How did Porcupine Tree become popular? |
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Octopus II
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The Classic Rock CD sampler was also how I became aware of Porcupine Tree.
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omphaloskepsis
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I was an old fashion vinyl record store in 1991. The owner was a huge Elvis fan. One of his employees played a sampler LP- "A Psychedelic Psauna (In Four Parts). Sun Dial's "Mind Train Jam" blew my mind. I purchased the album. I purchased albums by the bands included in the sampler: Sun Dial, Magic Mushroom Band, The Bevis Frond, Mandragora, Ozric Tentacles, and The Porcupine Tree.
I started with The Porcupine Tree's debut since it was the only PT album available. I purchased each succeeding release. I subscribed to the Delirium Xeroxed mail-out catalog. I purchased albums from Delirium based on the descriptions on their mailer. However, Sun Dial's "Mind Train Jam" was my gateway into The Porcupine Tree, Ozric Tentacles, and many Delirum bands. This is the song that led me to The Porcupine Tree- Edited by omphaloskepsis - May 25 2024 at 06:10 |
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SteveG
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I'm not sure when I became aware of PT. The solo album "Hand. Cannot. Erase." got a lot of discussion here, so perhaps it was during that time.
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Gerinski
Prog Reviewer Joined: February 10 2010 Location: Barcelona Spain Status: Offline Points: 5154 |
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I first heard about them in their psychedelic / Pink Floydish era, I don't remember exactly how or where but likely it was some prog site, possibly PA itself, or some internet prog radio.
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AFlowerKingCrimson
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Kind of how I first heard of them too. Porcupine Tree, Ozric Tentacles, Mandragora, Sun Dial and also Soma (who you didn't mention) and maybe a few others were listed in a Laser's Edge catalog in late 91/early 92. Maybe the Bevis Frond too. Ozric Tentacles were soon signed to a major label (IRS) while PT stayed on Delirium for a while. Maybe because of this I saw a guy wearing an Ozric Tentacles t shirt at a King Crimson concert in 1995 but not a PT shirt. I did see one (just one) PT shirt when I saw King Crimson in late 2001 amid all the Gentle Giant t shirts (weird I know). I didn't actually buy any PT until the late 90s with Stupid Dream though or maybe Lightbulb Sun in early 2001 (I don't remember).
Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - May 25 2024 at 11:39 |
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Deadwing
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I don't think they are ver popular tbh lol
But I discovered them through here in 2004. They had Waiting and Even Less for download and it was love in first listen cuz it was I was looking at a Floydian-like band. |
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progaardvark
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Discovered PT from the Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Rock, before they became big, around the time of The Sky Moves Sideways. I think PT started taking off around the time of Signify and more so with Stupid Dream (actually heard Piano Lessons on the radio at the time), when they started making shorter more accessible music that reached beyond the normal prog audience.
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AFlowerKingCrimson
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For a prog band they definitely are. They've had three albums in the billboard top 100 with the incident making it to number 25. They have 6,966 fans on tastebuds (that's more than Yes for crying out loud) and 651,595 listeners on spotify (more than the Mars Volta). So maybe not popular in a Taylor Swift, Queen or Coldplay level but it's safe to say they probably have a lot of fans who don't know what prog is (just like with Pink Floyd).
Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - May 25 2024 at 16:12 |
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Valdez
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I would assume that PT's King Crimson and Fripp connections were helpful drawing attention to the band. Gavi Harrison, Wilsons huge involvement in the progressive Rock music scene... and, FoaBP was a killer album that did very well. There were a lot of copycats after that one. They deserve their popularity, they worked hard.
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https://bakullama1.bandcamp.com/album/sleepers-2024
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Deadwing
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They are still a lot smaller than bands like Coheed and Cambria, Tool and Arcade Fire, for example, which aren't even mainstream (like Coldplay, U2, etc). Big for prog, maybe, but unfortunately it shows how much prog is still very very underappreciated today :/ |
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AFlowerKingCrimson
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All those bands are mainstream. I guess we have a different idea of what mainstream is. Most Tool albums have gone double or triple platinum and Arcade Fire won a grammy for best album. As for C&C they have two gold albums (one more than Dream Theater). Maybe PT aren't quite on that level but still have tons of fans and way more than most modern prog bands. Maybe not mainstream but certainly not obscure (or underground) either. PTs popularity goes beyond just prog though which maybe explains why they are way bigger than most prog bands (all but the most mainstream like the ones you mentioned). Opeth are similiar in that like PT they aren't played on the radio but most metal fans know about them and they have a fanbase beyond just prog.
Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - May 25 2024 at 18:01 |
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AFlowerKingCrimson
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There was a Rush connection too with Alex Lifeson playing on one of their albums (I forget which one though). Plus also Adrian Belew.
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RockHound
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I think the web played an important role in getting the word out. I became aware of the ‘90s prog bands through sites like DPRP and Progressiveworld-I found this site later. If it weren’t for the web, I would have had no way to know prog was back. The commercialism of the ‘80s turned me off to the point I was ignoring rock releases completely and focusing exclusively on classical and jazz. When I found out about the likes of Spock’s Beard, PT, TFK, Dream Theater, etc., through these sites, a whole new world opened up, and rock was again relevant to me.
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richardh
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^ that's a good point.
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Catcher10
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Alex played on FOABP on Anesthetize...... PT might be kinda a popular band now but not very popular IMO. More popular today than ever before as they are turning into a cult band. Most of their album sales have been after say Steven Wilson started releasing solo albums and especially when he started remixing a lot of classic prog and pop albums like XTC, KC, JTull and others. His reputation as a sound engineer has brought PT some additional notice. If you have not watched the bio on the making of In Absentia, you should. That was supposed to be their breakout album. Which included more accessible songs and more hard rock/metal flavor, they were almost handled with kid gloves by the record company flying them to NYC to record the album with a large budget....Guess what it did not pan out, not at all, from the label point of view it was a flop. In Absentia sold much better years after initial release, I suspect most of their back catalog has seen a resurgence in sales only in the past 10 years. I think early on (90's) they were an underground band, not till early 2000s did they start getting noticed..........C/C tour was pretty big as it was prime for people who never saw them before, but had been into them since SW solo material and after the last tour in 2009-10 or so with The Incident. I suspect there are a ton of people who never connected SW with PT because his solo material did much better than PT ever did. Again, the PT catalog has been selling much better but only in the last 10 yrs I bet..
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Cosmiclawnmower
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I first heard PT about the same time and through Delirium records but had come across the cassette only 'lps' (Tarquin's Seaweed Farm and another that i cant remember the name of..) and the subsequent 'on the Sunday of Life' and 'Yellow hedgerow dreamscape'. Bands like Magic mushroom band, Ozrics and Mandragora were staples at a lot of the free festivals and heard a lot of Beavis Frond through what was happening with Free festival neo-psych in Bristol. I think PT very quickly moved away from that scene and i rediscovered them again in the early 2000's with lightbulb sun and then my kids who were into stuff like Tool and Mars volta bought me In Absentia and i was amazed how they'd changed. ive checked in with PT and his solo stuff and some i really like and some i'm not too impressed by but I guess that's SW, a chameleon with itchy (bare) Feet.
Edited by Cosmiclawnmower - May 28 2024 at 14:24 |
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Junges
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They became more and more popular with the release of Stupid Dream, In Absentia, Lightbulb Sun and so on. To me it is pretty clear: because they are pretty accessible and lots of their songs are not prog at all. It is no wonder that a lot of their fan base don't care for their earlier albums and prefer their 3-6 minute songs, the hits like Trains, Sound of Muzak, Even Less, etc.
Edited by Junges - May 28 2024 at 14:48 |
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Valdez
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As much as I like PT, I liked No-Man better. Loveblows and Lovecries is in my masterpiece collection.
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https://bakullama1.bandcamp.com/album/sleepers-2024
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AFlowerKingCrimson
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That's true. In Absentia did not chart in most countries when it was released (not at all in UK or US for example). I remember when it came out I did hear "blackest eyes" on the radio and I bought it at cd store near where I was working at the time. It did start to really get the ball rolling for them but it was probably not the overnight success the band and the suits were expecting (as you say). When I saw them in Philly in 2001 for Lightbulb Sun there were maybe 300 people in attendance. The next time I saw them was on the Deadwing tour and was surprised to see about 800 people in attendance (at a 1300 seat venue). It wasn't almost entirely full but pretty full (a little more than 3/4 maybe which is how I arrive at around 800). The whole point of this thread was me wondering what happened between 2001 and 2005 in particular to make them shoot up so fast? The only thing I can think of is that their music must have somehow been marketed to the non prog crowd and maybe the metal crowd but since I'm not a hardcore metal fan I can't speak to that. I remember talking to a fellow prog fan on the phone named Walter (this was around 2001 or 2002 I think so either right after LS or right after IA). I remember him telling me that if Porcupine Tree played their cards right they could be the next Radiohead. Well, it didn't quite happen but I think Walter was on to something. I wouldn't say last 10 years though mainly because they have only put out one album in the last ten years (C/C from 2022). I would say after 2005 and especially after FOABP. When I saw that they played Radio City Music Hall in NYC which seats about 5,500 I knew they had hit the big time (relatively speaking). That's the same venue Pink Floyd played when they premiered DSOTM. And no I don't think PF was quite a household name yet just like PT probably aren't but hey imo that's something.
Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - May 28 2024 at 15:36 |
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Lewian
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Japan were pretty popular and some people may have become aware of PT because of Richard Barbieri. In fact I listened to my first PT CD in a record shop and had put it on because I liked the cover and Barbieri was on it. Also they had placed it so that it caught attention.
Stupid Dream and In Absentia in particular have some *very* catchy stuff. Radioactive Toy already is iconic. SW just knows how to put together a song that those who listen to it once will not forget.
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