Bela Bartok, Godfather of Prog Rock, Math Rock, Prog Metal, Technical Metal, etc

Bela Bartok is one of my favorite musicians ever.  His music sounds like: King Crimson, Magma, Gentle Giant, Captain Beefheart, Yes, Meshuggah, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Bastro, Don Caballero, the Fucking Champs, Sonic Youth, Drive Like Jehu, Necrophagist, Metallica, Slint, Hella, Stravinsky, Rush, Pink Floyd, etc.  It is truly the precursor to prog rock, math rock, prog metal, math metal, technical metal, etc.  Angular, robotic, dissonant, heavy, dramatic, virtuostic, spooky, and thoroughly  progtacular.

Check out his amazing string quartets, which sound in parts like Don Caballero mixed with Voivod and Metallica and Meshuggah and the rest of the bands listed above, and his awesome “how to learn piano” series Mikrokosmos, which he wrote for his son to learn piano,  Amazing!  The Contrasts album with Benny Goodman on clarinet, Bartok on piano, and Joseph Szigeti on violin sounds like Voivod with clarinet!

I think it would be great to have kids who learn like the Suzuki method to be slipped sheets of Mikrokosmos sheet music instead, that would breed a new generation of interesting piano players for sure.

Check out especially:

• String Quartet No.4, Sz. 91 – 5. Allegro molto(MP3) and
• String Quartet No.5, Sz. 102 – 1. Allegro (MP3)

Albums:

Bela Barok: String Quartets 1-6 (Emerson String Quartet) (MP3s on Amazon)

Bela Bartok: Mikrokosmos (Jeno Jando) (MP3s on Amazon)

Bela Bartok, Joseph Szigeti, Benny Goodman: Contrasts (Amazon)

The string quartets by another set of performers:

Bela Barok: String Quartets 1-6 (Rubin Quartet) (MP3s on Amazon)

Here are some good interviews/articles:

Bela Bartok: Finding a Voice Through Folk Music (NPR)

Bartok: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2. (National Review)

Benny Goodman: An Interview With the King of Swing (American Heritage.com)

Also totally awesome and Bartokian:
Shostakovich String Quartet #8 in c, Op 110–Emerson String Quartet. DG 459670-2.

The Stranglers–Do You Wanna–The Root of Every Jesus Lizard, Birthday Party, and Scratch Acid Song Ever Written

The Stranglers — Do You Wanna. This came out on the Stranglers’ Black and White album in 1978. Yes, that’s right, 1978. That’s two years before the first Birthday Party album (1980), Scratch Acid (1984), Jesus Lizard (1990). That’s one year before the first Joy Division album (1979).

Listen to the crazy Jesus Lizard bass line, the crazy Jesus Lizard guitar part, the crazy Jesus Lizard drum part, and the crazy singing. Except it’s the Stranglers and it’s 1978.

Steve Albini attests to early Stranglers adulation (the Stranglers even pop up in the Atomizer liner notes “Santiago Durango… Stranglers impersonation”)

What a great song!

They’re also underrated as a new wave band:

Stranglers–Bring on the Nubiles (released 1977).

Stranglers–European Female (released 1983)

Stranglers: Baroque Bordello (released 1979)

Stranglers: Shah Shah A-Go-Go/Ice (released 1979)

Voiviod–Live 2008!!! Blacky on bass! Dan Mongrain (Martyr) on highly technical guitar!

Voivod live 2008–with BLACKY on bass again, Snake on vocals, Away on drums, and Dan Mongrain from Martyr on guitar–SOUNDS AWESOME!!! I hope they make some great new albums…

Blacky ALWAYS has that great Jean-Jacques Burnel Stranglers/John Wetton Red-era King Crimson/Gentle Giant bass sound. The Martyr guitar player is awesome! More technical prog metal please! Then, a Voivod tour with the Fucking Champs and Meshuggah and Martyr!!!

I’m surprised at how awesome Martyr is (never heard them before). I like them as much as Meshuggah maybe! Not too into the vocalist though–the guitar in Voivod is going to sound awesome with the voice though if Snake keeps up the Dimension Hatross-era vocal stylings–especially pinned down with Blacky’s bass and Away’s prog drumming!

Martyr-Havoc

Martyr-Ostrogoth

Martyr-Warp Zone and Virtual Emotions

Out on Blue Six–Obscure New Wave

Here’s some obscure but good new wave: Out on Blue Six – Party Moods (mp3). Nice frenetic female-fronted new wave, with that great jangly angular guitar and kind of dub influenced bass and drums. There’s a really great keyboard/synth part towards the end of the song. Kind of superficially reminiscent of the Delta 5, but not really. Kind of also like the great female fronted stuff on the first Flying Lizards record and on their Fourth Wall record.  They had at least seven inch and a cut on a 1980s compilation that I’m aware of, and this song was re-released on some more recent compilation. The bass player I think was also in this band Shriekback.

Swervedriver Live 2008

Just saw Swervedriver live on their 2008 reunion. Totally awesome, one of the best live shows ever. Hopefully they’ll do this every few years! Sort of like what a mix of Sonic Youth, Drive Like Jehu, Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Live Skull, Polvo, Josef K, Magic Hour, Major Stars, Mudhoney, Loop, the Cure, and Dinosaur Jr. might sound like–except for it was way better than any Sonic Youth or Dinosaur Jr. shows I’ve ever seen. Pretty perfect! They pretty much can play music, especially play guitar, the way probably 95% of anyone who likes guitar-driven indie rock has ever wanted to be able to play–a mix of experimental, jangly, noise, psychadelic fuzz solos, feedback, experimental chords, etc. Best of all though, pretty great catchy-songwriting skills and exactly the right rhythm section. Hoping for more live shows–(last time I saw them was 1998–gasp–10 years ago)–and hopefully a new album someday?

Here’s a treat:

MP3: Swervedriver-Kill the Superheroes (live)

One of the best Swevedriver and indie guitar rock songs ever made!!! Listen to the solo starting at 4:55…brilliant! Can anyone tell me what show this is? Someone sent me this on CD once, it just said “Swervedriver–Live Covers,” although most of the songs aren’t covers but are Swervedriver songs…

The tracklist is:

1. Son of Mustang Ford
2. Kill the Superheroes
3. Duress
4. Sandblasted
5. Sunset
6. Rave Down
7. Juggernaut Rides
8. Scrawl and Scream
9. 99th Dream
10. Wrong Treats
11. ? Some cover?
12. ? Some cover?
13. ? Some cover?
14. Magic Bus (The Who)

Also see:

The Boston Globe: A decade later, Swervedriver still has it

Seattle Weekly: Swervedriver’s U-Turn

And…Youtube video, Swervedriver @ The Fillmore “Kill the Superheroes” 2008

Here’s another of my favorite songs:

Swervedriver – Blowin’ Cool (Live), Live at the London Astoria 1993, back when the singer Adam Franklin had dreads…

And another favorite in 2008 …surely someone has more than a 22 second clip, Swervedriver – Never Lose that Feeling

Photo by Bsearles