^ Unfortunately not.
Did a search myself last night, not only with the usual suspects but around and about. Couldn't find it anymore, I'm afraid. Not even Syn-Phonic has it, and considering the style in question I'd say that means we're in trouble.
Also, if they spent 20 years turning those 1500-2000 initial CD copies of this, there's probably not much of a chance for seeing this back in print anytime soon. I suppose the best hope would be for a used copy to pop up somewhere - or perhaps you could try with the band themselves? I know at least one member (can't remember which) had the habit of showing up here at PE...
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
I seem to remember seeing that listing and passing on it for the very same reason (shipping costs to Russia made it look even less alluring). Ditto the one currently on Discogs – definitely overpriced, with no PS and in so-so condition.Originally Posted by moecurlythanu
Oh yea, Richland College! Know it well. We used to play there when I was in our high school "stage band" in the early 80s. I mention it a lot in my notes/reviews about the jazz rich culture we had up in Denton (North Texas State as it was known then). We were really fortunate to have that kind of talent in our area.
Thanks for sharing the clip about Gentle Giant! The Electric Ballroom and KZEW. And to think Gentle Giant played for free in Dallas in 1977. Damn.
Do you remember if there were other progressive rock bands in the DFW at the time? Most of the bands I can think of were the usual 70s rock/cover type bands. But again, I was too young to be part of it.
Another very good 70s Texas group was Chameleon (nee Lorien). They were down in Houston. Shroom was also other responsible for this archival release. Titled Rising and released about 3 years ago, to zero fanfare from what I can tell. The below clip is from when they were still Lorien (1973/74). There's also plenty of hard rock, and yes, some AOR (the classic 70s American mix honestly). There are other tracks on YT if you want to hear more. Not at the level of Hands, but I think it's a great CD and well worth the money.
Thanks for the heads up on that, Tom. I just ordered.
I have all 3 of the Archival releases by Hands, well 2 by Hands, and 1 when the were still known as Prism. Very nice stuff. I also have the 1st and 3rd of the newer releases. Not as fiery as the earlier stuff, but I still enjoy them.
Tom:
In the grand days of Dallas rock and roll, especially 1973 until 1978, there were many good local bands that were primarily playing covers of (what today we would call) classic rock.
However these bands all loved the prog stuff and would sneak in a few well-timed tunes in their sets.
I remember seeing LYNX play many great YES tunes -- and play them well.
At one gig, I clearly recall them playing the long version of AMRICA...............and killed it.............fantastic.
I remember seeing LIGHTNING do an amazing job on COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING.............they even had the mellotron.
They also nailed the great 5/8 tune DANCING MADLY BACKWARDS by CAPTAIN BEYOND.
I also remember FULL FORCE playing THE HOUSE, THE STREET, THE ROOM from GENTLE GIANT...............good stuff !
I was playing in a band then called KAT DADDY..............we played all the favorite spots -- Mother Blues -- Binary Star -- Gerties -- and my favorite, Sneaky Petes.
As I think back to those glory days, I can't believe we had it so good...............literally.
If you can find the DVD of WHEN DALLAS ROCKED by Kirby Warnock, it is a prize..................here is a cool trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3uOL5ILnLg
Apparently not They resurfaced with Chameleon and Shotgun (another cool Dallas band - it's actually titled Dallasian Rock - but it's straight 70s rock), and I heard through the grapevine there were a few more archival projects in the works. But they've gone silent again. It's a tough business anyway - so I'm sure it takes a lot of energy to push these through.
Thanks for this cool post man. I'm going to dig into all of these from an historical perspective, and check out that DVD. The only name I recognize is Lightning (I didn't really start listening to FM radio until about 1977 or so). My buddy Jeff who's about 6 years older than me recalls the scene quite well. I'll have to ask him about them too.
Wow, I'll have to keep an eye out for this album. Yes, the production could be a little better, and I'm not crazy about the singing/lyrics, but as far as 70's U.S. prog, this is right up there at the top.
They did mostly heavy rock in the late 00s and the 10s. A LP of unreleased Josefus material, a Blue Cheer reissue of their 1985 album, the Hooker unreleased tracks album, a CDr by Sküldedog (the continuation of the late 80s heavy psych/jam band Oracle) etc. I think that the latest album they did is "Caviar Bobsled" by Hands in 2015. Their website seems to be down however, today that I checked.
^ Yes, only parts of their roster was dedicated to "progressive"; Hands, Intra, Carnegie, Arabesque (all of them unreleased archive material from the 70s, some of it quite good). Back in 1999-2000 they released that great second album by Deadwood Forest, Mellodramatic, which merged retro-styled heavy "prog" and stoner-singer/songwriter antics. I'm still hoping to see a vinyl release of that one some day; I listened to it just the other weekend and it's held up very well - something to bite over both for neo-psych and "symph" folks.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
DoubleDrummer - I ran your comments by Jeff, and he responded enthusiastically:
"Wow, that really evokes memories of old days for me! I saw Lightning once. I'm pretty sure I saw Lynx before, but I could have sworn they were straight rock. Maybe I missed the boat on them; if they were playing Yes, I would have watched them all the time. Both were prominent bar bands back in the day. I know Lightning used to play at this pool and foosball hall on Forest Lane and Plano Rd. I'm trying to remember the name of the place; it was THE hang out back then. It was right next to the Apollo Drive In. Rocky Athes was the guitarist for Lightning and I remember they used to play Court of the Crimson King, I didn't know Capt Beyond back then, but Madly Dancing Backwards is one of my favorite songs on the 1st Capt Beyond! Rocky later went to Black Oak Arkansas and was Dave Gryder's guitarist for awhile.
I don't remember Full Force but Kat Daddy sounds familiar to me. I used to go to Gertie's Hard Rock Cafe. I think it was on Lemon, but I might be getting it mixed up with Mother Blues. Binary Star was a very popular bar for rock, but also had country acts there too. I never went but am pretty sure it was in Ft. Worth. Of course Sneaky Petes is still around; I went there a time or two back in the day.
Man, hearing all this and knowing other things I know now, I wish I looked harder for these bands. How about Heyoka? I saw them at Gertie's before."
Just to add to the end there, Heyoka had some archival material also released by Shroom. It's a mixture of progressive and AOR and the sound quality is variable. I believe they were from south Texas as well. I thought Houston, but RYM has them as San Antonio. I need to pick up the CD version that came out a few years ago that has more material (it was originally just a CD-R).
^ Did you go to a prof fest in Texas called Cattle Prog? Not sure where in Texas it was, but I always liked that name! I guess this was mid 90s. If so I'm wondering if you know what bands played.
I do remember that festival, but I lived in Denver at the time. Based on what I can find, it was held on December 7, 2002. I probably have the Expose issue that covers it. If no one else chimes in, I'll go dig it out. Hands, Underground Railroad, and Yeti are 3 bands I can confirm. You all know Kurt and Underground Railroad, and how fantastic they are. He contributes here every once in awhile too.
Yeti was our one and only Zeuhl band in the area (not like most cities have even one...). The group was founded by Doug Ferguson, who definitely had a Magma obsession, and was also becoming a deep dive progressive rock collector. He died way too young (2003). No telling where he would have taken his talents. Yeti continued on for one more album after his death, but definitely in a different direction.
According to this post, Progfanatic says half the crowd left because it was too loud. http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...u-ever-went-to
Last edited by ashratom; 01-15-2017 at 01:54 PM.
Cattle Prog was the brainchild of Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock editor Fred Trafton. I believe he lost a bit of money doing it and ended up downscaling to more frequent smaller prog gigs at Fort Worth's Ridgley Theater. See the Gibraltar entry on Underground Railroad for a little more info.
http://www.gepr.net/u.html#UNDERGROUNDRAILROAD
Tom...................tell Jeff that Rocky Athas (Lightning, BOA) has been the guitar player for John Mayall for the last seven or eight years.
(I know...............Mayall is 83 years old...............but is still touring).
I saw the Mayall band two years ago at ONE WORLD in Austin................very good.
There's a compilation CD from that ProgDay with a couple of live tracks each from six or seven different bands. Yeti's tracks rule it by far. I thought they were a great band and loved both the studio albums.
I believe two of the four original members have died at an early age. Tragic.
Yeti's Things to Come was one of my fave albums in its year of release. The blend of zeuhl dynamics, space-rock bliss and certain noise antics was utterly original and had something completely artistically sincere about it. That interplay between distorted bass and hyperactive drumming underneath a blanket of alien synths versus tormented guitars made for some extremely intense and outright mean music, at times even frightening in sound. It's still today an amazing and impressive listen.
Ferguson also played with Ohm and did a stint with long-lived neo-kraut mavericks SubArachnoid Space, I believe he also had a solo project of some kind. Yeti as such played a lot with an almost equally intense band, Tarantula Hawk, whom I think came from Texas as well (although I can't recall just now).
A couple of noteworthy facts about Ferguson/Yeti; Things to Come was dedicated to Alain Ballaud, bassist extraordinaire with engmatic and legendary French zeuhl extremists Shub-Niggurath. And they shared the bill with an early incarnation of Sunn O)))), whose mainman Stephen O'Malley has mentioned Yeti on several occasions - which in retrospect actually isn't that surprising when listening to parts of those first couple of Sunn releases.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
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