Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep

Spock’s Beard is a progressive rock band from Los Angeles that formed in 1992 and went through various line-up changes, but continued to move forward putting out several studio and live albums. Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep is their 11th album to date.

It’s always fun to listen to some progressive rock and see what crazy experimental sounds can be produced within the context of a boundless plateau, such is the genre. Spock’s Beard mixes a lot of jazz, space rock, funk, rock, and hard rock into their sound while keeping a relatively retro late 80’s, early 90’s sound on vocals. Everything comes together excellently under the umbrella of great production so that you can experience the complex sounds of the band as they move down the eleven track list on the two disc release.

Lyrically the album is both deep, comical, and imaginative. The range of each musician on the album allows such a feat offering up playfully goofy themes along with some harder hitting tunes that deal with subject matter such as losing your soul when you become a vengeful person. I think I even heard the line, “If were good we get Jello”, tossed somewhere in the mix.

If you’re into progressive rock and you haven’t heard of Spock’s Beard before, I would highly suggest checking them out. It’s a bit of the old mixed in with a bit of the new and a heavy dose of whatever. Good stuff. Enjoy.