The Ask twosuitsluke Thread

[Orbert]

Bob, what bands with a horn section do you love and have you checked out any new bands with horn sections?

Chicago, of course, as well as their southside counterparts, Earth, Wind & Fire.  Just as my first Chicago album was their amazing Chicago at Carnegie Hall, my first Earth, Wind & Fire album was their live album Gratitude.  Just awesome stuff.

They tour together sometimes, the two bands from Chicago with horns.  The Blu-ray concert is great.



Chicago was James William Guercio's pet project while he was at Columbia Records, but another band that he produced was Blood, Sweat & Tears.  Like Chicago, they were a jazz-rock pop group, back when such a thing was possible, but whereas Chicago stayed toward the rock side, BS&T leaned more toward traditional jazz.  They had a sweet horn section too.



You've heard some songs by Blood, Sweat & Tears.  "Spinning Wheel", "You've Made Me So Very Happy", "Lucretia Mac Evil", etc.


I don't know many recent bands with horns.  Who's that one guy, Ben Folds?  I saw someone with a sax and trombone or some wacky combination like that, and they were great.  It was something on TV, but I caught three or four songs.  Good stuff.  I thought someone said that Ben Folds Five is actually only three guys, but five counting the horns.  Or am I thinking of someone else?

Do you know any bands with horns you can recommend?

[King Postwhore]

Great post Bob.  The new band I've been really into is Thank You Scientist.   Check out this tune.


https://youtu.be/dv1ypynSLzY

[Orbert]

Wow, cool stuff!  I've heard of them, but have never checked them out.  I didn't realize that they had horns.  Proggy jazzy groovy stuff.  ♫♫

[axeman90210]

I'll second Thank You Scientist. They've absolutely hijacked my ears since I saw them open for Haken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B97Ifr9pPy4

[Orbert]

Okay, since we're of an age. Did you ever have a sweet stripped shirt like mine? (Third from the left, front row)

I looked through all the old pictures I have online, and a bunch of stuff my sister has, and can't find a picture of me wearing it, but I had one very similar.  So did Larry Woranof and one time we both wore them to school on the same day.  It was embarrassing.

[King Postwhore]

Yes I did as well as the white turtleneck with the plaid slacks.

[Orbert]

I stayed in Chinatown in Toronto a few years ago.  It was actually quite nice.  We had no qualms whatsoever about walking down the street at 11:00 at night to go to McDonald's or something.  Very cool.

One of the last times we visited Toronto when we were "kids" (my one sister and I were both teens, our little sister maybe 10) we went out for dinner, walked around and did some shopping, didn't get back to the hotel until late.  I'm not sure what time it was, but it was late, several hours after dark.  It was all clean and well-lit, mostly concrete jungle but nice.  It was so cool.  When you're a kid, "staying up late" is a big deal.  But we were older-ish, and I remember thinking that we probably wouldn't have stayed out so late back when we were little.  People were everywhere, everything was lit up by neon, the city was still awake well past midnight.

A lot of the buildings were connected by walkways and bridges and stuff.  We were going through another shopping area mall thing, then took a walkway over the road into another building, and that was the hotel we were staying in.  We were back!  Super cool, but at the same time disappointing because it meant our evening adventure was ending.

That's such a great memory I have of that trip with my family.  Thanks for triggering that! 

[Orbert]

Yes I did as well as the white turtleneck with the plaid slacks.

Oh dude, you're were stylin'

[King Postwhore]

No, my mom was stylin'.

[Orbert]

The 70's were a magical time.  Also I think the last decade when housewives were still more common than working moms, at least where I lived.  Dad was the breadwinner, mom took care of the house and kids, weekends were family time.  Mom bought (or made) all the clothes the kids wore.  That was the norm.  Simpler times.

[Elite]

I saw my handle in the thread title. I signed up for this a couple of months back, apparently it's my turn now. Let's go!

[Tomislav95]

Yeah, I updated the title but forgot to write a new post saying it's your turn.

Your 5 favorite bands and albums at this moment?

[Onno]

When will your band Overhaul's new album be released? 

[Train of Naught]

Do you have a nice life?

[Elite]

Your 5 favorite bands and albums at this moment?

Damn, you're not starting this off with an easy question at all

I ran my top 5 albums not too long ago and the top 5 in there is still pretty accurate today I think. I had the following albums in there:

1. Dream Theater - Images and Words
2. Leprous - Bilateral
3. Jeff Buckley - Grace
4. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#Infinity
5. Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness

That said, I haven't listened to the Jeff Buckley album in quite a while and the GBYE album is one I only listen to very rarely (but I love it to death when I do). Since you're asking for specifics, lately (being the past six months) I've been digging Leprous, Agent Fresco, Ulver, Obsidian Kingdom and Meshuggah a lot. Albums I've listened to a lot are The Apologist by East of the Wall (thanks Parama), The Ugly Organ by Cursive (again, thanks Parama), Arktis. by Ihsahn, Destrier by Agent Fresco, the new Meshuggah record (The Violent Sleep of Reason; it's great!) and Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band.

As for favourite bands at the moment, I think Obsidian Kingdom (their 2016 record A Year With No Summer is amazing) and Agent Fresco easily take the cake here. As far as underground bands doing something refreshing goes, both bands do it extremely well in differet ways, even though Agent Fresco is barely underground anymore, as they're drawing in lots of fans from all different directions. Speaking of cakes, Odyssey to the West by Slice the Cake is another awesome album I've listened to a lot.

I may of course have missed some, but this was about it. I'm finding myself returning to the same albums for quite some time, then after a couple of months I find something new to indulge in. It's my way of listening to music, I guess.

When will your band Overhaul's new album be released? 

It's actually almost finished, but we set our own release period for the early months of 2017. We can't really announce anything yet, because we're not entirely sure ourselves, but we're aiming for february / march 2017. I'm ridiculously excited for it to see the light of day though

Do you have a nice life?

Well, yes. At least, I think so. I'm rarely sad or fed up with the things I do. Of course, some things could probably be better and I'm not perfect either, but I like how things are going at the moment. It's rather weird, having to answer such a question though, because other than the 'how are you?' which you can answer casually, this made me think about things. I don't know, I believe I do have a nice life, but someone else might not think the same if he had the same life. I try to make the best out of it, though I don't really think in terms of 'good' or 'bad', I'm just walking around this earth like everybody else, searching for whatever there is to be found and doing what I do. Does that make any sense? It does for me.

[Tomislav95]

What do you think of A Long Time Listening by Agent Fresco?

[Sacul]

Did you give ITAOTS another listen? 

[Elite]

Yes, this one. I own it on vinyl. Great record.

What do you think of A Long Time Listening by Agent Fresco?

I think it's an amazing debut album and it contains some very good songs, but it does not feel as cohesive as the follow-up. The mix is slightly off-balance as well here and there and the album could have done with slightly less tracks (18 really is a lot). I like how this album really paved the way for Destrier, which is superior in every way, even though ALTL contains some great songs. Now, does this make me sound negative with regards to this album? Because that is not my intention, I think it's a lot better than most of the stuff out there.

Did you give ITAOTS another listen? 

No, not yet the album pissed me off so much initially that I really don't have any interest in revisiting it, though I kind of think I 'should'.

[Tomislav95]

I think it's an amazing debut album and it contains some very good songs, but it does not feel as cohesive as the follow-up. The mix is slightly off-balance as well here and there and the album could have done with slightly less tracks (18 really is a lot). I like how this album really paved the way for Destrier, which is superior in every way, even though ALTL contains some great songs. Now, does this make me sound negative with regards to this album? Because that is not my intention, I think it's a lot better than most of the stuff out there.

I feel the same and I didn't give it a proper chance yet (maybe only one full listen) as I did to Destrier. However, Eyes of the Cloud Catcher and title track are my favorite songs of theirs (better than anything off Destrier).

[Elite]

Both of those are outstanding indeed, but so are Implosions, Paused, Silhouette Palette and the Anemoi/He Is Listening combo. Really, the album as a whole is pretty freaking good. It's just very different and probably less accessible or 'hip' as Destrier is. I can also imagine the growls/shouts which are much more prevalent on ALTL could turn people off. Whatever, Agent Fresco are a fantastic band as far as I'm concerned.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

What is your favorite kind of cheese.
Is legalized prostitution as big a deal as it sounds like to Americans living in a stuffy, uptight, and overly Puritanical country?

[Elite]

What is your favorite kind of cheese.

Oh, wow. Well, I'm actually not too fond of cheese, despite living in the Netherlands. A common swear word for Dutch people would be 'cheese-head' (yes, really), but I only like my 'regular' cheese when it's melted, like on toasties. I don't like smelly cheeses at all, though I do like fetas and mozzarella quite a lot. Pretty boring choice, but I do think mozzarella is my favourite cheese. Nice and neutral.

Is legalized prostitution as big a deal as it sounds like to Americans living in a stuffy, uptight, and overly Puritanical country?

I have no idea, since I have no intention of ever visting a hooker. But yeah, prostitution is legal here, under rather strict circumstances I believe and people make use of that. As far as I know though, prostitution zones can only really be found in the larger cities, and it's not really like there's hookers on every corner of the street. There's designated areas where you can find them, either in brothels or on the street. There used to be a prostitution zone not far from where I lived and I always found it rather funny that it would be chock full of cars at around lunch-time. Probably men tired of their wives sneaking away during work.

 Sorry if my answer is unsatisfactory though, I don't really know enough about it to properly comment

[Train of Naught]

It does great with tourists especially, the local people don't really have anything to do with it (unless they want to) apart from numerous tourists in Amsterdam asking you directions to the red light district whenever you are going out at night. So no it's not really a big deal even if you're living in the city where the magic happens.

Rich, I caught you listening to Rapper Sjors on Spotify, care to explain?

[Elite]

Rich, I caught you listening to Rapper Sjors on Spotify, care to explain?

Yes, my roommate and I were having a laugh listening to extremely bad music. I have a whole bucket full of youtube videos if you want to join in.

[Tomislav95]

There is even worse music on Balkans my friends and me love to ironically listen to it

[Elite]

in Holland we have 'Balkan Beats' parties occasionally. Quite fun!

[Train of Naught]

Rich, I caught you listening to Rapper Sjors on Spotify, care to explain?

Yes, my roommate and I were having a laugh listening to extremely bad music. I have a whole bucket full of youtube videos if you want to join in.

I'll pass. I have enough extremely bad music as it is

[Scar]

What's your profile pic? A dog and a....?

How'd you come up with your username?

What do you do in your free time when you aren't with your band?

[Elite]

What's your profile pic? A dog and a....?

It's a bird with a dog's head.

How'd you come up with your username?

This is something that stems from the time when I still used to play videogames. I used to play a lot of Halo (Halo 2 & Halo 3) and my Xbox Live gamertag back then was something along the lines of Elite Warrior. Not specifically named after the 'elite' species in the game, but it was a funny coincidence. I kept that handle basically everywhere, even though I don't play any videogames on consoles anymore. It doesn't really mean anything, but on a prog forum I found it quite hilarious to keep the same name as well. You can, of course, call me Richard as well.

What do you do in your free time when you aren't with your band?

Well, I don't really have a lot of hobbies. When I'm not working or studying, I'm usually playing guitar or piano, but I also like to watch TV series (currently watching Narcos). I like to think I'm a good cook as well, since I enjoy cooking very much and try to make interesting meals quite often. Most of my free time is devoted to music though. I enjoy listening to music, reading about music, writing music and playing music. Pretty boring, right?

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Sorry if my answer is unsatisfactory though, I don't really know enough about it to properly comment

No problem at all.  I just find it curious that for being one of the most supposedly enlightened countries in the world, the US is so ass-backwards in comparison to other level-headed countries that it just makes me scratch my head.  If two consenting adults want to exchange cash, in order to get it on, there is absolutely ZERO reason that anyone should be able to step in and say "Nope, can't do that!"  I mean, it wouldn't benefit me any if it were legalized, as I'm happily married, but it would certainly benefit many people on both the seller and buyer side of the transaction.

[Elite]

Well, if it's two consenting adults, then yes, there should be no problem. I think this is where it does go wrong though. It's relatively easy for pimps to exploit women that have nowhere else to turn to. Now, mind this, this is obviously illegal in the Netherlands as well, but there's a very fine line between a hooker truly consenting to having sex with random men and one being taken advantage of. Apparently, there's a lot of surveillance for proper 'workspaces' and environments these hookers operate in and lots of prostitution zones actually get closed down when the authorities have the slightest assumption something is amiss. In that respect, it's probably easier to ban prostitution altogether, than to have people monitoring everything. But I'm pretty sure there's lots of illegal prostitution, even in your 'stuffy, uptight and puritanical' country and that's likely a problem as well; ban something and it continues to exist; underground and out of bounds of your legal jurisdiction.

[Elite]

Just today left to ask your questions!

[Train of Naught]

What's a good cheap restaurant in the vicinity of Utrecht central station?

[Elite]

What's the occasion?
And I take it you don't want a fast-food snack joint, because there's those obviously

[Train of Naught]

Romantic dinner with home + 1 prior to the God Is An Astronaut concert.

Preferably no fast food yeah.