When a band loses its lead singer-songwriter-composure, the reflex reaction is to roll over and die. And that would be understandable.

When Chicago lost Terry Kath, they didn’t split but they quickly took up sucking. And when Peter Gabriel left Genesis, same thing. They didn’t quit but after a few albums they weren’t Genesis anymore; they were some pale pop imitation. They figured, if Gabriel’s gone (and Hackett), so should be experimentation. “That was his thing.”

But it has to be mentioned: both bands, Chicago and Genesis, were probably way more successful commercially as pop acts than progressive. Whatever significance can be seen in that, the point is it’s hard losing a frontman, hard to stay focused and continue building a creative identity.

That’s just one reason I adore Spock’s Beard’s Octane, the band’s 2^nd release as “New Spock’s”: Spock’s Beard minus its brain and beating heart Neal Morse.

Surfing Down the Avalanche

Octane is a sort of narrative piece, taking place in the seconds following the impact of a car crash, while the vehicle and its passengers are spinning out of control in the middle of the blacktop.

It’s a kind of “life flashing before my eyes” story, but it’s focused, on moments and phases, and from the first burst of mellotron to the final optimistic flash of funk (“With a full tank how can we go wrong?”), it’s incredibly special.

Whereas the bands I mentioned earlier grew tame and directionless without their roots, with Octane Spock’s Beard blossomed. They reinvented, building a sound that was rich and truly unique to them as a foursome, a separate entity, not just an offshoot of the Morse model. Submerged in the thrill of the creative chase, Spock’s took Morse’s departure as a challenge to see if they had what it took to exist without him. If they had made another “grab bag”-styled Feel Euphoria as their #2 LP (although I don’t hate that record), part of me doubts there would have ever been a 3^rd.

In Octane “new Spock’s” found its sound, became their own band. There are slivers of what came before—how could there not be?—but most of Octane is guitar- and bass-driven, not keyboard. The energy is different. It’s more emotional, more soulful, even. And it’s obsessed with atmosphere* in a way “old” Spock’s never came close.**

*In large part thanks to Ryo’s absolutely beautiful mellotron work. Couldn’t be more key.

**Intercut between and around songs are sound samples that set the stage of where we are age-wise in the journey. The antique whine of an ice cream truck, a mother whispering “Wake up, sleepy head. It’s time to go to school. Wake up…”—this is all we need for “story” in the traditional sense. The rest are feelings, moments of significance: youth revolt, first love, adult introspection. Ideas are captured here not by words but sounds, and moods, offering a pretty startlingly rich portrait of life, a scattering of dots connected by the fractured glass of a shattered windshield.

Do I think Spock’s Beard will ever again make an album close to as good as Octane? Sadly, no. But that’s okay.

Unless a Neal Morse reunion record ever takes shape (talk about magic), I can’t imagine this not being the pinnacle “new” Spock’s will always aspire to. It’s just so focused, not a minute too long, so elegant. There’s no wasted attention pumped into being “proggy” or making “epics” here. More than the document of a new generation becoming self-realized, it’s just a truly great, honest, patient piece of music. And though it almost definitely wasn’t the case, it doesn’t feel at any moment like the band was trying to prove a thing.

This is Spock’s Beard’s, “old” and “new,” most unassuming and unique record. It’s one of my all-time personal favorites.
 
 
Listen/Watch:

Their first Nick-lead release, Feel Euphoria was patchy, an almost-tangible sense of identity crisis spilling over it in stylistic rainbows like the tipped-over paint can on its front cover. And though their next two quickly secured and established their new sound–the fact stil remains: Neither solo Neal nor “new” SPOCK’S have been as commercially successful apart as they were together. And not only that, coupled with music piracy Nick’s SPOCK’S barely makes enough from CD sales to pay off its initial expenses. The BEARD may seem like a prog-rock staple, but really these guys are struggling.

That’s why this news about their upcoming album (which is already written and ready for production) is so interesting. Well, maybe interesting isn’t the right word. This news, it’s either really brave or really desperate.

Here’s an excerpt about it from SPOCKSBEARD.com:

“We’ve decided to go commando on this one… lean, mean and without record label support. We have been free agents since the release of our last CD and after lots of deliberation have decided to release our next CD independently rather than re-sign with InsideOut or shop other labels

There have been a lot of great suggestions relating to this topic by the members of our forum, and the one that made a lot of sense to us was to take pre-orders for our not-yet-recorded CD similar to the approach that Marillion has taken in the past.

We will organize a retail store distribution deal at some point in the future, but the initial release will be an independent limited edition offering of only 5,000 CDs.

Release date depends on how quickly the CD is “financed” by pre-orders, but our initial goal is to have the CD finished and the pre-orders filled by the end of this year or early 2010.”


What’s cool for the band is the freedom they’ll have, for the fan the fact that they’ll get the CD a full month before anyone else, stores, critics, anyone. What’s scary is, well, the freedom, and the ploys they’re using to market this thing, gimmicks like having the name of anyone who buys the $200 Special Edition put into the album as a lyric. They’ll be put into a “vocal section,” probably one of the band’s signature vocal harmonies. So they probably won’t even sound like names, just parts. But still. Come on…

Obviously self-producing and self-everything else is risky, but what both worries and excites me about all this is how much like a last-ditch effort it seems. In a pretty illuminating interview with bassist Dave Meros, where he talks about Neal’s departure as well as the band’s financial woes and his lost patience with the “big symphonic thing,” he really doesn’t pull any punches about wanting to finally make some money with the band. He comes right out with it, in fact, saying that he wants “anything more successful than what we’ve been doing,” when asked what direction he’d like the band to be headed.

So my question: If this pre-order plan doesn’t work, if the band can’t make profit with a label and can’t survive without one, when does SPOCK’S BEARD, at least the way we know it, stop making sense?

Now I’m not saying that Al, Nick and Ryo will hang it up and become bankers if X doesn’t pan out–they’re all accomplished and renown enough in their respective fields to probably be okay. But you’ve got to figure that at some point comfort and security start weighing in over creativity and chasing the dream. If Meros is already sick of “big” prog and their newer records have already been going the way of more traditional rock (which, by the way, I’m fine with, feeling that they’ve really found an identity in it), how far away is pop from rock? And when does touring with bands more mainstream, being guest musicians or making side-projects start to look more logical in a five-year plan?

But those are the black clouds. The silver lining is the backed-into-a-corner angle. Look at DREAM THEATER, who in a similar situation a decade ago made Scenes from a Memory when it was do or die. Sometimes magic happens when you want it bad enough.

Personally, I don’t want to be a downer and, really, I do think SPOCK’S has enough loyal fans to keep them around for a while–but I just don’t see this group of guys surpassing what they accomplished with Octane in 2005. And I’m not really sure what that means.

What I’d love to see, though, what I think would put the band back on top and creatively reinvigorate everyone involved is another Neal Morse collaboration. With the now-established direction “new” SPOCK’s has taken and the old familiarity of Neal at the helm–man, talk about magic…

Pre-orders are available now for X. Keep the BEARD alive.

That ridiculously epic Ryo shot at the top is from Christopher A. Petro on Flickr.