Progressive Palaver

Episode 142 – Marillion Part 15, An Hour Before It’s Dark Regardless of what season it is, Marillion’s An Hour Before It’s Dark is a powerful experience. As the Palaver considers this collection of songs born of the pandemic, we struggle with where to put the meaning. Hogarth and company provide us a rich tapestry to consider. From the power of the opening of the album to the sometimes-confounding...

Bonus Episode – Foundation Season 2 Preview SPOILER ALERT – This episode contains spoilers for Foundation season 1 and all of Asimov’s published Foundation novels. On the eve of the second season, Joe and Sarah revisit the world of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation to celebrate the return of the Apple TV series. Our season 1 recap episode had some knowledge gaps that we have since closed. Armed with more...

Episode 141 – Steven Wilson Part 5, The Future Bites Another pandemic-impacted album with Steven Wilson’s The Future Bites. The group has an enjoyable time exploring Steven’s commentaries on modern life, presented over a more sparse and electronic musical bed. We continually play “spot the influence” and “what is the message” with this fantastic collection of songs. There is a wide range of opinio...

Episode 140 – Yes Part 22, The Quest The Palaver returns to the glory days of the pandemic to discuss The Quest from Yes. Other things kept some members away, so Paul and Joe take a stab at this record. While many have praised this record, we at the Palaver had a somewhat difficult experience. There are obviously some shining moments here, but we also find some aspects not to our liking. Regardles...

Special Episode – Interview with Kevin Mulryne, Author of Yes - The Tormato Story In this special episode we have the chance to speak with friend of the Palaver, host of The Yes Music Podcast, and now published author. Kevin provides us some insight into his new book, Yes - The Tormato Story. We go into all the usual Palaver corners covering his motivations for writing this particular book, his me...

Episode 139 – Yes Part 21, From a Page The group returns to the late-model Yes catalog with From a Page. This release is a very welcome look back at the lineup-that-never-really-was. These tracks which were ultimately put aside for the sweeping (and wonderful) Fly From Here give us a glimpse of what the Oliver Wakeman, David, Howe, White, Squire configuration could have been. These tracks retain t...

Special Episode – Interview with Matt Dorsey, April 2023 In this special episode we have the opportunity to learn more about Matt Dorsey (former Sound of Contact, Progjekt, and others) and his first solo release, Let Go. We greatly enjoyed getting to know Matt, hearing about his process and inspiration for his songs. He was kind to share some of his journey that led to this brightest of solo debut...

Episode 138 – Yes Part 20, Awaken On the heels of our episode ranking Yes epic songs, we thought we would take some time to dive deeper into (perhaps) our favorite Yes epic, Awaken. We considered five different versions spanning some 40 years. While there are many more that we could have ranked (and that we listened to), we focused on the original studio recording and the live versions from the Un...

SCS26 – Yes Close to the Edge 50, October 2022 with Ken Fuller Friend of the Palaver Ken Fuller shares his experiences attending a rehearsal by Yes for their 50th anniversary tour of the Close to the Edge album. The rehearsal took place at Mickey’s Black Box in Lititz, Pennsylvania. Ken F enjoyed the drive out to Amish country and scored himself some first row seats in front of Billy Sherwood. In...

Episode 137 – Queensryche Part 12, Best of the Rest The group finishes out (we think) our Queensryche segment with this free-flowing episode where we explore the band’s general catalog post Promised Land. There is no format and each Palaver member brings up the things that caught their attention from Queensryche and related projects. Twitter: @progpala Email: progpala@gmail.com Facebook: www.faceb...

Bonus Episode – Marillion Weekend Musings As Joe prepares himself to attend the 2023 Marillion weekend in Montreal, he is deeply immersed in the band’s music and has some thoughts to share. From past Marillion weekend experiences to the size and care of the Marillion catalog, this is just a fun, short collection of thoughts on various topics. Twitter: @progpala Email: progpala@gmail.com Facebook:...

Episode 136 – Queensryche Part 11, Take Cover Given how Progressive Palaver has chosen to review Queensryche, it may seem surprising for them to tackle a late-model covers album like Take Cover. This episode actually came about because Ken and Joe wanted to fill a hole in the recording schedule. The original plan was to review Take Cover and then review some of the information that is available ar...

Bonus Episode – 1977 Desert Island Palaver Predicament The group revisits a fun episode from our past; the desert island comparison. In this case, five albums from 1977 (A Farewell to Kings, The Grand Illusion, The Point of Know Return, Going for the One, and Animals) are considered. Our highest ranked album is declared. Then we consider which of the five we would trade for some crackers to augmen...

Special Episode – Interview with James Beach and Brian Heaton, Authors of Building an Empire In this special episode we have the chance to speak with two of the authors of Building an Empire: The Story of Queensryche. Brian and James bring a long history with Pacific NW and with the band. They are uniquely situated to provide insights into all facets of the band’s history. We cover from the beginn...

SCS25 - Duran Duran, The Fixx, And Peter Hook & The Light - August 2022 Ken and Joe take a side trip into our New Wave pasts to discuss a trio of live shows from August 2022. Joe saw Duran Duran and The Fixx on consecutive nights, while Ken saw Peter Hook and the Light independently. The feel for each of these shows was quite varied and Ken and Joe explore each in turn. Duran Duran created a time...

Bonus Episode - Duran Duran And The Fixx Pre-Shows & Immediate Reactions In the summer of 2022, Joe and friend of the Palaver, Sarah, saw Duran Duran and The Fixx on sequential nights in Fort Worth and Austin. This bonus episodes collects their pre-show discussions and immediate reactions after the shows. Think of this episode as a companion piece to SCS25. Enjoy! Twitter: @progpala Email: progpal...

Star Wars Palaver – Andor, Season 1 SPOILER ALERT – The episode will spoil Season 1 of Andor. If you do not want to be spoiled, watch the full season before listening The group spends some exploring the magic that is Star Wars: Andor. Excellent storylines and character development combined with first-class world-building make Andor the cream of the Star Wars crop in our opinion. We spend time with...

Special Episode – Interview with Terry D and John R of Total Mass Retain – March 2023 In this special episode we catch up with John Rittweger and Nad Sylvan lookalike Terry Dey of the Yes tribute band Total Mass Retain. On the heels of the Palaver seeing TMR in Philadelphia in January and their groundbreaking Chris Squire tribute show at Daryl’s House in early March 2023, we catch up with the sing...

Special Episode – Interview with Mark Anthony K of Projekt Gemineye, March 2023 We finally find some time to catch up with Mark Anthony K of Projekt Gemineye (and so many other things!) to discuss the upcoming release What Lies Beyond. We cover the inspiration for this new batch of songs and Mark treats us to a lively discussion of their topical nature. It wouldn’t be the Palaver without some disc...

Episode 135 – Queensryche Part 10, Promised Land Promised Land is the album that found Queensryche grappling with the impacts of their own success. As the last of what we proclaim “the main sequence” of Queensryche albums, Promised Land presents us with some delightful material to work with. Expansive and heavy. Introspective and questioning. Promised Land is from its predecessors, but something w...

Bonus Episode – Ranking Epic Yes Songs Inspired by seeing Friends of the Palaver, Total Mass Retain, the group returns to the world of Yes music to consider epic Yes songs. After arbitrarily defining an epic (original studio version runtime greater than 15 minutes), Progressive Palaver set off to discuss and rank the eleven songs that meet our criteria. From the classics Close to the Edge and Gate...

Episode 134 – Queensryche Part 9, Empire Pt 2 In this second episode on the monster album Empire, the group completes our discussion from Della Brown through the end of the album (with a bit of extra time on the bonus tracks). Hopefully, we will leave you pondering deep philosophical questions like does Empire have the Whitesnake production, but with more thoughtfulness? Do parts of Empire sound t...

Episode 133 – Queensryche Part 8, Empire Pt 1 Empire, the album that broke Queensryche wide open. This episode sees the group reliving more fond memories of our friendship as we consider the merits of this most excellent and yet commercial album. There is plenty of hyperbole on both ends of the spectrum fueling our palaver. Empire provides much to satisfy a progmetal fan. Excellent drumming and dr...

Bonus Episode – Why Joe No Longer Supports Roger Waters In this Palaver for one, Joe lays out his reasons for no longer supporting Roger Waters. Joe briefly explains his somewhat difficult history with Roger and frames the whole story with the live shows of 2017 and 2022. Ultimately the tale ends with an explanation of how Roger’s online behavior has led to the decision to simply move on from the...

Episode 132 – Queensryche Part 7, Operation: Mindcrime Live We are not QUITE finished with Operation: Mindcrime. In this episode Joe and Paul, with a cameo from Ken in the middle, consider live performances of this epic concept album. Of course we have to start with the (apparently) timeless Operation: Livecrime. While Livecrime captures the band and their height, Mindcrime at the Moore provides a...