ProgDay is pleased to announce the very first American appearance of AIN SOPH, the renowned band from Japan! AIN SOPH was formed in 1970 at the beginning of the progressive rock music scene in Japan. Their first official release, “A Story Of Mysterious Forest,” came out in 1980 and has since become considered a classic of Japanese progressive rock.

Ultimately AIN SOPH became Japan’s premiere contribution to Canterbury music, with tunes that mix the symphonic elements of CAMEL with the jazzy musical flights of SOFT MACHINE and HATFIELD AND THE NORTH, all filtered through a Japanese point of view. RICHARD SINCLAIR, who played with AIN SOPH in 2004, has called them “one of the very best Canterbury music bands in the world.”

Join us and help celebrate their first show in the US, and only their second show outside of Japan. We’re sure AIN SOPH will deliver a performance to be remembered.

ProgDay 2008 is the 14th edition of the world’s longest running progressive rock festival. Performances will take place on Labor Day weekend, Saturday, August 30, and Sunday, August 31. For more information please visit our website at www.progday.com.

Touring heavyweights STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9) and Umphrey’s McGee team up for what promises to be one of the hardest-hitting tours of the summer. This co-bill will feature extended sets by both bands, and will stop in Midwest and east coast cities throughout the month of July. Look, also, for very special late night sets by each band in select markets, including Philadelphia, Raleigh, Madison, Chicago, and NYC. Tickets for all shows are available now at STS9 Ticketing (www.sts9.com) and UMTix ( www.umphreys.com) and at local ticket outlets beginning April 19.

Not-for-profit Conscious Alliance will host food drives at every stop of this summer’s STS9/Umphrey’s McGee tour. All patrons donating 10 non-perishable food items or more will receive a limited edition summer tour poster. In addition to the tour poster, there will also be a special edition poster for the two-night run in Atlanta. Visit www.consciousalliance.org for details.

In addition, Head Count will be at each show to help get folks registered to vote. www.headcount.org

STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9) and Umphrey’s McGee tour stops in the following cities:

July 10 Willow Island Centre Madison WI
July 10 Barrymore Theatre Madison, WI (STS9 AFTER PARTY)
July 11 Live on the Levee St. Louis MO FREE SHOW!
July 12 Westfair Amphitheater Omaha NE
July 15 Moonlite Gardens Cincinnati OH
July 16 Innsbrook Pavilion Glen Allen VA
July 17 Promowest Pavilion Cincinnati OH
July 18 White River Lawn Indianapolis IN
July 19 Charter One Pavilion Chicago IL
July 19 House of Blues Chicago IL (STS9 AFTER PARTY)
July 23 Higher Ground Burlington VT (STS9 Only)
July 24 Roseland Ballroom New York NY
July 24 Blender at Gramercy New York NY (STS9 AFTER PARTY)
July 25 Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing Philadelphia PA
July 25 Fillmore at TLA Philadelphia PA (UMPHREY’S AFTER PARTY)
July 26 Bank of America Pavilion Boston MA
July 27 Pier 6 Concert Pavilion Baltimore MD
July 30 House of Blues Myrtle Beach SC
July 31 Koka Booth Amphitheater Cary NC
July 31 Lincoln Square Theatre Raleigh NC (UMPHREY’S AFTER PARTY)
August 01-August 02 Masquerade Music Park Atlanta GA
August 01-August 02 Masquerade Music Park Indoors Atlanta GA (AFTER PARTY/ARTISTS TBA)

Umphrey’s McGee
The ascension continues for Chicago’s Umphrey’s McGee, not only in terms of their commercial success but in creative accomplishment and instrumental achievement as well. Their performance on their most recent release, Live at the Murat (SCI Fidelity), is as impressive as anything they’ve recorded to date, with the power and finesse, the yin and the yang, that have come to characterize their by-now classic material. Live at the Murat is only the latest feather in the cap of the dazzling sextet. They followed their highly touted spring 2006 studio release Safety In Numbers with the magical odds and sods The Bottom Half in the spring of 2007. The album, with its outtakes, alternate versions, and other nifty bits, reached #26 on Billboard’s coveted “Heatseakers” Chart and received high marks from the music press. HARP magazine recently noted “…[The Bottom Half delivers] creamy studio work infused by diabolical skill.” Umphrey’s McGee has sold out shows in theaters coast to coast, performed coveted slots at such festivals as Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, and appeared on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Booked by the Monterey Peninsula Booking Agency, the band recently sold out three nights at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom, two nights at the Nokia Theatre, three nights at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium, and the list goes on, as does Umphrey’s McGee.

STS9
Dubbed “…one of the country’s most intriguing, innovative outfits around” by XLR8R Magazine, STS9 steps out this summer armed with their brand-new, highly anticipated studio album, peaceblaster. To be released in summer 2008 on their own label 1320 Records (www.1320records.com), the new album will feature never-before heard tracks that artfully mirror the intensity of STS9’s live shows, while preserving the musical intricacies of past studio albums that critics and fans have touted. peaceblaster comes nearly three years after their acclaimed 2005 releases, Artifact & Artifact: Perspectives, both of which were named in iTunes list of top albums of the year. After a flurry of industry attention, STS9 retreated from the limelight to do what they love most: play music. On the touring front, STS9 reached number 29 on Pollstar Magazine’s “PULSE Charts” of the country’s top touring artists. The band has shared the stage with a diverse range of acts including Jurassic 5, Tortoise, Digable Planets, RJD2, De La Soul, The Brazilian Girls, Prefuse 73, John Butler Trio, Blackalicious, G. Love & Special Sauce, Saul Williams, Soulive, Cut Chemist, Xavier Rudd and many others, and has played such festivals as Austin City Limits Festival, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Winter Music Conference, and Vegoose Festival. Recently, the band sold out a 4 night headlining run at Atlanta’s Tabernacle, and a 2 night run at Denver’s Fillmore Auditrium.

YES “Close to the Edge and Back” tour
North America 2008

July 12: Quebec City, QUE - Quebec City Festival
July 13: Toronto, ONT - Molson Amphitheatre
July 15: Columbus, OH - Nationwide Arena
July 16: Hershey, PA - Hersheypark Stadium & Star Pavilion
July 18: Chicago, IL - Charter One Pavilion at Northerly Island
July 19: Detroit, MI - Freedom Hill
July 22: Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
July 23: Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion
July 25: Atlantic City, NJ - Borgata Event Center
July 26: Wantagh, NY - Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
July 28: Holmdel, NJ - PNC Bank Arts Center
July 29: Baltimore, MD - Pier 6 Pavilion
July 31: Tampa, FL - Ford Amphitheatre
Aug 1: Miami, FL - Hard Rock Live Arena
Aug 2: Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live
Aug 4: Atlanta, GA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park
Aug 6: Kansas City, MO - Starlight Theatre
Aug 8: Houston, TX - Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Aug 9: Dallas, TX - Superpages.com Center
Aug 11: Denver, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Aug 14: Vancouver, BC - General Motors Place
Aug 15: Seattle, WA - WaMu Theater at Qwest Field Events Center
Aug 19: Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View
Aug 20: Anaheim, CA - Honda Center
Aug 22: Universal City, CA - Gibson Amphitheatre

Stuart Nevitt, co-founder, composer, and drummer/percussionist of the
eclectic band Shadowfax, has died at the age of 56. Nevitt died Mar. 15
at his home in Rio Rancho, NM, of complications from type 1 diabetes
and heart disease.

The sextet, which Nevitt originally organized with Chuck Greenberg,
G.E. Stinson, and Phil Maggini in an Illinois farmhouse in 1972, won a
Grammy in 1988 for its album “Folksongs for a Nuclear Village,” and was
nominated for another one in 1992 for “Esperanto” after the band
reformed with Armen Chakmakian, Ray Yslas, and Andy Abad. Due to the
untimely passing of Greenberg, the group stopped recording and touring
in 1995.

Nevitt continued to perform and record, most recently producing and
releasing his first solo project, “The Marion Kind,” which is
stylistically similar to Shadowfax while expanding on the
groundbreaking sound of the group which featured the pioneering work of
Greenberg’s lyricon, the first woodwind synthesizer.

It was this unique sound that caught the attention of Windham Hill
Records founder William Ackerman, who signed Shadowfax as the first
band to record on his label, releasing the eponymously titled album in
1982. Subsequent tours found them headlining such venues as Carnegie
Hall, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Red Rocks, and The
Montreux Jazz Festival. The band often chafed at the New Age label
ascribed to it, preferring the term world beat, attesting to the
difficulty reviewers often had describing their music. The Times’ late
jazz expert Leonard Feather once described the multidisciplinary sound
as “American, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, European,
incorporating classical, rock, folk and (minimally) jazz, variously
acoustic and electric…easier to listen to than describe.”

The band’s unusual name was selected by Greenberg and Maggini while
leafing through “Lord of the Rings” and finding Gandalf the wizard’s
horse.

The band went on to record ten albums and released two greatest-hits
packages, most recently “Pure Shadowfax” on Sony/BMG in 2006. A book
entitled “A Pause in the Rain” chronicling the band’s history was
published by Joy Greenberg in 2006. Nevitt is survived by his companion
of many years, Marion Unterburger.

One of metal’s most talented shredders, Jeff Loomis, of Nevermore fame will further prove his undeniable skills with his first solo project, which is set for a fall release. The ambitious offering is an all instrumental effort and is destined to shed some much deserved spotlight on the genre’s most notable, yet unsung, guitar player.

Loomis states: “Hi everyone. I just wanted to give you all an update on the solo project. I entered Robert Lang studios on March 22nd with producer Neil Kernon (Nevermore) and drummer Mark Arrington. Mark completed the drums for 10 tracks in about three and a half days. He did some incredible drum work that I know will bring this record to a higher level than I expected. Mark and I worked before back in 1993-94 when he played half the songs on our debut CD. Being able to do this entire recording with Neil is really amazing as well. We’ve done some great work in the past, but being able to focus on an entire instrumental record is going to be great. Rhythm guitars will be tracked next. I’ll keep everyone informed on the progress as we track for the next month.”

After a long and careful consideration, Timo Tolkki has decided to end Stratovarius. There are several reasons behind this decision that can be read on a official statement posted on Timo Tolkki’s Official Website: www.timotolkki.com

Timo has formed a new band called REVOLUTION RENAISSANCE, and in the silence he has been devoting all his time and efforts preparing the first release of his new band. The debut album is entitled ”New Era” and will be released on June 6th 2008 on Frontiers Records. The album is a masterpiece of melodic Power Metal, taking the listener straight back to the Visions-era Stratovarius. In fact, ”New Era” is the album that was meant to be the next Stratovarius album.

Instead, Timo called a few friends for the recording sessions and the album features all the lead vocals from such legends as Michael Kiske and Tobias Sammet, along with Timo’s blistering lead guitar lines and melodic Power Metal anthems that made him one of the pioneers of the style and trademark performers of the style. Revolution Renaissance witnesses a rebirth, a new era for Timo Tolkki and his music.

Tolkki is looking for a permanent line-up for the band, so if you are interested, check out the details on www.timotolkki.com for details on how to apply.