We’ve always spent most of our time together laughing. . . . After sound check, we have dinner together, and it’s just us in the dressing room for about ½ hour or forty minutes. We all catch up on stuff that’s going on day to day or in our lives or whatever. And it’s also a chance for us to have some laughs, and we always do that, every single day that we’re together. We do that. It’s been a very important part of our longevity, for sure.
–Interview with Alex Lifeson, January 26, 2015. Q107/Toronto
The full interview is just under 20 minutes, and it’s a blast. Well worth your time. For the full thing, go here.
Stu Nicholson, a bardic wonder of England, has just posted the following on Facebook:
Next week Galahad will start recording tracks for the up and coming 30th anniversary album ‘When Worlds Collide’ and as such we’d like to get ‘fans’ of the band involved in the project. Thus, we’d like to hear your thoughts on the band (clean and preferably positive!) in no more than a couple of sentences and we’ll endeavour to include them within the booklet of the release. Please send any thoughts/anecdotes you may have by email to band@galahadonline.com. In the meantime we’ll look forward to reading whatever comes our way.
Zee Baig, the present and future of American prog.
Just now (10am, Central Standard Time), Zee Baig, mastermind behind one of the best American prog bands, Fire Garden, has released a solo song. It is beautiful, haunting, and earnest. “Yeh Jahan.”
This is a fascinating interview with Neil Peart about his new drum kit for the upcoming R40 tour. The drum makers built the entire kit from a 1,500-year old piece of Romanian wood.
Thanks to Eric Hansen and Power Windows for first sharing this.
This from the always excellent folks at Glass Onyon:
Jon Anderson.
Legendary Singer/Songwriter Jon Anderson’s “Mysteries Of Music” Special Now On Soundcloud!
Asheville, NC – Legendary singer/songwriter Jon Anderson’s “Mysteries Of Music” special is now on Soundcloud! In this 40-minute special, Jon talks about his own musical development as well as his appreciation for World Music and the sounds of nature. The soundtrack includes many examples of these topics, as well as the YES masterpiece “Awaken”.
Jon Anderson and Jean-Luc Ponty have announced the formation of a new ensemble – The AndersonPonty Band! YES’s original singer/songwriter for 35 years, Jon Anderson has had a successful solo career, which includes working with such notable music artists as Vangelis, Kitaro, and Milton Nascimento. International jazz superstar Jean-Luc Ponty is a pioneer and undisputed master of violin in the arena of jazz and rock. He is widely regarded as an innovator who has applied his unique visionary spin that has expanded the vocabulary of modern music. Together these two music icons form a musical synergy that is unparalleled! This past September the APB band gave a special live performance at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado. The show was filmed and recorded and is scheduled for release on CD/DVD this coming spring! Tour plans for the AndersonPonty Band are also currently in the works.
Says Jon, “I am very excited listening to the live show we did in Aspen, the mix’s and video are coming along great, so you wonderful peeps out there will have something new to listen to this spring time.”
GONZO Multimedia recently released of a new charity single “The Family Circle” by Jon Anderson and former Counting Crows bassist Matt Malley. The money received from the single will go to the following charities: Flutie Foundation – http://www.flutiefoundation.org (Jon Anderson), Sahaja Yoga Meditation – http://www.sahajayoga.org (Matt Malley) and National Autistic Society (Rob Ayling, GONZO Multimedia president).
Welcome to 2015! Or, to be more exact, welcome to week three of 2015, as I’m a little behind the times at the moment. Nevertheless, it is still early enough in the year to take a look at the coming twelve months to identify those releases that we’re most excited about. As is always the case with the Blog Of Much Metal, my focus is on those bands that might not be in the mainstream eye or, if they are, those bands that are particularly special to me.
As such, in this post, you’ll hear no further mention of the likes of Metallica, Iron Maiden or those of a like size, popularity-wise. These albums will be written about ad nauseum elsewhere and I’m happier to leave it that way. Of course I hope that Metallica will release something equally as good as ‘Ride The Lightning’ or that Iron Maiden…
Although Greek progressive rock bands are perhaps not as well known as some of their northern European counterparts, Aphrodite’s Child enjoyed a successful, albeit brief, stint as Greece’s foremost prog rock group in the late 1960s. Roussos (bass/vocals), along with Vangelis (keys), Lucas Sideras (drums), and “Silver” Koulouris (guitars), produced one of the finest early progressive rock albums: 666, an album based upon the Book of Revelation.
Roussos, who enjoyed a successful solo career after the end of Aphrodite’s Child, was 68 years old.
Progarchy 