Birdwaves Media Presents: The ProgCast

We are dissecting some difficult transitions. This is a long rehearsal with tons of clams. For Internal Use Only.

From Yes Album: Yours Is No Disgrace Starship Trooper All Good People Perpetual Change From Fragile: Roundabout Long Distance Runaround-The Fish From CTTE: And You and I Siberian Khatru

With our new Bass player Josh Powers on board. Here's the set list: Boss Guitar Brave New Tango Emmonque Desert Rock Goddess of Love Gooj Everything Jackboot Sunflow'r Silver the Moonlight Tony's Wife Les Tetes Into The Underworld Sylvia Taboo This 'n That Riggers NYC The Stomp Back To School This Boat Is Sailing

Our second rehearsal, this time with the drummer. Features Tony Jillson on Guitar and Vocals, Matt Fuller on Guitar and Backing Vocals, Robert Speth on Keys, Josh Powers on Bass, Kevin Smith on Tuba and JJ O'Connell on Drums. This band is HUGE!

The third and final set of the evening. We return to the St Mix originals. Riggers NYC was pretty good.

Our ZZ Top portion of the program.

St Mix plays Snowzees in Sunderland, Ma for the first time. In this set we play two new tunes: 'Back To School' and 'The Stomp', which I wrote for my last band, The Ostrich Farm.

Set 3 Riggers NYC Sylvia Emmonque Everything Taboo Jackboot Sunflow'r Closer And Closer Alley Cat This Boat Is Sailing The Edge of Nowhere

Set 2 Waitin for the Bus Jesus Just left Chicago Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers Master of Sparks Hot, Blue and Righteous Move me on Down The Line La Grange Precious and Grace Sheik Have You Heard? Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings Heard it on the X Tush Manic Mechanic

Here' s the setlist for set 1: Boss Guitar Desert Rock Brave New Tango Gooj Goddess of Love This 'n That + Tony's Wife Les Tetes Silver the Moonlight Spiral In

St Mix plays the Battle of the Bands at Theodore's in Springfield, Ma. Didn't win, but met some nice folks.

On an icy, blustery night, St Mix performs as a duo. TubaLove is stranded in New Hampshire, taking care of Aunt Flora. Tony and Dan soldier on, and perform admirably to an appreciative audience. Take that, Mother Nature!

Set 3 Jackboot Sunflow'r Everything Taboo Powerhouse Boink Reggae Boss Guitars Alley Cat Closer and Closer Edge of Nowhere

Waitin for the Bus Jesus Just left Chicago Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers Master of Sparks Hot, Blue and Righteous Move me on Down The Line Precious and Grace La Grange Sheik Have You Heard? Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings Heard it on the X Tush Manic Mechanic

Set 1 Spiral In Gooj Riggers les Tetes Sylvia Emmonque Mark II Tony's Wife Brave New Tango Silver The Moonlight Goddess of Love This 'N' That Desert Rock II This Boat

Set II: Brave New Tango Powerhouse This 'n That Tony's Wife Les Tetes Goddess of Love The Edge of Nowhere Boss Guitar

Set I: Spiral In This Boat Is Sailing Gooj Emmonque Silver the Moonlight Boink Reggae Desert Rock Everything + Sylvia Taboo

Our 1st gig with a drummer. Setlist for Set 2: Emmonque, Brave New Tango, Alley Cat, Powerhouse, This 'n That, Closer and Closer, Desert Rock, This Boat is Sailing, The Edge of Nowhere.

Our 1st gig with a drummer. Setlist for Set 1: Boss Guitar, Sylvia, Les Tetes, Gooj, Goddess of Love, Taboo, Everything, +, Tony's Wife, Silver the Moonlight.

St Mix introduces some select numbers from our last rehearsal. Dave Noonan comes aboard for our next gig. We got a drummer! For now at least...

St Mix and Tubalove sit down in Tuba's living room and listen to potential cover candidates. St Mix wants to do another Gentle Giant song. We listen to some tunes from "The Missing Piece", "Octopus", and "Interview"; as well as talk about Gentle Giant lore. *Production Note: I've renumbered the Birdwaves Podcast. There are several missing episodes from #5 - #15. I'll see if I can dig them up. - Hugs and Kisses, St Mix

St Mix, Tubalove, and Stevie Wind tear it up at Burrito Rojo. This fledgling group keeps getting better...

St Mix, Tubalove, and Stevie Wind tear it up at Burrito Rojo. This fledgling group keeps getting better...

St Mix and The Rapa Nui Lounge St Mix VS. The Industrial Revolution played at the Deja Brew Pub in Wendell Saturday, May 1st. This is set two of two.

St Mix and The Rapa Nui Lounge has a new album! Its called 'Your Table Awaits... at the Rapa Nui Lounge'. It features Tony Jillson, AKA St Mix on all sorts of instruments, mainly guitar. Also on board are several other great Western Massachusetts artists: J.J. O'Connell, JD Keating, Kevin Smith, Chris Millner, JIm Vogel, Peter Kim, and Sadie Ware. This album is contemporary space-age bachelor pad music. Mostly instrumental, Progressive music for forward thinking people who have a sense of humor. It's available now at CDBaby.com. http://www.cdbaby.com/AlbumDetails.aspx?AlbumID=StMix

A mid-October night in the hills of Western Mass. On a cool evening, the bonfire burned hot, and the keg was flowing fast. Join us as the lowercase g's take the stage...

A variation on The OFarm’s “Yo Kid” we used to open or close shows, usually with a monologue and soul vocals, but here in all it’s sweeping instrumental glory.

Several years ago St. Mix introduced me to this stop-start Soca beat and it since has become an OFarm staple. The title could be an allusion to these Caribbean roots, but actually was the name of the sample from “Coastliners and Can-Utilities” by Genesis.

Bion was listening to NPR one night and chanced across the premier of Tan Dun’s awesome opera “The 1st Emperor”.  The epic 3 hour piece was whittled down to this 4 minute medley evocative of a drunk night in Chinatown. There may be more excerpts to come.

Years ago at my ex-father-in-law’s house in France I was introduced to the European Mole. In The States moles are small and cute: In Europe they are almost a foot long and can turn a lawn into a moonscape. He had been battling them for years.  He called them stupid, so I asked if they’re so stupid how come he couldn’t get rid of them? Vexed by this bit of logic he exploded “Co-habitation!”  Touche.

Friend and bass player Pete Kim came up to me at a show and said “When I see you without a bass it brings tears to my eyes”..This bass solo is for him. -Bion

Entity has a seemingly endless stash of beats on his sampler and is always dropping them on me for inspiration. Combined with bits from the movie “The Wicker Man” and the 90’s new age/ metal band Cynic the vibe went from regretful to mystical. I suppose the title now refers to the role of The Goddess in modern life?

Peter Hammill is one of my favorite singers ever and his intense lyrical hooks are perfect for samples (See the OFarm song “Break Up Da Room”). This particular phrase summed up my view of life from the midst of a mid-winter depression. The spooky space radio was played by my son Nic AKA Mistah Zinn.

I was going sampler crazy and pulled out an old copy of “Genesis Live”. I wound up with a bunch of random loops that quickly congealed into this. With the addition of vocals and an organ solo the song progressively got darker and darker. The title refers to the mother of all conspiracy theories. Listen with caution.

Come on Up (Café Koko Mix) is a remix of a song originally written by St Mix. Abandoned while "Supernatural Power" was taking shape, it lay dormant for a few years. Bion has taken the baton, and come up with this interesting take.

This is the start of a new series we have planned that offers remixes of some classic Progressive / Art Rock tunes. Or is that remixes of Classic rock envisioned as Progressive Hip-Hop? Either way, we thought you might enjoy some of these... I think cutting up The Clash was originally Rus-T’s idea, as a tribute to the late, great Joe Strummer.. At the end of the project the song still needed something so one morning in a haze of inspiration I merged Leonard Cohen’s “Democracy” with it and it suddenly became a statement on post 911 America. Perfect! Joe would have been proud. (Thanks to JJ and Mark Miller for the drum track)

The Supernatural Power Hour is unleashed on the unwitting populace of Hamp. Present and Accounted for: St Mix, Bion, NTT, Rus-t, MC Stash, Jana Bird, MC Force of Alchemistics

The Supernatural Power Hour is unleashed on the unwitting populace of Hamp. Present and Accounted for: St Mix, Bion, NTT, Rus-t, MC Stash, Jana Bird

The Supernatural Power Hour is unleashed on the unwitting populace of Hamp. Present and Accounted for: St Mix, Bion, NTT, Rus-t, MC Stash, Jana Bird

The Supernatural Power Hour is unleashed on the unwitting populace of Hamp. Present and Accounted for: St Mix, Bion, NTT, Rus-t, MC Stash, Jana Bird

It's a wasteland out there. It's a good thing I got my baby to keep me sane.

At long last comes Supernatural Power, the brand-new recording by Ostrich Farm. Led by the songwriting team of St Mix and Bion, Supernatural Power finds the group heading in a new direction. On this new release, the O-Farm delivers 14 original songs that focus on the Hip-Hop and R&B flavors that were only hinted at in previous albums. Ably assisted by MC’s Rus-T and MC Stash, Some Guy on Drums (a.k.a. S.G.O.D.), and vocalist Lady Sadie; St Mix and Bion have crafted a new kind of hip-hop called Art-Hop. Drawing on influences from current hip-hop to old-school art-rock, the O-Farm has whipped up a disc full of fresh music. The band is not afraid of moving from hard-core protests on one song, to R&B love songs on the next. As the album deftly moves from the social commentary of Crack Town, to the free-style of 0 1 0 2, to the troll-march beat of Sweatin' It; the O-Farm shows the versatility and originality it’s been known for since the very beginning. Ostrich Farm began in 1995 as a drum-machine wielding power-trio. Based in the hills of western Massachusetts on a real ostrich farm, Ostrich Farm has rocked clubs throughout the Northeast; from the Better End in Portland, to the Middle East in Boston, to the Knitting Factory in New York City. Supernatural Power is available online in CD format at Birdwaves.com, CDBaby.com, and Tower.com. It’s also available as a digital download at the iTunes Music Store. It features 14 songs and clocks in at just under 54 minutes. Song List: 1. O-Farm World 2. We Must Rock 3. 0 1 0 2 4. Roll 5. Oasis 6. Yo Kid 7. Snow Keeps Falling 8. Crack Town 9. Hypenotists 10. Riggers NYC 11. Sweatin' It 12. Sway 13. Power To the People 14. Jackboot Sunflow'r WE MUST ROCK

That's right Hypenotists, we're on to you.

At long last comes Supernatural Power, the brand-new recording by Ostrich Farm. Led by the songwriting team of St Mix and Bion, Supernatural Power finds the group heading in a new direction. On this new release, the O-Farm delivers 14 original songs that focus on the Hip-Hop and R&B flavors that were only hinted at in previous albums. Ably assisted by MC’s Rus-T and MC Stash, Some Guy on Drums (a.k.a. S.G.O.D.), and vocalist Lady Sadie; St Mix and Bion have crafted a new kind of hip-hop called Art-Hop. Drawing on influences from current hip-hop to old-school art-rock, the O-Farm has whipped up a disc full of fresh music. The band is not afraid of moving from hard-core protests on one song, to R&B love songs on the next. As the album deftly moves from the social commentary of Crack Town, to the free-style of 0 1 0 2, to the troll-march beat of Sweatin' It; the O-Farm shows the versatility and originality it’s been known for since the very beginning. Ostrich Farm began in 1995 as a drum-machine wielding power-trio. Based in the hills of western Massachusetts on a real ostrich farm, Ostrich Farm has rocked clubs throughout the Northeast; from the Better End in Portland, to the Middle East in Boston, to the Knitting Factory in New York City. Supernatural Power is available online in CD format at Birdwaves.com, CDBaby.com, and Tower.com. It’s also available as a digital download at the iTunes Music Store. It features 14 songs and clocks in at just under 54 minutes. Song List: 1. O-Farm World 2. We Must Rock 3. 0 1 0 2 4. Roll 5. Oasis 6. Yo Kid 7. Snow Keeps Falling 8. Crack Town 9. Hypenotists 10. Riggers NYC 11. Sweatin' It 12. Sway 13. Power To the People 14. Jackboot Sunflow'r WE MUST ROCK