Progressive Rocks Me Like a Hurricane

After some urging from Derek, I finally decided to post my first blog. Hopefully, I'll get around to posting more often after I get my life in order...

In 1981, at tender age of 6, my older brothers changed my life forever when they sat me down in our living room and made me listen to their favorite records by Rush, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd and The Scorpions. Yes The Scorpions...fuck you hipster, I still love the classic Klaus Meine "Come On, Come On" jibberish yell.

Despite my long lasting affinity/guilty pleasure for The Scorp's classic tunes, the bands that really struck a chord with me were Rush and Pink Floyd. If you listen to NSL carefully, you can't deny the influence. I still consider Pink Floyd my favorite band of all time, especially after watching Pink Floyd at Pompeii a million times and listening to more of their pre-Dark Side recordings. As a guitarist, I've been equally influenced by both Syd Barrett and David Gilmour. Plus, I fell in love with the synthesizer because of my early exposure to Pink Floyd and Rush.

Although I been through a shit load of music fazes throughout my life, something always brought me back to Pink Floyd and early Rush. About 10 years ago, I began seeking out more music from classic prog bands. Since then Brian Eno and Robert Fripp have become as influential to me as Pink Floyd has been throughout my life. My prog obsession has now become full blown disease.

Here are my favorite prog records of all time:

Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Meddle, More, Obscured By Clouds, Atom Heart Mother, Animals, Wish You Were Here

King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King, Larks' Tounges In Aspic, Starless and the Bible Black, Red

Rush - 2112, A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures

Brian Eno - Another Green World, Before and After Science, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (with David Byrne), Music for Airports, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks

Hawkwind - Hawkwind, In Search of Space, Doremi Fasol Latido, Hall of the Mountain Grill, Quark Strangeness and Charm

Goblin - Roller, Suspiria, Zombi (Dawn of the Dead)

Tangerine Dream - Electronic Meditation, Alpha Centauri, Atem, Stratosfear

Prog albums that I love, but need more from the artists...

Yes - The Yes Album, Genesis - Selling England by the Pound, Le Orme - Felona e Sorona, Camel - Rain Dances, Amon Duul II - Yeti, Bo Hannson - self titled, Klaatu - 3:47 EST, Magma - Kohntarkosz, Soft Machine - Third

Finally, these are awesome psychedelic albums by classic rock artists that all happen to start with the word "The." A precursor to prog:

The Who - Sell Out, The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request, The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle, The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds/Smiley Smile, and of course The Beatles recordings from 1966 and later.

For more information on prog bands, check out ProgArchives.com and search for some cool prog rock videos on YouTube. Here is the first part of a BBC documentary:



Darin