Author: bradbirzer

By day, I'm a father of seven and husband of one. By night, I'm an author, a biographer, and a prog rocker. Interests: Rush, progressive rock, cultural criticisms, the Rocky Mountains, individual liberty, history, hiking, and science fiction.

Why Burning Shed Matters

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock2 Comments

A great comment from Pete Morgan (founder of Burning Shed).  Very honored to have him post at progarchy.  [Lee, we love you, too; but, you already knew this!]

***

Thanks for the comments about us versus Amazon.

Firstly, no we’ll never be able to compete with them. That’s partly due to scale but also because, unlike Amazon, we pay all of our taxes on top of trying to pay our staff a decent wage. In that regard it is not a level playing field.

Nevertheless, we are often cheaper than them on new releases because the ‘free’ delivery is built into the cost of the item or the Amazon Prime fee (there’s no such thing as a free lunch after all).

Packages shipped from one side of the Atlantic to the other will by post always take a week or so. Other than sending everything by courier (at great cost) there’s not much we can do about that, sorry, but we do try to ship as far ahead of release date as possible.

I don’t agree that our postage charges are a ‘bit of a rip off’. International postage is expensive and we charge £3.08 for a CD in a card mailer which is less than Royal Mail’s standard Airmail tariff (£3.30) as we pass on our volume discount to customers.

We’re always looking for cheaper ways to send things though and if we can do it we will.

I hope you’ll continue to give us a go on those occasions where we have something Amazon don’t.

Cheers

Pete

The Art and Delight of Progressive Rock — The Imaginative Conservative

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment

Jerry Ewing’s greatest achievements in Wonderous Stories are to show conclusively that progressive rock never died and continues to thrive; and that it’s a vital and vibrant cultural expression, worthy of all due scholarly and cultural attention… 1,643 more words

via The Art and Delight of Progressive Rock — The Imaginative Conservative

HB! First Lady of Prog, Alison Reijman

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

Everyone’s First Lady of Prog, Alison Reijman, enters a whole new decade.  We love you, Alison!

Image may contain: Alison Reijman, smiling, standing

Burning Shed for Americans

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock3 Comments
Screen Shot 2018-05-10 at 7.34.32 PM.png
www.burningshed.com

American progarchists, a few of you asked me how to order from Burning Shed from this side of the Atlantic.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been ordering from them for years, and I’ve never had a problem.  In fact, I’ve found Burning Shed nothing but utterly professional.

You can pay with credit card or, much more easily, Pay Pal.

Calculating the exchange rate from dollars to pounds and the other way around is pretty easy.

Burning Shed for Americans.001
Ok, so I’m not a genius when it comes to graphics.  The red line and circle indicates where to switch from pounds to dollars.

Now, spend some dollars!

 

[p.s. I’ve also had great service from America’s Laser’s Edge.  Always worth supporting them.]

 

New Big Big Train Releases Announced

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock6 Comments
merchants of light bbt
One of two new BBT releases coming July 27, 2018.

According to Louder (formerly Teamrock), Big Big Train will be releasing a single as well as a live album on July 27 of this year.  Interestingly, Tim Bowness will appear on one track as well.

Burning Shed and The Merch Desk are each offering pre-orders of the various BBT releases.

According to Burning Shed, the single (or EP), SWAN HUNTER, will feature the following songs:

  • Swan Hunter (radio edit)
  • Swan Hunter (2018 remix)
  • Swan Hunter (live at Cadogan Hall, London, October 2017)
  • Seen Better Days (the brass band’s final piece, featuring Tim Bowness)
  • Summer’s Lease (live at Real World Studios, April 2017)
Again, according to Burning Shed, the live album, MERCHANTS OF LIGHT, will including the following:
  • Folklore Overture
  • Folklore
  • Brave Captain
  • Last Train
  • London Plane
  • Meadowland
  • A Mead Hall in Winter
  • Experimental Gentlemen part two
  • Swan Hunter
  • Judas Unrepentant
  • The Transit of Venus Across the Sun
  • East Coast Racer
  • Telling the Bees
  • Victorian Brickwork
  • Drums and Brass
  • Wassail
MERCHANTS OF LIGHT will be available as 1) a cd boxset; or 2) vinyl box set (with high-res download).
Cheers!

Marillion’s Glorious BRAVE (TAC)

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock1 Comment

IMG_20180506_0001The good folks of The American Conservative allowed me to indulge one of my greatest loves and write about the 2018 re-release of Marillion’s BRAVE, remixed by Steven Wilson.  Whatever your politics, please head over there to check it out.

“The Cold War is done, but those bastards will find us another one.”

This cry might have come from any current reader of The American Conservative alive in the early 1990s—well, maybe without the bastard part. But still, an anguished expression from Russell Kirk or Pat Buchanan? Why not? After all, as TAC editor Bob Merry recently and wisely noted, so many so-called conservatives of the early 1990s “kicked Reagan to the curb” the moment they inherited the Republican Party. And it seems they kept kicking, mutating a military that came into existence solely to defeat the Soviets into a world peace-keeping force, a new Delian League. The bastards did find us another one.

And then: “They’re here to protect us, don’t you know. So get used to it. Get used to it.”

James Bovard or Virginia Postrel? Or some other grand libertarian of a quarter of a century ago? Why not?

Actually, the words are prog rock lyrics from Marillion’s album Brave (1994).

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/marillion-prog-rocks-bards-of-alienation/

The Madeira’s Second Live Album

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment
madeira center of the surg
Double Crown Records (2018).

It’s ready, coming tomorrow.  The very best of surf rock–The Madeira, CENTER OF THE SURF, featuring Ivan Pongracic, economist, professor, human extraordinaire!

To order, click here: https://www.doublecrownrecords.com/the-madeira-center-of-the-surf-cd/

And, for a taste, here’s Leviathan.

Stephen Humphries on Marillion’s BRAVE

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rockLeave a comment

I recently had the chance to ask my friend, Stephen Humphries (Boston Globe, Prog, Christian Science Monitor), about his thoughts on Marillion’s BRAVE.  He graciously responded with this beautiful reply.  Enjoy.

brave cover
Arguably the first album of third-wave prog.

***

I was a sophomore at Hillsdale college the first time I heard Marillion’s Brave. I’d been aware of the band since its 1985 breakthrough album, Misplaced Childhood, because I’d heard the hits on the radio. But I only became an ardent fan following the release of the band’s landmark release, Season’s End, with new vocalist Steve Hogarth in 1989. (Perhaps the only time in rock history that a replacement singer has bettered his excellent predecessor.)

Continue reading “Stephen Humphries on Marillion’s BRAVE” →

Gazpacho – “Soyuz” — The PROG Mind

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Gazpacho returns with an album that retreads familiar sounds, but also leaps into new ideas.

via Gazpacho – “Soyuz” — The PROG Mind

Make Mine a Double #6: Grand Funk’s “Mark, Don & Mel” (1972) — Reel and Rock

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What separates the names Mark, Don and Mel from those of say, Moses, Cleopatra and Napoleon when it comes to their relative significance in world history? Apparently not much. That’s at least what you would think if you took at face value the shameless audacity of the liner notes to this Grand Funk Railroad compilation […]

via Make Mine a Double #6: Grand Funk’s “Mark, Don & Mel” (1972) — Reel and Rock