January 2002
A belated happy new year to any readers out there.
Well here we are a whole year (or two depending upon your point of view) into the millenium and the world doesn't seem to have changed that much does it? Still far too much hatred and too many loonies running around killing people because they have some weird internal hang up (the killers that is not the poor souls on the receiving end). Things have slowed down immensly at BoA over the last year as both Ian and myself have been very busy with other things (Ian assisting the Flower Kings in their quest for a modicum of world domination and me playing music - no contest) and I am not sure what happended to Gareth? We are still here however and rest assured we will continue to inflict our humble views on the world for a while yet.
Best regards
July 2001
Oh serious woe! There is a distinct possibility that Phish are no more, Jaco, Jimi, John Lee and Stevie all passed away far too early and the UK music scene apart from a few points of light is exceedingly crap. On the bright side however we have (from the USA) the Flecktones, Disco Biscuits, George Bush (!?) moe. plus all the live shows that the Dead and Phish allowed the fans to record. Bela and the Flecktones may be back in the UK later this year, MMW, Mr Phil Miller's In Cahoots and Gong certainly will - hey I'm feeling better! Spock's Beard play progressive rock with the chops of Weather Report and the onstage energy of prime Who. Seriously folks it's time to seek out the weird and unusual, around the edges of 'the business' there are still sumptuous musical feasts to be enjoyed. Don't buy another hyped mainstream or pseudo 'progressive' album with that hard earned cash, take a left turn and buy 'Jaco Pastorious', 'Heavy Weather', 'Blow by Blow', 'The Best of John Coltrane', 'You', 'Europe 72', 'Live Art', 'Of Queues and Cures' or 'A Live One' instead, your ears and heart will be eternally grateful. Honest.
May 2001
As is evident from the front page of the site there have been a number of changes both in style and content. Phish & Chips, Jam Bands and Guest MP3s have now been closed (although all content can still be found elsewhere within BoA) due to lack of time and we have decided to concentrate on the core activity of live and album reviews with occasional specials. Also we have had to remove all the MP3s apart from some files in the Box of Rain and Flower Power areas due to new restrictions imposed by our ISP. Hope you enjoy the site.
January 2001
Welcome to the 21st century dear readers and we hope that you are all well.
We have rationalised our activities at BOA as a result of limited time to do some of the things that we originally planned. So it is unlikely that you will much more development of the Guest MP3s and Jam Bands pages although in both cases the content (in particular the sound files) is still there. Similarly activity at Phish & Chips has slowed down as well although like the other pages mentioned all of the content is still there including a selection of MP3s (which we occasionally add to). Do not despair however as all of these rather neglected areas contain links to other places on the net where almost infinite amounts of content may be found.
So what have we been doing and where is BOA going? Well we hope to continue to provide a steady stream of reviews and the occasional interview. We may not be the flashiest site on the net but we are a little proud of our content. Speaking of which the last couple of months have seen the first batches of reviews from our new prog-rock and prog-metal reviewer Gareth Long. Welcome to the Tub Gareth. Ian if course also runs the Flower Power official Flower Kings fan site and also the original official Transatlantic fan site. David looks after the Box of Rain area also being a member of said jam oriented band (on of the reasons for less BOA activity).
David Weston January 2001
November 2000
Where has the year got too? November already!!! Still it's been a great year for music with strong showings from BOA fave's Phish, moe. , Gong, The Flower Kings and Spock's Beard. Spocks Beard at the LA2 in London on October 28th was absolutely amazing, even better than last year. Hopefully we'll get a review together at some point, time seems to be in short supply at the moment.
Upcoming in London during November are of course Gong and The Flower Kings - miss either and you will be the worse off.
We have had a few glitches with our counters recently but they should be back on track now - and yes the numbers are real.
Take care and support the music (especially live music).
Best wishes
David
September 2000- Ian Oakley
Something Happening ? - The state of The European Progressive Scene and 'Prog Police'
I've been corresponding on a news group recently with someone in the USA. We have been talking about the Progressive scene, age and 'Prog Snobs' (A bunch of people that seem to decry anything that they think can't be considered 'truly progressive' or 'Real Prog') However, when challenged about what they consider are the rules to be 'Real Prog' I have yet to read or receive a coherent definition. My correspondent would almost declare himself as one of them but is a great guy who is actually open for discussion. My last observations raised to him were the current state of the Prog scene in Europe (particularly the UK) and some observations about the dreaded 'Prog Police' - Just though it might make an interesting article here……
The state of The European (particularly UK) 'Progressive' Scene
There is definitely a resurgence in Prog over here in Europe -The new Spocks Beard 'V' entered the NATIONAL German chart at 37 - TransAtlantic also got into the top 30-40s of National German and Dutch charts. I looked in the paper today for gigs happening London during the next next few weeks:-
A reformed - Magma
A reformed - Faust
A reformed - Gong
A reformed - Caravan
A reformed - Coliseum
Man
Dream Theatre
Porcupine Tree
Spocks Beard
The Flower Kings
Plus other not so well known 'Prog' bands like Mostly Autumn, Jadis etc
But who's buying this stuff?
Well, in some ways unfortunately, it appears to be not a new generation of Prog fans - Its actually people aged 35 - 55* that were brought up either on the first wave (Genesis / ELP etc) or the second wave (Marillion / Twelfth Night etc). It appears what has actually happened in Europe is that, having had our families / built up our careers, we are finding that we now have some spare time and money in our pockets to start buying CDs and going to concerts again of the type of music we fell in love with in our teenage years. *The only possible exception to this is the rise of Prog Metal which does have a young audience but is really a new genre of its own
I'm a good example. I must have gone over 10 years 86 - 97 without (with the odd exception) buying a 'new' bands CD or finding a 'new' band to latch onto that was playing my type of music - I lost interest in the whole scene. Now I seem to be buying a CD and hearing a new interesting band almost every week!
As a further observation, it appears not only the audience that are of a certain age - Look at the average age of the musicians in, arguably, the current big 4 (Spocks Beard / The Flower Kings /Dream Theatre / TransAtlantic) ….In the current range of UK 'Prog bands' I don't think there is any musician under the age of 30 - 35. From speaking to them, they have no problem with the success of the big four the main thing they complain about is the lack of venues available to play…..
Keeping Prog Pure - The 'Prog Police'
The 'possibly' good news is that in America there does seem to be a younger 'Prog' audience and new young Prog bands. However note the word 'possibly'….
Recently one of the big four was effectively banned from one venue in the USA that specializes in providing a home for 'Progressive' music. Although they had played that venue a few times before, the manager now didn't think the band was 'Progressive' enough accused them of 'selling out' and so effectively closed down that area of the USA for the bands fans .
Which brings me back to my main point - Now it appears to me that the people that are trying to 'keep prog pure', the so called 'Prog Snobs' - 'Prog Police', are not my generation. The generation who were actually there at the time to hear the very first emerging bands, who can remember a time when Prog was 'the mainstream'. No its not us, who have supported this type of music for 20 - 30 years , that are complaining about the 'purity' of it all - From looking on the internet sites and reading the news groups - The 'Prog Police' are almost 100% young Americans, mostly students, that missed the first and probably the second wave of the genre and are only just discovering bands that we were into before they were born!
I usually try to ignore these people but what a very strange state of affairs!
Even stranger when you think that that particularly nation seems to have much more of an open ear and appreciation for new fusion and musically progression than we do in Europe - Just look at the staggering success of the 'Jam band' genre……
August 2000
Well its been a jolly year so far on the music front, here are a few of the highlights from the BOA point of view most of which you will find further information on elsewhere on this site. All of the albums come thoroughly recommended.
New albums from:
moe. - L
Phish - Farmhouse
Gong - Zero To Infinity
Spock's Beard - V
The Flower Kings - Space Revolver
Transatlantic - SMPTe
Live Performances by:
Phish - we weren't there but the MP3s sound excellent - get hold
of a copy of the VH1 US broadcast if you can.
Gong - Hammersmith Palais
Canterbury Sound Music Festival
As for the coming months, well there are some great tours coming up in the UK over the Autumn. Follow the band links for details of dates for Gong, Man, Spock's Beard, The Flower Kings (first London date) and even a date or two by our own Box of Rain.
Warning - watch out for dates by a band called Solstice. It's not the early 80's festival / prog band but a quite different heavy rock band (this is meant as no disrespect to said band by the way). I don't know if the other Solstice still play but take care to ensure that you are going to see the right one.
Enjoy the music!
Mr Archimedes
May 2000
Lots and lots of very good stuff happening at the moment (no Phish Euro tour though sadly). Here just a few bits of news you may have missed:
New Phish studio album Farmhouse out on May 16th
Truly wondrous moe. live set L out now
New Flower Kings album Space Revolver out in June
Canterbury festival in, er Canterbury on July 29th or 30th featuring Gong, Caravan, Colusseum and Kevin Ayers - see you there.
ZZ Top at the Shepherds Bush Empire (can't go unfortunately)
You have missed the Gong tour by now but they are playing on the Avalon stage at Glastonbury and the afore mentioned Canterbury fest.
Have a great summer
DW
April 2000
Things have been a bit slower than usual at the Bathtub over the
last couple of months, as well as the inevitable bouts of winter
lurgi, Ian sustained a broken arm a while back and has been
largely unable to contribute other than keeping the Flowerpower
and Transatlantic areas up to date. Rumours that he was run down
by an irate Steve Wilson are totally unfounded. Also I have been
busier playing music than writing about it, no contest really.
There has been some good stuff happening though, a new Gong album that's excellent in places, the Flower Kings live double, Spock's Beard at the Sheperd's Bush Empire and discovering much more moe. Some weird stuff as well, the Chemical Alice EP gets it's first review 19 years after release and people keep asking me for more Alice material 16 years after we packed up. As a result a live CD of the 1984 line up will be appearing soon in some form or another. Then of course there is the bad stuff, no sign of a European Phish outing this year, Ian Drury (god bless you mate), Ian's arm and both of us reaching 40 this year. All in all an interesting year so far. Still haven't got the new band off the ground though.
Anyway here are some recommendations in case you are stuck for things to spend your hard earned cash on:
- the new Phish album 'Farmhouse', due in May has a terrific track list, could be a great one
- Gong play in London at the Hammersmith Palais on April 7th (still waiting for the BBC sessions CD to arrive)
- buy some moe. albums, 'Headseed', 'No Doy' and 'Tin Cans & Car Tyres' are all great
- go see the Cosmic Charlies at the Fountain in north London - see links page for details
- buy the Flower Kings live CD
Best wishes
David
January 2000
Welcome to the new millennium! Doesn't actually feel that much different does it? Here are a few of the things that I would like to see happen this year:
Bands to tour the UK / Europe:
Phish (surprise surprise)
moe.
Disco Biscuits
The Flower Kings
Spocks Beard
Band to figure out where it's going:
Phish
!!!! I hear you gasp. Well we all love Phish - hour for hour I have probably listened to more Phish than anything during the last year - but one can't help wondering what they are up to. By all accounts the summer US tour was below par (the shows I have heard certainly aren't that great), the December tour was much, much better but there is little new ground being broken. The ambient funk jams are great, superb even but where are the great new songs?
What was the Hampton release all about? There is some great stuff on there (Possum, SOAM being two examples) but do we really need the whole lot? Does it really add to the experience hearing them do 'Rock and Roll' or 'Getting Jiggy'? Thanks for the opportunity to get high quality versions of the great stuff but why not whittle it down a bit?
I don't want to see them stay static or revert to the styles of the early to mid 90's, they've been there, done that, bought the T shirt etc. OK if they played the UK and did Reba, YEM, Bowie, Antelope or lord be praised Gamehendge I would be ecstatic. I don't know what the answer is and just hope that they do. I suspect that what they need to do on one level is write truly great songs that transcend the muso - jam band model and deal with real emotions like the best Dead, Band etc songs. On another level I think they'll continue the ambient funk route to a point where band and audience just blissfully drift away……. A mix of both would be rather nice.
Looking forward to the new album.
Actually I think I know what might do it! Yes, another European tour playing theatres and small clubs! What about moving to Europe for a year (just don't go techno on us)!
Anyway best wishes and happy new year / century / millenium (yeah I know…) to all.
David
End Of 1999 - "A New Hope"
Well it's the end of the year, the end of the century and the end of the second millenium (OK I know its not really until 2001 but…). So its time for end of year polls etc.
In BOA's humble opinion, we end this year /decade on a very positive musical note. Perhaps in response to the increasingly bland chart music, interesting, experimental, challenging music does seem to be making a re-appearance, be it the American "Jam Band" movement, the "Progressive Rock" resurgence or Modern Classical.
The greatest aid to this must have been the invention of the internet allowing free distribution of MP3 files and free speech on review sites, such as this, so fans and bands neglected by the main stream press and record companies can have a voice in a worldwide community. Running The Flower Kings 'Flower Power' site, I am still astounded as day after day I receive Emails from places diverse as Indonesia, Africa and New Zealand as well as America and Europe about this relatively unknown band.
However, one thing that slightly annoys us is some peoples need to put all bands, sites etc into pigeonholes and then once there champion or dismiss anything else that, in their mind, falls into or deviates from their limited perception of the scope of that particular pigeonhole. Take this site for example, if you look on links and lists we are usually categorized as a "Progressive Rock" site, we've even done it ourselves. And I suppose that's right -we are interested in music, usually with a rock base, that is progressive in the true sense of the world. We also spell the world correctly - 'Progressive' not 'Pro - Regressive' (i.e. in support of those desperate to recreate previous musical forms - DW). But, basically, we just write about music we like - be it Jazz, Improvisation, Psychedelic, Folk, Classical or indeed Progressive Rock. This is well reflected in the end of year poll that we did between us at BOA.
Anyway the point to all this is please don't try to categorize us or this site, we just like good adventurous music and hopefully, sometimes, some of the magic we hear in the music we review will come across in the words we type.
Have a great new Millenium,
Ian and David
Special thanks to Martin, BOA's "computer widows" Julie and Deborah and everyone that has helped or contributed to BOA over the past seven months. Oh and almost forgot our old dear friend - 'Mr Archimedes'
December 1999
We all seem to have been a bit short on time over the last weeks so as yet no one has managed to come up with a new editorial.
David has been standing in on guitar with the Cosmic Charlies in place of a poorly Andy and also forming a new band 'Box Of Rain'. More later.
In the meantime have a look at these two wonderful articles at the Jam Bands site:
http://jambands.com/kitchensink/kitchensink.html
http://jambands.com/nov99/features/decade.html
November 99 – "BUT"
So here we are in November. BOA is getting quite a bit of attention – Thank you very much out there!
But, and it is a BIG "BUT", where are you Brit bands?
We are having weekly, if not daily, contact with bands from USA, Canada and the European mainland,but British bands – virtually ZERO!
BOA is proud to be an English/British, site but what has happened to British progressive music?
With the honourable exception of Thieves Kitchen, we haven’t heard a peep out of any British bands in our 6 months of existence. Is this just apathy?
Is "progressive" music dead in this Island of ours? Are we content with treading over the same old ground of Neo Prog that was created the best part of 20 years ago? (I thought "neo" was Latin for "new")
Do we have to rely on the support bands of that era (IQ/Pendragon etc) to fly the flag? Or copyists like Arena who really should have been around 20 years ago to provide yet another support slot.
Where is the TRUE "PROGRESSIVE" music of the British Isles to be found?
Come on you bands we want to fly the flag!
CONTACT US NOW
Lets hope by the time of next months Editorial we can feel proud that the UK is still leading the world in inventiveness and true progression.
Footnote: On October 30th David played guitar with the Cosmic Charlies Grateful Dead tribute band in North London and thoroughly enjoyed himself. So much so in fact that a new band is now in the offing in a Dead, Phish, Feat vein. Watch this space.
It's been a funny few weeks at BOA.
October 1999
We only started this site "for a laugh" but people started listening!
Approaching the fifth month of our existence we noticed that our site meter was nearly up to the 1000 hits… Rather shockingly it appears that someone likes us out there! So a big thanks from BOA for all your support over the last few months.
You may have noticed some changes and site expansions over the past few weeks.
Let me tell you a little bit about them.
Phish fan site Phish 'n' Chips has been added to the BOA portfolio
because, quite simply, we love this band and want to try and
bring them the attention they deserve in Europe. We are also
hopefully offering it as a service to you in that you now have
the chance to hear and read about a band that you would have
rarely, if ever, seen mentioned in any European press before now.
There maybe more "Fan" sites to follow…Watch this
space
A Jam Bands site has been added.
Currently in America there is a whole underground movement of so called "Jam Bands" (Phish being the top of the tree). Fusing various influences (From home-grown American Blues/Jazz/Country to Classical music and a few points in between) these bands produce music that pushes the musical envelope in the same way that the early European progressive movement did in the late 60's / 70's
The "Jam band" genre is really America's own brand of "Progressive Rock". The common ground in both movements being the high level of musicianship, the ability to individually solo over musical themes and in the best of the bunch, real "progression" in stretching musical boundaries. The big difference is that with Jam Bands the basic structures are taken mainly from Blues and Jazz, rather than the Classical music approach of most European Progressive Rock bands.
On this page you will find various recommendations to the best we have found - Worldwide.
Guest MP3's (including BOA's recommended "Download of the Month").
Quite simply - MP3's that we have found / been given that we like and recommend.
Download of the Month being our favorite of the last few weeks.
Finally, perhaps a bit of a policy statement...
BOA likes to hear and concentrate on new bands that we feel are pushing that 'musical envelope' either through composition or improvisation.
We will try to bring these bands to the attention of our readers with fair and honest reviews -
We don't / will not like everything that we hear and will offer, hopefully "constructive", criticism where appropriate.
If we 'believe' in certain bands 'Phish', 'The Flower Kings' and 'Spock's Beard' to name but three, we will actively push their presence and music (although we will not be afraid to criticise). Ultimately the only reason we write so much about such bands is because we love their music (well most of it anyway).
When we review a CD or concert or interview a personality we will try to make it as in depth as possible. As someone said "BOA the 'Mojo' of Progressive review sites" - We liked that a lot….
Again, thanks for your support and interest.
Interesting Times
September 1999
Two or three years ago the BOA team could often be heard bemoaning that fact that there seemed to be no truly fresh and exciting music appearing on the scene. MN was reduced to listening to Oasis, IO to searching out increasingly obscure prog bands and DW to enlarging his collection of live Grateful Dead recordings to beyond feasible proportions. Now at the turn of the millenium all that seems to have changed, we are all still doing all of the above to some degree or other but we also have a mass of exciting new music to listen to.
True, most of it consists of live Phish recordings courtesy of those wonderful guys in the US who post MP3's for download with the blessing of the band, but there are also other exciting things happening.
Spocks Beard have been putting the songwriting back into rock music with their first four albums culminating in the truly wonderful 'Day For Night'. Progressive rock music which although it owes a fair deal to stadium AOR rock also manages to sound fresh, exciting and above all melodic! In places 'Day For Night' reminds me as much of the Beatles as anything else. Spocks Beard will be playing in Europe later this month (September 99), a set of gigs that is wholeheartedly recommended.
Also playing in Europe during September are The Flower Kings and amazingly there is a Spocks Beard, Flower Kings double bill happening at Amsterdam's Paradisio on the 27th! BOA will be there! Although some of the earlier Flower Kings albums are slightly more derivative of 70's prog than Spocks Beard, the band have increasingly added their own ingredients to the brew, a European sense of harmony and melody, hippie idealism and best of all improvisation!
Look out for interviews with Neal Morse of Spocks Beard and Roine Stolt of The Flower Kings here in the very near future.
Back to improvisation for a moment. What is it with 99% of rock musicians that they think their audience goes to gigs to hear albums replicated live with a few lights added? The very best bands and musicians have always treated the stage differently to the studio and consequently turned the live experience into something truly unmissable. Who? well yes the Who but also Jimi, FZ, Led Zep, Cream, the Allmans, the Grateful Dead, Phish and of course John Otway. I may be slightly biased on this point but the fact the Roine sometimes takes flight on Zappa-esque guitar excursions is what make The Flower Kings that bit special.
And Finally what of the great, great Phish? Well unfortunately us English haven't had a chance to see them live since 1997 (should have gone to Spain or Denmark in 98). The other day BOA listened collectively to what is probably the best rock gig ever! Phish, New Years Eve 1995, Madison Square Garden. It's out there on the web (3.5 hours of it), go get it, download it, sit back, relax, eat the ice cream, have your mind expanded. Phish go phurther! If you would rather buy a CD then go for 'A live One' (its er, live), Billy Breathes (their best studio creation), Lawn Boy (the best studio version of their live sound) or Junta (a first album to end all first albums).
Thats all for now, see you at the gigs mentioned above or perhaps the rumoured Gong 30th anniversary gigs in October.
Whatever you do, take care of your shoes (Phish, Cavern)