I hope 2012 has been a honking goose of delight for you thus far. I took the holidays off like nobody's business and had a lovely time. Turned 50. So far I'm okay with that.
Stuff happening!:
This Saturday night I return to the life of the happy gigster at the Baked Potato. Two 90-minute shows, separately ticketed, at 9:00 and 11:00 pm. This is the five-piece Keneally Band as heard/seen on bakin' @ the potato!(a new-ish and very nice review of which has just been brought to our attention). $20 per show, definitely the entertainment bargain of the weekend. Both shows will be completely different from one another and we're going to be busting out some older material (think hat. which, good gracious, is twenty years old this year) which we haven't played live in a mega-long time, in premiere arrangements for the quintet lineup. Will you attend? Will you? Do!
I write to you from a secret undisclosed location wherein work has commenced on the second Matt Resnicoff album, mere weeks after the release of the first, The History Of Now. Matt and I worked very hard, for years, on History Of Now and it's finally out for you to discover. Go here to learn more and to read comments from Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Steve Lukather about this remarkable work. For my part I'll say that, although I'm obviously real close to it, I think the album is profound and endlessly fascinating, and that Matt is a visionary in the realm of otherworldly melodicism. Truly mindbending music flows from his fingers - for fans of adventurous guitar, such tracks as "These Are How I Feel" will send your hair straight back. Please check out this action and see why Vai calls the album "a milestone" and Lukather says "makes Stockhausen sound like The Archies." And the packaging of the physical edition is truly deluxe, out of this world. We'll have copies for sale at the Potato this weekend. I'm so glad to have played a part in making this music come to fruition.
New Yorkers! I'll be returning to Iridium in early February for three very different nights of music - on Monday the 6th I'll be sitting in, as many other guitarists (including Jeff Beck, Keith Richards and Todd Rundgren) have done, with the legendary Les Paul Trio. On Tuesday the 7th I'll play a night of my music with two brilliant musicians, Doug Lunn and Gregg Bendian. And on Wednesday the 8th I'll be sitting in again with the fantastic Ed Palermo Big Band. Very exciting stuff for me and I hope you NY people can make it out to as many of the nights as you can.
Speaking of Doug Lunn, his debut solo record The Doug Lunn Project is now available, and it is as gorgeous, elegant and musical as you would expect from this masterful musician. I'm on a track called "Dyslexia Mango Nixon," and I'm thrilled that the song features the trio of me, Doug and Vinnie Colaiuta - a dream come true for me. Doug's compositions are endlessly beautiful - please give this a listen.
After a few weeks away to concentrate on other projects, I re-convened work on the Wing Beat Fantastic album last week (the album of songs written by me and Andy Partridge) with an eye towards completing it by March. Even though he hasn't been in attendance at the recording sessions, Andy still has his hand in the making of this thing - in fact I just recorded a new set of lyrics he wrote in December, and he's been listening and commenting on all the tunes as they progress. We at Exowax are very excited at the way this album is shaping up and we'll have a lot more to say about it soon.
Back to the studio! Happy new year everyone!
Much love!
Mike
Keneally Concert Calendar:
Monday thru Wednesday, February 6, 7 & 8, 2012 Keneally in New York
Iridium 1650 Broadway (51st) New York, NY 10019 (212) 582-2121
Showtimes each night are 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Admission $30 per show
Friday, March 2, 2012
Mike Keneally guests on a few songs with his pals The Aristocrats
Bryan Beller, Guthrie Govan, Marco Minnemann Brick By Brick 1130 Buenos Avenue San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 275-5483
Showtime: 8:00 PM
Tickets $20
Sunday, March 4, 2012 Wes Fest 7, featuring The Aristocrats
(Bryan Beller, Guthrie Govan, Marco Minnemann)
The Casualties of Jazz
Danny Mo and the Exciters (featuring 2011 Wes Wehmiller Scholarship Award Winner Hayley Jane Batt and legendary drummer John "JR" Robinson) and The WesFest All-Stars (featuring music by Mike Keneally, Jackie Daum, Joe Brooks and Colin Keenan) The Roxy 9009 West Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood, CA 90069 Tickets:
$35 per pair in advance (until 3/3/12)
$20 per individual ticket in advance
$30 per ticket at the door
Five years after the Mike Keneally Band's Guitar Therapy Live triumph at LA's intimate Baked Potato club, a most worthy sequel is born. This time, Mike raises the stakes by adding guitarist Griff Peters to the mix, allowing the quintet to rise to new heights of musical power, diversity and subtlety. Live favorites are mixed delectably with seldom-played gems from Mike's catalogue to create a truly astonishing DVD and CD set. The region-free NTSC DVD of the entire September 15, 2010 concert features stereo audio, DTS 5.1 Surround, Dolby 5.1 Surround plus two band commentaries, and the CD comes in scant seconds short of the maximum possible 80 minutes.
Mike Keneally Band is Mike Keneally: guitar, keyboard and vocals, Bryan Beller: bass and vocals, Rick Musallam: guitar and vocals, Griff Peters: Guitar, and Joe Travers: drums and vocals.
This handsome new Mike Keneally Band t-shirt takes the concept of head-rippage to a whole new level. Based on Exowax genius Atticus Wolrab's canny subversion of a once-popular image, this brown beauty sports the disturbingly pleasing logo on the front in two colors (both kinda orange). On the reverse is a small but effective QR Code. Anyone with a smartphone can use it to be zapped instantly to keneally.com! As always, it's a soft, thick, 100% cotton icon o' fashion. A future heirloom, perhaps?
ESCONDIDO, CA, June 2, 2011: The Mike Keneally Band and the Bryan Beller Band (two in the same) gathered at Griff Peters' hilltop retreat to rehearse for their two-night bakin' @ the potato! DVD/CD release concerts at The Baked Potato in Los Angeles on June 3 and 4. Taking a fresh-air break are (l. to r.) Rick Musallam, Bryan Beller, Griff Peters, Joe Travers. New MKB T-shirts and copies of Mike and Bryan's new releases will be available at the Potato. (Photo by Griff Peters)
Recording the bakin'@ the potato! DVD commentary
LEUCADIA, CA, April 24, 2011: The second audio commentary for the Mike Keneally Band's upcoming bakin' @ the potato! DVD was recorded by (l. to r.) Griff Peters, Bryan Beller and Mike Keneally during a late-night session at Chatfield Manor. Bryan was tracking an album by his new band The Aristocrats (featuring Bryan, Marco Minnemann and Guthrie Govan) in Chicago, so he contributed in real time via Skype. Mike, Rick Musallam and Joe Travers recorded their commentary live in the same room the week prior. Mike Harris engineered and Steve Laub videotaped both sessions for the archives.
KMB@UCSD!
LA JOLLA, CA, March 11, 2011: Keneally-Minnemann-Beller rocked a plump house at Porter's Pub on the University of Southern California at San Diego campus. Also on the bill were Kronomorfic and Jeff Kaiser, which resulted in some sweet cross-pollination in the middle of KMB's set. Oh, and artist Vincent Gordon created live paintings during the entire show.
Mike's Recording and Mixing Adventure
LEUCADIA, CA, March 10, 2011: Mike continues to spend his days at Chatfield Manor with engineer Mike Harris mixing and recording a variety of projects, including a new live MKB CD/DVD and Scambot 2. Here he overdubs tabla percussion on a song he co-wrote with XTC's Andy Partridge.
Keneally-Minneman-Beller Hit Holland
TILBURG, NETHERLANDS, February 14, 2011: The first KMB concert of their short February European tour was a great success. The band premiered live renditions of some Evidence of Humanity selections before a full house. Some audience members traveled from the UK and other countries just to see this show. (Photos and video by Paul Berkholst)
You know what you are? You're Evidence of Humanity! This 100% cotton thick n' soft black cotton shirt was frickin' made for you! It's a beautifully simple design-- the empirically accurate EVIDENCE OF HUMANITY statement on the front, Mike and Marco's names and www.keneally.com on the back. What more does any human need? Order yours from MooseMart.com!
One bright morning, world-renowned drummer Marco Minnemann settled down behind the DW kit in his secluded hideaway, punched the record button, and proceeded to pound out an astounding 52-minute improvised solo. When it was finished, he christened it Normalizer 2 and offered it as a sort of gift to a handful of his favorite guitarists, relishing the prospect of each adding his own signature madness to the mix.
Mike Keneally was someone Marco hoped would dig the idea. In the throes of recording his intense and complex Scambot 1 opus, Mike leapt at Marco's offer-- the creation of Evidence of Humanity would be a joyous, freewheeling counterpoint to his meticulous work on Scambot. "A fun ride," Mike would recall. (Of course, Marco recorded his own fantastic version, too, available at marcominnemann.com.)
The ecstatic result is two of the world's foremost musicians improvising together, but not at the same time. It's a record unlike any other that Mike has recorded (but probably closest to Nonkertompf, his indefinable, mostly instrumental 1999 solo extravaganza). Evidence of Humanity seems to have a life of its own, mutating and maturing with each listen.
Accompanying the Evidence of Humanity CD is a region-free NTSC DVD containing a tasty reimagining of the original concept. This time, Mike and Marco got together in real time and vaulted into the ether for another 52-minute musical improvisation, a feat that was videotaped for your pleasure. The DVD also includes an insightful conversation between the two kindred musical spirits, shot in the back seat of a car hurtling toward the cover shoot in the Southern California desert's dilapidated Salton Sea.
Evidence of Humanity's songs:
Respect?
Evidence of Humanity
Three People Run Naked Through School
Tooth and Cold Stone Pew
Now
Bastards Into Battle
You, And Your Problems
Bad Friday
Rough Time At The Hotel
Whoa
Kaa
Clown Removal
Forgive and Remember
Apex Music
Our Collective Wisdom To Date
Trying
A Place to Stay For The Night
Evidence of Humanity DVD's selections:
Elements of a Manatee -- live duo improv (54:54)
A Conversation with Mike and Marco (39:59)
Click here for your free "Evidence of Humanity"
song download!
It's a free song download from Evidence of Humanity, the astounding collaboration between Mike and renowned drummer/Keneally cohort Marco Minnemann. "Evidence of Humanity" is the title track (track 2) of the Evidence of Humanity CD/DVD (a high-quality 256k VBR mp3, a 4.6 MB zip file) direct from the master recording. Enjoy!
When Mike and Marco Minnemann collaborated on Evidence of Humanity, Mike composed and played on top of Marco's prerecorded drum solo. But it raised the question, what would happen if Mike and Marco improvised together in real time? So they met at Marco's secret storage locker/rehearsal studio hideaway and let 'er rip. The startling result (augmented by some overdubbed Keneally bass flourishes) appeared on the DVD that accompanies the EOH CD. So by popular demand, the audio portion of Elements of a Manatee is now exclusively available here at MooseMart as a very high-quality, reasonably priced download. Six bucks, dude!
Guitarist/keyboardist Mike Keneally and notorious drummer Marco Minnemann improvise twice together on the new Exowax CD/DVD Evidence of Humanity. The CD contains the amazing result of Mike composing over Marco's pre-recorded 52-minute "Normalizer 2" drum solo, and the DVD features them coming back for more, this time in real time. Here's a short clip from the DVD's live improv session (entitled Elements of A Manatee) in Marco's lair. (Elements of A Manatee directed by Dave Foster)
Evidence of Humanity Interview DVD Excerpt
The Evidence of Humanity DVD also includes an insightful conversation between these two astounding musicians. Here's a short clip from that discussion, from the back seat of a car hurtling toward the California desert's dilapidated Salton Sea.
Speaking of Keneally...
Jedd Beaudoin at KMUW's Strange Currency calls Keneally & Beller live releases "the Best of 2011."
Editor Kevin Hoover of the Arcata Eye newspaper used an appropriate Keneally-ism to title a news photo.
George Varga at the San Diego Union-Tribune wonders if Mike is the missing link between Clapton and Zappa.
Richard Gehr of The Village Voice calls MK a "prog-rock humanist" while previewing the NYC show.
Ytsejam.com calls Scambot 1 "a masterpiece, if you allow it to be."
The June 2010 issue of Guitar Player features an article about Mike, Scambot, Zappa and Dethklok by Barry Cleveland (print only; additional web links here).
Barry Cleveland talks with Mike about the upcoming Normalizer 2 project at GuitarPlayer.com
Kerry Chicoine and Sean Tonar interview Mike about his relationship with music at ProgressiveEars.com.
Join The Keneallist!
Like the Bat Signal, The Keneallist is only used for super serious email emanating directly from MK Central to you. We're talking stuff like album release info, live performance updates, discounts on MK merchandise and such. Your secret info will be held dearly by us and not shared with anybody mean without your prior permission.
