Joined: January 25 2008
Location: Wisconsin
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Posted: June 20 2013 at 12:05
As I listen to the album right now (on YouTube; my vinyl collection is in my brother's basement in Michigan) I must admit that the only part of the music that sounds remotely familiar are the vocals. Yet, I'm certain that I bought (and own) a copy of Stained Glass Memories--from the cut-out bin at Boogie Records--during my college years in Kalamazoo, 1976-80--which is during the Delta pressing's era and much before the 1989 re-issue.
BTW: This is great stuff. I can see the Anglagard (and Yes and Genesis) comparisons. Whatever happened to these Jersey boys?
Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
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Points: 4596
Posted: June 20 2013 at 12:59
Yezda Urfa, Mirthrandir, Cathedral, Pentwater, Lift, Easter Island - This first group of bands I learned about from "The Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock". It's now a website but if I remember correctly, in the early 90's it began life as a daily email digest. People would submit prog album reviews and they compiled them into a huge document you could download. I remember printing out this monster, circling any band that looked good, then carrying it with me to all the prog-friendly CD stores in a 50 mile radius . If I couldn't find them in a store, I'd buy them from this great guy in San Jose named Ranjit. He had global connections and could get the most obscure prog on the planet. Since I only lived a couple miles away, I'd go to his house to pick up my order and we'd hang out for hours while he played me the most amazing unknown prog. Those days were so much fun and my prog collection exploded.
Fireballet - Saw the album in Tower records, read the back cover and saw Ian McDonald produced and played on it so I took a chance.
Babylon - Read about them in this great book called "The Progressive Rock Files". It has 100's of prog band reviews in the last half of the book.
Netherworld - I played in a San Jose area prog band in the late 70's called Elfhouse. There was a small bunch of local prog bands (Full Fathom,Paradox,Marathon) but Netherworld was the best of the bunch. The guy that did our lights came in with a Netherworld cassette one day and we were blown away. I searched for the vinyl for 15 years before finding it in this hole in the wall called "Big Al's Record Barn". When the CD was released they added 2 or 3 bonus tracks which were pretty weak so it kind of watered down the overall album quality. Still 75% of it is great stuff.
Shadowfax - The guitar player from our band was really into their first album "Watercourse Way" and turned us all on. It became the album we all hoped to someday make; unfortunately, we never got that far
Starcastle - Every Yes fan I knew in the 70's had the first Starcastle album and went nuts over the opening song "Lady of the Lake".
Ethos - I'm writing in an entry to my own poll 'cause I forgot all about them! Saw the album in Tower Records, the back cover showed them with these amazing prog instruments and I had to hear what they were doing with them.
Happy the Man - I didn't include them in the poll 'cause I thought they were too well known...but another great US 70's prog band.
Joined: November 29 2006
Location: Israel
Status: Offline
Points: 6632
Posted: June 20 2013 at 14:00
BrufordFreak wrote:
As I listen to the album right now (on YouTube; my vinyl collection is in my brother's basement in Michigan) I must admit that the only part of the music that sounds remotely familiar are the vocals. Yet, I'm certain that I bought (and own) a copy of Stained Glass Memories--from the cut-out bin at Boogie Records--during my college years in Kalamazoo, 1976-80--which is during the Delta pressing's era and much before the 1989 re-issue.
BTW: This is great stuff. I can see the Anglagard (and Yes and Genesis) comparisons. Whatever happened to these Jersey boys?
Cathedral released their second album in 2007, an album called The Bridge. Quite good actually.
Joined: March 15 2007
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Posted: June 20 2013 at 15:31
Yezda Urfa belong among the top 10 prog bands from the whole 70's in my opinion.They are followed by Maelstrom and Ethos in the top3 of little known US bands in my books.
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Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
Status: Offline
Points: 4596
Posted: June 20 2013 at 16:49
BrufordFreak wrote:
As I listen to the album right now (on YouTube; my vinyl collection is in my brother's basement in Michigan) I must admit that the only part of the music that sounds remotely familiar are the vocals. Yet, I'm certain that I bought (and own) a copy of Stained Glass Memories--from the cut-out bin at Boogie Records--during my college years in Kalamazoo, 1976-80--which is during the Delta pressing's era and much before the 1989 re-issue.
BTW: This is great stuff. I can see the Anglagard (and Yes and Genesis) comparisons. Whatever happened to these Jersey boys?
Of all the albums from all the US bands I listed, Cathedral's "Stained Glass Stories" is my favourite. The closing track, "The Search" always reminds of what it would've sounded like if Yes had written "The Fountain of Salmacis"...it's an absolute masterpiece
Joined: January 24 2010
Location: Canada
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Points: 8874
Posted: June 20 2013 at 20:39
I voted for Starcastle.
There are more than one US groups named Easter Island, i believe, i know one had Bloodrock guitarist Lee Pickens in the band at one point, and i really like him-is that the group you have listed?
Joined: April 01 2009
Location: Atlanta
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Points: 26138
Posted: June 20 2013 at 20:48
The.Crimson.King wrote:
If I couldn't find them in a store, I'd buy them from this great guy in San Jose named Ranjit. He had global connections and could get the most obscure prog on the planet. Since I only lived a couple miles away, I'd go to his house to pick up my order and we'd hang out for hours while he played me the most amazing unknown prog. Those days were so much fun and my prog collection exploded.
I seem to remember Ranjit, it must be the same guy. A friend of mine got tapes of some really neat stuff from him, and he shared it with me. I think that's where I first heard Hinn Islenski Thursaflokkur and Gracious, among a bunch of other bands. Starcastle maybe too.
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Joined: June 30 2005
Location: Canada
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Points: 746
Posted: June 20 2013 at 22:33
Excellent poll!
One of my fave is Northwind.Also worth mentionning are Maelstrom and Pre.They're all on PA.
Surprise were quite good too,though some might find them too heavy.However also,great Canterbury like prog.
Lets not forget about Touch who were a major influence on Kansas.Speaking of whom, Proto-Kaw could have been mentioned,they were an early incarnation of Kansas.There were also Hands who came back a few years ago and a band called Arabesque.
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Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
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Points: 4596
Posted: June 20 2013 at 23:58
presdoug wrote:
I voted for Starcastle.
There are more than one US groups named Easter Island, i believe, i know one had Bloodrock guitarist Lee Pickens in the band at one point, and i really like him-is that the group you have listed?
I doubt it was the band with Lee Pickens. I used to have the CD (ended up trading it away) and it was definitely not Bloodrock-like at all...
Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
Status: Offline
Points: 4596
Posted: June 21 2013 at 00:22
HolyMoly wrote:
The.Crimson.King wrote:
If I couldn't find them in a store, I'd buy them from this great guy in San Jose named Ranjit. He had global connections and could get the most obscure prog on the planet. Since I only lived a couple miles away, I'd go to his house to pick up my order and we'd hang out for hours while he played me the most amazing unknown prog. Those days were so much fun and my prog collection exploded.
I seem to remember Ranjit, it must be the same guy. A friend of mine got tapes of some really neat stuff from him, and he shared it with me. I think that's where I first heard Hinn Islenski Thursaflokkur and Gracious, among a bunch of other bands. Starcastle maybe too.
Ranjit was incredibly nice with a wonderful young family...I can't say enough good things about him...a scary-smart microprocessor engineer totally devoted to getting prog into as many hands (and heads) as possible. Yes, he used to make custom prog sampler cassettes for people regularly for little or no cost. His garage was a prog-heads dream! I got some amazing stuff from him (Devil Doll, Yezda Urfa, Mirthrandir, Lift, Pentwater, Asia Minor, Pulsar, etc) at a time way before Amazon or any other prog CD distribution channels were setup. He used to have all these one-of-a-kind super small edition Italian Genesis & Pink Floyd CD box sets. I bought a Genesis one called "From One Fan to Another" which was a direct soundboard recording from The Lamb tour along with a booklet with Lamb tour photos I'd never seen before. I remember he was a total Barclay James Harvest nut, the only one I've ever met
Edited by The.Crimson.King - June 21 2013 at 00:26
Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
Status: Offline
Points: 4596
Posted: June 21 2013 at 18:52
Knobby wrote:
You have Cathedral ON ORIG DELTA LABEL vinyl? That is a thousand dollar lp.
Interesting that of all the bands listed, Starcastle and Fireballet are the only ones I know of that had an album in a mainstream record store chain like Tower or The Wherehouse. All the rest were lost until the 90's prog revival began re-releasing these gems on CD. I remember the day I found the "Netherworld" vinyl at "Big Al's Record Barn". There was no price on the album and even though I was jumping with joy at my rare discovery, I tried to play it cool. I asked, "how much for this thing...didn't they used to be a local band?" and she said $10. I would've paid $50
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70's Little Known American Prog Bands
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Knobby wrote:
. If I couldn't find them in a store, I'd buy them from this great guy in San Jose named Ranjit. He had global connections and could get the most obscure prog on the planet. Since I only lived a couple miles away, I'd go to his house to pick up my order and we'd hang out for hours while he played me the most amazing unknown prog. Those days were so much fun and my prog collection exploded.
