Random Artist Feature: The Beatles

Came out to 20 minutes, but for good reason. I just don't have much of the early albums to show. I can talk about them, which maybe I will at some point.

Also as I noted on YouTube in the description, when I'm pulling out Sgt Peppers, I said accidentally "Magical Mystery Tour"..multi-tasking can do that sometimes I suppose.

I also should eventually pickup The White Album I suppose and maybe Let it Be.

WHAT IF: Kevin Gilbert was STILL Alive?

I made this video as quickly as possible this morning before work (I have to get to work early, 6-6;30AM-ish, to beat Rush hour per construction, and there is Overtime available that really is NEEDED, rather than wanted).

But yeah, this is sort maybe the 1st of

1) a few videos like this, taking the idea from Coverkiller Nation, or fun hypothetical speculation if an artist didn't die, where would they be now? what would they have done, etc.

2) more videos specifically about Kevin Gilbert, my collection, etc..in other words, a Random Artist Feature should happen soon. If not before, then hopefully around the time of his 50th Birthday on November 20th, 2016.

Vinyl Update 3/23/16 Part 1 of 2, 13 mins

As I mentioned, I'm splitting up or waiting to make another vinyl video once I pickup the record that's at the post office currently.

In this video:


Kevin Gilbert - Thud (Kashmir EP)
Transatlantic - SMPTe
Transatlantic - Bridge Across Forever
Fates Warning - A Pleasant Shade of Gray
The Tea Party - The Edges of Twilight
Kerry Livgren - Seeds of Change
Queen - A Kind of Magic

Flying Colors - Second Nature (2014)

9/22/14 9:46PM

Link with Soundcloud Stream of album

I've checked it out once for the most part. It's not bad, but I'd be lying if I said I was blown away by it. Needs more time I suppose. The Transatlantic comparison is still there, naturally with Neal Morse especially, it often sounds like a lot of his music.

8/20/14 6:15AM

"Mask Machine" video. Not bad. Not as bad at least as some of the comments on some of the forums have given it. Does it sound like Muse? in spots, but so did parts of their debut album. Is it too long? not really just from hearing it initially.



also I never got around to sharing this.The 3 shows in the US Bend Sinister is the support act. I'd love to go, but the Chicago show for example, falls on Yom Kippur anyway. O well, I do hope naturally a lot of new people catch on to Bend Sinister from the exposure as it is cool Flying Colors (Portnoy) is having them share the bill on those 3 dates in the US at least.


OCTOBER 2014 TOUR
10/02 LOS ANGELES, CA JAMES ARMSTRONG THEATER  
10/03 CHICAGO, IL ARACDA THEATER 
10/04 PHILADELPHIA, PA KESWICK THEATER  
10/07 BARCELONA, SPAIN RAZZMATAZZ 2
10/08 MILAN, ITALY MILAN LIVE CLUB
10/09 TILBURG, NETHERLANDS 013
10/11 FRANKFURT, GERMANY BATSCHKAPP
10/12 PRATTELN, SWITZERLAND Z7
10/13 LONDON, UK ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALL
10/14 PARIS, FRANCE ALHAMBRA

Special Guests for the US shows will be BEND SINISTER 
Special Guests for Europe/UK will be JOHN WESLEY
7/28/14 10:50PM

Preorder

Trailer:




Second Nature, the sophomore statement from Flying Colors is released via Mascot Label Group / Music Theories Recordings on September 29, 2014 in Europe and September 30, 2014 in the rest of the world.

Sporting stunning artwork from the legendary designer Hugh Syme (Rush, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater) and bookended by two tracks of truly epic stature – Open Up Your Eyes and the multiple-part Cosmic Symphony – the album is every bit as breathtaking as the debut.

Second Nature will be released on CD and 2LP (180 gram vinyl). The vinyl has a downloadcard, good for one MP3 download of the album.
Both the CD and 2LP can be ordered with a specially designed t-shirt that's only available from MLG Merch.

As always we will include a free poster with each order.

But wait, that's not all! Each pre-order will include a free bonus DVD with behind the scenes footage, interviews and more, and we will send you MP3s of 2 bonus songs that are not available on the album**.

**The bonus tracks are being prepared by the band. As soon as we receive them, we will send everybody who pre-ordered the album a link to get these bonus MP3s.

Tracklisting:
1. Open Up Your Eyes
2. Mask Machine
3. Bombs Away
4. The Fury Of My Love
5. A Place In Your World
6. Lost Without You
7. One Lost Forever
8. Peaceful Harbor
9. Cosmic Symphony
I. Still Life Of The World
II. Searching For The Air
III. Pound For Pound 

Please note that this is a pre-order item. If you order this item together with an item that is already available, we will hold your order and ship all items around September 22. We recommend that you place a separate order if you wish to receive the released items sooner.

7/26/14 11:56AM
There is no PRESS RELEASE that I can find at the moment, but the linked website with this information is there, so I'm going with it.

Below is information already published on this Finnish? website/webstore showing the title, artwork, release date (September 26th, 2014) and track list for the sophomore LP from the  prog rock "super group" of a sort  featuring Mike Portnoy, Neal Morse, Steve Morse, Casey McPherson and Dave LaRue, whose Self Titled debut LP made somewhat of a big splash in 2012, at least among progressive rock fans.

Personally? I thought I was going to fall head over heals for that record back in 2012, and while I did enjoy it for the most part, I kind of enjoyed it enough, but also remained curious where this group could go in the future.

I love progressive rock when combined with well produced pop music, and I actually grew to like Casey McPherson as a singer in Alpha Rev after hearing this.

But the jury is out a bit with this band, I think they have the potential to make some amazing songs, so I certainly hold optimism for this. But do I expect this to fight for my favorite record this year? given their debut LP didn't really, I would be pleasantly surprised if it did. But, then again, those are the kind of surprises and albums I often appreciate even more with time (and even their older work after that experience).

One note: the title being "Second Nature" the Rush song comes to mind of course, but also the name of the band that would become Transatlantic, except would have featured Jim Matheos on guitar instead of Roine Stolt, back in 1999/2000. Matheos it turned out wanted-to but was too busy with Fates Warning (I recall reading many years ago) to be able to work on the music for that band/album so had to depart the project (and replaced by Stolt). And at least some of that experience found motivation for Jim to collaborate with Mike Portnoy again with OSI a few years later.

Finnish Webstore Link

This is just a *ROUGH TRANSLATION FROM FINNISH TO ENGLISH*

Virtuoso prog / pop / rock band with (former) members of Deep Purple, Dream Theater, The Winery Dogs, Avenged Sevenfold, Dixie Dregs, Spock's Beard, Alpha Rev & the Trans-Atlantic 

Release date: 09.26.2014. Product will be shipped the release date. 

You can book with this product and pick it up from the nearest Record Shop X.. This is done by moving the product to shopping cart, and then checkout the order takeout trade. 
tracks 



1 Open Up Your Eyes
2 Mask Machine
3 Bombs Away
4 The Fury Of My Love
5 A Place In Your World
6 Lost Without You
7 One Lost Forever
8 Peaceful Harbor
9 Cosmic Symphony
I. Still Life Of The World
II. Searching For The Air
III. Pound For Pound

Transatlantic - And You and I (Yes cover)

http://www.progressivenationatsea.com/premiere/

Well produced and performed.

Transatlantic - Kaleidoscope (2014)

12/2/13 9:04PM
New song and video for "Shine." Just looking at many of the comments, I don't agree with the majority of them. This song isn't bad, it's just a ballad. Amazing? no, but for what it is, even at 7 and a half minutes, it's actually decent enough. Nice guitar solo namely from Roine.


10/23/13 2:36PM

Okay, another update nearly 1-week late. Life happens, what can I say?

I am looking forward to this album coming out on January 27th. Kaleidoscope? if I recall, there was at least 1 somewhat accomplished cult psych band from the 70's with that name. Inspiration? doubtful, but it came to mind in thinking about the title.

Structurally, this album reminds me of SMPT:e for what that may be worth. My guess is, a few epics, and 1 or 2 shorter pieces.

Whether it's close to as good as either the debut album or Bridge Across Forever, I'm kind of at a wait and see since The Whirlwind ended up being a large bloated mess, with not too many memorable moments/sections that those 1st 2 LPs had that I totally loved about this band, and how they always stood out from more or less all of the "retro" sounding prog rock groups. Or even, more than both The Flower Kings and Spock's Beard were in some ways.

I have always felt, TA is like taking the best elements of Spocks and TFK's making them better.

I also have often wondered what this project could have been like with Jim Matheos and with the name "Second Nature"..and even how/what it may have been like with Kevin Gilbert involved. But, all "what ifs" of course.

Also the tour includes Daniel Gildenlow again (but not the album? I would love to see him get involved, but I guess that'll never happen. But even just ANY ORIGINAL MUSIC project with Mike Portnoy would be welcome to see happen at some point, OSI? lol).

The tour itself is coming to the States, but Chicago of course is the only date relatively close. Obscure Prog Rock and doing full-scale US tours affordably, just never has and probably never will happen like it did in the 70's.

Transatlantic reveal new studio album ‘Kaleidoscope’ and 2014 World Tour! 


Progressive-rock super-group Transatlantic, featuring Mike Portnoy, Neal Morse, Roine Stolt and Pete Trewavas will release their brand new fourth studio album ‘Kaleidoscope’ on the 27th January 2014. The track-listing for the forthcoming record is as follows and the beautiful artwork for the release can be seen below: 



1. Into the Blue
2. Shine
3. Black as the Sky
4. Beyond the Sun
5. Kaleidoscope


The band will also embark on a 6-week World Tour that will see them joined once again by Pain of Salvation’s Daniel Gildenlöw as a 5th touring member. As part of the extensive tour, the band will also headline the Progressive Nation At Sea 2014 Cruise from the 18th till the 22nd February alongside 22 other leading Prog acts including Adrian Belew Power Trio, Devin Townsend Project, King's X, Anathema, Spock’s Beard and many more. This unique performance will see the band performing a very special encore of classic Yes material with the legendary Jon Anderson on vocals. You can find more details on PN14 here: http://www.progressivenationatsea.com/ 

An Evening With Transatlantic 2014 World Tour: 
Jan 31st - Los Angeles, CA - El Segundo Performing Arts Center 
Feb 1st - San Francisco, CA 
Feb 2nd - Everett, WA - Everett Music Hall 
Feb 4th - Chicago, IL - The Arcada Theater 
Feb 5th - Quebec City, Canada - Theatre Du Capitole 
Feb 6th - Montreal, Canada - L'Olympia 
Feb 8th - Philadelphia, PA - Keswick Theater 
Feb 9th - New York City, NY - Highline Ballroom 
Feb 11th - Mexico City, Mexico - Teatro Metropolitan 
Feb 13th - São Paulo, Brazil - Carioca Club 
Feb 14th - Buenos Aires, Argentina 
Feb 15th - Santiago, Chile 
Feb 18th to 22nd - Progressive Nation At Sea 
Feb 27th - Madrid, Spain - La Rivera 
Feb 28th - Barcelona, Spain - Razzmatazz 2 
March 2nd - Milan, Italy - Alcatraz 
March 3rd - Rome, Italy - Orion 
March 5th - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z7 
March 6th - Karlsruhe, Germany - Substage 
March 7th - Munich, Germany - Muffathalle 
March 8th - Berlin, Germany - Astra 
March 9th - Cologne, Germany - E Werk 
March 11th - Antwerp, Belgium - Trix 
March 12th - London, England - The Forum 
March 13th - Tilburg, Holland - 013 
March 14th - Tilburg, Holland - 013 
March 15th - Paris, France - Le Bataclan 
June - Sweden Rock Festival 


For more information visit: 
www.facebook.com/transatlanticmusic 

www.transatlanticweb.com 


9/27/13 10:12PM

Coming in January?

https://twitter.com/MikePortnoy/statuses/383256179809742848

“@Vikernest777: @MikePortnoy Any info about the new Transatlantic album?” OUT IN JAN...TOUR IN FEB/MARCH...INFO SOON

5/30/13 5:47AM

Update from Portnoy:

https://www.facebook.com/TransatlanticMusic/posts/10151631858946293

From MP: The TA4 Sessions went splendidly fantastic! (I think I've been hanging around Pete too much these past weeks...haha!) I won't disclose any details, but I will say the album is about 75 mins long and has 5 songs (2 Epics & 3 "normal" length) and we also recorded 8 Covers for a Bonus Disc as well! Release is expected for the beginning of 2014...more info to come later in the year...

Doesn't mean much, as the last album had other "shorter songs" on the bonus disc if I recall. But on the surface, it sounds more like the 1st 2 records in terms of structure., But it's all about the quality of the music, regardless of length.

3/29/13 9:38AM
http://www.progrockmag.com/news/transatlantic-plan-4th-album/

Neal Morse has confirmed that prog supergroup Transatlantic will start work on their fourth album in May.
It follows a recent European tour featuring the Neal Morse Band and The Flower Kings, which brought together prime movers Morse, Roine Stolt and Mike Portnoy – leading to fan speculation that a studio project might be in the works with bassist Pete Trewavas.

According to DPRP, Morse says: “We have set dates in May; and, my friends, it is actually happening! Before I left for the tour, and even just a few days ago, I have a lot of really strong prog music ideas that I’m really excited about presenting to the guys.

“But, of course, everything has to be kind of secret until we actually do it – so I can’t say or tell much more. We’re all really excited about it.”

He believes the follow-up to 2009′s The Whirlwind could appear early next year although he adds: “Who knows? I’m just glad we’re doing it!”

The Neal Morse Band and The Flower Kings have announced a US appearance at La Mirada Auditorium, Los Angeles, on May 7. “Mike recently became available in May,” says Morse, “and I knew TFK were in the States for RoSfest; so I sent a few emails, and here we are. We had such a great time in Europe and we want to share it with our friends in the States. I just wish we could do more.”


This isn't the biggest news, of news, as Portnoy has especially been asked about the next TA for a few years now, and he has said it likely would happen, just a matter of when.

But the plan now is to write and likely record it in May.

I'm looking forward to it, although my feeling about TA and The Whirlwind sadly isn't all that favorable. Mainly since I adore both SMPTe and especially Bridge Across Forever so much.

In other words, I am hoping this new album will have the magic of those early 2000's lps, and NOT the bloated nature of The Whirlwind from 2009. I'm a bit skeptical it will though just given the recent music Neal Morse has written. But I'd love to be surprised.

I wouldn't expect it to come out until 2014 though.

The Flower Kings - TBA (2012)

THE FLOWER KINGS - Press statement Feb 2012:

Legendary progressive, iconic, symphonic rockband "The Flower Kings", formed in 1995 by guitarist, singer, composer Roine Stolt ( Transatlantic ), announce their immediate return to service in 2012, after an almost 5 years well earned hiatus.

The band consisting of Roine Stolt, bassplayer extraordinaire Jonas Reingold, keyboarder grand deluxe Tomas Bodin, singer & guitarist Hasse Froberg and new 26 year old Berliner dextrous drummer prodigy Felix Lehrmann, started the recording of a new album at Varispeed studios in Sweden on January 23rd.

The music is recorded in classic 70's style, with all musicians performing live in a room thru 70's vintage tube recording equipment and famous NEVE consoles. If all Gods and muses are onboard the new TFK is scheduled for an album release on June 6th on the Inside Out Music label (Century Media/EMI). The yet unnamed album has a 23 min epic centerpiece and the material is all classic Flowerkings style with all the dreamy melodic & cinematic elements that the bands fans has come to love over the years, but also contain some heavier psychedelic music and some darker hi energy material.

The band is likely to embark on a headline european tour in september this year but will have it's official first re-union gig at the "Sweden Rock Festival" in June 7th - 2012.

from Foxtrot Music/IOM/Century Media

Not that this is a huge deal to me, as I have kind of given up on this band. I did many years ago in fact, pretty much since Unfold the Future, I found their music to be drawn-out, unfocused, and including far too much jazz-noodling and fat within some good parts. A bit like the last Transatlantic album in fact.

But, I do enjoy their early and especially mid period, finding their best work to be 2000's Space Revolver.

So, I'm up for checking this out, and I'm sure there are a lot of people looking forward to this. I suppose it'll be interesting to see how this and the new Ted Leonard-fronted Spock's Beard will be.

Transatlantic: Ronnie James Dio SPONTANEOUS tribute

the other night in Italy, Transatlantic did a a bitof a spontaneous Dio tribute with Mike Portnoy on bass and vocals for it. It's nothing amazing, but Mike explained how the band had no idea about doing it beforehand (hence, spontaneous).

The Antlers and Local Natives in Minneapolis Spring 2010!

The Antlers are I believe HEADLINING @ The Varsity Theater (niice!) on 4/20/2010. The same date that Transatlantic with Daniel Gildenlow will be playing in Chicago.

Pros:
-seeing my brother in Chicago, on his bday (but seeing him and his wife + kids another weekend is likely anyway), seeing Daniel and with TA. And seeing Mike on his bday and whatever they may do.

Cons:
-cost. $200+?
-The Whirlwind, as I posted in my 2009 Turkeys of the Year, was a HUGE disappointment. if they play a lot of that music live (which I'd think they would) I don't know how much I'd be into it.

Now on the flipside, if and likely when they do stuff off Bridge Across Forever, well that would be sweet.

I'm WAYYY more into The Antlers right now though, and with my budget-conscious mind among other things, it just seems a lot more feasible and responsible to save the $ and enjoy seeing The Antlers. I have the memory from 2000 at Nearfest of TA. And any live release. Not to mention what happened the last time I saw a Portnoy-sideproject on Chicago, lol. 'When the keyboard breaks"..interesting but not exactly what I looked forward to without a keyboard in LTE.

I'm curious how good The Antlers are live. I finally purchased a copy of Hospice. The Radiok flavore-of-the-month Phantogram is on the bill (opening?)

Another note about The Antlers. They posted this new official video for the song "Bear" earlier.






The buzz band of the day/week/time/season/year even..Local Natives will be returning, headlining I believe, on May 17th @ The 400 Bar. Should be sweet although it may sellout quick. I probably will try contacting them tomorrow. But I wonder if the show gets enough demand, it'll be moved to another venue (Varsity..or more like The Cedar, which I don't like how 89.3 has pretty much changed, but with groups like St.Vincent and LN's, I can bite my tongue).

Transatlantic Tour dates

mp.com topic

Almost a decade has passed since their last live appearance together...
The wait is finally now over...the long-awaited return to the stage of the legendary prog supergroup has arrived!!!

An Evening With
TRANSATLANTIC
Whirld Tour 2010

Featuring:
MIKE PORTNOY (Dream Theater)
PETE TREWAVAS (Marillion)
ROINE STOLT (The Flower Kings)
NEAL MORSE (Ex Spock's Beard)


Sat April 17th - Downey, CA - The Downey Theater
Sun April 18th - San Francisco, CA - The Palace Of Fine Arts
Tues April 20th - Chicago, IL - Park West
Wed April 21st - Montreal, QUE - Metropolis
Fri April 23rd - New York City - The Blender Theater at Gramercy
Sat April 24th - Philadelphia, PA - Theater Of The Living Arts
Tues May 4th - Frankfurt, Germany - Batschkapp
Wed May 5th - Hamburg, Germany - Markthalle
Thurs May 6th - Poznan, Poland - Hala Arena
Fri May 7th - Berlin, Germany - Columbia Club
Sat May 8th - Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall
Sun May 9th - Stuttgart, Germany - Longhorn
Mon May 10th - Esch/Alzette, Luxembourg - Rockhal
Thurs May 13th - Madrid, Spain - Macumba
Fri May 14th - Barcelona, Spain - Razzmatazz 2
Mon May 17th - Milan, Italy - Alcatraz
Tues May 18th - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z7
Wed May 19th - Paris, France - Elysee Montmartre
Thurs May 20th - Tilburg, Holland - 013
Fri May 21st - London, England - Shepherd's Bush Empire
Sat May 22nd - Manchester, England - Academy

Chicago Wednesday April 20th. Mike and my brother's birthday. Park West, a spot I saw Marillion in 2004, and the "when-the-keyboard-breaks_ Liquid Tension Experiment show back in 2008.

I will try and go certainly, even with my lack of interest in "The Whirlwind." It'll come down to $ of course. Hopefully a lunch with Judd and possibly a little time to spend with my two nieces (or at least the older one whose aware of me now, lol).

The biggest factors that would stop me from going would be other more significant shows (King's X playing all of Gretchen Goes to Nebraska perhaps and $. or some other more significant event. I guess airfares might be worth glancing at now. Heck, even train fares which unlike airfares, probably don't fluctuate to the same degree.

Transatlantic and Oceansize trailers

http://bandwidth.csrtechnologies.com/RadiantRecords/new_trailor.php



(no embed available). I caved and went with the 3-disc of "The Whirlwind" and the chance to get Mike studio-chart. I hope it comes close to living up to their other records. Go to Amazon or Radiant Records to pre-order.

I'm not a big fan of Radiant Records, but they had my hands tied with the pre-order. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of pre-order in general, having been burned a couple of times of late with multiple copies and the items arriving many days after the retail street dates. But with this, I will be going after a leak anyway, and hopefully my temptation to look in stores will be an afterthought, even if it actually does appear at Cheapo on 10/27.



Oceansize - Home and Minor the new EP trailer and mostly a long clip for the Feed-To-Feed live Boxed Set that comes out soon. A bit too much for my budget for now. And given I have the audio already on mp3. But perhaps someday, especially if they never are able to get over here and do a tour.

1. Legal Teens
2. Getting Where Water Cannot
3. Monodrones
4. Home & Minor
5. Didnealand
6. The Strand

Transatlantic - The Whirlwind (2009)

original mp.com stickie



For Immediate Release
August 26th 2009


TRANSATLANTIC'S THE WHIRLWIND

Coming in October!!


TRANSATLANTIC - the Progressive Rock Supergroup featuring DREAM THEATER's Mike Portnoy, MARILLION's Pete Trewavas, THE FLOWER KINGS' Roine Stolt and Neal Morse (Ex-SPOCK'S BEARD) - will release their long-awaited third album in October 2009.


THE WHIRLWIND is a 77-minute piece of music that is sure to satisfy the band's legions of fans that have patiently waited almost the entire decade for the reunion of these 4 musicians.


THE WHIRLWIND will be available in two formats:

A Regular Edition Single CD of the entire 77 minute Epic as well as a 2-CD Special Edition containing a Bonus Disc with 8 newly recorded Studio Tracks.

(4 new Transatlantic compositions and 4 Cover Songs)



The Track Listing for the Special Edition is:



Disc One:

THE WHIRLWIND



Disc Two:

1. SPINNING

2. LENNY JOHNSON

3. FOR SUCH A TIME

4. LENDING A HAND

5. THE RETURN OF THE GIANT HOGWEED (Genesis)

6. A SALTY DOG (Procol Harum)

7. I NEED YOU (America / The Beatles)

8. SOUL SACRIFICE (Santana)



TRANSATLANTIC'S THE WHIRLWIND is currently scheduled for the following release dates:


October 23rd 2009: Germany, Austria, Switzerland

October 26th 2009: Europe

October 27th 2009: North America




This is what is going through my brain about this right now.

1) I failed to notice all the details there, and shot-myself-in-the-foot with a posting a bit ago on mp.com. Fine. But it's shit like that as to why I have no business continuing POSTING..specifically REPLIES on most forums. Passing news along is great, and pointing out observations, while can be worth doing, it seems far too many cases, I've thought I noticed something (or knew something, even offered a less than definitve fact about something..a band or something else), and I look totally foolish. D-I-S-C-P-L-I-N-E. I suck at it, I know.

2) There is not info there about an actual RECORD LABEL RELEASING it yet. It's great all the details and everything have come out, and a release date announcements; but I would think the most important thing in order to make this thing a reality would be HOW it will be released. I.e. via what label or means of distribution. Now the info posted on progressiveears.com says it was from Radiant Records, Spock's Beard's label, which is a tiny, self-run label still. And the fact it was sent via a *newsletter* doesn't necessarily mean anything as for how or who will be involved in this record's actual release. Insideout Music is as far as we know, still "insolvent" i.e. bankrupt from the last reports. Perhaps they've recovered enough of late, and will be giving the public (internet) word about their getting out of the red, and now able to move forward as a small independent record label specializing in progressive rock. But that hasn't happened.

Some names that crossed my mind

a) Racket Records, Marillion's label. Frankly, it's a better label than Radiant, and could probably reach more people.

b) Metal Blade. I don't love them, but if I recall, at least 1 of the editions of the 1st Transatlantic cds "SMPT:e" came out on this. Given they want to put it out, it's a bigger distributor than Radiant; and with the previous relationship, on the surface it would be as good as anything else that comes to mind. Spock's Beard was (or may still be) partially involved with them still.

c) self-release. The easiest digitally, but the hardest for hardcopies I imagine, and distribution. Perhaps a digital in October and hardcopies on another label in 2010?

d) RoadRunner..this would be biggest benefit on many levels. And they did just sign 3. Along with Dream Theater's success, I would think it would be a possibility. But given how late in the game they are, I'm not sure how feasible it'd be, nor if the suits over there have enough confidence in it.

more to add obviously, but with this in the 2009 calendar's index mix for new music; and Kevin Gilbert as well. 2009 is starting to comeback a bit. Way more to say about that, as it's been on my mind ..the whole bands-announcing-and-releasing their procrastinated timeframes for new albums in the late Summer/Fall, instead of earlier in the year process. It's a broken record, and expected. But with that, the lack of certain new albums to drop in 2009, while still not huge, is starting to look a little better. Quality/Classic potential?..that's a whole nother story.

Also to comment on the length. 1 song, 77mins. I'm not gonna judge it in any way, as similar to what I've posted about the upcoming 55minute Porcupine Tree song, a single song that long, while it sounds like it could be way too extended for no good reason, it has worked many times in music:

-Green Carnation's "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" 1 hour, 1 track. It never feels long to me. Its a quick 1-hour album listening experience to be honest.
-Fates Warning's "A Pleasant Shade of Gray" sure, it's 45minutes separated into 12 tracks, but it really is 1 song, that is never better heard unless it's from beginning to end.
-Dream Theater's "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" much like APSOG. They're *movements* NOT SONGS. 42minutes or whatever, and it hardly feels lengthly; more like a 45minute album that's a suite.
-Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" even though it's separated into 2 parts, it's really 1 song, that is best heard all-at-once. Sure, the band played the main theme many times live separately, but the 40 some odd minutes hardly feel that long.

Granted, 45 or 40 minutes =/= 77 minutes. Nor does 60minutes = 77minutes. But if you play their epics back to back, there's isn't any filler to me really, so if it's 1 song, so be it. I mean certainly if you listen to a 77 minute track, and have to pause it in the middle or your power goes out and you have to restart, that would suck. So it would probably still be best for them to have movements and separate them into tracks. But I get how they are making it 1 77 minute song. If it's to work well, then I'll want to play the whole fucking thing everytime, all at once. How many epic, concept albums that clock-in near that amount, can the same thing be said about? Set Sail the Prairie, Act II (The Dear Hunter)..heck, even Tales From Topographic Oceans. I don't see how this will be any different.

Also, some other big stuff popped-up today, so I got a few more notes coming shortly...