Tim Smith Suffers Heart Attack, Upcoming Cardiacs Tour Cancelled

Tim Smith, front man of the Cardiacs, suffered a heart attack on June 25th. He is in the process of recovering per the band. There is no longer any danger to his life and he is improving every day but as the band has stated, there is a long road ahead.
The band is currently working to having fans send personal messages of goodwill to their webiste at www.cardiacs.com.
The band has also stated this past week that due to Smith's health, they have deemed it appropriate to officially call to a halt all activities concerning CARDIACS for the foreseeable future. They have reluctantly canceled the forthcoming tour booked for November.
To send well wishes, email the Cardiacs at positivevibes@cardiacs.com

Former METAL MANIACS Editor JEFF WAGNER To Author History Of Progressive Metal

Bazillion Points Publishing has announced the first definitive book on the elusive world of progressive metal, written by esteemed metal crusader and prog manic Jeff Wagner. Scheduled for release in autumn 2009, the book will detail the common movements of pioneers like OPETH, WATCHTOWER, VOIVOD, ATHEIST, DREAM THEATER, PSYCHOTIC WALTZ, CELTIC FROST, SIGH, and FATES WARNING — metal bands who have gone against the tide of tradition and conservatism. Linked by a desire to push heavy metal forward, these varied bands with a couple hundred other black sheep form the hard-to-pin-down category of "progressive metal."

Beginning with the hugely influential mid-1970s efforts of Canadian band RUSH, Wagner's book explores the shared lineage of prog rock and metal. He unfurls the huge tapestry and examines the sounds and styles created during the genre's 40-year history, including: the "Big Three" — QUEENSRŸCHE, FATES WARNING, and DREAM THEATER; extreme prog pioneers VOIVOD and CELTIC FROST; Norway's post-black metal avant garde; and of course the huge global movement of Big Three-worshippers in the 1990s. The vastness of what can be considered "progressive metal" has proven to be one of the most viable, malleable forms in all of modern music.

Jeff Wagner has explored progressive metal for nearly 20 years in a variety of fanzines and magazines (including his own Symposium fanzine in the 1990s). He has penned definitive essays for official releases by DARK ANGEL, EMPEROR, POSSESSED, and NUCLEAR ASSAULT, but probably most notorious for his stint at Metal Maniacs magazine from 1997 to 2001. Says Wagner of his unhealthy obsession with VOIVOD, FATES WARNING, and other oddballs: "This undertaking, a book on progressive metal, is long overdue! The story will be told through my own warped views, with insights from the musicians that make progressive metal happen, plus comments from the specialty labels and crazed fans that kill for this stuff. And just to keep it interesting, I'm going to give the other side, the guys who despise any kind of progression in metal, a chance to defend their views."

Bazillion Points is "America's smallest but heaviest publishing house," started by author Ian Christe ("Sound of the Beast", "Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga", host of "Bloody Roots" on Sirius Hard Attack). Current titles include the mammoth "Swedish Death Metal" by Daniel Ekeroth, and upcoming releases include books by Andy McCoy (HANOI ROCKS), and Albert Mudrian ("Choosing Death").

Says publisher Ian Christe: "It's simple — this is the book Jeff Wagner was born to write."

For more information, go to www.bazillionpoints.com.

Progday Annouces Friday Night Preshow

ProgDay has announced the performance of two bands for Labor Day weekend. On Friday night, August 29th, the LOCAL 506 in Chapel Hill will be hosting KINETIC ELEMENT and SPEECHLESS.

Led by "Mad Organist" MIKE VISAGGIO, KINETIC ELEMENT is a keyboard based progressive rock trio that was originally formed to perform the music from "Starship Universe" (2006), a solo CD by Mike. The band continued to perform and write. Currently, in addition to "Starship Universe," the band's repertoire includes original material from their newest opus,"The Powered By Light Suite," as well as covers of selected classic prog tunes.

SPEECHLESS is an instrumental mix of rock, jazz, classical, world, funk, metal... (pretty much everything the band members love) all tossed in a blender and shaken well. Their debut CD ranked #46 in the Global Progressive Rock Network's Top 100 Poll of 2007, and in 2008, their song "Stella" was awarded "Best Progressive Rock Instrumental Indi".

ProgDay, the world’s longest running progressive rock festival, takes place this year on August 30th and 31st at Storybook Farm near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Bands this year are Secret Oyster (Denmark), Ain Soph (Japan), Canvas Solaris (US), CHEER-ACCIDENT (US), Holding Pattern (US), VonFrickle (US), Abigail's Ghost (US), Mirthrandir (US) and Pinnacle (US).

For more information about the Friday Preshow, to hear music and get information about all the ProgDay bands, visit their website at www.progday.com.

Charismatic Guitarist Hiram Bullock Dies At 52

Hiram Bullock was a talented and charismatic guitarist, a rock'n'roller with a jazz head who bridged the world of sophisticated pop and the avant-garde New York jazz scene.
A super-session player, Bullock was mentored by the producer Phil Ramone, and his work can be heard on Steely Dan's Gaucho (1980), Paul Simon's One Trick Pony (1980), Sting's Nothing Like the Sun (1987), Billy Joel's The Stranger (1977) and Barbra Streisand's A Star Is Born (1976). He also played with the Brecker Brothers, Jaco Pastorius, Chaka Khan, James Taylor, James Brown and Al Green, among many others. He was a member of one of Miles Davis's last touring groups, and his guitar graced countless jazz albums. Hiram Bullock also put out over a dozen records under his own name.
Bullock was a consummate showman: his live performances were enhanced by his habit of wandering deep into the crowd whilst soloing. "Rock'n'roll guitarists might do that," said the promoter John Cummings, "but it wasn't common at jazz shows. You'd find a sedate jazz audience in Switzerland where the uptight burghers would be surprised by Hiram sitting on their daughters' laps whilst continuing to play. He invented himself as a jazz-rock guitarist and entertainer."
Did such live ostentation from the guitarist reflect the origins of his choice of instrument? "I played bass in my high school rock band (like a million other teenage boys)," Bullock said. "One day our guitarist, who was slightly older and looked like Eric Clapton, passed out while in the middle of the solo on 'Mississippi Queen' (he said later that he was 'tired'). Immediately, 10 girls jumped up onto the stage, stroking, consoling and otherwise 'reviving him'. At that precise moment I decided to switch to guitar."
Hiram Bullock was born in 1955 in Osaka, Japan to parents serving in the US military. When he was two the family returned to the United States, where they settled in Baltimore, Maryland. Hiram studied piano at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in the city, playing his first recital at the age of six. He also became a fluid saxophone player, and finally made the switch from bass to guitar at 16.
At the celebrated University of Miami music college, Bullock studied alongside Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius and Will Lee, discovering musical soul-mates. He paid his way at university by playing nightclub gigs in Florida, and hooked up with the singer Phyllis Hyman. When she landed a recording deal and moved to New York, Bullock went with her.
In Manhattan he made an immediate impact. 'He was a phenomenon,' remembered Jamilla Samuels, a sound engineer at the Mix Studio. "All the players were talking about this new cat in town with this great guitar style. If you had a buzz like that amongst the musicians, it meant you were good. But I noticed that straightaway he fell in with the fast crowd."
Soon Bullock was playing with the master saxophonist David Sanborn and the Brecker Brothers band. He then formed the 24th Street Band with the drummer Steve Jordan, the keyboardist Clifford Carter and bassist Mark Egan, later replaced by Will Lee. Very popular in Japan, the 24th Street Band released two records there, with the keyboard player Paul Schaffer producing the second. Schaffer recruited Bullock, Jordan and Lee for his group the World's Most Dangerous Band, which played on the talk show Late Night With David Letterman from the programme's début in 1982, bringing to national attention the guitarist's habit of performing barefoot.
Other habits also revealed themselves. Bullock was known to suffer from an occasional "attendance problem" on the Letterman show, a consequence of the drug binges associated with the crowd he was hanging out with. He was no stranger to heroin and cocaine, but found his drug of choice when the crack epidemic swept the United States in the mid-1980s.
Most of the time, however, he kept it together. Tour managing him with Carla Bley's group and then with the Gil Evans Orchestra, John Cummings recalled his energetic extroversion: "He used to really tear it up playing with Carla, and even managed to persuade Van Morrison to perform Hiram's own arrangement of Moondance at Gil Evans' 75th birthday concert. He was a great player and a fantastic guy, and he was completely clean."
Yet the effects of Bullock's recreational pursuits soon became evident in his physical shape. From having once seemed the thinnest man on the planet, his body ballooned unflatteringly. His work did not suffer, and he continued to make great records, notably Late Night Talk (1996), an organ session featuring Lonnie Smith on the Hammond B-3, and Try Livin' It (2003), a funk-rock record that highlighted his songwriting skills.
In the autumn of 2007 Bullock was diagnosed with cancer. But his cast-iron constitution pulled him through, and he made a full recovery, setting off immediately on a lengthy tour with the Miles Evans Orchestra. There were no signs of post-operation fatigue; Bullock was playing at his peak. But the old problems remained. The attempt to maintain the post-performance high after the tour's end resulted in another crack binge, one that his depleted body was simply no longer able to endure.

Chris Salewicz Of The Independent