For the prog fan that is not a prog fan

The obvious problem seems to be that at some point you will run out of new stuff. Which raises the question: Can that really be the point about music ... the illusion of "new"?

Slartibartfast wrote: darkshade wrote: but i am a prog fan. I love many prog bands. Yes, but if you are a prog fan that is not a prog fan but is a prog fan how can I make any useful suggestions? Now, if you are a prog fan that is not a prog fan but is a prog fan but aren't a prog fan, then I'd suggest you go and tip toe through the tulips with Tiny Tim or you could try some Talisma.

well i am a prog fan. I enjoy bands that make prog rock. There's just so many bands I dont like because they either dont do it right, whether they're being too pompous, or whatever, or they sound like many other bands. i had this same problem when I was a big metal-head.

off the top of my head, here's the prog bands i like (non jazz-rock)

Yes
King Crimson
Gentle Giant
Genesis
Frank Zappa
ELP
Camel
Jethro Tull
Rush
The Mars Volta
The Flower Kings
Mr. Bungle
Gong
The Soft Machine (jazz-rock, but they're more prog anyway)
Dream Theater
Liquid Tension Experiment
Phish (yes they are prog!)
Umphrey's McGee
Kansas
Steve Hackett
The Beatles (latter-era)
Ozric Tentacles
Atomic Rooster

now this is a lot of bands, but i could make a list 2152564 times larger if I listed the jazz-rock bands I enjoyed. I guess im just picky about which bands i like. I do not like Spock's Beard or Transatlantic so do not suggest them. I would have like Transatlantic had Neil Morse not been there.


Edited by darkshade - August 24 2008 at 17:43

Here: You're a prog rock fan BUT not a fan of prog rock. ;)

And you and I  (hehee, Yes reference) share musical tastes. . . infact, I'm following the same path as you; Right now I'm at the Yes / Genesis / King Crimson / Dream Theater stage, starting Jazz; Like John Scofield and such (I'm downloading Davis's Kind of Blue right now :P). . .
Keep rockin' bro.

hahaha

I feel much the same way. I still consider prog-rock to be my favorite genre of music, but I haven't found anything worthy of a closer look in a year or so. Of course, it's not difficult to find bands that you 'like', but I miss the thrill of hearing albums like 'Red' or 'Close to the Edge' for the first time. I suppose it's naive to assume that you could make those kind of discoveries on a regular basis though. In the meantime, I've been exploring other genres (folk, jazz, indie etc) but they seem to suffer from the same disease.

I suppose when you reach a certain point in your musical education (meaning, you've heard a lot of stuff), it becomes increasingly difficult to find anything that truly rocks your boat. I maintain that I would probably like around 30 %  of all the bands in the archives, but how many would I truly love? I'm beginning to fear that there aren't many left.

If you're a prog fan who's not a prog fan, then you're not a prog fan, so what's the point? 

Hey, wow, someone with an open mind!

Nothing wrong with that. 

Tristan Campbell wrote: I think your situation is actually a really good thing. We should all be looking for stuff that we like the sound of, regardless of how we categorise it. I have had a similar thing. I have went and looked at music and found it to be lacking in emotion or the singer sings about something that seems very trivial. I do like the Mars Volta even though the lyrics don't make much sense. It is like they are making fun of lyrics being meaningful. Often the prog stuff I like is the stuff that has been most sucessful e.g. Yes' Fragile, King Crimson's Court, Rush's Moving Pictures and even Kansas' Leftoverture. There is a reason that some prog is not popular. It is because it is crap.

yea i have some Kansas albums, and they are good, and a couple of Flower Kings albums, i'll throw them on from time to time, but I have a couple of Atomic Rooster albums and Frumpy albums, and i do not like them much. especially AR get talked about a lot here, but I dont see the big deal with them

King Crimson776 wrote: Dude, I'm a lot like you in music taste. I got into all the classic prog (Yes, Genesis, King Crimson) and some popular modern bands (Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, Transatlantic), but when I tried to get into more obscure bands... it just didn't appeal. I'm way more into jazz (including fusion) and classical. Honestly, I think that with progressive rock, for the most part, the most popular bands are the best, or maybe a better way of putting it would be, the best bands are the ones who gain the most popularity. There is the occasional rare find that is just awesome, but usually I find that I've already heard the best of it. Which really is a compliment to the genre and it's fans, because most other types of pop music don't reward quality as much as prog does.

haha yes you and I do share similar opinions and tastes.


Edited by darkshade - August 17 2008 at 04:37

russellk wrote: Why see it as a problem? Enjoy what you enjoy, keep experimenting and go back occasionally to the albums and bands that disappointed you - you never know, some day you might change your opinion on a few of them.

well said...