Mike Keneally Band Rehearsal 6/15/12
Last week, while taking time off
from an amazing festival month with the boys and a raging attendance of
Umphreaks (mad love to ya!), I found myself immersed in a heroic dose of complex musical bliss rehearsing and
recording at Exowax Studios in San Diego
with the great Mike Keneally Band. After
several bowls of granola cereal and bagels (California is the land of “fruits
and nuts” isn’t it?), we rehearsed for 3 days and recorded for 1 day, each day
for about 8 hours. It was like having a
P90X workout on your brain with the amount of music learned but just like
playing with Umphrey’s, it was tons ‘o’ fun!
Rehearsing Hallmark from the album Scambot
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Mike Keneally, in case some of
you don’t know, is a legendary guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist, and composer,
who was best known as former Frank Zappa guitarist/vocalist from
1988 until the passing of Frank in 1993. He is known by musicians as one of the elite members of Zappa’s touring
bands who was able to command Frank’s vast and brutally difficult compositions,
all with a brilliant, fire-y infectious charisma. Over the years, Mike has
recorded and toured extensively with many artists including Dweezil Zappa (Frank’s son
) with the band called Z. He has also toured and recorded
with virtuosos Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Henry Kaiser’s touring Miles Davis tribute
band “Yo Miles” and is heavily
influenced by the incomparable, prolific
songwriter/producer Todd Rundgren (for those who don’t know Todd, you should
check him out too). In November of 2008,
Mike was hired as musical director of the Paul Green School of Music, which is
a tell-tale sign of how generous he is with sharing the gift of music (sounds
like a Hallmark card)! Mike currently
records and tours with the G3 ensemble, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani (playing keys
for Joe, mind you!), and is the guitarist for Dethklok (Metalocalypse)!!
The Mike Keneally band is
comprised of 3 guitarists (Rick Musallam, Mike Keneally, Griff Peters), bass
player Bryan Beller (also in Dethklok and former Vai bassist), and Joe Travers
on drums, who plays for Zappa Plays Zappa, and is a perfect fit for Mike’s
compositions. Since Joe is touring now with ZPZ, Mike called me to fill in for Joe on a festival on June 24th
called NEARfest, a
progressive rock Festival near Bethlehem, PA. This show is sold out unfortunately, but I thought I would share with you some of my experiences
outside of touring with the almighty UMPH.
MKB
I must say that it was great to
connect with the band on several levels, especially with there uncanny sense of
improv and accepting the moment. Even
though we would drill all the arranged parts of his songs, if somebody took a
left turn with the part, everyone would create these off the cuff moments that
would send me shooting through the rooftop! It was like a game of musical
Chutes and Ladders, only everybody wins! I think you will all dig Mike’s music, as he is THE closest experience to the modern version of Frank Zappa you will
find, all the while still representing his own sound. You can check out his latest live album,
“bakin’ @ the potato!”, and his newest studio album “Wing Beat Fantastic”,
which will be released very soon.
-Kris