“Blood Red Summer” by Coheed and Cambria
From the 2004 album In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

My idea for today’s selection was just to select the Progressive Rock genre in iTunes, put it on shuffle, and let it pick the song I’d feature. The first track it played was “Your Own Special Way” by Genesis (from Wind and Wuthering, 1977). Unfortunately the only results that one turned up on YouTube weren’t actually videos. When is YouTube going to ban “videos” that are really just audio tracks with either no image, a static image of text explaining what the audio is, or cheesy homemade slideshows?

So I skipped to the next track: “Blood Red Summer” by Coheed and Cambria. They’re another 21st century band, and some may argue that they’re not really prog, but some kind of mix of alt-emo and pop-prog-speed metal. Well, prog is still in there. And if a band that operates not only in concept albums but concept discographies isn’t prog, I don’t know what is. They’ve just stopped short of inventing their own language (the surest way to enter the canon).

“Blood Red Summer” was, I think, Coheed’s first attempt at a “hit single.” I’m not sure how much of a hit it was, and it’s a fair bit more straightforward and hook-driven than most of their music, but it’s not a bad tune. I’m not that impressed with the audio mix on Live from the Starland Ballroom, but I’ve seen the whole DVD and the band was tight. Let’s hope they can finish their pentalogy before they implode.