Re: Prog Rock was Hiromi

["Joshua Carroll" <josh@infinivert.com>]

I've actually got Tool's Lateralus album playing on my iPod right now. 
I'm a sucker for odd time signatures.

Personally, and way off topic, I really enjoy when a band can do
complicated time signatures in a way that it doesn't really stand out, but
just fits the song and so doesn't sound odd.  That's especially impressive
if they can change signatures multiple times without creating a "jerky"
feel.  Radiohead has done a little of that.

--Josh



> Tony wrote:
> " It is interesting to note that there is a very active and very good
> modern
> prog scene going on."
>
> I really love the later Porcupine Tree and have seen them twice now.
> They are pretty proggy
> but also he is a fantastic melodist and singer (and a great guitarist to
> boot).
>
> Interestingly too, in the grunge scene,   Tool has really taken on a bit
> of
> a prog vibe.  Their last two records
> have very few even time signatures on them.   The second to last (which I
> think is a powerful record) is
> almost entirely in 5/4, 5/8 or 10/8).     It's very dark, somber,
> melancholy
> and mono melodic if you are a Yes fan, though, so
> be sure and know I told you so.   Great drummer, by the way.
>
> ***************************************
>
> Yeah,  Prog Rock:
>
>
> I was a huge prog fan in my later high school years and the first year of
> college ('71')
> but I must confess that I grew out of it in the much the same way that I
> grew out of Jazz Fusion
> (which I was a slavish fan of at it's inception).
>
> I guess in the long run for me, it always comes down to composition and
> I'm
> a song fan, so
> gratuitous riffage really leaves me cold these days.   It's ironic 
>because
> having played all my life
> I finally have the chops to play in both of those styles really well but 
>I
> find that record producers
> are starting to ask me if I will please play more on a song these days
> when
> I do studio work.
>
> Personally,  I love groove music and I always tell my students:   when 
>you
> are playing groove
> styled music of any kind you can only be doing one of two things at a
> time:
> 1)  playing the groove or
> 2)  commenting on the groove
>
> and, if you are commenting on the groove (riffing, filling) then you are
> NOT
> playing the groove.
> Because the groove is so trancey,  I think a lot of musicians forget that
> it
> does not necessarily continue if you quit playing it.
> The musician playing the groove feels it more, I believe than the 
>audience
> hearing it which makes it more important to be
> more conservative and minimal when attempting to leave the groove as a
> rhythm section player.
>
> Bill and I once saw Wah Wah Watson get 5,000 people dancing in 30 seconds
> with one L5 Gibson and a wah wah pedal.
> He WAS the groove.
>
> Now, I know this makes me a bit of an old fashioned player and this
> precludes the lion share of the Jam Bands that have proliferated so much
> but that's how I see it.
>
> Personally, I"d rather listen to a structured Prog Rock band than a
> meandering Jam Band (no matter how stellar the chops of the musicians).
>
> Okee dokee.................you can start flaming now.............lol
>
>
>