Times were tough. Hair was long, complex and strange, and so were the songs. Where were you 35 years ago, and why weren’t you surrounded by stack of keyboards wearing a sequined gown? [more inside]
posted by philip-random on Sep 25, 2009 - 121 comments

RIP Hugh Hopper. [more inside]
posted by jbickers on Jun 11, 2009 - 18 comments

In 2006 Nell James was a teenage prog rocker, writing, playing and singing all instruments, and self-producing an album in her bedroom studio that paid homage to 1970s English art rock, a genre that arguably passed its zenith when her parent were in kindergarten. The result, Tempus, received positive reviews in the re-emging prog rock press. Also impressive was her cover/re-arrangement of Gentle Giant's On Reflection. [more inside]
posted by Herodios on Aug 8, 2008 - 15 comments

Original Rush drummer is John Rutsey dead at 55. Rush was one of the most successful prog rock acts of the 70s and 80s. Much of this success can be attributed to Neil Peart, whose airy, transcendent lyrics and virtuoso drumming in large part defined the band. But there was another drummer--more in the heavy style of John Bonham--who gripped the rhythmic helm on their first album: one John Rutsey. Mr Rutsey left the band early after a diagnosis of diabetes. This month he succumbed to a heart attack, a common complication. Unfortunately, a discursive look at youtube revealed no live footage of Mr Rutsey in action. Here is a pic from his heyday.
posted by zorro astor on May 18, 2008 - 22 comments

If you love the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (and who in their right mind doesn't?) and enjoyed the Japanese version of Smoke on the Water, you might just barely tolerate this. Warning: contains five minutes of repackaged progressivepretentious rock and images of cello-based dorkiness. I gave it 98/100.
posted by wendell on Apr 13, 2008 - 26 comments

Anglo-Finnish artist Sanna Annukka's vibrant, flat design work (especially her Icons series) got me curious about her, well, iconography.

She mentioned The Kalevala previously, the Finnish national epic poem (in Finnish here), a tale of creation and heroism that arguably spurred the Finns to independence from the Russians.

Like so much else epic and awesome, it spawned a '70s prog band, with three albums.
posted by klangklangston on Feb 25, 2008 - 23 comments

Rush Rush is a Canadian rock band comprising bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Gary Lee Weinrib, guitarist Alexander Zivojinovich, and drummer and lyricist Neil Ellwood Peart. Bewitched by Ayn Rand, obsessed by nuclear war and enraptured by cheap science fiction, Rush were role models to geeks everywhere, yearning to be cool, but failing. Still, they rocked, in their own way. [more inside]
posted by psmealey on Oct 15, 2007 - 135 comments

Procol Harum organist wins battle over joint authorship of A Whiter Shade of Pale. Gary Brooker is not amused, but then again it was a Bach ripoff anyway.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Dec 20, 2006 - 31 comments

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer live, at California Jam. (Google video, approx. 53 minutes)
posted by Eideteker on Nov 13, 2006 - 55 comments