Friday, January 8, 2010

MIKE KENEALLY 2010 01 08

from Mike Keneally:

Fun Shows Coming!

Oh man, really nice time Wednesday night at the Musallam gig at the Baked Potato. Stephanie Peter is posting videos from the gig at Facebook, I just watched Mammy Anthem and it sounds good.
This Saturday I'll be back at the Potato with a Keneally Band consisting of me and Brendon Small on guitars, Rick Musallam on bass and Gene Hoglan on drums. Not necessarily playing the tunes you would expect to hear, although I have no idea what you might expect. Without getting too specific I'll say that the playlist is largely based around songs Dethklok would attempt to play during soundchecks on the last tour. Efforts are being made to actually learn the tunes prior to this Saturday's gig. If you're planning on coming, doors are at 7:00, no way to know when people are going to start lining up outside but it's a small room, so be aware.

Fri. the 15th I'll be at NAMM playing at the Dean Markley booth with Bryan and Marco. I think that's a tiny room too, we start playing at 2:00 pm, so if you're a NAMM badge-holder (which you have to be in order to get in) you might want to get to the room a little bit early. Two days after that I'm back at one of my favorite rooms, Alvas Showroom in San Pedro, for another go-round of the Cream Tribute/OHM double-bill which worked so well at Brick by Brick a few weeks ago. If you haven't checked out a gig at Alvas yet, it's one of the most comfortable and satisfying music-experiencing venues I know of. Looking forward to this a lot. Then that gets followed up with by three West Coast MyKeneally, only one of which - one! - is open to the public, a bacchanalian romp in always colorful Arcata, CA. It promises to be memorable. (See below for more gig info.)

2010! It contains the word "10" and is also coincidentally the "10"th anniversary of the album Dancing, so we're running with this whole theme of "10" by making the CD available for only "10" dollars throughout the entire year of two-thousand "10"!
That was the best paragraph ever.

Some more super-nice reviews of Scambot 1...

This is the opening paragraph of Dennis Cook's review at JamBase.com:

"Such strange eloquence is this. While most concept albums, particularly in the rock field, are a dicey bet, at best, there are stirring exceptions like this pop culture obsessed bit o' honey. Mike Keneally - a octopus-fingered guitar wizard who's served ably with Frank Zappa, Dethklok and many others -- took years to sculpt the first chapter in a proposed trilogy, and all the care and thinking works in his favor on Scambot 1, a wicked broad canvas that expertly melds classical pop, atmospheric drift, metallic clang, California country and sophisticated jazz-rock, stirring new colors with unexpected juxtapositions and faultless, viscerally satisfying musicianship."
Thank you Dennis!

A lovely review from John Kelman at AllAboutJazz.com:

"...for fans of highly eclectic, rock-inflected music with hints of prog, Zappa, RIO and fusion, it rarely gets any better than this."
Thank you John!

Nice words from the very estimable Greg Burk at MetalJazz.com:

"Normally when I encounter music with this kind of uncontained ambition, I think drugs, but in this case I think the music IS the drug... If you get the limited-edition package, you can also plunge into a disc inspired by the main Scambot, where bent Zappatistical vocal notions butt up against electric-guitar demolition balls, kuntry komedy, oddball jazz, Chinese synth, backward-folded modern classicism and music-hall piano. Keneally ain't big on landmarks; he just sets sail for the many islands of his exotic archipelago, assuming that the listener will understand their various languages as well as he does (or at least be willing to learn)..."
Thank you Greg!

And a very nice review in the German language is here, written by Volkmar Mantei for the website Ragazzi. Here is an excerpt from a very poor Babel-Fish English translation:
"Scambot is from beginning to end rapid, crazy, merry and honest, fine-intimate and diagonal fun."
That's one of the nicest things anyone's ever said about my music! Thank you VM!

What else am I forgetting?

Your friend,
Mike

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