Listening to a track from Tardigrade an album by Simon Says. Ever hear of this California band from around 2001?
Listening to a track from Tardigrade an album by Simon Says. Ever hear of this California band from around 2001?
Nice album. Haven't heard it in a long time though.
Regards,
Jon
Yeah, that's a good one. Suddenly the Rain is a standout for me.
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Simon says is a Swedish band. Great group. Love their singer; he has a unique voice.
I like them, Tardigrade is great, and though not quite as good Paradise Square is pretty damn good also.
And where in the world did you get that they are from California?
I've always liked their debut album, "Ceinwen." It has more of a Genesis sound than seems to get mentioned, but there's a quirky Canterbury-ish feeling too.
Suddenly the Rain was the track I was listening to on Slacker Radio, prog channel. They got the band's biography wrong though, referring to an alt-metal band from CA with the same name. Progarchives has the info:
http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=416
I think Simon Says is completey listenable NEo prog (mind you, I am a RIO-fan). Tardigrade has certain a freshness to it that sometimes reminds me of IQs Tales from the lush attic.
Love the voice of the singer too
Their first album is by far their best imo. Thanks for the reminder - putting it in the car now
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Also a fan of Tardigrade, although it took me a few spins to get in to it. Siren Songs, even though it's not a proper album, clicked with me the first time I listened to it.
Ceinwein was a marvel when it came out back in 1995. It completed the Swedish trifecta of resuscitating classic British symphonic progressive rock. Anglagard revived Genesis (circa Selling England by the Pound). Anekdoten did similarly for King Crimson, cutting a much wider path. Simon Says, with all the noodly little counterpoint stuff, channeled Gentle Giant at their thundering best. The beauty of these three is that they wore their influences on their sleeves, but managed to turn it into something uniquely theirs, totally Swedish. It was approachable, recognizable, and darn, it made us all happy :-)
As brilliant as Ceinwein was (unique vocalist notwithstanding), the followup was quite the other thing. It made you scratch your head and wonder - what were they thinking. It was Valinor's Tree in a blender.
Another long passage of time and out of nowhere comes Tardigrade, and darn if they right the ship and produce a solid album. It doesn't have all the wonderful twists and turns of the debut, and there are a couple of hangovers from Paradise Square, but this is a solid neo-prog album with just enough retro-symphonic elements that should appeal to fans of Flower Kings, et al as well as some that run away from the Flower Kings holding their ears.
BTW, there is a Californ-based band named the same...
I did score a slightly damaged copy of this debut album (OOP a long time ago, I think) at the time... It was hailed as a masterpiece by most everyone then, but I was totally underwhelmed.... Don't know what happened to that CD, though
I got rid of Paradise Square quite quickly... atrocious and obtused-concept neo-prog (but I'm an RIO sausage )... yuckkkk!!! never heard their latest
wxell, I think this is an overstatement (about Ceinwein), and it's not the classic trilogy (the third being Landberk's debut)....
As its release date (95) indicates, Ceinwein is part of the second Swedish wave (with Catweazle, Twin Age, Per Lindh, etc...)
but yeah, PS is definitely not good (and neither is VT, IMHO)
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
I'm quite a fan of the Tardigrade album. Easily as good as some of the other Swedish Neo stuff. Love the 'epic' track. The instrumental aspect of the band is great, although the singer took a little getting used to, but then, don't most of them? :P
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They have a new one, available only as a download, called Siren Songs. This has some older stuff, but also has some songs that have been release on various compilation only albums. I hear there are a couple of new songs as well. Never have downloaded an mp3 but I think I'll be trying this one.
Anyone heard this yet? I LOVE Tardigrade.....
I will be getting this....(Siren Songs)....but verify for me: this has not been released on CD, right? I see it in i-tunes and Amazon MP3 only. I would rather have CD if available.....
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