Phideaux Xavier

February 14, 2011 4:56 AM

By day, Phideaux Xavier directs soap operas such as General Hospital and Days of Our Lives. By night, alongside singer Valerie Gracious, sax player Johnny Unicorn, the rest of his 10-piece band, and accompanied by his "pesky orchestra", Phideaux creates funny, serious, doomy, derivative, innovative, pretentious, goth-tinged space folk "prog" rock. Witness — Part 1: Micro Softdeathstar. Part 2: Microdeath Softstar
posted by Khalad (9 comments total)

Ok, where is the flag: prog rock.
posted by Bovine Love at 5:25 AM on February 14, 2011

Though I was given fiar warning. And they pretty good.
posted by Bovine Love at 5:28 AM on February 14, 2011

What? Phideaux directs General Hospital?

Wow, did NOT know that.

I got into his albums after I heard him on Ayreon's 01011001
posted by subversiveasset at 7:28 AM on February 14, 2011

"Phideaux"? What, did his parents want to find the most complicated, phony-French to spell Fido?
posted by ruelle at 7:49 AM on February 14, 2011

Holy Shit. This is amazing. I'm listening to the whole album now. This stands right up there with the best of King Crimson, Gentle Giant and Genesis. Thanks for this!
posted by KingEdRa at 8:23 AM on February 14, 2011

Khalad... nice find, and thanks for the post.

I am now a fan.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 9:26 AM on February 14, 2011

I'm a huge fan of Phideaux. I can't get enough of the guy's music. Those with an aversion to prog may be interested to know that a lot of his earlier music was more psychedelic pop/rock oriented. The albums Ghost Story and The Great Leap both have some elements of prog rock but are more closely aligned with psychedelia.

The album Doomsday Afternoon is actually the second in a trilogy of concept albums about the rise of authoritarianism, religious governance, and ecological disaster around the world. The first in the trilogy was "The Great Leap" (a pun on Mao's Great Leap Forward, natch) and the third will be the yet-unreleased "Infernal." It's a cool concept and it matches Metafilter's politics pretty well.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 9:53 AM on February 14, 2011

Came here for Ron Swanson reference. guess I'm too early....
posted by imaswinger at 10:29 AM on February 14, 2011

Oh man, this totally fills up the gaping hole that Supertramp left behind when they broke up. I do very much likey this music.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 5:15 PM on February 14, 2011