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THE KENEALLIST: Brand new live MK/BFD release this Bandcamp Friday!

The Keneallist!

Hello, greetings, welcome and hi!

Brand new live MK/BFD release this Bandcamp Friday!

Hi!

I want to wish you the best of everything this year, so I just did. I just wished you that, sitting here, and I hope it works.

And now on with the show!

MK & BFD – LIVE AT LYNAGH’S – LEXINGTON, KY   MAY 18, 2001 – OUR NEW BANDCAMP RELEASE

Live at Lynagh’s – Lexington, KY  May 18. 2001

We’re excited about this. This new release, Live at Lynagh’s – Lexington, KY  May 18. 2001, is a live recording of the seven-piece BFD that toured in support of the Dancing album:

Me: voice, guitar, limited keys
Bryan Beller: maximum bass
Nick D’Virgilio: drums and life-saving vocal abilities
Rick Musallam: guitar and utterly sweet vocals as well
Tricia Williams: magical vibes and percussion
Marc Ziegenhagen: wizardly keyboards of varying sorts
Evan Francis: direct line back to Trane and Dolphy via sax and flute

This is an audience recording, one of unusual fidelity and vibrancy. I subjected it to some light remastering this week and I think it delivers a hugely effective jolt of early-oughts BFD excitement.

Everyone plays their heads off. And I find it very interesting to hear non-Dancing songs interpreted in Dancing-style big band arrangements – there were a lot of arrangement details on this short tour that were unique to this band, and which I’d forgotten about. For me it’s very great to hear these arrangements again, and I hope you get a kick out of it also.

Here are the songs on Live at Lynagh’s:

  1. Intro/Snowcow (7:17)
  2. Click (5:55)
  3. Aye-Aye Monster (8:10)
  4. Hello (3:03)
  5. Live in Japan (5:24)
  6. Pretty Enough for Girls (6:13)
  7. Taster (5:09)
  8. Lhai Sal (7:27)
  9. The Mystery Music (10:38)
  10. Mexican Radio (7:42)
  11. Free at Last (aka the coda to Selfish Otter) (3:35)
  12. Joe (6:13)
  13. Why Am I Your Guy? (5:11)
  14. We’ll Be Right Back (8:45)
  15. Kedgeree (14:02)
Live at Lynagh’s – Lexington, KY  May 18. 2001
Seven blurry band members playing their hearts out for you in May, 2001.

This show of ours, opening for Project/Object, was lovingly recorded by a faithful audience member – really nice frequency range, and you can totally feel the room – but we don’t know the identity of the audient who did the taping. We will happily credit the unknown recordist once/if their identity is made known to us. Is it YOU?

We are very pleased to premiere Live at Lynagh’s as our first Bandcamp-exclusive album (meaning, this is the first Bandcamp release we’ve put out which has never before been released in any format), in recognition of the first Bandcamp Friday of 2024.

(As a reminder: Bandcamp Friday is the day – always the first Friday of a specific month, and usually several times a year – that Bandcamp takes no percentage of income from purchases. On Bandcamp Friday, all money goes to the artist/label. In a cultural environment where musicians really have to struggle to find income streams that make any kind of sense, this is no small potatoes.)

We think this is a special concert recording and we’re very happy to make it available to you. Please! Please, enjoy!

MK/BFD will be at ALVAS on MARCH 29/30

MK/BFD will be at ALVAS on MARCH 29/30

Speaking of potatoes, small and otherwise, the two nights of Beer For Dolphins at the Baked Potato that just happened on January 18/19 were absolute balm for my soul. It had been about a year since I’d played any of my own songs live and it was a true pleasure – such a fantastic response from the crowds and the staff, and the guys in my band (Joe Travers, Pete Griffin and Rick Musallam) were in magnificent form. (Even Bryan Beller unexpectedly popped up, in a very narrow window of his busy touring schedule, and played “Performing Miracles” with us on the second night.) Both nights, all four sets, were filmed by our long-time pal Steve Laub, and maybe there will be something on those tapes that we’ll be sharing at some point.

I am still buzzing from those Potato gigs, so it delights me to report that MK/BFD shall be returning soon to the Southland, on March 29 and 30 at Alvas Showroom in San Pedro. (Is San Pedro part of “The Southland”? I say yes.) Travis Larson will be opening for us solo, and the magnificent Jen Majura will be manning the merch table. Come say hi!

Here are ticket links – March 29, March 30.

Working on booking more shows! If you own a venue and want MK/BFD to play in it, get in touch!

MK guesting with ONE SHOT DEAL on MARCH 9 and 15

MK guesting with ONE SHOT DEAL on MARCH 9 and 15

I will once again (or should I say twice again) be sitting in with Joe Travers’ remarkable Zappa band One Shot Deal, during March. On the 9th we’ll be at the Grape in Ventura, and on the 15th at Campus Jax in Newport Beach.

Tickets to the show at The Grape are not yet available online, but you can call and bug them about that at (805) 212 6130.

Tickets to the Campus Jax gig are entirely available here.

PROGJECT REPORT – JUNE 29 and 30 with BILL BRUFORD in NY and PA

PROGJECT REPORT – JUNE 29 and 30 with BILL BRUFORD in NY and PA

There will be lots more ProgJect action this year; shows are in the works for a number of venues around the world. It’ll be great to get this band to a bunch of new places and countries. Details will be shared when they become available – but for now, the first two shows to be announced are at Sony Hall in NYC on June 29, and the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, PA on June 30.

We will be double-billed with a very special guest at both of these shows: Bill Bruford, being interviewed by Innerviews’ Anil Prasad. (Bill will not be playing – as you probably know, he doesn’t play publicly anymore – but Bill simply speaking is hugely entertaining in and of itself.) These will be very special evenings indeed.

IT’S THE HAPPY HAPPY DAY MIKE KENEALLY VIDEO PARTY FEATURING DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER ETHAN COEN!!

Hi! I’m famed director/screenwriter Ethan Coen!

No I’m not, I’m still just Mike, but I wanted to point you towards a bunch of videos that have premiered online since the last time I spoke to you here.

IT’S THE HAPPY HAPPY DAY MIKE KENEALLY VIDEO PARTY FEATURING DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER ETHAN COEN!!

• Let’s start The Happy Happy Day Mike Keneally Video Party with a video of Steve Vai’s real-time responses to Mikko Keinonen’s videos for my songs “Big Hit Song” and “Celery” from The Thing That Knowledge Can’t Eat. Steve’s responses are fascinating, generous and wise.

The video of Steve watching my videos is here. The original “Big Hit Song” video is here. And the original “Celery” video is here.

Continuing the video party, we find the delightful Chanan Hanspal interviewing me.

• Continuing the video party, we find the delightful Chanan Hanspal interviewing me – he’s done a number of excellent Zappa and XTC-themed vids pretty recently – check out his YouTube channel – so it’s not too shocking that he eventually found his way to me. He’s a superb cat (brilliant guitarist as well) and I sure enjoyed speaking to him in this vid.

The Powhida/Perdomo Hotline

• I recently guested on a track by The Powhida/Perdomo Hotline, a cover of a deep Hall and Oates cut I’ve always loved, “Don’t Blame it on Love.” I was real happy to be asked to take part in this cover, especially when I found out the bassist would be John Siegler, the amazing bassist on the first two Todd Rundgren’s Utopia albums (if you tell me to think of a classic solo bass moment on a prog record, I will involuntarily and immediately think of John Siegler’s ultra-cool solo passage in “Freak Parade” from the first Utopia album. It’s one of those musical moments that make life worth living, and I love that I’m on a track with him now).

John Powhida and Fernando Perdomo both bring the rock hugely on this song. Let the Happy Happy Day Video Party rage on with “Don’t Blame it on Love.”

The Albums I Have Missed

• Let’s invite the avant-garde to the party! One of my favorite albums for decades now has been 1977’s Kew. Rhone. by John Greaves, Peter Blegvad and Lisa Herman, and if you know this album too I think you’ll agree with me that it is undersung, so I was delighted to bring it to the attention of Vaylor Trucks (another brilliant guitarist and great guy), for him to dive into at length on an episode of his YouTube series “The Albums I Have Missed.” His dissertation on the album is inspiring, and he was kind to have me onscreen at various crucial junctures to have my say on the matter as well.

Oranges & Lemons

• Where to now St. Peter? Let’s go to the Garden of Earthly Delights for a long dive into my history with XTC, Andy Partridge, Wing Beat Fantastic and Oranges & Lemons. I had a talk with Adam Gimbel regarding all of these things for the We Will Rank You podcast recently – a portion of our conversation was made part of a special Oranges & Lemons themed-episode which is here, but you can also find our unedited, complete hour-long conversation here. XTC geeks rejoice!

Always Make It So

• We’ll finish this video party with a beautiful creation from Marcelo Radulovich, that being his new video for the song “Always Make It So” from the album Bask. After I got done with the Baked Potato shows a week and a half ago, I drove to San Diego and stayed at Marcelo’s for a few days and worked on eighteen new pieces of music with him. We definitely have a rapport. And I love that he has the ability to take some improvised guitar parts of mine, work his magic with them, turn them into a heartbreakingly beautiful song and then fashion an utterly haunting video to go with it…he’s a remarkable creator and I get so much joy from working with him.

Here’s the “Always Make It So” video.

And here’s all the info about our two releases so far, Bask and Monday, including where to stream and buy them.

BRAND NEW SONG ON MY PATREON PAGE

The Day it Snowed Upside Down

At the end of last year I made a new Christmas song called “The Day it Snowed Upside Down.” It’s a very fun tune with a bunch of twists and turns. It’s not exactly the holiday season anymore, but since it’s a brand new song of mine you might be interested to check it out, as well as the other vast amounts of stuff I’ve uploaded to my Patreon page over the last 3 ½ years.

As always, all patrons have access to all of my posts – whichever tier you choose to join at is entirely up to you and how much you’re able to support, and for the lowest tier, a mere $5/month gains you access to everything. Check it out if you dare here.

THAT’S ENOUGH!

Thank you! We love you! See you soon!

Yours,

Ethan Coen

I mean,

Mike!
MK & BFD - LIVE AT LYNAGH’S - LEXINGTON, KY   MAY 18, 2001
Exowax Recordings
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THE KENEALLIST: This Bandcamp Friday, Mike presents Tar Tapes Vol. 2!

The Keneallist!

Hello, greetings, welcome and hi!

The Tar Tapes Vol. 2 comes to Bandcamp

Bandcamp Friday continues afoot, by which I mean apace!

Let me start again!

Bandcamp Friday continues apace!, and for December we are completing the Tar Tapes difecta with the appearance of The Tar Tapes Vol. 2 (we put up Vol. 1 last month, in case that slipped by your transom).

The Tar Taoes Vol.2

Vol. 2 was compiled in 1998, and was designed to reflect my then-current state of mind, using only music mostly recorded in the 1980s, which was an interesting exercise for me. In addition to home 4-track recordings, there are also live and studio recordings with my band Drop Control, and computer experiments done at Scott Chatfield’s house in the very early ‘90s. Apart from the original versions of “Fencing” and “Always Man” (which pre-date the hat. versions by a couple of years), all the songs are unique to this release.

1. Strange Impulse (1989)
2. Recognize (1986)
3. Meat Under Analysis (1982)
4. Anybody’s Brain (1984)
5. Molehead (1991)
6. Old Homes (1983)
7. Guns (1985)
8. Economy (1984)
9. Fencing (original version) (1989)
10. Always Man (original version) (1990)
11. Things Seem Important (1982)
12. Mystery Eyes (1986)
13. Where Are You (1984)
14. Bazbo (1991)
15. Bazbo the Flea (1991)
16. The Wreckage Was Large (1989)
17. Building Bigger Lies (1983)

It’s a substantial collection! I stand firmly behind all of these songs, with my hands on their little song shoulders!

The Tar Tapes Vol. 2 spans a gaping stylistic range, from me at my most accessible and pop-oriented, to more abstract/complex occurrences, and a myriad of way-stations in between. “Strange Impulse” (atmospheric pop) and “The Wreckage Was Large” (a Crimsonian look at the career of El Debarge) have both made their way into live setlists sporadically over the years, so you may have heard them at a show or two.

But this is a collection of “song” songs that, for whatever reason, mostly didn’t get a further airing later on, and maybe they shoulda. These are good songs, y’know? Maybe I’ll bust out a live version of “Economy” or “Old Homes” on the road with BFD next year (yes I AM trying to book road dates for BFD next year, wish us luck!).

Persons as varied as John Dean, Abbie Hoffman and Mariah Carey are all united in having never listened to this album, ever. You can break this chain! The Tar Tapes Vol. 2 will be available this Friday on Bandcamp, that’s what I’m trying to say!

And this Friday’s the day artists (just like me) get 100% of every penny you choose to spend!

Bask in the 2nd Mike Keneally/Marcelo Radulovich release

Marcelo is my dear pal who worked with me in 2001 on Wooden Smoke, and in September of this year we put out the ethereal instrumental collection Monday.

Our new release Bask starts off in a similarly ambient vein with the instrumental piece “Wake Up Dragon,” before heading off into a massively varied collection of vocal tunes, featuring Marcelo’s amazing voice, playing and production skills, and a whole bunch of me on guitars, keyboards and bass (and some sangin’. I sing lead on the tune “Quarry”).

A lot of it is super-eclectic studio funk, with amazing rhythms constructed by Marcelo, unusual harmonic structures coming out of me, and entire universes of kaleidoscopic sound flying by – Marcelo is an absolute whiz at creating otherworldly atmospheres and marrying them to body-shaking grooves, and then putting his highly compelling, textured voice on top of it all.

I really love Bask and I hope you’ll give it a go over at Bandcamp – you’ll find it, along with our Monday release and a vast treasure trove of other Marcelo projects, at the Titicacaman Records page at Bandcamp right darn here.

Just a reminder, as we plummet boldly forward into this joyous holiday season…

The Scambot Holiday Special

The Scambot Holiday Special (featuring the beloved standard “Holiday Face”) also awaits your kind attentions at Bandcamp. It’s now time to make this winsomely compelling tale of a medieval father and son making their way through a vast array of things on a quest of some sort (highly influenced by the Firesign Theatre and “Greggery Peccary”) a cornerstone of your family’s yearly holiday tradition!

Sit together around whatever modern equivalent of a Victrola you’ve got, share a warm toddy, and thrill together as the legendary owl of holiday hope makes its yearly trek once again. There’s also a sick guitar solo. And all for five bucks! Look, it’s right here.

MK & Beer For Dolphins at the Baked Potato Jan. 18/19

The quartet configuration of MK/BFD (me, Rick Musallam, Pete Griffin and Joe Travers) will do its thing for the first time in a whole entire year. Two nights in a row, two sets per night. Pete is learning a bunch of tunes he hasn’t played before, so we’ll be changing things up significantly over the four sets.

After this last year of me playing other peoples’ music with Devin Townsend, ProgJect and One Shot Deal (granted, all music I freaking love to pieces) I am absolutely, legally all a-quiver to play my own tunes again. I suspect that these two nights will unapologetically rage.

Here, look, look at the screenshot from the Baked Potato Calendar page and see how they use the special Finnish spelling of my name (“Keneaaly”) in the listing. This is a SURE-FIRE GUARANTEE OF A GOOD TIME. You may visit this calendar page yourself, scroll down until you get to mid-January and choose the set or sets which work best for your lifestyle.

I believe I speak for all four of us, even though I haven’t officially checked with the other guys about this yet, when I say that we’d be very happy to see you at these gigs!

Our great bud Syd Schwartz invites you to Jazz & Coffee

Jazz & Coffee

The mighty Syd, whose byline some of you prog-heads might recognize from having the written the superb liner notes to the brand new The Yes Album Super Deluxe Edition, has been utilizing two of his specific attributes – his glorious command of the English language, and his deep and abiding adoration of jazz – in a series of album-specific posts on Instagram for quite some time now (you’ll find him here).

Syd’s love-letters to jazz and other musics make you hear the music as you read them, and his texts are always informative, generously appointed and hugely enjoyable to read. Not since the writings of Paul Williams (the one who started Crawdaddy magazine, not the other one [who’s also great btw]) have I felt such true love for music from a writer’s writings. I invite you to immerse yourself in Syd’s world, and visit his new Substack.

Thank you everyone! Happy holidays!

Mike!
The Tar Tapes Vol.2
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THE KENEALLIST: This Bandcamp Friday, it’s Tar Tapes Vol. 1!

The Keneallist!

Greetings of the incipient holiday season to you and yours! All of us over here wish you all the best.

Now, here’s an MK rarity for Bandcamp Friday…

The Tar Taoes Vol.1

As alluded to in last month’s Keneallist, the recent sale of Bandcamp to Mephistopholean Industries, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as MII) has had some unhoped-for ramifications, but hey it’s 2023 and what are you gonna do?! We’re gonna keep on adding to our roster of recordings there, and MII has (for the time being at least) pledged to keep Bandcamp Friday going.

It would seem that there is now more incentive than ever to take advantage of Bandcamp Friday (the one day a month where 100% of all revenue generated at Bandcamp goes only to the artists and labels, and not to the overlords)!

This month our new Bandcamp entry is THE TAR TAPES VOL. 1. This was originally an extremely limited-edition CD, released in the late ‘90s, compiling some of the best tracks from the Tar Tapes cassette releases I put out with my brother Marty Keneally throughout the 1980s. Mostly home recordings, but also containing live and studio recordings done with our band Drop Control. Definitely young and innocent days.

The songs I selected for VOL.1 (and the later VOL. 2) are the cream of the crop of the original cassette releases. On VOL. 1, you’ll find original versions of some tracks which later became live favorites throughout my whole career (like “Killer Fish,” “Tug” and “Performing Miracles”), but mostly you’ll hear songs which never got re-recorded or introduced into the live repertoire later on.

It all makes for an interesting listen – if you haven’t checked it out before, you might like to now. Thanks!

Over-nite Sensation was released half a century ago!

Last week I was chuffed to join several friends at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Frank Zappa’s endearingly enduring Over-nite Sensation album. Dolby Atmos engineers Karma Auger and Erich Gobels,along with Vaultmeister Joe Travers, were there to describe how they fashioned another multi-channel masterpiece with their brand-new surround mix of the album, taking their cues from Frank’s own quadraphonic mix.

Snapped hanging in the lobby (above) after this stunning aural presentation were (l. to r.) my essential Exowax partner Scott Chatfield, indispensable engineer Mike Harris, crucial guitarist and longtime cohort Rick Musallam, the vitally important Ahmet Zappa, and the arguably fundamental me.

Chris Opperman’s got a brand new album

Chris Opperman and I have been dear friends and collaborators since way back in the the 20th century – you might remember Chris doing the work of an entire horn section on my Dancing album.  He’s a successful composer of wildly original music, a top orchestrator/arranger, a visionary educator, and a trusted music industry advisor (he’s been a great asset to my career).

This Friday, Chris is releasing Still Waters, a superb collection of solo piano recordings to warm you up as it simultaneously chills you out on a cold winter’s night. Still Waters features music written by Chris and other excellent composers including Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Ann Southam, Philllip Schroeder, Kimberly Osberg, and Tyler Kline.

You can listen and buy at his Bandcamp page (he also gets all the dough on Bandcamp Friday!), or pick up a CD copy at his website.

So, just to wrap up a couple of things:

The final four ProgJect California shows, and the three One Shot Deal shows in LA last week, were all an amazing time for me. The audience response was so gratifying, the music was completely satisfying, and every one of the musicians was inspiring and fantastic. What good fortune I’ve been granted to be able to take part in these kind of shows, both with, and for, such wonderful people.

The upcoming Devin Townsend shows in Australia will be similarly moving for me, I know. These shows will mark the end of this year’s Devin touring cycle, with this particular quartet, a band I’ve really come to love. I’ve logged a lot of hours on the road with them in 2023, and Devin is about to enter a lengthy period of no touring, covering all of 2024 and possibly 2025 as well – and once he decides it’s time to tour again, it could easily be with an entirely different ensemble.

So just in case this Australian run is the last roundup for this particular bunch of guys, I’m going to treasure every second of it.

All the best to you, good people! Talk again soon.

Love,

Mike!
Sluggo!
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