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FEEL EUPHORIA
The Beard's 7th studio album. Click here to order it. |
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| What's on the site... |
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Discography
Including track lists, liner notes, lyrics, mp3's and even a few tab & midi files supplied by fans. click here |
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FAQ
Bios, history and other things you might want to know about SB. click here |
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Concerts
Where and when to catch the band live. click here |
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Photos & Press
Pics, articles, interviews and reviews. click here |
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Buy Stuff
CD's, videos, shirts, hats, etc. Secure online ordering. click here |
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Spock's Gear
Equipment used by the band, live and in the studio. click here |
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Message Board
Connect with other Beard fans. click here |
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Links & Contact info
Links to other SB related sites, friends and contact info for the band and webmaster. click here |
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| Nick D'Virgilio's new CD & DVD release "Live & Acoustic". Click here to visit his site. |
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| Ryo Okumoto's "Coming Through". Click here to visit his site. |
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Beardmail
Subscribe to receive info on site updates, plus special offers and advance notice of CD releases and live shows. To sign up, Click here or send an e-mail here. |
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| ©2003-2004 Spock's Beard - website by gonewest |
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| What's new... |
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May 7, 2004 |
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| Ryo's setup at The Mouse House |
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| Rich & NDV in the control room at HOB studios |
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| Ryo playing at HOB studios |
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WOW!!!!.............I MEAN WOW!!!!! We have been recording keyboards with our fab keyboardist Mr. Ryo Okumoto, and let me tell you that he has been kicking some serious ass. It is really fun to watch and hear. We started the week off at "The Mouse House", Rich's studio.
Ryo has set himself up pretty amazing keyboard rig with an ARP Pro-Soloist, Roland Jupiter 8, Clavinet, Korg Trinity, Organ, Mellotron, and Mini-Moog. YEAH!!!! All the great sounds and then some. Ryo has been pulling out some great playing all week. There have been a lot of firsts for this new record already, and we have just started really.
The 1st first is that we didn't record the basics (drums and bass) at Lawnmower, like we have for our last five records.
The 2nd first is that Ryo is recording all of his keyboard parts with Rich. Before, Ryo has always recorded at his house and we had to transfer files or bring tapes and machines. It always worked out, but it was a pain and Ryo never had the chance to really tweak with Rich. I can tell you he is enjoying the change and they are getting really really great sounds. Very inspiring.
The 3rd first is that we went to another studio to record piano. Usually Lawnmower was always available for doing all kinds of things, but Lawnmower is being shut down soon after a great run of making great music. The piano there was sold, so we couldn't go there. Ryo called his friend at the STUDIO REFERRAL SERVICE to find something good that we could afford. They called us back with a referral to the HOUSE OF BLUES STUDIOS in Encino, CA.
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The place turned out to be fantastic. Apparently, HOB owns a few different studios. One in Nashville and Memphis, and here in LA. The studio is on the bottom floor of this amazing home on top of a hill in Encino, a very swanky part of L.A. The house was originally owned by Tito Jackson. It looks just like a Spanish or Italian Villa on the Mediterranean. A great place to hang and make music. Other than few hard-drive hassles, everything got done and Ryo played just great. So, that is it for now. We are going back into Rich's for the next few days to finish up Ryo's parts before he heads out with Natalie Cole and then it is off to vocal and guitar land. I must tell you that this record is sounding amazing. Rich is just great and all you PROGGERS should be VERY happy with this new record. We are pulling out all the stops. And it is so much FUN!!!!!!!!! Take care everybody, NDV
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April 24, 2004 |
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| Hello Beardies, NDV here. We finished some initial recording over a Rich Mouser's studio last Wednesday. I should really say Thursday morning, because Dave, Rich and I got out of the studio at 2:30 in the morning. That's after starting at about 11:00... THE PREVIOUS MORNING! Oh well, we were delirious but it turned out great. We have 18 pieces recorded, which includes all six pieces of the new epic. I don't think we have ever had that much material to choose from for a new record before. We are going to put out a single disc. I know some of you would like us to release a four CD set but...you will have some really great bonus songs!!! |
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| photo by Jim Harrel |
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The music is running the gamut from true PROG (in my opinion) to full on ROCK. There is a heaviness to the new Spock's that is just coming out naturally and with the drum and bass sounds Rich got at his place, this CD will slam. There are times when my drums sound like John Bonham's. No kidding. I used an old Ludwig 26" kick drum that Rich has lying around his place. Coupled with his big room, the drums sound amazingly huge but clear and punchy. So much fun.
So, now I have to go through everything and get it all ready for me, Al and Ryo to do overdubs. That is always a tedious process, but it is a labor of love. If all goes well and there are no setbacks, we should be able to release this new CD in October or November and then...TOUR!!! I hope everywhere. I always wish for that, although my wishes never come true. Either way, we will be playing live somewhere. So, I will keep you all updated on the progress of the record and all the happenings.
On another note, I will be playing with Mike Keneally, Rick Musallam, and a most amazing bass player named Doug Lunn at the Baked Potato (here in LA) on May 8th. Go to www.keneally.com for more info. It's going to be a different kind of gig. Since Brian Beller can't be there, we are changing things up a bit. The first set is going to be acoustic with some Keneally, NDV, Spock's, and whatever else we can think of music.
The second set will be electric and all cover songs. I'm sure with MK leading the way, there will be some crazy fun things going on. If you have never seen or heard Doug Lunn play bass, you should make the trip out. He is a amazing and unique player. I met Doug through Kevin Gilbert years back and have done a few things with him over the years.
Alright peoples, take care. I will be in touch again very soon. - NDV
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April 17, 2004 |
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| Dave after several takes |
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Hey Kids,
You know how when you sing in the shower and it sounds really good, then when you go to sing in front of people it's not so good, and really embarrasing?
And we've all seen the kid (or maybe even been the kid) who had all kinds of cool chops worked out sitting there in the bedroom month after month, but was a big flop when he or she finally sat in at the jam session with a real band.
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Well, that's me! For some reason I thought that I could cram 10 years of French Horn playing experience into a month and a half. And to be honest, I improved by leaps and bounds over where I was at a couple months ago. But not quite enough to successfully cut the French Horn parts on our next CD. Since it needs to sound professional, we'll hire a pro like we usually do. I have actually played on a couple earlier CDs, but they have been the simplest little parts imaginable... always leaving the harder parts to real horn players.
Have you ever heard a French Horn played badly? It's not pretty, and the picture that is attached here is a pretty good visual representation of how I was sounding. Damn! Maybe next time...
On a better note, the tracks we've been cutting are pretty slammin'. Rich's new studio is pretty awesome, both cosmetically and sonically, and he is even more of a mad scientist genius than ever. He took a total-piece-of-crap house with a bizarre floorplan and turned it into a really beautiful hi-tech facility.
Some of the drum sounds he's getting are so amazingly huge that when I hear them the only thing I can do is laugh. We even completely changed a song arrangement to fit around one of his more insane drum sounds.
We're clipping right along, recording at a faster pace than usual, which is good since we have a very small window of recording opportunity between now and August. We did two days last week and will do Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. And then I gotta go out and make a living for a few months. So hopefully by Wednesday night we'll have all of the basic tracks in the can! That would be pretty amazing, considering that we are pretty much learning the songs and arranging as we go, which takes quite a bit of time. But I think we'll do it. Then again, I also thought I'd nail those French Horn parts... - Dave
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