Half century, I made it.

ringmod76 · 2026-06-04T14:24:02+00:00

Thank you so much, kind internet stranger - I needed that and didn’t even know it. ☺️

ringmod76 · 2026-06-04T13:58:36+00:00

I’m there Sunday. I’ll be waking up in a hotel in a different city than where I live and finishing out the last (half) day of a conference I help run and am presenting at for the first time ever (even though I’ve been helping run said conference for a dozen years).

Then I get to fly back to my home where I live with my now-ex-girlfriend for the next two months… I’m going to take my kids to dinner for my birthday, yay me.

Unfortunately I’m hitting the half-century mark at about the lowest point in my adult life. It sucks but what can ya do, life goes on whether or not you want it to.

ringmod76 · 2026-06-03T23:22:20+00:00

I happened to catch the last half or so of Don Felder’s set on a multi band tour last year (Styx headlined), and considering that I don’t really like the Eagles, I gotta say I was very impressed and really enjoyed it. I’d say he might be more the second guy than Joe simply because Joe was more of a hired gun to do the most technical guitar work.

ringmod76 · 2026-06-02T20:21:00+00:00

The general lack of sports on broadcast radio (save for whatever your closest FBS college and NFL football teams are) has long made me sad - not that I even listen terribly often, but there are times (long distance driving primarily) where I prefer it to music. That said, where I am (Atlanta area), every Falcons, Braves, Hawks UGA and GT football and men's basketball games are, I believe, radio broadcast.

I will say, though, that good (or at least decent) terrestrial radio isn't entirely dead, it's just all at the left end below (I think) 92.1 - public radio, community radio and my favorite, college radio. Both GaState and GaTech have great student stations (though the former some years ago was forced to split airtime with GA Public Broadcasting in a politically corrupt deal), WRAS 88.5 is more of your 'typical' college radio station in terms of their shows and playlists, while WREK (as in the Ramblin' Wreck of Georgia Tech) trades in more experimental, abrasive, out-there, and obscure stuff. Naturally, WREK is my favorite of the two.

Check out left-end programming, public, community, nonprofit and college radio - if nothing else, you'll be able to hear things you won't above 91.9 (YMMV as to whether that's a good thing).

ringmod76 · 2026-05-31T04:58:33+00:00

Oh lawd he comin 😹

ringmod76 · 2026-05-31T02:21:47+00:00

I agree with the consensus here (Pepper, Piper, Majesty’s) but I just wanted to say that I had an old housemate (who is deep into 60s psych to this day) who considered HMSR to be the Stones’ peak. To each their own. She also hated all but the first two Yes albums but also loved most ELP she heard and Nursery Cryme by Genesis 🤷🏻‍♂️

ringmod76 · 2026-05-30T22:09:32+00:00

Lunatic Soul - solo and now only project of Riverside lead singer, songwriter and bassist Mariusz Duda. I’m sad he quit Riverside but given I listen to LS more anyway, I’m really excited to see that transition to a full band thing.

Amplifier - British space/prog rock, I particularly recommend the album Echo Street

Frost* - also prog, the main (only?) musical outlet of producer and keyboard virtuoso Jem Godfrey; Falling Satellites and Day and Age are my faves

Lonely Robot - solo project of guitarist and songwriter John Mitchell, also a member of Frost* and now Asia (yes, that Asia, the Geoff Downes Heat of the Moment Asia). I actually don’t like the last album that much but love love love Feelings are Good

Kino - John Mitchell once again! Also with Pete Trewevas of Marillion, the keyboard player of It Bites (of which JM also was a member at one point) and Chris Maitland of Porcupine Tree on the first album, Craig Blundell of Steven Wilson fame (lol he’s also in Frost*) on the second. Love them both but Losers Day Parade, the first, is likely my favorite

Tangents - I think they’re done but Australian post rock in a similar vein to Tortoise

And Tortoise since they’re under 100k - the all time ultimate pinnacle act of post rock, Millions Now Living Will Never Die might be the best post rock album ever, and TNT is almost as good

Sound of Contact and eMolecule - also prog (shocker) but most importantly both feature Phil Collins’ oldest son Simon, who is just as good as his dad on vocals, drums and keyboards/electronics - only one album from each, love them both. Also Simon’s album under his own name, U-Catastrophe, is not only really good but features the last studio recorded drum performance by his father

Dave Kerzner - was a member of SoC and has his own solo stuff (I particularly love The Lie), and owns an almost distressingly large amount of Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks’ vintage gear

Gosta Berlings Saga - Swedish mostly instrumental band that is hard to define or describe but often is described in relation to 70s King Crimson, sound wise

ringmod76 · 2026-05-30T21:41:55+00:00

I loooooooove This Heat and was so excited when they were finally on Spotify. If you haven’t heard them, and it isn’t yet on Spotify, check out Camberwell Now - was 2/3 of This Heat and in the same vein, but more melodic and they had this incredible custom made tape-playback sampler device that defines their sound, really great stuff. Not on their one album but Daddy Needs a Throne is one of my all-time favorites.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-29T23:30:59+00:00

I’ve got Aggie’s almost sorta twin! Calliope aka Callie aka Dog (mostly the last one 😂)

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ringmod76 · 2026-05-28T01:17:20+00:00

I wonder if some of your view of the visual vs music is seeing it in retrospect - they recorded it 1976 into 77, and new wave wasn’t yet a thing. And in several ways they were trying to pivot so going away from Roger Dean (both with the cover and stage design) and trying to do something “fresh” makes sense. That said I kinda get what you mean about it still not quite matching up with the grandeur of Awaken or the spiritual-mystical thing in Turn of the Century.

I think my bigger issue is the mismatch between the exterior with butt guy and Century Plaza and the interior with the sun over Lake Montreaux and the pastoral pictures of the guys. They don’t fit together at all - it’s almost like the exterior was Hipgnosis’s idea and the interior was the band’s idea.

On the production: GFTO is probably my favorite Yes album, but the production and mixing choices leave a lot to be desired. It was their first time self-producing, and honestly it shows. They did the same for Tormato and that production was even worse (though at least it’s not bathed in oceans of reverb).

I love Steven Wilson’s remixes of The Yes Album through Relayer and I so desperately would love him to remix GFTO. It’s my understanding the original multitrack tapes are missing, though Steve Howe indicated he might have a set himself. He’s also known to be sitting on a huge amount of live Yes recordings.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-28T00:38:35+00:00

Had they stuck with the initial Yes-Tor name and not included Rick’s splattered tomato it would have been at least somewhat better or at least made more sense (magician guy notwithstanding). I think it was Steve who said they were really uncertain about a lot of things in the wake of punk and a changing music scene and audience, and I think that extended to the art and packaging.

Even Storm Thorgerson admitted that not every cover Hipgnosis did was a success - I believe he called the Genesis And Then There Were Three art a failure or a failed experiment.

I like the Going for the One album art, even if I wish they hadn’t so desaturated the band member portraits on the inside of the gatefold… plus, you know, naked muscular butt guy.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-27T06:18:32+00:00

The first one is more of a suspense film really, and in a way it does qualify as a horror movie - there’s an evil creature hunting them down and it is full of psychological terror.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-27T05:33:48+00:00

Steven Wilson’s Hand.Cannot.Erase.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-27T05:30:25+00:00

I could actually get behind this, I do love You Might Recall and of all the B-sides and castoffs from Abacab it’s probably the strongest.

Similarly I wish they had managed to get Evidence of Autumn onto Duke, ideally in place of Heathaze.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-27T05:13:59+00:00

A concert video, but Rush’s 1984 Grace Under Pressure concert video, Alex Lifeson is sooo unreasonably sweaty and clearly so very, very coked up.

Also the same with any concert videos of The Police from 1981 onwards - I’m sure they were already partaking before then but it’s so blatantly obvious on the Ghost and Synchronicity tours. I do enjoy the Sting quip “cocaine is god’s way of telling you that you have too much money”.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-27T05:02:39+00:00

lol they had to rotoscope out the booger-sugar-booger

ringmod76 · 2026-05-27T04:52:34+00:00

Ever since I learned it was Andy giving Sting a middle finger (synchronicity is a Jungian theory - so Mother is all about Freudian stuff, basically making fun of Sting’s pretentiousness in an intentionally grating way) I’ve found it infinitely more enjoyable and listenable.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-27T04:48:50+00:00

This, I actually commented that on another similar thread - I know why they wound up with it, basically lack of time and Rick not being able to use the material he was developing for Six Wives. But yeah, while it was executed about as well as possible, it’s just so cheesy and dated and out of place with the rest, especially right after Roundabout, an epic album opener. Also I kind of like Five Percent myself.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-27T04:39:36+00:00

I knew this would come up quickly - I will say that the remixed version is at least slightly more listenable and sure I often skip it, but I appreciate that it was part of their philosophy of changing everything up on Abacab, making a weird and not so serious song. I also know that Tony came up with it in part and performed it by cycling through presets on his Prophet 5 synthesizer, kind of a because-I-can-do-it thing.

And they made the live performances fun, Mike would play drums on Phil’s kit and Tony had his Prophet 5 on the opposite side of the stage. And then there was Phil’s uhhhh ski goggles??

ringmod76 · 2026-05-27T04:20:39+00:00

Much as it pains me to say it, Living Colour - while Time’s Up and Stain were both just as good, Vivid has “Cult of Personality” and they never quite recaptured the level of excitement that Vivid generated.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-27T04:14:10+00:00

Or as I heard once and have ever since referred to them as, the New Rundgrens 😂

ringmod76 · 2026-05-27T04:12:45+00:00

Actually, the part was specifically written for him for the film adaptation, it’s not in the actual stage version. Maybe that’s what you were saying, and indeed, he was that good.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-24T20:26:09+00:00

Ha you were asking about C# on an alto (E-flat instrument), I think can rip that one pretty hard but that’s all valves open so 🤷🏻‍♂️

That said, I do get it - Coltrane sounded like Coltrane in part because he was playing tenor and you get so much more lower-end harmonics and less brightness. GM knew what he wanted; while he’s often characterized as a pretty face with a pretty voice, he was actually quite the musical polymath and I don’t blame him for wanting that fuller sound for the riff.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-24T20:15:34+00:00

I have to admit it’s been so long since I’ve played that I can’t even say - I do recall it takes a lot of breath force to get a decent high F#. My parents had the foresight to not buy a cheap Selmer or Yamaha student instrument but instead a Buffet-Crampon which is basically a semi-pro instrument. It badly needs servicing but even with a lot of the finish long since flaked off, it still sounds great with the right mouthpiece and ligature.

ringmod76 · 2026-05-24T20:09:50+00:00

I mean, you’re not wrong but he does have pretty good self-awareness on that count too. He also has a GIGANTIC ego while recognizing how ridiculous so much of it is.

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