Thoughts,
comments and updates in your typical blog format, and the main voice
of updatage in the previous incarnation of bryanbellerdotcom. Now
a home for whatever the hell I feel like saying at any given time.
Archives are listed below.
PRELIMINARY
GIG REPORT: I don't really have the words to describe just how special
the 6/24 debut gig of (this is NOT the official name, I don't even
know what to call it yet) the Bryan Beller Band really was. I can
tell you that myself, Mike Keneally, Rick Musallam, Joe Travers, Griff
Peters, Wes Wehmiller and Colin Keenan performed every song from View
aside from "Eighteen Weeks," and we did so in the album's
sequence. (The only song we played not from the record was a cover
of John Scofield's "Blackout" from the groovy CD Bump.)
The band surpassed every expectation I could have possibly had for
a debut show, and the vibe in the room between the band and the crowd
was a thing of magic. Plus, the acoustic-duo opening set that Keneally
and I did (Keneally material, leaning hard on the older repertoire)
was just right right thing to settle everyone in. Eventually I'm going
to have a special page on this website dedicated to the gig, because
right now I don't know when it will happen again...but for now, I'm
going to sit back and savor one of the best musical experiences I've
ever had. Between this and the Vai gigs in Holland in May, this has
been one hell of a year so far.
--6/28/04, 1:00PM
YOUR
WEBSITE CONTENT PROVIDER AT WORK: If you're reading this, that means
that the Massive June Site Update is complete. It contains a Steve
Vai/Metropol Orchestra Show Recap, a new installment of Rear
View Mirror, and plenty of updates on the front
page and news & events. I'm tired from just thinking about
it all.
SOLO GIG? LIVE DEBUT?! WHAT THE...: Yes, I've given in to the inevitable
and am doing a live show in LA at - where else? - The Baked Potato.
June 24. With Nick D'Virgilio's power trio version of Spock's Beard,
affectionately titled "Spock's Goatee" (courtesy of Rick
Musallam). You probably want to know more than this. As Frank Zappa
used to say, "One can hardly blame you."
DO YOU RECEIVE BELLERBYTES?: Well, do you? As in, the e-mail newsletter
that keeps you up to date on all of the latest happenings? You see,
the Screed Du Jour is more and more becoming a place for me to, as
Bill O'Reilly would say, "opine, and keep it pithy." Real
news is ending up in the BellerBytes e-newsletter. If you haven't
signed up, just go to the front page and do it (it's near the top,
right under the title bar). It's private. We don't share info with
anyone, Patriot Act or no Patriot Act.
YOU'RE STILL WAITING: OK, for this one time only, we'll reprint some
of the latest edition of BellerBytes so you can see what I'm talking
about. Remember that this was sent out on June 1, before the latest
site update:
********
I still can't believe I'm actually doing this:
Thursday, June 24
10:30 PM (but don't show up at 10:30 - show up by 9PM, see below for
why)
The Baked Potato
3787 Cahuenga Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91604
(818) 980-1615
Tickets: $10.00
The band is:
Rick Musallam - Guitar
Griff Peters - Guitar
Mike Keneally - Guitar, Keyboards
Joe Travers - Drums
Bryan Beller - Bass, Keyboards, Vocals
Wes Wehmiller - Special Guest Bass
Colin Keenan - Special Guest Vocals
Appearing on same night at 9 PM: Spock's
Goatee
EDITOR'S NOTE: Nick D'Virgilio & Spock's Goatee are NOT doing
the 9PM slot - instead it will be a Mike Keneally & Bryan Beller
acoustic set. Below is what originally appeared in the Screed at the
time of posting.
OK, first of all, Spock's Goatee is Nick D'Virgilio's power-trio version
of Spock's Beard. Nick and I are really excited about this gig, and
he's been gracious enough to share the night with me and even go on
first, even though he's done hundreds of gigs as a soloist and with
Spock's while I'm a virgin at it (equipment issues essentially dictated
it). Our partnership continues in new and unusual ways.
As for the band, it's really amazing. Maybe one day I'll figure out
how to strip some of this stuff down into a four-piece that can cover
all the bases, but since we're all in town, and this is the lineup
I really want, screw it - we're a sextet. My good friend Wes Wehmiller
will be holding down the bass chair while (get this) I'm playing keyboards,
or singing, or both. Keneally will be floating from baritone guitar
to piano to organ. The material will cover most of View. I'd
be lying if I didn't say I was at once thrilled and terrified by this
event. That said, I implore you and your friends to show up, if for
no other reason than to point and laugh.
**********
Steve Vai/Metropol Orchestra Show Recap
It was amazing, a true triumph, an incredible sight, the way music
and gigs and life ought to be. No, not the finale of American Idol
- the three gigs I just did with Steve Vai and the Metropol Orchestra
in Holland. I'm currently working on a recap that's almost an Act
of the Life Of Bryan in its scope...but it's not done yet, and Webmistress
Katy is backordered with web projects, and the news about the gig
is the raison d'etre for this installment of BellerBytes, so you'll
have to stay tuned to the website at www.bryanbeller.com (as you should
be anyway). But here's a preview:
"The first tune of the show was called "Is It Over Yet?",
and rightly so - it was a 10-minute-plus tour de force of variations
on a new musical theme interspersed with excerpts from some of Steve's
older material ("Lucky Charms" and "There's A Fire
In The House" were two of them). But the showstopper was a four-minute
violin cadenza written, in Steve's words, "to break the violinist's
back." The responsibility for playing such an impossibly difficult
thing falls to the first violin section leader, or the "concertmaster."
(Think of this person as the lead guitarist of the orchestra.) The
Metropol's concertmaster was a quiet, unassuming, middle-aged lady
named Arlia de Ruiter. One of the most amazing musical things I've
ever seen was the sight of this relatively obscure Dutch lady absolutely
tearing the shit out of a true Steve Vai solo piece, something that
would have been mindblowing on guitar, let along violin. The orchestra
broke out into spontaneous applause after the first time she did it
in rehearsal..."
The real thing will have over 20 pictures and some hopefully clever
captions to go along with a full page of text. When it's done I'm
going to post it to the official Vai message board, which should be
interesting as I've noticed a completely new group of folks wandering
around bryanbellerdotcom of late. And they're very, very nice people
from all over the world. In case you want to see what they're saying
about it, just go to www.vai.com
and follow "Reviews & Images From The Holland Shows"
to "Concert Reviews".
The only FAQ that seems to matter on this issue: Will it become a
record? Officially I don't have an answer, but something tells me
that it will be both broadcast in Holland on NPS and become a record.
I just don't know exactly when.
Like I said, stay tuned to bryanbellerdotcom and all will eventually
become clear.
**********
3. View Now Available in Holland at www.plato.nl
In more international news...since Holland was so great to me, Onion
Boy Records has decided to try and return the favor. With the help
of some local expertise (you know who you are), View is now
available for sale at www.plato.nl,
a storefront retail/online sales portal widely recognized as one of
the most respected in all of Holland. We were able to sell some copies
at the Metropol shows, but I can understand how some folks might have
been so Vai-i-fied that buying other peoples' CD's wasn't their highest
priority. Now that things have settled down - and folks on the Vai
message board who saw the show no longer think that Les Claypool was
playing bass for the gigs (!!!) - there's someplace local to go for
those who are interested.
I could go on and on about how great it is just being in The Netherlands
is for folks like Mike Keneally and Steve Vai and myself...but it
wouldn't really do it any justice. If you live there, just know that,
from the outside looking in, you're in a special place.
********
So, if you're not signed up for BellerBytes, what are you waiting
for?
A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS: You don't want to know how long
I've been looking for a picture like this.
YES, IT WAS AMAZING: The Steve Vai show, that is. It was a long wait
- 1996 really was a million years ago, it seems - but well worth it.
--5/31/04, 11:31AM
BACK
IN TIME: So I've been practicing the material for the upcoming Steve
Vai + orchestra concert, which involves charts. I admit that I don't
practice very often anymore, but there was no way in hell I was going
to be caught trying to sightread along with these Dutch maniacs. No,
I think I'm better off being prepared in advance. Interestingly enough,
one of the tunes is an except from "Kill The Guy With The Ball,"
a demonically difficult tune I first learned back in 1996 for the
infamous Steve Vai Audition so carefully detailed in Act
17 of the original Life Of Bryan. (Ah, youth.) While at first
I was dreading it, it didn't take long for the muscle memory to kick
back in - eight years later. This is going to sound really egotistical,
but it seemed harder back then. Yep, it's official: I'm totally full
of myself.
WHAT NEXT?: I've also been asked to play fretless. I know, you can't
play "For The Love Of God" with just a fretted bass and
a chorus pedal. The good news is that the kind folks at Mike Lull
sent me the most gorgeous quilted maple fretless for the occasion.
The bad news is that I have to play it in tune with other instruments.
If I have to play it with a pick, cover your ears.
AMERICAN EXPORT: I leave for Holland very early Saturday morning...
and I'll have plenty of copies of View in tow. I've been informed
that it should be OK for me to sell them at the show, so all you international
folks who've been on the fence for one reason or another, this is
your chance to buy a CD and ask me to write something in Dutch on
it. At the very least I hope to connect with a local Dutch retailer
or two and get some CD's in stock, as The Netherlands has proven to
be fertile ground for View sales. Thanks, Holland. Cool country.
Can we borrow your government for a while? Ours is, like, broken and
stuff.
AND THAT'S THAT: I'm outta here. In the meantime, check out the new
"See You Next Tuesday" stuff up at the Rear
View Mirror page. I really should have been a baritone
guitarist.
--5/6/04, 9:45PM
YOU VOTE,
I DECIDE: Thanks to everyone who took the time to register their vote
for what the hell we should do about the potential demo released,
affectionately referred to 'round these parts as Rear View Mirror.
While the response was good, I took to thinking about the whole thing
some more, and realized that with Keneally's album coming out, and
my upcoming trip to Europe for Steve Vai's rock orchestra performance,
and my SWR work obligations, and blah blah blah, it just didn't seem
like it would get done until 2005 at the earliest. And when I thought
about what it would take to do it right—because we only release
quality titles here at Onion Boy Records—it just seemed, well,
potentially distracting. But I feel like it should get out there some
how. So, what to do?
GIVE IT AWAY, NOW!: That's right, we're going to post it all online.
Who needs money, anyway? Call it a show of appreciation for the incredible
amount of support I've gotten so far on this project. We'll do it
in installments. Every couple of weeks (or once a month if I get busy),
we'll put up a new demo or two, along with some candid audio, all
of which would have comprised Rear View Mirror had I ever found
the time to do it, which was doubtful. Just go to the Rear
View Mirror page and have at it. I guarantee that those who
really enjoy View will find some tasty insider tidbits over
the coming weeks and months.
DID I SAY STEVE VAI?: Hard to believe, but this
gig will be the first live gig I've ever played with Mr. Triple-7.
Plenty of studio work over the years, but not one live performance.
For it to come around on this project, with a full orchestra, under
the guidance of the one and only Co de Kloet of Holland's NPS, is
really, intensely gratifying. I'll be sure to have to digital camera
in tow for this once-in-a-lifetime event. Click HERE
to see the official info posted at Steve Vai's site. I know: holy
shit.
--04/04/04 (cue X-Files theme), 10:30AM
FROM
INDONESIA WITH JET-LAG: It's a strange and beautiful country nestled
right on the equator, with torrential downpours every day and 4 PM
sharp. The blinding rain doesn't stop a nation of scooter-and-bicycle
riders from operating a high-speed game of chicken on the roads. It
took me 30 hours to get there, 36 hours to get back, and I only stayed
there for two days in country, all on business. I nearly missed a
connection on the way in through Jakarta airport, which literally
looked like a scene out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; I
found myself running in sweat-soaked clothers through crowds of people
whose nationalities I'd seen only in National Geographic. Not overloaded
with fun, but I got some cool pictures nonetheless. Try this:
and this:
and
this:
and this:
and
this:
TOOTH-HURTY: OK, it's all better now. I had the root canal and the
temporary caps are in place, with permanents to follow the week after
next. I didn't realize that The Pain Of Dentistry was a pain so many
knew so well...thanks (I think) for all of the horror stories I got
via e-mail. If I knew one thing after reading them, it was that it
could have been worse.
DOG: The new Keneally band album has been mastered. I'll hear the
final version next week. Keneally is losing his mind over how good
it turned out.
GIG REPORT: The last gig we did at The Baked Potato was just deliciously
good, with the live debut of five new tunes (which we nailed—I
love it when we do that) and a killer, SRO audience. This material
is more conducive to live performance than anything Keneally's done
in a while. I know, I've been in this "band" for ten years
now, and I shouldn't get all giddy and excited about a new record
coming out and shows to go with it, but I am. All that, and the Sopranos
is back on the air. These are all good things.
THEY DISTORT, I DECIDE: I know I haven't written about politics lately,
mainly because I've just been so damned busy with SWR and Onion Boy
and Keneally and so on. And I have no intention of returning to writing
columns anytime soon, because I'm enjoying reading them more than
I am writing them lately. So let me just say this and get it over
with:
a) I supported the invasion of Iraq for one reason and one reason
only: WMD. No clear-thinking person of any policial affiliation could
deny that, if Saddam Hussein had them or was damned close to having
them, that this could be allowed to happen in the age of Al Qaeda,
and that either the US or the State of Israel (which I support wholly
in their efforts to live free from fear of being pushed into the sea)
could sit idly by and wait for the mushroom cloud to hit.
b) I supported the war even though I was highly suspicious
of the potential motives of George W. Bush's administration and interests
in the region. Just because you don't like or trust someone doesn't
mean that they aren't correct on matters of grave importance on occasion.
I saw this as such an occasion.
c) Like many Americans, I feel absolutely hoodwinked, swindled—like
the victim of a cheap con—by the the utter absence of WMD's and
the obvious manipulation of the available intelligence in order to
justify the war.
d) Nothing is more insulting than someone telling me that, because
my support for the war was conditional and I believed the government
when they said that something was true to meet the conditions, I would
now be considered someone who "flip-flops" if my conditional
support for that war was withdrawn due to a lack of those conditions
being met in retrospect.
This is essentially what John Kerry faces now from the Bush team.
If you say you're not for the war, you're an unserious peacenik. If
you say your support for the war was conditional, and you voted for
it then but regret it now, you're a flip-flopper. If you support the
war 100%, then you think Bush is right and why the hell are you running
anyway?
There are so many levels to this kind of mailciousness and duplicitous
logic that I could fill a hard drive with the examples. And the conservative
media megaphone available for amplification of such shoddy thinking
is tenfold larger and more powerful than in 2000, and a gigantic obstacle
to overcome in order to keep it from cementing itself as fact in the
eyes of the American public. Kerry was right—this is scary.
Don't get me wrong. I'm no olive-brancher. I think we should be blowing
the tops off of mountains in Pakistan if that's where Osama Bin Laden's
kidney dialysis machine is resting these days. All I'm trying to say
is that whatever ambivalence I have about Kerry—and I have some,
like I had about Gore—will be shoved aside in the sole purpose
of helping rid the U.S. of this dangerous industrial-military aristocracy
now in power, whose interests are served by the continued leadership
of one George W. Bush.
I just sent Kerry money. It won't be the last time before November.
--03/13/04, 11:13AM
WRITING
UNDER THE INFLUENCE: The past week has seen the emergence of a persona
I didn't know was within me: V-Bryan. What's the "V" stand
for, you ask? Vicodin. No, I'm not pulling a Rush Limbaugh and suddenly
admitting an addiction to painkillers. I'm taking them because I got
in a pretty horrific bicycle accident last week and ground my two
front teeth into bits and pieces. As V-Bryan would say "Whoooaaa,
man!" I can tell you it's made for a mellower me for the past
week. The Vicodin, not the missing teeth.
TOOTHPLANT: How did it happen? I'm still not sure. I was biking on
a cement bike path and crossing an intersection containing normal
down and up curb-ramps in and out of the sidewalk. When I went to
go back up, I pulled up on the handlebars...and that was the last
thing I remembered. (Perhaps the front wheel was loose?) The next
thing I felt was the impact, directly on my two front teeth. I can
only assume I was either airborne or was catapulted straight down
towards the pavement. Either way, I could taste the blood swirling
around in my mouth, and I knew my teeth were shattered. Not cracked
off - just annihilated from the halfway point down. I never looked
for the missing pieces. I'm not sure there was anything left to find.
ARE YOU OK?: There were people in cars waiting for me to cross the
road, about six in a line. So these folks got a front row seat to
what must have been one seriously ugly faceplant-and-body-skid. When
I came around, a nice lady was asking me the typical questions. "Are
you OK? Is anything broken? Can you hear me?" She was there and
not there, if you know what I mean. Finally I gave her the Webmistress
Katy Towell's cell phone number. I was assured that Katy was on the
way. (Unfortunate karmic note: I don't remember being nice enough
to this stranger whose name I cannot remember; I was pretty pissed
off at myself. Sorry, whoever you are.) I looked down at myself. Luckily
I was wearing two long-sleeved layers, because the outer one (hooded
sweatshirt) was shredded all the way up the left arm. My gloves were
torn at the knuckles and I was bleeding through them. I put my hand
on my face - blood everywhere. I was afraid that Katy would just pass
out when she saw me, and I'd be driving us both to the hospital.
9-1-1 EMERGENCY: Suddenly four fire trucks and an ambulance came screaming
up to the scene. Oh great, I slurred to myself. Now I was walking
around with my arm over my mouth, blood all over me, a tattered sweatshirt,
and trying to convince the authorities that I didn't need an ambulance
ride to the emergency room, and that someone was on the way to pick
me up. They were shoving me into the back of an ambulance when Katy
came bolting around the corner. I inspected myself in a police car's
rear view mirror - I looked like Rocky Balboa at the end of the first
movie. Bad cuts all the way down my nose, on my lip, on my chin, just
awful. But I could walk and (sort of) talk, and eventually got myself
and my bike into Katy's car, and off we went for treatment.
EXTREME DENTISTRY: Diagnosis - two root canals and two crowns. I'd
never gotten a root canal before. It's like the X Games of dentistry.
Drills and sharp metal scraping devices and ground-up tooth dust flying
around everywhere. (Which, by the way, smells really weird - something
between concrete and chalk dust.) So now my mouth is swollen up like
some creature out of Monsters, Inc., and I'm on a steady diet of soup
and Vicodin. But my front teeth look better than they did before.
Really.
Vicodin NEVER SLEEPS: I'm just about to leave for San Diego to tape
a special Dog-related DVD for the Mike Keneally Band. I haven't
yet decided how I'm going to treat my unusual appearance on camera.
Things could get really weird. We'll just have to see. Oh, and tomorrow
I'm leaving for INDONESIA on a work-related week-long trip. I have
a feeling that V-Bryan will be making an extended appearance on those
18-hour flights. Right on, brother. Now that's solid.
--2/15/04, 9:59AM
FIRST
AND FOREMOST: Happy New Year! Now that 2003 is gone, we can look forward
to an extra day in February and an extra special day in November for
anyone employed by Halliburton or Bechtel. Oh, wait, did I resolve
to be less reflexively left-wing in 2004? Shit. Anyway, those who
think companies such as those mentioned above live and die on foreign
wars are the truly naive; they just make more higher-profile (read:
public, taxpayer) money whenever Bushes happen to be in office—er,
I mean during foreign wars in the Middle East—er, I mean...oh,
wait...shit.
SERIOUSLY: Just a few political things, and then I'll close my eyes
and forget about politics until Karl Rove takes his warmup suit off
sometime this summer. Saddam Hussein out of power (mass grave factor
far outweighs unfortunate side effect of Bush benefit) = good. Leaders
Of The Free World for whom reason is subservient to their particular
beliefs = bad (didn't they used to govern that way in the 1600's?).
Arnold as Governor = "hey, California, nice going!" (thanks,
Dave Letterman). Democrats potentially nominating Howard Dean = who
the hell knows? And finally, Boston Red Sox not beating the Yankees
in Game 7 = we're still on planet earth after all.
THE NEW SCREED: Yes, it isn't updated as often, and probably never
will be as often as the O.G. version. But since we're now blessed
with such an efficient machine for delivering the latest bryanbellerdotcom
and Onion Boy Records news and events (we can actually update the
front page now without having to reinvent web design—all praise
the Queen of the Universe, Webmistress Katy), this will be a more
random, personal collection of literary ramblings, with only the occasional
blatant commercialism. Hope you don't mind.
THE TAYLOR TOUR: Going back to November now...you can only imagine
how strange and wonderful it was to play "Supermarket People"
with Mike Keneally in front of open-minded audiences such as those
we encountered. I just got around to posting some pictures
of the whole thing, which should give you an indication of how behind
I've been on Life In General. Hopefully it will just be a prelude
to more public events in 2004, but you never can tell these days.
BEING A SOLO ARTIST IS SCARY: Exhibit A—me playing the Fender/SWR
booth at this year's NAMM show. I'll be playing along to the CD for
"Seven Percent Grade" and "Supermarket People,"
plus jamming with Tony Franklin (The Firm, Blue Murder, Gary Hoey)
on some dueling basses action. Exhibit B—rehearsing a live band
of myself, Rick Musallam, Joe Travers, Mike Keneally, Griff Peters,
and guest bassist Chris Golden while I play keyboards and sing "Wildflower."
Is an Exhibit C really necessary?
PRESIDENT/CEO, ONION BOY RECORDS: Income statements and balance sheets
and QuickBooks and federal taxes and 1099's and inventory adjustments
and cost-of-goods-sold and net operating losses and county business
licenses, oh my! Where's that copy of Accounting for Dummies again?
NEVER AGAIN?: OK, it was amazing to get through a year in which I
started a record company, released my own solo album and survived
a corporate takeover all in six months. But that doesn't mean I want
an instant replay. This year is going to be dedicated to...nothing.
Months after the release, I'm still recovering from the overload of
April through November. Whatever happened, while it was good for a
career, it was bad in plenty of physical and mental ways. So, in essence,
I'm going to coast. Well, I'm going to try. Does that mean I'll never
do another solo album? No, that's not what I'm saying. I'll just do
the next one differently, at a slower pace. I even have a working
title and some melodies floating around...but that's getting way ahead
of myself. Let's see if we can't make an even bigger success of the
current one first, OK?
YES, AGAIN: Thanks to those out there spreading the word and giving
love and support to View and Onion Boy Records. You know who
you are, even if somehow Onion
Roy missed you. Let's crack it open in 2004. See you at NAMM,
or at NEARfest, or...
--1/3/04, 10:10PM
click
HERE for the screed
du jour 2003 archive page
click
HERE for the screed
du jour 2002 archive page
