Ok, it’s been a little while coming but LANDMARQ are pleased to announce their shiny new line-up. Woohoo!
Ok, it’s been a little while coming but LANDMARQ are pleased to announce their shiny new line-up. Woohoo!
Line-up change #1
Step forward lead singer, Wolf Campen. A multi-instrumentalist and songwriter himself, Wolf was delighted to get the call following a series of auditions earlier in the year and is now looking forward to working with the band as they begin some fairly intensive rehearsals in preparation for their appearances in October at the Summer’s End Festival and also the Classic Rock Society.
Line-up change #2
However, another change to the line up occurred when drummer Daniel Martin made the decision to move on from the band as he was relocating back to Scotland to start a business producing original artwork.
Now step forward new drummer, Andy Allen. Andy was already known to the band and although fairly busy elsewhere, musically, he was equally delighted to receive the call to join the Landmarq family.
Existing Landmarq members — Mike Varty, Uwe D’rose, and Steve Gee — agree they are very happy to be up to full strength again and are now looking forward to getting back on stage. The band also have plans to release a new album in 2019 with the writing of new material already well underway.
LANDMARQ live dates 2018:
Sat 06 Oct, 2018 – Summers End Festival
Sat 20 Oct, 2018 – Classic Rock Society
According to the bands latest new blast, Ornan McLean is no longer in Elephants of Scotland. We wish him all the best going forward. That’s is nothing else on this matter.
Bob Gagnon, John Whyte, and Adam Rabin have been talking about what’s next for the band. Some surprising and novel ideas have been floated and I’m sure we’ll be discussing and exploring them more in the coming months.
Adam Rabin solo album
Work continues on the new album. I have one song and a half left to record. One thing I can tell you now is the title will be “The Badger Flies at Dawn.” Good luck figuring that one out. Honestly, I haven’t yet myself. The album is shaping up to be an even mix of my prog rock leanings and my more pop-oriented stuff. Watch a sneak peek
She Thicc!
Last week, we baffled our audience with an improvised musical about a teenage shark and a teenage girl trying to find some common ground. It didn’t end well for them. Because, well, shark. But the songs were great!
SHE THICC is co-headlining the inaugural Big Pond Improv Festival at Vermont Comedy Club July 19-21. We will be performing Friday, July 20th at 7pm VCC in Burlington, Vermont. Tickets are only $10 so come on out and say hi! Big Pond Improv Festival
Theme Songs
I seem to have started a side business of writing and recording theme songs for podcasts. Two new ones have launched in the last week. If you’re looking for some new chit chat to fill your days check these out:
Vermont Comedy Club’s “Improv Overdrive” just launched this week. Each week, the talented nuts I call my friends up here make up scenes and stories on the spot. The theme song draws on my 1980s upbringing right down to the electronic drums fills that I got to play. Also, on some episodes, I provide improvised underscoring on piano. Subscribe to Improv Overdrive
The “What The Hell Are You Watching?” podcast has been around for a few years now with my good friend Lincoln L. Hayes discussing a different movie each episode. I re-worked an old Mailbox tune “Interesting Times” for the new theme song.
Subscribe to “What the Hell Are You Watching!?”
HAKEN & LEPROUS, two of the most exciting bands in progressive rock today, are pleased to announce they will join forces for a North American co-headline tour in October / November 2018, with InsideOut label-mates BENT KNEE as special guests. These will be the first dates in support of Haken’s recently completed, forthcoming fifth studio album due out later this year.
HAKEN comment: “We’ve been talking about getting out on the road with our good mates Leprous again since our European jaunt with them back in 2014. Both our bands have gone from strength to strength in terms of our live shows since then, and we’re excited to see what they have planned, as well as playing brand new music from our forthcoming album. We’re also stoked to have Bent Knee along with us. It sure to be an epic night of music, don’t miss it!”
Einar Solberg from LEPROUS adds: “So it’s finally happening! I think the request we’ve gotten the most was “Please tour together with Haken!” Almost more often than “Come to Chile!” We actually did a tour together once in the UK back in 2014, and we have wanted to do a more comprehensive tour for a long time, but it just never worked out until now. We’ve been friends with Haken for quite a while, and to tour with them is long overdue. I think this is a great package for most prog fans, as it unites two pretty different approaches to the genre in one evening. And yet, despite our quite different approaches, I know for sure that we share a lot of fans and this package should make for fantastic shows for everyone!”
The full list of dates can be found below, tickets go on sale this Friday, July 13th.
Haken & Leprous with Bent Knee:
October 30th – The Crofoot Ballroom, Pontiac, MI
October 31st – Opera House, Toronto, ON
November 1st – Astral, Montreal, QC
November 2nd – Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA
November 3rd – Highline Ballroom, New York, NY
November 4th – The Sinclair, Boston, MA
November 6th – Soundstage, Baltimore, MD
November 7th – Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC
November 8th – The Orpheum, Tampa, FL
November 9th – Revolution, Fort Lauderdale, FL
November 10th – The Plaza Live, Orlando, FL
November 11th – Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA
November 13th – Gas Monkey, Dallas, TX
November 14th – Barracuda, Austin, TX
November 16th – Crescent Ballroom, Phoenix, AZ
November 17th – Glasshouse, Pomona, CA
November 18th – August Hall, San Francisco, CA
November 19th – Hawthorne Theatre, Portland, OR
November 20th – The Crocodile, Seattle, WA
November 21st – Rickshaw Theater, Vancouver, BC
November 23rd – Metro Music Hall, Salt Lake City, UT
November 24th – Bluebird Theater, Denver, CO
November 25th – Granada Theater, Lawrence, KS
November 26th – Delmar Hall, St Louis, MO
November 27th – Exit/In, Nashville, TN
November 29th – Rex Theater, Pittsburgh, PA
November 30th – Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
December 1st – Bottom Lounge, Chicago, IL
HAKEN are also pleased to reveal that they have completed recording of their fifth studio album, due out later this year: “That’s right! We can now also announce that our fifth album is now in the can! We always set out to do something a bit different with each album, but this one has surpassed what we had hoped to achieve. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood on the production and mix and we couldn’t be happier with the results. We can’t wait for everybody to hear it!”
The band recently released their first ever live album titled ‘L-1VE’.
Watch a clip of ‘The Endless Knot’ here:
LEPROUS recently released a brand new standalone single titled ‘Golden Prayers’, as well as announcing further European tour dates in support of latest album ‘Malina’, alongside Agent Fresco for later this year. Find the full list of European tour dates here: https://www.leprous.net/tourdates/
This North American tour will be their second of 2018, following a run earlier in the year supporting Between the Buried & Me and The Dear Hunter.
Listen to ‘Golden Prayers’ here:
BENT KNEE are currently finishing up their Paper Earth North American tour, following the release of last year’s critically acclaimed ‘Land Animal’ album. Watch a concert film of the band’s first full-scale contemporary-classical composition, also titled ‘Paper Earth’, here:
ScienceNV was formed in 2005 by Larry Jay Davis (guitar and bass guitar), David Graves (keyboards), Jim Henriques (guitar and keyboards) and Rich Kallet (drums). They released their debut album, ‘Really Loud Noises’ in 2008, following it up with ‘Pacific Circumstances’ in 2010 and ‘The Last Album Before the End of Time’ in 2013. Whereas those albums were instrumental, this time they have expanded the band and expanded the concept, so instead of releasing one album every two or three years, they have now released two albums in 2018 which tell the story of Prester John. Apparently, Prester John was a ruler of legend in the ancient world. His kingdom was rumored to be in various parts of the world ranging from India to Central Asia and Ethiopia depending on the century. A letter purporting to be from Prester John circulated around Europe late in the twelfth century and at least one expedition was sent to bring greetings to the ruler and his kingdom.
I must confess to being new to both the story and the band, and although this is an independent release it would have been nice if they could have stretched to a booklet explaining what was happening, instead of just an insert. What I do know is that after a short introduction “Fanfare” we are treated to the longest song on the album, the thirty-two-minute “Eloise’s Tale”. The total length of the album is 55 minutes, with eight songs, so it shows just how dominant this is. The quartet has added a number of additional singers and musicians to this album, and in some ways, it is hard at times to understand exactly what is going on in terms of musical progression. They definitely have more in common with bands from the Seventies than today, with Gryphon probably being the top pick, but there is also a great deal of jazz, as well as more medieval themes and styles. It is a complex, layered, piece of work, often with an acoustic guitar at the base.
There are sometimes when the vocals appear a little sharp, but that must be by design as generally, the singing is very good indeed. The more I listened to this album, the more I felt quite enthralled by it, as it is just so very different to everything else I listen to. I could imagine a young Robert Wyatt being involved with this, with gentle orchestrations also bringing an additional edge. There are times when it doesn’t work quite as well as it could, but overall this is an intriguing and interesting album.
Robert pointed out to me that I would be one of the few reviewers coming to the second album immediately after hearing the first, so what would I think of the two albums working together? The albums are designed to be viewed as a pair, from the artwork and layout through the music and ideas. While I smiled when I noticed that this was called ‘Volume 0’, part of me would rather it had been called ‘Volume 10’, which of course is 2 expressed in binary code, but that really is nit-picking (yes, I’m a geek – been working in I.T. for more than 20 years, but it’s not my fault).
Lyrically it is the perfect follow-on from the debut, so much so that it feels that it could become part of a permanent loop, so much so that the question becomes “which came first, 1 or 0?”. Musically it does feel very much of the second half of a piece of work, possibly slightly more acoustic? The musical themes and styling of the debut are carried into this, with the same influences very much in play, so much so that one actually finds it quite hard to realize that there was a break between the recording of the two albums as opposed to being recorded at the same time. And if anyone doubts the City Boy analogy just listen to George at 5:20 on “The Future Doesn’t Need You” and see what I mean.
It is also definitely worth mentioning that all the lyrics are in the pack, apart from one, and the only way to get that is to go the Valhalla Biotech site. Once there the lyrics can be seen, but also there are various links, for example, “5 Things That You Need To Know” (which takes you to a blog about becoming more involved in the local music scene) or “Become A Shareholder” (which of course takes you to their store). As I write this, I see that the album is #2 on the PA charts (interestingly I gave maximum scores to #1, #3 and #5 – haven’t heard #4). It is a totally different album to the latest by Roz Vitalis, the current incumbent of the top slot: that is very much a progressive album, from the RIO scene, while this is progressive pop that is fully Crossover. In terms of sheer pleasure and repeated playing this wins hands down, as it just makes me smile each and every time I play it. And isn’t that something that music should be about? The two ‘Ones & Zeros’ albums perfect complement each other, and all that can be done is buy both and listen to them back to back.
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ScienceNV was formed in 2005 by Larry Jay Davis (guitar and bass guitar), David Graves (keyboards), Jim Henriques (guitar and keyboards) and Rich Kallet (drums). They released their debut album, ‘Really Loud Noises’ in 2008, following it up with ‘Pacific Circumstances’ in 2010 and ‘The Last Album Before the End of Time’ in 2013. Whereas those albums were instrumental, this time they have expanded the band and expanded the concept, so instead of releasing one album every two or three years, they have now released two albums in 2018 which tell the story of Prester John. Apparently, Prester John was a ruler of legend in the ancient world. His kingdom was rumored to be in various parts of the world ranging from India to Central Asia and Ethiopia depending on the century. A letter purporting to be from Prester John circulated around Europe late in the twelfth century and at least one expedition was sent to bring greetings to the ruler and his kingdom.
