Originally posted by Homemade Parachute
View Post
-
Don't turn him lose. He'll have to do it his way, or no way at all. ;-) -
Hahah. Yeah. That’s a good way to put it. 😂👍Originally posted by Homemade Parachute View PostComment
-
Lovin’ every minute of it! I’ll take some Loverboy anytime driving around or hanging in the bar 😉.Originally posted by Homemade Parachute View Post
Hey - Mike Reno - gotta admit that’s one cool name!Comment
-
Loverboy! Totally forgot they were Canadian. Of course I was referring to that particular three-piece outfit. But hey, that could be Triumph, couldn't it? Or maybe FM....Comment
-
-
I feel like Styx has roared back in the last five to ten years. Last year's album was one of the strongest to be released in 2021. The live shows are fantastic, too. I saw them (with opening bands) at an open air festival outside of Appleton, Wisconsin last summer with a crowd of about 10,000. I stood in the "mosh pit" about five rows from the stage--I stood in place for about four hours so as not to lose my place, but it was worth it. I enjoyed them as a fun nostalgia show 15-20 years ago, but more recently it has been kicked up several notches IMO.Comment
-
I sorta wrote off Styx without Deyoung at first, but the most recent album Crash Of The Crown is indeed really good. In fact, they stepped outside of the box a little - I can't compare it to any other Styx album. The songs are real short this time, little bursts. But a lot of them. Something strange about the album, but I like it. It's actually the first post-1999 Styx album they've done where you don't really miss Dennis DeYoung. I don't know where you could slot him in with these little rock vignettes.
Talk about unique, FM are my third favorite Canadian band. No guitar, electric violin, electric mandolin, synths up the wazoo. Nash The Slash! Black Noise, Surveillance, Con-test. Total space. Killer version of Shapes Of Things. What's not to love about FM? I miss that kind of futurism, and I wish they were still around. Saw them at Nearfest in PA in 2006, drove up to see them specifically. I'm glad I got to see them once. Yeah, FM. Love those guys.Comment
-
Well, The Mission is pretty similar, to these grizzled ears, and ironically a concept album after the years of bashing De Young's concepts. I don't know that the concept is that *good*, mind you, but songs like "The Outpost" rank pretty high in my Styx playlists…Originally posted by Soundwaveseeker View Post
Kind of a weird band, really: I think at first just Cameron and Nash, who didn't want a drummer, but wanted to stay small and nimble, kind of like Fripp's small, intelligent dance bands of the 80s. But Martin Deller added so much to Black Noise, just an amazing debut album, but then a gradual mainstreaming of sound and flip flops between Nash and Ben Mink kind of lost the momentum. But yeah, a little of that sci-fi futurism would not be unwelcome now… Phasors on stunning!Originally posted by Soundwaveseeker View Post
Comment
-
FM were totally unique. Yeah, just as they got going, some label bankruptcy would happen and they did lose momentum. They couldn't sustain it, but most of their output is quality - with probably the exception of 1987's 'Tonight' when they finally added guitar to the lineup and did a cringey cover of Good Vibrations. Ouch. Their other 80's/'poppy' album Con-Test was acceptable to me, as it still had some edge and future vibes. I think the label wanted more Nash vocals on that, probably because he was just as popular solo at the time.
You're right - The Mission is musically very good too and the Outpost probably my favorite track on there. It almost has a Yes vibe. Those harmonies! And Gowan's piano solo 'Khedive' is really good and totally enhanced by some Brian May-sounding guitar towards the end. Concept was kinda weak, and indeed odd that they spent years dissing the Kilroy concept because it had a song about a robot, only to do another space concept years later.Comment
-
Styx was my favorite group when I was in high school and the first couple of years of college. I eventually outgrew them though I still listen to them once in a blue moon for nostalgia.
One time around 1980ish, I was listening to the radio because they were supposed be be playing a new Styx song within the hour. So I had my ears pealed at the beginning of each song, wondering if it was the new Styx song. A song came one that sounded pretty cool but in a few minutes I deduced it was not Styx. It was some group called Yes, doing a song called Yours is No Disgrace....
I've heard of Saga but have never heard them, as far as I know.Comment
-
So from your reactions. Styx is a much bigger profile band, with a few mainstream / classic rock hits, quite varied musically and not always prog. SAGA has always been a lesser known band yet more consistently prog.Comment
-
Well, "bigger profile" depends on where you look, Saga having cornered the all-important Germany/Sweden/Switzerland market… My buddy in Stuttgart has way better odds of seeing them in concert than me, in their home country, ever would… I think Saga's also just been more "consistent", period: as I say, you could spin songs from their first and last albums together, and songwriting wise they may not be that much different, for good or ill: they found what they wanted to do early, and rode that moose to the grave, so to speak. They've definitely flirted with more radio-friendly fare, but also like a lot of bands got tripped up in some record label/management wackiness, which has hurt the momentum.Originally posted by Sharp On Attack View Post
But yeah, both bands have done some quite strong material lately: Styx's last two really have them on a roll, and I hope they keep that up, while Saga's been doing what Saga does, and the last album, Symmetry, an acoustic reworking of previous material, ended up delighting me far more than I expected, generally not being a fan of MTV Unplugged style things. In this case they did some great re-arrangements to really play with the songs.
Comment
-
I’m reading it that way in general. But early Styx wasn’t as mainstream to start, and I’d say they had “a lot” of hits vs just a few. Heck, Every fifth song on the radio from Lady, and then 77 - 83 seemed like it was a Styx tune 😆.Originally posted by Sharp On Attack View Post
I wish I had been more familiar with Saga before I went to college, but caught up there. Only really heard the two songs - didn’t have the exposure here, US, or could have just been me.Comment
-
The only Saga song that was a recognizable 'hit' that I remember was 'On The Loose' here in the US, maybe a couple others too but they weren't on my radar. I do remember seeing a couple album covers in the 80's like 'Heads Or Tales' and assumed it was just an album from many of the rock bands around at the time. I didn't totally discover them until 1989 when the first album (1978) bowled me over and I heard a friend's cassette of 1987's Wildest Dreams. 'Only Time Will Tell' from the latter album should have been a huge hit, but it didn't happen. And no, these are not Asia covers - they just seem to have a lot of songs with the same titles as Asia songs. Wildest Dreams, Days Like These, Only Time Will Tell, Without You. Don't know what that's all about...
Correct me if I'm wrong, I think 'Don't Be Late' was a sizable hit in Canada - about as popular as Tom Sawyer. Was that their biggest song there or was it On The Loose as well?
Symmetry was an enjoyable effort. I would have rather have had an album of rockin' new songs as their first new album since 2014, but that was well executed. It wasn't a stripped down unplugged thing - they actually played some songs like the full band arrangement, just using acoustic instruments (gtr/piano/violin). Other tracks were reworked with different arrangements or inrtros. They also avoided a few obvious songs like On The Loose and Don't Be Late, and I actually prefer the acoustic Money Talks over the House Of Cards album version. I also was delighted by that one, since I don't usually play an unplugged or bare bones acoustic album of familiar or predictable material from any band too often.Comment
-
I think the short songs on Crash of the Crown are intended as an epic, but theorize that someone nixed the idea of presenting them as such. The Styx/Dennis DeYoung story is a weird one indeed. I thought it took a creepy/bizarre turn around a decade ago when DDY reconfigured his band to include clones of Tommy and JY so he could do a full Styx show. Conversely, I thought it was a little tacky that Styx went on social media recently with the band's 50th birthday cake with all the hired guns including new guy Will Evankovich. I mean, c'mon...they just don't have a quorum as the OG Styx. The two remaining principals are well past retirement age. But again, I like the band well enough for what it is.Comment
Comment