Ameriprog

[Sputnik]

Other albums you may like:

Hermann Szobel "Szobel"
Shadowfax "Watercourse Way"

Wow, I totally forgot about the Szobel. I got this last year when it was reissued and it it top notch for sure! The Shadowfax is good too. I'll look into some of the others on you list, many of which I'm not familiar with.

Bill

[TheH]

Other bands of note:

• Babylon: Pompous and theatrical synth-prog. I found this unbearable but a lot of people really seem to like them. Try before you buy.
• Cathedral: Lots of Yes and KC influence in this mega-symphonic band. Loved by many, I find them just OK. The instrumental passages make this one worth the effort, the vocals are pretty dreadful.
• Chakra: Synth-heavy prog from SoCal. Hardly essential, but I always had a soft spot for it.
• Ethos: Frustrating band who are about 50% incredible, complex prog and 50% embarrassing cheese. Both tendencies tend to sit side-by-side on each track, which is what makes them so frustrating. The good news: their LPs were released by Capitol, so unlike many listed here, they are not mega-rarities.
• Fireballet: A Night on Bald Mountain is highly derivative prog that directly lifts riffs from British bands left and right. I actually seem to be one of the few who prefers their second album, Two, Too, which isn’t all that less derivative, but at least seems to be trying.
• Hands: Texas band that tried to emulate the Gentle Giant sound without being out-and-out clones. All their stuff is archival, get the self-titled one first, it has their best stuff.
• However: Avant-leaning prog with chamber music and jazz touches. Quite cool.
• Lift: Talented teenaged Yes-wannabee band. Probably inessential but so very tasty, their energy is infectious.
• The Load: ELP-like band. I found it uninspired.
• Mirthrandir: Another young prog act bursting with inventiveness and talent. I’m surprised by how good these guys were. Definitely worth your while. Beware: the singer could be a bit strident and isn’t for all tastes.
• Polestar-1: Highly Floydian space-prog.
• Quill: One album, Sursum Corda, a vanity pressing of B-grade ELP-style keyboard-prog. Inessential.
• Yezda Urfa: Gentle Giant/Yes/Zappa-influenced band. Absurdist and highly eccentric, with high complexity. They’re the real deal. Recommended.
• Zazu: I guess they started off as a Byrds-style folk-rock act that started flirting with prog, which accounts for the split personality on this album: 50% strummy folk-rock, 50% keyboard prog epics. Hardly a must-have, but pretty enjoyable all the same. This was on the Wooden Nickel label, so I guess they were from the Chicago area.

These are the ones I own from your impressive list. Have to checkout the others.

[TheH]

Manakin cracks me up so much, every time. I love the look on the announcer's face. You can tell he's getting a load of the mask the singer's wearing and thinking WTF is this? I forget that announcer's name. I think I was actually in the audience of a kid's show he hosted once. Not Wonderama (I was in that audience once too).

He just painted a second pair of eyes on his eyelids. That vid is amazing.
I kinda like what they are playing, do you know anything else above them?

[TheH]

Why are (the late) Bloodrock never mentioned when comes to Ameriprog (I said it again )

[JKL2000]

He just painted a second pair of eyes on his eyelids. That vid is amazing.
I kinda like what they are playing, do you know anything else above them?

No, it's a mask - you can see him pull it off and throw it to the ground when he turns his back to the camera. Almost as great as the mask is the horrible, half-length shirt tied around his middle.

Yeah, everyone here usually agrees that the music isn't bad. But I don't know anything more about the band.

[JKL2000]

Cool, this blog has some interesting info about Manakin - this guy figured out as much as he could about the band.

http://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2008...ch-of-manakin/

http://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2008...ch-of-manakin/

http://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2008...ck-connection/

And another video with the guy from Manakin singing:

[Scrotum Scissor]

Dunno if these ones have been mentioned:

[Progbear]

Yeah, I forgot about Bloodrock. To be fair, most of their stuff is pretty crude hard rock, and only when Warren Ham joined full time did they start flirting with outright prog. This material was released by One Way on a double CD collection called Triptych, which includes a (short) LPs worth of unreleased demos entitled Unspoken Words. Weirdly, this stuff sounds to me like an embryonic version of Kansas with sax/flute instead of violin.

Oh, and how could I forget about Zoldar & Clark? They were actually Jasper Wrath, the Z&C material (as well as a later album, credited to Arden House) were released by the tax scam label Dellwood without the band’s knowledge or consent. JW actually did release a proper album in the early 70s, which I guess you could call proto-prog. It was leagues ahead of a lot of other bands at the time, especially American bands. By the time of Z&C, it was obvious they had since discovered Yes. There’s pirate editions of the Z&C album (courtesy of the “Japanese” Tachika label) but it’s since come out in a self-released edition by the band.

Oh, and has anyone mentioned Guns & Butter yet? Another cheapie LP that’s actually quite good, don’t be put off by the hideous cover art:



Also, a really good jazz rock band, Good God:



Another jazzy horn band that hasn’t been mentioned yet, I Don’t Care. 1976 was way late for this kind of thing, but these guys had their moments:



-------------
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

"'Thin Thighs For Your Man.' But I don't *like* men with thin thighs" --Daria

N.P.:“The Last Human Gateway”-IQ/Nine in a Pond Is Here

[ItalProgRules]

Gawd, Bloodrock was horrible. Aside from their one classic hit.

My favorite American Prog from the 70s is UTOPIA s/t

From modern era, Glass Hammer's IF

[Esoteric]

were Happy the Man not this? having listened to them I would have said so or I may be misunderstanding what this category means? and I was going to add FM--but then forgot -they were Canadian. Pavlovs Dog?

---I can only mention things on our label sadly because apart from the obvious ones like Kansas and Styx in all honesty I havent heard any of the less obvious ones listed here although I have obvioulsy heard the bigger name jazzier stuff like RTF etc.

[dgtlman]

The recent thread about the Maelstrom album made me realise that although I'm
a great Kansas fan I have no real idea about the U.S. 70s and 80s scene (apart from the obvious).

I stumbeld over the following 2 beauties during researching,
so what else is out there???

Ha! Coincidentally I am good friends with the keyboard player of the former Astre' band from Tulsa, OK. He put out a proggish/industrial/metal CD with Cryptonomicon about a year & a half ago called The Devil's Dance. I played bass & bass pedals on it. Mark is also contributing to my project as well as playing full time in a dark/death metal style band in Dallas called Dei Aemeth.

[JKL2000]

were Happy the Man not this?

Yes, they were! If they weren't mentioned, they should have been. They're a really good example, actually, as they were on a major label yet stayed pretty unknown.

Are there many other real, American prog bands like that? That were on major labels but stayed very under the radar? Echolyn, of course, but I'm thinking of earlier than that.

Personally, I have to think of Ameriprog as meaning 70s and early 80s prog bands from America, because if ANY bands can be included then you could call The Mars Volta "Ameriprog."
I'm used to the term the way it was used in Progression magazine, but other peoples' mileage may vary.

[fictionmusic]

great thread, I'm finding out about lots of bands

[Christopher Henry]

I'm also really enjoying this thread.

[Progmatic]

sorry if repeated

[3LockBox]

Wow, three pages and no mention of Starcastle?





Derivative to be sure, but belongs in the conversation

[Ribo]

You can find all of Northwind's music at northwindband.com

[JKL2000]

Has the band Surprise and their album "Assault on Merryland" been mentioned?

[moecurlythanu]

Has the band Surprise and their album "Assault on Merryland" been mentioned?

Not on this page

[JKL2000]

Not on this page

Oh, a wise guy, eh? Whoop-whoop-whoop-whoop!

[dgtlman]

Then there were these guys:
http://www.rudolfmusic.com/Christmas/christmas.htm

Who's keyboard player went on to form another prog band later called Cairo

[Progmatic]

Wow, three pages and no mention of Starcastle?

I understand that but what about Spirit, surely they left great body of work behind...

[Paulrus]

Then there were these guys:
http://www.rudolfmusic.com/Christmas/christmas.htm

Who's keyboard player went on to form another prog band later called Cairo

Well knock me down. It's always fun to learn of these guys' former lives. So what's the story -- was Robertson originally from the Seattle area? And I assume the band broke up not long after this recording. I'm sure that 1979 wasn't really the best time to be an ELP clone.

[dgtlman]

I don't know if he was originally from there, but ironically, I was living in Seattle at the time when the KZOK radio broadcast occurred. In fact I listened to that station all the time back then. However, I have absolutely no recollection of the concert or of the band. Too many lost brain cells & years ago. I do remember that Seattle was booming at that time & there were a lot of Cali folks coming up there to work, so maybe that explains it

[Scrotum Scissor]

any one mention Pre? yet?

First page, I believe.

But not the following:


And I totally agree that Spirit was arguably the most important early US progressive group. Well, at least together with Seatrain, Touch, Vanilla Fudge and perhaps Gypsy. Both of these are infinite classics: