I recently checked out Porcupine Tree's latest album and it is some great prog in my opinion. A very wide range of sounds from "radiohead" style ballads to heavy metal jam based rocking, often on the same track.

Anyways, what are your favorite past or current prog bands or prog albums?

I don't have time to go into it, but I'd say Happy the Man's Crafty Hands.

I guess this one might be considered a "standard" of the genre, but In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson is still one of my favorites.

A few prog favorites.

Snow- Spock's Beard. Not sure if they're still at it since Neal Morse left the band.
Misplaced Childhood - Marillion
In Absentia- Porcupine Tree
Fragile -Yes
Nexus -Argent. A mix of rock and prog but I love this album.
Sympathy -Rare Bird. Very nice compilation by this often forgotten & under-appreciated prog band.
H to He, Who Am the Only One -Van Der Graaf Generator. My favorite from Peter Hammil & pals.
Yeti -Amon Duul II. There's also a couple best-of's AD 2 that I really like.
Time Honoured Ghosts, Octoberon and any of their many compilations-Barclay James Harvest. I like their mix of prog & folk.

Also, I really enjoy the prog box set on Rhino, Supernatural Fairy Tales: The Progressive Rock Era and wish they'd done a second volume.

My all time favourite is The lamb lies down on Broadway by early Genesis.
Just missed the live show in 75 though.

I heartily agree with In Absentia from Purcupine Tree. Thanks for the suggestions. Especially the Rhino set. I'll have to look for it.

I'm a Rush and King Crimson devotee. "2112" along with "In the Court..." are two of my personal classics.

And crazed knows his stuff.

I've been meaning to check out "Prog is Not a Four-Letter Word," a recently-released comp I saw in a record store recently. Has anyone here heard that?

I've heard "Prog is Not a Four-Letter Word" and really enjoyed it. There were only 3 artists on the comp I was familiar with- Egg, Embyro and 3 Hur-el. My favorite track is "Frustration" by San Ul Lim, a band from the Philippines who I'd love to hear more from. I liked the wide variety of languages and artists from all over the globe. It's like a great mix of world music & prog rock.

quote:

Originally posted by plato:
My all time favourite is The lamb lies down on Broadway by early Genesis.
Just missed the live show in 75 though.

I've had that one about 10 years now, and it's just now growing on me. I'm a big fan of Genesis but the Lamb always creeped me out for some reason. After listening to it twice this week, I've raised it from 3 to 4 stars in my mind. Foxtrot remains my favorite of the Gabriel era. "Supper's Ready" is 23 minutes of pure magic.

I'm just wondering: Does prog really belong in the "alternative" forum?

Moved.

For me it also took some time before I appreciated it. I look at it as some sort of White album: lots of very different songs, hard to get into at first and very, very good.
It's not really prog in the usual sense, it contains a sort of menace, while lots of other prog albums are so predictable, you can tell beforehand where quiet and hard bits start.
Every time I give it to somebody who is not a prog fan they end up loving it.

As far as prog compilations go, I haven't seen much of a variety of different prog styles and bands from countries other than the US & UK until recently. One great new find is a book/cd combination called Rock Progressivo Italiano. This is a hardback book featuring photos of album covers and info on records, songs and groups from the Italian prog scene of the late '60s through mid '70s. Not detailed information, not written entirely in Italian either but worth the price for the album cover images and the accompanying cd. The collection features a few well known bands such as Le Orme, Area, the pre-Goblin line-up of Cherry Five, and Delirium as well as a slew of rare tracks from lesser known groups. Can't beat this set for discovering Italian prog, then head over to Doug Larson Imports for some excellent prog cds from Italy and elsewhere (hope the Larson plug is ok, it's a great site for purchasing rare prog and psych).

didn't see these guys mentioned in any early posts...

but I'm a rabid Mars Volta fans. these guys are doing amazing stuff. pretty much any album is worth listening to, but for anyone who doesn't know them well then might as well start with the first, 'De-Loused in the Comatorium'.

Coheed & Cambria- In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3 very good stuff

is that Mansun's "six" a modern prog classic?

Snafu - East of Eden
Discipline - King Crimson
Foxtrot - Genesis
The Yes Album - Yes

nobody mentionned a Primus album?? ...So I'll say Primus - Sailing the seas of cheese

Here's some great prog sites for listening to, researching and buying the music-


Prog Radio


Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock


Kinesis


ProGGnosis

Thanks for the links, my crazed friend. I especially liked Gibraltar's fawning over Happy the Man's Crafty Hands. I have all three of their "proper" albums on vinyl, but right in 1978, when I was going punk and new wave crazy, Crafty Hands was still on my turntable more than any other album, and I still believe that it's great. It has music which could make a statue cry, but it's also got some great, pumped-up rock tunes. I don't know, maybe I just feel smarter AND happier when I listen to Crafty Hands. I need to play it for my daughter ASAP.

Secret Machines, obviously.