Flower Kings Appreciation Thread

I`ve been to U.S.A on a few times on. holidays to.
New York, Boston and parts of the bible belt. which is very strange places in the bible belt that is.    strange rules in them states.

dennismoore wrote: M27Barney wrote: The U.S.A is a strange place, in some states you get liberal views on homosexuality and thriving adult movie industry. In others they don't even let children learn about evolution and kissing your wife in public could lead to a jail sentence. What is the common denominator between these states and similarly oppressive states in the middle east?  Allow me to announce my return by answering my good friend Barney's question: Most of us here in the USA are like Infandous, myself & Zuma. Young handsome lads that wish no harm on anybody. The problem people you referred to are descendents from that retard John Smith and those clowns from your country who came here on the Mayflower.  As I recall my history: "puritanism" and whitch burning were clever little tricks that you English Imperialists brought to our pristine shores here in America.

zumacraig wrote:   i'm really curious about morse's other work outside of prog.  seems like he was a hired gun for many years and attempted to get into the pop/singer songwriter game.

dennismoore wrote: zumacraig wrote: DM! glad to see you back.  when can we expect a new avatar with your wife holding Desolation Rose LP?    hope you are well. i went to see pat metheny unity group last saturday.  it was a pretty good show.  i prefer the old 'group' but this one had some proggy moments.  nice venue and, of course, you can't beat the jazz crowd.  no issues whatsoever. also, i recently watched the making of Bridge Across Forever.  some interesting tidbits of info.  morse talks about how he used to be the keyboardist in eric burden's band even while being in spock's beard.  he also says that he wanted the track listing to be Stranger, Bridge, Duel, Charlotte.  that would've been interesting.  i guess portnoy insisted on the actual track order.  anyway, i'm really curious about morse's other work outside of prog.  seems like he was a hired gun for many years and attempted to get into the pop/singer songwriter game. Hey Dude,  I am glad you survived the 2nd freezing of Atlanta...Our good friend Darkshade made me promise to never change my avatar, so I told him I would keep it.Hmm, I suppose I could photoshop-in the new LP, but I need to get a good deal on the LP & CD combo first!Sad truth about modern prog is that musicians like Neal need to work for basic rock acts to make any $$$ to feed their families.  I saw Spocks Beard during the "V" tour and only a few hundred peeps showed up in San Francisco,the band said that only 30 peeps turned up for the gig before that!  They don't even make enough to cover trucking the amps around. Dave Meros also toured with Eric Burden, so maybe that is where Neal or perhaps even Dave got the gig from Neal? "We've got to get out of this place indeed!"@Barney: Nice to see you my lad.    I trust you had a festive Winter Solstice?

Aye Solstice was cool (well it always is in the frozen northern England!) - I did really well with my CD selection - found a couple of new bands to groove to....Not too impressed with the new TA though - possibly the dampest squib of the year - it will definitely be blown away by stuff released later in the year, of that I'm certain !!!

Errm - not sure what this post is supposed to be conveying?

Guys, click on it.......it's a video review of the new TA.  Luddites.  

M27Barney wrote: Whatever denomination Luddites are, I do NOT follow their deity , and of course seeing as I work in the cutting edge of computer software - I do know what a link is - I was just suspicious it was going to take me to a religious loon-bomb site or summat!!

I think you told me that earlier in the thread, so I was just being funny (attempting )

But I understand......you saw the Pink Floyd shirt and immediately suspected foul play.  I took it as a sign the link was safe     

@infandous,

zumacraig wrote: @infandous, have you listened to the new TA much?  thoughts?

I've only listened to it once.  I listened to Shine and Black As The Sky before I had the album.  Shine is possibly the worst song I've ever heard by any of those guys, and Black As The Sky seems like the best thing on the album.  However, one listen is not enough.  The epics, to me on only one run through, seem like more of the same........but with much less conviction.  When I listen to All Of The Above, I hear 4 great musicians having a lot of fun.  When I listen to Out Of The Blue, I hear 4 old guys gathering cliché's together to please their fan base.

Of course, that's just my first impression.  I didn't like The Whirlwind at all the first 5 or 6 times I heard it, but it grew on me and I came to like it (still a 3 star album.......good, but not great).

Honestly, the first TA album was the only one that ever blew me away.  The second one seemed pretty scattered......some great ideas, but not the best execution.  The epics seemed like the could have both lost 10 minutes or so without making any difference.  The first 16 minutes of Duel is still great though, and I really like most of the other one.  Whirlwind was fairly predictable, but seems like a real team effort and it flows extremely well.  It could probably be shorter, especially the final track,  but I think it's their most consistent effort, if not really their best.

For the new one, time will tell.  Right now I'm still wondering if it was worth buying at all.  I'll listen to it more in the next couple weeks and have a better idea.  It just seems like they are going through the motions......probably having fun with it, but not really coming up with anything new, exciting, or all that interesting.

I have been having a long thought on my favourite (all time) tracks, some of these are multiple section epics - but I have included the whole longer suites as you will see, this list was probably different a few years back and may change again in the next few I suppose, in no particular order.
Garden of Dreams
I am the sun (full)
Tales from Topographic Oceans
Awaken
Firth of Fifth
Suppers Ready
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
All of the Above
Stardust we Are
Subterranea