From New Wave to the 'NOW', experience the thrill of NEW WAVE from it's beginnings in the late '70s to the modern bands so obviously influenced by it! So, if you grew up in the '80s and still enjoy discovering new sounds as well as rediscovering old favorites, then read on!
PUNK! POWER POP! SYNTH POP! NEW WAVE! POST-PUNK!
When the average music listener thinks of Prog Rock, most likely the bands Yes, Genesis, Emerson Lake & Palmer and King Crimson spring to mind first. The more 'educated' music fan (ie: geek) will probably throw in names like Van Der Graaf Generator, Gentle Giant and maybe some more modern acts like Marillion and Dream Theater. But, like any music scene, things get exciting when you look beyond the U.S. and UK shores and start digging deeper into bands from other countries like Italy, Germany and Poland. While English lyrics may grace most of the releases, some of the bands do sing in their native tongue. But isn't it the music and musicianship that matters most?
Metal Mind Productions is a Polish label and one of the finest Rock/Prog/Metal labels in the universe. Whether you love Thrash Metal, Death Metal, classic Heavy Metal, AOR or Prog, Metal Mind has something you'll slobber over. Yes, they did sign a band by the name of Anal Stench (insert your favorite 'stink' joke here) but they also handled some amazing reissues by AOR and classic Metal bands like Giuffria, Boulevard, Lillian Axe and Tank. In fact, their catalog is so varied that its always exciting to see what they release next. You may not love everything on the label, but there's something for everybody to love.
Some may love to scan the radio dials and look for something 'new' to listen to. Others may want to read Rolling Stone or Pitchfork to stay on top of the latest musical trends. Me? I just love to hear as much as possible in any way that I can. And yes, I am very blessed to be able to listen to a lot of different things each week, whether they are new artists or reissues. With that being said, Metal Mind is a label I'll always pay attention to. I don't like all of it, but I appreciate the fact that they exist and they are great at doing what they do. With each of their releases that I'm lucky to get a hold of, I listen and I learn.
Being a relative newcomer to their catalog, I was over the moon when they released a batch of 2CD sets that contained a pair of albums by some of Poland's greatest Prog Rock artists: SBB, Collage, Satellite and Believe. These 2CD sets are reasonably... no, make that incredibly... priced and should be snapped up by anyone wishing to expand their musical horizons, Prog Rock or otherwise.
SBB
SBB are one of Poland's longest-lasting Prog bands, originally forming in 1971. While they did split up in 1980, they've reformed a few times over the years and made that reformation semi-permanent in 2000. Metal Mind has released two separate double disc sets: Iron Curtain/ Memento Z Banalnym Tryptykiem and Nastroje/Ze Slowem Biegne Do Ciebie. Both sets provide a great overview of the band's later work and offer up a plethora of great Prog moments.
COLLAGE
For anyone into the '80s and '90s Prog Rock scene, Collage were one of the best of the best. Like a mixture of both Fish and Hogarth eras of Marillion, Collage's sound mixes the lush and moving sounds of classic '70s bands with clean, well-produced modern Prog shine while tossing in loads of stunning melodic hooks. With great vocals and musicianship, Collage sound just as wonderful today as these nearly 20 year old recordings sounded when first released. My current favorite is the Moonshine album, which contains many 'wow' moments. Metal Mind has released two different double CD sets, both of which are pretty amazing: Changes/Moonshine and Basnie/Safe.
BELIEVE
While Collage may have broken up, the band's members have gone on to create more great Prog. Believe was formed by former Collage guitarist Mirek Gil, who takes the band in a similar lush direction. The playing is superb, the production is warm and open and the songs are top notch. Sometimes, it's hard to understand why a band from Poland can't make waves in the U.S., but I suppose there is always time. The double CD set World is Round/Yesterday Is A Friend offers up some magnificent music that is as moving as it is melodic.
SATELLITE
Continuing with Collage offshoots, Satellite was formed by that band's drummer, lyricist and co-writer Wojtek Szadowski. With the help of new bandmates and some of his Collage pals, Satellite's music picks up where his old band's Moonshine album left off. Mesmerizing melodies drift in and out of expertly arranged Prog movements, never sounding old and tired. Frustrating as it seems, Satellite are constantly compared to Collage, although they do tend to travel above and beyond the musical boundaries that he helped create nerely two decades ago. The two double disc sets include the albums A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset/Into The Night and Evening Games/Nostalgia.
So, where's the respect and love for that motley Rock 'n' Roll band we call The Doobie Brothers?
There's no denying the majesty of their string of early hits including "Listen To The Music", "China Grove", "Long Train Runnin'" and "Black Water". The band created a perfect blend of Southern Rock, Pop, Country, Blues, Soul and Rock 'n' Roll and sounded like nobody else.
So, why aren’t they on top of every Classic Rock ‘favorites’ list, year after year? Their songs rival anything from the catalogs of their ‘70s contemporaries like Black Sabbath, Boston, The Eagles, Steely Dan, Aerosmith and Deep Purple. They sold millions of albums and singles. They became one of the biggest bands of their era. Even with all of their achievements over the years, they don’t receive the respect they so rightly deserve.
Now, don’t get me wrong: people LOVE the Doobie Brothers. Almost everyone I know can name at least a few Doobie songs quicker than they can name a Sabbath tune… and they can usually sing the chorus to those songs as well. The problem I have is that the Doobs deserve more. They deserve to be immortalized in bubblegum cards, iPhone apps and viral YouTube videos and they definitely deserve to have have highways and hoagie sandwiches named in their honor.
And “Listen To The Music” needs to replace “The Star Spangled Banner” as our national anthem.
Forget about their appearance on What’s Happening (“Which Doobie you be?”). Forget that Michael McDonald eventually shed his Classic Rock and Soul roots and became more of an adult contemporary artist. Forget all the nonsense and just imagine a bunch of extremely talented friends smoking a few joints, plugging in their guitars and creating some of the greatest Rock music of our generation.
During a 24 month period that saw a new album (World Gone Crazy), the untimely death of drummer Michael Hossack, reissues of their back catalog and more general activity than usual, along comes this fantastic documentary that will hopefully earn the boys a lot more respect.
Containing rare and unreleased footage plus interviews with all the key surviving members (including Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, Tiran Porter, Jeff Skunk Baxter, Michael McDonald, etc.), Let The Music Play is the perfect re-introduction to a band that we all know and love. For us fans, it could have been an hour or two longer, but I’m not going to complain because it actually does answer some questions that have roamed the halls of my brain for ages, so it definitely delivers.
Well, apart from when they skim over the severity of Tom Johnston’s illness in the mid ‘70s. Perhaps I was temporarily mummified during this part of the documentary and missed it, but they talk about TJ getting ‘sick’ and make references to it, but its not really explored as well as it should have been. Maybe it’s a private issue and nobody wanted to talk about it, but it’d be nice if they discussed it a little more. But that’s a minor complaint.
Interestingly enough, many of the people interviewed seem to view The Doobs with Tom Johnston and The Doobs with Michael McDonald as two separate, but linked, identities and not merely a continuation of an ever-evolving band. This way of thinking makes total sense in hindsight, but I’ve always thought of them as one and the same. I just preferred the Tom Johnston years over the MM years. But there’s no denying that McDonald’s “What A Fool Believes” (amongst others) is an amazing tune….
And what do you mean you have no idea what I’m talking about when I mention the Tom Johnston era and Michael McDonald era? Perhaps you need to sit down and watch this. NOW!
Perfect for music fans. Perfect for Doobie fans. Perfect for Michael McDonald fans. Perfect for Classic Rock fans.
In one form or another, Yes has been creating music for over four decades. In the late ‘60s, they were an underground band with a unique sound, but it wasn’t until the early ‘70s that the band achieved massive worldwide success. Perhaps more than any other band from that era, Yes wrote the Progressive Rock rulebook and every Prog band that followed in their wake took inspiration from them.
When Punk came along in the late ‘70s and attempted to destroy the popularity of bands like Yes, the headstrong Progsters may have lost the attention and adulation of the always-fickle press, they never lost the dedication of their fanbase. Even when vocalist Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman left the fold, the band bounced back in 1980 with the album Drama featuring vocalist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes (both of Synthpop duo The Buggles) in their place. While the band disintegrated shortly after that, they weren’t gone long before a new line-up emerged with their most successful album yet, the Trevor Horn-produced 90125, which included the massive hit “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”.
Since then, the band have continued to evolve with slightly different line-ups and fresh, new approaches to their sound. In 2008, Jon Anderson experienced respiratory issues and the band’s touring plans were put on ice. After realizing that they may not be able to tour with Anderson, a replacement was sought and vocalist Benoit David, formerly of Yes tribute band Close To The Edge, fit the bill.
With the line-up of bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, vocalist Benoit David and keyboardist Oliver Wakeman (son of Rick), the band entered the studio with producer Trevor Horn and began work on their first studio album in 10 years, Fly From Here. Soon after recording began, Wakeman left the band and was replaced by Geoff Downes. While this line-up was practically a recreation of the Drama-era version of the band, many fans were expecting an album that picked up where that album left off. But Fly From Here is certainly no carbon copy of that album. Instead, this project takes elements from all periods of Yes’ career and creates a fresh and exciting new beast altogether. It is most definitely a Yes album and contains all the elements that fans have come to love, but it’s also an album that stands well on its own and has the potential to attract a new generation of listeners. Simply put, Fly From Here is their best album in years.
Stephen SPAZ Schnee was able to catch up with Chris Squire, who was kind enough to discuss the new album and so much more…
SPAZ:Fly From Here is just about ready to drop. How are you feeling about the album and Yes’ musical journey thus far?
CHRIS SQUIRE: Feeling very good. We’re all extremely happy about how the album turned out. All the interviews I’ve done with people who have heard it, they’ve all been very positive. So, everything seems good.
SPAZ:Fly From Here is the first studio album in 10 years. What inspired the band to record the album now, as opposed to getting things together a few years ago?
CHRIS: Yeah, our last studio album was in 2001, the Magnification album, which was with an orchestra. After that was released, we spent the next two or three years pretty much going around, promoting it with various orchestras, in different parts of the world. So, a couple of years go by quite easily like that. Then Jon Anderson started to have problems with his respiratory system and his voice, so we laid low for awhile to see how that would all pan out. We were planning to go back on the road when he felt good in 2008. Just before we started rehearsing for the tour, he had another attack, unfortunately, so we had to make a decision at that point to get Benoit (David, vocalist) into the band. Of course, we spent the next couple of years going on the road making sure that Benoit was the right man for the job, getting him up to speed with the whole touring experience, etc. Then we decided that it was time to do a new album, so we started working on that. By the time we got ‘round to going into the studio, it was nearly 10 years since the last one! It certainly wasn’t intentional.
SPAZ: The album has that classic Yes sound, yet is also very much a modern-sounding album.
CHRIS: When you say ‘modern’, you mean sonically?
SPAZ: Yes, sonically, which is probably due to Trevor’s production, but the album does not sound ‘dated’ at all. It sounds completely new and fresh, musically.
CHRIS: Yeah.
SPAZ: Did you purposely try to fit the best of both worlds into the album, or did this all fall together organically?
CHRIS: I think more organic. Usually, in my experience, the outcome of any album is a combination of all the people involved in making it, starting, obviously with the music and singing. But then it goes beyond that because we were working with Trevor again and he has his own team of people that he’s been working with. He’s very current with modern recording techniques. So we definitely wanted to make the music itself be organic and we definitely wanted to play everything as opposed to having machines building the tracks up, which of course, is common place more than not these days. We wanted to get the element of a real band playing. We added the benefit of modern equipment to that as well. It does come out feeling like a modern sounding record and Trevor’s team did a great job at that.
SPAZ: Geoff Downes was a late addition to the line-up. Did it take much convincing to get him involved with the project?
CHRIS: Not really. It was a late decision. We’d already started making the album. Oliver Wakeman (keyboardist) was involved. It just came to a certain point when Trevor Horn decided that he did want to be involved in the production of the WHOLE album… Originally, we were just going to be working on the one song with him, but that seemed to go so well that we carried on doing more with Trevor. He said “If that’s the case, I think you guys will make a better record with Geoff.” Not that there’s anything wrong with Oliver Wakeman’s playing at all. He just thought the flavor that Geoff brings with his style and his keyboard sounds was going to help us to make a better record. I’ve always enjoyed working with Geoff, so we agreed to go and do it that way.
SPAZ: Your vocal turn on “The Man You Always Wanted Me To Be” is amazing. How did you come about doing that track and why not sing lead on more of the album’s tracks?
CHRIS: That tune is the one song that I actually completely wrote 100%. When I was in London in 2007, I was doing a lot of writing and that was one of the songs that I wrote during that period of time. Then I made this album with Steve Hackett called The Squackett Album, which hasn’t been released yet even though it’s been finished for a year. That was one of the songs that was supposed to go on that album, but we didn’t really need it because we had plenty of other material. So I put it forward as a suggestion for the Yes album. We did do a version with Benoit singing, actually, in a higher key because that suited his voice better. But Trevor decided that it would be better if I sang it, so we went along with that.
SPAZ: That was a great decision by Trevor because, in my opinion, it’s one of the highpoints of the album.
CHRIS: Thank you very much!
SPAZ: While the album may be considered a ‘return to form’ by some fans and critics, does that sometimes frustrate you since Yes has always been a consistent band that evolves and changes over the years?
CHRIS: I don’t think it’s a question of going back. I mean, I know that I have a press quote out there about the album where I say I think the album represents some of Yes’ best qualities from the ‘70s and the ‘80s but, as you obviously agree, with a modern twist to it. I couldn’t really ask for anything more. To me, it does feel like a progression. It’s a very clean sounding record. This Swedish journalist said to me that it’s like the lightest record and, at the same time, the darkest record we’ve made. And think I kind of understand what he means by that. I think we’ve definitely achieved another notch in the Yes success belt.
SPAZ: The playing on the album is exceptional, but more importantly, it’s a beautiful piece of work from start to finish. Are you usually conscious of the atmosphere and beauty in your music while recording, or does it all seem to hit you afterwards?
CHRIS: I think it develops as it goes on. There’s no doubt that everyone was in a good frame of mind and enthusiastic. There wasn’t too much bickering… I mean, there’s always discussions… but generally, everyone had an attitude with a smile while we were making the record and it definitely seems to shine through in the end product.
SPAZ: You’ve been doing this a long time. Are there still moments when you listen to a playback and get chills?
CHRIS: Yes, there have been. With Trevor’s main engineer, Tim Weidner, who we’ve worked with before on the Magnification album… One day, when he’d been working on the balancing and the sounds on “The Man You Always Wanted Me To Be”, I walked into the studio and I thought, ‘Fuck that sounds really good!” (laughs).
SPAZ: Was it a conscious effort for Yes to pick up from where Drama left off in expanding upon and recording “We Can Fly From Here", given the return of Geoff & Trevor?
CHRIS: Obviously there’s gonna be an element of that because the return of Geoff. He does have a distinctive keyboard style. When he and Steve play with Yes, it seems to open up the possibilities more than their work with Asia.
SPAZ: Many fans are likely to find Fly From Here to be the most consistent Yes album in years. Are we likely to see this line-up return to the studio in the near future to try to capture a bit more lightning in the bottle?
CHRIS: Oh yeah, I sincerely hope so. The bigger mark the album leaves in a successful way, there’s a lot more chance where that could happen. So, it seems on track for that possibility.
SPAZ: After all of these years, you are still considered one of Rock’s greatest bass players. Is it humbling to know that so many people have been touched by the work you’ve done over the years?
CHRIS: Yeah, it’s definitely a great feeling. I do hear quite a lot from other musicians and I read articles where I’m cited as an influence and I’m very proud about that. Who wouldn’t be, really?
SPAZ: What’s next for Chris Squire and Yes?
CHRIS: We’re going to go out on the road for at least a few years to promote this album. I’ve also go plans for the Squackett album to come out, hopefully in the fall. It’s been already finished for a year, but we haven’t quite nailed down the schedule for releasing that yet. All I know is that between those things, I’m setting myself up to be quite busy.
SPAZ: What is currently spinning on your CD player?
CHRIS: A lot of bands I consider to be new aren’t really new anymore, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt and bands like that that I really like. The Foo Fighters have just put out a great new album and I’m a big fan of them. Sometimes, I’ll just put on the current Top 20 urban hits. You gotta like some of Rihanna’s stuff. I don’t have any prejudices: I’ll listen to classical music, straightforward Pop…. Probably like many people my age, I’m more drawn to putting the comedy channel on over the music channels. (laughs) I will put American Idol on, things like that. I just keep an open mind.
Thanks to Chris Squire
Special thanks to Jacki Feldstein, Shawn Potter, Chris Anderson and Gayland Morris
