Three bands that um..

I can be VERY persuasive.... 

Seriously...  listen to Wolf City if Yeti didn't curl your toes.. completely different kind of album and yet still.. smokes anything Eloy or f**king Marilion ever did.  Again.. nice groups...  decent output. ADII are f**king legends...  you need to explore them fully. They weren't a one album pony or a singlar stylistic trick...  that was one badass and wildly talented and creative group.  Check 'em out fully before circumcising to the dark side of f**king Neo hahah

Agreed

I might have to check that out.... I gave them 10 odd years of albums to try to me wet and hard.. both Fish and Hogwarts....alas they left me limp and dry as the desert...  

they don't call me Mr. Excitement for anything.  Put it this way.. I'd rather be spectacularly wrong.. than be boring. Thankfully I'm never boring.. and rarely wrong haha 

prog = or =/ progressive is one of the foundations of discussion points around here and has been since the site was established. Thus the multitudes and mutlitudes of threads and discussions on it.  Yeah .. the site says it is PROG archives.. I suppose you know your music well enough to know that more than half the bands added here are not prog... never been considered prog.  Yet we added them.. for some of us what the score really was. It wasn't until this post...  the single musically related post I've ever read and I've been doing music forums since 2001.  It strikes to the heart of the two very different things at play here. Prog the genre... which connects the dots and touches upon the stylistic norms and progressive rock which throws all that sh*t in your face.. and in reality is just a coming of full circle back the beginning days of prog when you just had some muso's throw sh*t in the pot and see what comes out.. they don't consider themselves prog.. that isn't the goal. To appeal to backwards looking conservative artists.. but intelligent forward thinking (and yes.. often young listners) Hense Nearfest 2011... which it all came to a head

take it away man... reposted for the umpteenth time...

micky wrote: Jacob said:  I'm just going to chime in on the original post, dunno what's been discussed over all these pages.  I whole-heartedly applaud every prog festival organizer who has ever walked the earth for their amazing contribution to the entire prog revival. Without people like Rob and Chad and Greg and Steve and George and the rest, a lot of us in prog bands would simply be nowhere. Progfest and NEARfest in particular have been essential to the growth of Scandinavian prog in the 90's and noughties.  It just seems that the time has come now for prog to find a new way. The festivals have become, as was mentioned, nostalgia get-togethers. They have been artificial life-lines for stagnant acts, rather than fertile grounds for new, exciting acts. And those organizers who have tried to feature some new blood have been punished by a rather backwards-looking audience. As with NEARfest this year. I don't think blaming either the audience, the organizers or the bands has any virtue. What I think, is that the prog umbrella for too long has tried to shelter two very different things under its shade: On the one hand, the nostalgia scene, which features both the old acts that are still around, like Yes and whatever Italian band you care to mention, and "old-new" bands like Flower Kings and Transatlantic - bands that, though newish, cater mostly to very conservative audiences. On the other hand, the new progressive scene, which could include anything from The Mars Volta to Gösta Berlings Saga, and which really isn't a scene at all, especially considering that many of the bands themselves have no awareness of being part of a "prog scene". These two strands really are extremely different. There's plenty of people with a love for both (including, to a certain extent, myself). But to throw the typical fans of both scenes (the former, ageing, follicle-challenged geezers - bless'em all!, the latter young, dynamic listeners brought up to endless eclecticism and irreverence to genres - bless them too!), might just be too much of a stretch. Maybe it's time for a divorce. Let the geezers have their nostalgia-fests, and let the "new prog" bands get out on the regular rock circuit and compete with any other rock genres out there rather than put them in the geriatric ward of "prog" where the smell of old age will make them unpalatable to both the rock media and the major labels. No disrespect to either!!! :-)  And as an a propos: Prog labels that sign new, fresh and exciting bands should be careful how they market and present the bands. Selling them in the traditional way ("washes of mellotrons, recall Eloy in their heyday, rave reception at Bolivia Art Rock Fest (BARF)") will, quite simply, sell them short. It's a new world out there.