Prog World Cup-Quarterfinals: PFM- Focus

to begin? Have some of you all been living under a rock. It has been going on for years.

Last day to vote

dr wu23 wrote: Heh...can't we all just get along......those who like the classic old prog and those who like the newer obnoxious stuff? ;)

Jan Akkerman! Thijs Van Leer!

I brought Focus within 4 (28/32). Come on Focus Fans! Vote. I probably listen to Focus lately nowadays more than any other band, aside from Hackett maybe.

micky wrote: yo sh*t for brains.. you opened this can of worms by blaming Avant fans for the state of the site.  Don't go playing the victim here. I know them better than you... while you were doing whatever you were doing I was working side by side with them as collabs....and they weren't the nice guys either when idiots came around. It was a charm of the site back in the day.   They would have treated your stupid posts more roughly than Ian, Raff and me have.

I think this Jacob guy is right with the promoting aspect. I hate it whenever I hear all those new and sometimes very fresh bands get compared to these old stinkers (I mean that in a nice way, I still love them but how could they be fresh, anyways). Most times this leads to me searching for other bands with more interesting description and only some times I give the ones mentioned above another chance (you get it? Another chance is necessary before the first listen, its so annoying) just to find out they aren´t even remotely close to the dinosaurs in their overall vision and that I actually would have found something new and refreshing if someone had praised it in a more exciting manner. Those guys marketing bands like this should read a volta review. They always make you hungry for the adventure. Could even help giving Prog a better connotation again. Think retro bands should get their own archives why not make up a genre called "retro - rock" and put them there so the retro fans get the nostalgia they want (and yeah I also mean non progressive ones). Because retro isn´t progressive. At least we should have a category thats retro - prog (because it is still progressive rock) so I don´t have to pick them out of the eclectic prog section, especially, which gets kind of on my nerves when I want to find a nice eclectone. Take a look at this german side for instance: http://www.babyblaue-seiten.de/index.php?albumId=550&content=review
They use the retro prog banner for a long time now.
The scissor is more and more opening. We have Chenille on one side and Camel on the other (In between there are Picchio dal Pozzos and Höyry Kones... I know that its not that 2dimensional) and that really is a broad scope.

I know it's too late but I went with Focus anyway. 

M27Barney wrote: Ad hominem insults are for those who have nothing intelligent to say...I have tried to appreciate some of the more eclectic bands of the first wave. Like GG and VDGG but I find that the music annoys me the more I listen to it. So the true avant garde acts are just for people who like to put an angry wasp in their ear and get off on the buzz so to speak...

But isn´t that strange. I mean noone really has got a face to risk. Why shouldn´t that lead to a more open and objective discussion. Makes me sad. That it isn´t that way round shows that a discussion is more often based on who has the most authority or presence. On the internet we could be free to win or lose and noone would care. But maybe therein lies the problem, objectivity can only be forced.

You may be partly right, but I think it´s only natural for some Prog listeners to grow into this avant type of music, cause many of them want to be challenged especially the ones who like to analyze their music but not necessarily those. Some of us internet guys are pretty nerdy guys and spend a lot of time on music so we cannot stay in one place all those years. And when I think about it Avant is very challenging even after years, so I guess that might be the case.

Of course on the other hand we have a more romantic type of prog listener, who likes the "Sturm und Drang" qualities of prog. The strive for more than ordinary live, that is so essential to the beginning of prog.

But I also guess some of the listeners of ordinary prog only (sorry for that it´s not offensively minded) would maybe like to achieve finding worth in avant but I guess they simply can´t because it uses stimuli that this person just can´t bear. Growling, Hectic, Dissonance, Discordance and Variance of Instruments in an unrelatable manner.