Terry's Travels
Here are some of the sites I visit quite frequently from my
own bookmarks.
MUSIC
- GROUPS/ PERFORMERS
: If there
was one band that I wish I could have been a member of, this would be it!
They invented the look of Zolo, which they paired with a compelling and
unique art rock/ quirky hybrid, making them a truly immortal tour-de-force.
: 
This band
I actually listen to more than any other, because their staggering tally
of remarkable albums is so enourmous that there's always something to choose
from.
- XTC When I
went Zolo at 16, this band was IT! From the bleeps and sputters of their
early albums to the dense art pop that followed, this band's penchant for
melodic excellence and lyrical intrigue has never wavered.
:
Some albums have a certain profound impact on me that turns my life
around and grow with time, and this man is responsible for two of
them: Drastic Plastic and Sound-On-Sound, and thats
just the beginning. From scortching, grandiose pomp to spastic Zolo to
lush New Romantic, this man always has the magic touch.
: Nearly every track on their first two albums can be credited as the stylistic spring board for a dozen New Wave bands a piece, while their subsequent three are THEE greatest cabaret pop-rock records of all time!
:
Here's another band that cemented my conversion into Zolo. They invented at least a half dozen new styles that have been purveyed by virtually no one else, from polkadot xylophone sound compartments to dada vocal jigsaw puzzles.
: The only "Punk" band that I still listen to on a
regular
basis, and the secret is they've never been Punk- they're Zonk. Their sophistication, instrumental dexterity, harmolodic counterpoint and compositional diversity was unparalled by any other New Wave band.
:
Like no other band before them, these guys inaugerated the synthesizer
into a legitimate and wholly asseccible new music tool, while
transcending the ambience of voice, guitar, and drums into a hypnotic,
mutant art form.
- GARY NUMAN: Most writers need a
good hook to carry a toon, but not this guy! Every note he hits is a
stoke of genious by sheer virtue of the sound colours, and he is one of
the very few who's mere execution is greater than the material at hand.
- GODLEY
AND CREME: After parting from the brilliant symphonic-pop quartet 10cc, this enigmatic duo transcended their influences (the quirky side of Gentle Giant crossed with proto-Zolo Zappa, minus the latter's self-effacing glibness) to forge the most mature recorded expression of Zolo on their album L.
- DEAF SCHOOL: Once I fantasized about how deve it would be for there to have been a band on the brink of the punk era donned in sleak, sharp attire (amidst those gangly dressed mid-70's) and crafting songs of dynamic, theatre and beauty that drew in the glamour and camp of pre-war Hollywood with the punch and bite of their contemporaneous peers- thus invoking multiple time destined escape slots at once. And then I found out that such a band existed, and aside from Island-era Sparks and post-Judd Enz, they are my favorite "pop" (as opposed to Art Rock) band ever.
- MAGAZINE:
Departing the pedestrian Punk terrain of the Buzzcocks, Howard Devoto sought to combine the dynamics, grandeur and complexity of the best pre-existing anglo rock with the most inventive sonorities and new found venom and abrasion, and thus the first New Wave/ Symphonic Progressive band was born. AHHHH.... the best of both worlds!
- ENO: Four years before Drastic Plastic, Ultravox, XTC or the Stranglers, this troubadour pioneered quirky New Wave Art Rock, and then he forged Cold Wave's calmer, instrumental sibling, ambient music.
- KING
CRIMSON: The band that invented Symphonic Progressive, went on to help formulate Chamber Prog, and finally regroup to give Zolo one of it's foremost expressions on the 4 and 6 strings.
: Any self respecting Art Rocker must be attuned to this bands all around invention and importance. Their first few albums invented a dozen different futures which (unlike Gentle Giant) have been procured and (unlike Sparks) have been given credit where credit is do.
:
Aside from GENESIS, this is the greatest symphonic/ prog band ever! Their
rich melodiscism and that lovely voice make their records a cerebral ear
candy, from the early acoustic outings to the quirky New Wave later releases.
: The most conceptually pure and distinguished band in the Neo-Vaudeville/ Cabaret Pop camp, a musical continuum affecting the Guilded Age high jinks of four stylish, cunning sailors in the lure of ruttish seaboard debauchery.
- STACKRIDGE:One of the great Neo-Vaudeville Art Rock bands who combined the music hall jaunts of the inner-war years with the dynamics and richness of the post-Crimson era.
- VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR: The Symphonic Progressive band of reference amongst New Wave Art Rockers, their mix of eloquence and racket made them the missing link betwixt Genesis and the Stranglers.
- THE BOOMTOWN RATS: Of New Wave's main line (non-Zolo or Cold Wave) this band was the funnest, hippest unit of all. Their often quirky penchant for diversity brushed upon many styles, channeled into a vigorous congruence, and those spunky hairdoes, striped shirts and salmon denim pencil floods were HOT!
- GENRES/ ESSAYS
- VENDORS/ CATALOGUES
-
CUNEIFORM RECORDS: THE place to get all your R.I.O. oddities.
Most ReR affiliates are carried. Mostly CD.
- MUSEA: Enormous
selection of Euro Prog, both new and reissued lost treasures. Mostly CD.
- AEON MUSIC:
Massive trove of used, rare Prog vinyl. Strictly graded and insitefully
endorsed.
ART
- CURIO
:
Dedicated to the toy from whence I got the name for this movement,
featuring an ever expanding photo gallery of and letters concerning Zolo,
ran by a friendly fan.
- THE TAROT GARDEN: Photos of Tuscany's deve and dazzling Zolo palace.
- PAINTERS
- JOAN
MIRO: Zolo had it's start in the realm of visual arts, and this man
is the one who started ot all with Carnival of Harlequin in
1924, the first of the bold, abstract, eye popping canvasses that he
created from the twenties through the seventies.
: 
My
favorite canvass of all time is his Hot Still Scape in
Six Colours (1941), the original of which I had the pleasure of seeing
a number of times at it's home in The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, when I
lived in that area. This site contains a dozen of large JPEGs,
including several from his utmost Zolo 1940's period.
THEATRE
MORE TO COME!
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