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.

Scam involving The Enid. Beware.

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Dear Bradley,

SOMETHING SHABBY THIS WAY COMES?

ewcd03 390x390INNER SANCTUM IN ANOTHER REPACKAGING SCAM?

If past releases by these Tin Pan Alley scumbags purporting to be something special are anything to go by, this latest scam is very likely to be just another naff attempt to rip you off.

I can tell you now that Inner Sanctum does not possess the original masters for any of these tracks. Therefore recordings can only have been compiled from ripped retail products which in the past have included washed out cassettes and second hand vinyl served up as “digitally remastered”. We posses all the original masters here at Enid HQ.

Whatever may be the content of the claimed “exclusive 2,000 word commentary on The Enid’s chequered history”, it has not been authorised by the band and could consist of almost anything.

So – If you do decide to buy this item from Inner Sanctum and it turns out not entirely to your satisfaction, send it back and demand a refund.

 

Yours as ever,

Robert John Godfrey

 

Latest from Matt Stevens/Tangent

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Photo © TheChaosEngineers. For information: info@thechaosengineers.com

Great news this weekend.  First, from Matt Stevens:

Hello Brad

Hope you’re good. It’s been crazy here, a weird kind of post gigging come down. The Jazz Cafe gig was great fun, they treat you well there, blimey. Dressing rooms and beer!

I made a Spotify playlist with a “best of” my solo stuff. Is there any chance you can share it on your Facebook, Twitter, Groups or on any Forums you are a member of? This stuff makes a MASSIVE difference to obscure/DIY artists like me. The URL is:

http://open.spotify.com/user/1117036918/playlist/0uecTVxzs6d4dIBdWiOYDc

I know Spotify is controversial but for me at the moment the important thing is to grow the audience for the music. Your help is really appreciated, thanks loads.

Also if anyone is voting in the Prog magazine reader awards at:

http://www.progrockmag.com/news/vote-in-our-2012-readers-poll/

And fancies voting for for Fierce and The Dead or me it would be really appreciated 🙂 Exposure in these sort of polls really helps 🙂 Hopefully all the gigging this year has raised the profile a bit…

I’ve no more gigs booked now so the next months will probably be a bit quiet while we write and record  the new Fierce and The Dead record and plan my new solo record. Busy busy. The new Fierce And The Dead demos sound really good. They may be some sort of Pledge Music type pre-order. I’ll let you know.

Also we’re planning to tour outside the UK so please let us know where you’d like to see us. Thanks 🙂

Speak soon,

Matt Stevens

News from the invisible world

http://www.mattstevensguitar.com

http://www.spencerparkmusic.com

mattstevensguitar@btinternet.com

 ***

And, I had the great privilege of listening to about 75 minutes of Geoff Banks’s Prog Dog Radio Show this afternoon.  He announced some exciting news from The Tangent.  Pre-sales for their next album will be open beginning tomorrow afternoon.

On Friday, The Tangent released this on their Facebook page:

OK Folks the wait is over here is the very first chance to hear BRAND NEW work (in progress) from THE TANGENT. email workday@thetangent.org to get updates and find out how you can be part of a pre-pre order campaign to support this project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkOgivtLy_U

So much good coming out of the progressive rock community right now, it’s more than a bit overwhelming.  Of course, it’s the kind of overwhelming any lover of the genre craves.

 

 

Mini-review: “Deaf, Numb, and Blind”

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Over a decade ago, one of my brightest students introduced me to The Flower Kings.  He lent me his copy of the two-cd “Flower Power: A Journey to the Hidden Corners of Your Mind” over a Thanksgiving break.  I was rather blown away from the first listen.  And, not just because of the truly psychedelic cover or the name of the band (those hippie Swedes!).  I fell in love with the whole concept and packaging of the album.  Since then, I’ve been a rather faithful fan of the band, searching out every track ever recorded by them and by the various members in each of their associated bands.

This post, though, is not meant to be a retrospective or analysis of The Flower Kings.  Just a small appreciation.  Despite the fact that I have a field day listening to disk one of “Flower Power” (the concept part of the concept album), I’m quite taken with a track that seems to have gotten lost in memory, even among fellow Flower King fans.  That track, the first song of disk two, is one penned by Roine Stolt, “Deaf, Numb, and Blind.”

For several years after I first heard it, I considered it the finest and most perfect prog song ever written.  Yes, I’m comparing it–as a song–to any single prog song written up to roughly 2000.  So much has happened in the prog world since then, that I wouldn’t place it quite this high.  But, still, it’s a nearly perfect song.  If any non-progger ever asked me what progressive rock is, I wouldn’t hesitate to introduce them to “Deaf, Numb, and Blind” first.

The song builds for the first three minutes, with symphonic guitars, driving drums, keys, and bass swirling.  I’m especially taken with the bass playing, though all of it is good.  Stolt’s voice fits perfectly with the urgency of the song when he first comes in at 3:30.  The song lyrics appear to be a plea to put away delusions and embrace the highest things in life.  The consequences for maintaining the delusions seem apocalyptic–with the dogs of war and nuclear weaponry being loosed upon the world.

At 5:45, the song pauses.  We breath.  It slowly comes back in, with Stolt proclaiming the things lost, offering a tone of immense regret but perhaps resignation as well.  “There’s so much we could’ve learned. . . .”  But, we failed.

By 8:20, we’re in the demented, twisted world of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir.

Learn how to rebuild Babylon

Where the whores will drain our blood

Where the giant mushrooms grow

Where the truth is left untold

Where the ravens rip your soul

Where the poison rivers run

where the deadly game is gold

We find ourselves in no paradise, but in the realm where “the dead don’t dance.”  We are in Hell, having earned it through our delusions and our pride.

The song ends with more soaring guitar, but the tempo has slowed down considerably, and the urgency of 11 minutes ago is gone.

As an aside, I recently saw The Flower Kings labeled somewhere on the web as “Retro-prog.”  Admittedly, I laughed.  I have no idea what this means.  They use guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards.  They tend to focus on rather positive topics (sometimes poetically religious and mythic), despite the lyrics just quoted.  And, they make beautiful music.  I tried to use common English in this post, inheriting a gorgeous medium from the Anglo-Saxon peoples of the British Isles.  Does this make my language retro-English?

Back on topic: here’s a youtube link to “Deaf, Numb, and Blind.”  Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72b5h7rWGCY

My student who first loaned me his copy of “Flower Power,” by the way, is now one of my colleagues in the philosophy department.  I owe you a lot, Lee.  Thank you.

Caveat Emptor: Future Media Publications

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One of the last things I want to spend time on (mine or yours) is writing about things I don’t like on Progarchy.  Simply put, there’s too much good in music to waste on trash.  And, not surprisingly, I’m generally not very good at criticizing anyway.

But be warned, the packaged magazine now available in the U.S. at Barnes & Noble’s entitled “The Cure and the Story of the Alternative 80s” is a complete waste of printing materials.

I came across it this past weekend while in Grand Rapids, and I was quite taken with the title.  Coming from Future Media (makers of the excellent PROG) and complete with 15 track cd, I’d assumed this would be good.  It’s not.  The cd has absolutely nothing from The Cure, and the magazine devotes only five pages of text (out of a total of 130 pages) to The Cure.  None of the information is new to any one who has even the slightest interest in The Cure.

I’d assumed Future Media packaged and sealed their publications to keep the magazines and the cds in good form.  As it turns out, Future Media seals the magazines to present its products in a false fashion.

So, take my advice, and avoid this magazine like the plague.  A complete and total waste of $15.

Rant over.

A Beginner’s Guide to Big Big Train

On By bradbirzerIn Uncategorized5 Comments

Dear Progarchists,

My apologies for the absence of posts yesterday, November 15.  I’m in the middle of round two of grading freshmen papers and midterms, and life overtook me this week.

It’s late Friday afternoon as I type this in Michigan, but I still have one more academic event today.  At six (in about 2 hours), I’m giving a lecture on The Killing Fields, the sublime 1984 movie about the holocaust in Cambodia, 1975-1978.  As I think about watching that movie for the first time, I get chills.  What horrors humanity creates for itself.  But, that’s a different topic.

As the sun streams into my office window, I’m in the mood for much more pleasant things.

In particular, I’m thinking about the majesty and wonder that is Big Big Train.  I saw a Twitter post two days ago from a friend who expressed shock at the intensity and greatness of BBT.  In a way, I’m incredibly jealous those who have yet to experience BBT for the first time.  So, for those who have not had the grand pleasure that is listening to BBT, here’s a guide.

And, just so I make myself as clear as possible: the new BBT album, EEP1, is the equal in greatness of Talk Talk’s 1988 “Spirit of Eden” and Genesis’s 1973, “Selling England By the Pound.”  This is, without question, a must own for any lover of music, progressive or otherwise.

As many times as I’ve heard it, there are several tracks that still make me what to blaze a path toward social justice and there are several that just make me smile, for the opening note to the last.

But, certainly, nothing on this album is frivolous.   Each track is fraught with meaning.

***

On September 3, 2012, Big Big Train released its latest best studio album, English Electric Part One.  It is a thing of truth, beauty, and goodness in every way.  Part Two arrives in March.  From what I’ve seen on the web and through brief correspondence, it looks as though Part Two will be every bit as intense and glorious as Part One.

Thank to the good will of webeditors, Winston Elliott, Josh Mercer, and Carl Olson (the last, being a full fledged citizen of Progarchy), I’ve had the joy of writing about BBT a number of times..  Last summer, the band released an epic single dealing with the life of St. Edith.  To see this, click here.  http://www.catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=19315

If you’re new to the genre of progressive rock, which its fans rightly consider every bit as good if not better than the best of jazz (equal in musicianship, but superior in inventiveness and, of course, lyrics, since jazz is generally without vocals), I’ve tried to explain and defend the genre to specialized audiences here: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/299126/different-kind-progressive-bradley-j-birzer

And, here: http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2011/bbirzer_progrock_may2011.asp

On my personal blog, Stormfields (www.bradleybirzer.com), I’ve had the great pleasure of writing about some of my favorite bands: Big Big Train, Matt Stevens and his The Fierce and the Dead, Talk Talk, the Cure, Rush, The Reasoning, Arjen Lucassen, Tin Spirits, and XTC.

At my main professional site, TIC (founded by Winston Elliott, the main editor and brain behind it), I’ve also had the good fortune of writing extensively about Big Big Train:http://www.imaginativeconservative.org/search/label/Greg%20Spawton

While I couldn’t even come close to calculating how many words I’ve employed in writing about progressive rock over the years, the same would be even more true regarding my favorite, Big Big Train.

The latest BBT release, English Electric Part One, is not only BBT at its best, it is art at its absolute best.  Best described as pastoral, Georgian, and bucolic, the new album is also eccentric (without ever losing its center), intense, brooding, meandering, reflective, joyous, and deeply vernal.  This is something new, as BBT has traditionally explored the more autumnal aspects of life.

It’s also simply hard not to love these guys on a personal level.  I started corresponding with Greg Spawton several years ago, and he responded immediately and with what I quickly discovered was his characteristic wit and kindness.  After all, who was I–just some goofy guy from the U.S. who happened to fall over myself explaining why I loved BBT.  I once wrote something similar to Neal Peart.  I got a nice postcard back two years later.  But, from Greg, a friendship emerged.  Now, my kids even color pictures for him and ask how my “English rock star friend” is doing.  I have found that all of the members of this band are similar in this regard, and it’s very, very clear by their art that they love one another in a way only brothers can.  Indeed, they face the world not as individual artists, each pulsating with radical individuality, but as a band, ready to leaven all that is good in the world.

A quick look at the wide-ranging debates on the BBT FB page shows how many wonderful and meaningful folks gravitate toward this band and remain to talk some more!  Some of these people have also become good friends, though I’ve yet to meet a single one, face to face.

Greg Spawton and Andy Poole formed the band in the early 1990s, and they’ve since added some of the absolute finest musicians of our day: American drummer Nick D’Virgilio (rivaled in drumming only by Neal Peart of Rush and Mike Portnoy, formerly of Dream Theater), guitarist Dave Gregory (formerly of XTC and currently of Tin Spirits) and flautist and singer, David Longdon, a music professor and folklore and folk music expert.  Augmented by a professional team, in particular engineer and producer, Rob Aubrey, BBT makes music that reflects not only the woes, sufferings, and glories of this world, but without timidity, of the next world.  Imagine the three parts of The Divine Comedy come to life, and you’ll get a sense of what BBT is doing.

Spawton and Longdon, the two main writers of the lyrics, are clearly well read and articulate.  Listening to a 2-hour interview with David “Wilf” Elliott (no relation to the famous Texan cultural critic, Winston Elliott) this past weekend reminded me once again how excellent true conversation among friends and professionals can be.  I would give much for our loud talk show (Mike Church excepted, as always) and TV show hosts in this country to take notice of what educated and purposeful English gentlemen can do.  To here the interview, go here: http://www.theeuropeanperspective.com/?p=1764.  I would not be surprised if these five would’ve been welcomed in the Thursday evening discussion in the 1930s in C.S. Lewis’s rooms at Oxford.

It’s also worth calling Rob Aubrey, who engineered the album, a sixth member of the band.  Aubrey is the Phill Brown of our generation.

To conclude this late Friday afternoon piece, let me encourage you to purchase a cd from Big Big Train. http://www.bigbigtrain.com/ This is a band that not only pursues, as mentioned above, the Good, the True, and Beautiful, but they are entrepreneurs, each trying to make his way in this rather fallen world.  For over twenty years, they have chosen not to pursue the commercial path of pop culture sensations and corporate conformity.  Every writer for and reader of Progarchy knows too well that the once successful system of patronage is long gone.  We must be willing to support culture and art where it emerges.  I promise you, the music of Spawton, Longdon, and Co. will not disappoint, and the band is well worth supporting.

If you’re still not convinced, try one of their many songs for free here: http://www.bigbigtrain.com/main/listen

They’ve certainly changed my life and only for the better.

Neal Morse/A Proggy Christmas

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Review of Neal Morse/Prog World Orchestra, A Very Proggy Christmas (Radiant Records, November 20, 2012)

Every Thanksgiving night, we watch “Home Alone,” knowing perfectly well how successful Kevin’s antics will be.  This little ritual of laughs inaugurates the annual Christmas season for the Birzers.

From that showing of Home Alone until the arrival of the Three Wise Men on Epiphany, we celebrate the season of Christmas rather vigorously in our house.  Though we don’t put up the tree until the 24th of December, we certainly let the house ring with festive music–operatic, pop, classical, jazz, and rock.  Indeed, such music plays almost the entire season.

I must admit, I’m a big fan of Christmas albums.  There’s something about such familiar and comforting music being reworked in some kind of new fashion that almost always hits me in particular but probably predictable ways.

I am always especially impressed with artists who rework these Christmas classics, knowing that their songs will be judged by enduring and relatively rigorous standings.  In particular, I especially enjoy the Christmas music of George Winston, Vince Garibaldi, Sixpence None the Richer, Sarah McLachlan, and Loreena McKennitt.

This year, joining this impressive list is Neal Morse’s Christmas band, “Prog World Orchestra.”  Arriving on November 20 (Tuesday, a week from tomorrow) from one of the finest record labels around (Radiant), “A Proggy Christmas” offers a wonderful take on a number of holiday classics.  Not surprisingly–as this comes from the mind of Mr. Progressive himself–the production is rigorous, the music is serious but tinged with Morse’s humor, and a number of pleasant surprises await the listener.

The name of the group, “Prog World Orchestra,” is appropriate.  All of the members of Transatlantic (Portnoy, Trewavas, and Stolt), Steve Hackett, Steve Morse, and Randy George.  Portnoy is even “The Little Drummer Boy”!  Jerry Guidroz does his usual extraordinary mixing and engineering.

Songs include “Joy to the World,” “O Holy Night,” “Hark! The Angels Sing,” “Carol of the Bells,” and the aptly named “Shred Ride.”

While I’m thoroughly enjoying the entire album (breaking my rule of not listening to Christmas music until Thanksgiving), my favorite track is “Frankincense,” an absolutely brilliant collision of Edgar Winters and “Deck the Halls.”  I can’t help but smile for all 3 minutes and 53 seconds of the song.  I would love to know the story behind this song–especially how Morse came up with it.

The video featuring a rough-and-tumble Santa (is that Portnoy dressed as St. Nick?) fighting a mischievous Frankenstein is pretty great as well.  My kids and I have enjoyed watching it on Youtube several times.  

My second favorite track is Morse’s rendition of “Carol of the Bells,” perhaps the most purely prog song on the album.  At almost eight minutes long, keyboard solos abound.

As I listen to this song, I can help but be reminded of Kevin running to his home after the conversation with the “South Bend Shovel Slayer” in the church in his neighborhood.  The clock tower bells are tolling nine.

Please don’t get the image that this album is in any way sacrilegious, as I’m afraid some of my above descriptions might very well seem to make it.  The music is certainly playful, but it’s never in bad taste.  Not in the least.  This is Neal Morse, after all.  Neither, though, is the album as a whole evangelical in the sense that, say, Morse’s excellent “God Won’t Give Up” is.  Perhaps the closest Morse gets to evangelical is in his delivery of the traditional lyrics of “Hark! The Angels Sing.”  Of course, if this song can’t be pro-Christian and evangelical, no Christmas song can!

Again, the album is done in good and respectful taste, but with definite prog and metal arrangements.  There’s an equal amount of jazz, pop, and big band in here as well.

If you have even the slightest love of prog (and, you probably wouldn’t be reading this unless you do), “A Proggy Christmas” is a must own.  Even if you only pull “A Proggy Christmas” out with your other Christmas albums once a year, it’s still a must own.

My guess is that even non-proggers will immensely enjoy Morse’s take on Christmas as well.  Remember how wildly popular the Mannheim Steamroller/Fresh Aire Christmas albums were in the 1980s?  Some of Morse’s arrangements have that same feel, but “A Proggy Christmas” is much, much better.  The same is true, of course, of the Jethro Tull Christmas album.  Still, Morse’s is better.  This album might even be a great way to introduce a non-progger to prog.

Arranging and recording these ten Christmas classics, Morse’s efforts reveal how much more can be done.  Here’s hoping the Yuletide spirit possesses Morse for years to come.  Take my advice.  Run–don’t walk–to the Radiant Records store and treat yourself to a copy in preparation for Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.

Merry Christmas, Neal.

From Prog Magazine.

Prog Dog 6 with Geoff Banks

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Dear Progarchists, fabulous dj (despite what he says about himself!) and prog master, Geoff Banks, has a weekly radio-internet show called the Prog Dog show.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed his program over the last several weeks.  For those of us in EST, it begins at 2pm.

http://myradiostream.com/progdog

His own description of today’s show: “Join me for 2 hrs of scintillating music courtesy of IQ, The Plastic People Of The Universe, Thomas Dolby, Siddhartha, PFM, Public Image, Hatfield and The North, Hawkwind, FPOA, Pink Floyd, Sigur Ros and much much more.”

At the same website as the stream, you can also join in the chat room, upper right corner of the screen.  Banks and followers are as witty as they are knowledgable.  Enjoy!

Mini-review: Fumbling Toward Sarah

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Sarah McLachlan, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993).  I can’t explain why this album means so much to me, but it does.  I love McLachlan’s voice and her very effective use of hammond organ as well as her Talk Talk-esque atmospherics.

While the album as a whole has a very pop feel, especially after the much more experimental and minimalist first two albums (Touch and Solace), it still holds together brilliantly.  Even 19 years later.

The second half of Fumbling Toward Ecstasy is especially powerful.  In particular, the best songs are the searching “Ice,” the driving “Hold On,” and the whimsical “Ice Cream.”  Really, when one puts the song writing together with the production, one can only reasonably cry “genius.”  Then, if you add “Fear” to this, there’s really nothing to do but drop one’s jaw.  “Fear” is, simply put, one of the finest songs ever written.  Every aspect of it is perfection defined.  Words, meaning, arrangement, production.  I might go so far as to argue this is the single best “pop” song ever written–and, yes, I’m not forgetting the Beatles.  The Beatles never captured this depth of meaning or intent.

Wind in time rapes the flower on the vine/Nothing yields to shelter

And, importantly, Fumbling lacks the nasty anti-religious cant of her middle work (I’m not a purist about this, by any means, as Rush is one of my favorite bands; I can only take in your face skepticism a little more than I can take in your face evangelicalism).  Her followup albums, especially Surfacing and Afterglow, are not only are weak lyrically, they’re weak musically, ranging into pure sap at times.  “Angel” embodies the worst of McLachlan, though I’m sure she made an absolute mint on it.

Her latest album, Laws of Illusion, while not nearly as sappy or poppish as her middle work, is also not as interesting as her earliest work.  Frankly, I hope McLachlan follows other serious pop artists such as Natalie Merchant, going into the more artistic realm rather than the more commercial.  I assume she no longer needs the money to be commercial?   Her voice could fit so perfectly in more experimental venues.

When I worked at the Organization of American Historians in graduate school, we would play all three of the first cds as we played Quake on the network (after business hours, of course).  What a contrast.  Yet, it worked.  That, or we were all a little schizophrenic.  Ok, let’s take this line of reasoning no further.

Believe it or not, I’ve seen McLachlan as many times in concert as I’ve seen Rush.  Each performance is a delight.  Indeed, she’s as good as anyone I’ve ever seen live.  She completely throws herself into every performance.  I very hope she will do the same with her forthcoming album.

Sola Music!

On By bradbirzerIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Dear Progarchy friends,

Thanks so much for being so willing to give this new site a chance.  I’m amazed and thrilled at the response we’ve gotten.  Indeed, your response has been far better than Carl, Chris, or I had originally hoped.  And, we can have big dreams!  So, again, thank you profoundly.

Each of the members and writers share only three things in common: we’re all human beings; we really like each other; and we love music.

That said, we each hold a lot of different ideas (naturally) regarding politics, religion, etc.  And, some of us are quite active writing about things besides music–the type of things (especially religion and politics!) that can divide rather than unite.

One of the most important reasons Carl, Chris, and I started Progarchy was for the very reason that we wanted to talk about music free of politics, etc., and take a break from our ordinary (or bizarre, depending upon your point of view) political and religious criticism and analysis.

Please know that THIS site will be free of politics.

Additionally, and most importantly, we have an active Facebook page here.  I’m still figuring out how to work it correctly.  But, we’d be honored [for our British friends, please make that “honoUred”] if you “like” us there and join in the conversation there as well as here.

Thanks again for everything.  Here’s to Progarchy!  Yours, Brad, Carl, and Chris (eds)

Blake McQueen and the Integrity of the Art

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I was–rather admittedly and with no small amount of giddiness–excited to a see a full-page spotlight on new British prog act, Coralspin, in the latest issue of PROG (Issue 31).

The last paragraph of the article confirms everything I’ve come to believe about the band since I first had the opportunity to hear their first cd back in May.

Although their rebellious streak is moderate compared to Keith Emerson’s Hammond organ murder, Coralspin’s determination to write for themselves has produced a sonic experience just as distinctive.  It seems this prog malarkey isn’t as easy as you’d think.  ‘I thought, “it can’t be that hard”–it’s actually a lot harder than I thought!’  McQueen surmises wisely.  ‘We do our own music, play what we want and don’t have anyone telling us what to do.’

Amen, Blake.