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THE KENEALLIST: Look out! Here comes FREAKS IN A MELLOW MOOD, VOL. TWO!

Album, Exowax, Live, News, The Keneallist
The Keneallist!

Ho ho ho! Please to imagine that I am four Beatles on a toboggan in the movie Help!, saying “ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!”

FREAKS IN A MELLOW MOOD, VOL. 2 – MORE 2003 LIVE ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCES BY MIKE KENEALLY AND BRYAN BELLER COMING TO BANDCAMP THIS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6!

Exowax is inordinately pleased to present Freaks in a Mellow Mood Vol. Two by Mike Keneally and Bryan Beller, the second in a series of collections drawn from live recordings of me and Bryan in November 2003, playing acoustically in music stores on behalf of Taylor Guitars.

Freaks in a Mellow Mood Vol. Two

Now getting it ready for you!
This link to Freaks in a Mellow Mood Vol. Two goes live at 11:59 p.m. PDT this Thursday night, December 5!

You can also go here now for all the other available MK titles…

I must admit I love this album. Once again, diligent preliminary work done by Chris Opperman (who made recommendations for the most primo takes of this 2003 acoustic tour) made it possible for me to quickly choose a bunch of good tracks and mix them at home.

For 21 years, the multitracks from this tour rested unheard in a hard drive. Scott Chatfield – our tour manager, driver and merch man for this run of gigs – had recorded twelve of the shows in pristine, multitrack digital. This trove of recordings proved to be something of a time machine for me – I really felt transported back to these music stores when I heard them and felt privileged to mix them for you in a way that feels contemporary.

Chris, Scott and Bryan have all expressed to me that they think Vol. Two is at least as strong as Vol. One, arguably stronger (even though Vol. One is really good I promise), and I hope you find it an enjoyable adjunct to your holiday season as you wrap gold-plated chestnuts for the local chamber of commerce while burning huge stacks of wreaths in the fireplace (I’m not the only one who does this during the holidays, right?).

Here’s the list of tracks on the new album:

1. Skunk
2. I’m Glad You’ve Got Lemon-Freshened Thorax in You
3. Li’l part 1
4. Blue 68
5. Li’l part 2
6. Pride is a Sin
7. Dee ‘n’ A
8. Bear Divide (a Bryan Beller song, and it is beautiful)
9. We’ll Be Right Back
10. Dear Prudence (a Beatles song! Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!)
11. Father’s Day
12. Lhai Sal
13. The Desired Effect
14. Dancing
15. Your Quimby Dollars at Work
16. I Can’t Stop
17. Thanksgiving

A strong batch of tunes I think! I hope you like!

This comes out for Bandcamp Friday this week y’see. I hasten to remind!: Bandcamp Friday is the occasional day when Bandcamp takes no cut of the generated income on its platform – all proceeds from purchases on this day go directly to the labels/artists.

There has not yet been any indication as to whether Bandcamp will continue having BC Fridays in 2025. So just in case this is the last chance for you to so potently demonstrate your solidarity with the struggling musicians of this world, please check out your many entertainment options on Bandcamp this coming Friday, December 6. I and all my fellow fringe-level entertainers thank you, a lot!

GIGS THIS VERY WEEK! BFD and OSD!!

Mike Keneally & Beer for Dolphins at the Baked Potato – Tuesday and Wednesday, December 3 and 4.

Other job requirements hath rendered Beer For Dolphins gigs a rarity in 2024, but we’ve managed to squeak in two more Baked Potato bookings for the year – Tuesday and Wednesday, December 3 and 4. Two sets each night. Each set will feature one unusual cover tune unique to it. Special guests will appear. Luminaries will dot the audience, and vie for deluxe potatoes from the kitchen. By the way if you’ve never actually eaten a baked potato at the Baked Potato, you are missing a really good bet. They’re outrageous.

BFD for these shows is me, Joe Travers, Rick Musallam and Pete Griffin. I love these hearty fellows and the way they play my songs. Please come celebrate our union, as they say.

One Shot Deal at the Full Circle Saloon, Santee CA, December 6

Then at the end of the week a bunch of us will pile into a teetering Beverly Hillbillies-style jalopy with all our gear strapped to it (not really) and drive south to the east county of San Diego, me olde stomping grounds, for a One Shot Deal gig at Full Circle Saloon in Santee on Friday December 6.

The gig is 8:30-12:30! Four hours of Zappa! I mean we’ll take a break in there somewhere, but this night will be heavily saturated in the sounds of Frank.

One Shot Deal for this gig is Joe Travers, Pete Griffin, Scheila Gonzalez, Billy Hulting, Ben Thomas and me. In times past when I’ve sat in with OSD, I’ve mainly been focused on keyboards (because Jamie Kime was there holding down the guitar fort so magnificently), but Jamie can’t make this week’s gig so I’ll be the primary guitarist with this band for the first time evahhh.

I been shedding hard for this one – learning several tunes I’ve never played before, re-learning parts I have played before but finding ways to play them better now, just drilling down like a mofo on this stuff. Come experience the results, with your ears!

A PHOTO OF ME SITTING IN WITH GONG AT PROGSTOCK A FEW WEEKS AGO

Gong

I’m gonna knock it off and get back to practicing now but I wanted to share this photo of me sitting in with Gong on the song “Master Builder” at ProgStock in New Jersey back in mid-October. The photo is by John Giordano, and thanks to him for letting me use it here. It captures a moment that was magical for me – I was already completely drawn into Gong’s set, standing sidestage in a spell watching them, and when Kavus Torabi gestured to me to join the band onstage towards the end of the show it felt like being invited into an actual dream. I haven’t seen too many live photos that so accurately depict the feel of a moment the way this one does for me, I hope you can feel it too.

I wish you all a joyous holiday season and a superb 2025, and to those of you who’ve been on this ride with me for awhile (some of you for decades now), and to those who’ve more recently jumped on ship, thanks to you all for maintaining a connection with me, it means a lot.

Much love and gratitude to you, always.

Mike!
Freaks in a Mellow Mood, Volume Two

This link to Freaks in a Mellow Mood Vol. Two goes live at 11:59 p.m. PDT this Thursday night, December 5!

Check out all the other delightfully diverse Mike Keneally releases at Bandcamp now!

Exowax Recordings
Visit the Mike Keneally Store!

Sign up for The Keneallist

THE KENEALLIST: Finally! Wing Beat Fantastic comes to Bandcamp Friday!

Album, Exowax, Live, News, The Keneallist
The Keneallist!

Hi again!

Hey wow I’m in Finland, had a long pretty amazing rehearsal yesterday with Jaan Wessman and Schröeder, gonna have another one today in Mikko’s backyard and film the whole thing, then tomorrow we’re filming in nature with Chanan Hanspal joining on guitar, then we got these four gigs we’re doing right dang here in Finland.

I’m a little sleep-deprived/jetlagged, but I’m abuzz with musical excitement for everything that’s going to happen over the next month.

Links to gigs down below, but first…

WING BEAT FANTASTIC
Songs written by Mike Keneally & Andy Partridge
COMES TO BANDCAMP
THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6!

First off, thank you for the wonderful response to our Bandcamp Friday release of last month, Freaks in a Mellow Mood Vol. 1 (live acoustic performances from 2003 by me and Bryan Beller), I’m delighted that so many people were into it and I’m excited to begin preparing Vol. 2 at the end of this month.

This link to Wing Beat Fantastic goes live at 11:59 p.m. PDT this Thursday night, September 3!

You can also go here now for all the other available MK titles…

For this month’s Bandcamp Friday we’re welcoming an old favorite to our steadily growing catalogue of music at Bandcamp. It’s 2012’s Wing Beat Fantastic – Songs by Mike Keneally and Andy Partridge, one of the most special collaborations I’ve ever been privileged to engage in.

Given the respect/regard/admiration I’ve had for Andy for decades now, it still feels like a dream that we were able to work together and bring these songs into existence. The album stands alone in my catalogue in a way, fully unlike anything else I’ve done.

It was a mission of mine and Exowax’s to help bring new Andy music into the world, and even though our songs together were true collaborations (comprising 2/3 of the album; the other 1/3 are songs of mine), the Andy stamp is strong.

For this Bandcamp release we’re adding a bonus track, the original solo piano recording that was the basis for my song “That’s Why I Have No Name,” recorded on the old upright piano in Scott Chatfield’s dining room. I remember when the rhythm/chords for the song showed up all of a sudden and I got enmeshed in its rolling groove for ages, totally hypnotized. The album version is so totally layered with overdubs, it’s nice for me to hear this original unadorned performance and re-enter the zone I was in for that moment, hopefully you can feel it too.  

And then there’s a mini-bonus, a four-minute distillation teaser of the album, entitled “Little Wing Beat.”

NEW KENEALLY/RADULOVICH ALBUM: BASK 2

Speaking of collaborative albums, I’ve just listened for the first time to the completed/mastered Bask 2, which also comes out this Bandcamp Friday.

This is the fifth album to come out from me and Marcelo Radulovich over the last fourteen months. This collaboration feels to me like it’s reached an apotheosis with this album. Marcelo has a way of mixing, and the two of us apparently have a way of quickly creating music, that has now arrived at a very precise destination, a sound world I can’t describe, it has to be heard.

Our ongoing collaboration is not over yet, and in a way it’s hard for me to imagine where it’s going to go next, but with this album it really has gotten to a place that fascinates me completely and I love it. I hope you can get behind the singular and peculiar nature of this new album.

We’ve got two separate parallel sets of albums going on – the series of instrumental albums named after the days of the week (so far we’ve done three of those, Monday through Wednesday), and the two vocal Bask albums. If you’re a headphone music listener, hoo boy just you wait ‘til you hear this new one. Just you wait! Our entire Bandcamp catalogue can be found here.

SOME GIGS

Mike Keneally Report in Finland happens this weekend!! Dang! What next?

Mike Keneally Report in Finland happens this weekend!! Dang! What next?

  • Thu. Oct 3 at 6 p.m. Heinävesi, Varjentiini hall (tickets €30 / €25) with special guest Chanan Hanspal. Tickets here.
  • Fri. Oct 4 at 9 pm Tampere, Telakka (€30) with special guest Chanan Hanspal. Tickets here.
  • Sat Oct 5 – 7 p.m. Pori, Validi Karkia club / Pori Mies-Laulu (€39). Email kukkesand@hotmail.com to reserve tickets.
  • Sun Oct 6 – 7 pm Helsinki, On the Rocks (€25 / €28) with special guest Malcolm Mortimore. Tickets here.
The Moth

Right after Finland I’m going to work with Devin Townsend, helping out with the final stages of constructing THE MOTH, his hugely elaborate and entirely extraordinary musical/rock opera, which is having its stage premiere in Groningen, Netherlands next March.

No ticket links provided here by me, because both nights of performances sold out pretty instantly. It will involve orchestra, choir, and us guys in the rock band, and in Devin’s words “arguably, my entire career and life have led up to this moment.”

I’m grateful indeed to be a part of it, and beyond excited about the March ‘25 performances (Groningen is maybe my favorite place in the world?) and only wish that more people could get a chance to experience it. Hopefully later on, but you know, getting orchestral events together is a lot.

Later in October I go to ProgStock in Hamilton, NJ – on October 17 I’m sitting in with ABACAB playing a Genesis classic, as well as joining in on four tunes at the Last Call Live jam that night, then and I’ll go on to sit in with several other prestigious personages during the remainder of the festival. ProgStock tickets, for all your ProgStock ticket needs, are surely here.

The Strand Theater

Immediately after the festival is a day of heavy rehearsal, followed by the first-ever performance of me with Gregg Bendian and Teddy Kumpel. Teddy is a super brilliant guitarist who is going to be playing my tunes on bass, and I can’t wait to experience that aspect of his musicianship on my tunes. Gregg is of course the masterful percussionist/composer who I toured with along with the dear late Doug Lunn several times this century, and it’ll be great to gig with him again. The three of us will be opening for prog powerhouse Lifesigns at The Strand Theater in Hudson Falls, NY on Oct. 22. Tickets can be got here.

And then I’m doing some other gigs, playing solo, on the east coast right after that, and a special gig in Chicago a few nights later, but those gigs aren’t announced yet I guess so I’ll hold them tight to my vest a short while longer, but will announce them eventually on my social networks and website and stuff so keep an eye out.

CLOUDS REALLY ARE INTERESTING

That’s the thought I leave you with today! Have good times and I’ll see you later.

Accordingly,

Mike!
Freaks in a Mellow Mood, Volume One

This link to Wing Beat Fantastic goes live at 11:59 p.m. PDT this Thursday night, October 3!

Check out all the other delightfully diverse Mike Keneally releases at Bandcamp now!

Exowax Recordings
Visit the Mike Keneally Store!

Sign up for The Keneallist

THE KENEALLIST: Freak Out! Mike and Bryan acoustic live album coming to Bandcamp Friday!

Album, Exowax, Live, News, The Keneallist
The Keneallist!

Hi again!

This is a friendly reminder that Freaks in a Mellow Mood, Volume One is coming to Bandcamp this Bandcamp Friday! Mere moments from now, practically! Details are immediately below, and updates about upcoming live appearances are just below that.

FREAKS IN A MELLOW MOOD, VOL. ONE – LIVE UNRELEASED ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCES BY MIKE KENEALLY AND BRYAN BELLER – COMING TO BANDCAMP THIS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6!

We at Exowax are exceptionally excited to bring you this little gem.

Freaks in a Mellow Mood, Volume One consists of live recordings of me and Bryan Beller in November 2003, rampaging from music store to music store, playing and singing and talking acoustically on behalf of Taylor Guitars.

Back in those infant days of the 21st century, these acoustic workshops were something that Bryan and I did with some frequency, and the recordings on this album are a highly effective capturing of that moment in time.

MIKE KENEALLY AND BRYAN BELLER

This link to Freaks in a Mellow Mood, Volume One goes live at 11:59 p.m. PDT Thursday night, September 5!

If you’ve got an itchy clicker finger, go here now for all the other available MK titles…

Scott Chatfield, the road manager on the Taylor tours, made pristine digital recordings of the shows on this particular run, and it’s from these recordings – unheard for over two decades! – that the tracks on this album are drawn.

I spent a good chunk of time mixing these songs over the past few weeks, and I am entirely happy (I think the 45-year-olds nowadays might say stoked?) with how this album has turned out.

I suspect that you’ll get a kick out of it as well, or my name isn’t Boseman Willacow, and it isn’t!

Here’s what you will find on FIAMM, Volume 1:

  1. RADIO KENEALLY JINGLE (3 Variations) – Soundcheck, Fairview United Methodist Church, Fairview, PA – Nov 09 2003 
  2. THE CAR SONG – Victor’s House of Music, Paramus, NJ – Nov 12 2003
  3. 1988 WAS A MILLION YEARS AGO – Victor’s House of Music, Paramus, NJ – Nov 12 2003
  4. ANKLE BRACELET – Sides Family Music Center, Williamsport, PA – Nov 10 2003 
  5. HELLO – Sides Family Music Center, Williamsport, PA – Nov 10 2003 
  6. OUR BEST CAMPFIRE SONG – Sides Family Music Center, Williamsport, PA – Nov 10 2003 
  7. AYE-AYE MONSTER – Lauzon Music, Ottawa, ON – Nov 4 2003
  8. BOBER – Northern Lights, Littleton, NH – Nov 3 2003 
  9. LIGHTNIN’ ONION ROY – Soundcheck, Lauzon Music, Ottawa, ON – Nov 4 2003
  10. MACHU PICCHU – Sides Family Music Center, Williamsport, PA – Nov 10 2003
  11. PHYSICS – Fairview United Methodist Church, Fairview, PA – Nov 09 2003 
  12. CAREER POLITICIANS – Guitar Center, Tanawanda, NY – Nov 5 2003
  13. LOVE THEME FROM VULTURE FUN – Sides Family Music Center, Williamsport, PA – Nov 10 2003
  14. AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING – Sides Family Music Center, Williamsport, PA – Nov 10 2003
  15. POTATO – Victor’s House of Music, Paramus, NJ – Nov 12 2003
  16. COWLOGY (Broken String Variation) – Fairview United Methodist Church, Fairview, PA – Nov 09 2003
  17. CHECKING A SECTION OF LIVE IN JAPAN – Soundcheck, Victor’s House of Music, Paramus, NJ – Nov 12 2003

Maybe you yourself were present at one or more of these shows, and you may now relive the golden glow of those nutty days.

For me it’s a heavy nostalgia trip to finally hear these performances more than two decades after having played them, but more importantly, I think it’s really good music, and I feel great about sharing it with you. And Beller is a MONSTER on these recordings, holy cow.

You’ve heard it before, but you’ll hear it again now:

Bandcamp Friday is the name for the occasional, very special Friday when Bandcamp takes no percentage of any income generated from purchases, so if you choose to buy Freaks in a Mellow Mood, Volume One on Bandcamp Friday, all the proceeds will go directly to Exowax Recordings. This is a very significant thing in the current music landscape, where income streams for independent musicians and labels are becoming ever more scarce.

To those of you who’ve been supporting Exowax with our Bandcamp releases over the past couple of years, we offer you utterly sincere thanks, and we hope you enjoy the heck out of this new album.

PROGJECT EUROPEAN TOUR IS POSTPONED UNTIL 2025 – BUT THERE’S ONE PROGJECT GIG IN PANAMA AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER

We had a slew of gigs were gonna do in Europe in September but ultimately Jonathan Mover’s doctor told him no extended touring for him – Jonathan has been dealing with back issues that now require surgery, and while gigging itself provides its own challenges, it was the long drives in between gigs and the long flights to and from Europe that the doctor says is a no-go.

But he’s gotten the go-ahead to do a one-off in Panama on September 28 – shorter flights, no long drives once we arrive – so we’re doing it!

Tickets are here! 

The European tour will now happen in 2025 and probably be twice as long as the one were planning for this year – sincere apologies for the inconvenience if you had tickets for a postponed show, but we will come play for you next year, I promise.

FOUR SHOWS IN FINLAND WITH THE MIKE KENEALLY REPORT IN EARLY OCTOBER

The moment the Panama gig is over I’ll be flying over to Finland – partly to be involved in a new film project from Mikko Keinonen (he who directed the short film The Complete Adventures of the Unrelated Sound Guy featuring five songs from my album The Thing That Knowledge Can’t Eat – the film is here), but also to play four shows with The Mike Keneally Report, my European power-trio featuring Jaan Wessman on bass and Schröeder on drums.

A very special guest at these performances will be Malcolm Mortimore, drummer for Gentle Giant on the Three Friends album, who’ll be sitting in on two songs (“The Carousel of Progress” from the Knowledge album getting its live debut, plus a GG classic from Three Friends that I’m very much looking forward to jamming on with Malcolm – if you know the album you probably know the song!).

The four shows are:

Thu Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. Heinävesi, Varjentiini hall (tickets €30 / €25)
Fri Oct. 4 at 9 pm Tampere, Telakka (€30)
Sat Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. Pori, Validi Karkia club / Pori Mies-Laulu (€39)
Sun Oct. 6 at 7 pm Helsinki, On the Rocks (€25 / €28)

And here are tickets to three of them (I don’t see a online ticket link to the Pori gig at this moment, but folks can email kukkesand@hotmail.com to reserve tickets for that show): Heinävesi, Tampere, Helsinki.

I’M GUESTING AT PROGSTOCK IN RUTHERFORD, NJ, OCTOBER 17-20

I played at the ProgStock festival with The Zappa Band in 2022 and had a wonderful time, so I’m exceedingly happy to be returning there this year as a roaming troubadour: I’ll be popping up here and there, guesting with different bands and participating in different sessions.

Ticket info for the festival is here, and the schedule is here.

I can tell you now that I’ll be participating in the Last Call Live Pro-Am Showcase on October 17, as well as sitting in with ABACAB: The Music of Genesis earlier that same evening, but I’ll also be making several other appearances throughout the festival, and you’ll just have to come and find out when and with whom!

There will also be ample opportunity to just hang out having a good time and wallowing in the pure progginess of it all. Hope to see you there, especially you crazy east-coasters. You know how you are! I know you know!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

Love to you and your families! And your pets!

See you out there,

Mike!
Freaks in a Mellow Mood, Volume One

This link to Freaks in a Mellow Mood, Volume One goes live at 11:59 p.m. PDT Thursday night, September 5!

In the meantime, you can check out all the other delightfully diverse Keneally releases at Bandcamp now!

Exowax Recordings
Visit the Mike Keneally Store!

Sign up for The Keneallist