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NOVEMBER 7, 2002
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Source: Calendar Live
http://www.calendarlive.com/music/pop/cl-wk-pop7nov07,0,2099271.story?coll=cl-home-more-channels
Old and New Wave: Underground movement nurtures new progressive rock bands and supports existing ones
By Marc Weingarten
"In Absentia," the new album from British band Porcupine Tree, is a radio
programmer's delight, but most radio programmers don't know about it yet. A
brooding journey into space-rock, the album moves from gorgeous acoustic
ruminations to sharp heavy-metal stabs and flighty ambient experiments that
echo Radiohead. So why, aside from the band's cult following, isn't anyone
listening? Porcupine Tree is a prog-rock band, that's why, and that tag is
tainted with the worst excesses of '70s arena rock: men in Mylar capes
playing Mellotron keyboards while dry ice vapors billow up from their
silver platform shoes.
"The true definition of prog-rock is that it's a style of music that can
incorporate any genre of music," says Porcupine Tree leader Steven Wilson.
"But I have ambivalence about using the term. A lot of people tend to think
of it as music that was made 30 years ago."
In the '70s, progressive rock was massive. British bands Yes, Genesis, and
Emerson, Lake and Palmer toyed with conventional rock notions of time and
space, writing epic compositions with symphonic sweep and odd meters that
filled football stadiums with loyalists all over the world. Other
venturesome bands -- King Crimson, Focus, Gentle Giant -- didn't sell as
many albums but attracted large, worshipful fan bases.
Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. Thanks to an
underground that has nurtured new bands and rallied support for old ones,
prog-rock is making a return.
For those who like their rock songs to stretch beyond three minutes, flash
some accomplished technique and move into unpredictable musical terrain,
the new prog-rock is a godsend. Not all of it clicks, of course -- there
are those bands that would rather ape the classics than try anything new --
but the best of the neo-proggers, such as Maudlin of the Well and Cancer
Conspiracy, are redefining what it means to be prog in 2002.
Even mainstream bands are betraying their prog-rock roots. A sprawling
concept album like the Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" owes
a debt to old-school Genesis, and despite leader Thom Yorke's protestations
to the contrary, Radiohead's recent work is striated with Pink Floyd's
head-rock drone.
The fans of the new prog-rock tend to be either nostalgists looking for a
way to bring back the past or younger advocates who found prog-rock in the
sprawling art-metal suites of Megadeth and Metallica.
"For me, Rick Wakeman represents everything that's wrong with prog-rock,"
says Mike Thaxton, 27, referring to the Yes keyboardist. Thaxton is a
Metallica fan and co-organizer of this year's second annual ProgWest
festival, a two-day event this weekend in Claremont. Thaxton's ProgWest
partner, 47-year-old Bob Rosenthal, thinks otherwise. "I'm looking to
relive those glory days," he says.
Both camps, however, are united in their disdain for contemporary rock's
failure to think big. A hunger for epic music is being fed by a thriving
network of bands, festivals and Web sites devoted to the new prog-rock
movement.
The contemporary prog-rock landscape is multifarious. There are bands such
as Spock's Beard and the Flower Kings that attempt to create the pastoral
beauty of Yes. Maudlin of the Well leans toward the death-metal squall of
Slayer but with folk undercurrents. Azigza's tricky fusion is a nod to
guitarist John McLaughlin's influential '70s prog-jazz band Mahavishnu
Orchestra.
It's not only about new bands. A clutch of vintage proggers has been
brought back to life by the movement. Seventies German band Nektar and the
Italian prog-rockers Museo Rosenbach, who released one (very collectible)
album during their brief career, have been lured out of retirement to play
at various prog-rock festivals. "You've got a lot of unbelievably obscure
bands from the '70s who realize there are 4,000 people they can target
directly over the Internet," Thaxton says. "The impact of the Internet on
this movement has been huge."
The new prog-rock movement began in the early '90s, right around the time
that Nirvana was making punk safe for mall rats. "In the early '90s, most
prog-rock bands were considered dinosaur bands," Rosenthal says. "Grunge
was doing its thing. Even big bands like Aerosmith were having trouble."
But a nascent prog-rock scene began to emerge, made whole by the Web. The
first ProgFest, held at UCLA's Royce Hall in 1993, ignited a spark. Soon
prog-rock festivals sprouted all over the country. Now there is a large
network of artist- and fan-driven Web sites and a thriving festival circuit.
"The fans are real, and they care about the music," says L.A. native Neal
Morse, the former leader of Spock's Beard. One of neo-prog's most popular
bands, Spock's Beard contacts its fan base with a Web site that Morse had
run. "The Web has completely changed my life," he says.
"The coolest part of being in this band has been talking to people after
we've played," says IZZ guitarist John Galgano, who, like every other new
prog artist, was changed inalterably upon hearing Genesis and Yes for the
first time as a teenager. "That's what it's all about; no one's in this to
make money right now."
At its best, prog-rock functions with open ears, folding in contemporary
sounds. Steven Wilson, who is regarded as something of a role model among
the younger prog-rock artists, incorporates heavy metal, folk and
electronic elements on Porcupine Tree's "In Absentia." "If you're going to
be prog in 2002, you should incorporate things like trip-hop in your
music," Wilson says.
Prog-rock, according to Rosenthal, is present in the music of critically
acclaimed bands like Sigur Rós and Mogwai, yet the bands themselves won't
cop to the label. When prog-rock can finally emerge from the shadows
without shame, Rosenthal claims, the movement will reign triumphant.
"Bands like Mercury Rev and Mogwai, that's not prog-rock?" Rosenthal asks.
"Just once, I'd like to see a band like Radiohead come out and say, 'Hi,
we're prog.' "
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