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Spock's Beard releasing new double album (2018)

Flint

Flint

Prodigal Son
Superstar
http://www.spocksbeard.com/

Noise Floor by Spock's Beard is coming soon, and their original drummer, Nick D'Virgilio, is back in charge. I cannot wait to hear it. In fact, I ordered the special Gold Vinyl LP set for my moderate LP collection.

Yeah!
 
Can you recommend a few of their better albums.

I have never listened to them....................ever.
 
heeman said:
Can you recommend a few of their better albums.

I have never listened to them....................ever.
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What???? Well... the albums with Neal Morse leading the writing are very good - my favorites are "V," "Snow," and "Beware of Darkness". When Neal left the band, the drummer led the band with "Fell Euphoria" and "Octane" which are great. Then they put a few out without the creative genius of Neal or Nick, but they are also good records though not immediately catchy. Really, if you like Neal Morse and Transatlantic, get one of the albums he was the main writer on.

Also, their live concert videos with Neal are amazing! They were all younger when those were made and the energy and excitement enhances the amazing music and performances.

Basically, Spock's Beard is often credited with reviving Prog Rock in North America and shifting the metal bands in Europe to be more Progressive with classical themes. Even Dream Theater shifted more Prog after they saw the success Spock's Beard was having in the 1990s.
 
Flint said:
What???? Well... the albums with Neal Morse leading the writing are very good - my favorites are "V," "Snow," and "Beware of Darkness". When Neal left the band, the drummer led the band with "Fell Euphoria" and "Octane" which are great. Then they put a few out without the creative genius of Neal or Nick, but they are also good records though not immediately catchy. Really, if you like Neal Morse and Transatlantic, get one of the albums he was the main writer on.

Also, their live concert videos with Neal are amazing! They were all younger when those were made and the energy and excitement enhances the amazing music and performances.

Basically, Spock's Beard is often credited with reviving Prog Rock in North America and shifting the metal bands in Europe to be more Progressive with classical themes. Even Dream Theater shifted more Prog after they saw the success Spock's Beard was having in the 1990s.
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Snow Bluray gets GREAT reviews..............................ORDERED!!!
 
Thanks for the rec, Flint. I too am not at all familiar with Spock's Beard. I only know of Neal Morse through his involvement with Flying Colors (one of my very top favorite bands now). Don't know anything about the other gents, other than what I just read on Wikipedia. I'm assuming this one below was filmed more recently, a sort of reunion given that Morse left the band in 2002...

1007518479.jpg


I'm about halfway through this, been a while since I've exercised my HT and this is good stuff! I'll repeat my not-especially-high opinion of Morse's lead singing voice, but his keyboards... damn, really impressed with the solo in L0ve Beyond Words. (The other keyboardist is a bit of a poser IMHO...) Anyway great music, now on to the second half.
 
The other keyboardist is session playing legend and plays in Tina Turner's backing band. I get the impression he doesn't really know how to perform, so he poses, but he's the better musician of the two.
 
Flint said:
but he's the better musician of the two
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!

Wait, which is the better musician? If you mean Neal, then yeah I agree wholeheartedly.
 
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Ok but he was not with Tina Turner as far as I can see...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryo_Okumoto

But maybe it's just not in that article.

In any case, your assertion that he's a better musician than Morse is one I can only ascribe to brain damage from being a long-time drummer.

:moon:
 
Ha!

Seriously though, I'm REALLY enjoying the behind-the-scenes segment on this (2-BD) Snow set. It's one thing to see the live performance and get into the playing of the music; it's another to get a glimpse into what the artists are thinking and feeling about that music, and that's equally if not more valuable to me.
 
Sorry, I misremembered. it was Aretha Franklin which got much of his time during the early Spock's Beard days. The list of artists he recorded and toured with include: Phil Collins, David Foster, Debbie Gibson, Al Green, Eric Clapton, Steve Lukather, Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Lamont Dozier, Nichele Nichol, Natalie Cole, Jeff Porcaro, Richard Elliot, Roslyn Kind, Barry White, Simon Phillips, Chris Squire (Yes), Jennifer Holliday, Louis St. Louis, Kitaro, Jay Graydon, Sue Raney, James Ingram, Peabo Bryson, Original 5th Dimension, Aretha Franklin , Dionne Warwick, Aaron Neville, Marilyn McCoo, Melissa Manchester, Johnny Gill, Paul Gilbert, Eric Burdon of the Animals, Roberta Flack, Pointer Sisters, Brenda Russell, Glenn Hughes, Patti Austin, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Bobby Kimball, Sheena Easton, Eric Carmen, Teena Marie, Robbie Robertson, Richard Street (Temptation), and many more.

My point isn't that Neal isn't an amazing creative genius who can invent some incredible stuff, but Ryo is better trained, experienced, and can pretty play anything put in front of him. I noticed on a couple of Spock's Beard concert videos he really doesn't do much technically challenging, including some dumb "keyboard solos" which are similar to hack shit other great musicians have done when being spotlighted, such as Karen Carpenter, Chris Squire, and such. Rather than impress other musicians, they chose to just be exciting to laymen and only did silly gimmicks.
 
Flint said:
Rather than impress other musicians, they chose to just be exciting to laymen and only did silly gimmicks.
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I'm not sure how this makes your point... ;)

To me - and I admit I'm TOTALLY biased here as a classical pianist - there are two types of rock keyboard players. First there's the gear-heads, who have a dozen keyboards with a thousand different "theme" (background, mix) sounds they can play with the single touch of a key. Don't get me wrong, there's a talent in this, but to me it's more about programming. Ryo is in this group.

Then there are those like (IMHO) Neal, who with one simple keyboard can play musical lines that rival any other instrumental line in the song. This latter is so much more interesting to me personally.

I also respect how Neal can bounce around between singing, keyboards, and guitar - and his (acoustic) guitar skills aren't inconsiderable (re: Carie, probably my second favorite song on this album).
 
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Look I'm really not trying to bust anyone's balls here, least of all @Flint . I get enough of that shit here that I'm seriously tired of it. As I said, this is the first time in quite a while I've sat down and listened seriously to some musical performance I'm not already familiar with, and I'm posting my impressions. It's all good.
 
I've also had more than a couple of glasses of wine to go with this, so take my writings with a BIG grain of salt. :laughing:
 
Neal is incredible, which is why I follow all of his work and buy almost anything he does. I just felt Ryo was unfairly represented and defended him.
 
By the way, if you like Spock's Beard, Transatlantic is better and Neal is just one equal contributor.
 
Flint said:
http://www.spocksbeard.com/

Noise Floor by Spock's Beard is coming soon, and their original drummer, Nick D'Virgilio, is back in charge. I cannot wait to hear it. In fact, I ordered the special Gold Vinyl LP set for my moderate LP collection.

Yeah!
Click to expand...
Can having a drummer in charge of anything ever be a good thing?

:)
 
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