Steven Wilson v. To. The. Bone.

[Zantera]

I liked 4 1/2 when it came out, but got bored with it soon. Not of the same creative quality as HCE in my opinion.

Well it is B-Sides...

But I agree, even though I found it kinda meh initially as well. But there's nothing worth returning for.

[KevShmev]

I view 4 1/2 as a little snack to hold us over until the next full length album comes out.

That said, I do like all of it, and Happiness III is one of his catchiest songs ever.

[Kwyjibo]

Wonder what made him change his mind?

https://t.co/u8xHmHJkuD

Thanks, pretty interesting read.

[countoftuscany42]

New North America dates this fall courtesy of SW's Facebook!

Steven Wilson is returning to North America in November! See tour dates below. Tickets are on sale this Friday, 24th June.
3rd - Roseland Theater, Portland
4th - The Masonic, San Francisco
5th - The Belasco, Los Angeles
6th - Belly Up, Solano Beach
9th - Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix
11th - In The Venue, Salt Lake City
12th - Gothic Theatre, Denver
15th - Majestic Theatre, Dallas
17th - Center Stage, Atlanta
18th - The Plaza Live, Orlando
19th - State Theatre, Tampa
20th - culture room, Fort Lauderdale
https://stevenwilsonhq.com/sw/tour-dates/

[goo-goo]

I'm kind of surprised that SW is hitting NA again..not that I'm complaining. I just thought the HCE/4 1/2 cycle was over. I think I'll hit the Dallas show.

[senecadawg2]

Wow that is surprising... Hopefully I'll get to that Atlanta show

[bout to crash]

So pumped he's coming to Denver!

[JayOctavarium]

I want to go to the LA show. I missed the HCE tour.  But... I don't know where I will be financially at that time.  /shrugs

[KevShmev]

So pumped he's coming to Denver!

Heh, I am already trying to talk a friend into us flying out there for that show, since it is on a Saturday (and we both work days job M-F).

[Ben_Jamin]

I'm thinking bout hitting up the Denver show.

[FlyingBIZKIT]

Oh yes, I can't wait. Atlanta for sure.

[BlackInk]

Oops, wrong thread.

[countoftuscany42]

just got a ticket for LA with the live nation presale, although it was odd that all seats were GA despite it being a nice-looking seated theater.  I'm hoping live nation didn't mess up and screw me, but i guess ill figure it out

[bout to crash]

So pumped he's coming to Denver!

Heh, I am already trying to talk a friend into us flying out there for that show, since it is on a Saturday (and we both work days job M-F).

Do iiiiiiit! We could party!!

I'm thinking bout hitting up the Denver show.

You too!

[KevShmev]

Hehe, we shall see.  It's all a matter of money and us both being able to go that weekend. Would be fun as heck for sure. 

[ReaperKK]

Just saw an email that SW is coming to my town later this year, not sure if I'm going to see him without Guthrie. I might pop by anyway because the venue is a three minute walk from my apartment.

[bout to crash]

I'm just going to pretend I didn't read that 

And Kev, if you need a couch I'm maybe 20min from the venue 

[KevShmev]

Noted.

[goo-goo]

Does anybody have the presale code for Dallas?

[ReaperKK]

I'm just going to pretend I didn't read that 

And Kev, if you need a couch I'm maybe 20min from the venue 

Jackie if you want to come to Florida and crash at my place to watch SW you're more than welcome too, I'll be more motivated to go

[ReaperKK]

Wonder what made him change his mind?

https://t.co/u8xHmHJkuD

Not trying troll or anything but I never understood he hate on the iPod or selling songs by individual songs. I feel that if you're releasing music out into the world then people are free to dissect and read into it how they like.

[KevShmev]

I read that interview earlier and I agree with SW for the most part.

His stance on Prince was spot-on.  You have to get with the times, and going out of your way to prevent people from hearing your music at all is just not smart in the current age we live in.

[Sacul]

Wonder what made him change his mind?

https://t.co/u8xHmHJkuD

Not trying troll or anything but I never understood he hate on the iPod or selling songs by individual songs. I feel that if you're releasing music out into the world then people are free to dissect and read into it how they like.

He's just a lover of the old tradition of listening to music - albums as a whole piece and dedicating your time to read the lyrics and appreciate the artwork. I personally respect that, I rarely listen to songs outside their original context, I just follow what the artist intended.

[bout to crash]

Wooo, bought tickets to the Denver show! I got two, just in case...

[seasonsinthesky]

Wonder what made him change his mind?

https://t.co/u8xHmHJkuD

Not trying troll or anything but I never understood he hate on the iPod or selling songs by individual songs. I feel that if you're releasing music out into the world then people are free to dissect and read into it how they like.

He's just a lover of the old tradition of listening to music - albums as a whole piece and dedicating your time to read the lyrics and appreciate the artwork. I personally respect that, I rarely listen to songs outside their original context, I just follow what the artist intended.

The thing that always annoyed me about the SW iPod smashing is that this critique you've brought up - I'm pretty sure he did indeed say nearly that exact thing a few times - is that iPods can do that! Once they updated them (and iTunes) to do gapless playback, this was no longer an issue. Whatsoever. It was people CHOOSING to make playlists and not pay attention to albums that resulted in the 'playlist mentality' he hates on, which he did HIMSELF by making mixtapes back in the day (also admitted many times). There's no less care taken in making playlists vs. cassettes except dubbing time, for all sorts of people.

The actual issue is that there's no physical thing to play or art to look through. So SW shouldn't have been smashing iPods, he should have been smashing computers with "MP3" sprayed on the monitors.

Someone should make a video of taking a sledgehammer to one of his huge boxsets just to end the whole damn thing.

[Zantera]

I don't mind SW's opinion about it, since I share the same opinion, that an album should be listened to as an album and not split up for a "randomized" play-list, but he is fighting an uphill battle and at this point we've heard the same rants from him for almost a decade. The iPod-smashing and all of this started around Insurgentes and that was back in 2008. Cool for the fans who actually use streaming services that he finally released the albums, though personally I don't really care either way. The general idea that making your music available on as many formats as possible is beneficial is something I agree with, and at SW's position, he doesn't need to chose between hardcore fans or casual fans. He can let the passionate fans experience his albums in one sitting and he can let the Spotify-generation experience the music one song at the time, and it will benefit him both ways.

[Kwyjibo]

While I generally listen more to albums and far less to individual songs I don't see the big fuss about it.

There are records that don't work when listening to the songs individually and there are records where it really doesn't matter. And there are records that have some good songs and a lot of crap. It always depends on the type of listener and the type of record.

And it was this way before ipod and spotify. We listened to the radio, we went to clubs and pubs and bars and we made our mixtapes.

And what is it with live concerts? Following SW''s argument strictly, the artist should always play whole records and not the best songs from different records. Sure sometimes they do this, especially when it's concept records or anniversaries but mostly it's a career spanning selection of individual songs. And the concerts aren't worse for it.

[The King in Crimson]

While I generally listen more to albums and far less to individual songs I don't see the big fuss about it.

There are records that don't work when listening to the songs individually and there are records where it really doesn't matter. And there are records that have some good songs and a lot of crap. It always depends on the type of listener and the type of record.

And it was this way before ipod and spotify. We listened to the radio, we went to clubs and pubs and bars and we made our mixtapes.

And what is it with live concerts? Following SW''s argument strictly, the artist should always play whole records and not the best songs from different records. Sure sometimes they do this, especially when it's concept records or anniversaries but mostly it's a career spanning selection of individual songs. And the concerts aren't worse for it.

Exactly.

Steven may have a point, generally, about audio quality, fidelity, and the album as an experience or some such, but he carried it a bit too far and as a result comes off a bit curmudgeonly and luddite-ish.

[Zantera]

I don't think the problem is that he "carried it too far", some artists are not on streaming services and probably never be, but the difference is they don't really talk about it. With SW, it has been brought up in almost every interview for 10 years. "The poetry of the album", "today's youth don't know what we had" and so on. He could have said that once in 2008 and it would have been fine, but when it has been brought up every year for almost a decade, it gets annoying to hear it.

[TioJorge]

I've never had a problem with Steven's opinion, but then again he would have in the past had a problem with my opinion despite me being a huge fan and supporter of his for a long fucking time. Which is to say, I'm not sure why anyone would care that much about what someone else does with their own property. This extends to many things in life (the old "YOU HATE WHAT I LOVE" or visa versa shtick) but this one is particularly interesting because no matter what, he was basically giving the bird to people that support and love his music and gave them shit for listening to it in a certain format and way.

I'm glad he lightened the fuck up and similarly woke up because it really doesn't matter. In this age of music, it's a god send and a miraculous thing if people even buy the music at all. Hell, even on a streaming service, it's at least something. These days buying the album/physical format is just the other nine yards of fandom it seems. It is what it is. I personally will always buy his physical formats, but I do so to support him extra and to fuel my useless, stupid human condition of materialism. I can't remember the last time I actually listened to a physical album. I've used digital and will continue to for a while because of the sheer and utter convenience of it and while I don't have particularly bad hearing, I sure as shit cannot hear the difference between audio and a motherfucking CD/Vinyl. Kudos to those who can. Which not only isn't hurting anyone, but Steven gets my extra support and I get to not carry around loads of albums and shit during my hectic life and still listen to all my favorite bands. Win-win.

Excited to see all his stuff on Apple Music despite the fact that I already had it in my collection. It's actually helpful to me also because of memory usage. There's a lot of bands I listen to that don't have their music on Apple Music so I have a lot of space taken up due to having it on my phone's drive. In celebration of this, I will listen to every album of his out of order, and then make a mixed playlist of each of my favorite songs across all his albums. 

[Zantera]

As someone with light OCD myself (when it comes to certain things), I can relate to him though. He's putting his work out there, and I can understand him wanting people to experience it as he created it. Not just randomly in a playlist out of order or something. But in the end he is not really controlling it but rather holding it back. The only way he could really get around it would be if he made albums with 1 songs on them, like a 55 minute song and that's the album. Then you can't split it up and listen to it out of order as easily. 

[seasonsinthesky]

The only way he could really get around it would be if he made albums with 1 songs on them, like a 55 minute song and that's the album. Then you can't split it up and listen to it out of order as easily. 

That's about the only thing on the prog checklist he hasn't done!

In the technical sense, of course. The Incident is basically that but with track splits.

[The Letter M]

The only way he could really get around it would be if he made albums with 1 songs on them, like a 55 minute song and that's the album. Then you can't split it up and listen to it out of order as easily. 

That's about the only thing on the prog checklist he hasn't done!

In the technical sense, of course. The Incident is basically that but with track splits.

It would end up being at LEAST two tracks, though, being the vinyl-lover that he is. So if it's one album, it'd end up being two 20-25 minute tracks for one album. Maybe he'd splice them together on the CD though...

-Marc.

[Mosh]

Wow, opened this thread and found two cool pieces of news: Steven Wilson on spotify and the USA tour.

Never seen him live, but I might check out the Denver show.

[The King in Crimson]

As someone with light OCD myself (when it comes to certain things), I can relate to him though. He's putting his work out there, and I can understand him wanting people to experience it as he created it. Not just randomly in a playlist out of order or something. But in the end he is not really controlling it but rather holding it back. The only way he could really get around it would be if he made albums with 1 songs on them, like a 55 minute song and that's the album. Then you can't split it up and listen to it out of order as easily. 

Well, as an artist, Steven Wilson should realize that once he puts his art out there, how people perceive, interpret, and enjoy it is completely out of his hands. The artist's intentions only go so far and I'm glad he's at least realized that people enjoying his music is more important than how they enjoy it.