Steve Jones

[Steve Jones]

Hmm......favourite bands and albums, eh?  Well, I grew up with faves such as T. Rex and Slade, moving on to Bowie, Deep Purple and suchlike.  I've always had a leaning towards the more 'proggy' end of the spectrum, whatever that might be, and so regard the likes of Genesis, Floyd and Yes as all time classic bands along with the less proggy Zeps and Purps.  Although I like too many bands and amass too many albums to really buy-in to the concept of true favourites, I think it's safe to say Jethro Tull, Rush and Peter Hammill have dominated my playlist and viewlist more than any others over the years.

However, I'm not the sort of chap who intends to spend the rest of his life listening to 'Stairway to Heaven'.....

For the last ten years or so, Porcupine Tree and Arena have been my most common obsessions.  These days there seems to be more and better music around than ever before, so my iPod tends to be wedged full of more recent bands.  If pushed I'd list my current faves (and this will inevitably change by next week) as:

• Arena
• Beardfish
• Dream Theater
• Fish
• Flower Kings
• Joe Satriani
• Marillion (H era)
• Manning
• Porcupine Tree
• Primus & the various Les Claypool projects
• Riverside
• RPWL
• Satellite
• Sieges Even
• Spock's Beard
• Sylvan

On top of that, there are some artists who haven't released enough albums to qualify as across the board faves (or I haven't yet bought enough!) but nonetheless I've played more often than might be considered normal over the last year or so:

• Amaseffer
• Galahad
• Kaipa
• Kino
• Magenta
• Puppet Show
• Ritual
• Rocket Scientists
• Simon Says
• Thought Chamber

When it comes to albums I'm not even going to attempt to pick favourites.  To be honest, what I'm playing at any one time is more often driven by what has just been released and/or purchased as much as anything else.  But a couple of honourable mentions:

• Marillion – Marbles.  When released it took me about 20 plays before it really jelled, but now I think it's definitely one of THE albums of all time.
• Riverside – Rapid Eye Movement.  I thought the previous offerings were about as good as things get, but then this one came along.  Wow!

[Steve Jones]

Silly beggar that I am, I forget to include Thought Chamber 'Angular Perceptions' - an utterly excellent album and well worthy of an audition if you've not already checked it out.

[Crazy Diamond]

Good list there Steve,

Agree totally with what you say about Riverside, REM was a brilliant album - probably my favourite of 2007 (although PTs Fear of a Blank Planet came pretty close).

I have just started listening to Threshold - Dead Reckoning and Hypothetical have really hit the spot with me. Very much in the Arena/PT/Riverside style - sure they would appeal to you.

CD

[Steve Jones]

I have just started listening to Threshold - Dead Reckoning and Hypothetical have really hit the spot with me. Very much in the Arena/PT/Riverside style - sure they would appeal to you.

Now that's spooky.  I too have recently started listening to Threshold and my collection currently consists of the exact same CDs.  Largely because they were the cheapest at Amazon 

Excellent band, and I keep promising myself a few more CDs....

[Nicky007]

Silly beggar that I am, I forgot to include Thought Chamber Angular Perceptions - an utterly excellent album and well worthy of an audition if you've not already checked it out.

Agree, Steve. It's one of my faves, an album that you can listen to again and again and keep discovering new exciting things in. Michael Harris is genius, and the other guys are up to it too 

Nicky.

[PH]

Cool list Steve!

Good to see you so active on the forum!

Can you tell me a bit more about Paatos? Where should I start? etc etc.

-Paco

[Steve Jones]

Can you tell me a bit more about Paatos? Where should I start? etc etc.

Difficult to know what to say, they're not quite like anyone else that I can think of – prog or otherwise.  There's certainly not a metal element for the headbangers, but they're not exactly acoustic either.  Perhaps someone else can be more useful than I'm being here! 

I like them an awful lot, but even so there are some days where I don't fancy listening to something quite so intense or dark.  If you're like me and are willing to take chances with CD purchases then they're certainly worth an audition, but only you will know if you actually like them.  For me they were an acquired taste rather than love at first sight.

I started with Kallocain and chose the version with a DVD.  The four live numbers certainly helped me to understand the band and also showcased the rather excellent drummer.

[Steve Jones]

Time for an update, methinks, given that everbody else seems to be doing it. 

I've marked the changes in red, with reasoning as follows...

I clean forgot about Satriani and Spock's.  Embarassing, I know, but I'm not used to doing these list things. 
I deliberately excluded Dream Theater first time around, purely because you've got to draw the line somewhere. However, thinking about how often I play them, this is clearly absurd. 
Beardfish are now in there because they're just freakin' awesome.
Magenta & Manning are both outfits I'm particularly taken with of late, but I don't think I've been playing them long enough to sneak them into the top list just yet. Even if I have acquired quite a few albums in a suspiciously short length of time!

Finally Simon Says - wow!  Completely new to me in the last week or two, but they're one of my best finds this year along with Beardfish.  Thanks to Gelert for a nudge in the right direction on this one. 

[Nicky007]

Time for another update, Jonesey.

Just put Nevermore and Opeth in there 

And don't embarass me and dream about American theatres 

Nicky.

[maddox]

Time for another update, Jonesey.

Just put Nevermore and Opeth in there 

Yeah and don't forget Amaseffer too. 

[Nicky007]

I'v decided to put some Amaseffer into my pasta for dinner this evening, Måd 

Nicky.

[Steve Jones]

Slight updates:

Promoted Manning to the 'top' list, given that according to LastFM http://www.last.fm/user/ElectricNose only Marillion have been played more frequently here in the last 3 months.
Added Amaseffer, although only in the second list as one album isn't much to go on.
Dropped Paatos because, as much as I like them, I don't really play them to death!

[Nicky007]

Steve, whilst you were on AWOL, I got into a group called Eumeria and wrote enthusiastically about'm in the Room. You probably missed that, so here's a special for you: New American/British group, just released their debut album Rebel Mind in 2011. Melodic metal, got the songmanship of RH and the musicianship of Dream Theater. Super stuff 

In the same range, I can also recommend The Deadstation, not as immediately stellar as Eumeria, but very emotional brooding melodic stuff that gets under yer skin. Also pantheon 

TDS havent yet released a cd. You can play full songs at www.thedeadstation.com .

Happy to share 

-Nicky

[Iggy]

Mmm having looked at your lists and knowing how much you buy. I think your lists are a little light.