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(Photo by Simon Hogg) Big Big Train and I first made our acquaintance nearly a decade ago when a copy of The Difference Machine (2007) landed in my mailbox and captured me completely. One listen and I was a fan; here was a group that put a modern spin on the best elements of classic progressive rock, while imbuing the imaginative compositions of co-founder/songwriter/guitarist Greg Spawton with rich layers of emotion. From that point the band, anchored by Spawton and co-founder Andy Poole, began a steady evolution and growth. The Underfall Yard (2009), the first BBT album to feature vocalist/flautist/songwriter…

One of the challenges in ranking Ronnie Montrose’s catalog is that he really has four catalogs. There is his groundbreaking work with the seminal hard rock band bearing his last name. There are the eight very diverse solo instrumental albums he kicked off in 1978 with the dynamic fusion-oriented Open Fire and continued releasing through the ’80s and ’90s. Don’t forget his stellar 1979-82 run with Gamma, a trail-blazing rock quintet with an electronic edge. And then—before and betwixt all of the above—there were his abundant appearances in a supporting role on albums by a diverse roster of notable artists…

AC/DC has been around for long enough now that it would be easy to forget they were once a groundbreaking act, a unique melding of bad-boy posturing, winking humor, and indelible hard rock riffs. I once called them “a big, loud, rude and crude rock and roll cartoon.” While the riffs generated by the twin-guitar attack of brothers Angus Young (lead) and Malcolm Young (rhythm) are what the band will always be remembered for—and they are legion, and often astonishingly potent—the humor that charismatic frontman Bon Scott brought to their early albums gave the songs dimension, inviting the listener to…

Fountains Of Wayne’s back catalog really isn’t big or broad enough for a rankings list—or at least, that’s the premise that kept me away until now. But when a group is so talented they can literally write a Top Ten-worthy single about nothing at all—the melodic earworm “Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart” is 3:54 of random, novelistic non sequiturs clustered around a fragmentary chorus (“Someone’s gonna break your heart / One cold grey morning”)—it’s hard to resist any opportunity to talk about them. From the strip malls of New Jersey FOW emerged in 1996 as wise-cracking suburban songwriting savants. Chris…

Perfect Beings: Johannes Luley, Chris Tristram, Jesse Nason, Dicki Fliszar, Ryan HurtgenThe next wave of progressive rock is here, and Perfect Beings is among the acts riding it like a champion. Based in Los Angeles, but with roots all over the map, the quintet made one of the notable prog albums of 2015 in their sophomore album II, melding classic prog influences such as Yes, Pink Floyd and Genesis with a diverse sonic palette encompassing and embracing jazz, hard rock, and even a touch of flamenco. The resulting music is dynamic, engaging, and often compelling.The roots of Perfect Beings trace…

This is a big one, in more ways than one. In addition to being one of the most significant figures of the rock era, and one of my favorite artists of all time, Bruce Springsteen has a substantial catalog to cover, and one that has been written about extensively over the years. In addition to revisiting some old friends, while developing this column I also found myself thinking often about the tendency for the best-known tunes on these albums—both singles and long-popular album tracks—to overshadow less well-known songs on each release. As a result, I’ve added notes to each capsule…

It’s been a hell of a year for Billy Sherwood, in more ways than one.The peripatetic multi-instrumentalist-vocalist-composer-producer was more or less minding his own business this spring—working on three albums of new music at once in between outside production and mixing jobs—when he learned that his longtime friend and mentor Chris Squire, bassist and harmony vocalist for progressive rock pioneers Yes, was seriously ill.Billy’s association with Yes stretches back three decades and includes writing songs with Squire for 1991’s Union and YesYears releases, touring with Yes in 1994, producing the Keys To Ascension albums in 1995-97, and joining the band…

Do I really need to expand on that title? Of course I do, if only to speculate for a moment on what it is about the pioneering British progressive rock ensemble whose very name declares the affirmative that inspires the passions of its fans like no other. I have observed flamewars between conservatives and liberals, atheists and evangelicals, San Francisco Giants fans and Los Angeles Dodger fans, but nothing north of Hades could approach the sheer, oxygen-depleting heat of two Yes fans arguing about—well, anything, really. You could start a thread about whether Jon Anderson should have dyed the grey…

Fear of disappointment—that’s always been the biggest obstacle to me seeing Death Cab For Cutie live, despite their status as one of my favorite bands of the modern era. The potential pitfalls seemed obvious; Death Cab frontman Ben Gibbard’s songs are finely wrought poems about death and loneliness, distance and sadness, isolation and alienation. How could music with that sort of emotional palette possibility translate in a setting that’s all about an exchange of energy between artist and audience based on a shared emotional connection? And then there are the arrangements… Death Cab’s songs are typically complex studio creations crafted…