Tag: Dancing Demos

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

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)

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

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

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

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.

• 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 – 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.

• 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.”

• 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.

• 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!

• 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

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,

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