Porcupine Tree

I did something I almost never do today. I bought a CD without hearing any of the music first. Generally I will hear something, like it, do some investigation to find out if the rest is like that, or something different and then make the investment into the album. Recently there has been a lot of buzz on the Rush message boards about the new Porcupine Tree CD because Alex Lifeson the guitar player for Rush makes an appearance. So I was out earlier and swung by and picked it up. I have been listening to it in my office and I am a very happy camper. I have found new music that I really enjoy. It is sort of like progressive rock, like Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd, but not. Sure there is a 17 minute song on there, but the lyrics are very real and not spacey at all. For example. From the title track: Fear of a Blank Planet:

X-box is a God to me
A finger on the switch
My mother is a bitch
My father gave up ever trying to talk to me

Don't try to engage me
the vaguest of shrugs
the prescription drugs
You'll never find
The person inside

Ouch, thats real, you can feel the pain, and see the truth with so many of today's kids.

Later in the song:
How can I be sure I'm here?
The pills that I have been taking confuse me
I need to know that someone sees that
There's nothing left I simply am not here

Reminds me of the Wall a bit, good stuff.



Wikipedia supplies this about te music:
Porcupine Tree is often categorized as a "progressive rock" band. Many listeners familiar with the group label them as such. However, Steven Wilson has been noted in the past to express a certain dislike for this tendency.

Wilson: "Porcupine Tree music is very very simple. There's nothing complex about it at all. The complexity is in the production. The complexity is in the way the albums are constructed. All of the work goes into creating the texture and the sound, and making it sound right. There's nothing complicated about the music at all. And that's really why I have to take issue when people describe us as progressive rock. I don't think we are a progressive rock band. I think we're just a rock band. I think what leads people to give it that kind of progressive tag is the way the songs are produced."[7]

It's currently unknown whether he has changed, or remained in this posture regarding the fact.

The Rat Pack

Last night my in-laws took my wife and I to see a show at the Hershey Theater in Hershey. The show was called the Rat Pack and it was a tribute to the orginal Rat Pack seen in the picture above. Now I am a little younger than the average Frank, Sammy and Dean fans (Peter Lawford was not featured in this show)but I was raised to know and appreciate good music. Also a little more background. I played saxophone for many year. I was in the Jazz Band and even played a bit in college, so I can really get into big band stuff. The gentlement that played Frank, Sammy and Dean were uncanny. I used to see those three a lot on TV as a kid,because my parents would watch them whenever they got the chance. The mannerisms, the jokes, the voices, they really had it all. The guy who played Frank Sinatra even looked just like him, alothough maybe a bit younger than when he was playing Vegas full-time. All in all it was an excellent show and I am glad I got the opportunity to see it.