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.

Hayward on Phish on Genesis on Progarchy

On By bradbirzerIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Well, the title isn’t exactly right.  But, hey, the world’s best biographer of the 40th president of the United States likes us.  That counts for something.  In fact, it counts for a heck of a lot.  Thanks, Steve Hayward!

I just yesterday stumbled across the obscure cultural fact that at the 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Phish—one of those hippie-jam band successors to the Grateful Dead—opened the proceedings with a dead-on cover of one of the oldest and least accessible tunes ever done by Genesis: “Watcher of the Skies,” from Genesis’s 1972 album “Foxtrot.”   The thing about “Watcher” is that it’s one of those prog tunes that takes a long time to get going, and once you’re finally under way. . . well, let’s just say it’s an acquired taste and leave it at that.  (Though I’ll admit it is a taste I fully acquired in college in the late 1970s.  Must have been all that second-hand smoke. . .)

To keep reading at Powerline (one of the most influential websites in the world. . . yeah, I’m not letting this one go easily), click here.

Andy Tillison and Geoff Banks

On By bradbirzerIn Uncategorized1 Comment

4006205090_47d7dfd4e7If you’re free for the next 45 minutes, it’s definitely work checking into the Prog Dog Radio Show.

http://myradiostream.com/progdog

Geoff Banks is an excellent radio host, and Andy Tillison is an equally interesting guest.  Banks and Tillison are talking about the nature of progressive rock as well as engaging one another on a variety of topics.  On the nature of Prog: Geoff is arguing that prog is ”music that will stand the test of time.”  It is the classical music of our day.  Andy’s response: Progressive rock is “serious electric music.”

Andy, sounding very much like Owen Barfield or J.R.R. Tolkien of the Inklings stated that his brainchild, The Tangent, is much bigger than himself or a supergroup.  He hopes it will keep going long after he’s retired.

The chat room is especially interesting: Alison Henderson, Blake Carpenter (Minstrel’s Ghost), Sally Collyer, and Matt Stevens are all contributing.

Review: Cosmic Danger, “Universe at Large”

On By bradbirzerIn progressive rock music1 Comment

Cosmic Danger - Universe At Largeby Frank Urbaniak

I have listened to Cosmic Danger’s “Universe at Large” several times and I have had mixed reactions on each pass.  The music demonstrates hints of both early Yes and the Rabin /Sherwood years, Camel, Klaatu and Asia and is an interesting but somewhat frustrating listening experience.

There are nine tracks on Universe at Large logging in at about 50 minutes, with a mix of instrumental and vocal tracks.  There is little information online about the band or this album including lyrics or story line.  The quality of musicianship is excellent, but in both lyrics and music the album doesn’t flow well to these ears and the storyline escapes me.

First the good –these guys are exceptional musicians: the guitarist can rip like Howe during The Yes Album days, the drummer is tight, crisp, fast and well-mixed and the keys are always interesting.

The not so good-the name, the cover, the concept of the CD and the lyrics seem a bit too ‘space’ oriented, suitable as a soundtrack for Enders Game but less relevant than other progressive music being released today (BBT, Echolyn).  This isn’t cosmic as in Jon Anderson/Yes, but cosmic as in “we are journeying into space and won’t be back” but the story doesn’t seem very developed.  The bass seems a bit muted.

The mix is puzzling, with excellent drum/keys/guitars, but the heavy reverb and echo on the choruses and effects remind me of a late 80s release like Marc Jordan C. O. W or Yes’s Big Generator.

The first five tracks have vocals with big choruses, giving Universe at Large a strong AOR feel initially. “Champions” starts off the album with a heavy Argent sounding organ and a feel -good chorus suitable for the Olympics, although the words sound a bit hokey: “Champions give all they have, all along”.  “Freedom Flier” also begins with a nice organ riff (Tony Kaye style), and the vocals remind me of Flash/early Yes.  “Skydiving” sounds like a Moody Blues tune with strumming guitars and another heavily reverbed chorus and builds to a frantic conclusion where you can see how proficient these guys are as musicians. “Blue Sky”, the best track on the album, retains the Kim Bullard/Paul DeVilliers (Big Generator) feel with brassy keys and vocals reminiscent of Alan Parsons/Chris Squire.  An excellent guitar solo leads to a nice counterpoint vocal chant of “Blue Sky dawning, Red Sky at night.”

With “Bug in the Wire” the vocals are a bit clearer and ‘grittier’ , sounding a bit like Kevin Moore/Chromakey, with music by Klaatu.  At this point the album shifts to mainly instrumental focus, with “Endless Voyage” one of the most tasteful tracks on the album. “Moon Base Gamma” , the longest track on the album at 7 minutes, loses some of the momentum with some overdone synthesizer effects and cumbersome words about survival at Moon Base Gamma , with the repeating chorus of ‘where is home’ making this sound more like a space opera (think Intergalactic Touring Band).    “Five Year Mission” has a frantic bass/guitar riff and the powerful drumming again demonstrates the proficiency of the musicians.  “Moon Dusk” loses the momentum by concluding this ‘space’ journey with an overlong intro of heavy keyboard effects. Finally the band introduces some  tablas and percussion, but just when the track gets going it abruptly ends with a heavily reverbed chorus briefly chanting the theme from the opening track “Champions”.

In summary, these excellent musicians have produced an interesting but not very original release.  I am unclear as to the message and I am left with an ambivalent feeling about the full album.  While the instrumental tracks are interesting, I think the album would be better paced if some the instrumentals broke up the early vocal tracks to help build the ‘story’.   Certainly worth a listen and because of the obvious talent of the band, I look forward to future releases.

My rating: (out of 10):

Musicianship-8

Production-6.

Pacing-5.

Originality-5

Overall-6.

Kevin McCormick’s Squall (1999)

On By bradbirzerIn Uncategorized3 Comments

kcmccKevin McCormick, Squall (1999).  To my mind, this is some of the best rock music ever written—but tempered with very serious classical sensibilities and lacking the over-the-top bombast present in even some the best of 1970s progressive rock.

If one had to label his music, it would most likely be a post-prog, post-rock, or, simply put post-Talk Talk.  In the current realm of music, one might think of a mixture of Matt Stevens, Gazpacho, and Nosound.

McCormick incorporates his profound poetry as lyrics.  Each word—and the way Kevin sings it—seems utterly filled with grace and conviction.  This is part two of a rock/post-rock trilogy (he’s currently working on number three).  And, it’s hard to listen to Squall without listening to its equally fine predecessor, With the Coming of Evening (1993).  Kevin really has it all: a great voice, the ability to write poetry as lyrics, and the training of a classical guitarist.

Before I write any more, let me admit my bias.  Kevin is one of my closest friends, and he has been since we first met in the fall of 1986 as freshman at the University of Notre Dame.  We still talk and correspond frequently.  Kevin is the godfather of my oldest son, and I of his second daughter.

We bonded immediately on matters of music back in 1986.

Kevin and his two brothers had a well-known Texas band in the mid 1980s, and Kevin formed the finest band at Notre Dame, St. Paul and the Martyrs, during our years there.  Toward the end of our senior year, St. Paul and the Martyrs opened for the-then unknown progressive jam band, Phish.

During our years in college, Kevin and I traveled throughout the U.S. and England together (making sure to visit Trident studios as well as EMI (hoping to catch a glimpse of Mark Hollis) while journeying through the mother land of prog and New Wave), co-produced a “Dark Side of the Moon” charity show, complete with an angsty-movie backing a full performance of the album by the Marytrs, talked music and lyrics until late into the nights, and even co-hosted a prog rock radio show on Friday nights.

Not surprisingly, one of my greatest memories of Kevin in college was listening to the entirety of Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden in 1988.  We remained completely silent for a very long time after its completion, stunned by the immensity of its beauty.

Kevin is extremely talented in a number of ways.  Not only is he the father of our beautiful daughters, but he has won national poetry as well as classical guitar composition awards.  In addition to the two post-prog albums (With the Coming of Evening and Squall) already mentioned, Kevin has also released several albums of solo classical guitar as well as an album of Americana, all recorded on an 1840s Martin.

His music has been praised publicly by many (see, for example, his entry at Allmusic) and privately by such luminaries as Phill Brown and Greg Spawton.

As of this afternoon, Kevin has finished mixing a Christmas CD, recorded with his oldest daughter on vocals, to be released next Christmas season.  And, as mentioned above, he is currently working on the completion of his post-rock trilogy.

Here’s Kevin’s music at CD Baby:  http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/KevinMcCormick

Here’s Kevin’s official site: http://www.kevin-mccormick.com/KM/index.html

I know we at Progarchy have offered lots and lots of suggestions for worthwhile purchases over the last three months.  But, as we begin this near year, I can state unequivocally that it’s worth supporting Kevin, especially as he prepares to record his new post-prog album.  I’ve only heard bits and pieces, but Kevin is a man of absolute integrity.  He is, like so many of us who either play prog or simply listen to prog, a perfectionist.  He also possesses one of the finest senses of beauty I’ve ever encountered in another.  So, while 2013 will probably NOT be the year of Kevin McCormick in the prog world, 2014 almost certainly will be.

Certainly, Kevin’s album should be one of the most anticipated releases of the next two years.  It’s worth beginning to anticipate today, January 1, 2013.

 

***

 

Some video links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umMMJ4B-D6k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kewac1nhue8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqsAcTs8KN0

Congratulations, Progarchist Julie!

On By bradbirzerIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Our own progarchist, Julie Robison Baldwin, is now a married human!  Congrats, Julie.

 

progarchist julie wedding

Frost*Bites

On By bradbirzerIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

This was inside of a Christmas firecracker we popped last night.

frost bite

Neal Morse News

On By bradbirzerIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Radiant_records-logoJust got great news re: Neal Morse from Richard Schwartz and Radiant Records (yay, Chris Thompson).  Neal Morse is releasing the New York show of the Momentum concert on DVD.  Here’s the note, directly:

The Momentum Live DVD and Audio Box Set!   

 YES… yet another big giant Neal Morse live package is on the way! I have been mixing for days now the audio for the live show that was shot in New York City last October. I have to say it’s pretty darn good. Except for that guy in the center, everybody’s really great!

Yeah, it’s a really cool set list. Here’s the track list for the DVD:

DVD 1

MOMENTUM

WEATHERING SKY

AUTHOR OF CONFUSION

THE DISTANCE TO THE SUN

TESTIMONY SUITE

(Sleeping Jesus, Prince of the Power of the Air, The Promise, Wasted Life)

THOUGHTS PART 5

THE CONFLICT (From Sola Scriptura)

 

DVD 2

QUESTION MARK SUITE

(The Temple of the Living God, Another World, Entrance, Inside His Presence)

FLY HIGH

WORLD WITHOUT END

CRAZY HORSES

SING IT HIGH

KING JESUS

How’s that for some cool info? It’s 2.5 hours plus long, and it’s the entire show. Plus Randy George has made a tour documentary as only he can. So it will be a 5 disc set in a special box, much like the “Testimony 2 Live in Los Angeles” Box Set was, it will be about the same as that.

Progarchist Mark Widhalm and I saw him the next night, in Chicago, but he didn’t play “World Without End.”  So, very glad to see this here.

Morse also noted that there will be a new Flying Colors album and, if all goes well, a new Transatlantic.

Great news for the day before the Apocalypse!  Thank you, Neal.

Excellent Jerry Lucky interview with John Galgano of the fabulous IZZ

On By bradbirzerIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

index-banner
I’ve been slowly (way too slowly) getting up a review of IZZ’s latest album, CRUSH OF NIGHT.  From my perspective, it’s one of the best albums of this past year.

As I’ve been listening and prepping, I came across this excellent interview.

Jerry Lucky: Let’s start at the beginning. What’s the short-story as to how Izz came into being?

John Galgano: IZZ started when Tom was in College with Greg DiMiceli and through Greg met Brian Coralian and Paul Bremner. Being Tom’s brother, I was sort of already involved and working with the guys. We had originally gotten together to work on a piece called Deafening Silence that ended up being on the album My River Flows. Tom had written that piece of music and we all played on it for a few live shows. After that, we began writing material as a group and used that material for what became Sliver of a Sun.

JL: Who came up with the name? And what’s it all about?

JG: I’m a big fan of the New York Mets and at the time we started thinking about band names in the mid-90s, they had these three young pitchers who were supposed to be the next great pitchers for the Mets. One of the guys was Jason Isringhausen who was nicknamed “IZZY”. I loved this nickname and mentioned it to Tom and as we talked it over, we decided to drop the “Y” and just make it IZZ. It seemed to work well and we liked the way it sounded

To keep reading, please go here: http://www.jerrylucky.com/interviews_054.htm