A New Prog Sub-Genre

Something Ive been thinking about recently; I've been going through my music collection, and it seems to me there is an entire area of music that I could see settling down and making themselves at home on this site. i realized this while listening to a few albums by these particular bands.

Bands like Phish, .moe, Umphrey's McGee, The Grateful Dead, Widespread Panic, String Cheese Incident. Aquarium Rescue Unit, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Ozric Tentacles, The Disco Biscuits, Medeski Martin & Wood (and various side prodjects and solo projects by members) and many other bands. Many of these bands get lumped into the so-called "jam- band" scene.

Now, 5 of those mentioned above are already on this site, in various sub-genre's. They all have albums that could easily be described as progressive rock.

Is there an interest for these kinds of bands having their own sub-genre of prog? A Progressive Jam-Band page? Please express your feelings on the matter. In the mean time, i would like to present a couple of albums that i feel warrant this inclusion of a new sub-genre.

Phish - Junta

A prog rock masterpiece, featuring 5 giant prog epics, mixed with eclectic sounds ranging from jazz-fusion, symphonic, and rock, with a very Zappaesque feeling in the tone and execution. Lots of mood shifts, time signatures, and overall great music.

Umphrey's McGee - Anchor Drops

This creative band mixes metal, funk, jazz, avant-garde, alt-rock, electronic, with many epic songs. Very tight compositions with a feel-good attitude

Trey Anastasio - Time Turns Elastic

the singer/guitarist from Phish created the most progressive album ive heard from this 'scene' in recent times, with an orchestra. There is lots of Zappa and other classical influence on this album, particularly the epic title track.

other prog albums

Phish - Rift
Phish - Lawn Boy
The Grateful Dead - Terrapin Station
Umphrey's McGee - Mantis
Trey Anastasio - Horseshoe Curve
String Cheese Incident - 'Round The Wheel
Ozric Tentacles - Jurassic Shift
Phish - A Picture of Nectar
The Grateful Dead - Blues for Allah
.moe - L
Disco Biscuits - They Missed The Perfume

Got too many as it is and some of those are not necessary.

it is all prog

tamijo wrote: As long as a band/person have to stay in the same catagori all its life, it dosent matter, impossible to actualy change it into something very meaningfull. Look at Cantabury, its a mess of very diffrent styles of music, dumped together because they evolved from 2-3 cantabury bands.  Neo Prog ?? its reflects the timing of the music, not the style. would the same albums be made in 71, they would not be Neo prog. Italian/Kraut ? Coulds the same music be made in Norway ? and still be Italian or Kraut.

AtomicCrimsonRush wrote: Got too many as it is and some of those are not necessary.

the reason i suggest it is, the bands that can be considered for this genre, are scattered all over the place on this site, and ones that arent, well, arent.

this would be a nice way to collect them all in one convenient place.

If PA wants to be the most extensive Prog resource on the internet, i think adding this genre would be a good idea. There is a lot of prog music contained within the albums i listed and more.

darkshade wrote: Is there an interest for these kinds of bands having their own sub-genre of prog? A Progressive Jam-Band page? Please express your feelings on the matter. In the mean time, i would like to present a couple of albums that i feel warrant this inclusion of a new sub-genre.

I can see your point, but I would respond in two ways:

1. We have too many sub genres as it is.
2. A lot of time and energy is spent beating ourselves up over who or what should be included in those too many sub genres. Another one would only exacerbate the issue.

aginor wrote: what about Dave Matthew Band http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Matthews_Band

they are part of the scene, for sure. However, I am unsure of their proggy-ness. Perhapst some examples of that? im not the biggest Dave fan