Thank you Neal Morse and Radiant Records for some great music and some visual levity.
Frankincense
Who said it? “I was a nerdy shut-in who listened to prog-rock…”
Surprise, surprise, the lead of singer of Soundgarden (and Audioslave), in this April 2012 interview in Details magazine:
DETAILS: What were you like growing up?
Chris Cornell: Wild. And reclusive. Sometime between 12 and 14 I smoked PCP and had a real bad reaction. By the time I was high-school age, I didn’t want to do drugs anymore, so I went a couple years without having any friends. I got in touch with the creative process between the age of 14 and 16, mainly because I was alone so much.DETAILS: And yet you became a frontman. Did playing music change you?
Chris Cornell: I was a nerdy shut-in who listened to prog-rock—and then I got on stage. Most frontmen are not born hams like David Lee Roth. We’re more like Joey Ramone: awkward geeks who somehow find our place in the world on the stage. Nobody ever said a positive thing to me, ever, in my life, until they heard me play music.DETAILS: I bet it helped you meet girls, too.
Chris Cornell: Oh yeah. Initially I was a drummer, and I remember standing somewhere in public with a pair of drumsticks, and these cute girls came up and started talking to me. We hadn’t even played yet! It was actually uncomfortable. I thought, “Is that all I have to do? Just hold drumsticks?” It immediately made me not like the girls.
Ha! Gotta love the sense of slightly twisted humor. Cornell also has this to say about the state of rock music:
DETAILS: There’s been a lot of talk recently, most of it negative, about the current state of rock music. What’s your take? Is rock dead?
Chris Cornell: It’s definitely lost its place at the center of the musical universe. Rock never meant the same thing to everyone, but when I was growing up in the late seventies, everyone could identify the five, ten bands that formed the center. Even if you preferred the fringe—the Clash over, say, Van Halen—you still knew what the center was. Now kids turn on the radio and hear Eminem or Kanye, so that’s what they gravitate toward. They’re making music on iPhones. Everything’s fractured. The reason there’s no modern-day Shakespeare is because he didn’t have anything to do except sit in a room with a candle and think.
So, what Cornell song is most proggy? That’s nearly impossible to say, as the “prog” elements (strange chords, odd time signatures, epic and semi-mythical lyrics) used by Cornell and Co. are seamlessly mixed into a delicious musical stew that also draws on early metal, Krautrock, punk, pop (the Beatles, to be exact), blues, gospel, and even Middle Eastern music. But here is my choice: “Limo Wreck” from Soundgarden; it is one of my 5 favorite Soundgarden songs, but was never a single or a hit:
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New Cosmograf, 62 days away
Very exciting news. Robin Armstrong (fountainhead of COSMOGRAF) has just updated his website site with a countdown clock for the new album. 62 days and counting. Order early and often–I promise it will be far more exciting than the outcome of the American presidential elections.
First Ever Progarchy Competition begins NOW
I’m happy to announce our first ever Progarchy competition. The prizes: cds of Rush, “Clockwork Angels”; Big Big Train, “English Electric Part One”; and The Reasoning, “Adventures in Neverland.”
The contest (brain child of my friend, Seth James): 1) come up with the best name for a prog band. 2) come up with the most absurd name for a prog band. Do not use names of actual bands (past or present). These must be original. No need to distinguish, however, which is best and which is absurd.
The judges will be the Progarchists, and we will announce the winner on the Ides of December.
So, to enter, just comment below–name of the band and a way to get ahold of you. Competition ends on December 8, 2012.
Nick D’Virgilio News
Thanks to Prog for posting this:
http://www.progrockmag.com/news/nick-dvirgilio-not-giving-up-on-spocks-beard-reunion/
Like Radiohead? Like jazz?
Then you don’t want to miss what I think is the best jazz album of Radiohead songs to be had: “Tribute to Radiohead” (2010) by Amnesiac Quartet. Don’t let the pedestrian title fool you: this is not muzak or some sort of cash-in project. Led by pianist Sebastien Paindestre, the French quartet also includes soprano saxophonist Fabrice Theuillon, bassist Joachim Florent, and drummer Antoine Paganotti. There are just five songs—”Everything in its Right Place”, “Morning Bell”, “A Wolf at the Door”, “Sail to the Moon”, “I Might Be Wrong”—but each is, I think, a perfect interpretation of the original tune, equally languid and intense.
Three things stand out. First, the use of soprano saxophone is inspired, as it has a yearning tone, occasionally agitated rhythm, and acrobatic runs that are very Thom Yorke-like (I don’t know that a tenor sax would have been nearly as effective). Secondly, the attention to detail is wonderful: the drums and bass present a whirling complexity and propulsive energy that constantly move and coil and dash around behind Theuillon’s wonderful lines, and the electric piano brings a welcome warmth to the proceedings. Finally, this is very much a band effort, focused on the songs, not simply using them as vehicles for solos. It succeeds fabulously. As John Barron notes in his AllAboutJazz.com review, “With a tight ensemble sound and exceptional soloing, Amnesiac Quartet maintains the inherent beauty heard in the music of Radiohead while tapping into seemingly unlimited potential for future improvisers interested in unique source material.” Here is the band in 2007, playing “I Might Be Wrong”:
A quick review of a lovely album …
King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
Just a quick recommendation for a wonderful album full of beauty and stillness and warmth ….
From the opening recording of a local café where locals are just simply being friendly and going about their business we are drawn into a cosy, world of cardigans, low-fi, old boats, relationships, struggles and raw life from Scotland.
There are little stories and reflections on going old :
“I’ve gone silver in my travels
Growing silver in my sideburns ….”
.. and snippets of real life
“You and I we once looked great
You and I sounded so fine …”
…tinged with pure love and grief
“I won’t let you fall as low as I’ve been…”
There are beautiful soft harmonies, hushed and plucked strings, earthy violins and jaunty banjoes softly backed with subtle percussion.
Highly recommended.
Harmonic and “Statistical” Tensions
“…[I]n diatonic harmony, when upper partials are added to a chord, it becomes tenser, and more demanding of a resolution — the more the rhythm of a line rubs against the implied basic time, the more “statistical tension” is generated.
The creation and destruction of harmonic and “statistical” tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consonant and “regular” throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only ‘good guys’ in it, or eating cottage cheese.”
Frank Zappa (1940-1993)
PT offering a free download of …
… a live cut of “I Drive The Hearse”. Visit the Prog Rock magazine website for details.
Matt and John
Two wonderful men: Progarchist John Deasey and Proggod Matt Stevens sending their biggest American fan greetings!
Progarchy 