So, what am I listening to, anyway?

[elfs]

So, over the past couple of weeks I've been either buying at used record stores or downloading from the Internet a whole raft of various metal and prog music, to get a grip on what I want to listen to, and I've dismissed a lot of music as mediocre and amateurish, and I suppose I should finally get off my high horse and tell you what's really on the Jukebox in heavy rotation.

The number one band on the top of my list right now is Porcupine Tree, especially live. If you love Yes, Rush, and Pink Floyd, and want to hear what they'd be doing if those bands were in their mid-20's right now, Porcupine Tree is the answer. On the album I've been listening to most, Live at Nearfest, there are two all-instrumental pieces which just blow me away. The first is called "Voyage 34", and features mind-bogglingly good trance/rock guitar work while audio clips from a bad 1970's LSD documentary plays in the background. The other, "Last Chance to Leave The Earth Before It Is Recycled," is equally good, but this time the audio clips are taken from the last will and testament of the Heaven's Gate cult. I've got six of their albums and a couple of live bootlegs, and I just can't stop listening to the live ones.

The early Pink Floyd trance and psychedelica is obvious in almost everything they do-- as is Roger Water's depressive influence. One of the albums opens with the lyrics, "A body washed up on the Norfolk Beach / Another friend that I could not reach..." and goes downhill from there. Just beware. The music is incredible, and the lyrics are thoughtful, but cynical and dark.

Second: Dream Theater, also essential live. It's hard to believe this band is twenty years old. Albums like Live at the Marquee and Live Scenes from New York simply blow me away with their narrative stories, very hard rock sensibility, and technical excellence. Songs like "Home" which just jerks you around with sweet thoughts and high-powered guitars run side-by-side with "Overture 1928," a story in a song about a young man's encounter with a ghost.

Dream Theater is most famous for playing concerts for two hours, then leaving the stage, then coming back and playing an entire other band's album as a cover: they've done Iron Maiden's Powerslave and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and in the latter case, since they had time left, played pieces from Animals, Echoes, and The Wall while they were at it, convincingly. Sometimes they just play one song after another in a huge medly. One of their great medlies includes Elton John, Genesis, Rush, Metallica, Kansas, Queen...

It's really hard for me to believe that both of these bands have existed for years without my knowing about them. About the only excuse I can find is that somehow, I got stuck in such a rut about music that I didn't really feel my way around anymore. Both of these bands represent the evolution of the kind of rock music I've loved into the 21st century, and it's nice to know that someone's writing and performing it.

Comments

[creepingcrud.livejournal.com]

Man, I hope the mix on that PTree NEARfest disc is better than what we got in the hall. It was a good set, though. Of their studio discs I enjoy Stupid Dream and In Absentia, although I am not totally crazy about Steven Wilson.

Since you are on a Dream Theater kick, have you heard the OSI album Office of Strategic Influence? Features Mike Portnoy and Kevin Moore, along with Jim Matheos of Fates Warning, and Sean Malone, whose Gordion Knot projects you also might like.

Have you by any chance heard anything by a band called Discipline? They have an album called Unfolded Like Staircase which I can't help but think you'd enjoy. Long compositions with lots of emotion and drama... Matt Parmenter, who wrote their stuff, is a bit goth, but not excessively so.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I have OSI's second album, Free, but I don't have the first one. I liked the second one a lot... at first. The instrumentals continue to be excellent, but after a while the monotone voice delivery became, well, monotonous. I still like it, but it's definitely second-tier for me.

[creepingcrud.livejournal.com]

I have not heard the second album yet, so I can't say if the first is much different, but I kind of doubt it. I guess that means I shouldn't recommend Kevin Moore's Chroma Key albums either, since he also does the lead vox for those, although the Dead Air For Radio is awfully good.

It's hard to find a lot of consensus regarding singers, I suppose. If you do like the instrumental parts of that, though, you really ought to try Gordion Knot, which is an all-instrumental project which has a similar mood at times.