Interview with David Torn from 2011

Interview with Tony Levin from 2017

Stick Men is a unique power trio. Founded by legendary and still cutting edge bassist / Chapman Stick artist, Tony Levin, Stick Men continues to expand the horizons of modern progressive music. With the departure of fellow Stick artist Michael Bernier, Austrian touch guitar master, Markus Reuter, has joined King Crimson band-mates Levin and drummer Pat Mastelotto for one of the most impressive forays into modern music. Absalom represents the first recorded portion of a planned longer CD release from Stick Men.

My impression of Absalom is that with the first listen, you’ll likely immediately be drawn into the expansive diversity of styles, sounds, and textures spread through this highly enjoyable and musically advanced EP. I have been listening to this collection for several weeks, and I can only say that the songs are growing even more on me. Each listen gives the opportunity to hear a different relationship of sounds I hadn’t noticed on the prior listen. This is very, very good music of our era. I highly recommend this album.

Lately I’ve been breaking our old rule at Music Street Journal.

This single from Anderson, Bruford Wakeman and Howe is out of print, of course, but these days, it’s not that hard (or sometimes expensive) to get your hands on something like this.

This new five-CD collection is pretty amazing. I've said before, and will repeat it here, that this new version of King Crimson might well be the best lineup they've had, particularly in terms of live shows.

Fans of the So album will especially want to pick this up.

Old school prog fans should find plenty to like here. That said, modern progressive rock aficionados will probably like it, too. .


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This single from Anderson, Bruford Wakeman and Howe is out of print, of course, but these days, it’s not that hard (or sometimes expensive) to get your hands on something like this.

Yes seldom do anything in a small way when it can be done in an epic manner. 

This is a review of the special edition audiophile release of Close to the Edge. This is a great limited edition, numbered CD release.

Steve Thorne is one of the great unsung British prog heroes, a veritable one man band who has released a series of consistently well-crafted and thought-provoking solo albums, Crimes & Reasons being his fourth.

This is a good, but not great, live album from King Crimson. The first thing holding it from the “great” title is the sound quality.

This is an EP that’s tied to a graphic novel.

This is an EP that’s tied to a graphic novel.

This 1980 release from Bruford features Bill Bruford (obvious, right?), Dave Stewart, Jeff Berlin and The Unknown John Clark. It has a number of instrumentals along with some songs with vocals.

This newly released double CD compilation gathers up a number of studio and live recordings from Bill Bruford's Earthworks in a nice re-mastered package.

This box set is a class act. The whole thing comes in something that resembles a book. 

On the one hand, Nick D'Virgilio has been out of Spock's Beard for a while now. That means that perhaps the mentions of the band and comparisons aren't entirely appropriate.

This is quite an interesting set. It's been released in honor of the 50th Anniversary of King Crimson's Larks' Tongues in Aspic album. We get two CDs here along with two Blu-Rays. 

In the early parts of 2013 I was kind of under-impressed with the music coming out.

There is certainly something to be said for truth in advertising. Looking at the group name and the album title, really sets the stage for the music within.

I saw Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe on this tour and it was purely magical.

I had never seen the mighty King Crimson play live before - not surprising, as I was only ten years old when the band last played my home town in 1974!

The excellent “Two of a Perfect Trio” tour was a well-publicized and equally well received series of concerts featuring the bands of King Crimson legends Tony Levin and Adrian Belew.

King Crimson has one of the most interesting and complicated histories in all of progressive rock. The lineup is one of the most dynamic, too.

Downey, California is best remembered for the spacecrafts, fighter jets and B-1 bombers built there over the past three or four decades.

More (and larger) photos from this concert are available in our members' area.



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It seems that there is quite a bit of live material being released from this version of King Crimson. That's a great thing because this line-up might be the best ever.

This is truly an amazing set. Looking at just the product itself, without even considering the performances will tell you that.

Anyone who has heard anything from Stick men will know what to expect here.

This double CD compilation is an interesting and unique collage of multiple percussive styles given to a wide palette of genres and colors therein.

It used to be a rule at MSJ that if something was out of print we didn’t cover it.

So was clearly the album that broke Peter Gabriel into the mainstream.

I am a big fan of pretty much anything Billy Sherwood is involved with and I love Supertramp, so when I heard Sherwood was in charge of assembling an all star tribute to Supertramp, I was excited.

This is a double disc set. I believe that it was also released at one point in time as two single disc sets.

Is this album progressive rock? No.

For hardcore Yes fans, this is a real treasure.

While this is released under Xavi Reija's name, the full lineup here is full of exceptional musicians. Reija handles the drums while Tony Levin delivers bass, standup bass and Stick.

This 35th Anniversary collection of Yes shares a lot of material with other compilations of theirs.

When King Crimson reformed after the 80s period, there were definitely elements of that period still present in their sound. 

There have been a few books written about the band, Yes but this one really includes the involvement of many of the members of the group through extensive interviews. 

This live album is pretty great. .

Considered by many to be one of the greatest prog albums of all time, it is a shame that the line-up lasted only one album and tour.  

I remember seeing Yes on the Union tour. It was an amazing show.

Vantomme is named for its founder Dominique Vantomme. He is a keyboardist, producer and more.

This album is fully instrumental. It’s a great disc, too. Some of the music here has appeared elsewhere (although most of the time in different arrangements)

I’m sure some would make the argument that we don’t need another Yes compilation album.