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