RockRoast

It seems to be one hundred percent confirmed that guitar wizard Marco Sfogli is returning for James LaBrie’s next solo album.

Of course, the fact that they’ve been “writing tunes” doesn’t mean the record will be out anytime in the near future. And that’s not a commentary on the seemingly inevitable delays of production so much as an acknowledgment that at least one of the band members has something else on his schedule. James LaBrie is committed to touring with Dream Theater from the end of April until early June.

But my hopes are high for the next record, regardless of when it comes out. Sfogli’s recent solo release has proven him to be maturing as a guitarist and as a songwriter. I’ve often criticized Sfogli for wasting his exceptional ability on unmelodic, emotionless, lightning-fast solos and tasteless distortions. But his own solo album, There’s Hope, showed a lot of improvement over his work on LaBrie’s last record, Elements of Persuasion. Amusingly enough, There’s Hope gave me a lot of hope for the remainder of Sfogli’s career. With a little luck, the record he’s working on now will prove that hope to be justified.

But now the strange thing is that, even though I’m a big fan of James LaBrie, he might not be the main reason why I’ll by his next release. It’s hard to decide which I want to hear more…more James or more Marco?

Fans of the neo-prog band Frost* probably already know that the band have reconvened and begun work on a second album. What they may not know is that writer/producer/keyboardist/frontman Jem Godfrey is doing his best to keep anxious fans from dying of boredom as they wait.

Godfrey has been uploading two or three youtube videos a month under the name “planetfrost.” These videos, called The Frost Reports, detail the daily activities of the band’s studio work, including the witty banter, the wacky antics, and the occasional recording and mixing.

The Frost Reports tend to offer the viewer brief, incomplete snippets of the new songs, and while it’s not much, it certainly shows a lot of promise. Fans thirsting for any glimpse at the anticipated followup to 2006’s Milliontown should be able to wet their whistles. But most of these videos involve the band members–mostly Jem Godfrey–simply goofing off. It’s entertaining, sometimes awkward, and frequently funny. Just wait for the part when Godfrey realizes that all keyboards have some little loose thing rattling around inside of them.

But you have to wonder if all the goofing off is what’s taking this album so long.

The important thing, however, is that in one of January’s reports, Godfrey briefly outlined the band’s schedule and said that he hopes to have the whole record ready by May. Frost* fans rejoice–your wait may soon be over.