Kevin J. Anderson is not only our greatest living science fiction writer, but he’s also a great progressive rocker. Now, he’s released a complete bibliography of his works. Enjoy.
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.
A Conversation with Mike Portnoy [ProgMind]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kF37JuIAbnzCZ1ZLkXklySTJ0sqXpGH1/preview
Stephen sits down with Mike Portnoy to pick his brain.
Duran Duran’s 10 Ten
My first memory of Duran Duran comes from, I believe, the fourth-grade. Two female classmates rather confidently told me about a new band that was bigger and better than Rush. I don’t remember my reaction but only part of their prophecy proved true (at least for me) and it didn’t last long. The hype exploded […]
Kinetic Element, Live Fall 2017
Enjoy! Pure American prog.
Jerry Ewing’s WONDROUS STORIES
The price is a bit steep for those of us in North America, but Jerry Ewing’s latest book (out in December) looks quite gorgeous.
https://burningshed.com/jerry-ewing_wonderous-stories_book?filter_tag=jerry%20ewing
Big Big Train Christmas Single
While we’ve not heard anything officially from the band, it looks as though they will be releasing a Christmas single on December 8 of this year. Here’s the writeup that appeared on Amazon’s UK page:
Three times Progressive Music Award winning band, Big Big Train, will be releasing their first Christmas single on December 8th.
The single is called Merry Christmas and the vinyl and CD versions of the release will feature a b side called Snowfalls.
A donation to the Night Stop homelessness charity will be made for every copy sold.
Big Big Train vocalist David Longdon says: Merry Christmas is a song about rediscovering our childlike belief in the magic of Christmas, despite living in an over commercial and sometimes cynical world. After all, what wouldn’t you give to believe again, like you believed back then?
Bass player Greg Spawton: We wanted Merry Christmas to be a proper Christmas song, so it features the Big Big Train brass band, The Chapel Choir Choristers of Jesus College, Cambridge and, of course, sleigh bells.
The promotional film for Merry Christmas will premiere on 1st December and stars actor Mark Benton who says: When Big Big Train asked me to get involved with the video for Merry Christmas, I didn’t need much convincing. I’m a big fan of the band and love the way they tell stories through their beautifully crafted songs. This song is a real Christmas song with everything you need from choirs to sleigh bells. The video was great fun to shoot and hopefully really conveys the Christmas message. Let’s make it number one in the charts, the money’s going to a great cause. I’m playing triangle and kazoo on the next album but don’t tell the band because they don’t know it yet.
Merry Christmas will be released on 8th December on 7 inch snow white vinyl (with a gatefold cover), digipack CD, hi-res and standard-res download and streaming.
Support Chuck Dixon’s New Universe
Only two more days to support Chuck Dixon and his new universe. Please do!
Alt★Hero is a world not too terribly different than our own. It is a world where the Wehrmacht generals overthrew Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1939, and where the first atomic bomb was dropped on the order of Reichskanzler Jodl on Soviet territory in 1944, leading to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1956. It is a world where Japan attacked Australia instead of Pearl Harbor and China occupies the Korean Peninsula. It is a world of four superpowers, where the European Union rivals the United States of America for wealth and influence, and where China and Russia possess the two most formidable militaries on the planet.
THE VOID: Working on the Second Birzer Bandana Album
As some of you might remember, fellow progarchist Dave Bandanna (of the English prog band, Salander) graciously asked me a year ago to write lyrics for a new band/project, called Birzer Bandana. We released that album, BECOMING ONE, earlier this year.
I’ve now written the lyrics for the second album–a concept album revolving around the mystery of a man trapped somewhere and in some way on a starship heading into a black hole. As with the first album, this new one explores existential questions of life, love, loss, and hope. For better or worse, these are themes I, personally, can’t escape, and, frankly, it’s really healthy for me to write them down in lyric form.
Dave just sent me a working version of the 14-minute track, “The Void.” To my mind, this is Dave’s best craftsmanship as a composer.
To write “I’m excited” would be the grand understatement of the day. Dave’s work is nothing short of brilliant. I’ll be equally excited to share it with everyone someday. . . .
UNTOLD TALES: Glass Hammer’s Tolkienian Prog
Pensive, deep, and resonating strings eagerly invite listeners to immerse themselves utterly, fully, and completely in the album. From there, keyboards swirl in anthemic Emerson-esque majesty until the entire orchestra begins what is nothing less than an all-encompassing and fetching fanfare.
We the listener feel not the abstraction of the music, but its tangibility. We might very well be able to touch it. We are not “fans” witnessing a spectacle from afar, hoping to catch a mere glimpse from our balcony seats the smiles that pass between Susie and Fred, the nods between Aaron and Steve, or which guitar Alan is using on this or that tune. No, nothing like any of this. With UNTOLD TALES, we the listeners are members of the artistic endeavor as a whole, as much a part of the band as those on stage, and just as fundamental to the artistic success of it all.
Continue reading “UNTOLD TALES: Glass Hammer’s Tolkienian Prog”
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