Author Topic: Spock's Beard  (Read 146210 times)

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Offline darkshade

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1190 on: March 10, 2017, 06:40:57 AM »
To me, if you can't get into V, The Light, or Beware of Darkness, then Spock's Beard is not for you.
Of course, the only post-Neal album I have is X, which I haven't listened to in years. Reading stuff online tells me the post-X albums are better than the rest of the Nick-era albums, or am I wrong?

Offline kaos2900

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1191 on: March 10, 2017, 06:55:54 AM »
I really enjoy Octane. Easily the most underrated beard album.

Offline Kwyjibo

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1192 on: March 10, 2017, 06:59:13 AM »
Overall the Nick era isn't as strong as the Neal era but Octane is good and X is stellar (imo). And the two records with Ted are very good also, with Brief Nocturnes the one I like better.
Must've been Kwyji sending all the wrong songs.   ;D

Offline rumborak

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1193 on: March 10, 2017, 07:30:22 AM »
I wonder also if I could get into SB as easily these days as I did back in the day. SB's older albums are great, but I think they sound a bit dated these days.
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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1194 on: March 10, 2017, 07:58:36 AM »
I wonder also if I could get into SB as easily these days as I did back in the day. SB's older albums are great, but I think they sound a bit dated these days.

Your taste has changed.  There are albums I could play over and over 10 years ago I hardly play now.
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Offline axeman90210

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1195 on: March 10, 2017, 09:23:56 AM »
My first album from them was The Kindness of Strangers, which I still absolutely love the first half of that album (everything through June). I don't dislike the second half per se, just haven't listened to it nearly as much.
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Offline KevShmev

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1196 on: March 10, 2017, 05:28:00 PM »
I wonder also if I could get into SB as easily these days as I did back in the day. SB's older albums are great, but I think they sound a bit dated these days.

Your taste has changed.  There are albums I could play over and over 10 years ago I hardly play now.

Production-wise, I could see what he means.  SMPTe was when Neal's music made that leap in sound quality, and he has had that kind of sound and production on pretty much every prog album he has done since.  The first four SB albums sound pretty raw, which can be part of the charm, but can definitely make them sound a bit dated. 

Offline Mosh

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1197 on: March 10, 2017, 06:06:22 PM »
Those albums are pretty low budget in a genre where low budget is never charming. That being said, there's an energy and freshness to those albums that hasn't been present in Neal's work since IMO.
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Online The Letter M

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1198 on: March 25, 2017, 09:16:28 PM »
Just posted on Facebook:

"Spock's Beard is super excited to announce that the amazing Nick D'Virgilio has agreed to play on our next album!
Nick of course is well known to SB fans as our former drummer/lead singer/all around awesome dude as well as for working with artists such as Genesis, Mike Keneally, Peter Gabriel and Big Big Train among others. Nick was with us when we first started and we are over the moon to have him back with us for this album! We know you'll be as excited as we are to hear what we will be able to create with him back pounding the skins. We've been writing new material and plan to start recording in earnest in late May, so stay tuned!"

This post by John Boegehold is smartly worded by purposely being a bit vague as to whether or not Nick is returning to the band permanently, or just playing on the album. Either way, it'll be nice to have Nick back on a SB album (aside from "Falling For Forever" on the compilation, and the cover of "Iron Man" on their last album). I wonder if he'll be doing vocals too...

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Offline KevShmev

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1199 on: March 25, 2017, 09:24:59 PM »
Nice! I suspect he will do the album, but not tour for the 8 shows they do a year. :lol :lol

Online The Letter M

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1200 on: March 25, 2017, 09:26:18 PM »
Nice! I suspect he will do the album, but not tour for the 8 shows they do a year. :lol :lol

You're probably right - he's got to prepare for the 3 shows that Big Big Train have sold out for next year!!! :rollin

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1201 on: March 25, 2017, 11:53:58 PM »
NICE
I just don't understand what they were trying to achieve with any part of the song, either individually or as a whole. You know what? It's the Platypus of Dream Theater songs. That bill doesn't go with that tail, or that strange little furry body, or those webbed feet, and oh god why does it have venomous spurs!? And then you find out it lays eggs too. The difference is that the Platypus is somehow functional despite being a crazy mishmash or leftover animal pieces

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Offline RoeDent

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1202 on: March 26, 2017, 01:05:33 AM »
Great news! And great news that SBXIII looms into view on the distant horizon.

Offline Kwyjibo

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1203 on: March 26, 2017, 01:16:41 AM »
Great news! And great news that SBXIII looms into view on the distant horizon.
Must've been Kwyji sending all the wrong songs.   ;D

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1204 on: March 26, 2017, 05:10:09 AM »
Cool news.  :tup

Offline kaos2900

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1205 on: March 27, 2017, 07:24:05 AM »
Awesome!

Offline rumborak

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1206 on: March 27, 2017, 07:30:47 AM »
*prays for some vocals as well*
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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1207 on: March 29, 2017, 08:21:49 AM »
Am I the only one who finds it weird that they rely so much on an outside writer?
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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1208 on: March 29, 2017, 08:58:07 AM »
Am I the only one who finds it weird that they rely so much on an outside writer?

I do.  I guess Neal did all of the writing so when he left they were uncomfortable writing and structure.  It still does seem weird.
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Offline Mindflux

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1209 on: March 29, 2017, 08:58:46 AM »
Am I the only one who finds it weird that they rely so much on an outside writer?

Maybe it's a little weird, but they have one outside writer.. not 19 like Beyonce.

Offline RoeDent

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1210 on: March 29, 2017, 10:19:08 AM »
King Crimson had Pete Sinfield for their early albums. H-era Marillion have had John Helmer at times. So it's not strange, unprecedented or anything. The songs are still amazing.

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1211 on: March 29, 2017, 10:19:17 AM »
Am I the only one who finds it weird that they rely so much on an outside writer?

Maybe it's a little weird, but they have one outside writer.. not 19 like Beyonce.
Yeah, but that's not weird for a solo singer/pop star.

It's REALLY weird for a BAND.
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Offline Orbert

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1212 on: March 29, 2017, 11:13:37 AM »
King Crimson had Pete Sinfield for their early albums.

Sinfield only wrote lyrics, though.  The music was by the band.  Sinfield was a friend of Greg Lake, which is why so many ELP songs have horrible lyrics.  Pete Sinfield.

Offline Mindflux

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1213 on: March 29, 2017, 01:06:15 PM »
It's REALLY weird for a BAND.

Meh.  Overthinking it.  Enjoy the tunes.


Offline RoeDent

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1214 on: March 29, 2017, 01:46:50 PM »
It's REALLY weird for a BAND.

Meh.  Overthinking it.  Enjoy the tunes.

This. A lot of people overthink things about many bands.

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1215 on: March 29, 2017, 02:15:00 PM »
I agree that it's weird. It's EXTREMELY weird. However, as long as the quality of music doesn't suffer, I can deal with it. Joe is apparently an incredible songwriter, and the other band members still contribute tunes, so yeah, I guess that it's not too big of a deal.

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1216 on: March 29, 2017, 02:37:43 PM »
I agree that it's weird. It's EXTREMELY weird. However, as long as the quality of music doesn't suffer, I can deal with it. Joe is apparently an incredible songwriter, and the other band members still contribute tunes, so yeah, I guess that it's not too big of a deal.

Who is Joe? As far as I know, the band has only had John Boegehold and Stan Ausmus, and many times they'll co-write with Al or Dave.

It wasn't until Nick left that neither John or Stan got solo writing credits. John has 7 and Stan has 1 ("Tides of Time"). Otherwise, they have continued writing with the rest of the band.

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« Last Edit: March 29, 2017, 02:53:03 PM by The Letter M »
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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1217 on: March 29, 2017, 02:41:49 PM »
It's REALLY weird for a BAND.

Meh.  Overthinking it.  Enjoy the tunes.
I do enjoy the tunes.  Doesn't prevent me from making an observation.

Thinking =/= overthinking.
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Offline KevShmev

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1218 on: March 29, 2017, 07:08:43 PM »
I have said for years that it is odd that they use outside writers so much.  I still enjoy the hell out of the music, and think some of their best work has been in the post-Neal era, but I'd love to see them give it a go just once with only the band writing, just to see what they can do.

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1219 on: March 29, 2017, 08:14:32 PM »
I have said for years that it is odd that they use outside writers so much.  I still enjoy the hell out of the music, and think some of their best work has been in the post-Neal era, but I'd love to see them give it a go just once with only the band writing, just to see what they can do.

In the 6 albums since Snow, here's the list of songs written by/credited to band members and NOT John and/or Stan:
Feel Euphoria
Shining Star
A Guy Named Sid
From The Messenger (Ryo solo piece, does it count?)
NWC
Watching The Tide
Game Face
Listening To The Sky (Ryo solo piece as well)
Is This Love?
With Your Kiss
Wherever You Stand
Rearranged
Edge Of The In-Between (music by Meros, lyrics by Boegehold)
The Emperor's Clothes (old song by Neal, reworked by Al)
Kamikaze
From The Darkness
The Quiet House (music by Meros, lyrics by Boegehold)
Hiding Out
Submerged
Afterthoughts (Neal worked on this with Ted and Al)
Waiting For Me (Neal worked with Al on this one too)
Wish I Were Here
Minion
Hell's Not Enough
The Center Line

Considering that that covers 6 albums, 66 songs (with individual credits), and of those 66, 25 did not include music writing credits to John Boegehold or Stan Ausmus. So about 38% of the work they've made since Neal left has not included them, which doesn't seem as few as one might think, especially considering how many songs Boegehold has credits to (musically at least), which is 34. I tried to find more information on specific writing credits, but only on X do they make the distinction of who wrote the music and who wrote the lyrics.

To be fair, though, both John and Stan have also contributed some performances on the albums since Neal left, so it's not JUST writing music and/or lyrics for their songs. And the songs themselves are still very much in the vein of the Beard, but I think it helps that it's Ryo, Dave, and Al playing them.

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Offline Fritzinger

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1220 on: March 30, 2017, 04:24:54 AM »
I also find it weird that John wrote so much, especially on the last album. It's like "hey guys I have a bunch of stuff written, wanna do a new Beard album?" - "yeah fudge it let's do it".

But ALSO I'd like to stress that it's not only the composition that makes a song; the arrangement has a lot of influence on the end product. I learned that in my Arrangement class at my college where in the introduction lesson our Prof played us a melody (so the actual composition) and showed us different ways to arrange it (orchestral, jazzy, heavy, .....) - at the end of the lesson he asked us if we knew the melody, neither of us recognized it - but it was Billy Jean. That's when I realized that arrangement is almost as important and influential as composition.

Also in my own band (melodic/a little progressive Metal) the drummer composed all the music before the band even existed and brought in the midi files. In the end the music sounds completely different than he imagined in the beginning. We made our own versions out of it.
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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1221 on: March 30, 2017, 06:37:35 AM »
I feel like I'm one of the few people who doesn't find it weird at all. :lol Compositionally I just see Boegehold as a member of the band.

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1222 on: March 30, 2017, 11:57:01 AM »
I agree that it's weird. It's EXTREMELY weird. However, as long as the quality of music doesn't suffer, I can deal with it. Joe is apparently an incredible songwriter, and the other band members still contribute tunes, so yeah, I guess that it's not too big of a deal.

Who is Joe?
I meant John.  :lol

Offline rumborak

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1223 on: March 30, 2017, 04:12:09 PM »
What a shame that in that long list of songs up there, the one I like best is an old Neal song.
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Offline KevShmev

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Re: Spock's Beard
« Reply #1224 on: March 30, 2017, 07:14:38 PM »
From the Darkness stands out there as the best song, IMO. That is still a top 10 Spock's song for me.

Speaking of X, Jaws of Heaven is probably top 5.

Both of those songs are still incredible.  :hefdaddy :hefdaddy