Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

This is an alternative shred. Just people actually like TFK here.

The last couple of pages have made fascinating reading.  If anybody's interested here's my tuppence ha'penny.

Zuma, 

lazland wrote: M27Barney wrote: Anyway - what is the REAL turkey in terms of the worst CD/Album produced by a certified Prog rock giant.... I go for any of Rick Wakemans - god bothering CD's...really truly fookin awful...... Not all of them were bad. A lot of them, granted, but not all of them. Criminal Record was excellent, as were King Arthur, Journey, Henry, and No Earthly Connection. I also enjoyed the last one - very proggy.

Well, my favorite song at age 5 was "I am The Walrus" by the Beatles, so I think I was destined to like strange music 

I'm turning 43 this month, so not much of a different history than you guys, other than what I mentioned above about the Beatles.  Them and The Rolling Stones got a lot of play from my brother and I when we were little kids, my dad had a good amount of 70's rock like that, as well as blues and some REAL country (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, that sort of stuff).

The first album I bought was a Cheap Trick album, One On One.  It has some hits on it that were on MTV at the time.  They were the first band I really loved and listened to religiously.  I bought their entire discography, but lost interest after their 1986 album.  I guess in my early double digits (10 - 12 or so) I listened to whatever was on the radio and like it well enough.  By the time I got that Cheap Trick album though, I was starting to listen to my dad's collection more and stuff my brother had that included Zeppelin.  At that point I got very into 60's and 70's rock, and never really listened to anything else until college.  First year of college, 1987-88, I heard Comfortably Numb while lying on the floor drunk at a party and dug into Floyd.  I also took my brothers cassette of Rush "Archives" (which is just the first three albums)  to college with me.  I was only familiar with their radio hits at that point, and decided to learn all the songs, in order, from those two cassettes on guitar.  About half way through Fly By Night I realized that this was not typical "classic rock" music.  Floyd and Rush carried me through the next year or, then friends introduced me to ELP and Yes.  Towards the end of College (1990, 91) I discovered that Genesis used to be really good, and that a band called Gentle Giant had once existed and created the best music I'd ever heard.  Also heard Lark's Tongues around that time and loved it right away.  It's still my favorite Crimson album, love it all start to finish.

I was pretty much a 70's only proghead for the next 10 years, until I got on the internet and found Camel and Eloy.....who were also 70's bands.  Listened to some neo prog, and then stumbled on an intriguing band called The Flower Kings in 1999.  The interesting part about my discovery of them was that it was mainly from people on a prog email list I got on dissing them.  Their put downs of the band made me interested, so I found their web site that had glowing reviews on it and ordered two albums without having heard a single note.  The were imports, Retropolis and Stardust We Are, and cost $20 and $25 respectively at a time when most CD's were $10 or $11, with doubles being a couple dollars more.  I was hooked after hearing the Retropolis title track just once, and have loved the band ever since.

Then came Nearfest, Italian prog, Norwegian prog, other Swedish prog, and eventually prog archives and many, many 70's bands I'd never heard of but came to love along with more recent stuff.

These days I don't buy as many CD's and not very often.  I mainly stick with FK related stuff, but occasionally pick up other stuff.  Not as much time to listen now either, so I've slowed down considerably in the past few years.

Roj M30 wrote: The last couple of pages have made fascinating reading.  If anybody's interested here's my tuppence ha'penny.   Anglagard - never heard 'em tbh.  I fancy their cds but have you seen the price? Seriously.   King Crimson - I struggle a little with 'em.  The first 2 albums are good and I like Islands.  I remember hearing the mid 80s stuff back in the day and was totally unimpressed, p'raps I'd feel differently now, though I doubt it.  FSOL covered Thrak on their classic Lifeforms album though and Fripp appeared on that so I give kudos there.   VDGG - I like all of 2 songs by them, Theme One and Killer.  Other than that, it's a big thumbs down from me.   DT - for me the best prog metal band I've heard.  Loved BC+SL, also a very big fan of 6DOIT, SFAM and Awake in particular.  I've seen them in concert a few times in the last 3 years and they are great live.   Opeth - Deliverance, Blackwater Park and Ghost Reveries are brilliant.  I'm more 50/50 about the latest album.   DSOTM - a timeless classic that I never tire of listening to.  And yes, it's definitely prog as I've been telling Barney for the last 30 years!!!   Generally, outside prog I love IDM/electronica, ambient, trance and electronic music generally.  I've explored most genres of "prog" but am not a great fan of jazz, "minimalism" and the more dissonant music in the more extreme genres you'll find here.  With so much much music I like to listen to, why waste my time on stuff I patently don't like?   Anyway, rant over.

I get the feeling that I'm much more interested in "avant" and experimental type prog and rock music than a lot of you here.  I was never big on Crimson's 80's and beyond output really, but I do like Disipline well enough (even though I don't own a copy).  From the first album through Red though, I think they are fantastic

Van der Graaf Generator is still one of my favorite bands and Pawn Hearts is easily in my top 10 albums of all time.

I also love Univers Zero, Present, some Magma, Deus Ex Machina, Discus, Thinking Plague, Salma Mammas Manna (and variations of that name), Miriodor, French TV, Guapo, and of course Frank Zappa in all his glory.

I also like some jazz fusion, but that has never been a big one for me.

M27Barney wrote: I think - Roj may have the salient point - (and no it wasn't that DSOTM is actually prog, even though it's the one album that all Celine Dion / Britney Spears fans also love...) The point is this.....If you've listed to a band and heard a couple of their CD's and you were not impressed - then you are unlikely to buy more from that source whilst you have CD's from bands youve heard and were impresssed by). Thus your purchasing strategy is usually guided by what turns you on...bit like all those special interest DVD's I keep buying where there are no men and all the girls seem so hot that their clothes immediately fall off and then they turn into cannibals but almost always eat each other from between the legs first.......

Anyway - It's my birthday next week and I'll be 47......Got some new music to listen to - and I've just ordered for myself - the two AOM CD's that I haven't got - Hydrophonia on Roj's recommendation and a Lalo Huber solo effort so I should have eight new listening experiences....

Horizons wrote: Roj M30 wrote: Horizons wrote: This is an alternative shred. Just people actually like TFK here.   Just people have got taste here I think you mean. Now, now, lets not get harsh.

I think he means the Shred has little tolerance for TFK discussion.

Roland113 wrote: Zuma,  Great post, we share a lot of similarities, I just turned 40 a few months ago.  The first album that I bought with my own money was Genesis (the shapes album).  I'll do a similar history over the weekend or something.