Acclaimed progressive rock band Spock's Beard will release its tenth studio album, the aptly titled X, on September 28 via Mascot Records. [They'll be playing live tomorrow, Sep 12, at the Downey Civic Theater in Downey, CA. More info: www.calprog.com]

Over the past 17 years, Spock's Beard has established itself as the cr?me de la cr?me of modern progressive rock. But Spock's Beard is not simply a musician's band; the group has also mastered the art of penning catchy, harmony-driven songs that will appeal to any fan of well-written pop songs.

The music of Spock's Beard is a reflection of their varied influences, which include classical, pop, rock, jazz and jazz fusion, and R&B, while their intricate multi-part vocal harmonies and use of counterpoint add a whole other dimension.

Since Spock's Beard began playing together in the early '90s, not only have musical phases come and gone, but a whole new model of recording and selling music has taken shape. There were a lot of "firsts" for the group on X.

"We were never all in the same room at the same time, from the song writing stage all the way through mixing and mastering," said bassist Dave Meros. "We have never done that before. One might think that would work against us, but apparently it had a positive effect in this case."

The quartet's dedicated fanbase can take partial credit for X. After coming to the end of their previous record deal, Spock's Beard opted to take a decidedly modern approach to financing a new record. The group raised funds for recording by taking pre-sale orders for X. A privately released Limited Edition version of X was first issued and the record has since been licensed for release in America through Mascot Records.

Early reviews of X have hailed the release as one of - if not THE - finest release from Spock's Beard. But pressed to explain how X differs from previous albums, Meros takes a humble and humorous observation:

"From what the critics have been saying, we wrote good songs this time, as opposed to the last CD which was super lame in their opinion. So in retrospect, I guess writing good songs may have been a good idea. We do that on purpose, you know; sometimes we decide to be good and other times we choose to be super lame. We could be good all the time if we wanted, but what fun would that be? People would just love us and buy our CDs by the millions and we'd make loads of money. Who wants that? BORING!"

Mascot Records is an independent record company based in The Netherlands that specializes in guitar music, from metal to instrumental guitar, hard rock, prog rock and (guitar) fusion.

Spock's Beard @ MySpace

[Source: Mazur PR]