I just returned this weekend from The Northeast Art Rock Festival (NEARfest) which is one of the more obscure music festivals. It takes place annually in Bethlehem, PA and focuses on a facet of rock music often referred to as prog, shorthand for progressive. Sub-genres in prog would be classical rock (Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Gentle Giant), ambient (Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno) or fusion (Frank Zappa, Return to Forever), occasionally with a touch of metal thrown in for good measure. The 70s was the zenith for progressive rock when longer songs were a staple on FM radio and the success of bands like Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull made a dent on the mainstream music charts. Unfortunately they’re penchant for pretentiousness also made them fodder for music parodies ala Spinal Tap.

Even though prog’s profile has faded over the years, there are still bands dabbling in this eclectic type of music. This year’s NEARfest lineup included bands from Wales, Italy, Denmark, Poland, England, France and the U.S. all with their own unique sound. One of the classic bands to take the stage this year was Hawkwind (England), a holdover from the 70s credited for creating space rock and Magma (France) who performed with a five piece ensemble whose sound was a mix of percussive jazz and classical backed by four vocalists singing in a made-up language (I kid you not) called Kobaian. Maybe this is why this stuff is still popular in Europe but falls on deaf ears in the U.S.

Personally, I thought Indukti from Poland (of which several members are from symphony orchestras) were impressive with their metallic industrial sound, but by the time the last guitar was unplugged during this loud weekend, I had to give the nod to Pure Reason Revolution from England for successfully blowing the audience away with their Brit-pop sound sprinkled with psychedelic overtones. The band has the looks and pop-smarts to potentially reach a wider audience like their predecessors from the 70s. MySpace offers a few clips of the group in action to give you an idea of what can be found on their CDs.

Sean and Julian Lennon have apparently reconciled following an eight year patch of intense sibling rivalry.

The fight, not surprisingly, began over comments Julian had made about Sean’s mother, Yoko Ono. Julian, 44, was John Lennon’s son with his first wife, Cynthia.

The AP reports that the two brothers are now on good terms again. Julian visited his kid brother, 31, while Sean was touring in Prague, even sleeping on the floor of his tour bus.

Awwww…

Hillary Clinton announced the winner of her internet poll to decide her campaign song for her ‘08 Presidential bid. The winner was French-Canadian songstress, Celine Dion.

Great?

Obama has skewed a slightly different demographic according to this unsolicited endorsement from Amber Lee and her friends

Tony Soprano’s jukebox selection of “Don’t Stop Believin” in a Jersey diner provided the soundtrack to the final minutes of the long-running series, but it also inadvertently may have breathed new life into an old band. Within two days of the final episode, Journey’s “Believin” became the 19th most downloaded song in the i-Tunes store as reported in Forbes. According to the band’s Web site, they also just fired their current lead singer, the second since the departure of Steve Perry. In this year of band reunions, could there possibly be a return of the legendary lineup? I’m cynical enough to suppose it all depends how well their bank accounts are faring. If Sopranos fans are any indication, it looks like there’s still interest in the former stadium rockers. Bada-bing, cha-ching!

I was listening to 93.5 yesterday, expecting to hear songs that my parents listened to when they were young, and what did I hear?

“Maneater” by Hall and Oates!

What the #$%%? That’s not an oldie! Oh no, it is. And so am I.

Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur, a compilation disc featuring contemporary artists (and Aerosmith) performing John Lennon songs was released Tuesday.

I’m sure “purists” will cringe at Avril Lavigne performing Imagine and X-Tina Aguilera’s version of Mother, but I don’t care if it can expose young people to John Lennon’s work I think it’s a good thing. Plus it goes to a good cause… probably. Assuming half the profits weren’t eaten up by Los Lonely Boys’ rider.

The Monterey Pop Festival is being resurrected this July and in an effort to recreate the original 1967 “summer of love,” they’re inviting bands of that era to participate. Signed up so far are (surviving members of) The Jefferson Starship, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Riders on the Storm (Manzarek and Krieger of The Doors) Big Brother & the Holding Company (featuring Cathy Richardson on vocals from the US musical, ‘Love, Janis’), Electric Flag and The Grateful Dead’s Tom Constentan.

In my opinion, Monterey Pop actually had better musical performances than the more widely recognized Woodstock Festival. Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and the Who somehow sounded better under the sunny skies of California than in the rain-soaked fields of upstate New York. Here’s hoping the weather cooperates for the sake of everyone’s arthritis.

According to the their website, “Live Earth is a 24-hour, 7-continent series of 9 concerts taking place on 7/7/07 that will bring together more than 100 music artists and 2 billion people to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.”

Locales for the shows include Istanbul, London, East Rutherford, NJ, Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro and Hamburg.

Initially organizers Al Gore and Kevin Wall (Live 8 founder) had capped out their multi-continent concerts at six, but now a band made up of five researchers (calling themselves ”Nunatak”) in the Antartica  has been assembled to join in on the occasion. Nunatak may not be as well known as some of the other performers; Police, Genesis, the Black-Eyed Peas, Dave Matthews Band or Joss Stone are just some of the acts signed up to play, but because of these singing scientists, Live Earth can now claim six continents.

Harptallica is a female harpist duo who play Metallica. Here’s a video of them doing “Unforgiven” and to be honest, it works. Makes Metallica sound sort of respectable. These girls have pluck.

Comedy Central has an adult cartoon show called “Lil’ Bush” which is a parody of George W. and his administration. Not being much of a TV watcher, I’ve never seen the program, but I’m intrigued to learn that they’ve got several members of the rock community doing voices for characters. Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) is the voice of God, Iggy Pop is “Lil Rummy” and Frank Black (The Pixies) is the Devil. It’s always good to have a backup career plan….