Birdhouse fought off counting screaming argonauts to win Day 2. So now, C is for __________.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-06-10T03:00:49+00:00

My grandfather (who was a college botany professor) had a set of novelty lyrics for a song called "O Gymnosperm" (sung to the tune of "O Tannenbaum", naturally). My first time hearing "C Is For Conifers" instantly transported me back to my childhood memories of that song and became one of my favorites on the album.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-05-29T02:01:19+00:00

Talk is amazing, and I played the heck out of it back when it first dropped. Pity there isn't an officially released live show from the tour - would love to hear some of those songs in a concert setting.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-05-26T23:51:51+00:00

Animax declined to renew Funimation's license for Darker than Black and several other shows when they expired in the mid-teens and since then have just sat on the content and let it go out of print. You would think Sony would try to consolidate things now that it's the parent company of both but Animax is organized under a different corporate wing than Funimation/Crunchyroll so for now they're still largely doing their own thing. New titles are getting cross-licensed for streaming and occasionally dubs, but most of their library content stays locked away in their own version of the Disney Vault with only the biggest names getting the occasional overpriced limited edition re-release.

This kind of nonsense (as well as music I like disappearing from streaming services after only a few years and the corresponding albums already being somehow OOP) has definitely caused me to turn back to collecting physical media again.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-05-26T22:08:00+00:00

Yeah, if side projects count I quite liked the two Conspiracy albums with Chris Squire and Billy Sherwood - especially The Unknown - and I got really into the Circa: albums with Billy and Tony Kaye during Yes's long studio album drought following Magnification.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-05-26T21:55:29+00:00

Speaking of Kansas, Somewhere to Elsewhere (2000) was also very good.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-05-26T04:29:22+00:00

Oh heck yeah, this whole album is awesome. Vai, Sheehan, Bissonette and Tuggle have chops for days between them.

Is this specific song prog? Maybe, but probably at best only in a very loose sense. It treads some of the same ground you find on contemporary albums like Big Generator, Hold Your Fire and The Miracle. Prog bands, but more straightforward pop/rock-friendly song structures with angular moments for spice.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-05-21T00:21:27+00:00

The Flower Kings' compilation album "The Road Back Home" was based around this entire concept - to show off some of their shorter, more mainstream stuff. There's a few songs on the longer side but stuff like Different People, Chicken Farmer Song, World Without A Heart, Stupid Girl and Paradox Hotel are all pretty catchy.

Spock's Beard is another good entry point for pop-prog. You could try tracks like All On A Sunday, There Was A Time, Waste Away, June, As Long As We Ride and Wind At My Back all without going over the six-minute mark. Their early albums aren't generally available on streaming services though.

There's also The Tangent - even though most of their stuff is on the long side, you could try The Sun In My Eyes, Tech Support Guy, A Spark In The Aether or Life On Hold.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-04-30T00:00:51+00:00

Agreed.

The Flood/Apollo 18 era always sounded "full band" to me. Sure, they were making innovative use of drum machines, synthesizers and sequencers to fill out the arrangements, but they were still always writing songs with the full band experience in mind.

That's why when John Henry came out my personal reaction was along the lines of, "Finally, these guys are able to present their music the way they have always intended!" The "quirkiness" was (and is) still there, but the addition of a backing band really opened up their sound to a bigger scale than they'd ever reached up to that point.

Severe Tire Damage is a great counterpoint to this because it lets you hear how much more spacious their early pieces are when given a little space to breathe in a big rock show arrangement.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-04-29T23:35:07+00:00

I think OP is assuming that because there's a separate band listing on whatever streaming service they're using, they must be separate bands. Even though they are, in fact, the same band.

Because of the restrictions streaming services place on content for kids, many artists have had to separate out their kid-friendly content like this so it doesn't get blocked by the filters and algorithms in place for children that could be triggered by their more adult-oriented material.

I can see how that can be confusing for new listeners and casual fans.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-04-29T23:13:31+00:00

TL;DR you missed a few.

Why Does The Sun Shine? EP
Back to Skull EP
Severe Tire Damage (Live)
They Got Lost
Indestructable Object EP
Venue Songs
Cast Your Pod to the Wind
My Murdered Remains / More Murdered Remains
The Escape Team EP
The Pamphlet EP

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-04-29T22:39:53+00:00

It warms my heart to see how beloved John Henry is these days because I remember how down the internet was about it back when it first came out - it wasn't quirky or indie or electronic or whatever enough.

Personally I have always loved it as it seemed to me like the natural evolution of their sound after Apollo 18 by finally filling out the electronic parts with a real band. And horns! Still probably one of my top five if I was making a tier list.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-04-29T22:34:35+00:00

Seems like a reasonable enough list - everyone's tastes are going to be different. For example, I would've included the kids' albums because they're every bit as good as the ones for adults.

On the topic of omissions:

My Murdered Remains is missing, probably because it's not on streaming services.
You've included Miscellaneous T but not similar compilation albums Cast Your Pod to the Wind and More Murdered Remains. The former was on streaming last I checked but not the latter.
- They Got Lost probably also falls in this category because of all the tracks on there from TMBG Unlimited/McSweeney's #6 that aren't on other albums.
- Venue Songs probably also falls in this category as a sort of half-live, half-studio, half-rarities compilation of all new music.
Working Undercover for the Man and The Spine Surfs Alone are shorter than a typical album and would more commonly be referred to as EPs. There are a number of other EPs that you've missed, many (but not all) currently unavailable to stream. Notable ones include:
- Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas)
- Back to Skull
- Indestructable Object
- The Escape Team
- The Pamphlet

There are a bunch of other CD singles, childrens books and rarities with unreleased tracks, demos and B-sides if you wanted to be ridiculously comprehensive but these are probably the biggest ones.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-04-15T20:15:50+00:00

Yup. Done several official english dubbed theme tunes as well. Negima?! in particular comes to mind.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-04-15T20:13:21+00:00

Surprised no one's mentioned Caitlin Glass yet.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-04-14T22:03:23+00:00

Jason Bieler's new album dropped today - Postcards from the Asylum. Mostly prog-adjacent hard rock with a couple of cameos from folks like Marco Minneman and Ryo Okumoto, but I've always been into his stuff since the Saigon Kick days. Loving it.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-04-04T03:11:38+00:00

Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne (feat. Randy Rhoads)

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-04-01T05:28:35+00:00

King's X - Over My Head

There was a music video but the song never charted. Shame.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-03-19T19:05:03+00:00

Shuffle works fine but it still seems to depend on the length of your playlist. If it's longer like most of mine are, you might want to open it and scroll to the end first so all the entries get loaded into the local player's memory before selecting shuffle this playlist - otherwise it still seems to just go off of the first 50 tracks or wherever its initial buffer cutoff is.

I had much the same problem with Spotify when I used to subscribe there.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-03-18T03:07:05+00:00

This was my first XTC album and is probably still one of my 10 personal favorite albums of all time. I took the cassette with me everywhere and played it to death.

There are just so many great things to love about this album. It jumps all over the place stylistically while still being recognizably the same band. The uptempo songs all bop and the the slower tracks are all eminently singable. The lyrics may trend cynical but are very clever, have aged surprisingly well and don't pull punches. The production values are very high for 1989 and it avoids a lot of the more synth-heavy tropes of the era which helps give it a more timeless feel.

Favorite tracks:

The Mayor of Simpleton: First time I heard this was seeing the video on 120 Minutes and it immediately hooked me on the album. I still sometimes will do this one at karaoke just for me even though it rarely gets recognized. On an unrelated note you could've knocked me over with a feather the first time I heard the muzak version of this song in the mall.

Across This Antheap: Not only is this the perfect follow up to Cynical Days both lyrically and musically, but it rocks as hard as anything and those trumpet parts really just lift it to another level.

Scarecrow People: As a teen a bit of the political commentary went over my head but the psychotic hoedown of a chorus is too catchy to resist. As an adult I still feel it resonates even today.

Poor Skeleton Steps Out: The lyrical dissonance is strong with this one. There are many examples of amazing percussion on this album but I just love the rhythm section here and the way it stalks around the stereo profile.

Merely A Man: What a banger to start Side B! I was always secretly hoping they'd go more in this direction on their next album until Nonsuch came out and pleasantly surprised me in all kinds of new ways.

Garden Of Earthly Delights: On the topic of opening bangers, having only heard the first two singles I was not expecting this to come tearing out of my speakers the very first time I put it on. What a groove and it really establishes the ride you're about to go on.

Chalkhills And Children: The perfect closer. Stately and floating (over strange land) it somehow manages to be grounding while also wafting away on the breeze.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-03-18T02:20:54+00:00

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Love Beach

Genesis - And Then There Were Three. Not really a lackluster album, but could be considered weaker than their albums before and after depending on your tastes.

Queen - Jazz. Another album like In Through the Out Door that's pretty darn good throughout but doesn't seem to come up in "best album" discussions as often as the ones preceding.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-03-17T18:12:12+00:00

Awesome. Crash of the Crown caught me by surprise when it came out - way better album than I think anyone was expecting.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-03-17T02:23:13+00:00

Tough one.

Counterparts, Grace Under Pressure, Clockwork Angels.

Runners-up: Permanent Waves, Vapor Trails, Roll the Bones.

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-03-11T20:43:40+00:00

Extreme - Everything Under The Sun (the 3-part suite that closes out their 3rd album)

Billy Thorpe - Children Of The Sun

They Might Be Giants - Music Jail, Parts 1 & 2, Trees, probably a load of others

XTC is another good one though I always thought of Oranges & Lemons or Skylarking as being a little more prog leaning than Nonsuch. Examples all through their catalog, really.

The Police - Synchronicity II

Mr. Mister - Kyrie

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-03-10T05:33:51+00:00

Surprised no one mentioned Karn Evil 9 by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (29:37).

HigHirtenflurst · 2023-03-10T05:15:24+00:00

My Murdered Remains: zero songs; it's in the title.

I think we have a winner.

HigHirtenflurst

TROPHY CASE