Spock's Beard Discography thread

[RoeDent]

4 days until release, and I'm listening to some Spock's to get me in the mood. Listening now to The Kindness of Strangers. I can't remember if it was in this thread or not, but I'm sure we were talking somewhere about favourite Alan Morse solos. I completely forgot to mention Harm's Way. I looove that solo!

It was yourself, about a month ago, that brought up Al's solos, so yeah, it was in this very thread.

Hard to believe it is four days away, I am so excited! I haven't been this pumped for a new album since TSOAD by The Neal Morse Band. I hope it lives up to the greatness of other recent SB albums!

-Marc.

Oh yeah. I might have even already mentioned Harm's Way in that. Oh well.

I'm spinning a couple of Spock's Beard albums this week to get myself in the mood ahead of Friday. Yesterday was The Kindness of Strangers, and now tonight I'm listening to V. I'll probably listen to The Oblivion Particle on Thursday evening. Maybe even Brief Nocturnes too.

[Mindflux]

So the CD release for US buyers got delayed because of an problem with the artwork (printing problem?) until early June.. but now over on Facebook someone who got theirs early says at 1:18 on the first track there's about 5 seconds of "some other band" inserted in. 

Dave Meros checked his copy just moments ago and confirmed that his also does it. So there may be further delays to fix this issue (if they decide to at all).

[Mladen]

Whoa, that's gotta suck.

[Mindflux]

Dave just posted:

Well, just by what I've read and the fact that my own copy has the same issue, I"m thinking that ALL the Noise Floor CDs are defective, which is a pretty huge problem.

I just checked the DDP master (the file that gets sent in to the manufacturer), it's perfect, so it was a problem in pressing.

I have a message into InsideOut, I'll keep you updated.

[ich bin besser]

Wow, now that is huge, indeed... 

On a positive note: my sister in the USA just received the Golden Record today (which she is supposed to carry over to Germany for me). 

[KevShmev]

Not to sound totally clueless , but this will impact the digital versions?  I rarely buy physical CDs anymore, so my plan was to get this digitally.

[The Letter M]

Not to sound totally clueless , but this will impact the digital versions?  I rarely buy physical CDs anymore, so my plan was to get this digitally.

I'm going to go on a limb and say that it won't impact the digital versions as Dave himself said his masters were perfect, so unless all digital outlets rip from a CD source, which I don't think they do, all of the digital versions should come from the record company's digital masters.

And yeah, this is a huge bummer. I pre-ordered from Burning Shed, so my copy won't even get to the US until early June, I'm sure, so I may have to get a digital version to tide myself over until the physical version comes, but I'll wait and see what others say about digital versions first before I commit. Does anyone know if we can pay the band directly for a digital version? I'd like to give them the money directly (like with BBT and their Bandcamp page), if at all possible.

-Marc.

[jingle.boy]

Not to sound totally clueless , but this will impact the digital versions?  I rarely buy physical CDs anymore, so my plan was to get this digitally.

My thought exactly.  I'm not overly concerned, as it'll be a digital download (legally) for me.  There's only a handful of bands I'll shell out for to get 'grander' physical packages.  Spock's isn't one of them.

[kaos2900]

That must be insanely frustrating. How does something like that even happen?

[Mindflux]

That must be insanely frustrating. How does something like that even happen?

I'd like to know too. 

John Boegehold identified it as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVhMc-3D5Wc 

How does an 11/12 year old song that may not have had a pressing recently blip into the new Spock's Beard during pressing.

[jingle.boy]

Dream Evil!?!?!!  Seriously.     I didn't know Dream Evil was ever with Inside Out - they certainly aren't at the moment.

[Orbert]

In the control room of the CD plant...

Hey man, what'cha listening to?

(removes headphones, leans back) The new Spock's Beard.  We're pressing 'em now.

(leans on console, accidentally hitting some switch)  Oops, sorry.  (flips it back)

(turns around)  "Sorry?"  What did you do?

Umm... nothing.  Look, I gotta go.

[Mindflux]

Dream Evil!?!?!!  Seriously.     I didn't know Dream Evil was ever with Inside Out - they certainly aren't at the moment.

I'd never heard of them until this.. lol

[Ninjabait]

Not to sound totally clueless , but this will impact the digital versions?  I rarely buy physical CDs anymore, so my plan was to get this digitally.

I'm going to go on a limb and say that it won't impact the digital versions as Dave himself said his masters were perfect, so unless all digital outlets rip from a CD source, which I don't think they do, all of the digital versions should come from the record company's digital masters.

And yeah, this is a huge bummer. I pre-ordered from Burning Shed, so my copy won't even get to the US until early June, I'm sure, so I may have to get a digital version to tide myself over until the physical version comes, but I'll wait and see what others say about digital versions first before I commit. Does anyone know if we can pay the band directly for a digital version? I'd like to give them the money directly (like with BBT and their Bandcamp page), if at all possible.

-Marc.

I can only talk from my experience working through companies like TuneCore, but from what I've seen the general practice nowadays is to send audio files like .mp3 or .wav directly to them. No idea what they do with older albums.

And here's what appears to be their bandcamp.I don't know if it'll be available there since it doesn't seem up to date lol. Here's their website too, although I don't know if it'll be available through there.

[Kwyjibo]

Amazon told me that my cd just shipped (Germany), let's see if we have the same problems in Europe.

And didn't they have problems with cd pressing before? Or was it Neal Morse, or is my memory just bad?

[Mindflux]

from Dave:

UPDATE: The defective CDs seem to be ONLY the ones included in the LPs. This includes all colors (gold, white, black, transparent yellow). Apparently those were manufactured first and they caught the error before the main release digipack CDs were pressed.

So if you ordered the CD digipack version, don't worry, you won't get a CD with the error.

That's all I know right now.

[jingle.boy]

In the control room of the CD plant...

Hey man, what'cha listening to?

(removes headphones, leans back) The new Spock's Beard.  We're pressing 'em now.

(leans on console, accidentally hitting some switch)  Oops, sorry.  (flips it back)

(turns around)  "Sorry?"  What did you do?

Umm... nothing.  Look, I gotta go.

Don't worry, I'm sure no one will notice anything different on that batch.

Updated.

[RoeDent]

Man, I am so glad I've read this now. I'll probably hold back on buying the album tomorrow then. At least until we have confirmation that UK copies are OK. But why don't these things get spotted beforehand?

[Kwyjibo]

So they noticed the error but still send the cds out WITHOUT noticing the recipients or the band in some way? And gave this information out only after they were asked by Dave. Seems like there are professionals at work. 

[RoeDent]

InsideOut aren't exactly crowning themselves with glory on this either. There's a few things about the pre-album build up I'm not 100% happy with with regards to how the label are handling the album.

[Mindflux]

So they noticed the error but still send the cds out WITHOUT noticing the recipients or the band in some way? And gave this information out only after they were asked by Dave. Seems like there are professionals at work. 

Right? IO should have told Spock's about this slip up first and foremost and then anyone who had ordered the LP with the bundled CD.

[The Letter M]

I think they noticed midway through packing the CDs in the vinyl sets as some folks have received their vinyl without any CDs in them, so it seems they probably stopped inserting them at some point. Hopefully those folks get their discs eventually!

Glad my 2 copies won't (hopefully) have the defect - just got my shipping notification from Burning Shed this morning, and I ordered the Japanese version from CDJapan last night as well.

-Marc.

[Orbert]

In the control room of the CD plant...

Hey man, what'cha listening to?

(removes headphones, leans back) The new Spock's Beard.  We're pressing 'em now.

(leans on console, accidentally hitting some switch)  Oops, sorry.  (flips it back)

(turns around)  "Sorry?"  What did you do?

Umm... nothing.  Look, I gotta go.

Don't worry, I'm sure no one will notice anything different on that batch.

Updated.

Yep.  Those vinyl freaks will probably never play the CDs anyway.

[RoeDent]

Spinning both Brief Nocturnes and The Oblivion Particle this evening. Can't believe the former is 5 years old already! "I Know Your Secret" is a belter of a track! I love the way they progged up* the chorus to give Ted room to take breath before the next line. It'd be a bit of a mouthful if it was in 8/4.

(Progged up = Added an extra beat)

DISCLAIMER: This is just my theory. But I like the theory.

[Fritzinger]

Amazon told me that my cd just shipped (Germany), let's see if we have the same problems in Europe.

And didn't they have problems with cd pressing before? Or was it Neal Morse, or is my memory just bad?

They had some problems with pressing before with X. Since that album was only seconds under 80 minutes there was some problem with Jaws Of Heaven. I actually still have one of the mispressings. The CD makes weird noises towards the end and the songs ends a few seconds before it should end.

They said the ones who had a wrong pressing could have a new one without extra payment (or so). I think I even wanted a new one, but it never arrived... But I don't blame them. They did everything on their own (also had no label then) and these things happen.

[The Letter M]

Amazon told me that my cd just shipped (Germany), let's see if we have the same problems in Europe.

And didn't they have problems with cd pressing before? Or was it Neal Morse, or is my memory just bad?

They had some problems with pressing before with X. Since that album was only seconds under 80 minutes there was some problem with Jaws Of Heaven. I actually still have one of the mispressings. The CD makes weird noises towards the end and the songs ends a few seconds before it should end.

They said the ones who had a wrong pressing could have a new one without extra payment (or so). I think I even wanted a new one, but it never arrived... But I don't blame them. They did everything on their own (also had no label then) and these things happen.

Oh, I remember that! The band's correspondence had sent me a download link to "Jaws Of Heaven" in the meantime, while they shipped out (very quickly) replacements for the discs of the original LE version (which had the issue with the ending of the album skipping).

I actually have THREE versions of the album then - the original defective LE version, the replacement LE version, and the regular retail release that doesn't include "Their Names Escape Me", which I bought because some of the tracks were longer (most notably "From The Darkness"), and I wanted the longest version of the album I could make, which happens to be about 80:08 or so.

-Marc.

[RoeDent]

Yeah, on the standard version of X (ie. the one without Their Names Escape Me), From the Darkness is about 15 seconds longer, give or take.

Also, HAPPY ALBUM RELEASE DAY, FOLKS!

[Fritzinger]

Didn't even know that! But are those 15 seconds of any significance?

Happy release day y'all

[Kwyjibo]

My cd should arrive today but I'm not there to listen to it. Hopefully I can sneak in a listen during the weekend. I'm fairly excited. 

[RoeDent]

Or not release day, it seems. I couldn't find it anywhere, and Amazon has it released on June 1st. This whole thing has been a complete and utter shambles. I am absolutely fuming!!!  Looks like I'll have to order it on Amazon and wait a whole nother week.

Tbh, I started being concerned about the way this album has been dealt with by InsideOut when they said in interviews that the label decided what tracks were on the main album and what were on the sham of a "bonus disc". It's a disgrace how they have treated one of the pioneering progressive rock bands of our time. InsideOut have become part of The Music Industry™ now, supporting only The Big Money rather than letting the creators decide what's done with their music. They are The Problem.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE (12:15pm): So I've calmed down a bit now. Apparently the digital version is released today, but the physical CD release isn't until next Friday, June 1st. So I've "pre-ordered" it and will get the physical disc next week, but I've been able to add the digital version to my player now.

[Fritzinger]

For those of you who can't hear the album yet, maybe this mini-documentary about Bulletproof will cheer you up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH1-RietveM

[devieira73]

I'm on the first listen, but One So Wise is love at first hearing!

[Ninjabait]

Just finished listening and it's alright. First three tracks and Box of Spiders are probably the stand outs, and Box of Spiders takes a little bit to get going. Disc 2 was probably some of the weakest songs on the album. Least favorite SB album I've heard so far, but it's not bad by any means.

3.5/5 is probably my final verdict.

[The Letter M]

Or not release day, it seems. I couldn't find it anywhere, and Amazon has it released on June 1st. This whole thing has been a complete and utter shambles. I am absolutely fuming!!!  Looks like I'll have to order it on Amazon and wait a whole nother week.

Delays in the US have been because of an issue with the artwork, so production had to be delayed, at leas that's what members of the band have said on Facebook.

Tbh, I started being concerned about the way this album has been dealt with by InsideOut when they said in interviews that the label decided what tracks were on the main album and what were on the sham of a "bonus disc". It's a disgrace how they have treated one of the pioneering progressive rock bands of our time. InsideOut have become part of The Music Industry™ now, supporting only The Big Money rather than letting the creators decide what's done with their music. They are The Problem.

It's not really a bonus disc, per se, as I'm fairly certain that all versions of the album have those four extra songs on it, so it's not like we're NOT getting them. The label, or even the band themselves, could have just chosen NOT to release them, but both the band and label gave them all to us, so I'm pretty thankful for that. And I don't mind that those four songs weren't on the main album. Oddly enough, they're the four shortest songs included on the whole thing, so maybe that has something to do with their exclusion from the "main album"? Ted has even said one was an "unfinished" song that he wanted to have a proggy middle section by the band, but they never wrote one, so they recorded it as is. It seems like those four may have been demos that the band just didn't develop further, and maybe they themselves didn't feel confident enough in them to include on the album as well?

-Marc.

[devieira73]

Just finished listening and it's alright. First three tracks and Box of Spiders are probably the stand outs, and Box of Spiders takes a little bit to get going. Disc 2 was probably some of the weakest songs on the album. Least favorite SB album I've heard so far, but it's not bad by any means.

3.5/5 is probably my final verdict.

Interesting how tastes vary... from my first listen of CD1, my stand outs were Have Wa All Gone Crazy Yet, One So Wise, Box of Spiders and Beginnigns. At first it seems that the songs are somewhat better written/arranged compared with the previous CD. Overall very good first impression!