I’m rather embarrassed to admit I missed this video when it came out. Better late than never. NAO is as good as it gets when it comes to prog-pop. Extraordinary video and music.
Progstock 2017
Even before two lectures delivered on the cultural changes that accompanied America’s Great Depression, I had the great privilege of talking with Tom Palmieri, manager of Circuline and fountainhead behind Progstock 2017.
Though we only had about 30 minutes to talk, I found Tom quite engaging and incredibly entrepreneurial.
Progstock 2017–hopefully the first of many more to come–will be held October 13-15, this year, in Rahway, New Jersey, a part of larger New York City, just to the west of Staten Island.
The lineup is simply astounding, featuring Glass Hammer, Echolyn, The Tangent, Karmakanic, 3RDegree, Simon Godfrey, and even our own Jason Rubenstein.
Memories on Record Store Day
Good times remembering Rush and Cygnus X-1 with Jeff Elbel on Record Store Day:
Personal interlude: On long car trips, my father was somewhat loathe to relinquish control of the cassette deck. He knew that what he heard in the house emanating from my room didn’t sound anything like Marty Robbins or David Frizzell. I have a vivid memory of one of the rare events that I was given permission to supply the soundtrack, while riding in his beloved 1970 Pontiac GTO along the Rock River on State Route 2 near Oregon, Illinois. I seized upon the opportunity to share my recent discovery of “Cygnus X-1, Book I: The Voyage.” To his credit, Dad made it almost five minutes before punching the eject button, fixing me with his gaze and asking, “Were they almost done warming up?” Geddy Lee had yet to sing his first note. I felt every bit like the hapless protagonist of 2112 during “Presentation,” thwarted upon making an offering of musical beauty to the Priests of Syrinx. …
Due credit: In 1986, my father took me to see the Power Windows tour at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago. Thanks, Dad!
The Fierce and the Dead: Last Day for Signed Copies
From Mighty Matt:
Hiya
This is the final reminder about the Fierce And The Dead’s new live record, thank you to all of you ordering, the response has been incredible. We’re 50 orders off our biggest ever pre-order sale and funding our DVD recording. Amazing.
If you want the limited edition signed postcard version of our new live album this is the last week to order it. The link it here:
tfatd.bandcamp.com/album/field-recordings-live
Tape cassettes are almost gone too.
All of the band really appreciate the support and it would be brilliant if we can do the final 50.
Thanks loads
Matt
soundstreamsunday: “Ooh La La” by the Faces
In the early 1970s in England there were a few rock bands that mattered and one that really mattered, and that was the Faces. I mean Rock band. Rock and roll. They were a supergroup, a bridge between genres, a match in a haystack. They had big hits and the best hair.
For English kids the Faces must have represented a lot of things, glam without the spacesuits, the Stones but more fun, a way to get back to the basics in the wake of the Beatles’ passing. So they could springboard Rod Stewart to pop stardom, sure, but also be an inspiration, both in attitude and rock power, to punk bands from the New York Dolls to the Sex Pistols. The Faces were about energy and, when they put their mind to it, peerless songwriting, thanks in good part to Ronnie Lane, the core of a band who counted among its cadre once or future members of the Jeff Beck Group, the Small Faces, the Rolling Stones, and the Who. Across their four albums you get the strong sense the rest of them were there because of Lane — playing a cheery bass and occasionally singing, in his homespun warble, songs with a a bit of a wink and a whole lot of heart.
“Ooh La La,” a rock and roll music hall chanty of the type Lane virtually invented in the Small Faces, was the last song on the Faces’ last record. It’s perfect. It’s a smiling shake of the head, a “poor old granddad” and “poor young grandson” dialogue of women and love and sex. There was genius in the decision to have Ronnie Wood sing Lane’s lyric — ragged but right, he brings to it the feeling of an old man, twinkle in his eye, holding forth in the corner of a bar. Such places are after all where the Faces lived, and where you can still find them.
soundstreamsunday presents one song or live set by an artist each week, and in theory wants to be an infinite linear mix tape where the songs relate and progress as a whole. For the complete playlist, go here: soundstreamsunday archive and playlist, or check related articles by clicking on”soundstreamsunday” in the tags section above.
Cygnus Visits Local Record Store
It’s April 22. A huge day, as you all well know. It’s, after all, the Feast Day of St. Arwald of the Isle of Wight.
Oh, wait. Maybe that’s not what you’re thinking.
April 22??? Something, something. . .
Oh yes! Eart. . .
No, Record Store Day. That’s it. Record Store Day! No offense to St. Arwald. He was pretty cool.
But, Record Store Day is the day we celebrate the local record stores, owned by families, groups of friends, and entrepreneurs who struggle against the collosal entities of the box stores and the cyber corporations. If you do nothing else today, please buy something from your local record store. My local record store is Checker Records–run by wonderful people and serving excellent coffee as well as good conversation and good humor.
Big Big Train News
This just in from the band:
Hi everyone,
The new Big Big Train album is called Grimspound and will be released on April 28th 2017.Here is a new promotional film made by Peter Callow for Experimental Gentlemen (Part Two). The full-length version of this song will feature on the Grimspound album:
And here is a promotional film made by Johan Reitsma for a song from the album called As the Crow Flies:
Pre-orders of the Grimspound album are now available at our official stores:
Burning Shed (for vinyl and CDs):
https://www.burningshed.com/store/bigbigtrain/The Merch Desk (for merchandise and CDs):
http://themerchdesk.com/merchdesk/index.php?route=product/category&path=87_115Bandcamp (for hi-resolution 24/96 downloads):
https://bigbigtrain.bandcamp.comThere are two vinyl versions of the album. There is a limited edition frosted clear vinyl version alongside the standard black vinyl version. Both vinyl versions are gatefold releases featuring double heavy weight 180g vinyl and a 4 page booklet insert including the lyrics and the stories behind the songs. A complimentary code for a high-resolution download version of the album is provided with each vinyl order. Orders of the limited edition frosted clear vinyl will also include a postcard signed by all band members. A limited edition blue vinyl version of 2016’s Folklore album is also available at Burning Shed and includes a complimentary hi-resolution download code.
The CD edition of Grimspound is presented in a gloss laminated softpack and features a 24 page booklet with the lyrics and the stories behind the songs.
The hi-res download version available at Bandcamp includes a PDF of the CD booklet.
Grimspound is also available to pre-order on MP3 on Amazon and will be available on the iTunes store on the day of release. Spotify and other streaming and download sites will also feature the album from the 28th April.
A full range of new merchandise is available at http://themerchdesk.com/merchdesk/index.php?route=product/category&path=87_115
For the latest news on Big Big Train, please like our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/bigbigtrain/
And for discussion about Big Big Train, progressive rock and other matters of interest, please join our forum at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bigbigtrain/
Best wishes,
Andy, Danny, Dave, David, Greg, Nick, Rachel & Rikard
Album Review: Big Big Train, “Grimspound”
The reviews are coming on nicely!
I first heard of Big Big Train when listening to a sampler CD that came with my prescription to Prog Magazine. The song was “Judas Unrepentant” off of the soon to be released album, English Electric. I was listening to it in my car and thought it sounded a fun song — I could tell that there was some story going although I couldn’t quite follow the details. All I knew for sure I that somebody was charged with “conspiracy to defraaaaaaaud!” The track was compelling enough that I played it again. Then I played it again and had my friend in the passenger seat start writing down the lyrics. We listened to it over and over until we had the words down, and by that point could sing along with the full song and I had decided that it was one of the better songs I had heard…
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THE SOURCE: Ayreon’s Deeply Moving 9th Album
A review of Ayreon, THE SOURCE (Mascot, 2017). Summation: Arjen Lucassen climbs ever higher in the prog pantheon.
On April 28, 2017, Arjen Lucassen releases the ninth studio album of his progressive rock space opera project, Ayreon. Entitled THE SOURCE, Lucassen’s latest–to no one’s surprise–throws everything the great man possesses into it. From heavy guitar riffs to Queen-inspired vocal melodies to Celtic folk, the album comes in at over 88 minutes long. Quite an amazing feat, even for Arjen Anthony Lucassen.
After all, what can’t the man do?
If I tried to pretend objectivity, I’d be readily and truly accused of dishonesty. Since I first listened to Ayreon–well over a decade ago–I was quite taken with it. Since then, I have collected every thing that Lucassen has done–from Star One to Guilt Machine to The Gentle Storm to Ambeon to Stream of Passion to his solo work.
Continue reading “THE SOURCE: Ayreon’s Deeply Moving 9th Album”
Sheryl Crow on sex, beauty, and dinosaurs
Sheryl Crow has some great thoughts about the crappy pop music on the radio today over in her USA Today interview:
She reflects, “In the old days you’d sleep during the day and write and record furiously all night because there was something altruistic about making music that could save the world. Now Jeff and I are just a couple of old dudes in the studio.”
Of course it’s hard to keep all-nighter hours when you’ve got two sons to raise. For Be Myself Crow and her team had to work during school hours. Once the boys came back home, she switched to family mode, which includes acting on some of the themes addressed in her lyrics.
“I’ve turned into one of those people that young rock ‘n’ rollers hate,” she says, with a laugh. “I don’t like them turning on pop radio and hearing songs about sex — and that’s all that’s on there, 18-year-olds singing about ‘the taste of you.’ If everything is about branding and we’re branding sex as power, what does that say to little girls and little boys? What does that say about beauty?”
She sighs and smiles. “I guess I’m a dinosaur. But I like it.”
Progarchy 