It has been shunned by major labels because they worry the referential humor will fly over the heads of teenagers, and gigs outside New York have proved elusive because few real bands want to share the bill with a parody act.
At a time when indie music has become mainstream, prog still repels major labels, because it resists commodification and they don't know how to market it – Mike Portnoy points out that even when Dream Theater were selling half a million albums a year, they were constantly locked in battles with their label, which demanded shorter, radio-friendly songs.
"Having lived in the vaults for many years," he added, he is aware that "there has been a lot of attrition" to the archives of major labels because of "stupid decisions, acts of nature, and material that has been lost, stolen, or never saved," so a transfer to the Library of Congress is theoretically welcome.
"I don't think I could ever be on a major label," he says, "because their idea of success and mine are vastly different".
When Coldplay got huge, a load of shit "emotional indie rock" bands like Snow Patrol, Keane and Athlete all started to get huge major label deals just because they look and sound the same (ie: wedding cake string sections / gay love lyrics / acoustic guitar / mummy's boy clothes / no booze on the rider).
He remains the only black country singer signed to a major label - not, says Frankie, because there are no others out there, but because a combination of reflexive racism and commercial timidity has kept black performers offstage.
He noted, however, that because one major label, EMI, and independent music producers are selling D.R.M.-free music through Apple, iTunes customers now have access to what he said was about 35percentt of the market without copy protection.
They've already released three singles – The First Time, Welcome Home and Quiet Night In – on a major label, which is a bit worrying because these days when a new band issues three singles on a major label and none of them chart you have to start wondering what's not going right.
