The metal and hard rock webzine Metal Perspective has just posted an email interview that Giannis Tsakonas did with us a month or two ago (which accounts for the band responses about not having seen many English language reviews). Much of the discussion revolves around our new album, The Tale Of Woe.

You can read the interview here.

We hope everyone had a safe trip to and from CalProg, and that everyone had even half as much fun as we did!

This was a great festival...  just wonderful fun, super nice people everywhere... just great all around, and any band should consider themselves lucky to get the opportunity to be involved with CalProg!

We'd like to thank the festival staff for the great experience we had with them from long before load in to getting in our cars to drive home. The hotel was excellent, the theater staff was super nice and helpful...  everyone involved was a pleasure to work with.

Papa J, thanks so much for the opportunity to be involved with such a great tradition! You guys all did everything possible to make sure that nothing got in the way of the performance, thank you!

Thanks also to the patrons of the event... you're all really doing  something wonderful by contributing to such a special event. We're all lucky to have had your support, and it was such a pleasure to meet so many of you.

Also, thanks to the other bands for being such cool guys. Such a treat to meet you all - I wish we had more time to hang out and share some stories. A pleasure to share the stage (at least sequentially) with you all!

To everyone who attended, a real heartfelt thanks... we really mean that. It's been too many years since we were out playing and getting that immediate feedback from a live audience. Thank you so much for the wonderful reception and the kind comments.

For more details and photos, take a look at our CalProg diary page - enjoy!

Puppet Show would like to thank everyone who organized, performed at, and especially those who attended The Rites of Spring Festival this year in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The venue was spectacular, the sound system was excellent, and you couldn't ask for a nicer group of people to spend the weekend with.

Thank you Tom & George for inviting us to participate is such a great event - we're really honored to be included with such a great roster of performers and to play for such a wonderful audience.

For more details, take a look at our ROSFest diary page - enjoy!

Puppet Show is proud to make our first West Coast stage appearance since 1999 at the annual CalProg festival in Whittier California.  We'll be playing a mix of music from our new album The Tale of Woe, as well as music from 1997's Traumatized.

Also part of this year's lineup at the CalProg festival are Spiraling, Rudess/Morgenstein, and Frogg Cafe.  This should be a fantastic show, and we hope to see you all there!

More information about the festival can be found on the CalProg site, including samples from the new Puppet Show album, as well as music from teh other performers.

Now that all the 't's are crossed and the 'i's dotted, Puppet Show is proud to announce that we've found a new home at ProgRock Records.

We're all very pleased to be teaming up with such a well respected label that is really solidifying its reputation as a top source of great modern progressive rock. Thanks to Shawn & ProgRock Records for making us feel right at home!

The official ProgRock Records announcement can be found here.

And now that we have a place to hang our hats, we're extremely pleased to announce the release of our second album, The Tale of Woe. It's been a loooong haul, and there were times it looked like it would never be completed, but the time has finally come when we can share our work with Puppetheads everywhere.

Puppet Show's second album, The Tale of Woe, available in February 20th, 2007

A labor of love through and through, The Tale of Woe is both a solid continuation of the Puppet Show sound, while also achieving a giant leap forward in production quality. Our first album, Traumatized was originally a 16 track demo that grew and stretched (sometimes a bit painfully) into a full fledged album. A full account of the recording process, which originally also bore the name "The Tale of Woe", will be published either here or in expanded liner notes on a potential reissue of Traumatized.

The Tale of Woe is everything that we had hoped the Traumatized album would be, in terms of production quality. From the relaxed, detail-oriented recording process to the final mixes by none other than the renowned and legendary Terry Brown, The Tale of Woe has been a first class production from start to finish.

Of course there's the music, too. The six songs range in length from 4:13 for our shortest tune God's Angry Man, to our longest song The Past Has Just Begun which spans a full 16:41. While still strongly in the vein of the first album, there is a broader spectrum of music and textures on the new album. The performances are all top-notch... the album really captures the band at its best.

The album will be released in February of 2007, in time for folks attending the Rites of Spring Festival (see news item below) to get a copy of the album before the show. For those interested in saving a couple of bucks, the new CD is available for pre-order at the ProgRock Records site and is discounted $2 during the pre-order period - click here to order.

Here's to 2007 - The Year of Woe! (well, figuratively speaking).

The fourth annual Rites of Spring Festival in Phoenixville, PA (near Philadelphia proper) takes place over 3 days in the month of April 2007 at the majestic Colonial Theater, and features 10 great bands. Along with Puppet Show, the other bands include Spock's Beard, Starcastle, Pendragon, Galahad, Carptree, Rocket Scientists, Magic Pie, Darwin's Radio, Retroheads, and Tempustry.

Puppet Show will be the middle band on the first night the festival - setting the tone, as it were - opening for Starcastle. This perfomance will mark Puppet Show's first appearance in the Eastern United States, as well as their first public performance since ProgFest, 1999. Don't miss it!

The official ROSFest announcement reads:

RoSfest is excited to announce the return of US prog band Puppet Show, as they release their long awaited second album. Puppet Show was founded in 1994 in Northern California, and played a string of concerts and festivals such as the East Bay Prog Day festival in 1995, and the inaugural Expose Concert Series event in 1996. After releasing their debut album "Traumatized" in 1998, they were invited to play Baja Prog later that year, and ProgFest in 1999. Following this string of festivals, the band was forced by life events to split up geographically, putting their work on the follow up to "Traumatized" nearly to a standstill. They have completed their follow up release, and are preparing to launch it on the world in early 2007. The band has taken their album to the next level, but still maintains the complex rhythms, passionate vocals, and fantastic keyboard/guitar interchanges for which the band became known for. The band features the talents of Sean Frazier (vocals), Mike Grimes (keyboards), Chris Ogburn (guitar), Craig Polson (bass guitar) and new drummer Chris Mack from Iluvatar and Oblivion Sun. RoSfest is pleased to welcome these guys to the festival in 2007!

Don't forget to download the two MP3s on the RoSfest site, including one from their yet to be released album!

Mixing and mastering has been completed on the new album from rock band Puppet Show.

Sean Frazier (vocals), Mike Grimes (keyboards), and Chris Mack (drums) travelled to Toronto, Canada last January to meet with renowned producer Terry Brown at his studio to complete final mixes.  The band and Mr. Brown then completed a mastering session with Peter Moore to bring the album's audio production to a close.

Bassist Craig Polson was clearly impressed with the results.  "I'm so impressed with the awesome quality of the mixing that Terry provided.  I just couldn't be happier.  He really brought all of the instruments and compositions to life, and was so intuitively sensitive to our compositions.  I just can't wait until our fans hear it!"

The band is now examining their options for distributing the currently unnamed album.  The release date for the album has yet to be determined, but the band intends to make some clips of the new music available to fans on its web site, www.puppetshow.com.

Oblivion Sun is the new band formed by Stan Whitaker (Guitars & Vocals) and Frank Wyatt (Keys & Sax) of Happy The Man. Rounding out the line up is Bill Plummer on keys, Dave Demarco on Bass and our very own Chris Mack on drums. The music is reminiscent of Happy The Man's progressive style with an emphasis on the blend of jazz, funk, and fusion.

Puppet Show, Iluvatar, and now Oblivion Sun... could Chris possibly be in more Prog bands at once? Probably.

For more information, take a look at the Oblivion Sun web site.

Terry Brown fielding important phone calls from very important people... or he's holding a Black Mamba vibrator to his right ear. You decide.

Mixing has begun on the newest album from rock band Puppet Show by music industry icon Terry Brown. Mr. Brown, who began his career in England during the exploding pop scene of the 1960s, is perhaps best known for producing some of the most popular albums for the band Rush, including Moving Pictures, Permanent Waves, Hemispheres, and 2112.

Michael Grimes, who plays keyboards for Puppet Show, said "Terry's resume speaks for itself. He has produced and mixed so many great sounding albums over the years. It's a privilege to be working with someone whose work we all grew up enjoying." The other members of the band echo his excitement as well. Bassist Craig Polson said, "I can't express how thrilled I am to have Terry on the project! We've worked so hard for so long to ensure the highest possible recording quality. Now I know that the new album will be top quality right through the mixing process."

"I grew up listening to 2112 and Moving Pictures, and these albums are staples on my iPod to this day." said an enthusiastic Sean Frazier, the band's vocalist. "It is an absolute honor to work with the guy who brought those works to vinyl."

Mr. Brown has also worked on a number of progressive and independent rock band projects, and he welcomes the opportunity to mix the Puppet Show album. "This 'Puppet Show' would be the perfect opener for Spinal Tap, but be careful they don't steal the show", Terry said.

The band anticipates having the album mixed by the end of the year, and will be looking for distribution at that time.

More information and another photo Terry Brown can be found on his web site at terrybrown.net.

Chris Mack tracking drums for the new album. Chris Ogburn (left) and Mike Grimes monitor and engineer the session in the background.

Sean Frazier graciously provided security for the event.

Puppet Show's new drummer Chris Mack and vocalist Sean Frazier flew out to California at the end of April. This was the first opportunity for the entire new line up to be together in the same room. Allen Walker was kind enough to allow the band to hijack his studio and vintage Ludwig drum kit for the week of recording sessions.

"Despite a variety of logistical obstacles, Chris did an outstanding job of tracking drums for the entire CD in less than a week." said keyboardist Mike Grimes. "Considering that none of the drum parts had been discussed as a group prior his arrival, that feat seems all the more impressive. Chris would compose sections on the spot and then we'd record the final take immediately afterwards. His playing style is a nice combination of anchoring the groove with a steady rhythm, while interjecting additional elements so that the drums have a broad and musical dynamic range. We're extremely fortunate to have him in Puppet Show."

Chris Mack and Craig Polson look for typos on teh computer.

Guitarist Chris Ogburn was equally pleased. "The drum sessions were, by all accounts, a great success. At some points the cosmos did seem to be conspiring against us, and at times I had some reservations about us engineering the sessions ourselves, but we persevered and as a result have some outstanding drum tracks that really breathe an unexpectedly exciting new life into the material."

The new, as-yet-unnamed album follows a similar format to the previous album with most songs in the 8-minute-plus range. The completion of the drum tracks leaves only a small collection of clean-up parts to record, along with some of the lead vocals and backing vocals. This will be followed by finalizing mixing and distribution arrangements.

Puppet Show has a new drummer in the person of Chris Mack!

The new Puppet Show line-up: Chris Ogburn (guitars), Sean Frazier (vocals), Mike Grimes (keys), Chris Mack (drums), Craig Polson (bass).

Like Sean Frazier, Chris lives on the East Coast of America in the great city of Baltimore. He's pretty active & accomplished in the Prog world, performing with Iluvatar live and on their most recent album, A Story Two Days Wide. He is also the drummer on the new, upcoming CD project from Happy the Man co-founders Stan Whitaker and Frank Wyatt entitled Pedal Giant Animals.

"Chris was the first guy we thought of to fill the drum position, and he graciously agreed to come aboard." said Puppet Show's keyboardist Mike Grimes. "He's a fantastic drummer and we're looking forward to releasing a great CD and finally getting back out to play some gigs." Vocalist Sean Frazier agreed, “It was critical that we found someone who was not only a capable player (and Chris is more than capable) but also someone who would fit into the group musically and personality-wise. Chris fits like a glove and already feels like he’s been in the band for years. And oh yea, he’s a kick ass drummer too.”

As for Chris Mack, he had the following comments on joining Puppet Show, "Let me say how totally excited I am for this opportunity. I love the material for this new CD and I've been listening a lot to Traumatized. Great Music!"

Chris is planning to travel out to California in late April to record the drum tracks for the new album. More updates on that soon!

Thanks to everyone who came to the Day Zero performance in San Francisco! It was a great show with some great bands. Many thanks to DJAM KARET for being so supportive in making time for our soundcheck (and for being genuinely cool guys!). Both DJAM KARET and GERARD put on great performances after making substantial journeys to be at the show. We in Puppet Show sincerely thank both these bands and are happy to have been part of such a killer evening of progressive music!

Oh yeah, and we rocked, too.

Finally, thanks to Jeff Melton and the whole gang at Expose Concert Series Promotions for putting the show together (and all of the hard labor that goes with such projects). The San Francisco Bay Area is very lucky to have them around to give us locals quality progressive concerts... thanks, folks!

Here are some photos, reviews, and reminiscences of Puppet Show's performance at the festival. We had a great time, and have committed some observations to print. Take a look and have a laugh... maybe.