Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

Roland113 wrote: So I kind of went back to my proverbial roots over the weekend.  I started by taking Friday off of work to repair some holes in my ceiling thanks to a leaky drain pipe from my sink.  In general, this sucked.  Here's the good news, the holes that I needed to repair were pretty much centered in the middle of my surround sound system. Yes, I spent Friday listening to middle era Genesis, The Lamb twice, Wind and Wuthering, Duke and A Trick of the Tail three times.  By the end of the day, I was covered in plaster so I wasn't about to touch any of my CD's, I just kept hitting repeat.  On the bright side, it is my all time favorite album, so there's nothing wrong with that. Saturday became Flower Kings day as I listened to Unfold the Future, Flower Power, Paradox Hotel, Retropolis, Back in the World, Adam and Eve and The Sum of No Evil.  All in all, it was a pretty fantastic weekend, music wise. The observation that I can make in listening to my two favorite bands is that they really don't sound very similar.  Every once in a while, someone says that they're alike, but I really don't hear it.  I do hear the occasional Yes reference, but that was early on in their career, I don't hear Yes at all on Unfold the future or anything after it. One song that I'm appreciating more and more is "Touch my Heaven" off of Paradox Hotel.  I've said that Paradox Hotel is my favorite Flower Kings CD for quite some time (this despite my chronicled apathy towards Monsters and Men), but the more I listen to it, the better it gets.  The guitar work on Touch My Heaven one of the more soulful Roine solos as of late, it's just beautiful. Rock on,

Sounds like you had a great weekend as well, Tom! I saw Transatlantic in Philly, and listened to some killer music as well. Me and Brian (The Block, as you may know him) carpooled to the concert, and listened to (from my memory, at least), Absolutely Free and Roxy & Elsewhere by Frank Zappa, Bridge Across Forever, and Clutching at Straws on the car ride there and back.

Then, we waited in line and in the theater for over 3 hours before the concert started, and I listened to all of The Whirlwind, The Perfect Element, and Scenes From a Memory, followed by seeing Transatlantic put on a killer show.

Yeah, I had an awesome prog weekend.

The Quiet One wrote: infandous wrote: The Quiet One wrote: infandous wrote: ^ well that is the most blatantly Zappa like for sure, great song.  But the Zappa influence can be heard all over Roine's work, especially in the earlier Flower Kings albums.   In his guitar yes, but I don't think Roine ever composed something in the style of Zappa. Well, I only partially disagree with that.  Again, Silent Sorrow is a good example.  But I suppose in terms of vocals, no, Roine really never did the kinds of things Zappa did.  But instrumentally, I'd say there has been a very strong compositional influence in places (certainly Astral Dog and, again, Silent Sorrow.......but also a number of other songs and parts of songs).  Keep in mind, Zappa produced more than 40 albums worth of material before he died, covering a LOT of musical ground (genre's, styles, compositional techniques, etc.).  Admittedly, I haven't heard it all, but most of what I have heard I heard before I discovered the Flower Kings.  I used to listen to Zappa quite regularly, and when I first got into the Flower Kings, the Zappa influence (along with Yes, another band I loved and listened to regularly) were strong selling points for me.   Yeah, I know Zappa covered a lot of grounds, but that doesn't mean Zappa had a trademark sound in which in his classic albums was repleted of it.   This trademark sound of his, the classical inspired melodies/complexity, yet played in a jazz rock way, is something that Roine never did, at least from my point of view. Guitar-wise, like I already said, yes, Roine is clearly influenced by Zappa's guitar style.   I've never heard a song by The Flower Kings that sounded either really humorous in the Zappa-way or really complex in the twisted and fun way Zappa used to do back in the 70's.   Mind you, this is not to say that The Flower Kings are less-good because they don't do that, I just think that composition-wise The Flower Kings and all of the related bands(Spock's Beard, etc) are by no means related to Zappa.

Well, fair enough, though I don't really agree with everything you say.  There is certainly a distinct "sound" to Zappa's music to my ears, from the early Mothers all the way up to and including the hard core Synclavier stuff.  But you obviously have a different take on it, no problem with that.

I would never suggest that Roine has composed a Zappa sound alike song, but I used to work in a CD store and played TFK whenever I could manage it, and I was asked more than once "What Zappa song is this?".  And not just for Astral dog, but during parts of Garden Of Dreams, Retropolis, and Stardust We Are.  I also hear a strong Yes influence in the writing (as well as Rone's guitar playing).  All of this is what drew me to the band in the first place, so I don't say it's a bad thing in any way, and Roine is certainly not a plagiarist at all.

Anyway, I think we can just agree that we both have a bit of a different take on the issue, but we both agree his guitar playing was influenced by Zappa at least 

Garden of Dreams is growing on me ! And to think that this was the first FK's CD I had bought (mind you I bought about 20-30 CD;s at one time - not too good an idea to get into a new band). I listened to Flower Power and probably didn't give it the ear.Mind you the same thing happened with Yes - it took me TWO years to finally appreciate Yes after initailly HATING Going for the One....

I haven't heard anything but Back in the World of Adventure, which I bought off iTunes. It would be great, however to get that on vinyl. Do they release on vinyl?

My favourite tracks were The World of Adventures, Go West Judas and Atomic Prince/Kaleidoscope.

infandous wrote: the_1_gavo wrote: I haven't heard anything but Back in the World of Adventure, which I bought off iTunes. It would be great, however to get that on vinyl. Do they release on vinyl? My favourite tracks were The World of Adventures, Go West Judas and Atomic Prince/Kaleidoscope. Get a CD player - sorted.... Sadly, nothing on vinyl, and probably not likely to be in that format anytime soon.  Roine, the main man of The Flower Kings, has said he would love to be able to do that, but that financially it is pretty much an impossibility. Glad to hear you liked Back In The World, because you are going to LOVE their other albums.  Back In The World is generally considered one of their "lesser" albums, though I'd say everyone on this thread likes it to some degree or other.  Just wait until you hear Stardust We Are, Flower Power, or Unfold The Future.  You're in for a lot of great music!!!  Enjoy!

Well, to tell the truth, I'm not entirely sure what albums I have that came out in 2009.  But I'll go with the ones I'm sure of:

1. TA, The Whirlwind - despite my initial lukewarm reception of this, it is a great album, one that has grown on me......still flawed, but good nonetheless
2. Eggs and Dogs, You Are - great album, really has grown on me quite a bit.  Tough call for number one between this and the TA
3. The Tangent, Down and Out In Paris and London - My second favorite Tangent album, after A Place In the Queue...not as immediate as their other albums, but worth giving a few listens to.........in a word, excellent.
4. Deluge Grander, The Form Of The Good - Great instrumental prog album.  If you like very complex and extremely densely arranged symphonic prog, this is for you.  Production is better than the first album and the absence of the strange vocals from that one is a strong plus for me.
5. Izz, The Darkened Room Pt.1 -  Best one by them that I've heard (only have the first two).  A very solid modern prog band.
6. Porcupine Tree, The Incident - Well, I do "get" this album, I just don't think it's a particularly great album.  It has really grown on me, but I'd still rank it below In Absentia, Sky Moves Sideways, Deadwing........well, just about everything except the first two albums and Fear Of A Blank Planet.  Having said that, it's still a very good album, just not a great one.
7. 3rd World Electric, Kilimanjaro Secret Brew - Really liking this one.  As a 70's fusion tribute style album, it succeeds quite well.  Much better side project than Agents.
8. Nemo, Barbares - Well, an improvement on the previous album, but still not up to the standards of previous albums before that one.  Some decent stuff, but the 26 minute epic is probably the weakest song, though it has grown on me a bit.  Still, it is hard to think highly of a prog album where the epic is the least interesting track.
9. Agents of Mercy, Fading Ghosts Of Twilight - Not bad, not great.  The live show really improved my feelings on this one, but even before that there were things I liked.  Overall, not bad.  Thinking the next one will be better, as it has been written in a prog vein, whereas the first one just sort of evolved there from the original idea of a mellow acoustic type album.
10. Dream Theater, Black Clouds and Silver Linings - Well, like most of the DT albums I have, this one won't get played much.  However, musically, it is quite good.  The lyrics make it hard for me to enjoy though, and I find myself in the strange position of finding the final epic track to be the best musically and the worst (by far) lyrically.  Decent effort on the whole though.

This may be all the 2009 albums I picked up, though I'm not completely sure.  Anyway, I got more than I though as it is, so I guess I didn't do too bad.  Still very much wanting the Bearfish and the Hackett albums.  Both of which will most likely be acquired at Nearfest in June.


 

01)  Phideaux - Number 7
02)  Darwin's Radio - Template for a Generation
03) They Might Be Giants 0 Here Comes Science (you did say it didn't have to be prog rock)
04)  The Devin Townsend Project - Ki
05)  Porcupine Tree - The Incident
06)  Agents of Mercy - Fading Ghosts of Twilight
07)  Riverside - Anno Domini High definition
08)  Derek Sherinan - Molecular Heintosity
09)  Gazpacho - Tick Tock
10)  Maudlin of the Well - Part the Second

. . . and there you have it, 

Roland113 wrote: 03) They Might Be Giants 0 Here Comes Science (you did say it didn't have to be prog rock)

This is off-topic, but this is pretty great. I didn't know they've released this album, but it's something I've been hoping for a long time. I'll never read for an exam again.
"The sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma"

Rasvamakkara wrote: Roland113 wrote: 03) They Might Be Giants 0 Here Comes Science (you did say it didn't have to be prog rock) This is off-topic, but this is pretty great. I didn't know they've released this album, but it's something I've been hoping for a long time. I'll never read for an exam again. "The sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma"

It's a fun album too, even better, they did a tour playing their kids music.  We took my three year old to the show and she was absolutely mesmerized.   I'm proud to say that my daughter attended her first concert when she was only two and loved it.

Hmm, I'm going to leave the question open for the rest of the group for a bit.  I personally prefer Retropolis of the two, as "Back in the World of Adventures" didn't click with me I don't think I'm qualified to comment on it's complexity.  Though it's more in their middle period, I think Flower Power" to be one of their more complex discs.  The hour long "Garden of Dreams" suite has a lot to digest in it's own right, then there's a second disc to delve into.