stoopid

Just now, BastillePark said:

For the record, Steven Wilson detests the "prog" label for his music. 

Rush often did as well.

Only thing I'll add is that Yes had commercial success on a level PT never even sniffed.  Yes has staples on classic rock radio/streaming to this day.  90125 alone sold as many copies as all of PT's albums combined.  If we're talking superior and not personal preference, all members of Yes were virtuosos (widely accepted as standard bearers for rock and prog) on their respective instruments, received immense mainstream radio airplay, and sold charting multi platinum albums and had hit singles.  'Superior' by any measure I can think of.

The only modern prog band that could be in the same room as Yes would be Dream Theater.  In 50 years, for better or worse, PT will be a footnote on prog.

As we all know and I harp on a lot on this and other forums/pages, whether or not something is widely accepted or commercially successful should have no bearing on whether or not we enjoy it.  I enjoy PT immensely.  But I'm not obtuse enough to pan reality.  PT are by no means the best prog band in existence, which is what they would need to be to hop Yes on a 'superiority' list.

I think "superior" is the keyword here.  The criteria for how that is measured by each of us can be vastly different.  

Yes wins this one, but it's close.  I listen to more PT nowadays though.

1 hour ago, Tony R said:

Hand.Cannot.Erase is way out in front as my favourite.  

It's the one album I never look down at my watch at any point.  Raven, as great as it was at release especially when factoring in expectations, is second place but there's quite a bit of gap.  Insurgentes actually isn't much behind Raven as one of my favorites, I like the variety.

To the Bone is fine.  People Who Eat Darkness is my favorite, though Pariah has grown on me.

First impression is favorable.  It takes me a while to digest new music.  The fact it didn't repulse me like tFB did from the first full time through the album is already a sign this one is a keeper.  My Bluray is in the mailbox apparently.

40 minutes ago, BastillePark said:

I just saw a video he did I think recently about his band and an example of be careful what you say and when you say it. Back in the day they were invited to open for Creed (I think) when Creed was huge but that was in California and they were in Georgia and couldn't afford to get there in time. Fast forward to sometime later and they were playing a show in the Atlanta area and the lead singer was drunk and talked about how bad Creed was and they wouldn't last etc. Turns out Creed and their agent were in the back of the club and needless to say they never opened for Creed.

I remember that video, heart breaking but frankly well deserved snub by Creed.  Rick owned it, too [by throwing his singer under the bus where they belonged  lol].  He's clearly a standup guy.  Probably why he only eek'd out a living in the music biz.

2 minutes ago, Tony R said:

Listening to the new album now, has hints of PT and Wilson’s work on Grace For Drowning and The Future Bites but way better than either. In some ways it’s almost like a tribute to Peter Gabriel. 

Of course it sounds fantastic. 

Was about to post that it finally leaked.  Haven't had a chance to listen yet.  My Bluray arrives tomorrow from the UK, that's damn quick.

It's amazing he's managed to prevent any leaks on the last two albums until just days before, and those are likely only because people are getting their preordered copies.

14 hours ago, Timbale said:

I'd love someone who's knowledgable about this stuff to explain WHY this band has a 90s sound. Like I get that it does… But I'm always a little perplexed as to what that is. And I'm not talking about production, or snare drum tuning or those sorts of things. As you can hear on this track, with a band playing in 2023, it still sounds like the 90s. What is it about the cord progressions or the cord choices that make it stuck in a certain era? Why does it sound so different from some thing like say the Rolling Stones or The Who?

The response would be about music theory (composition/chord choices, song structure, key and modes), and in equal parts production (drum sound, guitar/bass tone, panning, compression, vocal placement and effects, etc).  Let's not dismiss the role production has on the end result. I can record a song right now using all the latest tools and techniques that sounds like something produced in the 1960s, and this would be done as an effect that somehow supports the intent of the music.  Good production works in tandem with good songs/songwriting.  Adele's early recordings are a good example, that somewhat smokey jazz lounge feel works well for some of her tracks and supports the greater conveyance of the music's "art".  Those songs were done with a top producer with full studio access and modern tools/techniques. They intentionally injected some tasteful low fi into the recordings.

If Rick hasn't already, this would be the exact kind of topic he covers on his channel's other videos.

The top handful of results on google would explain some of the things you ask:

https://www.google.com/search?q=rock+genre+music+mode+theory

13 hours ago, Timbale said:

I'd love someone who's knowledgable about this stuff to explain WHY this band has a 90s sound. Like I get that it does… But I'm always a little perplexed as to what that is. And I'm not talking about production, or snare drum tuning or those sorts of things. As you can hear on this track, with a band playing in 2023, it still sounds like the 90s. What is it about the cord progressions or the cord choices that make it stuck in a certain era? Why does it sound so different from some thing like say the Rolling Stones or The Who?

Interesting question.  I composed a response but it was so long it crashed the internet when I clicked submit.

1 minute ago, bluefox4000 said:

 

 

i can agree.  TFB isn't a deal breaker at all for as i'm hoping he builds on it into something i DO like.  i still have faith in him.  Maybe in fav years or so we'll look back at TFB and go oh he started there to get to this better place.

 

in fact i'm sure that'll be the case as he's always morphing.

 

Mick

I see Grace For Drowning as an album that got us to Raven and HCE, so yes I'm 100% with you there.

The missing link was Gavin in particular, having an original and virtuosic player in the band elevated everyone else around him.  IMO porcupine tree as prog starts with In Absentia with Gavin playing all the original parts on the record, and in full force with Deadwing with Gavin being a full time member and somewhat part of the song writing process.

5 minutes ago, bluefox4000 said:

and BTW glad someone else isn't into early PT.  it's a poor imitation of good prog, lol

I'm not sure Steven ever thought of it as being a prog thing, at least initially.  He certainly has A LOT of prog influences (Yes, Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Floyd, Rush, etc etc etc) but his own music has a lot of other synth pop, shoegaze and alt rock and post rock elements to it.  He has a diverse musical taste, so it's inevitable he's going to alienate some (or most in the case of Future Bites) of his fan base if he decides to inject a higher percent of one of those other influences.  I like that he tries to sew together diverse sounds and influences, but he doesn't always succeed.

18 hours ago, bluefox4000 said:

 

 

 

 

Porcupine Tree

 

1. Fear of A Bank Planet

2. Deadwing

3. In Absentia

4. Stupid Dream

5. CLOSURE/CONTINUATION

6. Lightbulb Sun

7. The Incident

8. Signify

9. The Sky Moves Sideways

10. Up the Downstair

11. On the Sunday of Life

 

Steven Wilson.

 

1. Hand Cannot Erase

2. The Raven That Refused to Sing

3. Insurgentes

4.  Grace For Drowning

5. To The Bone

6. The Future Bites

 

I really did not and still don't really like The Future Bites.  I have a terrible feeling the new one will be more of it.......but we'll see.

 

Mick

Agree with most of this.  Especially the early PT being too much like Floyd, but never as good (or even remotely close to being as good).  For me Lightbulb Sun is where I feel like PT started with its consistent identity.

Future Bites does bite, there's a couple tracks that are fine.  The feedback from others regarding the new album has been mostly positive, so it's worth a bluray purchase for $25 shipped.  I did a hard pass on the boxed set for the last two albums (sold my HCE boxed set a while ago because huge profit).  I'm looking forward to at least giving Harmony Codex some spins, keeping my expectations severely tempered and allowing SW to do his thing washout my consternation.

4 hours ago, custom55 said:

Sounds similar to a 90s band that I used to listen to.  Gotta dig back in my mind.

This ended up being what my ears heard when previewing some of their other tracks -- perhaps not unique enough to overcome the onslaught of cookie cutter bands of which they were only a nominally different shape.  But I like this one track a lot.

The live studio recording he got is amazing sounding, better than some studio released stuff nowadays.  So much win here IMHO.  [I realize there's some post production done on this, but there would be on any studio recording and even some live recordings nowadays have stuff added/adjusted for better or worse]

This is them after 20+ years apart.  Imagine this band firing on all cylinders.

So much good music out there and so few artists get the attention they deserve.

Video is queued at the point just before they start playing.  There's an interview of the band immediately before.

I found the original track:

And it IS for sale still.  From my brief sampling, the songs are very much hit/miss.  I Fell From Space clearly being one of the better ones, which likely isn't coincidence they featured it on Rick's video.

https://www.amazon.com/music/player/albums/B00A0CVMFK

On 9/14/2023 at 5:48 PM, laughedatbytime said:

This could be fun...

 

https://www.stereogum.com/2236106/micky-dolenz-rem-covers-shiny-happy-people/music/?fbclid=IwAR0tvepI81ubmtJVRuFg-jgqY_kmuEJinRF10w16SvLECwtYwiywtoelV2s

I like the cover.  It's cliched sounding AF, but works on every level. 

I'm intentionally ignoring the prereleases.  I don't find it helps with my listening experience once the album arrives, I'd rather hear them all 'fresh' and not already familiar with certain tracks.

tSoR was definitely the better of the two.

It's been 6 years since I've released any new albums.  After a break we resumed work in 2020 when stuck home like so many others.  The music on "Middle Ages" (and the prior album "Missing Pieces") is clearly different from my prior projects, with my collaborator and long time friend Scott Watts getting even more involved in the musical composition, so we opted for a band name change (Ummm) for this release as well.  As with most independent music, this was done in our free time.  Some songs took many months and iterations from concept to completion.  Similar to prior efforts, there's many rock genres/styles represented here.  There's a song for every rock listener's tastes.

Long list of places to listen.  If you want to read along with the music, check out the Youtube lyrics videos.  Today happens to be Bandcamp Friday, so if you're feeling generous it's the best day to buy our album there as revenue sharing is waived and more of the purchase goes to the artist.  Like/follow us on Facebook too, some bonus material is likely to get trickled out in the coming months.  Every click, like, follow, and comment helps the algorithm.  Don't be shy!!

Website: http://www.ummmband.com [this currently forwards to Bandcamp]
Bandcamp: https://ummmband.bandcamp.com
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/middle-ages/1702055534
Amazon Music: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFCD1VZ6
Compact Disc: https://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00A3X2LE&pp=1

48 minutes ago, laughedatbytime said:

Underwhelming

That's generally how I've always felt about Phil's singing.  I like his music, and prefer his era in Genesis, but he's not a great singer IMHO.

I'm back, with good news.  

After getting my fill on more Haken and QOTSA, I returned to this album.  I had a song stuck in my head the other day, and finally realized it was one of the tracks from the new Foos album.  Decided on that to give it another go.  Different set of ears I guess, but I'm enjoying it much more.  Suppose this means it was a slow burn for me.

Note that I am removing all the dropbox files soon, so if you want free MP3s of the songs now is the time to download them.  Or ask me for a free zip of the new album by PM.  

Pamana!!