Battle of the P's - Punk and Prog

Hi, how are you? Been away for a while , but back now with a renewed enthusiasm. Well let's hope so.

While I have been away I have been listening to a lot of music and watching a lot of music documentaries. Which doesn't sound that different from what I normally do, does it really? Anyway, I was listening to a band called Mastadon. My brother rates this band as one of the greats at the moment. I looked up some live footage of them , and saw that the bass player was wearing a Dead Kennedys t-shirt.

So do not worry, this has not turned into a fashion blog suddenly. Anyone can wear whatever they want. Except guys in tights, guys, you look ridiculous (maybe just a London fashion thing). No, my point is that Mastadon are the latest wave in the Prog metal scene. They are so big they played Letterman. Letterman, to give you an idea of how far out there that idea is , here is a track

 I am not even going to try to hide it from you, this is the most interesting metal genre there is. By miles. Think Tool, think Opeth, think awesome to the power of 15. However as prog metal , displaying any infinity for Punk, even the greatest Punk band, DK, is somewhat unusual.

Why might you ask? Well it has to do with history. As with all blood feuds the events of the past have conspired to fall down upon the present and distort what should be a happy and friendly musical fraternity. It all started back in the 1970s, or as some people now refer to it as, the past. In the 70s progressive music had become more overblown than a Republican nomination speech. Bands such as Genesis, Mike Oldfield, King Crimson and most specifically, Yes, had become so over the top in terms of their production and their music that there was a backlash.

The DIY ethic of the early, and mainly British it has to be said, Punk bands , where songs lasted for 3 minutes and were subject to somewhat tenuous musicality was a direct reaction to 27-minute songs with more notes than 'drops of water in the river floating past' (to steal a prog lyric). Oh yes, it was seen as a little pretentious by some as well.

Anyway, as so often happens with these types of things. if you were into one, then you most definitely could not be into the other. Let's also be honest, at this point in musical history, the different strands began to fracture away from each other. In a mere matter of months, you could quite reasonably point to, metal, blues, punk, prog, rap, disco, and pop all being different musical genres. Something that wasn't really possible 5 years beforehand.

So Punk became the music of the 'kids' and prog was scorned. Not even, it was reviled. I remember openly laughing when I found a Yes album in the mid 80s at a friend's house (my how things change). I wrote here  how much the Dead Kennedys changed my musical perspective on things. When trying to find a song to put here to reasonably show my undying devotion to the band I thought that this track is actually a prog metal punk track isn't it?

It is though , isn't it? Different time signatures, longer than 3 minutes. The guys can play. I am only half joking.

Anyway, so music splinters over the years. So much so that you can't even name all the different sub genres within Prog metal and Punk anymore. People become more experimental. Punk goes mainstream, think Nirvana, Green Day , The Offspring. Prog starts to come back. Mainly because Tool, the mighty and still the best (will write a piece on them tomorrow I think) sell a boatload of records and everyone is into them.

Well, when I say everyone, I do not mean your Mum, not that everyone isn't into her. More that the guys that are into the alternative scene, the metalheads, and the punks all find some common ground. Also, time has passed a bit. As time passes in music, new bands come through. Their influences are not the same as the guys' that came before them. In fact they take their influences from what is around them, because that is what influence means . . .

So bands start to sound a little bit like Prog, a little like thrash, a bit punky, and a little bit just like themselves. This is extremely brilliant, if like me your music tastes at time seem very incongruous with each other - well to the die hards of the scenes anyway.

Maybe it isn't that odd, maybe it all just comes from King Crimson anyway.

OK, so punk doesn't come from there, I really just wanted to put that track in, because King Crimson rule, and everyone should listen to them a bit.