BEAST IN THE MAZE

      Episode 24 of the podcast is live! This time, we recap our trip to Alpharetta, GA, to see two nights of Phish's 2021 Summer Tour. We'll get Matt's reaction to his first time seeing the band and being in that sort of environment, as well as talk about the ghost from The Ring , the Nintendo Power Glove, leading groups of hippies on sketchy hikes, the nitrous mafia, and much more.      As always, there are live picks! First, the longest song of the weekend, Tweezer  from Sunday night, clocking in at over a half hour, and second, Chalk Dust Torture  from Saturday night, another epic near half-hour of music. We hope you enjoy the picks and/or the episode! 

  This time on Beast in the Maze , we're finishing up our journey outside the maze with a look at a classic progressive rock album by the legendary and complicated King Crimson. The first of a trilogy of albums released with the same lineup (the other two being Starless and Bible Black  and Red ), the album replaces the woodwind/brass sounds heard on previous records with an all-string and percussion setup featuring violin alongside some interesting things like sheet metal and thumb pianos. Sometimes soft, sometimes heavy, always a step ahead of their own listeners, this album manages to rule while somehow remaining an enigma - on more than one occasion we found ourselves wondering exactly what instrument was producing a given sound on the album. It's also lyrically sparse, and much of its high-brow content comes from the music rather than the lyrics, which only appear on half of the album's six tracks, which are bookended by a two-part title track.  Join us as we discuss t

  In 1972, it was the golden age of a band which few are aware of in the US today, but to whom much is owed in the music world. A band which pioneered psychedelic stage shows, performance art, and the DIY ethic that would later define the punk generation. This band, of course, is Hawkwind. Often credited as the pioneers of the space rock genre, they were as much of a sci-fi novel come to life as they were a band, featuring dystopian poetry, liquid light shows, and body-painted interpretive dancers. Hawkwind's instrumental setup was unique at this time as well, featuring (in addition to the traditional rock instruments) saxophone, flute, synthesizer/keys, and audio generator.  With lyrics inspired (and sometimes written) by sci-fi authors such as Michael Moorcock, and influenced heavily by 60's counterculture and LSD, the band was a force to be reckoned with, and at the time, something no one had ever seen before.  Join us as we take a step outside of the Maze and take a look at

  Welcome back to the Maze! This time, we're tackling Phish's sixth studio album, Billy Breathes . Featuring a much different sound than its predecessor, Hoist , this album represents the band departing from the collaborative LA production present on the previous record in favor of a return to songs built from improvisation and far fewer guest musicians. Lyrically, many of the songs on the album were initially conceived by the Anastasio/Marshall songwriting duo during a vacation to the Cayman Islands, including the enigmatic "Character Zero," supposedly inspired by a DJ who was local to that area. There are of course exceptions for the obligatory Mike and Page songs ("Cars Trucks Buses" and "Train Song"), the string-heavy instrumental "Bliss," and the title track, which was inspired by the birth of Anastasio's daughter. Join us for the episode as we take on the tracks one by one as well as discussing the cover art (you really can see

       Well, we're through our first pass through Iron Maiden's studio catalogue. We haven't heard nearly everything yet, but we've taken a look at at least one  album from each of the major periods of the band's history, as follows: 1. The Paul Di'anno era - Iron Maiden  (1980). 2. The original Bruce Dickinson era - The Number of the Beast (1982), Powerslave (1984) , and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988). 3. The "Bruce but no Adrian" era - No Prayer for the Dying (1990).  4. The Blaze Bayley era - The X Factor  (1995) 5. The modern / three guitar era - Brave New World  (2000), A Matter of Life and Death (2006).      So, now it's time to go back and fill in all the gaps! This will allow us to both close out the studio album discussions as well as begin to incorporate some of the official live releases like Live After Death, Maiden England, Flight 666 , etc.     With that objective in mind, we're starting from the beginning once more and takin

  On the newest episode of Beast in the Maze , Brian and I finish our first (virtual) live Phish show, with the second set of the Hershey park show that we began in Episode 16.  Featuring an extended "Mike's Song>Weekapaug Groove," the second set gets a bit more "type 2" than the opening set. We still get a taste of Gamehendge in the form of "Wilson," as well as a couple of songs from the extremely early days of the band which feature writing from Nancy as well as the Dude of Life. In many ways, the set represents one of the peak eras of the band, as they had just put out A Live One  earlier in the year, which would go on to become the best-selling album of their entire catalog. There's a little bit of everything they've done up to this point represented on these setlists, and for fans of A Picture of Nectar , there are several tracks from that album played here, in particular. Join us as we discuss the highs and lows, the guitar solos, the

      This week on Beast in the Maze , we're taking a look at a not-quite-concept album from Iron Maiden, their fourteenth studio offering A Matter of Life and Death .     Featuring songs with themes of war and religion, life and birth, and light and shadow, this album sits in the middle (chronologically) of the modern lineup's releases, but is unique even among those for being a bit darker and heavier.      By the time A Matter of Life and Death  debuted, the band had begun exploring more progressive sounds as a default, and the albums as well as the songs within were gradually lengthening, on average, with the average song length here in the seven to eight minute range. The album is one which many people who only listen to the 1980s Maiden may overlook, but it's one which many listeners consider an underlooked modern classic - in fact, when Maiden toured most recently on the Legacy of the Beast tour, which was intended to be a restrospective, sort of "best of all the