The Prog Squad on FACEBOOK
I was going to post an actual Update of some new podcasts I've been listening to, as between all the new YouTube channels and being able to listen to a lot of those at work now, it seems I've been taking in a lot of new discussion-based recordings at work. But silly me, in looking back, none of the actual Podcasts, sans for The Needle Drop Podcast, which is uploaded on YouTube, are actually immediately new to me.
Except this one really, which I just got wind of this past week.
But that being the case, this has immediately become a favorite of mine. I'm going through all their previous episodes, and am close to done, sadly.
This podcast is a progressive rock-based Round-table TALK SHOW of sorts. It has 5 people, 1 being the host Mark Ashby, who also has his own podcast/radio show known as Progtopia, which I downloaded 1 or 2 episodes, but haven't gotten around to yet.
The Prog Squad other panelists are 2 British prog fanatics, Cliff Pearson who runs progzilla.com which is an all-prog radio station in the UK, and David Elliott who has his own music podcast known as "The European Perspective" which The Dividing Line airs. He also runs a record label Bad Elephant Music.
Jason Spencer of The Prog Mind which is also on Facebook HERE.
And then a guest every month I guess, which often is a musician from some progressive rock band of a kind.
But as far as this show/podcast, it lasts approximately 30 minutes and has different well refined segments/topics/questions.
-News
-What percentage a band on the fringe of prog rock is (like Supertramp, Mr.Mister, Queen, Muse and many others)
-Overrated or Underrated: A band or artist is brought up and asked if they are considered under or over rated, mainly among the progressive rock fans (online I suspect).
-Questions for the Guest
-The 30-second Sales Pitch: Suggest 1 album or band in 30 seconds or less
they have included some other topics as well, but that is the jist of what they do on their show. They do try to include any current buzz or notable things in the admittedly underground world of progressive rock.
This show happens every 2 weeks, and they've been doing it for just over a year now, beginning on August 1st, 2014. That level of prolific-ness is another reason I have quickly become a fan of this show; per they do these chats often and thus stay current and can cover a lot of ground.
While it is in some ways like reading some of the forums, in radio form, like progressiveears.com , including the taste I suppose; i.e. the focus is more on bands like Anglagard and Big Big Train, instead of dredg or The River Empires. They still cover enough ground for my tastes, to still enjoy the kinds of music they go on about.
I guess this is the kind of podcast I've been looking for, for many years. There was Used Bin Radio of course, but that was a LIVE radio show, and they did upload it, but it was a large file to download. And frankly, I miss that show, and this is probably the best thing to come around since.
I found out about it per seeing Anil Prasad of innerviews.org post about it on Facebook, being a guest on their show last month. He was one of the only non-musician/band members to be their monthly *guest*. I'm not sure how often they plan to have non-musician/non-band members as their monthly guest, but certainly if I was asked, I would be happy to be a guest on their show. Although I suppose I don't have the resume with interviews and as much history as Anil does, but maybe that wouldn't matter.
I would guess I or like Lorenzo of altprogcore.blogspot.com could bring a bit of a different perspective with progressive rock, than most of the others have. I.e. The Mars Volta, dredg, The Dear Hunter, etc college/indie/alt/new prog taste. I notice how Jason seems to have some background with that stuff, and understandably, as he is younger than the others.
Although I'll admit, Mark is a big Marillion fan, so him and I would share that in common; which also has me curious about his other, personal podcast.
At any case, this along with some of those YouTube channels have been a great diversion for me at work recently (especially after some rather disappointing news today at work), and I can't see myself missing a show anytime soon.
