Progressive Rock Rules!!!
Whenever Yes, Rush, or their assorted minions ever came on the radio, I used to get pissed. I hated the stuff. I listened to hardcore bands like Husker Du and Black Flag. I kept real — who needed musical chops, anyway.
A few years back I went through a bit of ’70s radio rock renaissance — indulging in Edgar Winter’s “They Only Come Out at Night” and Mott the Hoople. I thought it was a faze — ’cause I never listen to it anymore.
Then Tower was going out of business and the CDs were all 50% off or some jazz, so I picked up The Yes Album - by Yes, took home, popped in the CD tray, and listened. I was blown away…now I’m a pretty hardcore Yes, King Crimson, and Zappa junkie. There’s nothing like the “I get up/I get down” melody in “Close to the Edge” with Wakeman’s walls of organ and Jon Anderson and Chris Squire harmonizing to heaven. (Jon Anderson’s voice is amazing!!! Dig his guest spot on “Lizard” by King Crimson — the Flaming Lips got it all right there — at least for the last three records).
Prog — go buy some!!! Musicians trying to challenge themselves into all new regions of playing, composition, imagery…why not listen to it? Think of something like Husker Du’s “Zen Arcade” — so what if punk musician’s push the boundaries? Of what? Of punk (albeit the Du never admitted to being a punk band or liked being labelled hardcore). Yea, they’re pushing themselves…but prog!
Listen to “Starship Trooper” just once and tell me it’s not incredible.
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Tower records went out of business? Where have I been? haha. I went thru a Yes phase. I even saw them live — a long long time ago. I remember them sounding just like their album. They were fun. Re: husker du, have you seen Bob Mould live? Him live, to me, does not hold up to his recorded music. I was so disappointed when I saw Sugar at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit. Then I just saw him solo in Austin 2 years ago. No good. The acoustics never seem right. His power guitar playing always drowns out the vocals. Or maybe it’s supposed to be that way? Sugar: Copper Blue is an awesome album that sounds as good today as it did over 10 years ago. One of my all time favorites.
Never seen Sugar but I saw Hüsker Dü many years ago in Scotland and was totally blown away by the ferocity of their show. Did Mould maybe have an off-day or is this a regular occurrence?
Prog rock was often mocked by hipsters like the NME when I was growing up, but as a kid I used to watch the Old Grey Whistle Test a lot which pretty much got my interest piqued, it wasn’t until I was around 12 or so that someone repaid a debt by giving me Pink Floyd’s Saucerful of Secrets, after that it was down the library to see what they had, and that lead to the likes ELP, King Crimson and Hawkwind. It is nice to see that prog, industrial and post rock converge into some of the greatest bands of the last two decades with the likes of Mogwai, GY!BE and Spiritualized to name but a few.
Good to hear there’s other folks out there who dig the Du and Prog…
I’ve never seen Mould live — never had the interest. Nothing he’s done since Copper Blue has seemed that great to me…Copper Blue has great songs, but the production is monolithic in the non-2001 sense of the term…the Du are one of my favorites and I’ve got their live album but it’s pretty horrible. I think the main problem is Mould’s guitar technique has actually (in my opinion) got worse throughout his career. His chops on Zen Arcade were ripped off by a ton of people (Corgan!) but the style he developed after that is totally lame and impossible to describe unless you’re a guitar player. It made bands like the Goo Goo Dolls and Green Day okay — not cool.
Prog slays though…any time you hear musicians pushing themselves into new realms and being succesful it gets exciting. For newer prog stuff, there’s some amazing bands that aren’t quite as big as Mogwai (who aren’t really proggy at all) or Spiritualized…
Check out Green Milk from the Planet Orange. A trio that plays form Japan — just YouTube them and tell me one of the videos doesn’t get you psyched. They’re playing here in Seattle on March 3rd with Akimbo and Unnatural Helpers ( featuring members of Seattle post-rock biggies Kinski ) at the Comet. Be there! Green Milk will melt your brain! The guitarist is amazing and the energy these guys project is off the hook — which is more amazing since they all play sitting down (or standing on the top of their amps ranting in barely legible English). Or dig the Sugar Skulls ( I have no idea when they’re playing next ) three girls & guy, keyboards, violin, bass, drums for some great proggy stuff.
Oh, yes — there are many more sweet bands getting freaky like that — but those are the proggiest…
If you want to see a sweet band like Husker Du, give it up ’cause hardcore is dead.
Ohhh thanks for that tip, that’s great driving music. Got their last album coming down now, give them a proper listen. The video’s show the immediate sense of urgency that is punk rock but take so much further. This should be very interesting. Can definitely see that they have taken their cues from the likes of Mars Volta but are rooted firmly in the old school avant garde prog rock of the likes of Soft Machine.
As for giving up hardcore, that my friend was given up a long time ago, even tho’ I live in the PNW I live as far from civilisation as you can get, and in the 10+ years I have lived here I have never seen any live music that didn’t envolve a day’s drive, lol. Still, on rare occasions I do make the effort. For the time being I have to make do with laughing at the over privileged idiots round here who pay $70 to sit on the grass with their picnics and watch Elvis Costello.
Jared, I saw Sugar Skulls at the Mars Bar a few weeks ago (New Years?), and yes they played VERY different music. Very angular. It was a refreshing, love-it-or-hate it set. People were either into it or rolling their eyes, no in between.
Do you guys consider Tool prog rock?
Sugar Skulls on New Year’s would’ve been my pick — especially ’cause they were playing with Spoils….I’d suppose Tool is prog but I’ve never been a huge fan of Tool. If you want to hear where basically everything Tool has done comes from (and this really isn’t much of an exagerration) but with WAY cooler players (Adam Jones? c’mon — I’m shocked i even know his name) and none of the ’90s angst, I highly highly highly recommend checking out the second phase of King Crimson as represented on “Larks Tongue in Aspic,” “Starless and Bibless Black” and “Red.” Opinion wavers whether or not “Larks” or “Red” is the best. Buy the new reissues: they sound amazing. Robert Fripp is insane.