After hearing Spock's Beard for the first time, I saw that buyers who purchased Beard albums were buying CD's from The Flower Kings....so I bought "Flower Power" and was very glad I did.....
After hearing Spock's Beard for the first time, I saw that buyers who purchased Beard albums were buying CD's from The Flower Kings....so I bought "Flower Power" and was very glad I did.....
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2003, at nearfest. I had had no idea that the prog scene even existed prior to that. I guess it was early 80's when I dropped out of the new music scene. I had started my family, as my friends had also, and the music on the radio was losing me rapidly. I think the last album I bought was the Bowie one with China Girl on it. Then it was bands like The Shoes and Saga and it wasn't long before I abandoned radio and started just listening to cassettes in mmy car! I was into my work and family and living in the past music wise. A trip to London and finding Camel's Rajaz in a store there ( I was amazed Camel still existed, they were one of my very favs) led me to joining the Camel newsletter, and got me to start looking at the internet. It was actually the Camel newsletter that informed me of Nearfest, perhaps around March of 2003. That 2003 Nearfest was the best one (imo). I loved the Flower Kings and went to see the a few days later again in NYC. I started going backwards in their discography from Unfold the Future and loved it (yes, even Rainmaker). Going forward however, not as much. I'll take this moment to thank Rob and Chad, over the years I saw some incredible bands. What an awakening, I was into new (at least to me) music again. It sure has cost me a lot of money!
Back in '02. Via recommendations (on another music board) I bought Stolt's solo The Flower King. I liked it well enough, then went forwards in the catalog, buying Space Revolver and Meet The Flower Kings. Along with the strong musicianship, came some rather spotty lyricism replete with flimsy grasp of western euphemisms, shaky attempts at metaphors, overt hippy utopian sentiments, and somewhat new agey musical accoutrements.
That's not to say I don't like some of their stuff. I've dabbled in some of the other, earlier albums, but find I prefer the live versions of their stronger material. I wound up getting Alive On Planet Earth as well and called it good. I heard parts of Paradox Hotel on Delicious Agony and liked what I heard, so I bought it. One of my fave albums of the last decade. They pretty much ditched everything I didn't appreciate about them before. Love that album. I went back and picked up Adam & Eve and liked it. Then came Sum Of No Evil - everything that grated on me before had returned. Traded it. I've heard parts of the new one - I think I'm pretty much done. Still love PH and A&E though. Still play the live discs. I think I still have Space Revolver (had it up for trade).
Well, it was a decent dream! I don't want to wake up.Originally Posted by JKL2000
Bought Roine's The Flowerking album before The Flowerking`s existedˇ Bought it on a whim cos i just liked the cover & was filed under prog on a stall. Been a fan ever since !
Can't say I "discovered" them.... more line "uncovered" them under a pile of rubbish...
This was around the Retropolis album.'s release which I quite liked on the album, the rest was: meeeehhh!!!... but I saw them live (a few buddies incensing on how great the band is/was enticed me into seeing them) a few weeks later and they couldn't even play it in full on stage...
OK, I'm outta here
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Heard about The Flower Kings on a music forum which I can't remember the name of now back in 1997-98 when I first got on the internet. It was not a prog music forum but a general one with some people raving about bands like Porcupine Tree, Par Lindh Project and Flower Kings who I had never heard of at that time, and was unaware of this "3rd wave" resurgence in prog, as I had pretty much drifted away from any 'new prog' in the mid 80s. Got into PT first, then went to a concert which featured Par Lindh Project in 1999 and started getting their albums and with the Swedish connection, the Flower Kings cds, Stardust being the first. When Alive on Planet Earth came out around 2000 I think, I really became a diehard fan and got the rest of the albums up to that point. Saw them in the early 2000s after Flower Power came out in a small club in Chicago and then blown away by them at Nearfest 2003, and their followup show nearby where they jammed more, and have seen them several times since. Space Revolver also cemented my love for the band. Hard to keep up with their prolific output sometimes.
Last edited by Chip; 12-29-2012 at 05:02 PM.
Nice to see a nod to PLP. He is, of course, well known enough in prog circles but rarely gets mentioned in recent years. His last album, Time Mirror, is largely unknown (or at least barely discussed)! Part of the reason for that could be that he only sells it via his site. I really like it but there is one moment with a horribly flat vocal that really mars it for me.
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Great idea for a thread! I discovered them this Summer while at my job. I was an IT Computer Operator so, as you can imagine, I had plenty of time to explore Spotify on my phone. Put on their Tour Kaputt album and loved "I am the Sun" and "There is More to This World". The initial urge to listen to TFK was after watching The Whirlwind on youtube and getting into Roine's playing. I play guitar myself, and I was immediately inspired. He was like a mix of Howe and Hackett plus a ton of originality.
The first album I got was Roine's The Flower King, and it snowballed from there. I pre-ordered Banks of Eden because it happened to be coming out in a couple weeks after I discovered them. That's the album that got me hooked in as a fan, and I still think it's one of their best.
It was the first time i ever went on the internet to search out music(Fates Warning) which led me to Dream Theater, Spock's beard and The Flower Kings. It was around 2004 i think. Anyway i just remember being so intrigued by everything people were saying about SB and the Flower Kings and just trying to imagine what they sounded like. Seems like such a long time ago. I can't remember the first cd i got from them and i find them hit and miss. I like the earlier stuff mostly. Great players too.
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I heard that three of the four musicians from Transatlantic were from bands I liked... but who was this fourth guy? He plays pretty good! Oh, he's from a group called "The Flower Kings?" Hmmm... "Space Revolver"... I'll check it out!
To this day, it's the only TFK album I really enjoy apart from half of "Paradox Hotel", and I have five others.
Some time in the late '90s. I went to a record and CD collector's show and got talking to a guy about progressive rock -- and he asked me if I'd ever heard of a group called The Flower Kings. He put on the Stardust We Are CD and handed me a set of earphones, and I was sold. I think I discovered Spock's Beard and Anglagard at that same show. It was the first time I realized there was a resurgence in prog going on.
that was the album that introduced me to Roine back in 1999 which then steered me towards TFK.
i find Space Revolver to be the band at their peak (I Am the Sun, Rublefish Twist & The Chickenfarmer Song are 'the shit'), everything before that is great as well, but the New Grove Project is my go-to when i'm in the mood for some Sweedish retro-prog with some burning guitar & keyboard solos.
Last edited by progholio; 12-30-2012 at 05:57 PM.
I think I first heard of the Flower Kings on the Spock's Beard Yahoo mailing list not long after Snow was released in 2002. Unfold The Future had also been released around that time. Went to see my first TFK show in the summer of 2003 and was completely floored. "...couldn't even play it in full on stage." ??? Not sure what that means, but when I saw them it was nothing but epic after epic and I couldn't believe they sounded as close to the album as they did in a live setting.
Since then I've followed all the offshoots, solo albums, etc.
September 15, 2001. Some people I knew opened for them at JJ Kelly's in Chicago.
I first knew the band from a genesis tribute cd... They played at Wetlands in September of 1998, that was when I first saw them..I like the song church of your heart.
I joined PE early 2000s and asked for recommendations. Meet The Flower Kings has just come out and the band was the most recommended by people here. Still listen to them occasionally but I find I enjoy things a bit more angular nowadays.
"The woods would be very silent if the only birds that sang were those who sang best..." - Henry David Thoreau
I was late to the prog resurgence, busy building a career and raising the kids and my wife can't get into prog at all. It was in 2003, I had got Snow by Spock's Beard and really liked it so I pre-ordered Feel Euphoria which I didn't care for much but I listened to the Inside Out sampler. I have purchased several of the releases featured on that sampler but the first was Unfold the Future. When the CD came I listened to The Truth Will Set You Free and liked it so much I hit repeat and listened to it again before listening to the rest of the album. Haven't been that in to their last several releases, I guess since Adam & Eve.
I'm pretty sure I read an interview with them in Progression in late 1996. I then saw Retropolis at a record show, bought it off of Bob Wolf. I was lucky, a fan of the band was at his table, and I asked what they were like. THANK GOD the guy was a fan, or I might not have bought the disc. Hearing their music for the first time It was love at first spin, became an instant FK fan. I own everything at this point, and while not every album is a masterpiece, each one has some very strong music, even "Adam and Eve", which I find to be their weakest. I think it was a bit of a dry spell for Mr. Stolt. Short lived of course, the man is so prolific, and endless source of melodic ideas. Retro, sure, but still quite original in my view. My favorites by them are 3 albums, "Unfold the Future" (their masterwork), "Stardust We Are" and "Retropolis". "Flower Power" and "Space Revolver" come real close to those. I remember being lukewarm to "Paradox Hotel", but that seems to get better with each spin. I really like "Sum of No Evil", but to be honest I was kind of burning out on FK at the time it came out. I gave it maybe 4 spins. And the new one sounds like vintage FK, but I need to listen to it more. The melodies though, they are as strong as ever, and the sounds so colorful. I may not care for some of the hippy-dippy lyrics, but its those colorful sounds and gorgeous melodies that keep bringing me back to them.
As to Stolt's other work, his "Hydrophonia" album is brilliant instrumental work, lovely album. I was thinking I'd be turned off to the lyrical bent of "Wall Street Voodoo", so I've never picked it up. I do have all three Agents of Mercy discs, and I think they are all really good. I do like that the music is far more aggressive on the 2nd and 3rd albums by them. And I also like that the music has it's own identity. It's not just the vocals, it is different than FK music. I'd be able tell the difference in a drop the needle test for certain. Stolt is far more versatile than given credit for. As for Transatlantic, I like them, even love a couple songs, but I guess I'm not so in love with their music as other fans are. Still seems like a side project, though I guess it should since that was the original intent.
Back in the day, I used to be a huge Dream Theater fan and I bought "The Whirlwind" to hear Portnoy do a real, full blown prog epic. Looking back, I hadn't heard much other prog yet, so I'm not into Whirlwind like I used to be. Still, it introduced me to Roine's guitarwork, after I set out to familiarize myself with the rest of the bands with members featured in Transatlantic. My first Flower Kings was Back in the World of Adventures and later Paradox Hotel. I never ventured further.
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You should get Roine's The Flowerking . His best work outside of the Flowerking s IMO ˇ
I have discovered FK in the mid-90s. And this dicovery never turned to something big...
Oh, just forgot to mention that one, I do have it and think it's really great. However I think of that more as a Flower Kings album, and not a solo work. It laid down the blueprint for the Flower Kings, and had much of the same lineup as "Back in the World...". Come on, it's got the title track for the entire band, which I've seen them perform live. I have to think of it as a FK album.
Another album that sounds a lot like a FK album is Tomas Bodin's first, "An Ordinary Night in My Ordinary Life", I highly recommend it.
Did anyone in this thread attend either of the two "Flower Kings Day" events in NJ? They were very well attended, and we got two sets worth of FK music, including some surprising song choices. I wrote a review a while back for one of them, but can't find it. I sure wish NJ Proghouse could host another one of these. Would be great at either the Forum Theater where these were held, or the Crossroads in New Bruswick. Even if not, at least I get to see them at Rosfest.
I kept hearing about this "new" Prog band called The Flower Kings. This was at a stage where I was just getting back into Prog and replacing all my old 70s classics on CD, wasn't getting into anything "new" at all at the time, having had one bad experience with that: Spock's Beard (lucky me chose SNOW as my intro to THAT band...bad, bad choice on my part.)
So one day I was at the now-defunct Media Play and saw one FK album in stock. Again my luck failed me, as the disc on offer was "Adam & Eve."
But while I never did really get into SB, aside from the V album, I did eventually get into TFK.
High Vibration Go On - R.I.P. Chris Squire
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