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THE KENEALLIST: Freak Out! Mike and Bryan acoustic live album coming to Bandcamp Friday!

Album, Exowax, Live, News, The Keneallist
The Keneallist!

Hi again!

This is a friendly reminder that Freaks in a Mellow Mood, Volume One is coming to Bandcamp this Bandcamp Friday! Mere moments from now, practically! Details are immediately below, and updates about upcoming live appearances are just below that.

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

MIKE KENEALLY AND BRYAN BELLER

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.

PROGJECT EUROPEAN TOUR IS POSTPONED UNTIL 2025 – BUT THERE’S ONE PROGJECT GIG IN PANAMA AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER

We had a slew of gigs were gonna do in Europe in September but ultimately Jonathan Mover’s doctor told him no extended touring for him – Jonathan has been dealing with back issues that now require surgery, and while gigging itself provides its own challenges, it was the long drives in between gigs and the long flights to and from Europe that the doctor says is a no-go.

But he’s gotten the go-ahead to do a one-off in Panama on September 28 – shorter flights, no long drives once we arrive – so we’re doing it!

Tickets are here! 

The European tour will now happen in 2025 and probably be twice as long as the one were planning for this year – sincere apologies for the inconvenience if you had tickets for a postponed show, but we will come play for you next year, I promise.

FOUR SHOWS IN FINLAND WITH THE MIKE KENEALLY REPORT IN EARLY OCTOBER

The moment the Panama gig is over I’ll be flying over to Finland – partly to be involved in a new film project from Mikko Keinonen (he who directed the short film The Complete Adventures of the Unrelated Sound Guy featuring five songs from my album The Thing That Knowledge Can’t Eat – the film is here), but also to play four shows with The Mike Keneally Report, my European power-trio featuring Jaan Wessman on bass and Schröeder on drums.

A very special guest at these performances will be Malcolm Mortimore, drummer for Gentle Giant on the Three Friends album, who’ll be sitting in on two songs (“The Carousel of Progress” from the Knowledge album getting its live debut, plus a GG classic from Three Friends that I’m very much looking forward to jamming on with Malcolm – if you know the album you probably know the song!).

The four shows are:

Thu Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. Heinävesi, Varjentiini hall (tickets €30 / €25)
Fri Oct. 4 at 9 pm Tampere, Telakka (€30)
Sat Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. Pori, Validi Karkia club / Pori Mies-Laulu (€39)
Sun Oct. 6 at 7 pm Helsinki, On the Rocks (€25 / €28)

And here are tickets to three of them (I don’t see a online ticket link to the Pori gig at this moment): Heinävesi, Tampere, Helsinki.

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,

Mike!
Freaks in a Mellow Mood, Volume One

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!

Exowax Recordings
Visit the Mike Keneally Store!

Sign up for The Keneallist

Mike Keneally Report headlining Zappanale on July 17

Live, News

What goes on?

Antal’s MK Tour Chronology informs me that it has been precisely five years since The Mike Keneally Report (consisting of Jaan Wessman, Schröeder and yer ‘umble narrator) have produced waves of sound for the entertainment of music-enjoying humans, including ourselves. Time to create another round of waves! This time, for the attendees of the venerated Zappanale festival in Bad Doberan, Germany. And, for ourselves. We’ll be headlining on the last night of the festival, which is Sunday, July 17.

Zappanale #31

It’s been a tidy nineteen years since the last time we played Zappanale. It’s a little bit hard to believe that it’s been virtually two decades since the last time I attended this shindig, and even though it’s a bit of an insane time to be world-traveling right now, I gotta say: I’m excited. I wish we had been able to book another couple of weeks of dates around this one (we tried; didn’t happen), but in some ways the fact that it’s just the one date makes it that much more special. We have a very fun program of music prepared for you. Mostly my stuff, but also including a few choice FZ nuggets. We got one song from my upcoming album (title and release date to be announced soon). There are a couple of nice special guests planned for you as well. It will be both fun and good. (I’m also grateful that Ahmet and the Zappa Trust are officially cool with the existence of Zappanale in the world. It’s nice when people get along.) I love Schröeder and Jaan very, very much and can’t wait to rehearse and play with them again.

Please also be aware that on July 14 of the festival, Mikko Keinonen will be presenting the world premiere of The Complete Adventures of the Unrelated Sound Guy, the short film consisting of five songs from my upcoming album. This will be part of the Exhibition at Am Markt 3. I hear it will be taking place “as early as 1pm”; I will still be airborne at that point so sadly I won’t be able to join you at the premiere, but I will absolutely be there in spirit and my songs will hopefully fill in for my absence. I’m looking forward to seeing the final product myself – there’s a good chance that festival attendees will see it before I do! There’s also a good chance that this will be a “work-in-progress” version that will differ in some ways from the final product. So if you want to see this unique rendition of the film, get yourself there if you can.

In another interesting connection to the new album, playing onstage before us on the 17th will be the reconstituted Colosseum, featuring none other than Malcolm Mortimore on drums (who played on Gentle Giant’s Three Friends, and also plays on the song “The Carousel Of Progress” which is the closing track on the new album).

Anyway, loads of good times ahead. If you can join us that would be fantastic. Mask up and come on over.

Love,

Mike!

MK Live Dates July-October

Live, News

My lords and ladies!

There are a number of performances coming in the near future featuring myself inserted within a varied array of musical disciplines!

First a gig in Slovenia with SUPERHAMMERS (Stu Hamm, Chad Wackerman and myself) at the Beer and Flowers Festival in Lasko (played this fest with Satriani last year, so much fun; excited for my first performance with this trio!)

Then a couple of weeks of German dates with Jaan Wessman and Schroeder (formerly known as Mike Keneally & Friends, this trio is now formally identifed as THE MIKE KENEALLY REPORT. Because it’s a much better! Schroeder thought of it!)

Then there’s a show in Brazil with Joe Satriani but I still don’t see it announced anywhere so I’m not announcing it either, really!

Then I’m doing two days at GUITAR WORKSHOP PLUS at Seattle University – a performance and a clinic. Deep music diving into a bunch of my songs and other things!

Then a short but sweet series of California dates with the Beer For Dolphins quartet (me, Rick Musallam, Bryan Beller and Joe Travers). So happy about these shows!

Then in September, three dates with Extreme Cream at the Iridium in NYC, and in October a couple of nights at Progtoberfest III with Beer For Dolphins and The Don & Bunk show —

So much happening! Here are details!