I haven't done a FRT in a while.
- Mogwai, "Kids Will be Skeletons": a typical Mogwai track; brilliant post-rock.
- The Redneck Manifesto, "Bring Your Own Blood: more post-rock in the same general vein as Mogwai. This one is a bit up-tempo, with a very cool rythym.
- Gogol Bordello, "Dub the Frequencies of Love: an Eastern European gypsy punk band doing reggae. Insane, but very cool.
- Tony Levin, "Beyond My Reach: A few years ago, the god of the Chapman stick finally started recording some of his own music. He's got a surprisingly good voice. The album is terrific, ranging from some solid prog tracks, to some fun pop tunes to very well done ballads, like this one. Even in a mellow ballad like this, he manages to work in some very impressive stick work.
- Hawkwind, "Seven by Seven": very old progressive/space rock. I just recently discovered Hawkwind, and was very surprised. I thought that I knew about all of the first wave of prog-rockers. And yet, these guys are famous and influential, but I somehow totally missed out on them. They're utterly brilliant. They've got a lot of the typcial hallmarks of the early proggers in their sound - there's some similarity to Van Der Graff Generator, early Genesis, Syd Barret era Pink Floyd; but they're got their own unique distinctive sound within that style. Really great stuff. This is a very typical Hawkwind track; lots of very spacy sounding stuff, against a complex structure. Highly recommended.
- IQ, "Red Dust Shadow": from early prog-rock to neo-prog. IQ is a neo-progressive band that got started around the same time as Marillion. They're led by a guy named Peter Nichols, who's got a voice that sounds a lot like Peter Gabriel. They're a really fantastic band.
- Marillion, "Tumble Down the Years: more neo-progressive. I'm a huge Marillion fan. I started listening to them back in 1985 or so, and I've been a continual fan ever since. This is a sweet little romantic song from them. Typically for Marillion, even when they do a poppy little sappy song, it's got some beautiful structure interesting harmonies, and great transitions.
- Naftule's Dream, "Free Klez": Very radical experimental Klezmer. Ornette Coleman meets Naftule Brandwien on acid.
- Tony Trischka, "Celtic Melody: unaccompanied banjo played by my former banjo teacher. (He's also Bela Fleck's banjo teacher.) Amazing technique. No one can play the banjo like Tony - when Tony's on, not even Bela can match him. This is a medley of a couple of very traditional Irish tunes, played with absolute perfection.
- IQ, "You Never Will: another IQ track, from the same album as "Red Dust Shadow".
Comments
Tony Levin and friends are great in concert, too. Good mix of his stuff plus covers of stuff he worked on in other bands like Crimson and Peter Gabriel. If he makes a tour (after current Crimson and other plans finish up), do try to catch him. He does smaller clubs (in DC he does Jaxx, which only holds about 200 or so), and loves autograph/photo sessions afterwords (unlike Crimson cohort Fripp).
Of course, given current gas prices, it may be a while before he can tour again...
Posted by: Joe Shelby | June 27, 2008 11:48 AM
Random trivia: Lemmy Kilmister was fired from Hawkwind and went on to form Motorhead (also the name of a Hawkwind song).
While I have a lot of GYBE!, Explosions in the Sky, Mono and Tarentel in my music library, the only thing I've heard from Mogwai is "Young Team". Any suggestiong about where to go next?
Posted by: Brian Emmett | June 27, 2008 12:00 PM
Brian:
Pretty much everything by Mogwai is very good; they're pretty consistent.
My favorite of their albums is "Mr. Beast"; I like it even better than "Young Team".
Posted by: Mark C. Chu-Carroll | June 27, 2008 2:05 PM
I never understand the fuss about Young Team. Don't get me wrong, terrific album. But their sound on Mr. Beast and Happy Songs for Happy People (which I consider together as one perfect double album rather than 2 perfect single ones...) is much more evolved and original.
Young Team doesn't get to me the same way. Than again, I don't think any album get to me like Mr. Beast and Happy Songs..
Posted by: Eyal Ben David | June 27, 2008 3:07 PM
I like Pat Boone.
Damn, it is tough to troll a music list that has Mogwai in it!
Posted by: BobbyEarle | June 29, 2008 11:27 AM
I have the one Naftule record I've been able to find, and a bunch of Gogol Bordello, which (I admit) a graduating student pointed me towards. Being half-Russkie/Czech, and all jazz woodwind player, and raised on odd time signatures a la the Don Ellis Orchestra, I find music like this entrancing and stimulating.
I will end with this, then: Farmer's Market, Boris Kovac and Balkan Beatbox.
Cheers!
Posted by: Wry Mouth | July 2, 2008 12:36 PM
The Motorhead -> Hawkwind connection has been mentioned, but I felt it relevant to note that I came upon them from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal direction, and never really considered them as prog rock in the same vain as Crimson or Floyd. I guess they're close though.
Posted by: Strates | July 2, 2008 10:00 PM