Rock Music

Review by kev rowland — No-Man are again a duo, with just a few guests, and there cannot be many bands that have been going fifteen years let alone recording while one of the members is also in a slightly more well-known outfit. Tim Bowness provides the vocals, while Steve Wilson provides all of the instruments and if anyone thinks that this might just sound anything like Porcupine Tree are very much mistaken. This is an album that sees the band really push Tim's vocals to the front, while the music swirls, moves and shifts behind. It is almost New Age at times but there is always a slight hint of menace that drives away the saccharine. It becomes an album that is timeless, ageless, modern yet harkening back to the Seventies. There are Floydian touches but no-one could ever think that they are copyists. There can be just a gentle piano chord, followed by a line of sung melody. There are songs that are heart-achingly beautiful that if edited might even stand a chance in the charts. It is almost as if their previous albums have been leading up to this, as if Steven has managed to exorcise heavier demons with Porcupine Tree and here has come home to provide a stark view of what can be done. If these guys were designers then they would be minimalist, of that there is no doubt. This is not an album to jump into, you must be prepared to sit back and let it all wash over you (oh and don't turn up the volume at the end of "Things I Want To Tell You" like I did, otherwise you will jump out of your skin when the next song starts). Superb. Originally appeared in Feedback #73, Jun 03

Review by VOTOMS — Everybody knows (this is nowhere"... just kidding) that Wish You Were Here is a wonderful album. I rate it 4/5 stars, but I will tell you the "dark side of the wish", the dark star that won't shine and make it a fullstar (5/5) masterpiece here in my collection. After Dark Side of The Moon, the awesome and one of the most influential albums of the progressive music (maybe a little bit overrated), this is where Pink Floyd found themselves: believing more in the equalization, effects and... believing more in the Pink Floyd name than in their own music. Currently the #4 at the Top Prog Albums here. Sorry, but I just can't understand this. I love David Gilmour guitar playing. But I think this album is a little bit... exageratted. And god knows how it could be a way better. We know it too. We know Animals. Shine On Your Crazy Diamond (both tracks) is something like a hymn. I like it. But after many years living and learning with Pink Floyd albums, I really can't rate it a 5 star song. The songwriting at this album is a formula. It works, but most of the spacey parts are just formula. They could write 500 different albums with similar track and junkie fans would rate it 5/5. Have A Cigar is the worst track, I have that feeling that "I had heard it before" at my first listening. It's a boring track for me. It's not like Gentle Giant formula, that I always find something new. This is like, ah, another pink floyd song, cool. The main track, Wish You Were Here, it's awesome, but I can't listen to this song anymore. Every radio station plays, every guitar boy on the streets or bars are playing this one. Welcome to the machine is the most... 'cyberpunk' track, it's my favorite, but without the effects, it would be very simpleton. Great album. Have fun.

The best way to describe Saturday night’s Ariel Pink show at Tipitina’s would be to say that it was analagous to a musical gumbo. You take all the odds and ends left over from the week and throw them in a pot, and surprisingly enough when the water starts to simmer you have something amazing. There were three rather unique bands in the pot that night. First up was the Hong Kong-based Purple Pilgrims, a sister duo act that consisted of Clementine and Valentine Nixon. The two sat on the stage and sang haunting folksy melodies that were layered with even more haunting guitar ambience. At one point during their set I thought I was in a David Lynch film – it was surreal to say the least. Perfect bedtime music, but the next act would wake you up immediately. Next up was the one man band Kirin J. Callinan hailing from Australia, who was all over the place, literally. Centered around almost a dozen guitar petals, Kirin managed to give the appearance of a full band. He’s very odd and takes a bit to get into, but after listening to his first few tracks you could see his vision appearing right before your eyes. Heavily influenced by German Industrial music and a sprinkle of Manson, Kirin won over the audience and left them wanting more. It’s always funny when a lead singer hits the stage and you can tell right off-the-bat what type of music you’ll be hearing. While LA based Ariel Pink’s catalogue is vast and each album different than the last, there has always been a 70′s glam sensibility to his songs. One thing you don’t get on the albums that you clearly do on stage is a complex and utter sensee of passion. Each song comes across as if it were part of his soul that he is sharing. The set was a well-rounded one composed of material from practically his whole catalog. Last year’s Mature Themes had a few more tracks played but not enough to make the set feel weighted in any way. A nice bonus to the evening was live video mixing by Tim Hix, while the band played, meaning each night you get a completely different visual set. Personal highlights for me included “Bright Lit Blue Skies,” “Mature Themes,” ”Only in My Dreams” (after which he introduced the band), and “Round and Round.” The new track “Hang on to Your Life” fit well with the rest of the set and flowed nicely into “L’estat.” Crowd favorite “Baby” harkened back to my earlier comments of that raw emotion. It was also nice to see Ariel’s mom at the show who just so happened to live here in New Orleans. She was a riot and professed her love for Kirin. So after all those ingredientes settles, we had on amazing pot of “Gumbo” Saturday night. SETLIST: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti @ Tipitina’s Uptown | SATURDAY, JUNE 15TH, 2013 Trepanated Earth Bright Lit Blue Skies Interesting Results Want Me Kinski Assassin Mature Themes Only In My Dreams Hang on to Your Life L’estat Reminiscences Round and Round Menopause Man Strangest Fries Gray Sunset Baby Nostradamus & Me

Review by Second Life Syndrome — "The Ghost Moon Orchestra" was more or less my introduction to this prog folk band, Mostly Autumn. I've been really getting into prog folk lately, as I've been enjoying Dead Can Dance, Blackmore's Night, and I've always loved Colin Masson's work. The thing I love about prog folk is that you never know what you'll get: It's all unpredictable seeing as there are many kinds of "folk" music.Mostly Autumn represents my favorite type of folk: Their music is rather European in its folksy style, so their music contains all sorts of violins, bagpipes, flutes, and ethereal keys. On top of that, Olivia can sing like an angel, so that helps their case even more. I do prefer her vocals over that of Bryan Josh, the male vocalist. He has an interesting, breathy voice that I like, but I don't think 90% of singers out there could hold a candle to Olivia.All of that being said, this album in particular is sweeping, climactic, soothing, and wispy all at the same time. The soaring symphonics always goad me into the music, while the Colin Masson-ish guitar work feeds my nostalgia. I especially liked the title track, "Tennyson Mansion", and "Top of the World". It seems that Mostly Autumn wears their poetic influences on their sleeves, but I can't help but wonder if The Carpenters were an influence here as well. Something I can't put my finger on tells me that. Either way, this is a great album that really lives up to its title, and it also rather handily earns 4 stars.

Poll created by Misomex777 — Which cd is best?

Dropping The Needle podcastIn episode 59, June 17, 2013, of the Dropping The Needle podcast. In this episode Mitch Lafon talks with former Accept lead vocalist Udo Dirkschneider about his new album Steelhammer & his thoughts on KISS.www.droppingtheneedle.com

Review by Dreamer of Pictures — Here I am writing a belated review of the first Oblivion Sun CD. I will say up front that I shotphotos of a Happy the Man show at least once in the 1970s and became a regular photographer at theirshows in the 2000-2005 time frame. I have done the same for Obilvion Sun. I donate the photos to thebands; often the bands arrange for me to be admitted as a guest, i.e., for free.I've been listening to this album since it was first released.This album struck me as being true to several themes. Stan Whitaker once said HtM needed to rock abit more, and the Whitaker tunes here are first and foremost rockers. That's only the beginning ofthe stylistic tour, though. There's jazz, lots of intense and intricate keyboard interactions amongFrank Wyatt and Bill Plummer, surprisingly a bit of funk, and yes, Stan does sing again. A very welcome surprise to me was the powerful compositional influence of Bill Plummer, whocontributed three tunes. Bill was a roadie for HtM and an audio tech production wizard; for a shortwhile he took keyboard lessons from Kit Watkins of HtM, the son of two music teachers at JamesMadison University in Virginia. Stan once told me he proposed Bill for the lead keys seat in HtM in1999 and was outvoted. Of Bill's contributions, I adore the sublime Tales of Young Whales, ahaunting submarine instrumental excursion with an especially powerful midsection.The overall top pick for me from this collection is Catwalk, composed by Frank Wyatt. It charmed me,and it charmed my kids. This is a jazzy sequel to the story of the Cheshire Cat from Alice inWonderland, updated in many ways for the modern age and its sense of the mind and imagination as adefinite locale and in particular somewhat akin to a computer. All of that in words and music, withthe powerful development of themes and variations that consistently characterized the best work ofHtM. Probably Stan's best vocal work ever.From this CD the following tunes migrated to my iPhone: Tales of Young Whales, Catwalk, Chapter 7.1,Noodlepoint, and Golden Feast. In rotation with 900+ other prog tunes via Shuffle. Feels a lot likethe prog tidal wave of my college days never ended.How many stars? Four in my opinion, a lot of great stuff on this CD, but keep in mind I could bebiased for the reasons noted above.

Source: Engl AmpsHere's KISS guitar techs Michael Berger and Fran Stueber.

Review by Dr?mmarenAdrian — Better than Genesis!At least if we are talking about debut records. In that case Caravan is better than most rock bands. Beatles debut wasn't fantastic, not Genesis and Yes' was good but not as good as this. Sure even Caravan developed but their original sound was almost precised. The disc Caravan has a cover showing the members looking sacred with minds devoted to god(or music?) and an emply dusk background in yellow and orange. Caravan (Richard Couchlan, Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings, David Sinclair, Jimmy Hastings) does a very good record here. Back in 1968 the sound has more psychedelic influences than later and what makes this so pleasent is that it's like joyful pop melodic performed in a sophisticated progressive way. The vocals are magnificent here. I think they work better than on next record. Every song is great and worth enjoying but my favourite track is the longest(as it use to) "Where but for Caravan would I" which is a angelic composition with beauty and power. "Love song with flute" is also one of the best, perhaps by matter of the flute and you can't escape this feeling of genuineness. On many tracks, like "Grandma's lawn" you want to dive into the rich organ orgies which are so cleverly played. The drums are also amazing and make this so powerful as a unit. Caravan's music is nice, and it was nice from the very beginning. Just its niceness makes it the perfect music to introduce someone to prog rock with. It's no way a matter of crossover stuff or something like that, just very nice, that's it. I won't say it's a masterpiece or perfect, not today after a first listening, but it was an impressing start of this wonderful band. Four stars with opportunity to be raised even higher!

www.pitch.comKiss is hoping to be on your lips and in your stomachs, Overland Parktonians. Rock & Brews, a beer-garden concept from Kiss' Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, is opening in the Prairiefire development (135th Street between Nall and Lamar) in early 2014. The outdoor patio "captures the excitement of your favorite classic rock concert performances in a family friendly environment." It's like really jamming out on your Discman while getting behind the wheels of a well-made push mower. Rock & Brews will be dishing up Steak Rattle & Roll sandwiches, Purple Rain Chocolate Drops and Surfin' Safari Shrimp Pesto Pizza. The bandmates, who are still touring, have big plans for the franchise, intending to open 100 restaurants in the next five years. In the past 15 months, they've opened the first three locations (although an additional four are in various stages of construction). The Rock & Brews bar in Kansas will be the first outside Hawaii or California.