Nearfest Tix go in 30 minutes so start your Engines Tickets for Nearfest, the North East Art Rock Festival, go on-sale this Saturday 3/20/2010. Taking place June 18-20 in Bethlehem, PA, Nearfest this year includes Steve Hackett, Eddie Jobson, Three Friends (Gentle Giant off-shoot), Riverside and a host of prog rockers past, present and future. …
Tag: Progressive Rock
Reviews & Commentary
King Crimson ala Doc Severinsen
In the Court of the Tonight Show Those of you old enough to remember the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson will recall his trumpet-playing and fashion-challenged band-leader and court jester, Doc Severinsen. Doc became kind of a joke on the show, but, he came from serious jazz background and played with the Clarke/Boland Big Band…
Reviews & Commentary
TEN TANGERINE DREAM ALBUMS TO BLOW YOUR MIND
We pick ten favorite albums from over a hundred by legendary German electronic band, Tangerine Dream.
Reviews & Commentary
Harold Budd-Post Miles Improvisor
For a totally different side of Harold Budd, check out this YouTube video of him in a fairly free form blowout with Bill Laswell, Jaki Liebezeit, Graham Haynes and Jah Wobble. This isn’t your father’s ambient chamber music and you wouldn’t hear it on Echoes, but wow! Harold et al: Put this out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FXshOTaGsg&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f…
Reviews & Commentary
R.I.P. WBCN in Boston
A Warrior for New Music finally fades away. The station that made me the music junky I am, for better or worse, has left the airwaves. WBCN in Boston, the first full-time “underground” rock station in Boston, originally broadcasting from a backroom at the The Boston Tea Party club, will switch to mainstream rock format…
Reviews & Commentary
NEARFEST 2009 REFLECTIONS and 10 Classic Progressive Rock Albums
Is Progressive rock progressing? Another year, another NEARFEST and the 2009 edition was as good as any, and much better than 2008, which, as I wrote then, was overlong and overwrought. In ’09 I rarely looked at my watch, there were several acts that excited and you heard nothing but brilliant musicianship. Van Der…
Reviews & Commentary
NEARfest 09 Part 4-The Rest
NEARFEST 09-The Rest: Oblivion Sun, DFA, Trettioåriga Kriget, Beardfish Echoes‘ John Diliberto wraps up his Nearfest 09 Reviews In what turned out to be a very good Nearfest, I’ve already covered my favorite acts. You can read about Gong and PFM, Steve Hillage and Van Der Graaf Generator, and my faves of the festival, Cabeza…
Reviews & Commentary
Nearfest ’09 Pt.3-The New Wave: Cabezas de Cera & Quantum Fantay
Quantum Fantay & Cabezas de Cera welcome Prog to the 21st Century at Nearfest 2009 For some reason, the opening acts on Saturday & Sunday’s Nearfest always provide the most exciting, unexpected moments – think Morglbl, Indukti, KBB and Guapo from recent years – and that was certainly the case with Quantum Fantay and Cabezas…
Reviews & Commentary
NEARFEST 09 Pt.2: Gong and PFM
Someone is dancing in pajama robes and a wizards hat. It must be Daevid Allen and Gong. In this second part of the Echoes Nearfest 2009 review it’s the Old Guard Part Two. Gong is the rock mirror image of the Sun Ra Arkestra. Like Sun Ra, Gong is a free-wheeling eclectic band that wraps…
Reviews & Commentary
NEARFEST ’09 Pt.1: Van Der Graaf Generator & Steve Hillage
NEARFEST 2009 Part One: Progressing into Yesterday, Steve Hillage and Van Der Graaf Generator NEARFEST, the North East Art Rock Festival, took place this past weekend and as is the custom of this 11-year-old institution, it was a mix of progressive rockers old and new. Today, Pt 1 of The Old Guard There is a…