Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site mit-vax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hao!seismo!harvard!think!mit-eddie!mit-vax!josh
From: josh@mit-vax.UUCP (Joshua Marantz)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: progressive rock mavens
Message-ID: <1114@mit-vax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 10-Nov-85 18:27:22 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-vax.1114
Posted: Sun Nov 10 18:27:22 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Nov-85 02:09:01 EST
References: <866@decwrl.UUCP> <527@scirtp.UUCP> <2000@pyuxd.UUCP> <1640@uwmacc.UUCP>
Reply-To: josh@mit-vax.UUCP (Joshua Marantz)
Distribution: na
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 91


[]

I guess I might be called a progressive rock maven.  I've been
listening to Yes for about seven years now (boy is my stereo getting
warm :-), and there's still no doubt they're my favorite group.  In
addition, I've been listening to all the others that should come as no
surprise:  King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Rush, Jethro Tull,
Pink Floyd, ELP, Beatles, and much much more.  Most recently, I've
listened to King Crimson more than any of the others (Can't seem to
get the songs Easy Money (Larks Tongues in Aspic), Formentara Lady
(Islands), or Indoor Games (Lizard) out of my head).  This is at least
in part due to the fact that Yes lyrics have a tendency to sort of
ponder at life through rose colored glasses, or at least a fairly
heavy diffusive filter, while KC tries to make the focus a bit
sharper, often taking a more negative (and sometimes more accurate)
view of life and the world around us.  Someone in this newsgroup
mentioned the following line a while back:  "While Yes sits back and
gazes at the world, King Crimson grabs it by the balls".  Does anyone
know where that came from?

Anyway, my tastes are slowly broadening largely due to this newsgroup.
Unfortunately, I haven't tried all that's been mentioned here, such as
Joy Division, Roy Harper, Residents, Henry Cow, etc.  I don't seem to
have as much time to go record hunting anymore.  Much of my listening
is done from my car stereo while I commute, and I've been basically
limited to the hundred-odd tapes I already have.

I did get The Dreaming, and I like it a lot, alas not nearly as much
as a certain fellow MITer, though probably more than my roommates
appreciate.  Unfortunately, the more recent mainstream stuff I've
heard on BCN has not been that exciting.  It never occurred to me that
Tears for Fears was at all Yes-like, though their stuff is certainly
catchy.  Maybe I'll pick up the album.  I don't really get the college
stations too well where I live.

My rock music record collection has been pretty stagnant lately.  The
most recent addition was Marillion's "Misplaced Childhood", which I
like.  I think someone already posted a review of it, but I will
mention that I found the vocals to alternately sound like Peter
Gabriel and Phil Collins.

The direction that I've been taking is to try to explore the jazz
scene a bit more.  Recently, I've seen a number of varied styles.
Last weekend, I went down to NY and saw the Modern Jazz Quartet at the
Blue Note, and I thought they were excellent, but it was hardly worth
the ~$25 for one hour.

I saw an excellent show at the Brattle last Wednsday (thanks, Doug,
for tipping me off about it) -- Birdsongs of the Mesozoic opened for
the Lounge Lizards.  Last spring (I believe) I saw Birdsongs and gave
them a mixed review.  In retrospect, and after seeing them a second
time, I like them a lot more.  They were actually a little sharper the
first time around, but I think I appreciate them more now for some
reason.  The Lounge Lizards were awesome (I hate that word, but I
think I'll leave it in anyway).  They combined various blues,
classical, and avante-garde influences with superb musicmanship and
very tight seven-piece arrangements.  I only wish both bands could
have played longer (I saw the 7:30 show -- there was also a 10:00
show).

Last night I saw Thurman Barker trio (or something like that) at
Charlie's Tap in Cambridge.  I mainly wanted to check out the club,
and I'd never heard of the trio (actually there were four of them, but
I'll not dwell on that).  Anyway, I wasn't wild about them.  The
drummer had a real crisp sound, and the bassist was very good, but
they didn't work together well.  They reminded me at times of the more
disjoint parts of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, but it just didn't work
nearly as well.  The four of them would meander around the sonic
spectrum, each in his own key, each in his own rhythm, and there was
nothing [for me] to grab onto.  I'm sure everything they were doing
was in reality more cohesive than I describe, but I just couldn't
appreciate it.  Occasionally they would all temporarily agree on some
phrase or tempo, but like periodic waves of different frequency, they
would diverge as quickly as they converged (am I from MIT or what :-).

I caught Pat Moraz and Bill Bruford this time around last September at
the Paradise.  I had missed them last time (Fall '83 I believe) due to
not being of drinking age.  They were as good as I expected.  In fact,
I very much like every album Bruford has ever played on (that I know
about).  That includes the first two Yes albums, (the other three go
without saying) as well as all that came out of his work with King
Crimson, UK, his solo group, and Moraz.


"Songs will be complicated, life will be consumated Then"

				Forever pretentiously yours,
				-Josh