Philosophical Reflections on the Scorpions

Gregory Sadler, The Heavy Metal Philosopher, reflects on the career of the Scorpions and asks the Heraclitean question about whether the same band can exist twice. His conclusion? It makes a key metaphysical distinction about privation:

I’ll say this much though — perhaps we can speak of two overlapping musical periods after the Scorpions really got their sound together and coalesced in the mid-70s:  a serious and formative early metal period from Fly to the Rainbow (1974) to Taken By Force (1978), capped by their first live album (Tokyo Tapes) and the first Best of The Scorpions compilation — then a simply meteoric period from Lovedrive (1979) to Love at First Sting (1984), also capped by a live album (World Wide Livein 1985).  And then, for years, more and more touring.

Even though one can hear a difference between what let’s anachronistically call the 1970s Scorpions and the 1980s Scorpions — and one can hear analogous differences between earlier and later Judas Priest (compare, e.g. Sin After Sin with Defenders of the Faith), and despite a key lineup change on lead guitar from Uli Roth to Matthias Jabs,  there’s still a really vital and robust continuity, an ongoing incorporative development one can hear across this body of work.

Savage Amusement marked a shift of sound and ethos whose radicality wasn’t entirely apparent at the time — it needed additional albums to come along and confirm that something was really different.  Even though it came out — after a lot of anticipation on the part of their fans — in 1988, I’d say it’s already the 1990s Scorpions composing and producing it (key word there for that time — producing, not playing, not building, not hammering it out).

I remember listening to it at the time, and having to make a kind of emotional effort to find the new songs as exciting, as well-crafted — really simply put, as captivatingly interesting as those from the earlier albums.  It was competent, to be sure.  It rocked. . .  more or less.  Crazy World — and particularly the ballad “Winds of Change” — confirmed that something had indeed happened.  Something had gotten lost, was going missing — metaphysically, we’re not just talking about alteration, breakdown, movement from one thing to another, but rather that difficult to conceptualize reality of privation.

So, although we could certainly buy tickets and show up at the venue, and see at least some of the guys — Klaus Meine, Rudolph Schencker, Matthias Jabs — who carved out such new sonic spaces in the 1980s, compositions that retain their freshness and complexity decades later, in several important but difficult-to-clarify senses, it would no longer be the same band that created and played those songs who we’d get to witness covering them on stage.

We can, however, continue to enjoy those great albums from the 1970s and 1980s — there is a kind of complex continuity preserved partly in the past, but reenactable in the present, continuing even for generations yet to come in the future.

ProgSphere News: Opus of a Machine

OPUS OF A MACHINE to Release Debut “Simulacra” on November 16th

Upon their inception in 2013, Opus of a Machine has been stripping away the macho pretence of modern metal unlike any other band today. Their debut, “Simulacra” is fast, energetic, expressive and emotive. An explosion of high-energy heavy rock and colourful, progressive elements that infers little of the current paradigm of heavy music today. Taking with them the raw conviction of bands separate from the zeitgeist of progressive rock, Opus of a Machine bends the traditional, stares down the barrel of experimentation and explores sonic landscapes too fearful for most.

Formed in 2012, Opus of a Machine began as a labour of love for guitarist Zac Greensill and vocalist/guitarist Mitchell Legg, who over a large period of growth, laid the foundations for their debut LP. With bassist Dale Prinsse and drummer Trevor Gee joining in mid 2013, the energy and passion that lifts their recorded work made it’s way to the live arena. Following a string of successful, high-intensity live shows with the likes of Caligula’s HorseJericcoGuards of MayMass Sky RaidThe Orchard and other outstanding bands throughout 2014 in anticipation of their debut album, Opus of a Machine is forging a path onto the Australian and international stage.

With influences such as OpethToolRadioheadDevin TownsendKarnivoolMetallicaDead Letter CircusTesseracTThirty Seconds to MarsA Perfect Circle12 Foot NinjaOceansizeRage Against the MachineVoyagerAlter BridgeKatatonia, and many others, Opus of a Machine is a limitless exploration of the vigour and intensity of metal fused with the subtleties of experimental rock.

Opus of a Machine’s debut “Simulacra” is out on November 16th. The album is available for pre-order on Bandcamp, where two songs taken from the album are available for streaming.

Opus of a Machine is:

Mitchell Legg – vocals, guitars

Dale Prinsse – bass

Trevor Gee – drums

Zac Greensill – guitars

Opus of a Machine online:

https://opusofamachine.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/OpusOfAMachine

Press contact:

Nikola Savic / Prog Sphere PR

info@prog-sphere.com

Gentle Storm Cover Art

Everyone’s favorite Arjen has just released this on Facebook.  Looks gorgeous.

I’m very proud to present you the front cover of our upcoming The Gentle Storm album with Anneke van Giersbergen! The album title is “The Diary” and the image was made by the very talented Alexandra V Bach. More about the concept soon!–Arjen Lucassen, November 4, 2014

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Andrian Belew Power Trio in Boulder

Adrian Belew Power Trio

Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014

7:30pm

Boulder Theater

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http://www.bouldertheater.com/event/adrian-belew

Adrian Belew (born Robert Steven Belew, December 23, 1949, in Covington, Kentucky) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is perhaps best known for his work as a member of the progressive rock group King Crimson (which he has fronted since 1981) and for his unusual impressionistic approach to guitar playing (involving arresting, yet frequently melodic sounds more akin to animals and machines than to standard instrumental tones).

Widely recognized as an “incredibly versatile player”, Belew has released nearly twenty solo albums for Island Records and Atlantic Records which blend Beatles-inspired pop-rock with more experimental fare. His 2005 single “Beat Box Guitar” was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category. In addition to being a member of King Crimson, he is also in the more straightforward pop band The Bears and fronted his own band, “Gaga”, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He has worked extensively as a session and touring musician, most famously with Talking Heads, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, and Nine Inch Nails.

Belew has recently moved into instrument design, collaborating with Parker Guitars to help design his own Parker Fly signature guitar. This guitar is noticeably different from the standard design, containing advanced electronics such as a sustainer pickup and a Line 6 Variax guitar modelling system. It is also MIDI-capable, allowing it to be used with any synthesizer with MIDI connectivity.

[A huge thanks to Laura Kriho, one of my colleagues at CU, for letting me know]

Long lost RUSH — I’ve Been Runnin’ (Laura Secord Secondary School 1974)

UPDATE: Watch the video HERE.

From Radio.com and their interview with Alex Lifeson:

The thing that Rush fans are probably going to be most excited about is the footage from the 1974 show at the Laura Secord Secondary School. What do you remember about that performance?  Oh my god, that was such a long time ago. I can vaguely remember it, I remember being on the stage in that auditorium in that school, and how all of the kids were sitting in their seats — no one was standing! —  and it was a little uncomfortable. But it’s a good example of the band we were at that time playing bars and high schools. What goes through your mind when you watch the footage of you and Geddy performing with John Rutsey?  Um, it’s funny. The things that I really noticed about it — this might be odd — is that we played so fast, all the time. I do recall playing everything quickly. We used to have a mono tape recorder that we used to record some shows. In fact, I might even have some of those old tapes lying around somewhere, from earlier in the ’70s. Great! Stuff for the next box set! [Laughs] Of course! But we were 19 years old, 20 years old: how quickly it all goes by. For decades, Geddy has been the guy to speak to the audience at your shows, but he doesn’t do it a lot. After watching some of the footage from that performance, I realized that addressing the crowd used to be John’s role, and he seemed to enjoy it. Yeah, very much so. He had a very witty sense of humor, and he had such balls. He would talk to the audience and say stuff; sometimes, I thought he’d get us killed. He was comfortable talking to people, and being that guy, whereas Geddy really wasn’t, and I’m not even sure he is that comfortable with it today. But John, he would tell stories, and tell jokes, he would pick someone from the audience and do running jokes with that person all night. He was really great at that. It was fun: those days were really fun with him. We were with him for six years. You know, John sang one or two songs… I think. He really didn’t have a singing voice, it was like a Bob Dylan-ish monotone. But there were a couple of songs that he sang, and he and I also did some backing vocals. His on-stage mic wasn’t just reserved for talking. Tell me about the song “I’ve Been Runnin’”; not only had I never heard it, I’d never heard of it. John wrote the lyrics back then. Geddy and I would generally write the music. Sometimes we would have band rehearsals and it would be all three of us, but it was always difficult to work out songs like that. It was easier for us to work on the music together and then teach it to John and go from there. We still do that with Neil [Peart], in fact. John did write the lyrics in those days for the most part. It was so weird when he didn’t want us to use his lyrics on the first album when we started to record it. It was a very strange time for us, just before he left the band. But to be honest with you, I’d totally forgotten about “I’ve Been Runnin’” until I saw it come up for this box set. That one was really lost to me. But it was a shuffle-y, Delta bluesy kind of song that we were inspired by via Led Zeppelin. A lot of people think of Rush as a hard rock/progressive rock hybrid. But at that point, Rush was a garage rock band. I don’t think that our quote-unquote “progressive” influences came in until Neil joined the band. Geddy and I were both leaning towards that kind of music, we loved what Yes was doing, and Jethro Tull, and of course we were big Pink Floyd fans. But John was a strong influence in the band and he was a real basic rocker. That was part of the reason for him leaving. There were other reasons: his health. But really when it came right down to it, he was a sort of Bad Company kind of rocker, and Ged and I want to move into something that was a bit meatier in terms of arrangements and performance. Do you remember anything about “The Loser”? That’s the other original song from that set that never made it to an album. I’d have to listen to it again! We did have a song… it was one of the first songs we wrote. It could be that song. If it is that song, we would have wrote it back in 1968. Again, it was very basic and very straight ahead rock. You guys never really did “box sets,” because you never really had any “unreleased material.” But is there the potential for a collection of early unreleased stuff from the John Rutsey era? There’s never any extra stuff, we only record what we need for the album. From that early period, there might be some tapes lying around, but I can’t imagine what sort of shape they’re in, 40 plus years later. Now I have them in storage, and I want to review them, but in the past there weren’t any kind of live performances. Actually, there was one from a high school, we recorded on both sides of the reel. Well, y’know, it was mono! And it was basically one mic in the middle of the stage. I remember listening to that over and over; it was probably recorded in 1971. But unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to that tape. We never thought about hanging on to that stuff back then. You think of something new and you say, “Forget about that old crap.”

Charge of the Dad Brigade

Neil McCormick surveys the reality:

“Fans are extremely loyal, and they love hearing new versions of old stuff. In fact, a lot of people would rather listen to that than a new album. Remarkable, really.”

But, let’s face it, an industry with a business model that depends on selling an ageing audience something that they already own is in big trouble. Thankfully, not every veteran is relying on their back catalogue. Neil Young and AC/DC have new albums on the schedules. And in the usual scheme of things Irish rock superstars U2 might have been expected to boost the Christmas sales with their new album, but instead they gave it away free on iTunes. Explaining their motives, Bono said “the charts are broken”. He has a point.

UK album sales have been in decline for most of the 21st century, down last year to a meagre 94 million from a 2004 peak of 163 million. CDs still account for nearly 80 per cent of those sales, although there are kids obsessively listening to music now who wouldn’t know what a CD was if you broke it over their heads.

Meanwhile, streaming services such as Spotify and YouTube are rapidly expanding, claiming worldwide listening numbers in the billions. These are forums where you can access music without actually owning it. To put it in perspective, U2’s 1987 album The Joshua Tree sold more than 25 million copies in the course of its lifetime. But U2’s Songs of Innocence has already been downloaded free more than 26 million times and actually listened to by more than 80 million iTunes users. By most criteria, you would have to call that a hit. But it only reached number six in the UK sales charts.

U2 have effectively opted to put their music where the majority of listeners might actually find it. The bigger point is that just because older fans still want to feel a physical object in their hands, it would be a mistake to think this means that oldies are taking over pop. The truth is, the kids are just having a different kind of conversation in an era of big pop singles, where individual tracks accessed online are all that really matters.

But you can’t put a download or a stream in a Christmas stocking.











Ben Cameron Project

Ben Cameron ProjectWhat’s new with The Ben Cameron Project?

It’s now been just over 5 months since the release of Tipping Point and I’m so thankful for the response it continues to receive. We’ve shipped off albums to over 25 countries around the world and the word just keeps on spreading. There’s also been a bunch more reviews come in recently from various websites, including one over at DPRP.net, as well as a nice video reviewfrom Marcel at Live Prog.

An extremely limited amount of CD’s have just become available for purchase on the Bandcamp site as well if you missed out on the first run, however I’d suggest you act fast as they may not last long. The digital version is of course still available as well on Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon & CD Baby.

But what comes next??

Well, as of next month I will be relocating to London to begin working more intensely on album number two, as well as getting a group together to begin what will become the live side of the The Ben Cameron Project. This is a really exciting time for me, as things progress I’ll be sure to post updates to keep you all informed.

Thanks again to everyone for your support, remember that if you enjoy the music don’t be afraid to tell your friends, like, share, retweet, favourite and whatnot, anything at all really to get the word out. All the links are below.

Cheers,

BC

The Ben Cameron Project

Website  Bandcamp  Facebook  Twitter

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Here’s progarchy’s take on the first album: https://progarchy.com/2014/07/10/tipping-point-the-excellence-of-the-ben-cameron-project/