Judging from the clip in post #44 ^^ it looks like his voice is doing fine, although it looks like he's a bit shaky on his legs
Judging from the clip in post #44 ^^ it looks like his voice is doing fine, although it looks like he's a bit shaky on his legs
Jeez, I forgot that I started this post three plus years ago. Alex Cruzeta and I were at the April 20th gig at The Loft here in New York City. They put on a great show. I have pictures that I'll try to post here.
Charles
Be a loyal plastic robot for a world that doesn't care... Frank Zappa
Crack The Sky are on a new label and will release a CD in January 2021, called Tribes. There have been two singles out already: https://carryonmusic.com/artists/crack-the-sky/
Here's the first, the titletrack:
And here's the second single: Another Civil War:
And a nice "oldy" in a special edition: From The Greenhouse:
Not a big fan but Safety In Numbers is their best album i.m.o. and still a keeper.
Safety In Numbers and the first one are the best in my book (with Animal Notes close). Well, you know, sometimes it's nice to collect them all and then you hardly can stop when a new one is released, although the impression never tops the first one excitement.Originally Posted by spacefreak
Those first 3 albums, with Safety in Numbers being my favorite, are must-haves if you like a little dose of Beatles with your prog. The rhythm section is great, too! Recent material has improved markedly in the vocal department.
Those first three plus Live Sky are awesome. After that, hit-and-miss, I'm afraid. Palumbo's solo album "Innocent Bystander" is pretty good too.
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
I've never bought it, but I was stunned when I discovered Stanley Whitaker from Happy The Man played two solo's on Palumbo's second solo-album Blowing Up Detroit.
Zaragon did a theatrical breakdown of "Invaders from Mars" from Crack the Sky's Animal Notes album, which is placed high on his Top 100 albums of 1976:
"Everyone is complacent. The only time they ever speak up is to shame you for not being as complacent as them." - Adam Robillard, YouTube
That was fun! I wonder what he would make of A Sea Epic, which makes me laugh every time:
A guy came into our record store last night wearing a Crack The Sky t-shirt. First one I've seen.
You can order them from their site (at least that's where I bought mine years ago). Glenn Workman, the keyboardplayer, is running it: https://freqsound-crackthesky.square.site/
AMEN!!!
As mentioned previously, they were pretty big in Maryland. Hammerjacks was the big Baltimore club back then and they were there a bunch. I never saw the band live, but I did see John Palumbo play a small club in Wheaton, MD sometime back in the late 20th century
Was a good show - I remember being very impressed with his version of "Mr. President". He had a couple of female backup singers with him that really added to the song.
The new album Tribes has been in the player a couple of times now. It's a typical CtS-album, which means: lots of twin-guitars, sharp lyrics (Palumbo wrote the lyrics in 2019, but although the situation in the US changed they are still topical, because he doesn't really choose sides), functional keyboards and a great rhythm-duo. Especially former Oblivion Sun-bassist Dave DeMarco impressed me with his solistic playing. The production is very good (not too loud this time). There's a new version of the title-track of Palumbo's solo-album Blowing Up Detroit, while the fresh lovers in Boom Boom "would listen all day to "comfortably numb"....
B.t.w. in July the band will release a new compilation-album, this time with songs CtS considers to be "forgotten" or overlooked a bit by the fans. It seems a download only: https://crackthesky.com/937-2/
Dayum! That is tasty, especially when everyone comes in....
Purchased "From the Greenhouse" 1990~ Like it, listen to it once a year. Wife likes it too. Pink Floydish with a few Bowie-like vocals.
Last month, a friend gave me his extra copy of Safety In Numbers. I have not listened to it yet.
Last edited by Crawford Glissadevil; 05-13-2021 at 08:35 PM.
Nice song. Thanks for posting it!
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
The only one I'm that familiar with is From the Greenhouse which I bought when it first came out based on hearing about it on a progressive radio show in the late 80's. I actually just heard the tail end of it today(the title track) on deep tracks(XM Sirius). Unfortunately, I made the mistake of lending the cd to someone a long time ago and never got it back. I'll have to go on discogs and look for it. The only thing I didn't like about it was the drum machine. I briefly had the one after it "dog city" also which was also very good but over all I think FTGH was better(and is one of my favorite albums of that time period). I've heard a few other songs here and there by them that sounded good too. About FTGH though. I remember when I first moved back to NY from PA(I've been a yoyo between the two states in the past) I had that on one side of a cassette tape and Gentle Giant's octopus on the other side. I think I played the crap out of that tape. Anyway a friend of mine who was big into Yes (and prog in general like me)preferred the CTS side over the GG side. These days I probably prefer the GG but that CTS is still special to me.
Please listen to it! Good shiite! And then thank the good lord ya' got it!
Well? Ahah! I just bought me up CTS's #2 & #3
However? I just noticed that CTS has a 10-20 disc publication past "Safety"
Is there anything you gentlemen would recommend past "Saftey"?
I lost CTS 2/3 in the SECOND 500 year flood in E.C. Crud! (They were vinyl)
Ya know? CTS hailed out WVA - not PA (what was I reading?). But they were here in Baltimore almost as much as Nils Lofgren!
But anyway, it sho' is good to see some folks from "Bodymore Murderland" aka: Bawmer. I remember Hammerjacks in the `80's.
Here is a story: have an ex-colleague from "Annie Rundel" "cannie" (Anne Arundel). He's got a DVD of CTS. In that DVD, Palombo says 3 times "And they call us Prog!"
I think he had some angst with that. I think there are a lot of bands who struggle with and push back over this genre.
Anyhoo - ya'all take care up there in Bawmer. I listened to "From the Green House" here. That didn't sound bad!
Any help brothers?
Oh BTW, CTS "Safety Redux" just don't sound quite right. Voice is off, and it is too polished - lacking the original energy.
Can't recommend if you have the original "Safety". Wisdom says: keep what you got and cherish it.
Yeah, CTS were becoming quite active, especially after 1998's Cut.
Personally I don't think John Palumbo and co. never have beaten their first 3 albums, but I've got plenty I enjoy, like From The Greenhouse, Dog City and The Sale, while I've got a dear relation with Photoflamingo.
Safety Redux was an interesting sort of fallure. I like some of it, but prefer very much the original, which has never been released on CD in its complete form (the 2-on-1 with Animal Notes misses one track).
Here's a list of mostly all of their albums (at least the ones I have):
Crack The Sky (1975)
Animal Notes (1976)
WBAB-FM Radio Broadcast - Live (1976)
Safety In Numbers (1978)
Live Sky (1978)
White Music (1980)
Photoflamingo (1981)
The End (1983)
World In Motion 1 (1983)
Raw (1987)
From The Greenhouse (1989)
Dog City (1990)
Cut (1998)
Live : Recher Theatre 06.19.99 (2000)
Ghost (2001)
Dogs From Japan (2003)
Alive And Kickin’ Ass (2006)
Safety In Numbers : 21st Century Redux (2007)
The Sale (2007)
Machine (2010)
Ostrich (2012)
The Beauty Of Nothing (2015)
Ice (2015)
Living In Reverse (2018)
Crackology (2020)
Tribes (2021)
Compilation: The Best Of The Rest (And Then Some) (1999)
DVD: All Access (2009) - Yes, Palumbo thinks it's strange CTS are considered progressive rock; from his point of view I can understand it, but when you consider prog as a style where everything's possible, I'd say: prog on!
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