You won't believe what happened at work tonight.

I would most probably have told her everything I know of PT, and *make* her listen to the old albums as well.

BTW, hey Ricco, listen The Festival of Death watching your signature, its really scarry

Trademark wrote: Artists can get lost in a kind of no man's land where their old fans accuse them of selling out and their new fans are fickle and won't support them when the next "big thing" comes along and takes their place. Look at poor old Kansas as an example. Once you start down the top 40 road, there's often no turning back.

The whole situation reminds me of late 70s Genesis and very few prog fans has ever forgiven them so why would we forgive Mr. Wilson when Porcupine Tree makes it really big? Wilson will in fact be the next "love-to-hate" guy after Mr. Collins.

A funny thing about it is that they are now on the Roadrunner label which was started (and is still owned, I believe) by Derek Schulman of Gentle Giant. He of all people should see the dangers of "commercialization" after what happened to GG at the end of the 70's, but he's had so much success with mainstream acts asa Record Exec. that he's lost his perspective to this little community.

Edited by Trademark - May 24 2007 at 10:16

Frasse wrote: The whole situation reminds me of late 70s Genesis and very few prog fans has ever forgiven them so why would we forgive Mr. Wilson when Porcupine Tree makes it really big? Wilson will in fact be the next "love-to-hate" guy after Mr. Collins.

Melomaniac wrote: Frasse wrote: The whole situation reminds me of late 70s Genesis and very few prog fans has ever forgiven them so why would we forgive Mr. Wilson when Porcupine Tree makes it really big? Wilson will in fact be the next "love-to-hate" guy after Mr. Collins.     I cannot believe this... It's not as if they wrote 13 songs lasting 3 minutes each, created for radioplay...  Christ, every song on FOABP is above the 6 - 7 minutes mark, the overall album is more prog and heavier than most of their previous releases, while still capturing a certain psychedelic element previously found in The Sky Moves Sideways and Signify, what the f**k are you people whining about ?   Comparison : you have a friend that has been training all his life in a particular olympic discipline and, what do you know, he won the gold medal in his event ; he gets publicity contracts, endorsments, and everything else that comes along when winning an olympic gold medal, and all you can think of is "Goddamn sell-out, I preferred when he was a struggling athlete not yet at the top of his game".    My point is PT ARE at the top of THEIR game right now, having just released what probably is their best, heaviest and proggiest album, and just because they are FINALLY reaping the rewards of over 15 years of sowing (we all know how Steven Wilson is a workaholic), you call them sell-outs ?   Everyday I get to read nice comments and opinions on this forums, but stupid and ignorant posts like "PT are selling out" ruin the good moments I have here.

Man Overboard wrote: Trademark wrote: A funny thing about it is that they are now on the Roadrunner label which was started (and is still owned, I believe) by Derek Schulman of Gentle Giant. He of all people should see the dangers of "commercialization" after what happened to GG at the end of the 70's, but he's had so much success with mainstream acts asa Record Exec. that he's lost his perspective to this little community. I hope Derek Shulman wasn't personally responsible for signing Nickleback, Slipknot, etc.

^^ Is making payroll a problem?

Melomaniac wrote:  What is more important is that the quality of the music is not inferior.  Hell, any band that can manage to become mainstream with high quality songs over 10 minutes in this day and age deserve everything they get, and I'm happy for Wilson and PT.  FOABP is an amazing album that, for once, has some proper promotion, and we all should be happy for them...   Music is what counts, not the hype... or are you people just listening to underground bands to be able to say you are "in the margin", and as soon as your favorite underground band starts getting the recognition they deserve while being true to themselves, you spit on them ?   That kind of attitude digusts me, to say the VERY least...

In fact, I can't applaud you enough.

Sell-out talk disgusts me most of the time....  Fear of a Blank Planet is a Porcupine Tree album through and through, true to themselves and prog, and I think it tells an amazing story that really hits home.  They deserve all the success they get...

GoldenSpiral wrote: Please don't misinterpret my earlier statement.  I think it's a good album, it's better than many things in the quasi-mainstream at the moment, but even when compared to PT's earier 'accessible' material like In Absentia, FOABP is vastly inferior.  They break no new ground, the lyrics are trite (which i believe was the point of my previous post), and the music is less diverse and not as well composed IMO.  This is not to say that PT is not still great, they are still one of my favorite bands, but I am definitely expressing a certain disappointment in this record.  I find something wrong with a 40 year old guy writing about how much it sucks to be a teenager.  There's already enough teenagers doing the same thing.

That isn't what he's writing about.  He's writing about what prescription drugs and over-saturation of electronics are doing to teenage psychology.  This album is a political/social commentary about big business and marketing... and even parenting.  At least, that's what I'm seeing...  EDIT: Apparently Wilson was trying to take no stand on the issue at all (which is interesting, because I get a definite 'this is a bad thing' vibe from the music... hmm...)

The Wizard wrote: Yeah as far as i'm concerned Porcupine Tree are selling out and conforming to todays mainstream music. They just want to sell records. That's it.

....
..........
Sure, then that would be why they pushed back the release video rather than capitalizing on the Virginia Tech shooting...
Seriously, I couldn't disagree more, here.  What artist deliberately trying to go mainstream would release an album with only 6 tracks, none of which are really single-length (5 minuters are fairly rare on mainstream radio), and one of which is over 17 minutes long?
Not only is this album very much prog, it's chillingly intellectual.   The style of the lyrics is a lot like Kate Bush, who very often inhabits a character in her songs (and often, she does this to make a point, such as in 'Army Dreamers' or 'Sat in Your Lap').  The entirety of FOABP is in this vein... and I think it's brilliant.  Some people like the woman in Aaron's story are misinterpreting the lyrics as a glorification of teenage apathy and hatred, when it's not...


Edited by StarsongAgeless - May 24 2007 at 23:11