinced by label head Clive Davis to record one more album. Working with an unsympathetic producer for 1978’s Deadlines – one who Cousins felt didn’t understand the band – the Strawbs recorded Deadlines in Dublin, Ireland.
Disaster struck when the tapes for Deadlines were almost entirely accidentally erased; Strawbs re-recorded the songs, but as Cousins stated in the liner notes for the album’s CD reissue, the new performances failed to capture the unique flavor of the original recordings. The Strawbs completed a second Arista album in 1978, Heartbreak Hill, recorded largely without Lambert, who was working on a solo album. When Cousins decided in 1980 to leave Strawbs and get into the radio industry, the album was shelved and remained unreleased until 1995. Cousins recorded a second solo album, Old School Songs, in 1979 with guitarist Brian Willoughby.
Invited to headline the 1983 Cambridge Folk Festival, the Strawbs’ Grave New World line-up reunited to perform with Willoughby on guitar in place of Lambert. The reunion led to a 1987 album, Don’t Say Goodbye, released by the band’s own Strawberry Hill Productions label. It was fairly quiet for the Strawbs during the ‘90s, the band releasing a single album – 1991’s Ringing Down the Years – and touring the U.K. in 1993 in celebration of their 25th anniversary. Cousins’ second album with Willoughby, The Bridge, was released in 1994. Cousins staged a 30th anniversary Strawbs reunion performance at Chiswick Park in London in 1998, which led to a relatively prolific and productive period for the band, versions of which (“Acoustic Strawbs” and “Electric Strawbs”) toured the U.K. and North America throughout the early 2000s.
The Strawbs and Cousins were both busy in the studio during this period. Cousins released a number of acclaimed solo albums, including 2002’s Hummingbird (with Rick Wakeman), 2005’s High Seas (with German guitarist Conny Conrad), 2007’s The Boy In the Sailor Suit (with Miller Anderson), 2008’s Secret Paths, and the live 2008 set Duochrome (with violinist Ian Cutler), all distributed through the Cousins’ own Witchwood Media label. The Strawbs were no slackers during this period, either, the acoustic version of the band comprised of Cousins, Willoughby, and Lambert releasing 2001’s Baroque & Roll.
Strawbs’ 2003 album Blue Angel featured new material alongside re-worked versions of Cousins’ solo songs and 1970s-era Strawbs tunes. The album also featuring a literal Strawbs’ “Hall of Fame” of bandmembers, including Lambert, Willoughby, Blue Weaver, Richard Hudson, Chas Cronk, and Rod Coombes. The band’s 16th studio LP, 2004’s, Déjà Fou, brought John Hawkens back into the fold, and was followed by critically-acclaimed fare like Painted Sky (2006), The Broken Hearted Bride (2008), Dancing To the Devil’s Beat (2009 and featuring Rick’s son Oliver Wakeman on keyboards), Hero & Heroine In Ascencia (2011), the band’s previously-unreleased debut album Of A Time (2012), Prognostic (2014), The Ferryman’s Curse (2017), and Settlement (2021) as well as a number of live performance albums.
The Strawbs toured the U.S. in 2019 in celebration of the band’s 50th anniversary, including a three-day event in New Jersey that included former members and friends of the band like Annie Haslam (Renaissance), Larry Fast (Synergy), and singer/songwriter Wesley Stace. Cousins released his autobiography, Exorcising Ghosts: Strawbs and Other Lives, in 2014 and retired from live performances at the end of 2021 due to health reasons.
When South African filmmaker Niel van Deventer contacted Cousins about creating a Strawbs documentary, the director wanted to film the recording of new songs at a studio in Cape Town. These sessions, featuring Cousins, Blue Weaver, and John Ford resulted in the final Strawbs’ album, 2023’s The Magic of It All. Released by U.K. label Cherry Red Records, who had bought the entire Strawbs catalog, van Deventer’s documentary film will be completed sometime in the future. Cousins and Strawbs performed their final concert in August 2023.
Dave Cousins had a unique creative vision and performance style, and he managed to record a massive body of impressive work that spans seven decades and better than two dozen live and studio albums. In my dealings with the artist, he was also the consummate British gentleman, wryly humorous and as enchanting as Strawbs’ music. He will be missed by the band’s loyal worldwide legion of fans...
An often-bootlegged, fan-favorite performance(s) by classic rock legends Pink Floyd, the band’s four nights at the Roman Amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy in October 1971 was filmed by director Adrian Maben and released as a concert movie in 1972. It was expanded from 60 to 80 minutes for re-release in ’73, and finally made its way stateside the following year, grossing roughly $2 million at the U.S. movie box office (pretty good for those days).
The performance has released on home video formats several times over the years, and was restored to 4k resolution for an April 2025 theatrical release. For whatever reasons, however, the performance has never received proper CD release, appearing in truncated form on the 2016 Obfusc/ation box set, leaving it up to bootleggers like The Swingin’ Pig and Black Cat Records to satisfy fan demand in the Floyd marketplace with dodgy, illicit (albeit entertaining) CD releases.
Pink Floyd’s Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII
At long last, Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII restores the concert to its full-length across two CDs and long-suffering Floyd fans should be overjoyed. The sound quality is excellent, beating the pants off previous bootleg versions, and although the tracks could have been split more evenly between the two discs (CD2 is a spry 18 minutes), that’s a minor cavil at best. The performance is awe-inspiring, the material falling into the band’s proggy, space-rock period around Atom Heart Mother and Meddle, with trippy performances of the latter album’s “Echoes” and “One of These Days” that presage then-on-the-horizon Dark Side of the Moon.
There are nods to Floyd’s formidable Syd-embroidered psychedelic past with “A Saucerful of Secrets” and “Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun” as well as Ummagumma’s celestial classic “Careful With That Axe Eugene” and the oddball obscurity “Mademoiselle Nobs,” a curious country blues vamp. This is primo grade Pink Floyd at its experimental and innovative best, and a long overdue release from one of classic rock’s signature outfits. (Columbia Records, released April 25th, 2025) Grade: A+
The “Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report” was a short-lived review column that ran on our Alt.Culture.Guide™ website for almost a year until we closed the site, not due to lack of readers, but from lack of time and money to continue the project. Still, as these columns show, we reviewed a diverse range of music...
COLLAGE – Changes Further proof that progressive rock is a worldwide phenomenon, Poland’s Collage is one of the most innovative and interesting bands in the genre. Formed in 1985 by students of the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, the band released its first album, Basnie, in 1990. It was with the release of their 1993 sophomore effort, Nine Songs of John Lennon, which features Collage re-imagining classic Beatles and Lennon solo songs as exotic prog-rock compositions, that the band really caught on with audiences from Europe to Asia. They followed up that album with the melodic, pop-oriented Moonshine in 1994. Originally released in 1995, Changes revisits Collage material circa 1985 through 1992 with new vocalist Robert Amirian (who sung on Moonshine), including re-recorded songs from Basnie and previously unreleased songs. Even with lyrics sung in Polish, there is no denying the power of the music. Guitarist Mirek Gil is an inventive and skilled six-string maestro, while the rest of the band weaves a dense, multi-textured tapestry of sound behind Amirian’s lofty and passionate vocals. More than merely prog, Collage produce art-rock of the highest degree, dreamy and mesmerizing music that demands that the listener pay attention. Highly recommended for fans of the Flower Kings or Spock’s Beard, Collage is guaranteed to provide the same thrill of musical adventure as those legendary bands. (Metal Minds/MVD Audio)
THE EXPLODING HEARTS – Shattered One of the most exciting and promising young bands to hit the scene in a generation, the Exploding Hearts literally came and went in a flash. The band released its excellent debut album, Guitar Romantic, in early 2003, the disc showcasing a brilliant mix of ‘60s-styled garage rock and vintage ‘70s power-pop, influenced by ‘80s-era punk and UK rock. Guitar Romantic was well-received by both critics and the ever-critical punk community, and the Exploding Hearts became a big draw on the west coast club circuit. In July 2003, however, fate struck in the form of tragic accident that took the lives of band members Adam Cox, Matt Fitzgerald, and Jeremy Gage. In a fitting tribute to the band, Dirtnap Records has assembled the appropriately named Shattered from the odds and ends of the band’s too damn brief career. Shattered collects the band’s early (hard-to-find) singles, various demos, unreleased songs, and alternative mixes from Guitar Romantic under one roof. The album offers a glimpse at a band that had the potential to become really big, one that drew its influences from a myriad of impressive sources, forging a distinctive and electric sound that was entirely its own. Shattered stands well on its own merits as a highly entertaining rock ‘n’ roll collection; coupled with the essential Guitar Romantic, it bookends the legacy of this fine band. Discover them now, boys and girls, ‘cause you’ll be paying mucho dinero for these recordings in ten years or so when the Exploding Hearts become a much-coveted cult band. (Dirtnap Records)
LOS STRAITJACKETS – Twist Party Twenty-something years ago, when guitarists Danny Amis and Eddie Angel launched a surf-rock band called the Straitjackets and began playing the honky-tonks and rock clubs of Nashville, who would have believed that these guys would still be grinding it out here in the new millennium? Yet here they are, Mexican wrestling masks intact, hooking up with vocalist/saxmaniac “Kaiser” George Miller for Twist Party. Taking their inspiration from the early ‘60s dance craze, Twist Party finds Miller and the Straitjackets pounding out 16 infectious tunes, all with a “twist” dance theme. Of course, this is the kind of riff-driven, tremolo-fed, Dick Dale-inspired soundtrack that the band can really sink its teeth into. From the hilarious “Twistin’ Gorilla” and the soulful “Twistin’ Out In Space” to the B-movie horror-flick theatrics of “All Back To Drac’s,” these tunes rock with a joy de vivre that transcends the ultra-cool retro-rock vibe that is the band’s trademark. Twist Party comes packaged with a bonus DVD, providing visual dance lessons courtesy of the beautiful and, apparently, “world famous” burlesque trio the Pontani Sisters. Somehow, I think that Chubby Checker would approve… (Yep Roc Records)
ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES – Love Their Country You’d think that after five albums that this joke would have gotten tired, run its course, and been discarded. Not on your life, pal! The premise is simple, really – punk rock royalty (members of NoFX, Lagwagon and No Use For A Name) get together in the studio to torture other people’s songs. To date, the Gimme Gimme boys have tackled show tunes, R&B classics, and pop music, and with Love Their Country, they give the punk treatment to Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and even the Dixie Chicks. Funny thing is, the gimmick still works ‘cause the guys have a genuine fondness for the material that they reinvent. This means that they have a hell of a lot of fun while punking up such inherently country songs as “(Ghost) Riders In the Sky” and Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (tilting towards Celtic punk here). Other highlights on Love Their Country are the blazing cover of Dolly’s classic “Jolene,” a metallic interpretation of the Eagles’ “Desperado,” and an almost joyous reading of Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” Always good for a laugh or two and a half-hour’s entertainment, you can never go wrong with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. (Fat Wreck Chords)
PAUL STANLEY – Live To Win The problem with Live To Win, Kiss frontman Paul Stanley’s first solo effort in nearly three decades, isn’t in the uber-slick production afforded these cheesy slices of nerf-metal composed with help from lite-rock scribe Desmond Child. No, the problem is in the high expectations afforded the legendary frontman of one of rock’s larger-than-life bands. Whereas Kiss managed to wrestle ‘70s metal from the grip of stoned proto-slacker adults and deliver it back into the greasy hands of stoned proto-slacker teenagers where it belonged, Stanley does little on Live To Win to challenge the sluggish new millennium musical status quo. The singer’s pipes are in fine form, Stanley’s vox on tunes like “Wake Up Screaming” and the title cut amazingly supple considering 30+ years of hard rock histrionics. Although Stanley would never be mistaken for, say, for Frankie Marino, his guitar playing is often underrated and overshadowed by standard Kiss theatrics; on Live To Win he delivers a passable performance as a modern rock axeman. What troubles me, perhaps, is that provided the opportunity (and budget) to create any sort of recording that his heart desired, Stanley chose to choke up the potential of Live To Win with creeping mediocrity and tortured cliché. When the album shoots for the moon – as it does with the anthemic “Bulletproof” or the soaring “Where Angels Dare” (with guitarist John 5) – Live To Win fulfills its promise. Otherwise, it’s mostly inoffensive and mildly entertaining filler. Kiss fans be warned…this Paul Stanley album has very little in common with his work in that great band, but it stands well enough on its own. (New Door/Universal)
The “Rock ‘n’ Roll Farm Report” was a short-lived review column that ran on our Alt.Culture.Guide™ website for almost a year until we closed the site, not due to lack of readers, but from lack of time and money to continue the project. Still, as these columns show, we reviewed a diverse range of music...
ANTI-FLAG – For Blood and Empire Since punk rockers are an argumentative bunch of boojies under any circumstances, I’m sure that the major label defection of indie hardcore stalwarts Anti-Flag has already been chewed over and spat out on dozens of chat rooms and message boards across the star-spangled ‘net. Maybe the Reverend is too old for this sort of hijinx, or maybe I just don’t give a damn. These ears honestly can’t hear much diff between For Blood and Empire, Anti-Flag’s controversial major label debut, and the three or four other AF CDs that rotate off my shelf and onto the music box from time to time. Let’s take a peek at some of AF’s new major label concerns, shall we? Anti-war? Check. Anti-racist? Check. Anti-corporate? Check. Anti-WTO, “Big Media,” and social injustice? Check, check, and checkmate. The music on For Blood and Empire still blisters and peels, the guitars cut all the way down to the bone, and frontman Justin Sane’s vocals still spit out venomous lyrics with an admirable fury. Is Anti-Flag signing with Sony BMG to reach a wider audience with its radical agenda any different than Bad Religion releasing albums through WEA? I say that Justin and crew should grab the cash and hightail it back to Steeltown before the Germans running RCA wake up and realize what they’ve done. In the meantime, all you young punx relax…Anti-Flag still kicks ass and For Blood and Empire is the balls. The Reverend sez so… (RCA Records)
THE KICKBACKS – Motel Stars Is there room for intelligent music in today’s corporate environment? Probably not, but thank gawd that some bands still have the balls and brains and desire to crank out 90-proof rawk ‘n’ roll. Take, for instance, the Kickbacks. The Boston band’s fourth trip to the plate is an infectious and lively sonic brew of jangling, guitar-driven pop, gilded riff-happy rock, and enough twang to appeal to the Americana crowd. Motel Stars may tip the scales at a lightweight half-hour, but the album’s carefully constructed tunes hit your ears like ten perfectly-timed, three-minute jolts of electricity. Back in the day, once upon a time, in a land far away and all that rubbish, songs like the punchy “Lazy Eye,” the shimmering, dreamy “SSS,” and the wickedly delightful “Lethal Charm” would have been snapped up on 45rpm vinyl by music lovers and blasted by discriminating radio stations out of car radios across the fruited plains. In the modern world, however, where Sturgeon’s law* has been diluted by corporate greed and listener fatigue, the Kickbacks will have to rely on word of mouth and live performances to drive people to their page on CD Baby. It’s worth the trip, though, Motel Stars a long shot at rock stardom but a short walk to some of the highest quality pop-rock jams that your ears will ever enjoy. (Peeled Label Records)
SAGA – Trust Canadian proggers Saga hit the racks this month with Trust, the band’s 17th album and, perhaps, their best effort yet. With thirty years under their creative belts, Saga stands as one of the original graybeards of the prog-rock genre, and with Trust they extend their already impressive rep with a solid collection of melodic rock that combines the best elements of AOR vibe with prog grandiosity. Mainstream critics, corporate hacks that wouldn’t know King Crimson from King Diamond (or King Missile), have pointed to instrumental doodlers such as Mars Volta or Coheed & Cambria as today’s progressive rock bands. Sez who? They should pull their heads (and ears) from their collective patoots! Those bands are fine, but if screeching axes alone made a prog-rock band, why isn’t Ted Nugent fronting the Flower Kings, eh? No, Saga is the real deal, the tunes on Trust a sturdy amalgam of perfectly blended, complex instrumentation (driven by guitar and synth/keyboards), imaginative lyrics, soaring vocals, and a musical chemistry that doesn’t happen by chance, but rather through hard work and plenty of nights spent on stage. These guys helped built the foundation for modern prog-rock; hopefully Trust will earn Saga their rightful place in the progressive pantheon. (Inside Out Music)
MICHAEL SANDERS & ONE NATION TRIBE – Servants of A Lesser God Growing up in the shadows of Motown in London, Ontario, Canadian guitarslinger Michael Sanders may have been poor, but he soaked up some impressive musical influences. At first fronting the brutal hardcore cult band Dyoxen, Sanders later left Canada and made his way to LA to pursue his own unique musical vision. Sanders’ debut, Servants of A Lesser God, brings together a myriad of influences. Fronting the “One Tribe Nation,” a pick-up band of like-minded young talents and grizzled session pros like percussionist Luis Conte and vocalist Bernard Fowler, Sanders strikes with the stealth of a stage magician and the menace of a coiled rattlesnake. Servants of A Lesser God runs the gamut of hard rock, blues, jazz, funk, and Latin genres, all of them tied together by Sanders’ amazing six-string abilities. He reminds me a lot of a young Carlos Santana in tone and range, but Sanders aspires to achieve much more. The guitarist is not afraid to sit back and allow his band to fill in these songs with a joyful noise, resulting in the same sort of groundbreaking performances we heard back in the day from titans like Santana and Weather Report. Sanders & One Tribe Nation experiment with both style and sound, creating a satisfying multi-cultural stew and one breathtaking debut. (Esoterica Records)
WOLFMOTHER – Wolfmother Yeah, so they sound like Led Zeppelin jamming with Black Sabbath in some sort of Jim Morrison wet dream. This is a bad thing, eh? Aussie shrimpboaters Wolfmother wax ecstatic with self-titled debut, pursuing their childhood dreams of a big boot beat and the endless, eternal riff. Yeah, we’ve all heard this sonic wind before, but for those of us who teethed on strats-n-stadium booger rock, Wolfmother is a blast of nostalgia so real you can smell the pot smoke. Besides, any argument about retro-sounds or the derivative nature of Wolfmother’s chosen milieu are ill-conceived and quite possibly stoopid. These songs rock with a fierce passion that trendier popcrit moozak-fantasies like Coldplay or the Arctic Monkeys will never muster in our lifetimes. God bless ‘em, but these boys really wish they were living their bell-bottom dreams back in ’73 (shudder). Slap “Woman” on the box and prepare to have your eardrums slapped back to yer high school daze. It’s just that damn good... (Interscope Records)
The “progressive rock” label isn’t an albatross that too many bands are quick to hang around their necks these days, which makes the press materials accompanying SMPT:e – a clever acronym representing Roine Stolt, Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy and Pete Trewavas – all the more confusing. Transatlantic has proudly taken up the prog-rock mantle and they don’t care who knows. A literal alt-rock supergroup, composed of various members of Dream Theater, Marillion, and Spock’s Beard, these guys have obviously done their homework, polishing off those old Yes, King Crimson, and ELP records and taking heavy notes. The five songs on SMPT:e may have their roots in 1970s-styled, classically-influenced progressive rock but Transatlantic has brought the genre into the new millennium with some fresh new ideas and more than a few original hooks. Even the cover artwork for SMPT:e resembles one of Roger Dean’s hallucinogenic paintings that used to grace so many prog-rock album covers.
SMPT:e opens with an obviously Yes-inspired thirty-minute track titled “All of the Above” which manages to imprint each of its six suites with a different sound and feel. Mixing elements of classic rock and improvisational jazz with prog-rock roots, “All of the Above” never drags or annoys in spite of its considerable length. Other cuts also manage to breathe new life into the prog-rock corpse: “We All Need Some Light” is a dark-hued, melancholy work while “Mystery Train” is a syncopated, more upbeat number that utilizes the various band member’s voices in creating some nice harmonies. The lone cover on SMPT:e is the appropriately chosen Procol Harum’s “In Held (Twas) In I,” offered here as an extended aural painting, a textured composition complete with zen-like spoken word into. A complex, multi-layered, and ambitious work, Transatlantic’s SMPT:e is a hard album to get a handle on, but one well worth the effort. (Radiant / Metal Blade Records) Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine, 2000
True story. A few years ago, I had the good fortune to be seated next to the beautiful and talented Roseanne Cash and (then) husband Rodney Crowell at a Nashville performance by Joe Jackson. At the finish of a wonderful a cappella rendition of Jackson’s “Is She Really Going Out With Him,” some clown yelled ‘play “Free Bird”’ referring, of course, to the Lynyrd Skynyrd song. “Only in Nashville,” I commented to my buddy Willie J. Cash leaned over and gently corrected me, saying “no, dear, they yell that everywhere...”
Evidently John Eddie has heard these cries as well, recording a song titled “Play Some Skynyrd” for his comeback album Who the Hell Is John Eddie? (Lost Highway). A lot of water has passed beneath the bridge in the fifteen years or so since Eddie sank into relative obscurity after his mid-80s hit “Jungle Boy,” but Who The Hell Is John Eddie? proves that you can’t keep a true artist down. A blend of alt-country and barroom roots rock, Eddie imbues the album with a mountain of soul, passion and grit. From the heartbreak of “Let Me Down Hard” to the hilarious middle-aged lament “Forty,” Eddie shows great maturity as a singer/songwriter on these tales of love and loss and life on the road. As for “Play Some Skynyrd,” Eddie’s self-effacing humor sounds suspiciously like the tears of a clown, expressing the frustration and elation felt by every rock & roller who has ever played to a hostile audience. With hot licks from guitarist Kenny Vaughn, “Play Some Skynyrd” is an artistic catharsis showing that, for John Eddie, the ride isn’t over yet.
John Mellencamp has always drawn from the rootsier side of music, mixing rock with elements of blues, bluegrass and sweet soul music. It should come as no surprise that Mellencamp should choose to record an album of traditional American music like Trouble No More (Columbia Records). Drawing from the wealth of material available, Mellencamp revisits old masters like bluesmen Robert Johnson (“Stones In My Passway”) and Son House (“Death Letter”), folk legend Woody Guthrie, alt-country diva Lucinda Williams, Willie Dixon and Hoagy Carmichael. Mellencamp’s performances are truly inspired, the band rocks, and the song selection is tough to beat. As a result, Trouble No More is a simple delight, a heartfelt homage to the music that served to inspire Mellencamp’s own songwriting. He may not top the charts with the regularity that he once did, but John Mellencamp remains a complex and entertaining performer.
“Summer is right for fighting in the street,” Mick Jagger sang and Boysetsfire has taken the legendary rocker to heart. Following up on the success of last year’s EP, Tomorrow Come Today (Wind-Up Records) offers BSF fans an album-length dose of the band’s trademark socio-political commentary. Not as strident as, say, Corporate Avenger, Boysetsfire stomps across much of the same radical leftist lyrical turf with a musical attack that is equal parts nu-metal and hardcore punk. Boysetsfire vocalist Nathan Gray is a charismatic frontman with lungs of steel, guitarists Chad Istvan and Josh Latshaw slash-and-burn with blistering chainsaw riffs. Throw in an explosive rhythm section that offers piston-like consistency and you have a recipe for success. Angry young men (and women) will latch onto anthemic rockers like “Dying On Principle” and “Release the Dogs,” so expect to hear a lot of Boysetsfire on the radio this summer.
Sometimes great music is the result of years of hard work and training and sometimes it happens purely by accident. In the case of the Thorns, it may be a little bit of both. Matthew Sweet, Shawn Mullins and Peter Droge all enjoyed various degrees of success as singer/songwriters, but somewhere down the line, Fate put them all together in the same room at one time. The trio of talents discovered that…lo and behold…their three voices sounded pretty damn good together and a band was born. Their self-titled album The Thorns (Columbia Records) is sheer joy for music lovers who enjoy vocal harmonizing and gentle folk-rock-inspired songwriting.
The closest comparison that I can make is to Crosby, Stills and Nash, tho’ I’d give the Thorns an edge in songwriting (just listen to the Beatlesque “Thorns” or the ethereal “Dragonfly”). The album’s production, by Brendan O’Brien (best known for his work with Pearl Jam), is both delicately textured and amazingly sympathetic. The Thorns rock when they need to rock and bring it down a notch when the material demands subtlety, the trio of Sweet, Mullins and Droge discovering a wonderful chemistry together and delivering the classiest release of 2003.
Critics have begun commenting on a “heavy metal revival,” ignoring the convenient fact that, for fans of the genre, heavy metal never went anywhere in the first place. Perhaps a jolt of Stratovarius from the band’s Elements Pt. 1 (Nuclear Blast) will shake these dolts (who typically dismiss metal with a sigh and the wave of their hand) from their ignorance. These Finnish rockers have carried the power metal torch since the early-80s, and the release of Elements Pt. 1 shows why Stratovarius is in a league of their own.
The album’s elegant production lends a sense of neo-classical grandeur to songs like “Eagleheart” or “Learning To Fly,” Timo Kotipelto’s vocals soaring above the music while guitarist Timo Tolkki’s axe cuts through the material like a scalpel. The rhythm section hits like a brick wall at 100mph, the keyboard work is fascinating and the stories told by each song are epic in scale. The operatic poetry of Elements Pt. 1 shows heavy metal at its best. Put Stratovarius on the box, crank up the volume and prepare to take flight! (View From The Hill, April 2003)
In the early 1970s, as part of the legendary and influential British band Hawkwind, Nik Turner often times explored the outer reaches of human consciousness, both musically and lyrically, taking the listener on an aural journey to strange lands that mixed science fiction, fantasy and magick in creating a truly surreal landscape. Hawkwind’s legacy can be found in many of today’s top experimental artists, from The Orb to Psychick TV. Since those heady days, the enigmatic Turner has expressed himself equally as tantalizingly through bands like Sphynx and Inner City Unit. With Sphynx, the album (no connection to his earlier band), Turner’s first recording in seven years, he continues down a similar path, transporting us musically to an ancient Egypt full of mystery.
With a band that includes a former Hawkwind mate, guitarist Helios Creed, Turner has created a truly amazing musical reality. This seventy-minute sojourn will take you across the desert sands to the Great Pyramid, with proper attention and homage paid to the old gods Anubis, Isis. and Osiris along the way. Through timeless invocations and poetic sacrifice, Turner has made Sphynx a beautiful tapestry of otherworldly psychedelia, hallucinogenic rhythms, synthesized sound and cold chrome guitar riffs. It is an invigorating, mind-expanding journey, a complex and exciting experience that you’ll want to delve into again and again, as the music and your imagination both come alive in a blur of color and reality. (Cleopatra Records, 1983)
Review originally published by R.A.D! Review and Discussion of Rock ‘n’ Roll zine, December 1993
Rock music these days is largely a game of desire, with many musicians acting as petulant children wanting an extra cookie at snack time. Every singer wants to leave their band to become a solo artist, every guitarist wants to become the singer, every bassist wants to play guitar and, well, you get the idea. The rules are different in prog-rock, though, where musicians get a chance to pretty much wear whatever cloak they want on any given day, depending on their skill set and ambition. Take, for instance, Steven Wilson, prog-rock wunderkind and the subject of today’s treatise.
The erstwhile singer/songwriter/guitarist in front of neo-proggers Porcupine Tree, Wilson has so much music inside, knocking at the door waiting to be let out, that he can’t be constrained by just the efforts of his already-prolific full-time band. No, Wilson has also dabbled in side-projects such as Blackfield, his collaboration with Israeli musician Aviv Geffen, as well as No-Man with vocalist and songwriter Tim Bowness. Did I mention that he has also spend significant time hanging around the studio with Goth-metal cult faves Opeth? Or that he’s lent his musical and production skills to works by former Marillion frontman Fish and ex-Japan bassist Mick Karn?
Steven Wilson’s Insurgentes
Hell, he even sang behind Janet Jackson on “Rhythm Nation”! And it’s not like Wilson is a dilettante, sniffing around here and there and quickly abandoning projects…these side deals have, in some cases, lasted for years and have resulted in better than a dozen albums. Still, the release of Wilson’s solo album Insurgentes marks a distinct departure from his previous modus operandi. A full-length work more akin to a Porcupine Tree album than to much of his avant-garde personal wanderings, Insurgentes is his highest-profile solo album, Wilson’s most traditional and yet adventurous work to date.
Within the ten songs on Insurgentes Wilson has created a wealth of tone and texture, each composition a surprising carnival ride of the unexpected. The brilliant “Abandoner” is a moody, atmospheric piece with a fractured antique sound serving as a recurring riff upon which Wilson layers on subdued vocals, odd instrumentation, and percussive keyboards and synth. After lulling you into an unquiet sleep, the song suddenly explodes around the three-anna-half mark into a blazing white light roar before gently lapsing back into its languid state.
“Salvaging,” a lengthy soundscape, rages from pastoral to furious and back, and displays some of Wilson’s most expressive and deeply-cutting guitarplay as well as his most gentle composing skills. The disjointed and cacophonous “No Twilight Within the Courts of the Sun” is a dense, eight-minute clash of instrumentation that treads not-so-lightly into Sun Ra territory, admittedly from a rock perspective. Helped by prog royalty like bassist Tony Levin (King Crimson) and pianist Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), the song’s unexpected twists-and-turns make for a challenging and, ultimately, rewarding work.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
With Insurgentes, Steven Wilson has taken a giant step forward in favor of his solo career, capturing his unique vision with this intelligent collection of imagination, anger, and passion. Incorporating the electronic drone and avant-garde experimentation of much of his earlier solo work with the aggressiveness of hard rock and the virtuoso nature of progressive rock, Wilson has created in Insurgentes a hybrid, of sorts, certain to keep listeners scratching their heads and sighing in disbelief for some time. (Kscope Records, released March 22nd, 2009)
Review originally published by Blurt magazine, 2009
On paper, Redemption’s pedigree couldn’t look any stronger – vocalist Ray Alder and guitarist Bernie Versailles hail from the legendary band Fate’s Warning while bassist James Sherwood and drummer Chris Quirarte are on loan from up-and-coming prog-metal band Prymary. Multi-instrumentalist Nick van Dyk is the glue that holds it all together, molding the contributions of these various talents into a cohesive sound and sonic texture imbued with his unique musical vision.
Redemption’s The Fullness of Time
Any questions of a “sophomore slump” are quickly laid to rest with the opening notes of The Fullness of Time, Redemption’s second album. “Threads” kicks off with blazing guitar riffs, waves of sound leveling everything within sight until the quieting piano begins to seep in around the edges of the song. From this point, it’s full-scale madness, galloping rhythms supporting Alder’s soaring vocals as the song takes more instrumental twists and turns than a dark country road. “Parker’s Eyes” is a chilling take on the loss of innocence, using the tragedy of September 11th as a backdrop to illustrate the effects of hate and violence. Alder’s vocals impart a certain weary worldliness to van Dyk’s intelligent lyrics, while cacophonic instrumentation swirls behind him in the mix.
“Scarred” is a battle of self-doubt and reflection, the song matching industrial-strength arena-rock riffs with classic prog keyboard wizardry behind Alder’s impressive vocal gymnastics. “Sapphire,” a tale of love lost, or perhaps the path not taken, begins as a subdued ballad before van Dyk’s keyboards take flight and the drums begin to pound and the entire band kicks in and the song leaves the stratosphere on wings of divine noise. The second half of The Fullness of Time is a conceptual song suite, lyrically divided into four themes. As you might guess from the titles of each section, the song describes a spiritual journey, of sorts, from the betrayal and loss of “Rage” and the subsequent abject loneliness and hopelessness of “Despair” to forgiveness of “Release” and the freedom of “Transcendence.”
It’s an ambitious lyrical suite that stumbles now and then but succeeds in the end, describing both a personal sojourn as well as that of the country in a post-911 world, all wounds healed by only “the fullness of time.” The four songs, clocking in at a healthy 20 minutes altogether, are also an excellent showcase for the instrumental prowess of the band that van Dyk has assembled. Over the course of the four sections, everybody has a chance to shine, and the various inspired combinations of vocals, guitar, bass, drums and keyboards stun the listener with both the creative mastery and the technical proficiency of the players.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Progressive rock and metal may be about the least “hip” genres on the entire musical planet, kissing cousins holding hands, snubbed by alt-rock indifference and ridicule. As fans of the two faces of prog realize, though, there’s some great music being made in the trenches, bands like Redemption leading the charge out of the underground.
Incorporating elements of everybody that has come before, from Kansas and Rush to Dream Theater, Fate’s Warning and Spock’s Beard, Nicolas van Dyk has brought his considerable vision and talent to bear on The Fullness of Time and it shows. If you’re bored by the cookie-cutter kiddie-metal and rote hard rock being crammed down your throat by the major labels, take a walk on the prog-rock wild side with Redemption. (Sensory Records, released June 21st, 2005)
Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2005
Relatively unknown in the states, even by fanatical prog-fan standards, and
criminally unheralded by any critical benchmark, Sweden’s
Kaipa has nevertheless
been a Scandinavian musical institution for almost three-and-a-half decades.
Formed in 1973 by guitarist and songwriter Hans Lundin, Kaipa provided a
teenaged Roine Stolt with his first major band experience before forming
prog-rock legends the Flower Kings during the ‘80s. The ‘70s-era Kaipa recorded
a handful of albums for Decca that sold well for their time, and the band’s
musical stock would continue to grow beyond its ostensible demise in 1982,
subsequently influencing a generation of European musicians.
After
an eighteen-year hiatus during which Lundin continued to make music and Stolt
achieved a measure of fame and acclaim at the helm of the Flower Kings, Kaipa
reformed in the year 2000. The band would find an entirely different prog-rock
landscape in the new millennium. Although remaining a relatively small cult
genre within the immense world of rock ‘n’ roll, prog-rock’s status and
reputation had grown during the ‘90s, especially in Europe, and its influence
could be felt in both mainstream rock and heavily in altering the direction of
contemporary heavy metal. No longer overshadowed by hardcore punk, “nerf metal”
and grunge, “prog” has enjoyed over a decade of increased sales and growing
audiences that thirst for a transcendental musical experience.
Kaipa’s Angling Feelings
Since its reformation in 2000, Kaipa has released three studio albums,
but it is with its ninth and most recent, Angling Feelings, that the
band has cemented its place among the greats of progressive rock. First of
all, Roine Stolt’s fingerprints are nowhere to be found hereabouts. Leaving
the band to pursue his other numerous musical projects (including the
wonderful solo album Wall Street Voodoo and various Flower Kings’
releases); Stolt is no longer a creative part of Kaipa. In many ways, this is
a good thing – regardless of Stolt’s immense talents, his departure allows
Kaipa to cast aside his shadow and pursue new musical directions.
No
doubt, the band chases after some bold new musical thoughts with
Angling Feelings, reinforcing their reputation as one of the most
creative, energetic and invigorating outfits on the prog-rock landscape. With
the addition of new guitarist Pers Nilsson (Scar Symmetry), composer and group
leader Lundin has a new tool to work with, and he utilizes Nilsson’s
considerable talents with remarkable results. The songs on
Angling Feelings are built upon the normal prog architecture: the
familiar keyboard flourishes, spry rhythms, sporadic interspersed vocals, and
the electric improvisational nature of the music itself.
Path of Humbleness
With Angling Feelings, however, Lundin and band have expanded
Kaipa’s sound – there are many passages that sound downright jazzy, mostly
those featuring Aleena Gibson’s seductive vocals. Patrik Lundstrom (Ritual)
provides the vocals for most of the material here, his warm voice and soaring
vocals playing well off of Gibson’s breathless phrasing. There are elements of
traditional Swedish folk interlaced within the songs, as well as hints of
world music influences. “Broken Chords,” for instance, builds upon a simple,
island-influenced rhythm with shimmering guitar and keyboards and Lundstrom’s
strident vocals. “The Glorious Silence Within” dances out of your speakers
like a sprite at Renaissance faire; the song’s intricate weaving of delicate
instrumentation matched by an upbeat tempo and performance, with delightful
vocal harmonies building a joyful chorus.
“Path of Humbleness”
begins with an ethereal, far-away sounding intro leading into Gibson’s
haunting vocals and a quiet cloud of instrumentation before filling out with a
unique mix of Celtic traditionalism and soulful keyboard riffing. The title
cut kicks off with a Wakeman-esque keyboard wash before descending into a
maddening, chaotic clash of instrumentation and vocals that has its roots in
the ‘70s-era sound of King Crimson but its feet firmly in the firmament of
contemporary prog expectations. The song provides Nilsson with an excellent
showcase, his nimble fretwork and trembling tone adding a vital new aspect to
Kaipa’s sound, different from, but just as valuable as Stolt’s previous
contributions.
The Rev’s Bottom Line
Whether you’re a fan of classic prog-rockers like Yes and Genesis or
modern generation prog bands like the Flower Kings or Pallas, you’ll find a
lot to like about Kaipa. If you’re a new fan recently discovering the joys of
the prog genre, Kaipa’s Angling Feelings is a good place to begin your
journey. With superb musicianship, charming vocal harmonies and imaginative
song craftwork, Kaipa has successfully incorporated sounds both old and new,
building a bridge between the ‘70s and the ‘00s. Enchanting and electrifying,
Angling Feelings represents both the overwhelming potential and the
very best aspects of contemporary progressive rock. (Inside Out Music,
released 2007)
Review originally published by the Trademark of Quality (TMQ) music blog,
2007
I’ve often joked with friends that there are only ten or twelve prog-rock
musicians in the United States and Europe but, between them all, they comprise
two dozen or so bands. Considering the cross-pollination between artists and the
limited commercial possibilities available in the progressive rock world, it’s
no surprise that musicians such as Mike Portnoy, Neal Morse, Roine Stolt, and
such maximize their potential by getting involved in as many musical projects as
possible.
Wobbler’s Hinterland
The truth is, prog-rock and its kissing cousin, prog-metal, may entail
more roster-swapping and creative collaboration than does mainstream rock
music, but this is mostly because the talents of the artists involved, their
love of the music and a seemingly endless well of creativity results in a lot
of great music being made. As the prog-rock genre becomes more popular with
younger audiences both here and abroad (hell, I don’t think that it ever fall
into disfavor in Japan), a new generation of young bands has begun to appear.
Talented musicians weaned on classic ‘70s-era prog-rock as well as second-wave
bands like Spock’s Beard and the Flower Kings, the third wave of prog has been
launched with welcome new faces like Circus Maximus and Norway’s
Wobbler.
Introduced to an appreciative audience at the 2005 NEARfest
art-and-prog-rock festival in Pennsylvania, Wobbler follows up its dynamic
summer performance with Hinterland, the band’s anticipated debut album.
The results of Wobbler’s first effort is nothing short of stunning,
Hinterland a magnificent tour-de-force combining elements of
Scandinavian folk and old-school progressive rock with classical composition
and instrumental virtuosity. Keyboardist Lars Froislie engaged the services of
a number of vintage instruments like a Hammond C3 organ, Mini-Moog, Rhodes
electric piano, and Mellotron to recreate the sound and fury of classicist
proggers such as Yes and King Crimson while the rest of the band has woven a
subtle tapestry of sound with symphonic overtones and rock roots. Guitarist
Morten Eriksen’s fretwork reminds one of Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre while
frontman Tony Johannessen’s vocals are warm but capable of reaching subtle
heights.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
The emphasis on Hinterland is on the music, however, and Wobbler
has excelled at the construction of a dense, multi-layered and multi-faceted
collection of songs that are long on Froislie’s considerable keyboard wizardry
and short on pretension. The band has forged atmospheric compositions of
amazing ambition and depth, combining disparate musical elements to create a
new and exciting strain of progressive rock. Wobbler has shot for the stars
and struck a bullseye, Hinterland an incredible debut, certain to bring
the band acclaim as typically reticent prog-rock lifers sit up and take
notice. We look forward to hearing more from this talented and innovative
group of musicians. (The Laser’s Edge, released September 5th, 2005)
Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2005
Crack the Sky
are rock ‘n’ roll lifers; formed in Weirton, West Virginia in the early ‘70s
by John Palumbo (vocals, keyboards) and Rick Witkowski (guitar, vocals), the
band’s original line-up included guitarist Jim Griffiths, bassist Joe Macre,
and drummer Joey D’Amico. The band released its self-titled debut album in
1975, the first LP released by songwriter/producer Terry Cashman’s independent
Lifesong Records label. Crack the Sky received near-unanimous critical
acclaim for its heady prog-rock sound, and was even proclaimed the “debut
album of the year” by Rolling Stone magazine. In a pattern that would
be all too familiar over the course of their lengthy career, distribution
problems and promotional shortfalls prevented the album from really taking
off.
The band released its sophomore effort, Animal Notes, a
year later and ran into the same brick wall of widespread critical acclaim and
commercial indifference. They toured heavily, opening for major league
headliners like Kansas, Boston, Supertramp, and Yes, but received little or no
radio airplay (even from ‘sympathetic’ FM stations) and, when their commercial
fortunes failed to improve, Palumbo left the band to pursue a solo career.
Recruiting singer Gary Lee Chappell, and with producer Rob Stevens subbing on
keyboards, CTS released its third album, Safety In Numbers, in 1978.
When it, too, underperformed the band decided to break up; Lifesong would
release a live album later that year. Palumbo and Witkowski reunited in 1980
for the album White Music, and Crack the Sky has been performing and
recording in one form or another ever since.
Crack the Sky’s Tribes
Crack the Sky got some positive press with the release of its 2018 studio effort
Living In Reverse, the band doubling up a few months later with the
compilation Crackology, which featured new recordings of old fan-favorite
songs. Flash-forward a couple of years to the plague-ridden days of 2021 and CTS
lives up to its name with the devastating Tribes, an album which sunders
the heavens with sonic lightning bolts. I’ve always considered Crack the Sky to
be more of a hard rock outfit with prog-rock tendencies, and it shows in the
grooves of Tribes, with Witkowski leading a thunderclap band that
includes original Skyster Joe D’Amico on drums as well as bassist Dave DeMarco,
multi-instrumentalist Bobby Hird, and keyboardist Glenn Workman, the latter two
men both 20-year CTS veterans. Together, they create a muscular musical canvas
upon which Palumbo paints his colorful lyrics.
As a songwriter,
Palumbo has always had a keen eye for his surroundings, but
Tribes focuses that skill on America circa now, the album-opening title
track the most succinct recap of where our society currently stands as you’ll
ever hear. Above dark-hued instrumentation that settles into a menacing, slinky
groove, Palumbo reveals the depth of divisiveness in our world with lyrics that
are anything but reassuring. Palumbo’s vocals dance atop the lush soundtrack
like a dervish on a pinhead, reinforcing the power of his words. D’Amico’s
martial drumbeats open “Another Civil War,” Palumbo’s eerie vocals foreshadowing
a dark future for the last American century as the band’s hybrid of pysch, prog,
and goth sounds creates an intoxicating listening experience. The third of what
is really a trilogy, “Dear Leaders” addresses the lack of empathy and anything
even marginally resembling political courage in the U.S. in near-Biblical terms,
the singer’s insightful lyrics matched by a gale-force storm of overwhelming
instrumentation.
Palumbo resurrects an old song from his solo days
for Tribes, “Blowing Up Detroit” masterfully capturing chaos in a bottle
as the band rocks ferociously behind his vocals, the slashing guitars
particularly stunning. Much of Tribes follows a similar blueprint to
these first four, with Palumbo’s erudite, intelligent lyrics matched by snarling
instrumentation that bares its fangs at every opportunity. Palumbo tosses off
lines that lesser writers would kill for – “Turn on the TV and I feel like
screaming, I close my eyes and hope I’m dreaming” or “I’m a stranger in a
strange land, I tried to fit in a long time ago, and now it’s clear I don’t want
to do that.” The songwriter waxes nostalgic for “Boom Boom” in a way that
Springsteen forgot decades ago, the band strutting across the song like Godzilla
stomping on Tokyo while “The Lost Boys” wonderfully captures the lingering
alienation of the aging man-child with exotic rhythms that underline the
agelessness of the theme.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Palumbo, Witkowski, and crew are extraordinarily talented musicians who,
together, create a joyful noise, playing every bit as well as they did 45
years ago. Witkowski and Hird, in particular, are skilled and imaginative
string-benders who play in service to the material without ego or showboating,
but every member of CTS gets a chance to shine here. This isn’t ‘commercial’
music by any stretch of the imagination, but rather timeless incantations of
rock ‘n’ roll that, the seeming topicality of the lyrics aside, sounds like it
could have been recorded in 1975 or 2025, and it’s equally at home in either
year. Old-school CTS fans will be overjoyed with Tribes, but any prog
or classic rock fan will find a lot to like here. Grade: A (Carry On
Music, released January 15th, 2021)
For long-suffering progressive rock fans, the arrival of
Spock’s Beard
was a revelation. The mid-70s glory days of bona fide prog-rock were long over,
the genre’s early bands providing mere blueprints for a future that had yet to
show up for dinner. The 1995 release of The Light, the debut album from
California band Spock’s Beard, punctured the dark cloud of somber Seattle bands
like a laser beam. The band self-financed and originally self-released the
album, because, in the mid-90s, what record label in its right mind would sign a
prog-rock band, for Pete’s sake, when the Pacific Northwest was such a fertile
rock ‘n’ roll breeding ground?
Little did the major label A&R
people know at the time that they were overlooking one of the first major steps
towards a prog-rock revival. History has proven that Spock’s Beard’s
The Light rivals only the parallel release of Roine Stolt’s
The Flower King in importance and influence on the burgeoning prog-rock
scene. Picking up the torch that had been discarded by obvious touchstones Yes
and the Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, Spock’s Beard in America and the Flower Kings
in Europe went about creating memorable music, jump-starting a long-dormant
musical tradition.
Spock’s Beard’s The Light
The importance of The Light on the growth of prog-rock is obvious only in
retrospect. However, I can’t imagine the subsequent popularity of bands like
Arena, IQ, and Threshold, as well as prog-oriented record labels like Magna
Carta and Inside Out without Spock’s Beard. How does this groundbreaking album
hold up a decade after its release? For that matter, what about the band’s
following releases, 1996’s Beware of Darkness and 1997’s
Kindness of Strangers, both important albums in their own light? Metal Blade Records recently
reissued all three of these pioneering prog-rock albums in deluxe, digitally
remastered editions with liner notes by founder
Neal Morse, lyrics and rare photos and let me tell you, they all still sound as
remarkably fresh and startlingly original as they did a decade
ago.
Many consider
The Light to be Spock’s Beard’s finest recorded moment, and I would not
argue the point save to throw in a few caveats. Considering the album’s
pedigree, the era in which it was released, and the circumstances surrounding
its recording and the formation of the band, I would gladly concede the album’s
influence. However, after careful consideration of the band’s entire catalog, I
would consider The Light’s place in the Spock’s Beard canon to be that of
a secondary effort. It is an important release, the first album for the band
and, given the musical climate of the time, a bold departure from mainstream
culture. However, I personally feel that later Spock’s Beard releases better
define or further refine the band’s trademark sound.
Which is not to
say that The Light should be dismissed as inadequate – it is merely a
lesser work in relation to the band’s growing catalog of excellence.
The Light remains a highly entertaining album and an amazing showcase for
the young talents of the band’s founders, brothers Neal and Al Morse. The
technical proficiency and mastery of their instruments shown by the Morse
brothers, bassist Dave Meros, and drummer Nick D’Virgilio is quite stunning and
nothing short of amazing. Absorbing the classic influence of Yes and that band’s
penchant for extended song suites, The Light stands alone as a solid work
of composition and lyricism.
The album kicks off with the
fifteen-minute title track, broken down into eight disparate musical sections
that evoke the music of Yes and King Crimson, vintage ‘60s psychedelic rock,
even Spanish Flamenco, and would offer Spock’s Beard’s first overt Beatles
references. Although Neal Morse’s raw vocals would later grow smoother and more
mature, here they evince a certain energy and eagerness that stands in contrast
to the popular music of the day. Al Morse quickly becomes a guitarist to be
reckoned with, a talented fretboard artist whose ability to both compliment and
dominate a song’s arrangement would become a major factor in the Spock’s sound.
“The Light” is a suitable kick-off for the album of the same name, the band
running through several musical styles from its bag of tricks, setting the stage
for the listener and revealing the possibilities of that which would follow.
Neal Morse’s lyrics range from insightful to oblique, often within the course of
the same verse.
“Go the Way You Go” is slightly shorter than the
opening title track, but no less grand. With extended instrumental passages that
often descend into chaos, Neal Morse’s best pop star vocals, some fine band
harmonies and the positive outlook of its lyrics, the song was a signpost of the
band’s later musical direction. The song also shows off some of Neal’s best
keyboard wizardry, with jazzy flourishes inspired by Billy Cobham and Herbie
Hancock. A second song suite, “The Water,” clocks in at a taxing twenty-two
minutes and contains both some of the band’s most exhilarating musical moments
and, possibly, its most embarrassing.
“The Water” begins with some
classically informed piano, evolving into a Rick Wakeman styled keyboard romp
before leaping headfirst into a clash of vocals, guitar, keyboards, and
percussion. Through the song’s seven or eight distinctive sections, the band
quotes Pink Floyd and ELP and even throws in some soulful, Motownish backing
vocals. Al Morse’s guitar crackles and snaps like a bullwhip, punctuating his
brother’s vocals with stabbing riffs and reckless fretboard runs. Neal’s lyrics
here are dark and angry, resulting in the aforementioned embarrassing moment on
the “FU” section of the song when the pissed-off singer screams “fuck you” in
his most punkish voice.
The emotion seems forced, however, not wry
as with Nilsson’s “you broke my heart, you tore it apart, so fuck you” or
genuinely frustrated/confused/angry as on a million punk rock songs. It’s a
minor glitch in an otherwise ambitious song, and the resulting section, the
pastoral “I’m Sorry,” only partially redeems the lapse in judgement. The second
half of the song veers back into classic prog-rock territory, featuring maestro
performances from the band’s instrumentalists while musically and lyrically the
last two segments of “The Water” serve to connect the earlier segments,
completing the song’s story and themes.
By comparison with the rest
of the album, the brief and lively six-minute “On the Edge” sounds like an edit
made for radio. Al’s atmospheric six-string work is razor sharp and quite
engaging, complimenting Neal’s dancing keyboard passages while Meros and
D’Virgilio provide a strong, and often quite funky, rhythmic undercurrent. The
song is about as close to commercial as the band would come on The Light;
unfortunately it was the right song in the wrong era. If it had been released
two decades earlier, it would have been embraced by fans of Yes, ELP and
possibly Zappa’s Mothers of Invention as the innovative pairing of intelligent
lyricism and instrumental virtuosity that it is. The Metal Blade reissue of
The Light includes the band’s original homebrew demo for the title track,
interesting mostly in comparison, hearing the foundation on which the final
rendition was built.
Part of the charm of Spock’s Beard has
always been the band’s innate ability to quote several decades of musical
predecessors without sounding trite, revisionist, or derivative. Whether miming
the Beatles, David Bowie, Yes, or whomever they might consciously or
subconsciously choose, Spock’s Beard has always made its musical references
personal, its interpretations unique and entirely original. At no time was this
more apparent than on The Light. Spock’s Beard’s debut album would do an
excellent job in establishing the band’s credibility and announcing its arrival
to the world outside of the insular Southern California rock scene. It is
rightfully considered a classic of modern-day prog-rock, and rightfully so. But
for Spock’s Beard, it was only the beginning.
Spock’s Beard’s Beware of Darkness
In my mind, Beware of Darkness stands as one of the band’s most vital
works. The growth in skill and vision from the band’s first album is enormous,
Spock’s Beard showcasing an increased maturity and chemistry in the conceptual
song cycle. Part of the reason for the band’s improvement was the addition of
keyboardist Ryo Okumoto, who fleshed out the band’s sound with a perspective
entirely his own. This would remain the Spock’s line-up for quite some time, the
band creating a lasting legacy on the strength of a handful of recordings.
Using
Leon Russell’s somewhat suspect arrangement of George Harrison’s wonderful
“Beware of Darkness,” Neal Morse goes on to “prog up” the song with keyboard
improvisations, syncopated vocals and brother Al’s wicked guitar riffing. The
song also features Okumoto’s introductory keyboard solo, the new member showing
off his chops for the first time. The SB arrangement of the song retains the
spirit of the original while also taking it into an entirely different stylistic
direction. Although some of Russell’s original vocals resulted in Morse’s
misinterpretation of the lyrics, it all works out fine. “Beware Of Darkness”
opens the door for an album consisting of shorter songs that would feature more
concise and focused instrumental interludes. Spock’s Beard’s later albums would
vacillate back and forth between this approach and that of the lengthier song
suites.
“Thoughts” was inspired by Neal’s discovery of
Gentle Giant, an obscure British prog-rock band similar to Genesis but with more classical
music influences. The instrumental passage that opens the song sounds somewhat
Baroque to these ears, with syncopated rhythms leading to an enviable bit of
harmonic vocal interplay that would have the members of Yes in awe. The song’s
lyrics are a reflective look inward, an introspective treatment of doubt and
hesitation. With its unusual arrangement and interesting vocal gymnastics, the
song would stand out on any prog-rock album.
A gentle classical piano
intro opens “The Doorway,” the second longest song on Beware of Darkness.
The keyboards eventually kick in, the percussion begins pounding and Al Morse’s
multi-layered and textured guitarwork runs the gamut from subtle acoustic
craftsmanship to sharp circular rhythms. The song features some of Neal’s
finest, most passionate vocals and, perhaps, the sparsest arrangement of any
Spock’s Beard song at that point. Midway through the song, however, everybody
takes a turn showcasing their instrumental prowess and the song finishes as a
grand fusion of classical influence and rock ‘n’ roll showmanship, Al’s fluid
guitar lines and a wicked keyboard riff carrying the song out.
The
instrumental “Chatauqua” features some wonderfully crafted Spanish-styled guitar
by Al Morse, providing an excellent showcase for the guitarist’s range and
versatility. The full-blown prog-rock rave-up “Walk On the Wind” would follow,
the song’s oblique lyrical poetry among Morse’s best, his vocals rising and
falling in range with the instrumentation. Al is once again allowed to stretch
out, delivering an electric lead solo that sparks with life and energy. The
playful clashing of Morse’s piano and Okumoto’s keyboards is subtle and almost
lost in the mix.
“Waste Away” is a fine song about self-delusion and
lost opportunities, Morse’s stylized lyrics supported by folkish acoustic
guitar, chiming keyboards and a big beat. By the time that Al’s electric guitar
kicks in, Neal’s vocals rise in volume and intensity, driving his lyrical point
home with some force. At a mere five minutes in length, “Waste Away” would have
made for some great-sounding radio.
The album ends with the epic
“Time Had Come,” a sixteen-minute revisiting of prog-rock’s finer moments that
has plenty of what the band’s early fans came to hear – lengthy instrumental
jams, a spacey arrangement, altered vocals, and hard-to-decipher lyrics. The
band channels elements of early Pink Floyd, Wakeman-era Yes, vintage ‘60s
psychedelica, and ‘70s-styled space-rock and even a little German-influenced
electronic rock. The reissued Beware of Darkness includes the original
home demos of the title track and “The Doorway,” perhaps the album’s two
strongest and most entertaining songs.
Spock’s Beard’s The Kindness of Strangers
A year after the release of Beware of Darkness, Spock’s Beard would
return with The Kindness of Strangers. Needless to say, releasing three
lengthy and complex albums like the band’s first three in a relatively short
period of time is quite a feat to accomplish. These weren’t mindless pop albums
churned out by faceless musicians using pre-fab songs but rather intricate and
carefully crafted musical collaborations created with a precise blend of
songwriting, vocals and instrumental performances captured using
state-of-the-art recording techniques. Regardless of what Spock’s Beard would go
on to accomplish in the latter part of the decade – which was quite a lot, by
the way, the band’s first three albums ensured them of a lasting prog-rock
legacy and immense influence.
With The Kindness of Strangers, the
band takes a “best of all worlds approach,” bookending the album with two
lengthy song suites, similar to its debut disc, and filling in the middle with
shorter AOR-friendly songs, refining the tact from their second album. The album
features Neal Morse’s most fully-realized lyrics to date, the musician finding
his voice as a songwriter, moving away from the oblique poetry of the first two
Spock’s Beard albums towards a more direct, traditional style of writing.
The Kindness of Strangers also shows the first signs of the band’s underlying
pop tendencies, the songs including more Beatlesque hooks between the amazing
flights of instrumental virtuosity.
The album also includes Neal
Morse’s first overt attempts at social commentary in his lyrics. “The Good Don’t
Last,” a song suite in three parts, displays Morse’s disgust with assembly-line
produced pop culture and foreshadows his eventual embrace of Christianity with
the spiritual segment “The Radiant Is.” The ten-minute opus includes a nice
orchestral string section that augments Okumoto’s dazzling keyboard runs and
brother Al’s magnificent guitarwork. “In the Mouth of Madness” is grand in
scope; a fine example of what would become Spock’s Beard’s trademark sound.
Plenty of handsome string-bending by Al Morse, a fireworks display of keyboards
and synths and drummer D’Virgilio’s most outrageous workout yet. If you had to
play one song for a friend to explain prog-rock to the uninitiated, “In the
Mouth of Madness” would be that song.
“Cakewalk On Easy Street”
offers some positive lyrics, a reaffirmation of being and a reminder that things
could always be worse. Neal’s lyrics are supported by some tasteful piano fills,
D’Virgilio’s dynamic rhythms and knotty six-string manipulation by Al. According
to Neal Morse’s liner notes, “June” almost didn’t make the cut to be included on
The Kindness of Strangers, which would have been a mistake. “June” features
some wonderful three-part harmonies and an overall acoustic-pop sound that made
it a popular song with live audiences. “Strange World” displays Neal’s wry sense
of humor, the song’s commentary outlining society’s unbalanced sense of
priorities and the often times unrecognized surrealism of life. Morse’s vocals
are altered at times, with spacey, effects-laden guitarwork skewed towards a
psychedelic sound.
The lengthy “Harm’s Way” is the album’s
instrumental showcase. The song is held down by a steady, rock-solid Dave Meros
bassline upon which the rest of the band embroiders its various solos and
musical embellishments. The song’s lyrical message seems to be “live your life,”
a sort of “carpe diem” philosophy. With varying passages and time changes as
well as evolving atmospherics, “Harm’s Way” is another fine example of prog-rock
classicism. The second song suite “Flow” closes the original album, its three
disparate segments running hot and cold with changing musical moods and various
emotional palettes. The song offers a meditative reflection on the nature of
life and points towards Neal Morse’s future lyrical inclinations, the
metaphorical lyrics more closely akin to those on the band’s first two
albums.
The reissued The Kindness of Strangers includes several
bonus tracks, including radio edits of “The Good Don’t Last,” “Cakewalk On Easy
Street” and “In the Mouth of Madness” that reign in the band’s instrumental
tendencies and tighten the focus of the lyrics and instrumentation. Although all
three songs would make for refreshing radio programming, “Cakewalk On Easy
Street” would have been my choice to serve as an introductory taste of Spock’s
Beard, the song’s positive message and amazing soundtrack providing a strong
initial impression of the band. The original home demos for “June” and “Strange
World” round out this version of the album, offering insight into the evolution
of both songs.
With TheKindness of Strangers, the band’s musical
vision and personal chemistry hit another peak. The band would subsequently tour
Europe, earning a loyal following that appreciates the prog-rock aesthetic and
eagerly supports both Spock’s Beard and Neal Morse’s individual and
collaborative musical efforts. The first three Spock’s Beard albums built a
solid foundation for the band’s live performances and raised expectations for
future recordings. After releasing three exhausting albums in three years, the
band would not venture into the recording studio for over a year, releasing its
next album, Day For Night in 1999.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
Neal Morse left the band he founded in 2003 after almost a decade of
acting as the Spock’s Beard ringleader. As the primary songwriter for the band
as well as a charismatic lead vocalist and multi-talented instrumentalist,
Morse’s controversial defection left the future of Spock’s Beard up in the
air. While Morse, a born-again Christian, went through a period of
self-reflection and soul-searching after he left the band, he started a solo
career without missing a beat. Two excellent solo albums, along with his
collaborations with Roine Stolt of the Flower Kings and Mike Portnoy of Dream
Theater under the Transatlantic name has kept Morse’s work in the public eye.
Spock’s Beard has also soldiered on, drummer Nick D’Virgilio
taking over the vocal duties and the band sharing the songwriting on its two
post-Neal albums, Feel Euphoria and the new Octane. The band’s
sound has undergone a gradual evolution, featuring a harder rock ‘n’ roll edge
and more AOR-radio friendly sound. The band remains one of the most popular in
progressive rock, however, even as it continues to break new ground with
innovations in sound and performance. The first three Spock’s Beard albums,
however, resurrected by Metal Blade, remain fan favorites, defining the band’s
signature sound and widening the audience for prog-rock during the ‘90s.
(Metal Blade Records, released 2004) Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine, 2004
