Category: Progarchy

New concept album from Dream Theater?

On By Time LordIn ProgarchyLeave a comment

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And so the speculation begins…

Little information has been forthcoming about a new album from the band, but we are aware that a release had been pencilled in for 2016. In a recent interview with Prog magazine, guitarist John Petrucci told band biographer Rich Wilson “There’s been no shortage of ideas. Without going into detail, this is a huge undertaking, what we’re doing. We’ve been working really hard and probably longer on this than other albums in the past. But you’ll see why”.

This has given rise to suggestions that the new album might be a hefty concept piece in the mould of Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory or Octavarium. If so, then do the two different factions on view on the website might give a clue as to the nature of the concept?

Rush is Flying By Night with orange vinyl (and the coolest album cover)

On By Time LordIn Progarchy1 Comment

Limited Edition – 500 Copies on Orange Vinyl

This is the historic record of Rush taking their first steps towards rock superstardom.
Fresh from their first US Tour and with Neil Peart having just joined the band, the new look Rush decamped to New York and set up their gear in the famous Electric Ladyland studios.
On 5th December 1974, before a tiny studio audience, Rush, as we have come to know them , made their first ever US live radio broadcast. Neil was yet to record with the band, but some of the material which would appear on Fly By Night was already being routined in the live arena. Featuring the earliest studio versions of Anthem, Best I Can and Fly By Night, this powerful record is essential listening for every Rush fan.

TRACK LIST
Side A
1. Finding My Way
2. Best I Can
3. In The Mood
4. Anthem
5. Fly By Night

Side B
1. Here Again
2. Working Man

Weather Report — “Birdland” from The Legendary Live Tapes: 1978-1981

On By Time LordIn Progarchy1 Comment

Weather Report — The Legendary Live Tapes: 1978-1981 — is due Nov. 20 on Legacy Recordings.

I’m pretty excited about this. My favorite Weather Report album of all time is the underrated Night Passage.

I still get a chill when I hear the cheering on the live cut on Night Passage because it reminds me of the time when I first heard it and realized, “Holy crap! This is LIVE!”

Here’s “Birdland” from 1978:

http://cache.vevo.com/assets/html/embed.html?video=USSM21501568

The prog of the future!

On By Time LordIn Progarchy3 Comments

Whoa, does this ever look awesome…

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And how about that headline at the top center?

“Steve Harris: ‘I remember the day Gabriel left Genesis. I was devastated.’ Iron Maiden man reveals his prog rock heart!”

Indeed. You can heart that prog heart beating loud and clear on the new Iron Maiden album, The Book of Souls.

In my humble opinion, it is the greatest achievement of Iron Maiden’s career.

The songs are uniformly excellent, from start to finish, and there’s so much prog splendor in the instrumental attacks that you can scarcely catch your breath.

If you haven’t heard it, download it today and make it part of your regular playlist!

It’s awesome. And now it’s very cool to know that the inspiration of Genesis had a remote hand in it…

Miracles (and Music) Out of Kansas

On By carleolsonIn Prog, Progarchy, progressive rock music16 Comments

kansas_miraclesIn one of my first posts here at Progarchy.com–“A Pilgrim’s Prog-ress”–I wrote about the key role that Kansas (the band, not the state) played in opening the doors to prog for me:

Around 1985 or so, I bought a copy of “The Best of Kansas”. That opened the door to prog. There was something about the mixture of Livgren’s lead guitar, Steinhardt’s violin, and Steve Walsh’s amazing voice, along with lyrics soaked in spiritual longing and Americana, that grabbed me by the scrawny neck. Over the next three or four years, I ended up collecting everything by Kansas, Kerry Livgren (solo and with AD), and Steve Morse (solo, Dixie Dregs, etc.). My favorite Kansas albums are “Song for America” and “In the Spirit of Things”, although they weren’t the chart-toppers that “Point of Know Return” and “Leftoverture” were.

Early on in the documentary, “Miracles Out of Nowhere”, which was released in March, drummer Phil Ehart emphasizes that it was Livgren’s song writing, Steinhardt’s violin, and Walsh’s vocals that made Kansas such a distinctive-sounding band in the 1970s. He is surely correct about that, but he also, in saying so, humbly passes over another key to the band’s steady rise and eventually rather surreal success (or miraculous, a consistent theme in the documentary): he own unassuming, balanced personality and rooted, yet deeply musical, drumming. As Garth Brooks, one of several rather surprising guests, marvels in recalling his first Kansas show: “It was the first time I’d seen a drummer play actual notes!”

Miracles and music: those are the two constant themes throughout the documentary, which begins with childhood memories and concludes with 1977’s “Point of Know Return”, Kansas’ fifth album and the apex of the band’s commercial success (it hit #4 in the U.S. and featured the band’s biggest hit and best-known song, “Dust in the Wind”). That album is, arguably, a fitting conclusion to the documentary as the band would soon learn there really are points of no return; or, in the words a certain young lady, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”. It wasn’t long, in fact, before Walsh departed, then Livgren, and then the band entered into the post-classic-Kansas era (I provide some details here). Continue reading “Miracles (and Music) Out of Kansas” →