News & Updates |
News & Updates |
05/20/08 In addition to playing in Pinnacle, Bill is also a studio musician. He recently played on singer-songwriter Scott Paul's /The Bells of Allentown/, recorded at Dan's House Studio. A related video of the writer performing the song with keyboardist Scott Eggert is here. |
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04/29/08 The Hall Theater: TICKETS GO ON SALE WEDNESDAY APRIL 30th @ 12PM EDT |
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04/05/08 Pinnacle was asked to contribute a track and we gladly accepted. For now, we're going to keep the song title a secret, but we are covering a song by the Finnish band Finnforest. The other bands will be: |
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It's been a while since Bill wrote his last empassioned update on the doings with Pinnacle and since we had an amazing rehearsal this week I feel like standing up and sharing. This band seems to thrive on adversity. With winter's freeze bursting the pipes at the hallowed New Jersey Proghouse and forcing the postponement of a high profile gig we were all looking forward to very much, with an exceptional co-headliner I might add, some of you might think we'd get discouraged. Add to that hearing feedback from one annual prog festival that some consider us "not proggy enough" and "just a rock band with a guitarist that can shred" and you could wonder if we feel disheartened. Maybe a normal band would, but we don't. No, we just resumed writing and arranging the followup to last year's MELD with glorious results as our particular muse chose to visit and embue us with compositional goodies aplenty. We began work on this material months ago with a song of Karl's called "Long Black Car" that has an enormous "Dream Theater plays Marillion's King Of Sunset Town" vibe - an absolute armhair raiser for me every time we play it. Of the four things that are actively underway for our next album, this was far and away my favorite. On Wednesday, it suddenly got immeasurably better. Karl came up with a bridge that flows seamlessly and accessibly from 5, 3, 4 and 2 beats per measure with a hypnotic, enveloping melodic cyclone effect - the three of us got such a high from playing it together that I didn't want it to stop. Then he morphed an idea of mine into the mix - a potent 7, 7, 7, 4 lick that we had spent much time working on with no clue where it would end up. Karl just changed the chord stabs to fit this song and it sat beautifully as a change from the new bridge. I was ecstatic and progging my little heart out. As I tried not to get lost in the count. But the ideas didn't stop there. We switched back to the 5, 3, 4, 2 section with Karl soloing and Bill and I providing the accompaniment and I almost died at how cool his melodic soloing soared over our remarkably full rhythm section. Bill then kicks in his "faux" guitar (though with a chiming clean tone at my request rather than his overdriven riff tone used to such great effect in our live set) and voila! It's REALLY cool now, and couldn't possibly get any better. Until Bill gets the crazy idea to play a melodic counterpoint part with his feet on a vintage Mellotron flute patch. Karl solos; and I CAME!!!!!! (well…. emotionally at least) Because where we had a powerful song before, we now have a mini-epic with Ian MacDonald style flute playing along to something like the middle of The Introduction by Steve Morse (with guitar solo) trading with Lark's Tongues In Aspic II -ish metallic chordal icebergs in a piece that channels Marillion and Dream Theater - and every friggin' part is a hook! When you have a day spent making music like this, life's little setbacks just can't get to you that much. This is what the three of us LIVE for, making original music that excites us - and thank God it seems to excite some of you as well. Add to this glorious winter's day of Pinnaclizing some new photos taken in good spirits of us playing (will our longsuffering webmaster FINALLY have a photo of my Sea Blue Fade Yamaha drumkit for the gear page?) AND the incredible coffee that we drank this week - the new crop of my Nicaraguan estate PLUS some exquisitely exotic and heady coffee from Yemen that I scored - and I'm a happy camper. PS - on the topic of the cancelled or postponed gig - Jim Robinson, the Godfather of the NJProghouse (one could rightly say the entire New Jersey prog scene only exists because of him) and an unwaveringly loyal and enthusiastic supporter of the band, was on the phone the same NIGHT we got the news about the plumbing with two proposed show dates to reschedule us - no waiting! We picked May 19th and we'll be playing with a fantastic band called Advent, one of whose albums I bought and love - think Gentle Giant counterpoint meets Tull Baroque style Canticles with the power and glory of Gabriel era Genesis and you'll be close to an idea of their sound. 2007 is looking UP for Pinnacle - after all, I still haven't recovered from playing a Beatles classic, a Genesis classic and a Pinnacle tune onstage with the members of IZZ!!!!!! Can a certain young Bostonian actress in a bathtub full of my coffee be far behind? Caffeinatedly and elatedly yours, Greg Jones |
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I just dragged my derriere home from an exhausting weekend at ProgOctoberfest. Held at Northern Lights, a great venue in Saratoga, NY, it benefited Friends of Music to aid music programs in public schools. Many thanks and kudos go to Fear of Flying and especially their drummer, Tom Occhiogrosso for organizing this neat little festival. Big thanks also go to Scott of Northern Lights for running his butt off, running both Front of House and Monitors for all of the bands. On Saturday, October 14, Karl, Greg, and I loaded up the vehicles with our Weapons of Music Dissemination and hoofed it up to Saratoga. At 6:00 pm, Pinnacle kicked off the festivities followed by Encompass (Alexandria, Virginia), Your Move, (Boston), Tripod (NYC), and Fear of Flying (Saratoga, NY). Each band brought a unique sound to the stage along with more pedals than any club has ever seen! Each band used these prized prog tools. There were Taurus, Taurus II, and PK-5 pedals and some bands even had two people playing them!! Too bad they're not the pheromone we wish they were... It was a fantastic evening of music, camaraderie, cooperation, and philanthropy. I look forward to being asked to return next year. Bill |
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A word from Greg: I guess we sold out already, eh? I reassured the guys that if we can get high praises from other musicians for playing odd time music that sounds natural rather than contrived, perhaps we can make 4/4 sound off-kilter and twisted. We already do it at the end of "Built For Speed" on MELD. Anyway, just wanted you all to know that we're not wasting any time resting on the sense of accomplishment we feel with MELD but are digging in to follow the creative muse wherever it takes us again. Bill has brought a really cool section in that we're playing with and I've thrown up some new music for us to sift through as well. And on behalf of Karl, Bill and myself, a very big "THANK YOU" to all of you who have ordered the album and sent us your comments, positive or negative - we so greatly appreciate you listening! Caffeindishly yours, (but Eliza Dushku could steal me from you with one look) Greg Jones |
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Today I started a blog at <http://billfox.blogspot.com/>. Then I ran out of the house to fight traffic across the Lehigh Valley from Nazareth to Alburtis. When I got to Karl's house, he was surprised to see me. It seems that I got my wires crossed. I thought that we were going to mix "the epic" today and go to Star City recording studio tomorrow. Reverse it. So I ate my lunch early while chatting with Karl. He showed me the new kitten that showed up on his back porch about a week after Gator died. What a cutie! Fessig loved sniffing the cat but the cat didn't quite know what to make of Fessig. Karl and I got into our respective vehicles and crossed the Valley back to Bethlehem and Star City. We were let in by Carl Cadden James. (Remember, he's the bassist in Shadow Gallery, a Progressive Rock band on the InsideOut Music label. Check out their CD "Room V" because it's awesome!) He took us into the big room (normally $250/hour) and set us up to listen to our CD while he took care of business elsewhere. Greg showed up a few moments later. We started listening to our latest round of mixes when in strolled the owner... Jeff Glixman. (Remember, he's the legendary producer of Kansas' Leftoverture and Point of Know Return and Yngwie Malmsteen's Oddessy.) We chatted and listened intently as Jeff shared his thoughts on mixing. This guy is so cool. He wants his studio to be uber-musician-friendly. He's succeeding in my book because this was the third time in Studio A at no charge. Carl and Jeff have made suggestions that allowed us to remix our CD to make it significantly better than when we first brought it in for mastering. After talking about the financials to have our CD mastered, Jeff left us to finish listening to our CD. It sounds absolutely glorious in this studio. The SSL console is a mammoth and we've already found the master volume knob on it! Just as we finished listening and taking notes, Carl returned to listen to our latest efforts. He liked what he heard and made a few suggestions. Tomorrow, Greg and I will meet at Karl's to implement what we hope will be the final changes to our mixes. We left happy campers and with next Tuesday and Wednesday on Star City's books for our mastering session(s). Cheers, Bill |
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It’s been too long…WAY too long, but I have a good excuse….. Dammit. No I don’t. Oh, wait, yes I do. We’ve been working FURIOUSLY on the new CD and I’m happy to say that it’s very nearly done. All we need to do now is get it mastered, get the artwork squared away and get it duplicated. At this point I can say, with no hesitation, that this is by a mile the best recording I’ve ever been a part of. Bill and Greg absolutely outdid themselves performance-wise, and sonically I think we’ve made some huge leaps in recording technique. I’ve been taking an audio engineering course which has obviously come in quite handy and Bill and Greg have used their meticulous attention to detail to really hone the tracks to a sharp edge. We’re going to have it mastered this coming Wednesday at a new production studio near here. It’s run by Carl Cadden James of Shadow Gallery fame and Jeff Glixman, who produced and engineered such albums as Point of Know Return and Left Overture. YOWZA!! We’ve had a number of GREAT submissions for artwork, but it was a long-lost friend of mine from New York who came up with what we’ll probably end up using. He gave us some ideas, then we gave HIM some ideas, then he gave us some MORE ideas and Greg came up with some ideas that I think we can all agree are better off not repeated. Hopefully we’ll have some new sketches in a few days. Maybe for fun we should post some of the early versions as the release date gets closer? We’ll see. So what else?? Well, we’re back to practicing our butts off to get the new material ready for live performance. I’ve discovered that certain guitar finger gymnastics are easy to pull off in a nice quiet studio, but a little more difficult when I’m actually in the middle of playing the whole song. There’s one part of Built for Speed (the instrumental of Greg’s that we debuted at the Sterling last year) that may actually be the death of me before I get it truly dialed in. I remember nailing it on the second take when I came up with it, but now it just isn’t happening. Surprisingly, though, the material is coming together WAY faster than I thought it would. We’re hitting the rehearsals so hard because we have been told that we have an incredible opportunity coming up that I’m not sure I’m supposed to talk about yet…keep your eyes on this space and we’ll update you as things progress. That’s all for now. I’m going to promise to make more frequent updates, but, well, I promise lots of things. Karl |
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It’s been a horribly long time since there was any news from the Pinnacle camp, so here goes… We’ve been working furiously on the next album and I have to say that if it’s half as good as I’m thinking it will be, it will be TWICE as good as any other recording I’ve ever been part of. The songs are coming together VERY nicely. There is much more group writing going on with this album than the last and it really is making the songs take off. We have an epic which is very nearly complete at around 20 minutes, and most of the other songs clock in between 8 and 10 minutes. We don’t have a name for the album yet, but as usual, we can’t really repeat any of the ideas Greg has come up with. The material is definitely more “proggy” than last time, but I think we’ve still managed to keep a pretty strong melodic sense. Let’s see…there’s the epic, which will probably we called “The Life in a Year,” and is a collection of three shorter songs which requires that Bill play Bass, Taurus pedals, Guitar and Keyboards all in one song, and at one point all within a minute of one another. Then we have the two new songs we did at the Spock’s Beard gig last November (Always Somewhere Else and The Deepest Sea). The big ballad is called Love In Our Hands (for those of you familiar with the original version of this tune, JUST YOU WAIT!). Greg has a cool instrumental called “No Brakes” and I have about 80% of the music and lyrics done for a tune that might be called Information Overload, but who knows? I’ve also got a little collection of ideas for an instrumental with sort of a Dixie Dregs (surprise surprise)/ Bela Fleck vibe to it. Any good ideas for a name will be greatly appreciated and fully credited on the album. We’re also considering doing another cover, not for any lack of new material, but because they’re so much fun to do. I’ve also got another whole song that I haven’t even showed to Greg and Bill yet. In fact, I think they’re finding out about it the same way you are. So when will you get it? We’re not really sure. We’re hoping to start the actual recording process in June or July. We have all of the knowledge and experience we gained doing A Man’s Reach to help us move along a little more quickly, so hopefully we’ll have something for you before the end of the year, but no promises. If the writing process continues to be this much fun, maybe we’ll go for the double album?? Also, it looks very much like we’ll be opening up for Land of Chocolate at the Sterling Hotel in Allentown, PA on July 9th…that’s the night before NEARfest starts, so we’re hopeful people will make it part of the big weekend. More updates as they occur. Karl |
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| Pinnacle release their new CD
"A Man's Reach..." June 3, 2003 at NEARFest |
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Bill Fox reflects: 2003 just keeps getting better and better. In June, Pinnacle released a CD. Then in August, we backed Nick D'Virgilio on three songs when he played a solo concert at the New Jersey Proghouse. Now it's November and we've opened for Spock's Beard. How cool is that??!!?? Here are my ramblings about that night... Karl and I arrived at 2:30 and did a lot of helping and then a lot of waiting. I have no idea when Greg arrived because he ran around like a maniac in order to provide his fabulous coffee for the cast and crew. The lateness of the sound company caused my nerves to be rattled. We weren't able to set up and sound check until moments before playing. SB's FOH engineer was totally unfamiliar with our material but did an excellent job under those circumstances. Our sound engineer was unable to be there. The listening environment on stage was unfamiliar and quite different from Karl's basement where we rehearse, as one should expect. Since this was only our second and a half time in public together as Pinnacle, we needed to relax and adjust. I suppose we did to some small extent. The crowd certainly treated us well from the get go. So as far as opening bands go, we must not have been the kind that you suffer through and want get off stage three minutes ago. Crowd reaction was quite positive and all three of us received plenty of compliments and congratulations on a job well done afterwards. So despite the minor flubs (and the not so minor flubs!), we seem to have been well received. A very high point for me was immediately after our last song. As I was packing up as fast as I could (after all, I wanted to hear the Beard as much as everybody else!) and Dave Meros was moving his rig back into place, he complimented my playing, saying that it is quite melodic and original. I could have kissed the guy full on the lips! but I don't swing that way and certainly not in front of a watching audience! ;-) I must thank Jim Robinson and Spock's Beard for affording us the opportunity to open the concert. It's a nice payoff for all of the hard work we've been going since we formed in early 2002. And in the process, we helped bring in cash for the Metlar-Bodine Museum restoration fund. Am I living real life or is this a sci-fi/fantasy dream sequence? |
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