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Prog Rock:
A Secret Influence of the Jam Scene
da Flower Punk
Aug. 10, 1999A lazy reviewer goes to a show by a so-called "jamband" and sees a long-haired guy in a tie-dye, a woman in a flowing skirt spinning softly to the music, smells a little pot or patchouli oil and concludes instantly: Grateful Dead scene. In the mainstream press the comparisons to the Dead flow in reviews of "jambands" like bourbon flows at Mardi Gras.
These reviewers are often writing about their preconceptions and stereotypes more than the music they are sent to cover, however. If they were really listening they would notice a river of influences in the jamband scene every bit as strong as the Dead, if not stronger in many bands. One important set of influences flows not so much from San Francisco music but from Prog Rock.
Consider moe., for example. "Spaz Medicine," the second track on their latest disc "Car Tires & Tin Cans" (1998: Sony 550), reeks not of the Dead, but of Rush. Sure moe. is a great gumbo of influences, but clearly heavy Prog Rock plays a role in this music, along with the country, metal, Dead, Zappa, cartoon music, and all the rest of the currents flowing in their sounds. But at times moe. seems a lot more like Rush than anything else, right down to the bell-like cymbal sounds occasionally punctuating this angular and distortion-heavy sound.
Blues Traveler too was clearly influenced by the Rush sound. The Dead never played as hard and as heavy as Chan Kinchilla does on guitar.
Other bands that have taken Rush and other Prog Rock sounds to heart in making their own sound include the Disco Biscuits. While this group clearly adds elements of post-modern dance grooves into their sound, songs like "Vasillios" and "Jamilla" on "Uncivilized Area" (1998: Hydrophonics / Megaforce) are nothing like the Dead at all; they do owe a debt to the roads paved by Prog Rockers, however.
Nashville's Guy Smiley Blues Exchange is another example. The GSBE is a large, horn-driven unit that experiments with all kinds of sounds, but the Prog Rock influence is clearly evident on their debut, self-titled CD (1998: GBSE / Kind.Nashville) on tracks like "Freaky Love Monster" and "Mechanically Separated Chicken." These tracks are instrumentally different (to say the least) but their debt to King Crimson is clear. (Other tracks on this very good CD are derived from Latin Jazz, hard classic rock like Led Zeppelin, and 70's funk. But still the Prog Rock influence is there at times.) The Guy Smiley Blues Exchange, by the way, is very good, and they are traveling in ever-wider circles around the East and Midwest. (They also have one of the better www sites on the jamband scene, at http://www.GBSE.com.)
The new Wayne Horvitz project, Ponga, draws from the harder edges of the 1980s King Crimson "Discipline" era. Again, rather than simply recreate that sound, Horvitz, an excellent Seattle-based keyboardist, as reinvented that kind of edge with Ponga. This is dissonant and dangerous jazz music.
The influence of Yes and Pink Floyd can be found on Blind Man's Sun's, "Of The Spheres" (1998: Blind Man's Sun). The kind of ethereal, synthesizer driven Prog Rock sound can be found in many tracks on this interesting two-CD set, as can some of the Elton John ideas given voice on the classic, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," in which Prog Rock ideas were fused with a pop sensibility.
Another band that clearly revels in Prog Rock styles is Umphrey's McGee. Based in South Bend, Indiana, Umphrey's McGee has a new live CD out, "Songs For Older Women," in which the band blends its non-stop sense of humor around complex musical composition. While their debut CD, "Greatest Hits, Vol. 3" including much that could be considered classically gilded, "Songs For Older Women" has a much harder edge sound to it. The quartet is made up of folks who are highly advanced in terms of music theory, yet they also improvise wildly within the sonic structures they build.
Prog Rock influenced sounds can be found in the music of Ominous Seapods, and elsewhere.
None of this is meant to imply that this revival of Prog Rock is simply a second wave of the genre. What all of these groups take from the Prog Rock scene is clearly influenced by the Dead and other San Francisco bands on several important levels. There is a commitment to an organic kind of jamming in these groups that the Prog Rock scene tended to shy away from, preferring to keep the complex arrangements the same night after night in their concerts. The very idea of the jam band precludes that.
Also, like the Dead, none of these bands is easily pigeon-holed by anyone except a lazy, unhearing reviewer. Prog Rock is a strong element in all of these groups' sound, but it is never the only influence, just one element among many they recombine in their attempts to make something original and new.
That said, Prog Rock is enjoying something of a renaissance in-and- of-itself. Not just in the jamband scene, but in a new wave of msuicians who explicitly embrace the Prog Rock mantle. One of the best new bands I've heard in this movement is England's Porcupine Tree. They make new Prog Rock that means to be Prog Rock, not just to incorporate elements of that sound into their own. They are also quite good; check them out if Prog Rock is up your alleys.
______________flowerpunkprods______________
For a follow-up to da Flower Punk's KPFA - Pacifica column from last month, in which trouble turned to crisis at the listener sponsored station and the network to which it belongs, see http://www.savepacifica.net. For more of da Flower Punk's thoughts on recent releases, music news, and concerts, see http://pauserecord.com.
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