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Pleasant, upbeat, clean guitar driven music
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dougmcauliffe View Drop Down
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    Posted: March 23 2021 at 07:15
I've had this very specific itch lately and i'm a little stuck on finding more artists that fit this mould. I'm getting off my technical prog death metal discovery kick and now all I want to hear is very listenable and generally melodic music. This is like when you go too far right on the screen in pac-man and pop out the other side. It does not need to be prog.

So to give some examples of what i've been digging lately

Wishbone Ash - Argus, There's The Rub
Camel - Their Discography, we'll highlight The Snow Goose
The Who - Whos Next, Quadrophenia, Pete Townsend solo as well
Steve Hillage - Fish Rising, Motivation Radio, Green
ELO - A New World Record
Dixie Dregs - What If

so it's a lot of guitar driven music, but there's very little heavy use of distortion. Kind of a nice palette cleanser after a couple months of brutal death metal. Rush kinda fits as well

So if any of you can think of anything in the same vein, please recommend it!
Listeing to Echolyn right now and this seems to hit the spot, Spock's Beardand Jean Luc Ponty as well

I have heard and love Harmonium, Celeste, Renaissance, Khan, Floyd. All good picks and they're somewhat in the mix as well. Figured those names might come up. I also assume the Flower Kings will pop up, I loved their release from last year because it's all short and compact songs, but right now I really am not in the mood for any epics or really long songs and well.... those two ideologies might clash haha. 


Edited by dougmcauliffe - March 23 2021 at 07:24
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BaldJean View Drop Down
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Roman Bunka - Dein Kopf ist ein schlafendes Auto




occasionally a bit of distortion is used, but mostly it is clean guitar


Edited by BaldJean - March 23 2021 at 08:01


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You could try...
Traffic - Traffic s/t, John Barleycorn Must Die, Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, 
The Moody Blues - In Search of the Lost Chord, Seventh Sojourn, On the Threshold of a Dream
Big Big Train - Underfall Yard, English Electric 1 and 2
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife, Picaresque
Dire Straits - Love Over Gold, Dire Straits s/t
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If you want pleasant, upbeat, short, guitar driven music, I can warmly recommend you most of REO Speedwagon. I think they're three to play guitar in this band. Don't know if it's clean enough for you, but that is up to you to decide.
A good place to start is probably their smashing 1980 album Hi Infidelity...

The razamataz is a pain in the bum
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Progmind View Drop Down
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I recommend you two bands

South - South
Tristeza - Dream Signals in full Circles

Those bands are very different from the ones you listed, but they fit your description very well.

Love Camel and Celeste too!
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Covet



Polyphia



Edited by Grumpyprogfan - March 23 2021 at 08:47
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New Ones:

Firefall - Comet (2020)
Steve Lukather - I Found The Sun Again (2021)


A Classic:

Steve Miller 1969 Brave New World


In Spanish:

Ricardo Soule 1982 Romances De Gesta


Live:

Dire Straits - San Francisco 1979 (2021)
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Listen to Neu!
“Art is the recognition of the universal presence of God.” —Ernest Hello
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Nova Collective. Brilliant album.

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Originally posted by The Dark Elf The Dark Elf wrote:

You could try...
Traffic - Traffic s/t, John Barleycorn Must Die, Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, 
The Moody Blues - In Search of the Lost Chord, Seventh Sojourn, On the Threshold of a Dream
Big Big Train - Underfall Yard, English Electric 1 and 2
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife, Picaresque
Dire Straits - Love Over Gold, Dire Straits s/t

All great artists and albums, Greg, but for some reason Dire Straits never strikes me as upbeat. LOL

Edited by SteveG - March 23 2021 at 09:43
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Originally posted by dougmcauliffe dougmcauliffe wrote:

So to give some examples of what i've been digging lately

Wishbone Ash - Argus, There's The Rub
Camel - Their Discography, we'll highlight The Snow Goose
The Who - Whos Next, Quadrophenia, Pete Townsend solo as well
Steve Hillage - Fish Rising, Motivation Radio, Green
ELO - A New World Record
Dixie Dregs - What If

Doug,

I can't tell you the amount of hours I spent as a kid listening to Argus, I have to say it was one of my top 5 listens.  I used to continuously go back to it.  There's the Rub is good too, Argus has always hit the spot for me.

Others that nowadays are not too often mentioned guitar driven bands were Man,  I liked the albums they made between the years 1971-1974 a lot.  Same with the Groundhogs, particularly Hogwash, Thanks Christ of the Bomb, Split and Blues Obituary.  Budgie is another guitar driven band a little heavier.  Also Blodwyn Pig, more bluesy but really good.

PS... since you mentioned Eloy, try Jane another German Band.

Ooops my eyes are getting bad you wrote ELO... but anyway you can still try out Jane... Just listening to Jane III.


Edited by Spaciousmind - March 23 2021 at 15:12
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The Dark Elf View Drop Down
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Originally posted by SteveG SteveG wrote:

Originally posted by The Dark Elf The Dark Elf wrote:

You could try...
Traffic - Traffic s/t, John Barleycorn Must Die, Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, 
The Moody Blues - In Search of the Lost Chord, Seventh Sojourn, On the Threshold of a Dream
Big Big Train - Underfall Yard, English Electric 1 and 2
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife, Picaresque
Dire Straits - Love Over Gold, Dire Straits s/t

All great artists and albums, Greg, but for some reason Dire Straits never strikes me as upbeat. LOL

At the time the albums were released I was still in my Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Neil Young period. So yeah, Dire Straits...very upbeat and happy.
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Jazz ... man
   

Wes Montgomery
Kenny Burrell
Joe Pass
Jim Hall
George Benson

Edited by Easy Money - March 23 2021 at 14:17
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Santana, first three albums.
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Alright I appreciate the recommendations from everyone, i'll try to hit all of these and get back to everyone on what I thought. Some of these i'm already familiar with so here's my thoughts there

Traffic: Good pick, really like this group and love Steve Winwoods vocals

The Moody Blues: Generally like the Moodies, sometimes they're just a little too mellow for me but they fit the bill.

Big Big Train: Love this band, they slipped my mind. Might be looking for stuff that's a little less complex but they have many songs that fit that bill.

Dire Straits: Totally slipped my mind, great pick!

The Decemberists: I've heard The Hazards of Love and really dug it, will check those records out.

Neu!: Love this group, they've been getting plenty of playtime around here with Can as well.

REO Speedwagon: Used to really like this band when I was younger, not quite my cup of tea anymore. However I have been backtracking into some of the classic rock territories of Styx and Boston and I still really enjoy their music. Styx's most recent album The Mission honestly could be in contention for their best, probably their most progressive for sure.
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A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta
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Kansas
Nektar 
Dixie Dregs
Deep Purple
Uriah Heep
Jethro Tull
Hawkwind
Rush
Ozric Tentacles

I agree with Santana also. 

As for newer bands not much is jumping out at me at the top of my head. You already mentioned Echolyn.

As for non prog how about:

Soundgarden
U2
REM
Alice in Chains
Smashing Pumpkins
Pearl Jam

I like 90's rock so sue me. :P I don't like the later nu metal stuff and never explored Tool very much for whatever reason.

Not 90's but 80's: The Smiths  Great clean guitar (if you mean not fuzzy or distorted) by Johnny Mar.




Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - March 23 2021 at 15:30
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This is a long shot but I threw it in for effect:
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I'm always blown away by our very similar tastes and opinions. Here's a couple more you've probably already heard.

Somewhat guitar driven:
XTC - Skylarking; Apple Venus Pt. 1 and Pt. 2
Paul McCartney - Ram

Not guitar driven:
Kate Bush - Never Forever
Chick Corea - The Leprechaun; My Spanish Heart
Chick and Gary Burton: Crystal Silence; Duet
(What can I say? I'm a pianist.)
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Kraan live, on a good day, may be a very satisfactory listen for you... uplifting, melodic,  and positive, and top notch musicians... I gather you won't complain about a sensational bass player and a nice melodic hidden virtuoso keyboarder either, but Peter Wolbrandt is in my view a quite underrated guitar hero. I saw them three times live and he always was on fire. (This is a 2005 live recording but they play mostly 70s stuff... and the drummer doesn't need to hide behind the others really... OK their singing needs some getting used to but you can enjoy them instrumentally most of the time.)
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