New Music Corner 128 - Riverside, Pat Travers

[Scott]

By "one upping Jon's last NMC" Scott

Two more new ones for you this week.

First up is a band I discovered while playing around with Porcupine Tree, and I'm glad I did. Here's a little more about them...

One day near the turn of the millennium, during a short drive, Piotr Kozieradzki played some Marillion in his car for Piotr Grudziński. While drummer Piotr 'Mitloff' Kozieradzki had played in two death metal bands, Dominion and Hate, and Piotr Grudziński had played guitar in a metal band, Unnamed, they both shared a deep affection for progressive rock. They were already friends with producer and keyboardist Jacek Melnicki who also owned his own studio. The three decided to experiment with progressive music but they needed a bass player to complete the lineup. Mariusz Duda, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist from the band Xanadu, agreed to attend a rehearsal in late fall of 2001 at the request of Jacek. Reactions to this first meeting between the four experienced instrumentalists were extremely positive.

After a few rehearsals, the members realized that they were involved in something special and deeply satisfying. Once a few compositions were completed, Mariusz attempted to sing in his own language, singing that was probably similar to the vocalizations in their future track "The Curtain Falls", although all future vocals and lyrics were to be written in English. Thus Mariusz began to take on the role of vocalist as well as that of the bass player. In October 2002, about a year after their formation, the band performed a pair of shows in Warsaw. After the distribution of about 500 copies of their demo, the band performed at a small club in Warsaw once again in early 2003. As the band continued to write more material for a full length release, there grew a dissonance between keyboardist Jacek and the other members of Riverside. Jacek wished to continue with his studio pursuits so, during the latter part of 2003, he split from the group.

The rest of the band was left to mix their first album, which was to be entitled Out of Myself. It was released in Poland in late 2003. The success of the album in Poland and the live shows that the band performed led to a release of the album on American record label Laser's Edge in September 2004, this time with cover art from Travis Smith, painter for bands such as Opeth, Anathema, and Devin Townsend. The album Out of Myself has won best debut in many magazines and websites such as Metal Hammer and Belgium Prog-Nose.

Playlist: http://snack.to/adh5rm59

Introducing (for most of you anyway...)

RIVERSIDE
Shrine of New Generation Slaves
January 2013

1- New Generation Slave
2 - Celebrity Touch
3- We Got Used To Us
4 - Feel Like Falling

and... Batting clean up this week is the criminally underrated Pat Travers. I really need to showcase him in an upcoming SHT playlist, his early work is stellar! I will admit to some wear and tear vocally, but that's not what Travers is known for, its all about geetar work for him. Check this out

PAT TRAVERS BAND
Can Do
July 2013

5 - Can Do
6 - Stand Up / Give It Up
7 - Diamond Girl
8 - Armed and Dangerous
9 - Red Neck Boogie

And there you have it, another solid NMC outing! What do you think?

[RJhog (Admin)]

At least I'm not the only old geezer around here with no memory.

Riverside

[Scott]

Well Sh!t !!!!  Totally spaced that out...  Now what?

[Jon]

Holy steaming piles of monkeysh*t! What is up with you two????

Pat Travers--Thumbs Up

Very solid, rockin' disc. Listened to this last week and was mighty impressed. Still slinging that might geetar, and doesn't sound like he lost a step. have always wanted to pick up the prior album ("Fidelis", I think) and will probably do so. 

Other than that, this NMC posting was kinda stoopid.  

[Scott]

Not as stoopid as Death Dealer...  and let me remind you that you are contractually obligated to listen to everything!  Even if RJ posted Riverside without my permission!

[Jon]

Damn contracts!!!!!!!!

[Jon]

Riverside--Thumbs almost all the way up

Funny, I could swear I have heard this before. It's on my portable music player and has been since I picked it up, and it still doesn't bore me. I just think Rjhog's original post with this album was a better post so I'm docking the album a smidge which really isn't fair to the album. but I have to dock SOMETHING and really can't dock the author of this post. It's kinda like the butterfly effect. Soon there'll be a typhoon somewhere and it can be blamed on this author here. 

[Scott]

August is officially Tommy Bolin month!

[RJhog (Admin)]

Riverside - Thumbs Up

I like this.  It's one of a few prog albums up for my Top 10 list of the year.  Like the bass work and the album in general.  I do think the distorted vocals work against the album, not in favor of it.  But it's only on a couple of songs and not enough to deter me from recommending it.

Pat Travers - Thumbs Slightly Down

If you go hunting for a Pat Travers album because of the great vocals, you ain't too bright.  The guitar playing is outstanding, as one would expect, but the vocals kill this for me.  I've heard worse vocals, but I've heard better as well. The first song and the last song were fairly cool.  But track two was somewhat cheesy and track three reminded me way too much of George Thoroughgood (however you spell his name, I'm sure he's still drinking alone).  So, not terrible, but not a purchase for me.

[Niels (Mod)]

Riverside is old news so..

PAT TRAVERS BAND - 1.5 out of 6

First song is not bad. Not really the kind of music, I had expected. Oh, second track is kind of what I'd expected  Third track is even more boring No. 4 is....why am I wasting my time, listening to this? "Red Nick Boogie"? I'm done here.