Forum Home Forum Home > Progressive Music Lounges > Suggest New Bands and Artists
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Space Opera for crossover prog or prog related
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Topic ClosedSpace Opera for crossover prog or prog related

 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
listen View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: December 05 2007
Location: Portland OR
Status: Offline
Points: 352
Direct Link To This Post Topic: Space Opera for crossover prog or prog related
    Posted: August 22 2008 at 23:53
A little known band hailing from Texas, Space opera released their lone self-titled album in 1972. Their sound is a lightly progressive country rock that reminds me a little of they byrds, loggins and messina and several other groups I haven't pinned down yet. Here is a bio for them from ccmusic.com:

Blast off with one of the true cult classic albums of the '70s! After woodshedding in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area during the '60s (and recording with high school buddy T-Bone Burnett), Scott Fraser, David Bullock, Phil White and Brett Wilson landed as Space Opera in New York, where the already-legendary Clive Davis offered to sign them on Columbia. Much to the music biz's amazement, they turned him down, opting for more creative control by signing with Epic's Canadian arm, for whom they recorded this excellent but little-promoted album in 1972. An inspired blend of Frank Zappa, the Band, Steely Dan and especially the Byrds, this record is still talked about in hushed tones by 12-string guitarists, as Scott Fraser's unique tuning technique (each string-pair is tuned to 5ths instead of octaves) resulted in a truly monumental sound. Add to that their ample harmonies, and you can hear why Space Opera is considered by some to be the Byrds' natural heirs, or at least their prog-rock cousins!

you can listen to several of their songs at

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=185616533

"Holy River" and "Guitar Suite" are particularly enjoyable!

Edited by listen - August 23 2008 at 16:07
Back to Top
Logan View Drop Down
Forum & Site Admin Group
Forum & Site Admin Group
Avatar
Site Admin

Joined: April 05 2006
Location: Vancouver, BC
Status: Offline
Points: 36306
Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 23 2008 at 13:10
Interesting listening to it.  I've heard of it before.  I like "Over and Over" considerably too (though the songs don't develop as much as I would like).  One can really hear the Byrds (a band I like very much) influence.  I'd put it in my collection next to bands like Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Here's the official site: http://www.spaceopera.net/bandbio_new.htm

The following quote taken from http://www.connollyco.com/discography/space_opera/space.html

Quote

Space cowboys, sure. Space opera? No. The band’s first album isn’t a tortuously complex concept album but rather a collection of country pop/rock songs that invite comparison to The Byrds, Eagles and other folk/rock artists of the day. While it doesn’t constitute progressive rock, there are moments when Space Opera pushes their music into interstellar overdrive: “Guitar Suite,” “Over And Over,” “Holy River.” Listeners have heard in these agitated exceptions traces of Frank Zappa, Robert Fripp and other icons of the progressive renaissance. However, this facet of the band (which seemed to stem from Scott Fraser) isn’t the main attraction. It’s only one ingredient, an unexpected one, that deserves a backseat behind the would-be hits: “Country Max” (with its shades of “Freebird”) and “My Telephone Artist.” These make the strongest case for Space Opera as a sustainable band, one that might have flourished in the cowboy rock climate of the mid Seventies. Like the Eagles, they were fortunate to have several songwriters with different musical personalities: Fraser’s arty experiments, Bullock’s concise cowboy rock and the softer folk rock of Philip White. Honestly, as a progressive rock fan, I’m most interested in Space Opera when they’re most experimental, but as a music fan I have to admit that the whole album goes down easy. But first, you’ll need to put any notions of space operas right out of your head, since this music inhabits an entirely different universe than Hawkwind. Instead, it belongs to a world where folk and rock and psychedelia intertwine, the great plain of the space cowboy.

Back to Top
micky View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 02 2005
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 46838
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 01 2008 at 20:29
and Space Opera has been accepted for inclusion into the hive of wickedness that is ....Crossover prog.


The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
Back to Top
micky View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: October 02 2005
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 46838
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 24 2008 at 17:14
damn... I need a vacation....
The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down



This page was generated in 0.217 seconds.
Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.