I’ve been in a Progressive wave the last year and I have to say that is great.
I heard Spock’s Beard - The Light, and I think this is an excellent band. Has anyone got the chance to get their new album? How is it?
Another band that gets my attention is Rush, and an excellent band that qualifies better as Progressive Metal is Dream Theater.
I’m familiar with The Flower Kings and Transatlantic too, and I would like to hear some other bands. Any suggestions?
There’s many good prog rock groups. I’m sure you recognize most of the following:
Camel
Emerson Lake & Palmer
Genesis
Gentle Giant
King Crimson
Alan Parsons
Pink Floyd
Supertramp
Yes
and there’s my favorite:
Triumvirat
If EMI ever gets off their corporate ass and releases the remasters of this group, I would recommend you get :
Spartacus, Illusions on a Double Dimple, Old Loves Die Hard, Pompeii, and A la Carte. Each album is worth every overpriced dollar they charge you.
Also, for a more complete list of prog groups check out this site.
ben
Marillion, PERHAPS Jethro Tull
Queen had progressive leanings from time to time.
I do, really, I hate the stuff.
But, uber-conservative that I am, while perusing National Review Online , I came across this article about Prog Rock in General and Spock’s Beard in Specific! .
Read it and enjoy!
Well, I’m nearly out of my Prog-rock era … Genesis, Marillion, King Crimson were my poisons back in the day. Still drag out some Gabriel-era Genesis about once a year. Pick up every Gabriel-era Genesis for some good listenin’.
There’s also Fish, the former lead singer of Marillion. He can be a bit heavy-handed at times, though. Marillion’s best album (with Fish): Misplaced Childhood. Marillion’s best album (with Steve Hogarth singing): Brave.
Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick” is a classic. Definitely get “Discipline” by King Crimson.
A recent American band was/is Echolyn (they keep giving up and reforming again) and their spin-off group Always Almost/Still (started out as Still, then realized the name was taken. sad). Their stuff can be kind of hokey and derivative, but I still like listening to it.
Prog bands to avoid like the plague, IMO:
-Pallas
-IQ
-Finneus Gauge (another Echolyn spin-off)
Prog rock was a music genre. As most music genres, it spawned some excellent stuff and metric tons of awful stuff. I like some prog rock bands (krautrock owns you, bitch). Mostly the ones who don’t consider themselves “more artistically mature” than every other band at the time because they can play in 7/8 and they use a symphonic orchestra, overdubbed guitars and fifteen remotely controlled mellotrons. For 14 minutes. There’s nothing wrong with complex music, but when complexity becomes a goal in and out of itself you can usually tell.
I think prog generally works best when it’s being incorporated into an other genre, whether it’s Meshuggah playing raw metal riffs in 13/16, Radiohead’s textured rock sounds, Sonic Youth’s extended noise jams or Tortoise’s post-rockish electronica.
I have a soft spot for “Eldorado” by Electric Light Orchestra. They aren’t exactly a prog rock band, but this album surely was.
You do know that in any thread regarding progressive rock, all posts must take at least 12 minutes to read, right? 
Spock’s Beard doesn’t have all the prog rock cliches – you know, overly symphonic tunes about wizards and other medieval crap – which is why I find them to be an anjoyable band. Same thing with Rush and Dream Theater.
Other good bands to check out are Ayreon and Porcupine Tree, often mentioned in the same breath as Spock’s Beard.
If Ozric Tentacles isn’t the ultimate prog rock band name, I don’t know what is.
When I think prog-rock, I think of those bands that invariably had album cover art by Roger Dean and I usually couldn’t stand them… but if Tortoise is prog-rock, I guess I’m all about that.
I was a fan of what you’re calling “progressive rock,” though when the bands you describe were playing, it was called “art rock.” (“Progressive Rock” was a radio format and included anything that wasn’t top 40 – what might now be called “alternative” plus anything a little quirky. It was back when DJs chose the playlists, not marketing executives. But I digress.)
Groups like Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Renaissance (not the one you’re thinking of), Rick Wakeman, Yes, Soft Machine (criminally overlooked, and one of the best of the genre), Macdonald and Giles, Procol Harum, and The Moody Blues put out some first-class music and it was too bad the genre died.
I lived and breathed progressive rock …
Many great ones have been mentioned above: (King Crimson, MacDonald and Giles, Triumverate (although the vocalist’s accent is a bit hard to take, and of course Pinkfloyd).
Some not yet mentioned:
Gryphon (especially Red Queen to Gryphon Three)
Eloi
Vangelis (before Chariots of Fire)
Strawbs
Barclay James Havest
Tangerine Dream (hybrid of progressive and electronic)
I would also include Mike Oldfield and the absolutely amazing, superb Robert Wyatt (especially Rock Bottom)
What about Kansas?
Are they prog rock?
They were my favorite band when I was a teenager.
Agree with many names already mentioned, in particular the older Genesis (Selling England by the pound, A trick of the tail) and Camel (start with Mirage or Moonmadness).
Not mentioned yet: the Dutch band Kayak. Try to get hold of the album Merlin, it is an absolute masterpiece.
You could cross over to modern jazz which, IMO, is sonically superior to prog-rock. It seems to me prog artists are influenced heavily by a mix of metal and jazz. I’m a fan of proggresive but when I want to hear something a little more frenzied, I’ll spin something from Herbie Hancock, Spyro Gyra or Chick Corea. Just a thought.
Sly
Well, they’re as much prog-rock as Sonic Youth or Meshuggah. They’re kind of influenced by it, as are pretty much all post-rock bands.
Some people, myself included, think so.
Damn. Sorry I didn’t catch this thread quicker. A few points to add (all of which are, of course, IMHO):
Typically, the music of the genre was challenging, and the performers had genuine talent. Talent and compositional ambition eventually became unseemly, which led to the dreck of the early 80’s. Ugh.
King Crimson is still very much alive and well, and, ummm, still progressing. The earliest Crimson sounds dated as well (thanks to the Mellotrons), but was amazingly daring when it came out in 1969. But the 1973-1974 albums still sound fresh to my ears: Lark’s Tongue in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, and Red. Some rock writers have said that the last song on Red, Starless, closed the book on Prog. Crimson successfully evolved in the early 80’s - I agree with the recommendation for Discipline. Guiding light Robert Fripp thinks of Crimson as more of an idea than a group, and he continues to follow his muse. Their current releases are very heavy-metal tinged, and they were the opening act for TOOL last year. (Tool freely admits to Crimson’s influence on their work.)
I was a big ELP fan in my youth, but most of it now sounds very dated. Brain Salad Surgery was their best.
The early music of Kansas certainly qualifies, especially the three Kerry Livgren compositions on Song for America. But they moved more squarely into pop.
Same with Genesis… Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Wind and the Wuthering, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, A Trick of the Tail, and Selling England by the Pound all qualify - once both Steve Hackett and Peter Gabriel left, the Prog label really didn’t apply anymore. Certainly Hackett and Gabriel’s solo efforts qualify as well.
Some others who dabbled in Prog included Frank Zappa, particularly in his One Size Fits All/Roxy and Elsewhere period, Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover on his album Elements (which is really really really hard to find), Gong, and others. Eventually, the line blurs between Prog, Fusion, and other genres.
Someone doing cool stuff now: Mike Keneally. I think his CD Dancing is brilliant.
Shit! It only took me two and a half years to hit my 100th post!!!:smack:
:smack: :smack: :smack: …and then I have to use my 101st post to correct my math … I’ve been an SDMB member for three and a half years…