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Porcupine Tree: New Album and Tour

1001001

1001001

Serial Canon Violator
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Tickets are now on sale for Porcupine Tree's fall tour of the US and Europe. Details are here:

http://www.porcupinetree.com/tour.cfm

In several interviews, Steven Wilson has discussed the new album, which began production in February. It appears it will be a double-CD, which will include a 55 minute song.

http://www.theseaweedfarm.com/2009/03/porcupine-tree-new-album-21st-september-2009.html

Also, for their official fan club members (Residents of a Blank Planet) special tickets are available through the PT website which will allow early access to GA shows, and premium seats for seated venues. As an extra bonus for signing up, we also got an otherwise unreleased live CD, a 75 minute performance from the Ilosaarirock festival in Finland in 2007 featuring many songs from Fear of a Blank Planet. Details on ROABP are here:

http://www.burningshed.com/store/porcupinetree/product/298/1394/

For many Americans, Porcupine Tree is the Best Band You're Not Listening To. Great progressive rock, like if Pink Floyd and Tool had a baby.

I've already got my tickets for San Francisco. Any other PT fans here? Anyone else going to see this tour? What are your favorite albums?
 
I really like the band, Sound of Muzak is one of my favourite songs.

I have a friend though who listens to absolutely NOTHING but Porcupine Tree. And not their rock stuff either, just the endless ambient stuff where there a single keyboard note and one cymbal every 30 seconds. I have been subjected to it to such an extent that I now have to request Porcupine Tree be turned off whenever I hear them. :(
 
:lol:

Yeah, the early stuff (which is just Steven Wilson by himself) sounds like a soundtrack to some trippy movie.

Starting with Stupid Dream, the full band is intact, and they get progressively more rocking as they go.

I think Deadwing is a masterpiece. One of my favorite albums of all time.
 
I've got my ticket to see them in Bristol in early October. Even now I'm swelling with excitement.

I can't choose between Deadwing and In Absentia as my favourite album... so naturally have been listening to nothing but Lightbulb Sun, Futile EP and Nil Recurring for the last week. My top songs would probably be:
-Fear of a Blank Planet
-Normal
-Hatesong (the live version on Futile)
-Shallow
-Arriving Somewhere But Not Here
-Heartattack in a Layby
-.3
-The Creator Has a Mastertape
-Stranger by the Minute
-A Smart Kid
-Mellotron Scratch

I've only gone as far back as Signify at the moment trying to get into all of the discography... but I am struggling with it, it has to be said. Then again, it took me about 7 months to full dig half of In Absentia and over a year to appreciate Stupid Dream, so there's hope yet.
 
I liked Stupid Dream and In Absentia right away.

I was completely floored by Deadwing the first time I heard it.

It took me a minute to appreciate Fear of a Blank Planet/Nil Recurring.

I only recently got Signify, and I'm still giving it full consideration.

Do you have the Arriving Somewhere DVD? It's a great show. You can now download the soundtrack from it from Burning Shed.

My favorite songs are:

Arriving Somewhere (But Not Here)
Lazarus
Blackest Eyes
Trains
Cheating the Polygraph
Way Out of Here
Open Car
Shallow
Even Less
Lightbulb Sun
Stranger by the Minute
Don't Hate Me
Anesthetize

There are many others I like, but those float to the surface immediately.

That's great you get to see them in October. Our show is Sept. 18th. A whole bunch of us are meeting in the city for the weekend. PT fans from Missouri and Texas are flying in to join us.
 
I only got Signify last week and so far I'm up to liking perhaps half of it. Waiting Phase One, Sever, Sleep of No Dreaming and Dark Matter I definitely like a lot.

Although they're a British band they're not one I thought I'd ever see so it's going to be extra special.

And how I forgot Open Car and Trains on my list... criminal! So Called Friend too, from the Lazarus single. One day I might even get the studio version of that but the live one is excellent.
 
The first half of The Sky Moves Sideways (I believe the first album where people other than Steve Wilson were allowed to perform, if only for part of it), is pretty fantastic, the first track is particularly epic, but the second half is boring

Signify seemed like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be, caught between two phases of PT's career.

Stupid Dream is good. Just enough stuff remained from the earlier albums but definately more accessible than any of them.

I love Lightbulb Sun. It's not hard-rocking like the previous album or the next three, but it's great. It sounds like Blackfield, one of Wilson's approximately 5 billion side projects.

In Absentia is definately my favorite PT album. A fantastic set of songs full of variety.

I like Deadwing, but besides "Open Car" I think it kind of drifts off after "Arriving Somewhere". But that's just my opinion.

Fear of a Blank Planet was a really good attempt at bringing all the different facets of the band together while also flowing together well.

Top 10 songs of the moment (it changes quite a bit)

1) Arriving Somewhere But Not Here (from Deadwing)
2) Trains (from In Absentia)
3) Collapse the Light into Earth (from In Absentia)
4) Blackest Eyes (from In Absentia)
5) Fear of a Blank Planet (from Fear of a Blank Planet)
6) Lightbulb Sun (from Lightbulb Sun)
7) Anesthetize (from Fear of a Blank Planet)
8) Lazarus (from Deadwing)
9) The Sky Moves Sideways (Phase One) (from The Sky Moves Sideways)
10) Even Less (from Stupid Dream)
 
That's a pretty good top ten.

Deadwing may trail off a bit (except Open Car), but what an opening five songs! Just the combo of Shallow and Lazarus can blow the average mind. It shows the amazing range these guys have.

Much like Blackest Eyes and Trains to open In Absentia. Porcupine Tree can certainly throw an effective 1-2 combination.

Do any of you have the Arriving Somewhere DVD? It's filmed live in Chicago, and it's great.
 
I've seen some of it here and there but at the moment I can't really put the cash aside to buy it. I do have the Rockpalast soundtrack which is most of the same set though, other than .3 instead of Heartattack and Futile instead of Buying New Soul.
 
The initial US Tour is very short.

I wonder if they'll be back for a larger tour after Europe?
 
Hrrmph. Not as short as the UK tour, which is a pisstake considering they are an English band.
 
Pingfah said:
Hrrmph. Not as short as the UK tour, which is a pisstake considering they are an English band.
Click to expand...

So far all of the announced dates in the US, Canada, Europe, etc. are spread over less than 2 months. That again makes me think there might be a more extensive tour in 2010.

It might depend on the success of the new album, which isn't scheudled for release until 9/21, a week after the US Tour starts. I'm hoping that date will change.
 
It's just occurred to me how long a 55-minute long song actually is. That's going to take some commitment to listen to - the longest song I currently own is The Mars Volta's Cassandra Geminni, and that's only a paltry 33 minutes long. Daunting stuff from Mr Wilson...
 
HappyDayRiot said:
It's just occurred to me how long a 55-minute long song actually is. That's going to take some commitment to listen to - the longest song I currently own is The Mars Volta's Cassandra Geminni, and that's only a paltry 33 minutes long. Daunting stuff from Mr Wilson...
Click to expand...

Agreed. That will be quite a challenge to pull off.

He's certainly prolific enough and orchestral enough to make it work.
 
Here's an update for any and all Porcupine Tree fans....

Porcupine Tree Reveal New Album Details

New York, NY - Grammy-nominated UK recording artist Porcupine Tree have confirmed the title of their tenth studio album: The Incident. The captivating new record is set to be released on Roadrunner Records on September 22, as a double CD.


The Incident is a stunning 55-minute musical statement, described by vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Steven Wilson as “a slightly surreal song cycle about beginnings and endings and the sense that ‘after this, things will never be the same again.’” The seeds of the idea that led to The Incident came to Wilson as he became caught up in a highway traffic jam while driving past an accident.


“There was a sign saying ‘POLICE – INCIDENT’ and everyone was slowing down to rubber neck to see what had happened,” he recalls. “Afterwards, it struck me that ‘incident’ is a very detached word for something so destructive and traumatic for the people involved. And then I had the sensation that the spirit of someone that had died in the accident entered into my car and was sitting next to me.


“The irony of such a cold expression for such seismic events appealed to me, and I began to pick out other ‘incidents’ reported in the media and news,” continues Wilson. “I wrote about the evacuation of teenage girls from a religious cult in Texas, a family terrorizing its neighbors, a body found floating in a river by some people on a fishing trip, and more. Each song is written in the first person and tries to humanize the detached media reportage.”

More here:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/news/PORCUPINE-TREE-REVEAL-DETAILS-OF-THE-INCIDENT-20315.aspx

Here is some video of them in the studio:
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/video/view.aspx?songID=2503

I am going to have a very hard time waiting until September.

:techman:
 
Okay I blind downloaded some Porcupine Tree a while ago, the album was Voyage 34 and the track names are just numbers. Supposedly from 2008... I got it off of eMusic and I was wondering if that album's typical of their other stuff... I was impressed by it, did remind me a lot of Pink Floyd, with less post-war ranting ;)
 
Voyage 34 is actually very old. It was originally recorded in the early 90's when Porcupine Tree was just Steven Wilson.

Since becoming a full fledged band, they've become less psychedelic and trippy, more hard rock/metal.

Stupid Dream is a great sort of transitional album. In Absentia and Deadwing are the most full-throttle rock albums they made. But there is always a Floydian tinge to them.

Deadwing is my favorite release so far. If you get a chance to check it out, I'd certainly do so.
 
The five song titles are brilliant by themselves. If the songs live up to their titles this is gonna be awesome.

I'm torn though - do I want them to play The Incident live? It would consume the whole gig :D
 
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