THE KENEALLIST: Finally! Wing Beat Fantastic comes to Bandcamp Friday!
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?
- 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.
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.
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,
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!
