Return of attack of indies

How many times do we have to tell you? How many times?? Yes, the explosion of d-i-y music has put the means of production in the hands of a slew of wannabes who should probably stick with their day jobs. But it has also enabled a number of truly, phenomenally, mind-blowingly talented indie acts to deliver music to you that deserves both your attention and that of a million more like you. All you have to do is LISTEN.

For example, in just-for-the-heck-of-it reverse alpha order:

Last Charge of the Light Horse is the vehicle for the amazing songwriting (and singing and guitar playing) of Jean-Paul Vest.  Last Charge's two full-lengths, 2005's Getaway Car and 2008's Fractures, are musical gut-punches, song cycles that explore the emotional trapdoors and cul-de-sacs of suburban America with a fearless, unrelenting honesty. This is powerful poetry set to music, friends. And the aptly-named Curve EP, reviewed this week on the DV, is another exceptional notch in Mr. Vest's songwriting belt.

Chris Cubeta might be the most prodigiously talented singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist-arranger-producer-Yankee fan in the universe. When he's not busy producing a raft of other NYC-area artists at his Galuminum Foil Studios, he and partners in crime Danny Lanzetta, Jeff Berner and John Passineau make stunningly beautiful Springsteenesque Americana as Chris Cubeta and the Liars Club. Their 2006 disc Faithful and this year's self-titled follow-up are both brilliant pieces of work.

Big Big Train are simply the most talented progressive rock band working today, bar none. Their 2009 album The Underfall Yard and 2010 EP Far Skies Deep Time match up against anything Genesis, Pink Floyd or Yes produced in their prime. BBT are currently working on a double CD due out in 2012, English Electric, which promises to be truly epic. If you're a prog fan and are missing out on these guys, you are missing out indeed.

Arms Of Kismet make "lush, layered, ultra-literate and idiosyncratic postmodern pop," and they do it like no one else. Like Last Charge, AOK is the vehicle for one man's musical vision, and singer-songwriter-guitarist-producer Mark Doyon's capacity for invention feels limitless. Debut disc Eponymous (2004) and follow-up Cutting Room Rug (2005) form the foundation, while 2010's simply brilliant Play For Affection climbs the pinnacle of insightful, tuneful, thoroughly unconventional music to set your every neuron firing.

The State Of Yes 2011

The crazy thing about following a group for close to forty years is that you tend to get invested, maybe more so than is entirely rational.  As John Lodge of the Moody Blues reminded us, “I’m just a singer in a rock and roll band.”  But when you’ve grown up and begun to grow old as a fan of a particular band, it’s hard not to care, and harder still when circumstances trigger a sense of outrage.  The State Of Yes 2011: Their Morals Disappear is “a story about a lot of things—creativity, ambition, success and conflict—but in the end it really all comes down to one irreducible principal.  It’s a story about friendship, and what can happen when it’s tested.”  

All aboard the Big Big Train

British prog-rockers Big Big Train return this week with The Underfall Yard, a classic Genesis-Yes-Floyd smashup that adds brass and strings to half of the band's most moving set of songs to date. Building out from BBT's founding core of Greg Spawton (guitar, keys, songwriting) and Andy Poole (bass, production), new lead vocalist David Longdon -- who nearly succeeded Phil Collins at the mike for Genesis in 1996 -- is a terrific addition, as are extended guest shots by Nick D'Virgilio (Spock's Beard) and Dave Gregory (XTC). Other prog luminaries on the scene include Jem Godfrey (Frost*) and Francis Dunnery (It Bites), making this a virtual all-star affair. That said, there's not a wasted moment here; The Underfall Yard is an amazing, moving, truly impressive piece of work, and a sure thing for my upcoming Best of 2009 column.

Modern prog retrospective

Our March retrospective -- kicking off today with dueling reviews of Dream Theater -- finds the Daily Vault exploring the fertile soil of modern progressive rock. All those fans who think prog began and ended with Pink Floyd, Genesis, King Crimson, Tull, ELP and Yes should sit up and take notice, for there's plenty of fine recent work to be discussed by the likes of Porpcupine Tree, the Flower Kings, Cairo, Circa and Spock's Beard. From now until March 31, prog once again rules the Vault...

New Year's roundup

A trio of items for the first roundup of 2009:

• Rock musicians including Jon Langford (The Mekons), Jordan Pundik (New Found Glory), Kevin Hearn (Barenaked Ladies), Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio) and Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit) will feature their visual art at "Side Show - Art by Musicians and Music Inspired Art," an art show presented by Alternative Press magazine and debuting January 2 at Philadelphia gallery T & P Fine Art. In addition to 20 notable punk, metal and indie musicians, the show features paintings, illustrations and photos by several graphic artists who work with, or are inspired by, those musicians. For more information visit T & P's MySpace.
  
  
• On March 17, Coheed And Cambria will release Neverender, The Children of the Fence boxset, a release chronicling last October's historic four-night event featuring the band performing each of their four albums in their entirety on four consecutive nights. The shows took place October 22-25 2008 at New York’s Terminal 5 and was the first time that Coheed had performed the saga that connects the albums in order. Nearly 11,000 of their most passionate fans flew in from all over the world and lined up all day in the rain to get the best spots on the floor for Neverender’s New York dates, prompting three other sold-out Neverender stands in LA, Chicago, and London. The box set documents the New York stand (as well as clips from all three other cities) in one massive package that will include four live DVDs, four live audio CDs, one documentary DVD, a 10x10 hardcover 48-page photo book and a 7-1/2” custom metal dragonfly. A condensed two-disc DVD will also be made available. Pre-sales for the box began on Friday, Dec 12. Fans who pre-order it will get their names included on a “Children of the Fence” page inside the book, and the first 3,000 copies will be signed by the band.
  
  
• In 1972, Rick Wakeman, the keyboard player with the supergroup Yes, released the iconic album The Six Wives of Henry VIII. album was a massive success all over the world and to date has sold more than 15 million copies on vinyl and CD. Amazingly, the music has never been performed in its entirety -- but that is about to change. On May 1 and 2, The Six Wives of Henry VIII will be performed in spectacular style on Hampton Court Palace's West Front, to a limited audience of 5000 for each performance. On stage performing with Wakeman will be an expanded band, The English Chamber Choir, an orchestra and a guest narrator. In addition to The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Rick has also composed three additional pieces to perform that evening; Tudor Overture, Defender of the Faith and Tudor Rock. The whole event will be a 'mock rock Tudor experience' from the outset with a variety of ticket packages available.

Yes, we do have a communication problem

As strange as it was to see the news that Yes is going to tour this fall with a fill-in for ailing lead singer and co-founder Jon Anderson -- sidelined for the next few months by a severe asthma episode that required hospitalization -- the fallout has been perhaps even stranger. It seems neither co-founder and bassist Chris Squire nor longtime members Steve Howe (guitar) and Alan White (drums) bothered to tell Anderson about their decision to go ahead and tour this winter without him, leaving him feeling "disappointed, and very disrespected." Well, yeah...

Yes we have no Yes tour (except maybe sorta...)

That heavy sigh heard across the land in early June -- mistaken by many for a sigh of resignation from Hillary Clinton supporters -- in fact came from crestfallen prog-rock fans learning that Yes had canceled their planned summer tour. Perfectly understandable, what with lead singer Jon Anderson having had a major asthma episode that put him in the hospital for days and resulted in strict doctor's orders for the 63-year-old to dial it back a notch for the rest of the year.

Given the history of this band -- whose family tree has more branches than your average giant Sequoia -- it perhaps shouldn't come as a complete surprise to learn that the remaining core trio of Steve Howe (guitar), Chris Squire (bass/vocals) and Alan White (drums) have decided to tour this fall as Yes despite the absence of both lead voice Anderson and off-and-on keyboardist Rick Wakeman, whose son Oliver had earlier been tapped for the summer tour when Pops opted out.

Howe, Squire and White, who had by most accounts grown restless with the band's inactivity in recent years, will now launch the appropriately named "In The Present" tour with the younger Wakeman behind the keyboard stacks and Benoit David out front. Benoit who, you ask? Well, it seems the boys paid attention to the strategy employed by classic rock trend-setters from Judas Priest to Journey and plucked David from Canadian Yes tribute band Close To The Edge after watching him sing on YouTube.

Neither David nor Oliver Wakeman has been asked to commit to the band beyond the planned fall tour, leaving the door wide open for the future return of Anderson and/or Wakeman the elder. Meanwhile, it's get your Yes music where you can...

The Daily Shuffle...

It can be quite a challenge picking music to listen to when your music library is as vast as mine. I’m not trying to gloat or show off, but it’s the truth. Tell me that you have not walked into a video rental store, or the grocery store, and been presented with so many options that you can’t even begin to pick where to start.

When such a time arrives, I tend to crawl up in the fetal position and suck my thumb for a few hours. However, with my music collection, I have the option of one of the most glorious aspects of the CD/MP3 age: SHUFFLE!!

Instead of spending my time debating the merits of listening to Close To The Edge over Kill’em All, I can let my iPod choose for me. One click, and I’m reveling in the entire breadth and scope of my library. What song is my iPod going to deliver? I have no idea, and that’s the beauty of the whole process.

Over time, I’ve come to realize that when I shuffle things up, I am often introduced/reintroduced to songs I had no memory of owning, or even listening to. Therein lies the thrill of listening to music, in a method that was once the sole domination of radio, but now accessible to any consumer.

Our focus here at the Vault are albums, and rightfully so. However, God bless this blog of ours, for it allows a certain degree of latitude and freedom in covering content. We don’t often get the chance to highlight a new song that we heard on the radio, or saw in a commercial, or had a friend tell us about.

So, with an incredibly small amount of fanfare, I introduce “Jeff’s Quick Picks,” whereupon I’ll hit on a few tunes I come across while shuffling. Whether it’s an album cut from a record I know very well to a track that I will swear up and down to never having listened to, rest assured that not even I know what is coming up next.

Asia redux (redux)

Just for the record, this post is all Michael Ehret's fault, except for the parts that are all Bruce Rusk's fault.

See, Michael, having read Bruce's and my reviews of the original self-titled Asia disc from 1982, clapped his hands together with glee when he heard the recent news about the four original members of Asia reuniting not just for a tour, but for a new album, titled Phoenix and due out in April.

This naturally led to a conversation on the Vault writers' e-mail discussion list that went something like this:

Funny you should mention the "not-original" Asia... yes, [keyboardist Geoff] Downes kept the name alive for 15 years with no other original members. The main other guy was a bassist-guitarist-vocalist named John Payne, with rotating touring guitarists and drummers. Every so often one of the other original four would play a few shows with Downes and Payne for old times' sake -- I think [guitarist Steve] Howe once played most of a tour in the early 90s while the [guitarist Trevor] Rabin edition of Yes was busy recording Talk.

About two or three years ago, [original Asia bassist-vocalist John] Wetton and Downes got together and made an album -- I think it was called Icon -- and then Yes went on hiatus, so Howe became available, and [drummer Carl] Palmer jumped in too. Apparently you hit it right on the head as far as the "other" Asia -- Downes left them by the side of the road... But that's not the end of the story! John Payne and the other two guys who were current in Asia at the time have now formed a band named -- I kid you not -- "Asia Featuring John Payne." As opposed to the Downes-Howe-Wetton-Palmer edition of Asia, which is technically known as "The Four Original Members of Asia."

See, it isn't just progressive rock MUSIC that's complicated...!