February (almost March) 2009- Nothing to report. Learning songs and rehearsing for upcoming gigs. No new projects at this time...... been in a creative wasteland for a while. It will work itself out.... but hopefully sooner than later.
A5 will be in Minneapolis in April for a short promotional tour. It should be fun and, I think, interesting to see how people outside our circle of SE and SW Wisconsin will react to the band. The band is finally starting to get some momentum.
Been listening to some new music lately. Neal Morse's "Lifeline" - I love his writing style. So prolific and creative... and tons of talent. Great progressive music with superb melodies. I guess you would classify it as Christian prog rock.... and as cheesy as that may sound..... it's really not. Some other bands I've been listening to are - Frost* - "Experiments in Mass Appeal", and "Milliontown". Frost* is a sort of "neo-prog" band with great production, melodies, and songwriting sensibility. There's alot of cool chops too... but the display is not vulgar. Another group I've been checking out is "Abigail's Ghost. The music is very Porcupine Tree-like. Finally, in the "band" category, I've been listening to Beardfish - "Sleeping in Traffic Part 2." Very 70's-like Prog. There are some moments for sure. I need to listen to this some more.
I've really been enjoying Jon Lord's Boom of the Tingling Strings, which is his piano concerto. It's quite good and, in my opinion, is honest to goodness serious 21st Century classical music. It's not new age music that relies heavily on orchestral instruments (quite heavily) to sound "classical". I believe it was Frank Zappa that said- "All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff." I tend to agree with Zappa... .but I think Jon Lord can be looked at as a legitimate composer. He's an exception to the rule. Plus, he's the reason I play keyboard... so, there's a bias. I've always admired his approach to how a keyboard should fit in a rock band. And I've admired his (serious music) composing skills. Since retiring from Deep Purple, he's been dedicated to composing. His concerto for (rock) group and orchestra is pretty cool too (and he wrote that 40 years ago).
I guess there was something to report....
RT
