Genesis pictures from Rolling Stone

Picture: The Stooges, Genesis, Abba Prep for Historic Rock Hall Induction

Picture: Peter Gabriel Says He Won’t Reunite With Genesis at Rock Hall Induction

Picture: The Cribs and Johnny Marr on the Smith’s New Role, Bad ’90s Music

Picture: Genesis Prep “The Movie Box,” Featuring Collins-Era Concert Films

Picture: Genesis: Chapter & Verse: Images from the band's new oral history, from 1969 to 2007

Picture: Genesis’ Ever-Changing Lineups: Previously Unseen Photos From “Chapter & Verse”

Fricke’s Picks: Porcupine Tree, the Future Kings of England and the Raspberries

The Art of Nightmares Porcupine Tree – the long-running British progressive-rock band founded and commanded by singer-guitarist-composer Steven Wilson – are rare in their field: obsessed not with fantasy but the death of it, particularly in children. At a recent head-trip gig at New York’s Beacon Theatre, films of sickly-white preteen zombies – hypnotized by computer screens, gulping medication, brandishing handguns – were projected on a screen behind Wilson during his tangled distortion-bomb riffing in the long title track of the recent album, Fear of a Blank Planet (Atlantic), and the record’s even longer centerpiece nightmare, “Anesthetize.” A schoolgirl ran amok in what looked like a ruined psych ward during the convulsive title instrumental from the group’s new EP, Nil Recurring (Transmission). Wilson started Porcupine Tree in 1987 as a home-studio experiment that has since evolved, live and on an extensive series of records, into an aggressively modern merger of Rush’s arena art rock, U.K. prog classicism – especially Pink Floyd’s eulogies to madness and King Crimson’s angular majesty – and the postgrunge vengeance of Tool. There are no dragons evident on Fear of a Blank Planet or Nil Returning. But there are plenty of demons. And King Crimson guitarist-sage Robert Fripp plays on both records, an impeccable seal of approval. New Royal Freaks Witches and fiends run riot through the lyrics and instrumental vapors of the six extended tracks on The Fate of Old Mother Orvis (Backwater), by the Future Kings of England. The audaciously named British band’s mix of art rock and freak folk is also rife with other specters – the pastoral Floyd, ’72 Genesis, the echosoup psychedelia of Amon Düül II – whipped together with an ardor that sounds like yesterday and tomorrow at once. Seventies Rock Candy Hard and sweet, the Raspberries were never the second coming of the Beatles. They were, in the early Seventies, and still are – based on a show I just saw by the original li

Published: 2007-11-08
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Fricke's Picks

Genesis: The Biggest Tour That You Haven’t Heard Much About

The Genesis reunion tour has been somewhat lost amongst a sea of Van Halens and Police on the road this fall: Pulling up to the venue I was somewhat concerned I’d be the only one there. But as far as I could tell every seat in the 16,000-person arena was taken — in Hartford, Connecticut, no less. And as the band burst into a show closing “Carpet Crawlers” — a Peter Gabriel-era track that you don’t hear on the radio every day — I was further shocked to hear the whole place singing along. Did I miss something? Was every Genesis fan on the entire East Coast at this concert, or is Genesis sorta, kinda, somewhat cooler than they used to be? Has their long absence deemphasized their weaker moments (i.e. “Hold On My Heart”) and left only what’s great (i.e. “Los Endos”)? Whatever it is, they’re playing three nights in Philadelphia this week and Giants Stadium next week. I’m clearly not the only one out there digging this. Last night, as Genesis played their 1973 quasi-hit “I Know What I Like” at the Hartford Civic Center, images from the group’s past appeared on a giant screen. We saw a young, rail-thin Peter Gabriel dressed in a ridiculous flower costume; an even more ridiculous Slipperman costume from the 1975 Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour; and former guitarist Steve Hackett playing alongside a tambourine-wielding Phil Collins (looking like an Ewok crossed with an elf) shortly after Collins took over for Gabriel on vocals in 1976. It’s a past that the band has come to terms with: On recent tours, the band’s proggy Seventies songs were relegated to a few lines in a medley, if not dropped entirely to make room for latterday pop tunes like “That’s All” and “In Too Deep.” That was not the case last night, their first tour with Collins in fifteen years. Collins, who has been critical of the band’s early work over the years, performed the ancient numbers with the gusto of his counterpart on the screen, albeit with much less hair and a little more paun

Published: 2007-09-18
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News, Live Shows

Genesis

Genesis pictures from Rolling Stone

The Stooges, Genesis, Abba Prep for Historic Rock Hall Induction

Peter Gabriel Says He Won’t Reunite With Genesis at Rock Hall Induction

The Cribs and Johnny Marr on the Smith’s New Role, Bad ’90s Music

Genesis Prep “The Movie Box,” Featuring Collins-Era Concert Films

Genesis: Chapter & Verse: Images from the band's new oral history, from 1969 to 2007

Genesis’ Ever-Changing Lineups: Previously Unseen Photos From “Chapter & Verse”

Rewind: The Week in Rock Daily

Fricke’s Picks: Porcupine Tree, the Future Kings of England and the Raspberries

Genesis: The Biggest Tour That You Haven’t Heard Much About