Now Playing Thread

[Steve Jones]

Max Webster - Universal Juveniles.

OK, I know it's the obvious album with Rush on it, but it's their best IMHO

[Manatee]

Matthew Sweet - Altered Beast*

*Parental Advisory: Non-prog content.

[Steve Jones]

Van der Graaf Generator - Present.

[maddox]

Marillion ~ Tux On

[Manatee]

Played last night: 3 Blind Ego songs on MySpace (couldn't get the 4th to play for some reason)

I checked Amazon, and they only sell the albums as MP3s. Also, there don't seem to be any Marketplace sellers for it in CD form either.  Are the CDs only available directly through the band's website?  I found that a tad confusing since they don't seem to have considered people who have never seen a euro. 

NP: Riverside: Second Life Syndrome (I played Out of Myself and Rapid Eye Movement last night)   

[Steve Jones]

I checked Amazon, and they only sell the albums as MP3s.

I don't know the answer to your question, but I feel I need to say "how bizarre!"

The Pineapple Thief - Variations on a Dream

[Steve Jones]

Strapps - Strapps

[Manatee]

NP: Talking Heads - Fear of Music

[Steve Jones]

NP: Talking Heads - Fear of Music

Hmm, another band I've not ripped.  Added a few to the pile

[Steve Jones]

Alice Cooper - Raise Your Fist and Yell

[Steve Jones]

Talking Heads - True Stories

[Steve Jones]

Talking Heads - Little Creatures

[Manatee]

Talking Heads - Little Creatures

Talking Heads - True Stories

Good to see I have some influence, even if it's with a consumer of suspect biscuits.   

NP: Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet

also played: The Killers - Sam's Town  (definitely not prog, but has a few songs that are very catchy)
                     Marillion - Afraid of Sunlight
                     R.E.M. - Accelerate (more good songs than I detected on first listen    )

Hogarth Marillion is an interesting prospect for me.  I guess I'd say the defining characteristic of Marillion both with Fish and Hogarth is emotion.  They're both extremely emotional singers.  For me, what this means is, it's really really good if I buy what they're selling in the song and a bit over-the-top if I'm not really convinced.  I loved Script for Jester's Tear, liked Fugazi, and was ambivalent toward Misplaced Childhood.  I'm getting to like Afraid of Sunlight a lot.  I've got a nagging feeling in back of my mind about a song from Brave which I found, frankly, annoying, but I begin to have hope that that was an anomaly.  To continue my Hogarth vs. Fish thought, it really seems as though they're two entirely different bands with the different singers.   Fish Marillion was hardcore prog.  Hogarth Marrilion is, as I read in one review, only quasi-prog, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Without the fairly proggish instrumentation behind him, the newer stuff could almost be "singer/songwriter" stuff from a very emotional performer.  As you know, I'm willing to buy into that sort of thing (with the appropriate warning labels on the box).

[Steve Jones]

Hogarth Marillion is an interesting prospect for me.  I guess I'd say the defining characteristic of Marillion both with Fish and Hogarth is emotion.  They're both extremely emotional singers.

'Emotional' lyrics (ie ones that make me blub, if I'm honest) are probably the defining feature of Marillion for me.  There are definitely more of these during the H years, but then there are also far more albums so that's probably to be expected.  I could go all day listing H-era songs that bring a tear to my eye, so I'll just pick a couple:  The imagery of children never seeing snow in 'Seasons End' and the bit about the dog in 'After Me'

Probably my overall fave Marillion Lyric is 'The Collection' which is to be found on bonus disc with 'Holidays in Eden'.  Not a blubber, more slightly disturbing.  It doesn't work as well for me if read as a poem, but combined with the music - wow!

The start of the Fish era and the current end of the Hogarth era are definitely opposite ends of the spectrum, they may as well be two different bands as you say.  But to me this hides to some extent just how rapidly Marillion evolved in the Fish years.  'Fugazi' is radically different to 'Script' and 'Misplaced Childhood' is again a quantum leap beyond 'Fugazi'.  'Clutching at Straws' is then a marked progression, although probably not as big a step as the first three.  On top of this, I'd say that 'Seasons End' (first H) is much closer to 'Clutching at Straws' (last Fish) than 'Clutching' is to 'Script'.

It's this continued evolution that has brought both Marillion and Fish closer to my heart as the years have gone by.  Neither have rested on their laurels or plummeted into a bloated, dead on a toilet phase.  Things keep getting better.  I'm more likely to be listening to 'Field of Crows' or 'Marbles' than 'Script' or 'Fugazi' these days, if I'm honest.  It's not that my liking for the early albums has diminished, indeed there's a healthy does of nostalgia there as an extra, just that I like the evolved Fish and the evolved Marillion even more.

Purely my personal preference, of course.  I don't have similar views on Van Halen or Genesis...


NP: Rush - In Rio

[Manatee]

It's not that my liking for the early albums has diminished, indeed there's a healthy does of nostalgia there as an extra, just that I like the evolved Fish and the evolved Marillion even more.

Purely my personal preference, of course.  I don't have similar views on Van Halen or Genesis...

Makes sense to me.  Original Marillion was thrilling in a way because someone was carrying on the tradition of Peter Gabriel era Genesis (which is about as good as it gets IMO), but in some ways, I can see Hogarth as superior to Fish.  Phil Collins did a very nice job of filling in when they were still on a prog trajectory, but when he succumbed to populitis, there was really no hope of being as good (in my, and probably most proggies', estimation) as the Gabriel line-up.  With Van Halen (and it tickles me that you mention them, since I have a particular nostalgia for Van Halen even though they are utterly progless) they just weren't the same band (and were clearly not as great) with Sammie Hagar, although David Lee Roth is such a head case that I have no doubt that I'd rather hang out with Sammie.  David is a unique entertainer (and was hilarious live), who unfortunately happened to have difficulties not making an arse of himself.


NP: Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

Last night I spread the word about several prog bands (Porcupine Tree, Arena, IQ, Riverside, etc.) to some impressionable youths, so perhaps I sold a few CDs for the cause.   

[The Butterfly Man]

'Emotional' lyrics (ie ones that make me blub, if I'm honest) are probably the defining feature of Marillion for me.  There are definitely more of these during the H years, but then there are also far more albums so that's probably to be expected.  I could go all day listing H-era songs that bring a tear to my eye, so I'll just pick a couple:  The imagery of children never seeing snow in 'Seasons End' and the bit about the dog in 'After Me'

Probably my overall fave Marillion Lyric is 'The Collection' which is to be found on bonus disc with 'Holidays in Eden'.  Not a blubber, more slightly disturbing.  It doesn't work as well for me if read as a poem, but combined with the music - wow!

The start of the Fish era and the current end of the Hogarth era are definitely opposite ends of the spectrum, they may as well be two different bands as you say.  But to me this hides to some extent just how rapidly Marillion evolved in the Fish years.  'Fugazi' is radically different to 'Script' and 'Misplaced Childhood' is again a quantum leap beyond 'Fugazi'.  'Clutching at Straws' is then a marked progression, although probably not as big a step as the first three.  On top of this, I'd say that 'Seasons End' (first H) is much closer to 'Clutching at Straws' (last Fish) than 'Clutching' is to 'Script'.

It's this continued evolution that has brought both Marillion and Fish closer to my heart as the years have gone by. 

I aree wholeheartedly with everything you just said. I couldn't have said it better (in English that is ).

NP: Nick Barrett & Clive Nolan - A Rush Of Adrenaline

When watching this acoustic show you can really see that these guys are so extremely talented!

Tom

[Manatee]

NP: Porcupine Tree - Nil Recurring

This just started playing when the last album ended and somehow, I utterly failed to be upset by it.   

[Manatee]

NP:  Porcupine Tree - Signify

because I'm too dim to go to bed.

[keyboardistmatt]

TOTO - "Africa"
on Absolute Radio

[Steve Jones]

Dream Theater - Awake

6 o'clock on a Christmas morning, 6 o'clock on a Christmas morning...

[Steve Jones]

IQ - Ever

[Steve Jones]

IQ - Living Proof

[maddox]

Ephrat ~ No Ones Words

[Iggy]

Avantasia - The metal opera pt 1

[maddox]

Ayreon ~ Timeline