Tag: Mike Keneally & Bryan Beller

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!

Sign up for The Keneallist

Doot! Doot! Ding-a-dang-dagalong, boot!

All right, not my best-ever opening, but you know what?

FREAKS IN A MELLOW MOOD, VOL. ONE – LIVE UNRELEASED ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCES BY MIKE KENEALLY AND BRYAN BELLER – COMING TO BANDCAMP ON 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.

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.

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,

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!

Sign up for The Keneallist