progressive rock

How Underground FM Radio Saved Rock

How Underground FM Radio Saved Rock

This is what happened when college-age music enthusiasts raided empty FM radio studios and played whatever turned them on.

Robert Fripp and Gary Numan’s Journeys into Post-Punk

Robert Fripp and Gary Numan’s Journeys into Post-Punk

In the post-punk era, progressive rock figurehead Robert Fripp and synth pop pioneer Gary Numan would shape the future sound of alternative rock and metal.

Phish Inspire Instrumentally, Falter Lyrically on ‘Evolve’

Phish Inspire Instrumentally, Falter Lyrically on ‘Evolve’

The verdict on Evolve is what so many people have given Phish in the past: the instrumentals are fabulous, but the lyrics leave something to be desired.

Tool Take Us on a Trip in Berlin

Tool Take Us on a Trip in Berlin

Tool’s Berlin performance drenched us in their esoteric lyrics, kept us spellbound under Keenan’s shamanistic delivery, and held us captive to enormous body horror imagery.

Snow Blinded: My 15 Favorite Styx Songs

Snow Blinded: My 15 Favorite Styx Songs

Progressive rock, arena rock, romantic ballads: Styx’s catalog presents an enviable chain of success, one that still yields surprises 50 years later.

Phish Level Up at Sphere in Las Vegas

Phish Level Up at Sphere in Las Vegas

Jam rock’s Phish at Las Vegas’ Sphere is like a sonic jackpot with all the bells and whistles that just keep paying out. It’s a wormhole to another dimension.

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis Deliver Thrills

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis Deliver Thrills

Imagine a train that seems to be going off the rails yet keeps on track, and you’ll get a sense of what The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis sounds like.

Finding Their Way: Rush’s Debut Album at 50

Finding Their Way: Rush’s Debut Album at 50

Fifty years after its release, progressive rockers Rush’s debut album remains an important stepping stone in the Canadian trio’s long journey to success.

Phish Sacrifice Ambience For Clarity on Live ‘Spectrum’ Box Set 

Phish Sacrifice Ambience For Clarity on Live ‘Spectrum’ Box Set 

With its antiseptic sound, The Spectrum ’97 box set can’t adequately substitute for what it was like to be there at a 1990s Phish show.

Kings Will Be Crowned: Queen’s ‘Queen II’ at 50

Kings Will Be Crowned: Queen’s ‘Queen II’ at 50

Queen’s 1974 sophomore album, Queen II is an overlooked progressive rock masterpiece that predicted so much of their later work. It’s also still enormous fun.

Steve Hackett Explores Many Sides on ‘The Circus and the Nightwhale’

Steve Hackett Explores Many Sides on ‘The Circus and the Nightwhale’

Steve Hackett proves he’s still a force to be reckoned with in progressive rock. He delivers an album worthy of his legacy while pointing to the future.

Moe Get Their Groove Back in California

Moe Get Their Groove Back in California

The Gen-X rockers from Buffalo, New York, Moe, transcend recent tribulations with an old-fashioned Saturday night rager at the Fillmore in San Francisco.