Bands/artists you've been into lately

[dizzymisslizzy]

Deftones. I really like their new cd

[Limerlight]

I am completly into all kinds of prog, be it soft melodic to extreme/tech metal.

I like it proggy

Real prog or fake prog?

Bands must be told!

As per me: Ella Fitzgerald, Elton John, Rush (duh), Matthew Good

The whole list ??

- Anglagard

- Magenta

- Symphony X

- Shadow Gallery

- Jethro Tull

- Psychotic Waltz

- Tool

- Camel

- Rush

- Haken

- Nemo

- Atheist

- Orphaned Land

- Renaissance

- Fates Warning

- Kamelot

- Pain of Salvation

- Maudlin of the well

- Inducti

- The Decembrists

- Peter Hammil

- IQ

- Marillion

- Porcupine Tree

- Focus

- Cynic

- Alan Parson Project

- Grindrolog

- Anathema

- Caravan

- Genesis

- Unexpect

- Green Carnation

- Yes

- Gazpacho

- Redemption

- Kansas

- Steve Hackett

- Disillusion

- Neal Morse

- Sieges Even

- King Crimson

- Gryphon

- Gentle Giant

- Hawkwind

- Eloy

- Devin Townsend

- Savatage

- Mike Oldfield

- Beardfish

- Dream Theater

- Liquid Tension Experiment

- Blind Guardian

- Demons and Wizards

- Sylvan

- Sigur Ros

- Peter Gabriel

- Ayreon

- Riverside

- Threshold

- Return to Forever

- Arena

- Magma

- Tangerine Dream

- Phideaux

- Dun

- Queensryche

- Kayo Dot

- Al di Meola

- Opeth

- Gojira

- Van der Graaf Generator

- Kraftwerk

- Pink Floyd

- Premiato Forneria Marconi

- Bacamarte

- Banca del Muoto Soccorso

- Mahavishnu Orchestra

- Harmony

Not in any specific order........

Proggy enough ??

Feel free to ask me anything about any of the bands, know them quite well

P.S --> I know you got your name from one of the song's in the moving pictures album (From Rush). Personally I liked YYZ, Tom Sawyer and Witch Hunt the most from it.

Camel and Return to forever

[AnaBBarrosFan]

Florence + The Machine is my new obsession.

[COP11]

I love Deftones! And Mars Volta.

[donbot]

Florence + The Machine is my new obsession.

Have you seen her live before? She's such a great performer, and her voice is pretty spectacular

[Aranka]

Camel and Return to forever

When I was studying I used to listen to Camel's album Snowgoose a lot. It was nice music to listen to without really losing your focus. Don't know why but the song Rhayader always made me cry, liked it so much

And although I like the latin influences of Return to Forever I fear I'm a bit mainstream on it for preferring Romantic Warrior as their best album. It's a bit more symphonic orientated then their previous albums, but can appreciate the other ones too though not as much. My favourite song by them is Duel Of The Jester And The Tyrant, a 12 minute grand epos.

[Michael*]

I the Warpaint album.

Real prog or fake prog?

Bands must be told!

Out of interest Limer, what's the real stuff and what's the fake?

[Limerlight]

I the Warpaint album.

Real prog or fake prog?

Bands must be told!

Out of interest Limer, what's the real stuff and what's the fake?

Real prog is (Peter Gabriel era) Genesis, Camel, Yes, Early Rush, King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Spock's Beard. Those bands that embody prog.

Mahavishnu i think personally is more Jazz Fusion (But Jazz Fusion and prog is so close in some respects)

Fake prog is more or less something like Coheed And Cambria, who some people say is prog but i just don't see it.

I just wanted to see if she knew about Camel

[AnaBBarrosFan]

Florence + The Machine is my new obsession.

Have you seen her live before? She's such a great performer, and her voice is pretty spectacular

Not yet, but I'm dieing to to!

[donbot]

Florence + The Machine is my new obsession.

Have you seen her live before? She's such a great performer, and her voice is pretty spectacular

Not yet, but I'm dieing to to!

You won't be disappointed! I've seen her twice

One of my lasting memories was her climbing up the stage scaffolding in bigass heels, all while still singing to us

[AnaBBarrosFan]

Florence + The Machine is my new obsession.

Have you seen her live before? She's such a great performer, and her voice is pretty spectacular

Not yet, but I'm dieing to to!

You won't be disappointed! I've seen her twice

One of my lasting memories was her climbing up the stage scaffolding in bigass heels, all while still singing to us

Can you feel my jealously being radiated towards you?

[Aranka]

I the Warpaint album.

Real prog or fake prog?

Bands must be told!

Out of interest Limer, what's the real stuff and what's the fake?

Real prog is (Peter Gabriel era) Genesis, Camel, Yes, Early Rush, King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Spock's Beard. Those bands that embody prog.

Mahavishnu i think personally is more Jazz Fusion (But Jazz Fusion and prog is so close in some respects)

Fake prog is more or less something like Coheed And Cambria, who some people say is prog but i just don't see it.

I just wanted to see if she knew about Camel

Well debating on wheter Jazz Fusion could or could not be prog is generally a long discussion. On that line I would also be willing to suggest that Return to Forever is actually also Jazz Fusion.

Personally I'm not that into the specifics but I got a lot of my knowledge about prog bands from the website "progarchives.com" which has an extensive database on everything prog related. It also gives a definition of prog.

It goes like this:

Progressive rock (often shortened to prog or prog rock) is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." The term "art rock" is often used interchangeably with "progressive rock", but while there are crossovers between the two genres, they are not identical.

Progressive rock bands pushed "rock's technical and compositional boundaries" by going beyond the standard rock or popular verse-chorus-based song structures. Additionally, the arrangements often incorporated elements drawn from classical, jazz, and world music. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy. Progressive rock bands sometimes used "concept albums that made unified statements, usually telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme."

Progressive rock developed from late 1960s psychedelic rock, as part of a wide-ranging tendency in rock music of this era to draw inspiration from ever more diverse influences. The term was applied to the music of bands such as King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Soft Machine and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Progressive rock came into most widespread use around the mid-1970s. While progressive rock reached the peak of its popularity in the 1970s and early 1980s, neo-progressive bands have continued playing for faithful audiences in the subsequent decades.

Musical characteristics

Form: Progressive rock songs either avoid common popular music song structures of verse-chorus-bridge, or blur the formal distinctions by extending sections or inserting musical interludes, often with exaggerated dynamics to heighten contrast between sections. Classical forms are often inserted or substituted, sometimes yielding entire suites, building on the traditional medleys of earlier rock bands. Progressive rock songs also often have extended instrumental passages, marrying the classical solo tradition with the improvisational traditions of jazz and psychedelic rock. All of these tend to add length to progressive rock songs, which may last longer than twenty minutes.

Timbre (instrumentation and tone color): Early progressive rock groups expanded the timbral palette of the then-traditional rock instrumentation of guitar, organ, bass, and drums by adding instruments more typical of jazz or folk music, such as flute, saxophone and violin, and more often than not used electronic keyboards, synthesizers, and electronic effects. Some instruments – most notably the Moog synthesizer and the Mellotron – have become closely associated with the genre.

Rhythm: Drawing on their classical, jazz, folk and experimental influences, progressive rock artists are more likely to explore time signatures other than 4/4 and tempo changes. Progressive rock generally tends to be freer in its rhythmic approach than other forms of rock music. The approach taken varies, depending on the band, but may range from regular beats to irregular or complex Time Signatures.

Melody and Harmony: In prog rock, the blues inflections of mainstream rock are often supplanted by jazz and classical influences. Melodies are more likely to be modal than based on the pentatonic scale, and are more likely to comprise longer, developing passages than short, catchy ones. Chords and chord progressions may be augmented with 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, and compound intervals; and the I-IV-V progression is much less common. Allusions to, or even direct quotes from, well-known classical themes are common. Some bands have used atonal or dissonant harmonies, and a few have even worked with rudimentary serialism.

Texture and imagery: Ambient soundscapes and theatrical elements may be used to describe scenes, events or other aspects of the concept. For example, Leitmotif is used to represent the various characters in Genesis' "Harold the Barrel" and "Robbery, Assault and Battery." More literally, the sounds of clocks and cash registers are used to represent time and money in Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.

Other characteristics

Technology: To aid timbral exploration, progressive rock bands were often early adopters of new electronic musical instruments and technologies. The mellotron, particularly, was a signature sound of early progressive bands. Pink Floyd utilized an EMS Synthi A synthesizer equipped with a sequencer on their track "On the Run" from their 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon. In the late 1970s, Robert Fripp, of King Crimson, and Brian Eno developed an analog tape loops effect (Frippertronics). In the 1980s, Frank Zappa used the Synclavier for composing and recording, and King Crimson utilized MIDI-enabled guitars, a Chapman Stick, and electronic percussion.

Concept albums: Collections of songs unified by an elaborate, overarching theme or story are common to progressive rock. As songs by progressive rock acts tend to be quite long, such collections have frequently exceeded the maximum length of recorded media, resulting in packages that require multiple vinyl discs, cassettes, or compact discs in order to present a single album. Concepts have included the historical, fantastical, and metaphysical, and even, in the case of Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick, poking fun at concept albums.

Lyrical themes: Progressive rock typically has lyrical ambition similar to its musical ambition, tending to avoid typical rock/pop subjects such as love, dancing, etc., rather inclining towards the kinds of themes found in classical literature, fantasy, folklore, social commentry or all of these. Peter Gabriel (Genesis) often wrote surreal stories to base his lyrics around, sometimes including theatrical elements with several characters, while Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) combined social criticism with personal struggles with greed, madness, and death.

Presentation: Album art and packaging is often an important part of the artistic concept. This trend can be seen to have begun with The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and played a major part in the marketing of progressive rock. Some bands became as well known for the art direction of their albums as for their sound, with the "look" integrated into the band's overall musical identity. This led to fame for particular artists and design studios, most notably Roger Dean for his work with Yes, and Hipgnosis for their work with Pink Floyd and several other progressive rock groups.

Stage theatrics: Beginning in the early 1970s, some progressive rock bands began incorporating elaborate and sometimes flamboyant stage theatrics into their concerts. Genesis lead singer Peter Gabriel wore many different colourful and exotic costumes in one show and frequently acted out the lyrical narrative of the songs, and the band used lasers and giant mirrors synchronized with the music. Yes incorporated futuristic stage sets designed by Roger Dean, including massive spaceship props and complex lighting. Yes also performed 'in-the-round', with the band on a round stage set up in the middle of the arena. Jethro Tull released rabbits on stage (see here). One of ELP's many stage antics include Emerson's "flying piano" at the California Jam concert, in which a Steinway grand piano would be spun from a hoist. Pink Floyd used many stage effects, including crashing aeroplanes, a giant floating pig, massive projection screens, and, in 1980, an enormous mock brick wall for The Wall performances. Rush incorporated lasers and film backdrops into their stage show. Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention used a giant giraffe prop and did improvisational comedy skits. Marillion's former lead singer Fish wore a jester costume inspired by the band's first album, Script for a Jester's Tear.

A long definition but then again...it is a hard genre to describe

[Limerlight]

There's no real way to describe Prog Rock.

More Typical stuff would just be a listen to King Crimson's debut album. And you can take the evolution from that to ELP, to Rush, Yes etc... to now with Spock's Beard and (to a point) Porcupine Tree

[Aranka]

There's no real way to describe Prog Rock.

More Typical stuff would just be a listen to King Crimson's debut album. And you can take the evolution from that to ELP, to Rush, Yes etc... to now with Spock's Beard and (to a point) Porcupine Tree

Well that is a very short and bleak summary of the progression of prog music if I might say so.

King Crimson in itself did not define prog as we know it. Early influences of prog could already be seen in the works of Jemi Hendrix, The Pink Floyd Sound (name of Pink Floyd before the decay of Syd Barret) and maybe even in some works of the Beatles. Personally I would like to include the Velvet Underground and more psychedelic related bands of the mid 60's to this list.

Furthermore it is not really a linear progression from one band evolving to a style towards another band but there were myriad bands playing prog music at the time who all influenced and formed each other indirectly in maybe one way or another, although all retaining their own unique sounds. Some of the sounds differed so much from the other prog bands that one genre could not define them truly leading to the rise of new sub genres.

The closer the bands were located to each other geographically the bigger the influence was. Early on in prog history it was mostly england which was churning out most of the quality bands. Although this is true it would do injustice to the italian scene who actually had such an active symphonic scene which sounded slightly different from their north european counterparts that they in effect might be seen as their own subgenre.

I will not go into all the different branches of genres and their singular development since that would take too long so

now having sort of told about the origin in the history of prog I would instead like to give a short history. There were like 3 era's in which prog got an increase in popularity though none being so large as the first one:

1) end of the 60's and beginning of the 70's. A lot of progressive bands formed during this period and this era really represents the epitome of progressive popularity in the general media. It lost popularity near 1974 since people started to get bored by it and thought it too slow. Shorter catchier songs, mainly the rise of disco, would replace the popularity enjoyed by prog before. Afterwards prog was seen as more something of pretentious people trying too hard to impress.

2) The second wave came somewhat in the early mid 80's mainly in the United States and the U.K. and featured a harder rock take towards prog music with bands like IQ,Marillion,Pendragon,Pallas,Radiohead. Songs were more upbeat and also generally speaking shorter lengthened then previous prog songs. This era was known mainly as neo-prog, for it came after the previous peak of prog.

3) The third peak in popularity of prog rock came not through the rock orientated vein of music but to yet again another genre, namely progressive metal. Fates Warning, Dream Theater,Opeth and Queensryche had been playing since the late 80's and got general attention in the beginning of the 90's. In the case of Queensryche this happened solely based on one song, Silent Lucidty, which stormed the charts when it came out because of it's slower melodic appeal.

At the same time bands like Spock's Beard, Porcupine Tree, Echolyn and White Willow who had been having a steady but not so great fan base already continuted playing their music. They also got some benefit from this rising popularity brought on by the more metal related popularity since now people who had not been listening to prog themselves at least were trying out prog again.

What the future will bring for prog we can not say though I still have good hope. Bands like Riverside,Van den Plas, Circus Maximus, Neo, Galahad and others still provide hope that there are still bands capable of making music WORTH listening to. It also gladdens me that they seem to retain a stable, though pretty small, fanbase over the years

Though if I have to be honest I fear for the worst when I look at the massive popularity of people like Justin Bieber,Snoop Dog,Britney Spears,Lady ga ga,Miley Cyrus and other "artists". Oh well....one might go on hoping that some day people will get bored of all this crap. Or are our ears already that much destroyed by previous prolonged exposure towards this "music" ??

[Limerlight]

Sorry, i'm just lazy

[Pierre Tombale]

sorry if I break into this discussion, but what about math rock / math metal / djent / mathcore

+ all the post rock / experimental music as a recent peak? or would that be another fake prog?

Bands:

65daysofstatic

And So I Watch You From Afar

Fuge

Jardin De La Croix

Jeff Loomis

Keith Merrow

Liquorworks

Protest The Hero

The Dillinger Escape Plan

The Fall Of Troy

[Bad Apple]

Raven

UFO

Overkill

High On Fire

Saint Vitus

[Pierre Tombale]

I recently love Rishloo pretty much,

but as it seems this years top bands have been for me:

[Rank Band Playcount]

01 Judas Priest 217

02 Iron Maiden 186

03 Kauan 168

04 Danzig 163

05 Bruce Dickinson 156

06 Megadeth 122

07 Neaera 121

08 Nevermore 119

09 Tool 116

10 Sentenced 111

11 Eyefear 105

12 Vanden Plas 100

13 Guns N' Roses 99

14 Rodrigo y Gabriela 95

15 Dark Tranquillity 94

stats taken from last.fm

[penultimate__]

Sleigh Bells!!

Especially their song

.

[Sunlighter]

Been on a huge Locnville and Alyosha kick since last year, it doesn't seem to be dying down.

Been listening to Ke$ha's new EP religiously over the last weeks.