Do you want to start a debate? Then the quickest way is to join a forum or group for progressive rock and naively ask which band, Yes or Genesis, is the best. You will not receive any scorn, hateful comments or death threats. Progressive rock fans are kind, reflective and forgiving. You will probably start a polite academic discussion with arguments and counterarguments. Of course, with a few reservations or qualifications. My first encounter with Yes and Genesis was in the mid 1970s. I was listening to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple at the time. My neighbour of the same age had skipped the "Big 3" and went directly to listening to Yes and Genesis. In my eyes, very refined and sophisticated. But, I didn't get it. Pretentious song titles, stochastic tempo changes, weird song structures and high-pitched vocals. Not my cup of tea, which was doom and gloom. My second encounter with Yes and Genesis was in the early 1980s during my university studies. More people that had skipped the "Big 3". My initial repulsion had diminished somewhat. But it didn't really take the second time either. However, since then my interest has grown slowly but surely. In my collection today; "The Yes Album", "Fragile", "Close To The Edge", "Tales From Topographic Oceans", "Relayer" and "Going For The One", "Trespass", "Foxtrot", "Selling England By The Pound" and "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". In the coldly analyzing monologues in forums and groups the average progressive rock fan (and it's always a man) normally conclude: "It's close, but I have to go for Yes". Not me. Genesis is the best band. Every day of the week and twice on Sunday.  

This is the last of six blog posts in a series of female artists or female-fronted bands that will be published under 2024. This last blog post deals with singer-songwriter Jesse Sykes and the band The Sweet Hereafter. The style can be described as "country/folk/rock with a psychedelic bent". The third album "Like, Love, Lust & the Open Halls of the Soul" was released in 2007. Jesse Sykes is originally from New York, but moved to Seattle in 1990. She teamed up with former Whiskeytown guitarist Phil Wandscher. A headline for a review got me interested: "Exploring Gothic Country's Darkest Corners" and another review caught my attention: "Sykes’ delivery is haunting, and the songs are often languid in tempo and sparsely arranged-still they’re not as unrelentingly dark and gloomy as journalistic descriptions sometimes suggest. Sykes lisps, murmurs and incants cryptically, her breathy restraint sounding as though it conceals a wealth of peyote-fueled visions". These well-worded lines takes gothic country copywriting to a new level. The best songs are "Eisenhower Moon", "L L L", "Spectral Beings", "The Air is Thin", "How Will We know?", "Station Grey", "Morning, it Comes" and "The Open Halls of the Soul". The arrangements are lo-fi, lush and dreamy. This is so much better than all the copiers, fakers, imitators, impersonaters and imposters out there. The album isn't particularly rare. You can find an used copy here and there. 

Some people experience more in one day than most people do in a lifetime. Occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter Aleister Crowley could be placed in this unusual category. For those of you that haven't got the time to read one of the many biographies of him, try the long and extensive Wikipedia article. You will get the general idea. Aleister Crowley was born to wealthy family and had all the opportunities that money could buy. However, he avoided the beaten path and chose a life of eccentrism. Crowley had a motto: "Do What Thou Wilt". And he lived by it. Crowley wrote poems, founded a religion (Thelema), joined several orders, climbed mountains, spied (allegedly) for the intelligence service, had sex with both men and women, practised sex magic, got addicted to drugs, travelled and lived abroad, fought legal disputes, faked his own death and more. No rest for the wicked. He called himself the Beast 666. Crowley considered himself to be one of the outstanding figures of his time. Not everybody agreed. Some people despised him for his decadent lifestyle. He was characterized in a libel case: "I have been over forty years engaged in the administration of the law in one capacity or another. I thought that I knew of every conceivable form of wickedness. I thought that everything which was vicious and bad had been produced at one time or another before me. I have learnt in this case that we can always learn something more if we live long enough. I have never heard such dreadful, horrible, blasphemous and abominable stuff as that which has been produced by the man (Crowley) who describes himself to you as the greatest living poet." Aleister Crowley died in poverty and obscurity in an English rooming house in 1947. After his death he became a figure in popular culture. The Beatles put his picture on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover in 1967 (back row, second from left). Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page purchased Boleskine House in 1970, a manor (the portal to Hell) previously owned by Crowley near Loch Ness in Scotland. Ozzy Osbourne recorded Mr. Crowley (what went on in your head?) in 1980. No matter what you think of him, I think we all can agree that Aleister Crowley lived a life less ordinary. 

This is the fifth of six blog posts in a series of female artists or female-fronted bands that will be published under 2024. This fifth blog post deals with singer-songwriter Leslie Woods and her band Dark Mountain Orchid. The style can be labeled "Appalachian Gothic". The album "The Luxury of Sin" was released in 2004 and is a collection of twelve original songs. The 2-cd European release on Glitterhouse Records contains the debut album "Velvet Sky" as a free bonus disc. Leslie Woods is from Knoxville, Tennessee. She looked and dressed like a goth girl (at least in 2004). Goth is a good thing. An album review caught my attention: "Unease and longing conjured from the places where old growth trees cast perpetual gloom on a land soaked in blood." What's not to like about this vivid description? The album "The Luxury of Sin" is disturbing yet compelling. According to reputable No Depression Magazine it can be described as "dark, erotic, dreamy-style". I totally agree. The best songs are "Train", "Say Anything", "I Was Younger Then", "Cami", "Heart Is Black", "What I Thought", "Heroin". The arrangements are solid. This is so much better than all the copiers, fakers, imitators, impersonaters and imposters out there. The album isn't particularly rare. You can find an used copy here and there.