As we approach the release of Big Big Train’s tenth album, GRIMSPOUND, don’t hesitate to catch up on all things Big Big Train. As far as I know, we have more articles about the band than any other site on the web, with the important exception of the band’s official website.
Enjoy and celebrate one of the greatest artistic acts over the past century. Greg, Rachel, Rikard, Dave, David, Danny, Nick, Andy, and Rob. Amazing humans, amazing collective.
Big Big Train–Interview, part I–2013
This today from Peter Gabriel himself:
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Peter’s first solo album.
“This record was my first step as a solo artist, the first step away from being a part of a band. I was uncertain of what I could or couldn’t do so went with some of Bob Ezrin’s choice of musicians (including Tony Levin) and invited Robert Fripp and Larry Fast to cover my more soundscape orientated / European ambitions. Although it was mainly recorded in a snowy couple of weeks in Toronto I remember the sessions as fast, exciting and hot. Many of the backing tracks were put down live, working to the limitations of the 16-track tape machine.
It was a fun, intense and scary session, with a great band – who later came out to tour with me.” Peter Gabriel, February 2017.
Following his departure from Genesis two years previously and his intervening, self-imposed, exile from the music business the album was the start of a new phase of Peter’s creative life, a chance to be the master of his own destiny and be respected as a songwriter and artist in his own right;
“It took me three albums to get the confidence and to find out what I could do that made me different from other people. And the first record really was a process of trying.“
To read the full release, go here: http://petergabriel.com/news/pg1-40th-anniversary/?utm_source=petergabriel.com&utm_campaign=8ae74ec46d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a92d0b9e66-8ae74ec46d-135531113&mc_cid=8ae74ec46d&mc_eid=46fc9f7e93
I suppose it seems a bit silly for me to state the following. After all, who I am–a goofy, middle-aged American professor and historian?
Still, when PROG issue 74 showed up in my post box today, I was both thrilled and proud. Yes, the proud part is the silliness. Does Jerry Ewing need me to be proud of him? Well, I am.
After everything PROG has gone through over the past three months, how great is it that I get issue 74 only days after it’s released. Under the previous company, it took about a month for each issue to get here (in the states). In fact, issue 73 just showed up this past weekend. Now, 74 is already here.
Amazing.
And, it looks gorgeous. Jethro Tull, Tim Bowness, The Mute Gods, ARW, Dream Theater, and Blackfield are all covered. And, best of all, Greg Spawton shows up on page 10 and Andy Tillison and Matt Cohen on page 11. Call me a very happy fanboy.
Congratulations, Jerry! You are our leader. No question.
When Arjen Lucassen does some thing, he does that some thing perfectly.
The music of this brand new video is a cross between QUEEN and Lucassen’s own STAR ONE, but it’s still pure ARYEON.
As I’ve written before many times and will write again, I’m sure, Lucassen is a master story teller, a science fiction genius, building worlds as well as Frank Herbert and George Lucas.
Just look at the spectacular graphics of this video. Quite stunning.
Our great Polish friends, the members of Newspaperflyhunting, have just released their latest single at Bandcamp.
In continuity with their past musical approach, but armed with excellent new ideas, the band progresses properly. Be prepared for a much proggier 1985 New Order mixed with some 1990 Cranberries mixed with the genius that alone belongs to NPFH!
From their forthcoming album.
https://newspaperflyhunting.bandcamp.com/album/hours-pass-single
Look what showed up in the mail this weekend!
Eager to dive in.
It might not be the finest movie ever made, but it is certainly the best movie ever made about my generation. Thank you, John Hughes. May you be enjoying your great Vacation in the sky!
One of the most unsung and nearly forgotten cultural critics of the last two decades of the twentieth century was John Hughes. Born in 1950, he died of a heart attack just five years ago, at the young age of 59. Raised in Michigan and Illinois, Hughes began his career writing jokes for nationally famous comedians as well as for National Lampoon. For nearly every person of my age group and generation (ca. age 46), he defined the 1980s. Indeed, he’s as much a part of my memory of that decade as is Ronald Reagan, Rush, and Blade Runner. A friend of P.J. O’Rourke, with whom he wrote but never produced a film script entitled The History of Ohio from the Beginning of Time to the End of the Universe, Hughes successfully captured the contempt that teenagers in the 1980s had for unearned and undeserved authority.
To keep reading, please go here: http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/02/genius-john-hughes.html
Over at my other main website, The Imaginative Conservative, editor and scholar Stephen Klugewicz has published an excellent piece on love letters written by the great composers of the western classical tradition.
My great friend, Winston Elliott, sent me a link to this tonight. I had no idea it existed. Great to see Karl still performing beautifully. Looks better than ever.
Over the past several months, I’ve been rather taken with Pink Floyd. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always loved the band. . . as far back as I can remember, their music was a part of my life. Certainly, in my little town in central Kansas, I could hear someone or some station playing Floyd at any time. As I’ve had the chance to mention before, our local planetarium played lots of Laser Floyd. I heard them so much and so often that I started to take them for granted.
Several months ago, I picked The Wall up after years of not listening to it. There was a time I thought it was a masterful work of art. I still think it’s brilliant, but it’s way too depressing for me to pick up casually. If I’m in a good mood, I certainly don’t want to be brought down by the album. If I’m in a bad mood, I don’t need it to bring me down any further.
There’s no doubt, however, that its message of anti-fascism and anti-conformity influenced my own thinking on the world profoundly.
Progarchy 