Prog Digest – An Xperience Column

Prog Digest – An Xperience Column – by Klyde Kadiddlehumper.

Happy New Year, Louis!

Happy New Year, Billy Ray!

And who won the One Dollar?

Well, who really cares – Louis not only had the champagne, lobster, and cracked crab, but Ophelia to boot.

The new year is always filled with hope and all that jazz – and, inevitably, comes up a little short of our expectations. Mind you, most of us have high expectations for the new year. And we also usually find ourselves going, “Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out!” to the old year.

Well, not this year, people! The streak ends here! We will not be fooled again! You won’t find me bowing to the porcelain god at the end of the year! No siree, Bob. Not this guy. Nope.

But Klyde, just how do you plan to avoid this end-of-year case of phooey?

This year, it’s a two-pronged attack.

Yes – I know. Fighting a war on two fronts is a strategy with failure just waiting to happen (just ask the Germans … well, ok, part of it DID have to do with the weather on the Eastern Front). This, however, is not a war.

This is a strategy guaranteed to make things ok.

Front number one – concerts. Now, I am going to be looking at progressive stuff right now. Some may or may not come anywhere near. However, there will be some that are available online or somewhere later on. In all, live music is the start of a solid approach.

But Klyde, who are you looking to see?

Here is a list, just to start:

Kraftwerk

Steven Wilson

The Musical Box

Dream Theater

Steve Hackett

Umphrey’s McGee

Tesseract

Haken

Jeff Lynne’s ELO

The Alan Parsons Live Project

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets (I have no idea, but am going to find out)

That should do to start. There are certainly more, but these are all the ones of which the news has come to Harvard. There may be many others, but they haven’t been discovered.

On to front number two.

More music I’ve never heard of. Or, more than likely, you – even if you are a massive proghead – have likely not heard of. Sorry for the lousy grammar.

For anyone who has been a faithful reader (not that I think there are any – this is really just a completely self-absorbed monthly form of therapy), you will have heard me speak of Prog Magazine. It really is the necessary go-to reference for all things old and new in the world of Prog. Once upon a time, there was a real CD enclosed with each issue (I have a pretty good number of them).

Now, it’s a download link in the magazine.

Here are some things that have been around over the last few years.

Currently on the playlist is a sampler of music from the band Twelfth Night. Originating in England in the ‘80s, they reformed in 2007 and 2014. Really fun stuff.

Pallas – another 1980s “neo-prog” band – and they are still around.  2023’s “The Messenger” is full of all the pomp and bombast you’d expect. Just plain cool.

The Fierce and the Dead’s 2023 album “News from the Invisible World” was runner-up as Prog Magazine’s Album of the Year. Steven Wilson was Number One. Wonderfully complex and still lyrical. Yeah – no wasted time here.

Some of the links are for label samplers. For example, Bird’s Robe Records showcased 18 bands and tracks. Bands like clayhands, Tangled Thoughts of Leaving, Arcane, Kodiak Empire, and many more.

My sanity already being in question, this is just going to be the manner in which I cope and refine the art of being a functioning lunatic.

If I can do it, so can you. Get out of the damned house and see a show where you have no idea what is going on. Listen to music you buy the way we all used to do it: walk into a record store (when you travel, seek them out) and buy something where the album cover looks cool or maybe disturbing.

Now – get off your fat a$$ and start something that we all know you will not regret.

Happy Freakin’ New Year.

Until next time.

Klyde

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