Now on Newsstands

The new issue of Prog magazine hits newsstands in the UK today and will soon make its way to US newsstands such as your local Barnes & Noble. Better yet, try a monthly subscription at $4.99 to the online version at teamrock.com to access the magazine as well as other Team Rock magazines (and archives) such as Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Blues.

In addition to stories about YES and Amplifier—I adore both bands and own their entire catalogs—the issue also includes a lengthy feature I wrote about Bent Knee.

Bent Knee, a six piece that formed at the Berklee School of Music, has developed a sizable following for music that they describe as existing in the "nooks and crannies just outside the mainstream."

What I love about Bent Knee, whose influences span from Sufjan Stevens to Kendrick Lamar, is that they don't sound like anyone else. That includes powerhouse singer Courtney Swain. These mid-twenties musicians don't sound derivative. A Wall Street Journal feature on the band praised their silo-smashing sound which "taps into cabaret, ’70s piano-based folk, chamber pop, industrial rock, metal and prog rock—with the snap of funk and hip-hop in some of its rhythms."

They've just signed to a Sony label and their album Land Animal is released now out. (Hear it now on Spotify or, better yet, order a physical copy.) It's excellent and should be a breakthrough for them—check out songs such as "Insides In," "These Hands," "Time Deer" and "Boxes." The hard-working band's burgeoning success is well-deserved as they're such lovely people.

Bent Knee already have a good-sized fanbase thanks to constant touring across the US. The song "Terror Bird" from the album, below, will give you an inkling of how good they are in concert. Catch them on a US tour in July and August. Dates below and more details at www.bentkneemusic.com:

7/14       Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse
7/15       Nashua, NH @ Riverwalk
7/18       Ferndale, MI @ The Loving Touch
7/20       Madison, WI @ Frequency
7/24       Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
7/25       Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck
7/27       Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
7/31       Seattle, WA @ Barboza
8/1         Portland, OR @Analog Cafe
8/2         Bend, OR @Volcanic Theatre
8/4         San Francisco, CA @cafe Du Nord
8/7         San Diego, CA @Soda Bar

 
 

Now on newsstands: Yes

One of my most fun assignments was to fly to Las Vegas to attend a Yes-themed Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp and write about it for Prog magazine. (The new issue is now on UK newsstands and very soon available on US newsstands, including Barnes & Noble. Or, if you can't wait that long, just download the issue onto your Kindle or iPad via iTunes.)

You may have heard about the Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp (or seen the affectionate spoof on it in The Simpsons episode with the Rolling Stones). The institution gives amateur musicians an opportunity to get up on stage to jam with bands and artists such as Steve Vai, Joe Perry, Slash, Judas Priest, Jeff Beck, Def Leppard, Sammy Hagar, Roger Daltrey, and many other luminaries.

In decades past, this sort of thing would be unheard of. The closest that rock fans could get to their idols was a front row seat at a concert. (The exception to the rule: Attractive women with the wiles to get backstage.) Indeed, rock 'n' roll camp founder David Fishof says, “When I was touring with rock bands, the bands always went out the back stage door, and out of the back door at hotels. They didn’t want to interact with fans. They were scared of them."

More than that, bands reveled in the fact that they were inaccessible and remote because it made them seem mythical.

Yes bass player Chris Squire admitted to me, “Back in the ’70s, one often hired a publicist to make sure that there was a bare minimum of interviews with the press as it was generally thought that this would increase the artists' mystique."

Nowadays, Squire and the other members of Yes are active on social media, interacting with fans, answering questions and offering music recommendations.

As Squire put it, "In the last 10 years, we have been increasingly been made aware of the fact that we now live in the world of social media and conversely from the past we have now been recommended by our current webmasters that interaction is a part of general life."

Fishof observes, "Bands now realize that these fans are the ones that kept them alive and they’re more appreciative.”

This year, Yes met some of their biggest fans at the rock 'n' roll fantasy camp. It was wholly new territory for all the band members except drummer Alan White. He'd participated in 10 previous camps and felt very much at home. He seems to enjoy the chance to mentor amateur musicians.

"I have had people in my class who kind of noodle," said White. "They want to prove they can do all kinds of stuff but I keep telling them, ‘Stop!’ They’ve got to listen to what’s going on around them. They benefit from it by the final day by being able to get up there with confidence and play the music and feel good about it. Some people are really, really good. You don’t have to say a word, you wonder sometimes why they’re at the camp because they’re such excellent musicians."

Part of the fun of reporting the story was meeting the amateur musicians themselves. Case in point, Gary Birch, a Software application architect from St. Paul, Minnesota, who told me, " I literally have been dreaming about standing on stage and playing with Yes since 1972. I don’t know if you could ask for anything better."

His wife, Janell, observed, "I listened to Yes since we got married since 1978. I tell you, we just needed to come here because I just wanted to support this whole camp with Yes because he looks younger, acts younger when he’s around this."

The band members in Yes were all friendly and happy to chat about their camp experience. I was particularly impressed with new singer Jon Davison, a sweet guy and one helluva singer.

Yes is currently working on new material for an album. Next year, they'll tour the UK and Europe to perform their albums The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, and Going for the One each night. Here's my recent interview with Yes guitarist Steve Howe about the tour.

Playlist: May

Albums currently in rotation:

• Jack White—Blunderbuss (2012) 
(See video of "Sixteen Saltines," above)
• Bass Communion—Cenotaph (2011), Bass Communion 1 (2001)
• Wye Oak—Civilian (2011)
• Steven Wilson, Theo Travis, Dirk Serries, Sand Snowman, et al—TF100 (2011)
• O.S.I.—Office of Strategic Influence (2003)
• King Crimson—Discipline (40th Anniversary Series remaster 2011), Vroom (1994)
• Robert Plant—Manic Nirvana (1990)
• The Tedeschi Trucks Band—Revelator (2011), Everybody's Talkin' - Live (2012)
• Joe Bonamassa—Driving Towards the Daylight (2012)
• Alison Krauss & Union Station—New Favorite (2001)
• Keane—Strangeland (2012)
• Trevor Rabin—Jacaranda (2012)
• I Break Horses—Hearts(2011) 
• The Gary Moore Band—Grinding Stone (1973)
• Storm Corrosion—Storm Corrosion (2012)
• Robert Plant & The Strange Space Shifters—Guildhall live (2012)

I've waited more than a decade for a new album by one of my all-time favorite guitarists, Trevor Rabin who is best known as the guitarist and principal songwriter in the band YES from 1983 to 1994. (Yep, he's the dude who wrote "Owner of a Lonely Heart.") His last solo record was 1989's Can't Look Away and his last rock record was YES's Talk in 1994.

Not that Rabin has idle over the years. Far from it. In fact, he's released an album or two -- sometimes even three -- every single year since he quit YES. Those albums are soundtrack records, usually for Jerry Bruckheimer movies such as Enemy of the State, Remember the Titans, The Scorceror's Apprentice, Gone In 60 Seconds, Armageddon, National Treasure and Get Smart. I've enjoyed many of the South African guitarist's compositions from those movies but I've missed his guitar playing which only occasionally makes an appearance on his soundtracks. Jacaranda isn't anything like Trevor's great back catalog of solo records or his work with YES. In fact, it's a purely instrumental record and it's gonna surprise a lot of people.

It's also going to confound a lot of listeners. A good friend of mine who is a big fan of Trevor Rabin hates this record. Personally, I love it and I've been playing it repeatedly for months ever since I received a promo copy of it. (I had the pleasure of interviewing Rabin for Rock Square and the interview will soon.)

Here's what's so interesting about this album: At one time, many YES fans accused Rabin of just being merely a flashy rock guitarist who lacked Steve Howe's diverse vocabulary of classical guitar, bluegrass, and jazz. Yet Jacaranda demonstrates that Rabin is virtuoso in all those areas, too, and is so much more than just a flashy rock guitarist. Jacaranda is a very unusual record that spans a wide range of influences (usually in just one song) ranging from traditional jazz guitar, bluegrass, progressive rock, classical music, jazz fusion, and hard rock.




For instance the second track, "Market Street," is a great summation of all those influences. It starts with a Carl Verheyen-style electric guitar riff and then segues into YES-style prog with tricky time changes (almost reminiscent of "I'm Running" from YES's Big Generator) before detouring into jazz guitar licks and then bluegrass dobro similar to that of Union Station's Jerry Douglas. All in the space of one track!

When the epic "Anderley Road" starts with jazz licks, you may wonder if you've stumbled into a Joe Pass record, but then it transforms into something that sounds almost like Chris Squire's "Fish" but with rootsy dobro guitar and then it goes into some pretty spacey jazz-rock guitar over jazz-y drumming and piano.

"Through the Tunnel" starts off as with tranquil piano and pastoral bluegrass guitar and then it works up a head of steam before the track shifts into some very recognizably Rabin-esque hard rock with a jazz rock section that is pure Jeff Beck-inspired stuff with fiery lead guitar. (Appropriately enough, Jeff Beck's former rhythm section, drummer Vinnie Coliauta and bassist Tal Wilkenfeld, guest on this track.) You can also hear the DNA of Rabin's solo work plus some elements of his adventurous YES stuff (such as "I'm Running," "Miracle of Life," "Endless Dream"). The guitarwork in this one gets my adrenaline pumping every time.

A few of the tracks, such as "Rescue," sound very soundtrack-y.

It's very far out stuff, bold and adventurous and unpredictable. Those hankering after some old-school Trevor Rabin will get a kick out of the track "Me and My Boy." (If the title is anything to go by, I assume that Trevor's son, Ryan, is on drums). It has a killer big rock riff. Truth be told, I'd worried that Rabin's formidable guitar skills may have waned since he left YES to compose movie scores, but Rabin's six-string gymnastics on this record are pretty kick ass.