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