PA's Battle to Stardom A1: Marillion v. Mahavishnu

As a better band, exploring new grounds, better musicians, etc, Mahavishnu easily, but it's a preference poll, then Marillion does it for me.

B-Sides Themselves, Script, Fugazi and Misplaced Childhood are all essential Neo Prog stuff.

MovingPictures07 wrote: Logan wrote: One blew me away; the other is okay.  Mahavishnu Orchestra for me.  They hardly compare, really.  I actually grew to like Marillion rather more, but it never had the effect on me that MO did.  They are so different -- one is more melodic rock, the other is something very different. I have a suggestion for these polls since there are only two bands to choose from (especially worthwhile when one gets into the lesser-known bands). Provide links to music samples for those who don't know both or either, and make it a condition that people only vote after familiarising themselves with both (so people can vote based on the links to music).  I don't know how others feel, but the best thing about polls for me is discovering new to me music.  And a different poll question, rather than favourite, this time round might be interesting since otherwise it's, well, trodding the same kind of territory, and might elicit more thoughtful responses, as well as demand a certain level of familiarity with the music.  For instance: Which of these bands do you feel progressed rock more/ is more progressive? Maybe not that question for apples and oranges ones.... So here's a MO myspace page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=53939978 And here's Marillion's official myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/marillion">http://www.myspace.com/marillion Some youtube live videos (often feel that "live" performance are a great way to judge a band). An MO one: YouTube - Mahavishnu Orchestra: One Word Marillion: YouTube - Marillion : Neverland (Live) Thanks for the reply, Logan. I anticipated that you'd reply to this thread. The link to band pages is a very good idea. I'll definitely at least link to the PA pages so that if someone is unfamiliar with a band they can just click the link and at least retrieve some information as quickly as possible. Your question change is definitely a good thought as well... but since I selected 32 bands and randomly hooked them up this time (rather than spending time to rank them), I think the polls end up being much more of "apples vs. oranges"... It would make a question of "progressiveness" extremely hard to answer most of the time. I'm going to stick with the "prefer" question, but this certainly has sparked ideas for further non-related polls of mine in the future (not in tournament style). I extremely appreciated your thoughts about half a year ago and this is no exception.

Thanks; I appreciate your polls, and that you encourage and engage people on points that they raise. Favourite is best for these since these are apples and oranges, and because of the nature of the tournament..  And I like apples and oranges polls, especially because it can bring together people with diverse musical tastes.  You have unusually eclectic tastes, something I can't but help respect about you (willing to not only try everything, but the musical ability and maturity to be able to appreciate so many different kinds of music).  Such people are a real credit to the site. 

I have found in polls I've started where I've tried to include music samples that many voters did not bother to familairise themselves with the music before voting even though requested to do so (and the problem with questions other than favourite is that many vote without reading the question -- have had some fun with that in the past, and been slightly disheartened at other times -- for deeper questions perhaps the poll isteslf can be too much of a  distraction when it comes to the discussion sometimes).

Marillion for me.

Logan wrote: Thanks; I appreciate your polls, and that you encourage and engage people on points that they raise. Favourite is best for these since these are apples and oranges, and because of the nature of the tournament..  And I like apples and oranges polls, especially because it can bring together people with diverse musical tastes.  You have unusually eclectic tastes, something I can't but help respect about you (willing to not only try everything, but the musical ability and maturity to be able to appreciate so many different kinds of music).  Such people are a real credit to the site.  Thanks. It has taken a few years for me to develop that, however. When I first saw this site like 3 or 4 years ago, I mainly only liked Rush and Symphonic Prog. My tastes have developed to the point now where I like pretty every sub-genre a decent amount (Post-rock is my least favorite). Persistence is the key with some bands/genres until you realize that they have just as much an intriguing artistic sound as an artist you really like, except in a completely different way. The only bad thing about liking nearly all of the music I've heard from the site is that it makes my "to hear" list incredibly long. I have found in polls I've started where I've tried to include music samples that many voters did not bother to familairise themselves with the music before voting even though requested to do so (and the problem with questions other than favourite is that many vote without reading the question -- have had some fun with that in the past, and been slightly disheartened at other times -- for deeper questions perhaps the poll isteslf can be too much of a  distraction when it comes to the discussion sometimes). Yeah, I agree entirely. Sometimes if the discussion is quite deep it almost might be better to simply hold an open-response thread for it in the Prog Lounge since it's really easy to simply click a poll, see your favorite immediately, click it, and move on. I've done it myself. That's why I've designed this tournament though: to invoke discussion about all of the bands, hopefully get people to hear or try some bands that they've never heard or only given one chance a long time ago, and lastly, of course, to have some fun. I'm hoping these attract many responses so that we can really find out the prog taste of a general population here at PA; the results for this could turn out to be very interesting. For instance, I expected even the bigger names to come up with different results when it came to the Ultimate Prog Tournament. The fact that Camel was ahead of Genesis for 4 days before Genesis finally took the lead to go on alone was absolutely amazing and extremely far from my expectations. I initially thought that Genesis would win the whole thing. It simply shows the actual preference of people around here... and sometimes it's not near as expressed as it should be.

often in these polls when there is atleast some link people will still say apples and oranges , what I find interesting is that few have said that to this poll and its never been so applicable ?  

Yes, great poll,Movingpictures................but the damn MARILLOn is winning so far

^I picked based on the fact that Marillion are the best Neo prog band going, where as their are better bands than Mahavishnu Orchestra in Fusion, IMO.

Mahavishnu Orchestra probably cos I never liked Marillion... or any Neo-Prog for that matter lol.

Mahavishnu, they have all the potential to easy steamroller Marillion!

I love Fusion, but Mahavishnu went too far for me, my vote is for Fish's Marillion.