The Mike Portnoy Appreciation/Discussion Thread (merged)

[MoraWintersoul]

I know that design with the first names of famous feminist writers, that's where I saw it first like ten years ago:

[HOF]

Some actual MP appreciation:

Hello, Helicopter! Just popped up as I’m shuffling my collection on my computer. Ironically, Mike hated the way Kevin Moore chopped up all his drum parts, and it’s definitely not his usual style, but there is a lot of cool drumming on the first OSI album, including this track which remains one of my favorites.

[Buddyhunter1]

Agreed, the drumming on the first OSI album is super cool, some of his best IMO even if it's heavily edited.

[ZirconBlue]

Is BPMD the least memorable band never ever? ELP runs together to at least make a sound if you had a hard time remembering E-L-P. UFO has an alternate meaning most people are aware of. ACDC runs off the tongue nicely and AC and DC have meanings. ABBA can be said as a word and has symmetry. BPMD is just awkward.

Maybe it's a reference to a certain BP station in Maryland.  Or a doctor:  Blood Pressure, MD.

[HOF]

Now up on shuffle, The Glass Prison, a song I don’t seek out but when I hear it I tend to get a little transfixed by all the craziness. I still think of it as the moment DT kind of jumped the shark musically, but it’s kind of fun to hear from time to time.

[Cool Chris]

I know that design with the first names of famous feminist writers, that's where I saw it first like ten years ago:

I've never seen that design before, but admittedly I also do not know any famous feminist writers. Is the off-center dot and different fonts for each letter part of the style?

[MoraWintersoul]

I've never seen that design before, but admittedly I also do not know any famous feminist writers. Is the off-center dot and different fonts for each letter part of the style?

Google is showing all kinds of hipstery fonts for this one and these names (it's Audre Lorde, Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis and bell hooks), this is just the one I remember seeing.

[Stadler]

I've seen this design for a while available with:

John &
Paul &
Ringo &
George

(You can get it with Ringo and George switched, but why would you want to?  )

I could have sworn I've seen the same for Zeppelin, but it wasn't there when I googled it. 

[RodrigoAltaf]

I'd get one like this:

Geddy &
Alex &
Neil &
Terry

[Cool Chris]

Personal preference, but I think that style is silly. It's totally something a teenage hipster in NYC would come up with and think was avant garde.

[The Walrus]

I want one that says

Me &
Myself &
I &
Nooneelse

[WilliamMunny]

Some actual MP appreciation:

Hello, Helicopter! Just popped up as I’m shuffling my collection on my computer. Ironically, Mike hated the way Kevin Moore chopped up all his drum parts, and it’s definitely not his usual style, but there is a lot of cool drumming on the first OSI album, including this track which remains one of my favorites.

I was just thinking something along this line the other day when I gave Blood a listen. While MP was out of the band by then, he was the impetus for OSI, and of all the post DT projects he's contributed to, OSI is the only one I revisit with any sort of regularity.

Flying Colors (especially the debut) is a close second - other than that, there just isn't much there for me.

[Adami]

I don’t know a ton about OSI, but I feel like saying MP was the impetus behind it is just not accurate.

[Buddyhunter1]

I don’t know a ton about OSI, but I feel like saying MP was the impetus behind it is just not accurate.

Well it was just him and Jim Matheos at the start, right? Kevin Moore didn't hop on board until later, which is ironic considering he has pretty inarguably the biggest footprint on that band's identity in retrospect.

[Adami]

I don’t know a ton about OSI, but I feel like saying MP was the impetus behind it is just not accurate.

Well it was just him and Jim Matheos at the start, right? Kevin Moore didn't hop on board until later, which is ironic considering he has pretty inarguably the biggest footprint on that band's identity in retrospect.

I may be wrong but it sounded like Jim was the impetus and mike was the drummer. I’m not saying he was unimportant, but I can’t see calling mike the driving force of it.

[Buddyhunter1]

Yup, you're right (according to the wikipedia page)

Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos originally intended to create a progressive metal supergroup while Fates Warning went on hiatus. He recruited Cynic & Gordian Knot Fretless Bass and Chapman Stickist Sean Malone and then-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy to work on the project. Matheos then asked Chroma Key and ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore to contribute by adding keyboard arrangements to the music he had written.

[Volante99]

Anyone know the origin of those shirts that are stylized like

name
&
name
&
name
&
name?

I see Mike wearing those shirts a lot and I want to say it originates from a band (probably someone super popular that I should be ashamed of not knowing - Crosby/Stills/Nash/Young maybe)? I feel like that sort of thing might play a role in these PSMS, BPMD, ADHD, PTSD bands, maybe he just likes that sort of thing, a few names doing stuff as a one-off

It started as a Beatles shirt
John&
Paul&
Ringo&
George.

Source: used to work in the licensed t-shirt biz

[Cool Chris]

I thought it was canonically "John, Paul, George, and Ringo." I have never in my life heard them referred to as a foursome in any other order.

[Stadler]

I think you're right, in general.  For some reason the shirt is commonly seen in a different order.  I don't know if that's a joke, or just a dipshit move. 

I'm pretty regularly stunned when it comes to that kind of thing, wondering "why did they do it that way?"

[New World Rushman]

A little Googling found this:

When we put the four names under each other, without the ampersands, we thought the name ‘George’ was sticking out too much, as this word was the longest. We solved this by putting the name ‘George’ at the bottom on the list, and adding ampersands to all the other names. This way, the list of names looked more even. That’s how the ampersands were introduced in the design.

https://fontsinuse.com/uses/29936/john-and-paul-and-ringo-and-george-and-and-an

[MoraWintersoul]

Yup, you're right (according to the wikipedia page)

Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos originally intended to create a progressive metal supergroup while Fates Warning went on hiatus. He recruited Cynic & Gordian Knot Fretless Bass and Chapman Stickist Sean Malone and then-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy to work on the project. Matheos then asked Chroma Key and ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore to contribute by adding keyboard arrangements to the music he had written.

Yeah, I've listened to an interview where Mike explains how he was disappointed with the way the whole thing turned out. He thought they were going to have a prog metal band, working with Jim was on his bucket list, they were talking about getting Daniel Gildenlow to sing, but then Jim and Kevin started making music together and the plans for the project went out the window.

Jim and Kevin's musical chemistry is a force that warps reality  I really love OSI but I guess from MP's point of view, it was pointless to be a part of that project.

[Madman Shepherd]

Yup, you're right (according to the wikipedia page)

Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos originally intended to create a progressive metal supergroup while Fates Warning went on hiatus. He recruited Cynic & Gordian Knot Fretless Bass and Chapman Stickist Sean Malone and then-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy to work on the project. Matheos then asked Chroma Key and ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore to contribute by adding keyboard arrangements to the music he had written.

Yeah, I've listened to an interview where Mike explains how he was disappointed with the way the whole thing turned out. He thought they were going to have a prog metal band, working with Jim was on his bucket list, they were talking about getting Daniel Gildenlow to sing, but then Jim and Kevin started making music together and the plans for the project went out the window.

Jim and Kevin's musical chemistry is a force that warps reality  I really love OSI but I guess from MP's point of view, it was pointless to be a part of that project.

This is correct but I do think MP was the impetus for Moore to join. I think it was his idea for Jim to ask him, then once Moore was on board, Portnoy got kind of pushed to the side. At least that is my memory of it.

BTW, I love OSI. Fire Make Thunder might be my favorite though.

[HOF]

Yup, you're right (according to the wikipedia page)

Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos originally intended to create a progressive metal supergroup while Fates Warning went on hiatus. He recruited Cynic & Gordian Knot Fretless Bass and Chapman Stickist Sean Malone and then-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy to work on the project. Matheos then asked Chroma Key and ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore to contribute by adding keyboard arrangements to the music he had written.

Yeah, I've listened to an interview where Mike explains how he was disappointed with the way the whole thing turned out. He thought they were going to have a prog metal band, working with Jim was on his bucket list, they were talking about getting Daniel Gildenlow to sing, but then Jim and Kevin started making music together and the plans for the project went out the window.

Jim and Kevin's musical chemistry is a force that warps reality  I really love OSI but I guess from MP's point of view, it was pointless to be a part of that project.

This is correct but I do think MP was the impetus for Moore to join. I think it was his idea for Jim to ask him, then once Moore was on board, Portnoy got kind of pushed to the side. At least that is my memory of it.

BTW, I love OSI. Fire Make Thunder might be my favorite though.

I actually never checked out any OSI after Mike stopped being involved. Part of it was I didn’t like Free as much as the debut (it has some cool stuff but I rarely revisit it). But I do still really like the first one, so maybe I should check the others out.

[Cool Chris]

When we put the four names under each other, without the ampersands, we thought the name ‘George’ was sticking out too much, as this word was the longest. We solved this by putting the name ‘George’ at the bottom on the list, and adding ampersands to all the other names. This way, the list of names looked more even. That’s how the ampersands were introduced in the design.

So they changed the canonical order of something to fit their hipster design? Brilliant!

Why am I so stuck on this?

And as I predicted, I honestly cannot remember the 4-letter name of that newest project, but it doesn't help that I do not know the 4 members well.

[Setlist Scotty]

I actually never checked out any OSI after Mike stopped being involved. Part of it was I didn’t like Free as much as the debut (it has some cool stuff but I rarely revisit it). But I do still really like the first one, so maybe I should check the others out.

Definitely do so. IMO, Free is by far the weakest of all their albums. I'd put Blood and Fire Make Thunder on pretty much equal footing with the debut.

[MoraWintersoul]

Free might be my favorite album actually. I rate Blood and FMT very highly too, especially FMT, but Free is one of my favorite albums in general.

[Buddyhunter1]

Their debut used to be my favorite of theirs, but idk if that's still the case. The more electronic-focused songs on Blood are easily my favorite things the band has ever done, but that album as a whole has a severe lack of cohesion between those songs and the more hard-rocking ones.

[KevShmev]

I liked Blood a lot when it was first out, but I haven't listened to it in forever.

Free had some really weak songs, but had some really great ones as well.

I can't even remember if I've heard the 4th album.

The debut it still the one I like the most overall.  It is very good from start to finish. 

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Yeah, Free is amazing all the way through. I guess the first couple of rock-ier tracks are a littler weaker? But even they're really good.

Fire Make Thunder is really good as well, although I think there was an instrumental on there that didn't do much for me? I haven't listened to much off that one other than Invisible Men in a while.

[RodrigoAltaf]

New BPMD song/video revealed today: https://youtu.be/wirtQmNL4k4

[Adami]

New BPMD song/video revealed today: https://youtu.be/wirtQmNL4k4

What an odd song. Most of those songs are so odd. It's like they're trying to see how few records they can sell or something.

[Metro]

Clutch covered that song last year and did it much better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDehbNb4Q1Y

[Trav86]

I liked Blood a lot when it was first out, but I haven't listened to it in forever.

Free had some really weak songs, but had some really great ones as well.

I can't even remember if I've heard the 4th album.

The debut it still the one I like the most overall.  It is very good from start to finish.

This is where I stand with OSI. I remember really liking a lot of the songs on Free when it came out, but the first is the only one I ever go back to.

[bosk1]

Who the heck are Clutch?  I watched the video, and then YouTube kept playing their songs, and they look like they've been around forever.

[RodrigoAltaf]

Who the heck are Clutch?  I watched the video, and then YouTube kept playing their songs, and they look like they've been around forever.

Wait... you don't know Clutch? Stop EVERYTHING and go check them out, man!!!!