Prog Rock Topic

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

UberBeaver

Breakdancing Soul Pilgrim
Joined
Sep 23, 2005
Messages
20,318
Location
the most serious...douch hammer ever
So I don't really know much about Prog, but I kinda want to get into it. I bought a Porcupine Tree album, and though some of it's real good, a lot of it is pretty awful. So maybe I just don't like them. But what are some other prog rock bands that I might like. I like Floyd, I see them grouped with Prog a lot, which seems sorta strange to me, cause they're more bluesy, but whatever.

Opinions? Also, who is Mike Porteney and why should I accept him as my new overlord?
 
Which Porcupine Tree album? They've gone through three distinct phases, and while I think every single album since Up The Downstair has been impeccable, I know a lot of people who only like one or two of the eras and have a strong distaste for the other work. So, for example, if you like sprawling, psychedelic material in the vein of Pink Floyd, you might love The Sky Moves Sideways but detest the metal influence that's in In Absentia.

As for Mike Portnoy, he is the very highly talented drummer of Dream Theater (and Transatlantic, OSI, Liquid Tension Experiment, and others). You'll either love or hate Dream Theater. There seems to be no middle ground. I think their classic era, i.e. Images And Words, Awake, and the A Change Of Seasons EP, is some of the best prog rock ever made, while their recent couple of albums are woeful. Systematic Chaos in particular is everything that is wrong with prog, and it doesn't help that Dream Theater is going more and more overtly metal. It doesn't help that nowadays, it's very hard to find a prog metal band not using the Dream Theater template. I can name very few prog metal bands established since about 1995 that don't blatantly owe a huge debt to Dream Theater.

If you like Pink Floyd, I highly recommend Pure Reason Revolution. Pink Floyd are an influence on them, though not in a frustrating or derivative way. They have absolutely beautiful, sprawling soundscapes and gorgeous vocal harmonies. Everybody should check out Pure Reason Revolution.

Marillion are also quite worth your time. They're another one of those bands with multiple distinct eras. I love what they did when Fish was the vocalist (especially the albums Misplaced Childhood and Fugazi), but I simply cannot get into much from the Hogarth era at all. I don't think Marillion has ever recovered from the loss of Fish. His lyrics, vocal stylings, and character brought so much to the music and Hogarth has not even come remotely close to filling the void. But there are many, many people out there who will vehemently disagree with me.
 
Are you adverse to lengthy songs? If not, check out Genesis' Foxtrot album, if only for Supper's Ready, which will own your soul. :drool:

If you would like something a little poppier, 70's Todd Rundgren, specifically Wizard...A True Star and Todd, may be right up your alley. He also had a side project called Utopia that featured some of his greatest guitar work.
 
Genesis - really? Land of Confusion and all that? Or the Peter Gabriel "let's dress up like lettuce" phase of Genesis?

I have In Absentia. I actually did call it metal, but some prog people told me I was dumb and it was, in fact, prog. So I said, "ok". I'll check out some less metal stuff. How's Nightwing as an album?

Thanks.
 
UberBeaver said:
I have In Absentia. I actually did call it metal, but some prog people told me I was dumb and it was, in fact, prog. So I said, "ok". I'll check out some less metal stuff. How's Nightwing as an album?

Basically, around 2001, Steven Wilson discovered the metal underground (and has produced some metal albums, notably Opeth's Blackwater Park), so ever since then, there's been a metal influence creeping into his guitar playing. That covers 2002's In Absentia, 2005's Deadwing, and this year's Fear Of A Blank Planet and Nil Recurring.

You might appreciate the previous albums a bit more, by the sounds of it. Stupid Dream is my favourite. Some excellent songwriting there.
 
UberBeaver said:
Genesis - really? Land of Confusion and all that? Or the Peter Gabriel "let's dress up like lettuce" phase of Genesis?

Definitely go with the lettuce. It owns.

And, while you're at it, dig up a couple of Yes records. Fragile one of my top 50 favorite records.
 
Of the classic prog bands, I think Pink Floyd and King Crimson are where it's at. Liamcool can elaborate on the virtues of Crimson; he's more into them than I.

Genesis have totally failed to capture my imagination. Selling England By The Pound is alright, albeit unremarkable.
 
Damn, I forgot about King Crimson. Shame on me. Court Of The Crimson King is a total classic.
 
21st Century Schizoid Man. :drool:

But as an album, I think Red is far superior to Court.
 
Can somebody provide a brief explanation of what exactly happened to Genesis? My only exposure to Genesis had been 80s/early 90s stuff...you know, 'Invisible Touch', 'In Too Deep', 'I Can't Dance', as well as some of Phil Collins' solo hits in that time period...'Don't Lose My Number', 'In The Air Tonight', 'I Don't Care Anymore', etc, until I saw a video of a live Genesis performance from the 70s on VH1 classic, and it was like seeing a totally different band. Instead of the catchy, somewhat cheesy pop songs I had come to expect from Genesis, they were playing long, drawn-out, largely instrumental prog songs.

So, how exactly did Genesis go from those prog songs to their pop hits of the 80s and early 90s?
 
Peter Gabriel left the band. And Phil took over vocals.

Early Genesis FTW. I :heart: Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, mainly sides 1 & 2, vinyly speaking of course. Stay away from 80s/90s Genesis :yikes: And Yes, old YES as well.
 
While I don't stay away from latter day Genesis and Yes like Lila, their earlier stuff is by far better.

Once Gabriel left Genesis in1975, they slowly evolved into a more pop rock oriented band, and the transformation was complete by the 80's.

Yes, however, still make some good progressive stuff with their latest work.
 
namkcuR said:
Can somebody provide a brief explanation of what exactly happened to Genesis? My only exposure to Genesis had been 80s/early 90s stuff...you know, 'Invisible Touch', 'In Too Deep', 'I Can't Dance', as well as some of Phil Collins' solo hits in that time period...'Don't Lose My Number', 'In The Air Tonight', 'I Don't Care Anymore', etc, until I saw a video of a live Genesis performance from the 70s on VH1 classic, and it was like seeing a totally different band. Instead of the catchy, somewhat cheesy pop songs I had come to expect from Genesis, they were playing long, drawn-out, largely instrumental prog songs.

So, how exactly did Genesis go from those prog songs to their pop hits of the 80s and early 90s?

It wasn't when Peter Gabriel left, it was when guitarist Steve Hackett did. Genesis started off as a pop outfit, see From Genesis To Revelations. It was when Steve Hackett came that the prog came to the front. When he left they reverted to an earlier pop form.
 
Axver said:

If you like Pink Floyd, I highly recommend Pure Reason Revolution. Pink Floyd are an influence on them, though not in a frustrating or derivative way. They have absolutely beautiful, sprawling soundscapes and gorgeous vocal harmonies. Everybody should check out Pure Reason Revolution.

LemonMelon said:
Are you adverse to lengthy songs? If not, check out Genesis' Foxtrot album, if only for Supper's Ready, which will own your soul. :drool:

If you would like something a little poppier, 70's Todd Rundgren, specifically Wizard...A True Star and Todd, may be right up your alley. He also had a side project called Utopia that featured some of his greatest guitar work.

These would be my recommendations as well. If you find you like Peter Gabriel's Genesis, I would also recommend art rock artists like Focus and Renaissance.
 
UberBeaver said:

I keep hearing about King Crimson, I'll look into them.

Get In The Court Of The Crimson King. Title track is genius. Get Red too, for Starless.
 
Which of the Floyd stuff is "prog"? Please don't say Ummagumma, cause other than the Furry Rodents song, I can't get through anything on that album. Meddle is my favorite album by them, but I never considered it prog.
 
I would say Atom Heart Mother is the most prog of all their albums. Ummagumma is more avant garde and experimental than anything.
 
UberBeaver said:
Which of the Floyd stuff is "prog"? Please don't say Ummagumma, cause other than the Furry Rodents song, I can't get through anything on that album. Meddle is my favorite album by them, but I never considered it prog.

Most of their albums I'd describe as prog, though I'd distinguish the early stuff as belonging to the psychedelia genre. Animals and WYWH are definitely prog albums.
 
LemonMelon said:
How good is Larks' Tongues In Aspic? :hmm:

Amazingly good.

Axver said:
Of the classic prog bands, I think Pink Floyd and King Crimson are where it's at. Liamcool can elaborate on the virtues of Crimson; he's more into them than I.

Genesis have totally failed to capture my imagination. Selling England By The Pound is alright, albeit unremarkable.

Firstly: don't download any more than Court and maybe Red at first. A lot of their music is very chaotic and dissonant, and sounds disgusting to non-prog fans. Red has a few of those elements (the ugly guitar in the title track and One More Red Nightmare), but also has more conventional moments (Starless).

Probably the most conventional Crimson album, though, is the highly underrated Islands. Even though most Crimson fans hate it, it has some beautiful songs on it, reasonably short (the longest two are ten minutes, the others are between four and six a piece). However, it's not for beginners due to the fact that this Crimson tends to be either loved or hated.
 
Axver said:


Most of their albums I'd describe as prog, though I'd distinguish the early stuff as belonging to the psychedelia genre. Animals and WYWH are definitely prog albums.

Animals and Wish You Were Here? I love those albums, but I don't understand how they're prog. I guess I just don't understand prog, really. What makes something prog? I would think Wish You Were Here was basically bluesy - but with really long blues song. Welcome to the Machine, I guess, fits my definition of prog-ish. But Have a Cigar, WYWH, Shine on - I just call them blues based.

I'll look into King Crimson. I always confuse them with the band that put out the Crimson Idol album - WASP maybe? So I always think of KC as being hair metal. Cool. Thanks for the info.
 
UberBeaver said:



I'll look into King Crimson. I always confuse them with the band that put out the Crimson Idol album - WASP maybe? So I always think of KC as being hair metal. Cool. Thanks for the info.


:lmao:

(yes, it was WASP)
 
UberBeaver said:
Animals and Wish You Were Here? I love those albums, but I don't understand how they're prog.

I'd say they're two of the most prog albums ever made. Animals is ridiculously prog, and you just need to look at the tracklist - a concept album based on George Orwell with three long songs, bookended by a two part song. It's one of those albums where you don't even need to hear a note to know that it's got to be somehow connected to prog.

I would think Wish You Were Here was basically bluesy - but with really long blues song. Welcome to the Machine, I guess, fits my definition of prog-ish. But Have a Cigar, WYWH, Shine on - I just call them blues based.

SOYCD to me is probably one of Pink Floyd's most ultimately prog songs. A sprawling suite divided into two parts, with all kinds of varied instrumentation and techniques. If I wanted to demonstrate to someone what prog is, SOYCD is definitely one of the songs I would use. Some others - to cover a broad spectrum - would be 21st Century Schizoid Man by King Crimson, The Sky Moves Sideways Phase One and Anesthetize by Porcupine Tree, and The Bright Ambassadors Of Morning by Pure Reason Revolution (bonus points if you get PRR's Floyd reference). And then the two songs that couldn't get more prog if they tried: A Change Of Seasons by Dream Theater and Stranger In Your Soul by Transatlantic (both of which incidentally feature Mike Portnoy on drums).

I often consider prog to be an attitude towards making music rather than an actual sound. For example, Pink Floyd, Yes, Anglagard, Dream Theater, Psychotic Waltz, and Blackfield are all doing incredibly different things with different sounds, and yet they are all prog bands. That's the beauty of prog, really. It's such a broad and expansive genre and I think there really is something for just about anyone - Blackfield even caters for the people who think songs should be no longer than 5 minutes!
 
See... I view prog as more complex instrumentation than what is found on SOYCD. It's a gorgeous song but I'm not sure how prog it is. Now something like Siberian Khatru is ridiculously blatantly prog!
 
Back
Top Bottom