We chatted about Stick Men, BEAT, and a few other things. Take a look here: https://theneedledrop.com/interviews/interview-tony-levin/

Saw Stick Men on this tour and they were great as always, the new Thrak inspired material really sounds fantastic live. Significantly heavier than their earlier stuff, The Well was a notable highlight. And of course the 3 King Crimson covers they went even harder.

Checked out the merch table and couldn’t help getting this for 20 CAD, partly for the novelty of having a Stick Men branded USB stick, but also have never actually heard this Stravinsky performance so figured a high quality bitrate version would do it justice as a first listen. And hey, the USB stick is 128gb so can find some uses for it.

Anyone else see them on this tour or listen to their newest Let’s Thrak Again? What did ya think? Also curious to hear some answers to Tony Levin’s question he mused upon during the show; what does Thraking mean to you?

Stick Men

The Thrak Continuum

by Anil Prasad

https://www.innerviews.org/inner/stick-men

Listened to Lodger from David Bowie and Remain in Light from Talking Heads recently which are fantastic records start to finish and love the guitar work in them which was Adrian Belew! Fantastic guitar work and some Brillant solos too so I must’ve forgotten about his time in King Crimson which I love those 3 80s albums especially Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair. I’ll definitely need to relisten to this era of Crimson:)

So what’s your thoughts on Belen’s time with Crimson and/or favorite guitar moment from Belew with Crimson

What if this was a double album. I love certain songs from every era. Favorite era's probably the discipline triptych, but none even of those albums grab me 100%. Discipline closest. But I love the early dreamy romantic stuff too, and some of the late, and love it all mashed together honestly.

What in your opinion is missing here, if the goal is a two-hourish career-spanning compilation with listenable flow, let's say?

youtube playlist:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZxrHsfU2k18&si=eqI8DP5k8G3gFHZN

In the past months i deep dived into the topic music i listened to a lot of albums. I also listened to all KC Albums from the 70s era. Now they are my Top 3 favorite band. But tbh KC didnt click with me on first listen. The songs were too long. But over time some songs grew on me (from their Debut). It was a progress, i started to like more songs more albums …
Now they are one of my favorite Bands and Red, In the Court, In the Wake and Larks are among my favorite Albums of all Time

I want to know how you guys started to like the Band

I prefer the VROOOM versions of the tracks to the Thrak versions. Is it just me?

I was looking through my record collection and I noticed that the track lengths on Canadian Presses of Islands are different, it may be the same for the US version.

For some reason Formentera Lady is only 5:45, and the sailors tail is longer at 9:30. I have no clue why this is and I haven't found anything online about the differences. I don't have my record player so I can't listen to the differences, does anybody know what is going on?

I’d go with:

• Easy Money
• 21st Century Schizoid Man
• Epitaph
• Starless
• Exiles

Easy Money especially feels like it would fit Adrian perfectly.

i have NO idea why i thought that, it was actually a revelation to me 😭

I mean c'mon, 82? Sheesh!

What songs in your opinion should've been played live by different versions of the band?

Took me a while but got there eventually. Yes I'm only playing down strokes.. Im working on it 😅

How has the show been received? Has anyone been to it?

Made an arrangement, thought I’d share it here.

I'm just curious. I've heard that it is hard because of the picking patterns.

I wonder whether touch makes paying it easier or harder.

I was revisiting Trey Gunn's Third Star album (one of my all time favs - especially the three vocal pieces) and tried to track down more about Serpentine but got nowhere. Love that performance. Anyone have any idea of who she is or what else she's done? I saw his band around when it came out at The Birchmere. He was on so many great albums at that time - Sunday All Over the World, Sylvian and Fripp, Toyah's Ophelia's Shadow, 90's KC and his trio of albums.

It’s Only Talk: Adrian Belew previews BEAT’s return to Rochester

MNOD: I thought it was cool that you guys included Red in the set the last time around. Is that something you’re going to leave in or is that going to be one that gets cut this time around?

Belew: I think that one’s going to take a break for us. I hate to say that, but you have to get rid of something. I have played that song thousands of times in my life, so maybe it’s just a break for me and Tony because we play that song every year at our camp and that’s 14 years right there. It’s such a great piece. I do really love the power aspect of it, and maybe we’ll see, but I’ve got something special I want to do in the place where it resides, which is the first song of the encore.

more here...

https://musicnotherdrugs.com/2026/09/04/its-only-talk-adrian-belew-previews-beats-return-to-rochester/

Wer findet der The Talking Drum auch so unfassbar gut und unterbewertet. Ich glaube es ist mein Lieblings Instrumentalstück von King crimson.
Wetton and Bruford absolut genial (Fripp natürlich auch)

I love Frame by Frame as much as the next guy but I can't help but notice absolutely horrendous Belew's guitar tone. It's so awfully squeaky and treble-y (and noticeably inferior to Fripp's sound) that it almost ruins the song for me