Archie Shepp Quintet - Body & Soul - LIVE

Archie Shepp has always had an influence on Progressive Rock, whether its fans realized it or now. The inventor if Free Jazz, and a cool dude too. He's a friend of mine. We've been hanging out together fairly regularly for the past twenty years. I got him and Wil Lettman to sit in with Jon Fishman's band Pork Tornado at Pearl Street in Northampton once. Now THAT was cool...

Tangerine Dream - LIVE (2001)

Tangerine Dream videotaped live in London, England on May 12, 2001. Recorded at Shepherds Bush Empire by INET-TV. Tangerine Dream is Edgar Froese, Jerome Froese, Iris Kulterer, and Gerald Gradwohl. Saw these guys in Boston at the Orpheum Theater back in 1984. They were great live.

Rush - Tom Sawyer - LIVE

Canadian power-prog trio Rush perform Tom Sawyer, with a great little South Park intro. Go Lil' Rush!



Make sure to catch RUSH in Concert this Summer!

Gentle Giant - Octopus Medley - LIVE (1974)

ProgRock favorites Gentle Giant play a medley from Octopus, live in concert in 1974. Vintage footage.

Yes - Ritual - Nous Sommes du Soliel LIVE (2001)

Yes peformes Ritual, one of my all-time favorites, live in concert in 2001. I love this song. From the album Tales from Topographic Oceans.

Adrian Belew - Three of a Perfect Pair Solo Acoustic (2000)

Riveting solo acoustic performance of Three of a Perfect Pair by Adrian Belew during King Crimson's 2000 Tour.

Dream Theater - Octavarium (2006 Live In Seoul)

Epic live performance by Dream Theater in Seoul, South Korea. Great jams, lots of long instrumentals. Pretty nice video overall.



Brought to you by Positronic Design, The SEO Company, a new fan of Dream Theater.

Jethro Tull - Living in the Past - LIVE (1975)

Great clip of a live performance by Jethro Tull playing "Living in the Past".

Sweet flute jams. Enjoy!

Porcupine Tree on National Public Radio (NPR)

Porcupine Tree, one of my favorite Progressive Rock bands, had their new song "Drawing the Line" from their latest album "The Incident" made Song of the Day on NPR for March 30th, 2010.

Congratulations boys. It takes a long time for things to catch on, and every bit helps, and I'm sure you picked up quite a few new fans today, people who had never in their lives heard of you before.

Bravo.

Tony Vacca - Balophone Player Extraordinaire

Tony Vacca has been playing amazing rythyms in Western Mass. and around the world for a long time. Here he's doing an amazing performance at the Positronic Design Rock-n-Roll Business Networking Keg Party. See all the videos at Positronic.TV.

Thanks Tony. You Rock!

Tony Vacca - Music for Don Cherry

Genesis - Watcher of the Skies - Live (1973)

Just came across this tasty little nugget. I posted earlier a clip where Phish did a cover of Watcher of the Skies as part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony for Genesis.

This is the TRUE original.

Totally rad. Gotta love Peter's getup.

U.K. - In the Dead of Night - Live 1978

One of my all-time favorite "supergroups" in the Progressive genre was the band UK. Formed by Bill Bruford of Yes/King Crimson, John Wetton of King Crimson, plus Eddie Jobeson and Allan Holdsworth.

This is a video of a live performance they gave in 1978 of their biggest song, "In the Dead of Night".

Enjoy.

Shawn Lane - Amazing Guitarist

A friend of mine who works with me at Positronic Design, The SEO Company (he's our main SEO inbound-link guru here), was watching a bunch of the Phish videos I posted with me the other day and said, "If you like Trey, you'll like this guy Shawn Lane".

Several videos later, I'm sold...

Here Shawn Lane, Jonas Hellborg and Jeff Sipe play "Stellar Rays" (aka "Time is the Enemy"), at Atlanta Drums & Percussion, Atlanta, GA, on 8/19/96.

Check it out for yourself, it's pretty good.

Stanley Maxwell - No Good Reason - Live at the Positronic Design Roots'ellar

Stanley Maxwell is the (largely) undiscovered Progressive Rock wonder of Connecticut. This is a song that they wrote, "No Good Reason", and performed at the annual Positronic Design, The SEO Company, "Spring Into Summer" Party (the next one is coming up soon, so if you can get invited, Go).

They played a great set, and there's more of it on Positronic.TV that you can listen to, including a very funky version of Phish's "You Enjoy Myself", (I dare anyone to click the link on the left if they don't think Phish is a Progressive Rock band, listen to the song, and then, if they still have that opinion, leave a comment as to why, but I digress...) and a similarly Jazzy version of Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean".

Check it out...

Stanley Maxwell - No Good Reason

RPWL - Breathe In, Breathe Out, Start the Fire, and Roses (live)

This is another band I've come across during my Pandora sessions. RPWL is a German band that has a strong sonic congruency with Pink Floyd. I've enjoyed their stuff whenever I've heard it. Here's a nice piece from their live DVD. The Music Genome Project is really something that any music lover should check out. It's introduced me to LOTS of music I otherwise would probably never have come across, and I've loved almost all of it. My current Pandora station consists of Porcupine Tree, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Jethro Tull, and Phish. Try it out, it's a nice mix.

In the meantime, enjoy a couple of nice live videos from RPWL.

RPWL - Breathe In, Breathe Out (live)



RPWL - Roses (Live) with Ray Wilson



RPWL - Start the Fire (Live)

Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9) - Compellingly Dancable Hypno-Prog in Action

One band I came across a few years ago, and have liked ever since, is the band Sound Tribe Sector 9. Originally from Georgia but now based in Northern California, STS9 has managed to create a compellingly hypnotic and dancable blend of styles, rythyms, textures and tones. The closest thing that an old-school-progger would probably think of to compare them to would be Tangerine Dream.

Enjoy, and dig around for more stuff, it's out there.

Bill Bruford - Beelzbub - LIVE with Jeff Berlin and Allan Holdsworth

Speaking of Bill Bruford, I was in Boston back in 1984, coming out of a Bill Bruford / Patrick Moraz concert at the Paradise Rock Club on Commonwealth Avenue, when a guy approached me, imploring me that I give a listen to what was playing on his headphones. I was in a good mood, so I said, "Sure", and proceeded to listed to some really amazing music. It was a live broadcast on WLIR-FM of a Bill Bruford concert from My Father's Place on Long Island. He had taped it off the radio and was selling copies of the tapes for $7.00.

I was so impressed I bought one, and proceeded to listen to it regularly for the next many years.

Long, long, after that, I saw it packaged as "The Bruford Tapes" on CD at a record store. I bought it and have listed to that album many, many times as well.

Now I have the whole thing on my iTunes.

Funny how things work out sometimes, eh?

Check out one of the songs that appeared on that release, Beelzbub. Great live version.

Ozric Tentacles - Always - Outrageous Psychedelic Extravaganza

If you ever wondered what true psychedelic progressive rock LOOKED like, you should check out this video.

Absolutely crazy/amazing color visualizer montage set to sweet music. Brings you back to the days when little square pieces of paper were popular...

Ozric Tentacles - The Hidden Step - Cool Video

I stumbled across this Ozric Tentacles video on YouTube tonight after I heard this song on Pandora. Nice fan-made video involving packs of wolves running through the snow and lots of other cool landscape shots.

Thought it was worth sharing, especially for fans of psychedelic progressive rock.

Enjoy!

Unit 7 plays Sissy Strut by The Meters - Funky, jazzy, grooves with a hint of Prog...

Eric Olsson and the boys from Unit 7 may not strike everyone as a "Progressive Rock" band, but I've been watching them play for many years (they've been a frequent headliner at the Positronic Design Business-Networking Rock-n-Roll Keg Parties), and I've seen them break into some pretty sick jamming, followed by sweet beautiful melodies. Check out this video of their version of The Meters' Sissy Strut. It's from a concert they played at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA in 2007. Click here to see the whole show.