Beardfish
Written by Mike on August 13, 2009
Home >> Artist Profile >> Beardfish
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Sleeping In Traffic

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With similarities to bands like Yes, Supertramp, and (most aptly) Frank Zappa, Beardfish is a fresh, new take on classic prog rock. I have become familiar with their three latest releases - Sleeping In Traffic: Part One, Sleeping In Traffic: Part Two, and Destined Solitaire - so I’ll attempt to explain just what it is that Beardfish does.

I think Beardfish’s style can be accurately described as a mixture of classic prog and blues rock, with some soul and pop sprinkled in. The singer puts more of an emphasis on rhythm than pretty much any other vocalist I can think of right now - this should be more clear to you after listening to the second audio clip I included. I mentioned Zappa as a big influence on their style; that manifests itself in the music as well as the lyrics… sometime these guys play some pretty goofy stuff but I think it’s fun for all.

Similarly to practically all the great 60’s/70’s rock bands, Beardfish understands the important role that dynamics plays in music. This is most apparent in Part One. During some sections the drums lay out completely for an extended period of time (or an entire song) to result in a very soft and gentle mood. Of course this wouldn’t be powerful without the in-your-face sections, which obviously are included as well.

Some of Beardfish’s songs are more or less in the standard verse-chorus pop structure while others completely abandon this paradigm, and still others, perhaps the majority, are some hybrid of these two styles. There’s also the epic 36-minute Sleeping In Traffic from Part Two whose structure I won’t even attempt to analyze. As an example of what I mean by “hybrid” though, let’s take a look at the structure of South Of The Border (also from Part Two). It starts off with verse-chorus-verse-chorus, at which point one might be expecting a bridge followed by the chorus again. Instead, there’s 1:20 of what I’ll call the “breakdown” section, followed by 1:35 of what is essentially a third verse, except that it has a completely different feel from the first two verses. After that is a 55-sec extended bridge and finally a 30-sec conclusion, ending after 7:43 of music.

As one might expect, Part One and Part Two have a very similar sound. The first is more mellow though, and I also think the song structures are more nonlinear. The second is more active, and I think the songs show a little more maturity - this is my suggested starting point for listening. Destined Solitaire is a different beast altogether, although still clearly Beardfish. It’s a little crazier than the others I think… but maybe a little too crazy. Honestly, I don’t really think it’s a great album yet. I say “yet” because it may still grow on me…

[Aug 24 edit] I just want to clarify my statements about Destined Solitaire. Maybe it isn’t a great album, but it is a good one and definitely worth checking out if you like Sleeping In Traffic Part Two.

Viewing 4 Comments

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    The sound clip reminds me of a couple of bands from the 70s, like Klatuu and Nektar. Both of which are in my album collection, yes vinyl. They sound like psychedelic rock.
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    I was supposed to see Beardfish open for Dream Theater and Zappa Plays Zappa last week. Beardfish (and Pain Of Salvation, who were also supposed to be on the tour) had to drop off because their record label (InsideOut) could no longer afford to send them on the tour because their distributor (SPV) declared bankruptcy. I meant to check out some of Beardfish's music before the show, but since they dropped off the tour I never got around to it. I'll have to get back on that!

    The show still turned out well though. Dream Theater were great as usual, although they only gave themselves 90 minutes which was a tad disappointing (only 8 songs). Zappa Plays Zappa were amazing, they nearly stole the show! I know a little bit of Frank Zappa's music, but most of what they played was new to me. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again sometime. One of the bands that replaced Beardfish and Pain Of Salvation on the tour was Bigelf, who I really liked. They sounded kind of like a mixture of Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. Seeing them live felt kind of like traveling back in time to the 70's.

    Anyway, I'm done rambling, thanks for reading if you made it this far. ;-)
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    Ya know I heard Beardfish was supposed to support the Progressive Nation tour but then bailed, but I didn't realize it was because of their distributor's financial woes.
    ZPZ is a group whose name I've seen a lot but never really payed any attention to since I'm not too hot on the idea of tribute bands... but in reality good music is good music, whether or not the writer is the performer.
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    I know what you mean about tribute bands. ZPZ are slightly different in my opinion. First of all, Frank Zappa is dead, so unfortunately we'll never get to see him perform this music again. Since ZPZ is led by his son Dweezil, it's about as authentic as you can get. ZPZ has also performed with some of Frank's well-known band members, such as Napoleon Murphy Brock, Terry Bozzio and Steve Vai.
 
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