Spock's Beard

[ColdFireYYZ]

So they're playing two shows in California with Sound of Contact. However, Ryo won't be playing with them do to "personal reasons and schedule conflicts". We all know what happened last time they had a live substitute. Let's hope the same thing doesn't happen again.

What are the odds of them getting NEAL to cover for Ryo?!?

-Marc.

I should have included this in my post, but the substitute is Mychael Pollard. Neal would have been great!!

[The Letter M]

So they're playing two shows in California with Sound of Contact. However, Ryo won't be playing with them do to "personal reasons and schedule conflicts". We all know what happened last time they had a live substitute. Let's hope the same thing doesn't happen again.

What are the odds of them getting NEAL to cover for Ryo?!?

-Marc.

I should have included this in my post, but the substitute is Mychael Pollard. Neal would have been great!!

Ahh okay - Yeah Neal would have been AWESOME, especially since the band isn't covering any Nick-Era material, Neal would just have to learn BNADS songs! It would've been MORE awesome considering two of the songs on the new album have writing credits to Neal himself!

Ah well, that would have been a GOLDEN opportunity and a great way to sell tickets!

-Marc.

[obscure]

I have a feeling that Ryo is gone... permanently....

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Wait a minute, what? I'm out of the loop. Ryo's leaving?

[Dr. DTVT]

I have a feeling that Ryo is gone... permanently....

You can't post things like that without some backing.  That's like telling someone their dad MAY be dead.

[obscure]

I backed it up already doc... with my hunch
other than that.. I've got nothing...

[ColdFireYYZ]

Ryo's my favorite member of SB and they'd lose a lot if he left. I wasn't too upset about NDV leaving but I'm not sure I'd bother with them any more without Ryo. 

The person who updates the SB Facebook page hasn't responded to any of the comments speculating if Ryo is leaving, but they've responded to others. Maybe I'm being to cynical and reading into this too much, but I'd think they would assure people that this was just temporary...

[kirksnosehair]

Ryo's pretty busy.  He goes where the money is and honors his commitments.   Spock's Beard is a cash cow for him.  I'd be pretty surprised if he gave them up. With that said, Sonya (the person who replies to posts on FB) is very discreet and if something were going on, you'd never get her to comment on it anyway.  So I guess we just have to wait and see.


Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[Mindflux]

Ryo's pretty busy.  He goes where the money is and honors his commitments.   Spock's Beard is a cash cow for him.  I'd be pretty surprised if he gave them up. With that said, Sonya (the person who replies to posts on FB) is very discreet and if something were going on, you'd never get her to comment on it anyway.  So I guess we just have to wait and see.

I don't see SB being a cash cow, period.  Their last few albums have been more or less funded by preorders because they can't afford to record. 

[Brainforest]

Ryo's pretty busy.  He goes where the money is and honors his commitments.   Spock's Beard is a cash cow for him.  I'd be pretty surprised if he gave them up. With that said, Sonya (the person who replies to posts on FB) is very discreet and if something were going on, you'd never get her to comment on it anyway.  So I guess we just have to wait and see.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

I can say with some authority that SB is definitely not a cash cow for anyone involved haha.

I wouldn't necessarily read too much into the current situation. It's not easy for band members to turn down other well-paying gigs or personal commitments when they come along. Needless to say, it's a major deal trying to find a sub who can play this kind of music, but with a limited number of opportunities for the band to play live and promote the album, sometimes it just has to be done to keep the momentum going.

I don't know if anyone remembers, but there was a sub for Dave on one tour and (I think) for Al on another during the Neal era. There was also a sub for Ryo when SB played a short set before Nick's Rewiring Genesis show a few years back, so this isn't unprecedented.  True, Ted subbed for Nick and eventually replaced him, but that was a different situation.

JB

[ColdFireYYZ]

Ryo's pretty busy.  He goes where the money is and honors his commitments.   Spock's Beard is a cash cow for him.  I'd be pretty surprised if he gave them up. With that said, Sonya (the person who replies to posts on FB) is very discreet and if something were going on, you'd never get her to comment on it anyway.  So I guess we just have to wait and see.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

I can say with some authority that SB is definitely not a cash cow for anyone involved haha.

I wouldn't necessarily read too much into the current situation. It's not easy for band members to turn down other well-paying gigs or personal commitments when they come along. Needless to say, it's a major deal trying to find a sub who can play this kind of music, but with a limited number of opportunities for the band to play live and promote the album, sometimes it just has to be done to keep the momentum going.

I don't know if anyone remembers, but there was a sub for Dave on one tour and (I think) for Al on another during the Neal era. There was also a sub for Ryo when SB played a short set before Nick's Rewiring Genesis show a few years back, so this isn't unprecedented.  True, Ted subbed for Nick and eventually replaced him, but that was a different situation.

JB

Thanks for the insight. I became a fan less than a year before NDV left, so I wasn't around when the other members had subs. I do have a tendency to over-analyze and and read too far into certain things.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

This is DTF, after all.

[ColdFireYYZ]

This is DTF, after all.

[ColdFireYYZ]

On another note, how's BNADS holding up for everyone? I'm listening to it for the first time in over two months and I still consider it one of their best, up there with The Kindness of Strangers, V, and X.

[kirksnosehair]

I guess that I assume when I band sells 30 or 40 thousand copies of a CD they're making at least a little bit of scratch.  And where the recording process is basically fan-funded by pre-orders, they're not having to lay much out to get it tracked, mixed, mastered and replicated.  Let's assume that even if after all the expenses they only net $3.00 per unit on each disc - if they sell 30,000 copies that's $90,000 gross.  $18,000 each if split evenly across all 5 of them.  (I know there are others involved, I'm just spitballing some basic numbers based on a whole bunch of assumption.)  Yeah, no one's gonna get rich on it, but that's what I mean by "cash cow" here.  No money to lay out up front, just rake it in on the back side.  Of course, my numbers could be and likely are way off.


Anyway, I think Mr. Brainforest is right.  And it goes back to my original point that Ryo goes where the money is.  Having worked with the guy I know this is definitely true.  Dude makes his living with music.  Sometimes you just gotta take the gig that pays the best.  And when you're doing stuff with multiple groups, scheduling conflicts do happen.

[ytserush]

[
I don't know if anyone remembers, but there was a sub for Dave on one tour and (I think) for Al on another during the Neal era. There was also a sub for Ryo when SB played a short set before Nick's Rewiring Genesis show a few years back, so this isn't unprecedented.  True, Ted subbed for Nick and eventually replaced him, but that was a different situation.

JB

Exactly.

[Nick]

Will be interviewing Ted on Thursday, and while I will be talking primarily about his project Thought Chamber's  upcoming 2nd release, I will like hit a question or three about Spock's Beard, so is there anything in particular you would like to know?

[rumborak]

I didn't really get the video, maybe the pretty girls were distracting me from what was actually going on. 

I actually thought it was a really cool video. To explain what's going on, the bearded guy likes the girl in the skirt, who likes the counter girl, who likes the motorcycle guy, who likes the leather jeans girl ... who likes the bearded guy.

[KevShmev]

Will be interviewing Ted on Thursday, and while I will be talking primarily about his project Thought Chamber's  upcoming 2nd release, I will like hit a question or three about Spock's Beard, so is there anything in particular you would like to know?

I'd be interested to know why they are ignoring the NDV-led albums live nowadays.  Considering how well-received X was, and the fact that it is their 2nd most recent album, it seems odd that the band would already be playing nothing from it.

[Mladen]

I actually thought it was a really cool video. To explain what's going on, the bearded guy likes the girl in the skirt, who likes the counter girl, who likes the motorcycle guy, who likes the leather jeans girl ... who likes the bearded guy.

I thought it was cool as well, but I didn't understand why the hell was going on. So thanks for explaining, nice idea for a video indeed.

[obscure]

Jimmy Keegan... like you've never seen before....

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-kid-whos-playing-pinball-in-the-1987-Stallone-film-Over-The-Top/110343708995493

[Mladen]

That was a cool scene, I've never watched the movie, though. It would be funny if someone's known the film for years and had just figured out the kid is Jimmy. And, by the way, his face looks exactly the same. 

[King Postwhore]

Jimmy Keegan... like you've never seen before....

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-kid-whos-playing-pinball-in-the-1987-Stallone-film-Over-The-Top/110343708995493

Holy crap!!  I saw that movies years ago.

[smegolas]

I just want to say that I love Spock’s Beard.  In fact, after nearly 20 years of Dream Theater being my favorite band, at some point over the past couple years, The Beard has replaced them.  I first got X, then proceeded to buy their entire collection.  Each and every album has at least a few songs that I absolutely love.  I put together a Spock’s Best playlist which I have to force myself not to listen to so much. 

I think they are criminally underrated and I don’t get why.  To me, much of their music sounds quite accessible, maybe even more so than DT since it’s not as heavy.  If it was not for DTF, I would have never heard of them. 

My favorite song is probably “The Great Nothing”, a 27 minute epic that is the best piece of music I’ve ever heard.  It details Neil’s struggles with the music industry.  Ironically, I missed it when I first made my playlist, perhaps because it’s so long.  But it was playing in the car one day and during the guitar melody at the end it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks.  I literally said “This is majestic”. 

[Onno]

I've been listening to SB a lot recently, I'm really getting into this band! Any recommendations, or albums to stay away from? So far I've listened to X, BNADS and TKOS. So far I think I like X best, or maybe TKOS.

[jammindude]

Definitely V. 

I personally have never heard anything post-Snow.   Spock's Beard without Neal is like Porcupine Tree without Steven Wilson.    I'm sure the other guys in PT could make amazing music...but it would feel really wrong to call it Porcupine Tree. 

[KevShmev]

Almost all of them are, at worst, really good, but since you already have the two best post-Neal ones, I'd say get the rest of the ones with Neal Morse (The Light, Beware of Darkness, V, and Snow), but just save Day for Night for last.

[Onno]

Thanks guys, will check that out!

[jingle.boy]

Almost all of them are, at worst, really good, but since you already have the two best post-Neal ones, I'd say get the rest of the ones with Neal Morse (The Light, Beware of Darkness, V, and Snow), but just save Day for Night for last.

DFN gets a lot of bad heat.  Like Kev said, there is no bad SB album.  Personally, DFN is my favorite, and the title track is dynamite.  S/T and Fell Euphoria are also on the lower end of good.

Skim back a few pages, and I'm sure there's a bunch of people ranking. 

[Mosh]

Get all the Morse albums first. There are a lot of people who like the stuff after but I think it gets really inconsistent, most fans seem divided on that stuff. The Morse albums are going to be your best bet, they're all good so check out every one.

[The Letter M]

Almost all of them are, at worst, really good, but since you already have the two best post-Neal ones, I'd say get the rest of the ones with Neal Morse (The Light, Beware of Darkness, V, and Snow), but just save Day for Night for last.

Pretty much this recommendation, but definitely push V and Snow to the front of the line - two of my favorite albums, although BOD is a favorite as well. Honestly, all of the band's first six albums are some of my favorite albums of all time. even DFN.

As for the Nick-Era stuff, sure it's not AS consistent as the Neal-Era stuff, but there are some rocking tunes in the first three albums. Honestly, if I could do a compilation of FE/Octane/SB, I'd like them a bit more. Oddly enough, though, Octane would've been better with some of the bonus tracks thrown on the album in place of the ones that made the cut. On the other hand, the self-titled ninth album could've gone with some cutting down itself, and been a better 50-60 minute album with 7 or so songs.

-Marc.

[Orbert]

Sorry guys, I don't know if I'll ever go back and read through 21 pages (actually only 16, since when I clicked on "New" it took me to page 5), but I felt the need to comment here.

I picked up Day for Night blind when it came out in 1999, because a band called "Spock's Beard" just had to be awesome.  Just had to be.  And they were.  I also grabbed V and Snow when they came out, and along the way I filled out the back catalogue.  I think every one of their albums (up to that point) is at least very good, and some are great.  Then I heard that Neal Morse had heard the calling and was heading out on his own.  Hey, it happens.  The lead singer from our band back in the 80's, my college roommate and one of the best musicians I know, quit the band when we were just on the verge of breaking big, because he heard the calling.  He is now ordained and the director of music ministry at a church in Michigan.  I've sat in with his band a few times; very cool stuff.  Anyway, when Neal left Spock's Beard, I guess I wasn't as stunned as most people, having been through something kinda similar.

Feel Euphoria, not surprisingly, was a bit uneven.  A band trying to find its feet again.  Octane was perhaps a bit better.  The 2006 self-titled may have been better yet, it's kinduv hard to say, but basically I gave up on them at that point.  They weren't horrible, but I had other prog to check out.  Also, I had a new job and life was getting more complicated again.

Based on recommendations in the TransAtlantic thread, I checked out X and Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep recently.  WOW!  It turns out that I wrote them off one album too soon.  I think X is great.  I read up on it a little bit before listening, and it has an interesting history, which I mostly forgot about once I started listening.  As with most of my "serious" listening, it was done in the car during my commute.  I can crank the volume, but sometimes I actually do have to lower it and pay more attention to the road.  At some point I heard the name "Alex Exposito" sung, and I remembered the deal with the song "Their Names Escape Me" and apparently I was listening to the Special Edition.  It caught my attention because Alex Exposito was the name a of really hot girl I knew in school.  Her true name is Alessandra, but she went by Alex.  (Yes, an anecdote involving a hot female in an Orbert post.  Don't tell me you're surprised.)

When I finished X, I had to make a decision; listen to it again, to grok it more fully, or move on to Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep, which has Ted Leonard, who I knew from Enchant.  I like Enchant.  I'm over halfway through Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep, and it's pretty amazing.

So apparently I'm just finding out what many have known for a while.  The Beard are back!

[jingle.boy]

Glad we won you back, Bob.

[The Letter M]

Glad we won you back, Bob.

I'll echo this sentiment as well - welcome back into the Beard! SB have been on an upward rise since their self-titled, which, for me, had some STRONG songs on it, but it had too much slow-slump in the middle. Had they relegated some of those tracks to a "Bonus Disc" (a la Octane) and made the album 6-8 songs and about 50-60 minutes long, it would've been better for it. A more concise record with their best material, much like Octane and BNADS.

Now, on the other hand, everything on X was just fantastic, and I'm glad the album reached 80 minutes. All 8 songs are the best that version of the band had ever done, many of them beating my favorites from their previous 3 albums. It was a bit of a shock when Nick announced he was leaving the band, and not knowing anything about Ted Leonard or Enchant, I was a bit worried about the future of SB, but when BNADS came out, I was blown away. Did having Neal co-write some songs help? Sure! But in reality, it was all still SB, and having the fresh blood of Ted and Jimmy in the band, as well as having Stan and John write with the band again, really brought in a power-house of musical ideas performed by the core SB members with their two new cohorts.

Supposedly, the Beard are/will be working on a new album and material, so hopefully SB12 is not too far around the corner!

-Marc.

-Marc.

[Orbert]

Yeah, I saw that too about the new album.  So cool, now knowing that they're awesome again.

Yeah, X was great, and I really wanted to spin it again, but the new(er) one was calling me.  I'm looking forward to getting into both of these albums more.  They rock, they prog, they sing and dance.