Spock's Beard

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Spock's Beard
D'Virgilio, Okumoto, Meros, Keegan, A. Morse
D'Virgilio, Okumoto, Meros, Keegan, A. Morse
General information
Genre (s) Progressive rock , retro prog , rock
founding 1992
Website http://www.spocksbeard.com/
Current occupation
Guitar , vocals, cello
Alan Morse
E-bass , vocals, keyboard
Dave Meros (since 1993)
Keyboards, vocals
 Ryo Okumoto (since 1995)
Vocals, guitar
 Ted Leonard (since 2011)
former members
bass
 John Ballard (until 1993)
Vocals, keyboards, guitar
 Neal Morse (until 2002)
Nick D'Virgilio (until 2011 as a permanent member, 2017 live)
Drums, vocals
 Jimmy Keegan (live since 2003, 2011-2016 as a permanent member)

Spock's Beard is an American progressive rock - band , which in 1992 by brothers Neal and Alan Morse in Los Angeles was founded. Keyboardist and singer Neal Morse was initially the front man and songwriter of the band, which he left in 2002 in favor of a new career phase with a religious focus. From 2002 to 2011, drummer Nick D'Virgilio acted as singer and front man for the band. After his departure, the current line-up consists of guitarist Alan Morse, bassist Dave Meros, keyboardist Ryo Okumoto, drummer Jimmy Keegan and singer Ted Leonard.

Spock's Beard are considered a retro-prog band that pursues an independent mix of styles from progressive rock of the 1970s and American pop-rock influences. The decisive musical elements are the sound of the Mellotron , piano and Hammond organ , harmony singing and fugue-like singing, as well as an agile rhythm section.

Band history

1992 to 2002

The first ten years were very much shaped by main songwriter and singer Neal Morse. Morse, the son of a choir director, tried unsuccessfully as a pop and country songwriter in Nashville in the 1980s and early 1990s . Together with his brother Alan, he finally met the drummer Nick D'Virgilio during a public jam session and recognized their mutual musical preference for progressive rock. Early versions of the title of the later debut album The Light already existed at this point. The bass player could be recruited Dave Meros, who was active as a popular live musician in the Los Angeles scene at the time. The band name goes back to a joking idea by Alan Morse and refers to the spaceship Enterprise episode "A Parallel Universe" (orig. "Mirror, Mirror"), in which you can see a bearded Mr. Spock .

The 1995 debut album The Light met with an extremely positive response from critics. While the style of this first album of four longer songs is still clearly based on works like Yes ' Close to the Edge and the early works of Genesis , the band gained independence on the following releases. Ryo Okumoto was added to the band as an additional keyboard player. Morse discovered the expressiveness of D'Virgilio's voice and increasingly wrote pieces with complex vocal harmonies and fugue-like vocal passages. The latter often made comparisons with Gentle Giant .

A total of six albums were released by 2002, most recently the double CD Snow , which tells the story of the rise and fall of an albino with miraculous healing powers in the style of a concept album .

2002 to 2011

Spock's Beard 2007 in the Hamburg market hall

Neal Morse, who converted to Christianity around 2000, left the band in 2002 to begin a new career with a religious focus. He finally decided to start a solo career with Christian lyrics. The remaining members of the band released the album Feel Euphoria in 2003 with Nick D'Virgilio as singer. For the first time, all band members appeared as songwriters, and with John Boegehold and Stan Ausmus, additional songwriters from the friendly environment of the band were used. D'Virgilio took over the role of the front man at concerts from now on - his place on the drums, however, took Jimmy Keegan as a permanent tour member. This line-up was first documented in 2005 on the live album Gluttons for Punishment . It contains a compilation of several concerts from the tour for the eighth album Octane , which was followed by a self-titled ninth studio album in 2006. The albums Feel Euphoria , Octane and Spock's Beard are generally less characterized by a homogeneous style than by a juxtaposition of progressive rock long tracks, hard rock songs and ballads .

After separating from their longtime label InsideOut Music , the band pursued a business model for the financing of the album X that has already been successfully implemented by bands like Marillion : Interested fans participated in the financing of the album by ordering in advance and later received one in return special edition of the CD with various extras. Compared to the previous three albums, there was a stylistic reflection on a more uniform, more progressive rock-oriented style.

In addition to the solo works by Neal Morse, Nick D'Virgilio , Ryo Okumoto and Alan Morse have published their own .

Since 2011

On November 18, 2011 Nick D'Virgilio announced his departure due to his other obligations. Immediately afterwards, the remaining members announced a new line-up, now with touring drummer Jimmy Keegan and Enchant singer Ted Leonard as permanent members. Leonard had already made two festival appearances with the band in 2011, for which D'Virgilio was not available due to his permanent engagement as a drummer for the Cirque du Soleil .

In July 2016 there was a one-time reunion of the band with Neal Morse and Nick D'Virgilio, during which the double album Snow, released in 2002, was played live in full for the first time. The reunion was limited to two appearances at the Morsefest in Cross Plains, Tennessee and the Night-of-the-Prog Festival at Lorelei .

Drummer Jimmy Keegan announced his departure from the band in 2016. Nick D'Virgilio took the place on the drums again during performances during the Cruise to the Edge in early 2017. He then took part in D'Virgilio on the recordings of the thirteenth album by the band Noise Floor , which was released in 2018.

A sister band called Pattern Seeking Animals was formed in 2018 by four musicians close to Spock's Beard, including two current members (Dave Meros and Ted Leonard), a former member (Jimmy Keegan) and a multi-instrumentalist who has contributed songs to several albums (John Boegehold). Compared to Spock's Beard, the band's sound is more based on AOR and less on Progressive Rock.

Band members timeline

Discography (selection)

Studio albums

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
V
  DE 37 09/11/2000 (2 weeks)
Snow
  DE 24 09/09/2002 (2 weeks)
Feel euphoria
  DE 58 07/14/2003 (1 week)
Octane
  DE 81 02/14/2005 (1 week)
X
  DE 85 09/10/2010 (1 week)
Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep
  DE 89 04/05/2013 (1 week)
The Oblivion Particle
  DE 23 08/28/2015 (1 week)
  CH 51 08/30/2015 (1 week)
Snow - Live
  DE 93 11/17/2017 (1 week)
Noise Floor
  DE 23 06/01/2018 (1 week)
  AT 47 06/08/2018 (1 week)
  CH 24 06/03/2018 (1 week)
  • The Light (1995)
  • Beware of Darkness (1996)
  • The Kindness of Strangers (1998)
  • Day for Night (1999)
  • V (2000)
  • Snow (2002)
  • Feel Euphoria (2003)
  • Octane (2005)
  • Spock's Beard (2006)
  • X (2010)
  • Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep (2013)
  • The Oblivion Particle (2015)
  • Noise Floor (2018)

Live albums / compilations

  • The Beard Is Out There (Live CD, 1998)
  • From the Vault (Demos & Outtakes, 1998)
  • Live at the Whiskey and Nearfest (Live double CD, 1999)
  • Don't Try This at Home (Live CD, 2000)
  • Don't Try This at Home Either (Live-CD, 2000)
  • There & Here (live double CD, 2001)
  • Don't Try This at Home (Live DVD, 2002)
  • Gluttons for Punishment (live double CD, 2005)
  • Live (Live double CD and DVD, 2008)
  • Live at Sea (Live-DVD, 2014)
  • The First Twenty Years (2015)
  • Snow - Live (2017)

Singles

  • Skin (1999)
  • All on a Sunday (2001)

swell

  1. ↑ Nick D'Virgilio: NDV Music: November 18, 2011. (No longer available online.) November 18, 2011, archived from the original on November 21, 2011 ; Retrieved November 19, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ndvmusic.com
  2. ↑ Chart sources: Germany - Austria - Switzerland

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