Spock's Beard in the studio!

[LeFrog]

John Boegehold has just posted a small video on the band's FB page of Jimmy recording drums for the band's next album (not sure I know how to post a link to FB here).
So that means a new album is in the works !
I guess we can expect an early 2015 release, although late 2014 still seems feasible.
I felt like sharing

[nycsteve]

Excellent

[calyx]

Good news - their latest was by far their strongest since the Neal Morse era imho, and the gig I saw on the last tour was great.

[Nicky Cupcakes]

Yes! Hopefully they'll be able to make a stop in NYC again if they tour for the album - I haven't had the opportunity to see SB 3.0 in concert yet.

They've got a Kickstarter campaign to pre-order the DVD (and maybe Blu-Ray) of the Progressive Nation cruise show that they did, which will help fund the forthcoming album:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ion-at-sea-dvd

16 days left and they're still just a bit shy of their goal, if anyone's interested.

[BobM]

Good news - their latest was by far their strongest since the Neal Morse era imho

Every album they put out since Neal left has had this same comment. I have been lured into checking them out only to be disappointed again and again. I think I'll pass.

[ThomasKDye]

Every album they put out since Neal left has had this same comment. I have been lured into checking them out only to be disappointed again and again. I think I'll pass.

Tastes just differ. X and Brief Nocturnes have both been fantastic in my opinion. "Waiting For Me" was my song of 2013. So I'm very excited about this new one.

[Wounded Land]

Every album they put out since Neal left has had this same comment. I have been lured into checking them out only to be disappointed again and again. I think I'll pass.

I think because it's largely true! The new album rivals the best stuff they've ever done. Not to knock NDV, but his diminished writing contributions over the course of the past two albums have been by and large a good thing for the band, IMHO. I can't quite put my finger on it, but to me NDV's material never seemed completely right for SB.

NP: Wuthering Heights Far from the Madding Crowd

[Don Arnold]

I think because it's largely true! The new album rivals the best stuff they've ever done.

I'd agree with others who are giving the most recent two SB releases the .

NP: Wuthering Heights Far from the Madding Crowd

Very good album!

[Rufus]

There is also a pro. shot live DVD due from the 'Prog Nation Cruise' gig. This of course featured Neal!

[BarryLI]

Tastes just differ. X and Brief Nocturnes have both been fantastic in my opinion. "Waiting For Me" was my song of 2013. So I'm very excited about this new one.

You mean the song penned by Neal?

[Hobo Chang Ba]

While I wasn't enthralled by their last release, I'm hooked enough to at least give a listen to their newest one.

[Rufus]

Brand New Spock's Beard DVD featuring Neal Morse PRE-ORDER NOW!!
☆★☆BRAND NEW☆★☆ Recapture the amazing memories of the Progressive Nation at Sea 2014 Cruise with SPOCK'S BEARD featuring NEAL MORSE *LIVE* on DVD. This is SB's complete second show on the PN14 cruise, with special guest appearance of Neal Morse performing "June" and "The Light." Profits from the sale of this DVD will go towards the initial recording costs of Spock's Beard's 12th studio CD which tracking begins soon (as in June). https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ea-dvd/backers

Thanks,
~Sonya

[Wounded Land]

You mean the song penned by Neal?

...and that's exactly what I'm talking about. They've got the writing dialed in now, whether that means it comes from within the band or without. I can't remember their names, but there are two other outside writers on Brief Nocturnes, plus Ted Leonard himself is no slouch. It's no accident that they led off the album with one of his songs, I think. I'm excited about a new Spock's Beard album for the first time in my life! (I didn't get into the band until after NM left so I didn't live through the "golden age")

[Plasmatopia]

I really didn't care for most of the post-NM albums. I liked some of X, but I really like Brief Nocturnes and have gotten quite a bit of mileage out of that one. Recently I went back to Octane and found more to like on that than I did originally. Love NDV as a drummer, have difficulty warming to his vocals. Ted's vocals are a welcome addition. I actually found the NM-assisted song to be my least favorite thing on Brief Nocturnes.

[Gruno]

I guess we can expect an early 2015 release, although late 2014 still seems feasible.

I highly doubt any 2014 release. If you've read through the FaceBook comments on the SB page, you will find Dave Meros talking about the album. It was also stated that they began studio work (drums) on the first 6 songs. They still have a LOT more to do.

From Meros:

"Since we're starting so far ahead of time we can't really predict exactly when the CD will be finished so we can't really start an official preorder for it yet."

[LeFrog]

I highly doubt any 2014 release. If you've read through the FaceBook comments on the SB page, you will find Dave Meros talking about the album. It was also stated that they began studio work (drums) on the first 6 songs. They still have a LOT more to do.

From Meros:

"Since we're starting so far ahead of time we can't really predict exactly when the CD will be finished so we can't really start an official preorder for it yet."

Thanks Gruno, it's true that I was only guessing here. I'm not a frequent visitor of the band's FB page so I hadn't read through the comments.

Edit: I actually went back on FB to look for Dave's comments but couldn't find them. I really miss the good old forums. Now that most bands have switched to FB, it's a real pain trying to find a piece of info, or the band members' posts, which are usually the only ones worth reading. FB is all about the instant, you need to be connected at the actual moment the post is being sent. If you go back trying to look for an old post, then good luck to you. OK, rant over!

[Rangershockey7]

Looking at my IPOD, I have more songs downloaded from either Brief Nocturnes & X than ANY other of their albums INCLUDING any that included Neal!

The albums with Neal have some "unbelievable" high points that they have not yet reached with either NDV or TED, but overall, I found that the number of songs from both of those albums even beat the initial classic albums.

[Stanislavski]

Rosfest 2015?

[JKL2000]

Yes! Hopefully they'll be able to make a stop in NYC again if they tour for the album - I haven't had the opportunity to see SB 3.0 in concert yet.

They've got a Kickstarter campaign to pre-order the DVD (and maybe Blu-Ray) of the Progressive Nation cruise show that they did, which will help fund the forthcoming album:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ion-at-sea-dvd

16 days left and they're still just a bit shy of their goal, if anyone's interested.

I wish sombody(ies) would release DVDs or BRs of progressive nation and the cruises to the edge with a couple of numbers by each band. (As many as possible) and a load of background material so you could get a feel for the cruises. Would just be fun to watch and feel like you were on bathe cruise.

[Nicky Cupcakes]

I wish sombody(ies) would release DVDs or BRs of progressive nation and the cruises to the edge with a couple of numbers by each band. (As many as possible) and a load of background material so you could get a feel for the cruises. Would just be fun to watch and feel like you were on bathe cruise.

Yes, that would be amazing! I imagine that working out the legalities/licensing of this kind of thing would be a nightmare, but a man can dream

[ScottAM]

I wish sombody(ies) would release DVDs or BRs of progressive nation and the cruises to the edge with a couple of numbers by each band. (As many as possible) and a load of background material so you could get a feel for the cruises. Would just be fun to watch and feel like you were on bathe cruise.

Portnoy is working on it for PN14. Lots of red tape, he said, but I bet it's likely. They had a lot of cams up for specific big shows, if they could edit in some footage of the general cruise experience from lots of participants' footage, that'd be very cool, and a good marketing tool for future years.

Spock's Beard will be releasing a DVD of their own set from PN14, with Neal Morse rejoining them for a couple of songs, but I don't know if that will also contain any extra cruise footage.

[Vic2012]

I actually went back on FB to look for Dave's comments but couldn't find them. I really miss the good old forums. Now that most bands have switched to FB, it's a real pain trying to find a piece of info, or the band members' posts, which are usually the only ones worth reading. FB is all about the instant, you need to be connected at the actual moment the post is being sent. If you go back trying to look for an old post, then good luck to you. OK, rant over!

Don't they still have the official website with the message board, spocksbeard.com? I was a huge fan about 10-12 years ago and was a member there. Papa John, or something was one of the moderators I think. I'd hate to think that message boards for fans are all being cannibalized by Face Book and the like.

[Man In The Mountain]

Don't they still have the official website with the message board, spocksbeard.com? I was a huge fan about 10-12 years ago and was a member there. Papa John, or something was one of the moderators I think. I'd hate to think that message boards for fans are all being cannibalized by Face Book and the like.

Papa Jim (PapaJ) is who you are thinking of. The message board no longer exists due to lack of participation. Yeah, everything is on Facebook & Twatter (haha). It would be cool if Facebook could make the band pages more like message boards, I don't see why not, other than the "in the moment" format avoids the trollish & cliquish pratfalls of the stationary message boards.

[Vic2012]

Papa Jim (PapaJ) is who you are thinking of.

Right. Papa John runs a pizza joint.....

The message board no longer exists due to lack of participation.

That's a shame in a way. I mean, it's a shame that the traditional message board is giving way to FB, Linkedin, and Twatter, and all that crap. I like the old message boards and fan forums from back in the day. I gave up on band-specific, fan forums a decade ago but I still prefer the old format over social media.

[LeFrog]

That's a shame in a way. I mean, it's a shame that the traditional message board is giving way to FB, Linkedin, and Twatter, and all that crap. I like the old message boards and fan forums from back in the day. I gave up on band-specific, fan forums a decade ago but I still prefer the old format over social media.

I think that traditional message boards were better for people like me who used to pop by occasionally to check what the news were. With Facebook, you just need to be connected all the time which is not how I function. But I guess if all those old message boards ended up closing in favor of FB and Twitter, it's because that's what people wanted and bands just went along with it.