prog or whatnot

i hesitated a little about talking about stuff i like.from my past experiences,they are really not good ice-breaker,or subjects that might bring up common ground with strangers.

but there seems to be a handful of guys who like Mars Volta,so,i just assume that there might be people listening to prog-rock...


i hate to lable music,lets just call it "the type of rock i like".bear with me.

allow me to list some of my favorite bands today.hopefully there are people who feel the same.

favorites
pain of salvation (could be favorite of all time.sadly,they don't like america,they played here once every two years,if i'm lucky.)
porcupine tree (they had no distributor in us,until 2002.steve wilson did produce some albums for Opeth ,tho)

i loved before,now it's ok
fate warning
dream theater(i still love this group,personally,those guys are awfully nice.)
flower king (might be the least name anybody wants to name his band)

oldies
king Crimson (love this group in a silly way,the album cover "discipline" took part of my skin)
Yes i used to love it.until i was 19,realizing steve howie is ,probably the biggest jerk one can meet in a life time)
ELP
pink floyd

well,there are a few aready,feel free to add up stuff you likes.
it's the last music i listened/played before fully being consumed with jazz.so if you are a jazz freak,i'm more than happy to hear from you.

I've heard/listened to all of those except for Flower King and Pain of Salvation. I happen to be a big Pink Floyd fan myself, and a huge ELP fan (Trilogy > all).

I'd also like to add that John Friscante and Omar Rodriguez also have a prog rock band put together with an unknown drummer.

Ted Leo can be seen as prog rock, too...

I guess the only one on your list that I'm really into is (are) Pink Floyd.

I am an insanely ginormous Pink Floyd fan.

I'm aslo a huge jazz newbie, I listen to it alot on the radio.

quote:

Originally posted by Cerpin Taxt I've heard/listened to all of those except for Flower King and Pain of Salvation. I happen to be a big Pink Floyd fan myself, and a huge ELP fan (Trilogy > all). I'd also like to add that John Friscante and Omar Rodriguez also have a prog rock band put together with an unknown drummer. Ted Leo can be seen as prog rock, too...

there are tons of prog bands today...i used to be in the circle before asking for something more.
one of my friends is still hang in there,she signed with a lable called "insideout",it's like a small ,pure prog-rock lable.
some good stuff,some bad.

among all the oldie,i must say i love king crimson the most.
not only they got some of the most crafted musicians,their music is daring and intense.fripp is a musical freak.oddball and all that,which i love.

ELP is great,man.the only bad thing i could say is they made some equally bad stuff,too...

there is another old,short lived group called "UK"
i'm not sure if you guys heard of it.i liked it with one solely reason,allen holdsworth.

hey,zop

i guess making the list is quite silly for me.narrow down all the other possibilities
i like Pink Floyd,too.altho to me,they are more like psychedelic than prog.
i'm easier to be obsessed with with great guitarists-driven band.

do you enjoy certain jazz artist?do you play any instrument?

I've just recently started to become familiar with some of the legend of jazz just by browsing amazon.com of all places.

I guess I just need suggestions. I mean its a huge genre.

Dream Theater is my favorite band of all time. Mars Volta kicks ass too, but DT is my personal favorite. I think its because these bands are all about the music and less about producing an image or being put on the radio.

Love Pain of Salvation and Dream Theater. Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree (Deadwing, yay!), Yes, Rush, Flower Kings, King Crimson, Ayreon, Angra, and Echolyn are also great.

quote:

Originally posted by enartloc pain of salvation (could be favorite of all time.sadly,they don't like america,they played here once every two years,if i'm lucky.) so if you are a jazz freak,i'm more than happy to hear from you.

Ugh, yeah. I've always wanted to catch them at ProgPower. >_<

What's your favorite type of jazz?

quote:

Originally posted by Cerpin Taxt I've heard/listened to all of those except for Flower King and Pain of Salvation.

If you catch me on AIM, I can give you many, many PoS samples. And some FK songs.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Seebach: [Zopwx2] I've just recently started to become familiar with some of the legend of jazz just by browsing amazon.com of all places. I guess I just need suggestions. I mean its a huge genre.

yeah...it is...if you dig it long and deep enough,you will see jazz could be,influenced by,anything.

m...let's do it this way.
since you are getting to know all those classic master,let me know whom you are interested in,or which album.
and i will try to put on some other similar musicians of modern days.
jazz is still growing vividly.it's just ignored by the mainstream.

so,if you like Thelonious Monk,i will suggest you to listen to guys like herbie nichol.and great young artist like jason moran.
if you prefer Bill Evans better,than try keith jarrett,chick corea,than,arguably,the biggest star today,brad mehldau.

don't be afraid that you would miss something,all the musicians today,are influenced by diverse sources.one leads to another,so you will get a nearly complete picture of jazz music.


something about jazz that better be mentioned,is that jazz is more of "how" instead of "what"(of coz some others might feel different,like Wayton Marsalis)
jazz is really not just about those things made around 40s~60s,it's way more.
when you are listening to it,try to pay attention to each instrument first,than listen to all of them together.jazz is about improv,the whole band are playing solo all at the same time.
the frameworks of their improvisations,are mostly based on the harmonic/rhythmic progression of the songs,and the interactions between musicians.
so alot of time,it's very conversational.

and ,yes,they play what they mean.most of the notes are intended.
no noodling.
jazz music is very demanding technically/theoretically.

i believe the best way in,is following Miles Davis' career.
it's not just for the man himself,it's about all the great musicians he played with.
(Evans,Coltrane,Tony Willams,Herbie Hancock,Corea,DeJohnette,Wayne Shorter,the list goes on...)
and the way he revolutionized the so call jazz music.
you will get most of the style with Miles.straight bebop,cool jazz,free(altho he didn't go far into it),fusion,funky style.
then you might find something you particularly like,lets say,fusion.
you will see how Miles' former bandmates graduated from his group,
then started their own groups which define the style even more.
such as Shorter/Zawinul's weather report(later on joined by Jaco),and John McLaughlin's(he is my favorite guitarist...) Mahavishnu orchestra

well,hopefully this will be helpful to you.
and hope you enjoy the music,let me know if you find something you love.

thanks for the suggestions. I'm sure this will help alot.

hey neko

how could i forget to mention angra,you should punch in my stomach,thank you very much.

i guess you might like groups like,shadow gallery,savatage,or even symphony X...(be honest,i don't really like X now,but i used to be in a X tribute band,life is werid.)
since you like heavier stuff.

i remember i saw pos years ago,at prog-power,or it might be my hallucination...mm...
they played the last set of the day,into midnight.
it just totally blew everyone away,i even felt bad for all the other good bands who played before them.

except smooth jazz .i can honestly say i love everything.such a terribly ambiguous answer.

i love your yahoo screen name "dissonant"
maybe you like contermporary compsers,like john cage,ravel,or stravinsky ?


ZeroX
i think there are still musicians believe that the image of a band should be created by their music,instead of music video and acts.

thanks to the naivete we hold.there are still great music going on.

How could I have forgotten Shadow Gallery, Savatage, and Symphony X? In fact, Savatage is how I got into progressive in the first place. I don't like SyX as much anymore either; however, they've got some great songs. Like "Awakenings"--the keys solo in the middle of that is just awesome.

Ah man, you've been to ProgPower. I really wish I could go to one. Look who's playing this year: http://www.progpowerusa.com/ I'd love to see Angra, Stratovarius, and Therion. >_<!

Nah, I know what you mean; it's more or less the same for me--all jazz, except I'm not as fond of smooth jazz.

Thanks, haha, yeah, Ravel and Stravinsky are awesome. So is Debussy. Not as familiar with Cage, but from what I remember his music is very interesting. I've always wanted to play Ravel's "Tzigane."

what do you play? violin?

yeah,X got some nice songs,fun to play.but sometimes,sounds like some etudes.

stratovarius is a band i stay away.i've only heared one album of theirs,so my opinions might be very superficial.but their guitarist plays,and acts/moves like Yngwie(whom i've never liked)so much,and i'm not a fan for their voicalist,either...great keys ,tho.

there are some cool sh**s i've been listen to.since you like jazz,too.i think you will get this.
criag taborn - junk magic
he is a jazz pianist.this album is really impressive to me,
if you like minimalist,abstractive,werid chord progressions,and don't have an allergy to electric stuff,you will like this.

oh,and the drumer is david king from the bad-plus.he is cool.werid werid time signatures,sweet groves.
here is a sample
not the best track or anything,it's just that it's free.

i wish i'm a better reader,then i can play more complicated sheet music stuff without the drag.arh...need to work on it.

Violin, yep. What do you play? Piano?

Mmhmm, yeah, all the chromatic scales and arpeggios can get somewhat tiresome. I think SyX still succeeds in pulling off some great melodies; they just get lost in all the surrounding extravagance.

Haha, Timo Tolkki. Yeah, he's just a tad bit pretentious. And insane. o_0 But I think Malmsteen is more over the top with solos and showing off than Tolkki is. I definitely see the similarity though. Which album did you listen to? Anyway, Stratovarius was the first power metal band that I ever heard; so, I regard 'em as the launchpad to the rest of the power metal I listen to.

Hey, the Craig Taborn stuff sounds awesome. I'll have to check out the album. Ooh, Bad Plus. Was "Give" any good? I meant to check that out too.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I used to be able to read really fast, but I've been slacking off and now I'm much slower. >_<

guitar.i thought you might figure that out (guitarist=bad reader)
it's a very sad thing when my school used to have a class called "sight reading for guitarists".we were spoiled by the tabs.
i dare not say i can play piano.i use it more like a tool,to arrange or try out poly-chord ideas.love piano and pianists,tho.

yeah,i understand the feeling about the first thing we listen to.kinda like the first relationship or something.

for me,give is a very good album,exuberant and all that,but it's really not as groundbreaking like some critics might call it.ethan iverson is the main man,great pianist,as you may aready know,they cover some pop song,nirvana,black sabbath(they do that live).those were cool,but their originals are the goods.if you like cover songs,you might like to check out mehldau,he did some radiohead stuff.very.very.very good.

fun to watch them play live.my drumer doesn't like them that much,they get all those rock acts,sometimes it's a littlbe bit too cute...

i'm glad that you dig criag taburn.it's always a great feeling to be impressed by all those stuff.you will enjoy the whole thing.

Oh yeah....I forgot about Bubblemath. Good quality indie prog rock. I'm still waiting to see them with a friend of mine.

Matts/Morgan is another good Prog Rock band, but they're very odd. My friend recently got me into them. The lead singer/keyboard player is blind but is an amazing musician.

Why the hell are there so many genre's off rock? goddamnit. If its good music, listen. If not, dont. Simple as that. No peer pressuring other people. give MTV the finger. Give society the finger. I'm sick of all these labels...

quote:

Originally posted by D-Boy Why the hell are there so many genre's off rock? goddamnit. If its good music, listen. If not, dont. Simple as that. No peer pressuring other people. give MTV the finger. Give society the finger. I'm sick of all these labels...

Hey.

The term Progressive Rock has been around since the late 60's/early 70's.
Bands like Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Yes, Rush and ELP have all been properly labled as prog rock bands.

It's not another label like EMOCORE or SKACORE or something like that.

If you give MTV credit for the invention of the term Prog Rock (let alone any genre), then you deserve to be deaf.