Brice Plays Drums - ProgTagonist (2014)

6/20/14 9:00AM

The whole thing has been up for awhile on their bandcamp. I never got around to looking/grabbing the embed. But anyway, there it is. Of course it can be downloaded and I wouldn't be surprised if the CD can be purchased from the band as I have about 4 copies still from the release.

How is it? I like it, but not as much as Man the Animal Cannon at this point. It is just outside my top 5 as I posted above. My favorite track probably still is the opening 9+ minute piece "Sisyphus."



5/17/14 1:06PM

After seeing them perform the whole thing last night, I'm finally this afternoon checking out the studio version (although so typically, I don't foresee being able to listen to the whole thing given my plans for the day revolve around the gf, but we'll see).

.I'll hopefully add more later


1. Sisyphus 9:46
2. An Onion 1:05
3. Alyosha 7:45
4. Ramses 9:36
5. Gemini 10:43
6. When Lions Meet Bears 5:45


4/25/14 12:15AM

Track One! "Sisyphus" Some tasty work on here having just streamed it a couple of times already. this piece isn't a dramatic departure from the Man the Animal Cannon work, but that material is so good, I can't find any reason to not dig this as much. I guess some of this 9+ minute piece is a little more subdued or even more refined sonically. The dynamics and shifts in tempos come certainly, but they aren't as extensive or for as long.

The inspiration seems like it may be from literature, with a title like "Sisyphus."

I would guess the cover art is the image being used below/on their Soundcloud page/Facebook show poster.

Anyway, I may be streaming this a few more times until hearing this record (I generally don't like to *wear out* a song or 2 before hearing it within the whole album), but not too much given this record is coming in just a few weeks.on May 16th, which is the same date of an album release show at Whiskey Junction. Sadly, it will also be keyboardist Bobby Homan's final show with the band. I have no idea what they will do onward, being keyboardist-less? or find someone new? their history almost parallels Genesis a little bit.

I also thought it might be worth sharing the write-up on their Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/briceplaysdrums/sisyphus

Brice Plays Drums is a progressive rock project from Minnesota. Since its inception in 2007, the group has diversified and evolved its music, broadening its influences while honing and clarifying their respective skills. Like contemporary progressive groups such as Steve Wilson, The Mars Volta and Between the Buried and Me, they strive to fill the void left by greats such as Yes, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, and Gentle Giant,, thus restoring musicality into the rock genre. A clever and ever varying mix consisting of rock, jazz fusion, Latin, and funk, Brice Plays Drums has pushed the boundaries few bands today dare to tread near. In this vein, they continue to seek the answer to the ultimate question: What the shit is Progressive Rock?



2/19/14 6:30PM
Facebook
FYI, release date is May 16th.

1/29/14 9:15PM



It's about time we give our Facebook people an update. We are getting our new album, ProgTagonist, mastered so keep an eye out for a cd release show in the near future. Looking forward to showing off this album. Also, we are pleased to announce Andrew McManimon as the newest member of BPD. We will be doing some live gigs soon for all you prog savvy sexy people. Can't wait to debut some tunes.

I Laugh at Your Greener Pastures: Great debut
Man the Animal Cannon: Incredible follow up, and one of the best records this decade,
ProgTagonist: ?

I dig the title, sort of overt, or almost tongue-in-cheek in some way perhaps. It sounds like it may be released in February or March.

Love. this. band.

Brice Plays Drums - Man the Animal Cannon (2012)

http://briceplaysdrums.bandcamp.com/



1. Freight Train Blues 12:40
2. The Jester 12:01
3. Delta Waves 18:07



This record has pretty thoroughly won me over. Like their debut record from last year I Laugh at Your Greener Pastures, this is clearly a band whose interest in composition are more at the *epic* scale. But refined at the same time.

There's a clear maturity in the compositions, textures, production. As much as I love Greener Pastures, this album in more or less every way is a step up. I think it's a classic case of a band learning and progressing in the product they released, from their last work.

I love the vocal harmonies, piano, the way they brought in the saxophone, and overall the amount of jazz/jazz-fusion they brought to this album.

Just as a reference, the liner notes on the back mention the following about the 3 pieces on this album:


Freight Train Blues inspired by the writings of Wendell Berry
The Jester inspired by Goethe's Faust and V for Vendetta
Delta Waves inspired by Camus's The Stranger Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and Nietzche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra

There is clearly a plethora of ideas coming from this band. I'm not sure if the writing is purely collaborative, or if Michael Higgins, who sings lead vocals and plays guitar, takes a lot of the writing on just himself. His brother Robert actually is terrific on here, with some really clean-toned and highly mixed bass lines that act as almost melodies at times. A bit like Yes I suppose in that way. In fact, this album resembles Yes among others in a number of ways. The structure is sort of similar to Close to the Edge with 3 tracks/2 sides. Melodically and harmonically, including the segues and namely the guitar tones at times I think of Yes or some of their other influences such as The Mars Volta.

But at the same time, the Brice Plays Drums sound is clearly evident here. I don't think there is a band who really sounds like them, nor this approach to writing multi-part pieces that FLOW perfectly. Each piece really does flow extremely well on this album. And they all have those crescendos and build to sections you look forward to.

Especially with the Jazz-side becoming more apparent. It wouldn't surprise me the band has been listening to more Jazz since Greener Pastures, just based on this.


There's more to edit-in later today, but just for right now at 6:09AM, this is clearly a breakthrough album that I can't endorse enough to any fan of progressive rock or anyone whose into supporting music in Minnesota.

I'd be surprised if a better album comes out in 2012 from Minnesota; it has a chance to at least make my top 10, and as of right now it's already among the 5 best records of 2012 I've heard.

Will it find its deserved larger audience? I've been down this road too many times to expect it. All the folks who never check it out are just shooting themselves in the foot. But maybe one of these times, it'll change.

Minnesota has prog, and it also has bands better than Polica and Owl City. But the local music media and hipster lemmings never give stuff like this a chance (or hear about it in the 1st place pathetically). Maybe just once, like with this album, that could change.

Brice Plays Drums - Man the Animal Cannon (2012)

I saw them at The Cabooze last evening and here's some of the footage:


Video streaming by Ustream

The "info" section on their Facebook page adds this about this new album:

Tentatively, BPD will be releasing their new album "Man the Animal Cannon" in May of 2012. It will feature 3 songs totalling 45 minutes, a new keyboardist, and notably jazzier and theatrical overtones.

And having seen them play it all last night, the jazz element is more evident in this new music, compared to their debut release I Laugh at Your Greener Pastures.

I got to speak with Michael Higgins, their singer/guitarist, about it after the show and it sounds like it'll be finished soon. May as that says, is the projection for when it could be released. Stylistically, it features vocal harmonies and is more jazzy, as their new keyboardist Bobby, brings that influence among other things to the band. But it also sounds in some ways like their debut record in that it's sort of a suite, or rather, the compositions are all size-able, yet do connect. 3 songs? and around 45 minutes.

Pretty excited to hear it. They may launch a Kickstarter campaign, but it should be available for free to stream, just as I Laugh at Your Greener Pastures is here.

One of my favorite bands prog or otherwise, from Minnesota.