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2002 BBDC NEWS ALERT: Do yourself a favor and read the following two paragraphs at once. You'll be glad you did. BREAKING THE TAPE: At 12:30AM last night, I put the last demo to bed. In other words, the material is written, and the full demo CD is done. It's thirteen tracks in all - eleven originals and two covers - clocking in at just under an hour. Hard to believe that, after a lifetime of nothing, it all came out in less than five months. Then again, unlike some other prolific composers we all know, I can tell you that I barely had enough creative juice left to cross the finish line. It could be another thirty-one years before I do this again, but damn it, I got this far. Now it's Absolut Mandarin time. SNEAK PREVIEW: And what do you get for following the instructions in the BBDC News Alert above? You get this: On or about January 2, 2003, I'm going to post one entire track in demo form right here at this very website. It'll be an .mp3 file of "Seven Percent Grade," which is slotted to be the album's second track. You'll see something fairly obvious about it on the front page when it goes up, and I might even post something to the Keneally newsgroup as well. But you heard it here first, and now you know it's coming. This is a little scary for me, but I know I'd better get over that quickly, so what better way…right? Just keep in mind that it's only a demo. SO WHAT'S
NEXT?: In this rough order: 2-4 weeks off from the whole project;
draw up business plans; begin discussions regarding studio/engineer
time; rehearse with musicians; investigate domestic distribution possibilities;
record basic tracks. If I get further than that I'll write another
list. SOMETIMES YOU CAN JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER: I put the demo for "See You Next Tuesday" to bed on Sunday afternoon, but not before a final five-hour marathon of bass tracking, mixing and mastering on the trusty BR-1180CD. (I was already at least twenty hours into it, and it's just a trio piece.) I can't tell you just how much it lived up to its salty name, both in composition and the execution of the parts. Suffice it to say that, after eight years, it's payback time for Keneally. Then again, he's the only guy I know who could do this song justice. Whether or not I even understand what I just wrote will be settled when I have to write the bar chart for the drummer. MISOGYNY IN DATABASE FORM: Like most good little Windows users (i.e. sheep), I use Windows Media Player to listen to CD audio on my computer. And whenever I'm done mastering a demo track, the computer is one of three places where I listen to see if the mix is OK (the other two being my home stereo and my car). Most of you probably are aware of the automatic "CD Database" feature in Windows Media Player, which connects to the internet and identifies the CD to which you're listening. One of the more interesting things to witness is when the database doesn't recognize the song, and chooses the most similar title from its expansive library, based on god-knows-what criteria. Well, when I put "See You Next Tuesday" in the player and WMP launched, it identified it as "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks. Really. TURN OUT THE LIGHTS: Though I haven't yet seen it myself, I've been made aware that the January issue of Bass Player is out, and that means my final column, "Keep The Change," has now been published. I've already been the grateful recipient of some incredibly kind e-mail, the contents of which really made me smile. It was my extreme pleasure to have had such a widely-read forum for three years. The column archives will live here in perpetuity in the Literature section, again thanks to the good folks at BP. I find myself missing the creative writing lately, what with all my energy pouring into this solo album thing, so rest assured that while I'm sad to see the column go, it only means more creative juice left over for work here at bryanbellerdotcom. Eventually, that is. PEACE
ON EARTH: Well, at the very least, peace to wherever you find yourself
this holiday season. It's a strange time we live in; grab all the
love you can. SESSION WORK: In an interesting contrast to the pristine and near-automatic nature of the Dancing sessions, the most inter-familiar Keneally band ever to hit the studio actually had to work a little harder than I'd expected to get the magic on tape. Some of that was due to the complexity of the material, some was due to the attempt to get better, more distinct sounds from track to track, and some was due to the nature of us getting to know each other all over again in the studio (we only do this every three years or so). But I'm of the opinion that the tracks we cut will bear deeper and more everlasting fruit than some in the past. It really felt like we were a band in there. Another interesting point: the large Dancing band was really born in the studio and then took its act live, while the Quartet was essentially born live and is now taking its act in the studio, which is a different phenomenon. And we're not done yet; another session is scheduled for early next year. I MUST HAVE SKIPPED THAT YEAR IN GRADE SCHOOL: I'm quite embarrassed to admit that I'd never heard the dirty semi-acronym "See You Next Tuesday" until pretty recently. For those not in the know, it's the title of one of the tracks on my upcoming solo record, and I oh-so-slyly threw it out there (in the previous Screed) as a trivia question to see if anyone knew what it meant. I found it curious that most people who responded were not regular e-mailers. Regardless of who wrote (and there were many), the general reaction was one of disbelief: "Man, every fifth grader knows the answer to that." Well, call me sheltered, but I don't think I so much as heard the answer until well into my teens. I still like it as the title for this song, though, so I'm keeping it. For anyone who's still wondering what it means, think of a word you'd never address to any female with whom you'd prefer to remain cordial. HEADFIRST
INTO THE CAVE: This will probably be my last posting here until around
New Year's, as I plan to finally get back on the horse this weekend
and finish these last two demo tracks once and for all. Sure, I could
go on and on about Trent Lott, and how truly sad and bizarre this
whole thing is getting, but I'd prefer to end it for now with this
story for the real political junkies out there. MSNBC's talk show
Hardball with Chris Matthews had the ultra-right Pat Buchanan
and the maverick-left Pat Caddell (campaign manager for Jerry Brown)
as its guests on Monday night (12/16). They were discussing Al Gore's
decision not to run in 2004 (a decision I applaud; finally he did
something right). They were also talking about Gore's star turn on
Saturday Night Live, specifically about the hilarity of a skit
where he and Joe Lieberman (impersonated) were sitting naked in a
hot tub together. Pat Caddell then made the comment, "Well, no
one will ever accuse Gore of being stiff again." The camera turned
back to Matthews, who turned beet-red and stuttered, "I'm not
even going to, uh, touch that one." Barely able to contain himself,
Matthews covered his mouth with an index card and looked at Buchanan.
The camera turned to the hardened culture warrior…and he just
sat there, stone-faced. Didn't even flutter an eyebrow. One has to
wonder exactly what Pat Buchanan was thinking as the image of Al Gore's
erect manhood lurking under steaming bubbles hovered over the television
studio. Now that's entertainment. GOING IN: I'm just minutes away from getting in the car and driving down to San Diego for the initial recording session for Keneally's new album, very tentatively titled Dr. Dog. I'm really excited. I have been ever since this outfit (Keneally, Nick D'Virgilio, Rick Musallam and myself) toured as a "quartet" in late 2001. And my excitement was double confirmed just last week, where we turned in what I thought was - in all humility - a neck-snappingly intense show at the Baked Potato in LA. Even I had one of those nights where my fingers were actually connected to my brain for more than just fleeting moments, but that's largely due to the guys I was playing with. This outfit has the potential to make an incredible record. ON THE HOME FRONT: My creative energy - well, all of my energy for that matter - seems to be at a low ebb. I can't get back to a consistent 100% work pace for some reason. Probably it's a lingering of this nasty illness I had (have?). In any event, I've completed a grand total of 15 seconds of drum programming for the solo album's penultimate song, a 150 b.p.m. swing/hard-rock nightmare called "See You Next Tuesday" (bonus points to anyone who knows what the title means; I'll only respond if you get it right). It feels like I'm grinding a bit. Maybe this is why it took me 31 years to store up the musical ideas I had before they began spilling out. To that end, look for the Bryan Beller sophomore effort to hit the streets in 2033, right when the Social Security Trust Fund dries up for good and I'll really need the money. A "NOW PLAYING" MORSEL: I've been listening to Audioslave lately - you know, the eponymous album by the first 90's "supergroup," comprised of Chris Cornell fronting the band formerly known as Rage Against The Machine. I'm a big fan of both elements, but when I listen to it I can't stop thinking about that old Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercial: "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!" Why can't the few really good bands just stay together? We're nowhere near the David Lee Roth/Eddie Van Halen level of musical comedy/tragedy, but maybe if Zack De La Rocha was the frontman for what used to be Soundgarden, we'd get there in a hurry. LOTTS
OF FUN: With the advent of the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful
W. phenomenon - and the utter mental bankruptcy of today's Democratic
party - writing about politics just hasn't been any fun lately. Then
along comes some stumblebum like Trent Lott, and suddenly it's entertaining
to watch CNN again. Hell, even Fox News is good for some comedy on
this story. Hello, GOP? This is your Southern Strategy calling. Richard
Nixon is on the line. Will you accept a collect call, very long distance?
Hello? SICK OF IT ALL: No, I'm not making a punk tribute album. My immune system, under stress since what feels like July, finally gave way just hours before I flew home to Casa Beller in Jersey to see my folks for Thanksgiving. I spent a good part of the weekend on my back, flew home semi-conscious, and even stayed home from work today - something that, in my nearly six years at SWR, I'm not sure I've ever done before. I haven't been sick for five straight days since…I can't even remember that far back. Obviously my body is sending me a sign, which I'll roughly translate for you: "Are you high?! Slow the fuck down!!" ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: I've been walking around with an 11-song demo CD in my man-purse (as my friends so affectionately call it). I finished the latest work-in-progress, "Seven Percent Grade," before I left for my ill-fated trip home, and I cannot even begin to describe how pleased I am with it. If all goes according to plan (insert God laughing here), it will be the album's true opener. It's a bitch of a tune, twisting and curling around a couple of strange, snarling guitar riffs and one motherfucker of a bassline in the chorus. And, for the first time, something I've written sounds, dare I say, slightly Keneally-ish. Knowing that eleven of the thirteen songs for this record are already done in demo form eases the pain in my nose and throat ever so slightly. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 27 AND 31: Four years ago I was working a full-time job and writing a 626-page manuscript on the side. It took eighteen months and didn't adversely affect my health, other than a ten-pound weight gain. Fast forward to the present, where I've been working full-time and creating the demos for this record on the side since the third week of August. That's basically three months. I'm sick as hell and I've gained twenty pounds. They say it's not the age, it's the mileage. I say it's both. SPEAKING
OF AGE: The Webmistress Katy Towell turned 22 last week. Say a Wiccan
prayer and wish her a happy birthday, won't you? I'm not doing a very
good job of keeping her busy on this site, as you can tell lately.
Working on this solo record is literally draining my creative energy
into that source alone. All I can say is that I really do believe
it'll be worth it. And bryanbellerdotcom will be here waiting for
us on the other side, at which point it may become something fairly
different, what with a product to promote and all. In the meantime,
I'll keep you posted on the album's progress, as well as the upcoming
Keneally studio activity. As in, we're recording a new record next
week. And you thought the Screed was becoming useless. GIG ALERT: The New Year's Eve gig in Seattle is now official, with special details posted over on the Coming Attractions page. Plus, we're friends with The Baked Potato again. IN THE
CAVE: I'd write more, but I'm deep into finishing material for the
record. It took me nearly two months to finish the most recent song,
a heavily orchestrated mini-epic called "Eighteen Weeks."
That's ten down, three to go. Title of current work in progress: "Seven
Percent Grade." Right now it's kicking my ass, but I'm strong
in the later rounds. More updates to come… HIS NAME WAS JOHNNY VIRGIL: I got home after three in the morning on the night of the one-time-only performance of Kevin Gilbert's The Shaming Of The True with visions of lengthy, oh-so-elegant prose about the show…and then I realized today that nothing I could write would capture it properly. I'll leave the details to the hundreds of wonderful people who came from locations as disparate as Florida, Canada and Chile to see the show, as they undoubtedly saw a completely different beast than what I experienced on stage. I'll just sum it up as best I can in bullet points: 1) from a technical standpoint, it was completely out of control, maybe the most just-barely-together professional gig I've ever done, which to me somehow enhanced the performance as opposed to detracted from it; 2) Chris G. is my new hero, for not only nailing the Shaming parts, but also for stepping in and laying waste to the Spock's Beard material as if he'd toured it a thousand times over; 3) Nick D'Virgilio is one of the most insanely talented musicians I've ever known; 4) the euphoric feeling that rushed through my body during the guitar solo in "The Way Back Home" has happened to me but once or twice in my entire playing career; 5) if you have an audience recording of this show, you know where to find me. Thanks one last time to everyone (there are far too many people to list here) who made this possible…and especially to Nick, for asking me to do it in the first place. The phrase "labor of love" was coined for moments like last night. JOHNNY'S
LAST LINE: Finally, Keneally's observation of the absolute wreckage
onstage after the "Suit Fugue" - which saw white powder
and hundred dollar bills tossed in every direction while the A &
R men danced around ten musicians' worth of backline gear and strewn
cables - was the line of the night: "Look at the stage, what
a fucking mess it is. Kevin would have loved this." THE MAKING OF THE TRUE: The band for Sunday's one-time-only performance of Kevin Gilbert's The Shaming Of The True held their sixth and final rehearsal on Friday night, 11/8. It had the air of a private performance, as nearly twenty close friends of all involved gathered at a locked-out rehearsal soundstage in North Hollywood. The band is larger than I had anticipated, with so many guitarists and background vocalists that I'm not sure I even have all of their names straight. And so many people are contributing in so many ways - from band to crew to backline support and beyond - that it almost feels like a family reunion. Or, to be more accurate, like a bizarre, alternate-universe version of a Berklee College Of Music recital, where all of this incredible talent gathers several times to prepare for one single performance, and then afterwards, is never assembled in the same way again. The nostalgia begins before the show is ever performed. Add in the inherently heavy content of the material, and you begin to get a sense of the weight that was in the room that night. MUZO HEAVEN: Then there's the raw power of the music. Watching Keneally, Russ Parish and Rick Musallam play unison lead in "Certifiable #1 Smash," or Chris G. nailing the drum fills hit-for-hit in "City Of The Sun," or Marc Ziegenhagen playing the intro to "Staring Into Nothing," or David Levita playing the searing solo in "The Way Back Home"…at these points and many more, I become as much of a fan as anyone who will be there on Sunday. My ultimate praise, however, is reserved for Nick D'Virgilio. The incredible amount of talent this guy possesses - whether he's playing drums, or acoustic guitar, or singing lead - is so overwhelming, it's hard to imagine anyone else who could occupy the role for which he's about to be immortalized. And it's way beyond muzo; just listening, closed-eyed, to him singing "From Here To There," makes my knees buckle. FINAL THOUGHTS: I'm writing this now because I know that, after the show is over, accounts of the performance will flood the web, and it won't be a surprise to anyone after that. Selfish, but true. So I just want to reiterate how fortunate I feel to have been invited to do this in the first place. It's hard to describe just how much emotion there is surrounding this show, because Friday night was the first time it was performed from start to finish, and even at that there were some starts and stops to run over the more difficult pieces. But the feeling in the room was one of overwhelming reverence for someone I now realize more than ever to be a true musical genius. If we can bring that feeling to the performance, then a deserving tribute will finally, at long last, have been paid. FINAL
FINAL THOUGHTS: The busy rehearsal schedule and the accompanying musical
release has been so wonderful, it's actually allowed me to temporarily
forget how utterly depressed I am about the results of Tuesday's election
(and I'll get to that at a later date). Like I said in far too many
words, this is really good music. If you're in the area and you're
on the fence about going (check the Coming Attractions, to the right
of my face, for details), this is one time you should get off your
ass and get impulsive. STRAIGHT OUTTA CANYON COUNTRY: Well, shee-it, I finally went ahead and updated the Now Playing page in the Music section. Of five recent CD purchases, two were worthy. One was Bill Frisell. The other was…Eminem? READ IT WHILE IT LASTS: Bass Player column #17 of 18, "That Studio Magic," is now posted at bryanbellerdotcom for your convenience. This counts as the last column I wrote before I knew the series would be coming to end (column #18, "Keep The Change," will publish in the January issue, and be available here the last week of that month). It also counts as actually being relevant to bass playing. Maybe if I'd done more of that…well, hindsight and such. LAZINESS
ABOUNDS: That's actually not true; I've used my first weekend off
in over a month to make some great progress on the solo record, and
to complete these fine updates you see before you. But I'm still too
lazy to create a whole new page in Photographic Evidence for pictures
from the recent MKB show at the Great American Music Hall in San Fran…so
allow long-time LOB reader, talented web designer, and solid man of
society Grover to entertain you with such images at http://www.grover.net/mk_sf/.
Thanks, G. STOP
THE INSANITY: Even I, a person who thrives on creating order amidst
chaos, am having a hard time believing what the past month has been
like. It's simply been one gigantic double cheeseburger of stress.
Poor Mike and Stacey had to listen to me yakking non-stop for two
straight weeks on the SWR hotline (read: my cell phone) while we drove
from city to city on the recently-completed Taylor tour (which, performance-wise,
was magnificent). Never before has leaving the office been so difficult,
something I'll have to ponder as time goes on (but not right away;
I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys 'R' Us kid…). Personal crises
were cropping up like weeds all the while. It's not just me, either.
Everyone I know seems to be going through similar strangeness. But
I can see daylight after the upcoming gig this weekend in San Francisco,
and the four songs I have left to record in demo form are practically
bubbling out of my ears. The one negative side effect gives the title
of this entry relevance: I'm back to the weight I was at before I
started training for the hike. If I tried to do it now, I'd probably
die up there. BETWEEN
IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE: I really wish I had more time to write about
politics lately, because there truly are some Big Issues out there
worth discussing. But after much soul-searching – and a lot of
reading – I'll just get this out of my system: I've concluded
that the disarming/attacking/bombing/ JUST TO MAKE SURE I'VE PISSED ENOUGH PEOPLE OFF: And while I'm ranting, I just want to say that the pro-Palestinian protests currently sweeping the nation's universities – which blur the line all too easily into an institutional legitimization of anti-Semitism – are absolutely fucking sickening. To say that there's moral equivalency between Israel's right to defend its very existence and the PLO's right to use teenagers to turn themselves into human bombs in order to kill as many Israeli citizens as possible is…well, let's just say that if you're out there cheering on the Palestinians, you're cheering on what I've laid out in my last sentence. If you read the pro-Palestinian literature (available all over the web), it clearly advocates the destruction of Israel in deed if not in word. (Somehow referring to it as "the Zionist entity" makes it OK to say that you're advocating the destruction of an entire people.) Not coincidentally, the same tripe is coming out of Iraq. And Al-Qaeda. Bush is an inarticulate and ineffective communicator, and ultimately a buffoon for more reasons that just that. But he's right, in spite of his inability to say exactly why. NOT-SO-BENIGN NEGLECT: There are several areas of the website that urgently require updating, and I'll get around to it sooner or later. They include the fact that Yogi veteran and fine drummer Chris G. has signed on to handle the main drumming duties for the upcoming Kevin Gilbert tribute show. They also include the fact that I can no longer say I don't write music, and that I have (as opposed to had) a regular column in Bass Player. (BB Column Deathwatch Update: My last column will run in January, not December.) And how about all those references to "Mike Keneally and Beer For Dolphins," as opposed to the new and improved "Mike Keneally Band"? Well, one of these days. "VIEW"
UPDATE: Some song titles: "Seven Percent Grade"; "Supermarket
People"; "Projectile"; "Eighteen Weeks";
"See You Next Tuesday"; "Elate", and, obviously,
"View". I can't wait to finish this damned thing. SLEEPLESS
IN SNOQUALMIE: We're on our way from the Seattle area to Keizer, OR.
The last few days of the trip were really, truly nice. Our good friend
Yogi (and his lovely roommate Amanda) put us up in their stunning
new home in - you guessed it - Snoqualmie, WA, about 30 miles due
east of Seattle, in a hilly, breezy terrain surrounded by mountains
and tall tress. Just gorgeous. (Yogi, Amanda - we love you.) The clinics
in the Seattle area were excellent as well, topped off by last night's
clinic at Guitar Center Seattle, where GC Man and Keneally diehard
Derek Sheen put together one of the best clinic environments we've
ever experienced. I don't know why this is, but I feel more confident
and comfortable playing in Seattle than anywhere else in the world.
This is going all the way back to 1996, when we opened up for Michael
Manring at the now defunct Backstage. I wish I could bottle up the
feeling and take it with me; it would relieve me of a lot of future
self-flagellation for performances not up to my own standards. But
for now, I'll just say I was happy to come up this way once again. ROAD
REPORT: We're up here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. It's cloudy
and drizzling outside (surprise), but we have seen sun and some incredible
landscapes on our drive thus far (L.A. to Seattle). The first three
clinics have gone reasonably well, with an especially gratifying turnout
of 80+ in Renton at A# Music, and today we head for Canada for the
first time since '96. I'm getting a kick out of working the new Keneally
songs acoustically; "Li'l" and "Raining Sound"
are really nice pieces in this format. I'm just so grateful that Taylor
continues to see value in sending us hither and yon to play our eclectic
music for fans in areas we usually can't get to with the full band.
It's also nice to see the look of shock on the faces of those who
don't know who we are, but came to see some nice acoustic guitar playing.
Usually their look says, "That's not very nice, what that man
is doing to that pretty guitar, but I guess it's OK if Taylor sent
them up here." GIG ALERT:
Check out the Coming Attractions. New full-band MKB shows are afoot
- including one with a very special guest. THE BIG NEWS: I'm working on a solo record. COME AGAIN?: Yes, I really am. It hit me in early August that there might be some original material not resembling "La Cucaracha" bouncing around in my head. This one simple theme kept reverberating between my ears, over and over again, until I couldn't take it anymore and I recorded myself playing it on a microcassette recorder I use for interviews. Two days later, ideas for several songs came to life. Soon I found myself purchasing a Boss BR1180CD hard disk recorder and rushing home from work to get ideas down in a more appropriate demo format. And two weeks after that, I - a studio illiterate, someone who never owned or even used so much as a Fostex 4-Track - was setting levels; programming drums; getting sounds; tracking bass, "guitar" (bass played in a really high register and sent through myriad effects) and keyboards; mixing; mastering; and burning complete tracks straight down to CD. It's as much an ad for the hard disk recorder as anything else, but somehow I now have five original songs, concepts for the all of the remaining tracks, and a sequence in my head. The simple theme that started it all, a solo piece, will be the opening track. INSTANT FAQ: The working title is called View. Right now I see 13 tracks and a running time of several minutes under an hour. I plan to record every track on the home hard disk recorder and create a "final demo" CD in sequence, and then go into a real studio knowing pretty much what I want. Which musicians play on what tracks is something I'm still nailing down in my head, but rest assured that the names will be very familiar. A cover art concept exists. If I had an unlimited amount of time each day to work on it, the demo phase would be done pretty quickly…but that being far from the case, I'm thinking the demo CD will be done by the end of the year, the tracking will happen in the spring next year, and the final product will be ready with bells on by fall of 2003. And if this isn't all just so much bullshit and I actually get the thing done, I have no idea how I'm going to release it. Like I said, it's a brave new world 'round these parts. Hang in there with me, OK? This is all very, very strange for me to be doing, let alone talking about. I'll spout more about the whole thing at a later date; it was hard enough just to admit that I'm even doing it. LIES,
DAMNED LIES, AND…: Web statistics. Thanks to some website called
www.Slashdot.org,
who referred an ungodly number of people here for two days last month,
we shattered the bryanbellerdotcom monthly hit count record in August,
totaling over 122,000. That's a gaudy number for li'l ol' me, and
I humbly thank thee, but I realize that it's all about visits, not
hits. So here's some hard information for you. We average 80,000 hits
a month and right around 200 unique visitors a day, though when there's
new content it goes up to 300 for a week or so. Our most common referrers
are the Keneally
website and Google (not a big surprise there). A lot of you made it
all the way through the Tale
of the Whitney Hike, but some of you got lazy and stopped reading
after Part Two (how could you?). The most popular audio
downloads are the live versions of "Career Politicians"
and "The Knife & Drum," plus the rarity studio track
"Time Table." People are still going back and reading the
old Life of
Bryan archives, especially Acts
16 and 21.
Whenever I post a new Bass Player column, most of the unique
visitors check it out immediately (don't tell my editor - wait, too
late). Anyway, you get the picture. But what I really wanted to say
in all this was a Big Thanks to you if you're one of the faithful
who make this site a regular place to visit. And if you're just passing
through, come back. Our new marketing department would like just a
moment of your time for a quick survey… SO, BABY, WHAT'S YOUR SIGN?: It's all in the stars. Your true musical self, that is. It can now be revealed in Bass Player column #16, "Bass Astrology," now available for the bryanbellerdotcom readership. ALL GOOD
THINGS: As you can see above, I've published sixteen columns in Bass
Player since 1999. I've got two more already "in the can,"
but those will be the final two. I submitted the eighteenth and final
column a few days ago, and it will run in the December issue. (#17
will run in October.) The story of how this event came to pass will
be told in the final column, and it's not what you may think. But
putting all that aside for a second, it's no exaggeration to say that
a good deal of whatever public profile I currently have is due to
that publication, and I owe Jim Roberts, Karl Coryat, Richard Johnston
and Bill Leigh a serious debt of gratitude for allowing me to ramble
on in their magazine for the past three years. And the entire archive
will be posted here in perpetuity, something else I can thank them
for. I used to tell myself when I was 25 that, as a goal, I wanted
a column in a magazine by the time I was 30. Now it's time to fulfill
other goals. I'm working on that right now. IN REMEMBERANCE:
Words fail. Debates over what to do about it can wait a day. TV retrospectives
- no thank you. Just some thoughts for those who need them. And other
thoughts for those who deserve them. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION: The perception that the recent MKB Victor's gig set a new standard for Quartet quality has really taken off, and now that I have a document (thanks, as usual, to Dave Foster), I think I get it. I think. Certainly the acoustic stuff was well executed, and it stands to reason that the new material is slowly working itself into shape. But as this show works its way towards '98 Upstairs At Nick's status, I can't help but wonder why it is that, even four years later, I can't figure it out while it's happening. I've only been doing this gig for eight years now. SPEAKING OF ANNIVERSARIES: This week marks the end of my ninth year on the left coast. I'm still a schoolboy in the sense that I mark years from September to August. I wonder when I'll stop doing that. OF ANNIVERSARIES, CON'T: I unknowingly booked a dentist appointment for Wednesday, September 11. I'm not quite sure how to approach that date, and I'm sure I'm not alone. But I look back on my thoughts from a year ago, and without launching into another column I think three things: (a) I'm still as resolute the need for pre-emptive military action as ever; (b) the "War On Terror" has been terribly mistitled, because terror exists worldwide (Ireland, Basque Spain, Zimbabwe), but if we were honest we'd say that we're really only concerned with radical Islam and its religious-driven violence towards the West and Israel; (c) considering item (b), I don't understand why Saudi Arabia isn't a higher priority than Iraq - after all, that's the country exporting Wahhabi-ist Islam, not Iraq. Of course, that's a rhetorical statement. I know damned well why Saudi Arabia isn't an Iraq-like target, and it comes down to two words: "Oil" and "Bush." But like I said, I'm not launching another column. And lest you think I've gone totally right-wing, I also think that the guy filing suit to remove "Under God" from the pledge of allegiance is correct, and the backlash he faced for doing so was frighteningly Orwellian. Even for this country. ON A LIGHTER NOTE: I visited the hometown in Jersey last week and spent the night at Casa Beller. In my father's office I found a little memento of appreciation, in the form of a miniaturized telescope, from a company you may have heard of. The tiny plaque on the bottom of the piece read as follows: "Hedge Fund Advisory Group - Looking Toward the Millenium - June 28, 1999 - ARTHUR ANDERSEN - Helping In Ways You Never Imagined." Yeah, no kidding. The joke around my household is that my father was thinking about taking a job with them back in '99, and that the mere thought of such a thing was enough to bring the legendary institution to ruin. (Love you, Dad.) THE TIMES
THEY ARE A-CHANGING: Here's the inevitable tease to close this Screed
- several things are changing in the world of bryanbellerdotcom. Hopefully
someday soon I'll have the nerve to tell you about them. DOUBLE GIG REPORT: Yes, that was The Mike Keneally Band on San Diego's NBC affiliate KNSD playing live for over ten minutes of actual airtime. More shocking than it even happening in the first place was that they aired nearly all of "The Knife & Drum," a fusion monster that isn't exactly easy listening. It wasn't easy playing either; apparently getting to work by 8:00 AM is a lot easier than making a 9:30 AM soundcheck 140 miles from home, at least for me. But give credit where credit's due: those KNSD folks did us right. Those who've downloaded the video clip from that link on the Keneally newsgroup already know that. BURNT TO A CRISP: The next day we had a 3:30 PM load-in for the outdoor show at Victor's which meant hours in the blazing hot sun while we set up and soundchecked. While it was fun for all of us to discover that Rick Musallam gets sun freckles around his eyes, it was even more fun for those who saw the show. More than one person came up to us afterwards and said it was the best Keneally show they'd ever seen, and that included some battle-hardened veterans. I've long since given up trying to figure out which shows are good and which aren't, so skewed is my own reality. I do know that the sound both onstage and off was superb, and that makes a bigger difference than most people realize. I have to admit that my favorite moment was after the acoustic set, when some of the coolest people I know - Supreme Literary Confidante Martha C. Lawrence, Moosenet CEO Scott Chatfield, Taylor Guitars' VP of Public Relations John D'Agostino, bryanbellerdotcom Webmistress Katy Towell, and Dixie Dregs/Mistakes bassist Andy West, to shamelessly name-drop a few - were all within arms length, surely giving way to one of the most interesting group conversations I've had the privilege to not to screw up too badly just by being there. SPANISH FOR BUTTERFLY: That's what Mariposa means, but in this case it refers to a band started by my former SWR mate John Ferrante. He's got plenty of blackmail material on me, so I'm giving him this link as partial payment. They're new on the Links page, available in full by clicking just over my right earlobe. Now maybe I'll get back those pictures of Katherine Harris and a certain humble narrator frolicking in South Beach at the Janet Reno dance party last month. SEATTLE
SLEW: The recording with Yogi up in Seattle went great, thanks largely
in part to Guitar Center Seattle employee Derek Sheen, who hooked
me up with a Taylor AB-3 for use during the weekend. Talk about above
and beyond - he had the instrument flown in from another store on
the east coast. Derek Sheen, we salute you. And the Yogi material
is juicy, baby. GOOD MORNING PRECIOUS, I'VE GOT NEWS FOR YOU: More big news over at the Coming Attractions page. This time it's official word about the NDV/MKB performance at this year's ProgWest show in Claremont, CA. It may be old news for some people, but just in case: we'll be doing two sets, one of which will be a complete live performance of Kevin Gilbert's rock opera The Shaming Of The True, with our friend Nicky as Johnny Virgil. Rehearsals have already begun, and they've been way too much fun for any one musician to have. Mark the date: November 10. TAYLOR LEFT COAST MANIA: Yep, it's a Taylor Acoustic clinic tour up and down the Pacific coast, scheduled for early October. The most complete itinerary is now available at the Keneally site. We're gonna be busy this fall. SLEEPLESS
IN SNOQUALMIE: I'm heading up to "the greater Seattle area"
this weekend to do some new tracks with our old friend Yogi.
Always a pleasure, as those who own his solo effort
Any Raw Flesh? already know. I'm looking forward to getting
out of town for a little while anyway; Los Angeles is in the midst
of its long, rainless, smoggy summer, and the skies are looking a
little too apocalyptic for my tastes right now. THE HEADLINE REMAINS THE SAME: For those intermittent browsers of bryanbellerdotcom, we're happy to extend the top headline for a little while longer. Act 43 of the Life Of Bryan, "Through The Whitney Portal," is available for your perusal. How many hours does it really take to day-hike Mt. Whitney? Simulate the experience by reading this 29-page, 51-picture epic. IN OTHER TOP STORIES: The Coming Attractions page has the hot scoop on that bit of left coast Keneally action I teased in the last Screed. Hint: you're two clicks away from an itinerary. MILESTONE ALERT: We're on pace for bryanbellerdotcom's first 100,000-hit month. A lot of that is due to perusal of the aforementioned LOB Act 43. My humble thanks are yours, as always. MOVIN'
ON UP: The Webmistress Katy Towell, my esteemed houseguest since her
arrival in Los Angeles back in June, moved into her own place this
weekend. She will be missed, as my place will undoubtedly revert to
the predictable bachelor pad it was before her presence. As for her
new digs, I'm probably inviting an editor's note by doing this, but
I'll say it anyway: there goes the neighborhood. [Webmistress'
note: World domination is a long, slow process.] FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST!: Thank God Almighty I finally finished Act 43 of the Life Of Bryan, "Through The Whitney Portal." It's the longest piece I've written since the novel, and in a lot of ways, probably the most rewarding as well. It's also a throwback to the good old days of the LOB, when Acts were so stuffed with content and pictures that you couldn't digest them all in one sitting. No matter how you take it in, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did living it. Anyone who gets a serious bug up their behind about possibly trying the hike for themselves, feel free to e-mail me and I'll give you the best advice I can (though after reading the piece you may think better of accepting my advice as gospel). And though I know you're probably sick of me pouring on the sugar by now, the efforts of the Webmistress Katy Towell simply cannot go unheralded. Especially in this case, where we both spent an entire Saturday transferring files and formatting the beast together. HEAVY TRAFFIC: I've been seeing a lot of action on the Audio Sampler Platter pages, especially on the new tunes from the North Sea Jazz Festival posted over at the "on a stage" section. Thanks for tuning in. Call me anything but humble, but I really believe it: This band is good. Spread the word. FAIR
AND BALANCED, AS ALWAYS: I'm shot from a week of late nights to finally
put The Tale Of Mt. Whitney to bed, but there's plenty of Keneally/Beller/MKB
news on the horizon. Once I recover, the Screed will be your source
for that, plus the latest information on the West Nile Virus, James
Trafficant's jailhouse hairdo, W's vacation from having to deal with
the imploding economy, and other important matters of the day. Now
if you'll excuse me, I have to go laugh at Katherine Harris, who kicked
off her election campaign for Congress by flagrantly violating a statute
that, as Florida's Secretary of State, she was in charge of enforcing.
Such a stickler for the letter of the law, that Katherine. There's
comedy everywhere nowadays; you just have to know where to look. FROM EUROPE WITH HIGH-QUALITY AUDIO: The audio document I recently received of our North Sea Jazz show is among the best I've heard in nearly eight years of collecting unofficial recordings of Keneally & Co. Thanks to modern technology (and one very talented webmistress), we now we have the power to bring that magic directly to you via the Audio Sampler Platter's "on a stage" section. Three new mp3 files await you, the discerning listener. Major thanks to David Wilcher and Han Van de Graaf for getting me the CDR. FROM NASHVILLE WITH LOW QUALITY IMAGES: When I'm in them, there just aren't any other kind. Since I'm too lazy to create a new section of Photographic Evidence for my time at the Nashville NAMM show for SWR, click here to see what I look like when I'm doing business on very little sleep. FROM
THE KENEALLY UPDATE DESK: Something's going to happen on the West
Coast in early October. Stay tuned. FREQUENT
FRYER: No, that's not a Asian accent slur, that's me lately with all
this traveling. Now I'm finally - and gratefully - on my way back
home from Nashville, and once again the Screed comes beaming down
to you from 35,000 feet in the air. With the last one aging rapidly,
it's not a moment too soon. This is gonna be one major-ass Screed,
so relax for a little while and dig in. IT SMELLED
LIKE JAZZ: Yep, there we were, the Mike Keneally Band, playing the
North Sea Jazz Festival. The room was very nice and very crowded,
and the folks were very enthusiastic, calling us back up for a legitimate
encore by means of a prolonged standing ovation. I'm taking more stock
in crowd reaction these days as a way of measuring up shows, because
in my cranky old age I'm getting more persnickety about little clams
and whatnot, especially when they emanate from the bass side of things.
Which, on occasion, they did. But hey, I soloed and nobody walked
out of the room (my secret: nothing faster than eighth notes, especially
when Richard Bona is playing with Joe Zawinul the next hall over).
The band was fantastic, and while the show wasn't the seamless, creative
wonder that typified the Quartet Tour of last year (with each passing
month I have more respect for what we did back then), it was a high-energy,
accurate representation of what this band does. Highlights for me
included a flawless version of "2001" (irony: we finally
nail the pop tune at a jazz festival), a rollicking "Hum,"
a grooving "Skies Of Los Angeles" (a new tune), and the
encore, our cover of Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine," a
song which a surprising amount of folks in the audience recognized.
All in all, a good show - and a landmark for the MKB. Dutch heroes
Co de Kloet and Pieter van Hoogdalem are the ones who made it happen,
and they deserve praise. PROCRASTINATION
STATION: The telling of the Tale of Whitney should have been done
by now, but with the presence of out of town guests, family members,
and other life unexpectancies creeping about, it just ain't. Currently
I'm 37,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean on my way to Holland for the
Keneally gig at The North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague, which should
at least provide some meaty Screed fodder over the next few days.
I return to L.A. on Sunday, spend two days at home, and then fly to
Nashville for the summer NAMM show on behalf of SWR. Also, in the
midst of all this, I have a Bass Player column due in less
than a week. Have I made enough excuses yet? How about the three hours
of sleep I got the night before this flight? GIG REPORT: The Victor's show on Saturday night was one part joyful debut, another part gallant struggle. The set kicked off with four new tunes, which we've been diligently rehearsing throughout the past month, and we even surprised ourselves at how well a) we played them; b) how well they were received (thanks to all the kind folks in attendance). One of them - "Li'l" - is a John McLaughlin-on-crack speed groover, with nightmare unison licks, multi-layered form and wide-open improv sections abound for over six minutes…and even that didn't throw us off too badly. Our reward for getting through the new stuff was a dumb-blues-feel cover of Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine," and that was a whole lotta fun. We even played a punk version of the Stones' "19th Nervous Breakdown" that people seemed to enjoy. Good moments, all. AND NOW FOR THE "GALLANT STRUGGLE" PART OF OUR SHOW: But we also found that the difficult onstage sound we experienced in the first Victor's show was no fluke, as the stage and room are, shall we say, acoustically challenged. The poor conditions made for difficult discerning between instruments during loud passages, and contributed heavily to a most inglorious train wreck of "Potato," of all freakin' songs. It simply could not have been any uglier. The end of "'Cause Of Breakfast" also fell victim to a metal-on-metal collision. I'm always fairly embarrassed when stuff like that happens, but if my Keneally-ordered bass solo (over a breakneck tempo, one with which I had no business trifling) didn't detract from the overall goodness of the show, nothing would have. Just another testament to the coolest fans this side of the Continental Divide. BAD AUTOMOTIVE JUJU: Being onstage was the easy part. Getting back and forth from Canyon Country to San Diego was another story. I was about to pull my car out of the garage when the automatic door opener came unhinged from its moorings on the ceiling. It came to rest hanging loosely over my car, which I couldn't move out of the way because the door was jammed halfway open. Ninety minutes later - after "emergency maintenance" finally arrived - we were on the road to SD. Then, just minutes away from the gig, I made one wrong turn - one! - and it took one hour to turn around and get back to where I was supposed to be, thanks to beach traffic. I figured I was safe after all that, and went to my hotel for a one-hour break between soundcheck and downbeat…at which point I promptly backed my car into a pole in the subterranean parking structure. It left a mark. On the car, not the pole. And that was only on Saturday night. JUJU,
PART TWO: Driving back up the 405 through West L.A., we (Webmistress
Katy and I) were driving in the fast lane at about 75 m.p.h. when
the small white econo car in the lane next to us suddenly slammed
on its brakes, coming to a full, smoking stop on the busiest freeway
in L.A. We looked back and saw the female driver speeding up again,
weaving crazily in and out of lanes. She sped past us and we could
see her, bobbing her head back and forth, laughing and apparently
shouting at no one in particular. Then, three lanes over and several
cars in front of us, she did it again. Screeching brakes, smoking
tires, full stop. People were now wising up and staying clear behind
her; the closest car in her rear view was at least 100 feet. But I
couldn't get around her, and I was more next to her than ahead or
behind. Katy and I watched in attentive horror as Ms. Psychotic Episode
nearly ran three more cars off the road and pulled her full-stop trick
four more times before finally crossing over three lanes to an exit
ramp, where she again stopped cold. Thirty minutes later, I was counting
my lucky stars simply to be home and alive when I tried to put my
Rav4's removable car seats back into place, only to find that, somehow,
the mechanisms on one of the seats was hopelessly bent out of whack
and needed repair. If anyone knows of a sacrifice I need to make to
the car gods, now might be a good time to let me know. Before somebody
gets hurt. YOUR MAN ON THE CONVENTION FLOOR: What happens when a Bass Player column deadline falls smack in the middle of the biggest M.I. industry trade show of the year? The columnist in question gets lazy and brings a tape recorder to the show. Experience the excitement of Bass Player Column #15: "A NAMM Reporter's Notebook" for yourself. AS THE TRAIL DUST CLEARS: Four days post-Whitney, my muscles are finally losing their soreness, leaving me with only the injuries and the memories. The former include a tweaked left knee, a pulled right groin muscle, a blackened toenail and, inexplicably, a significantly decreased appetite. The latter exist in five incredible rolls of pictures, which I plan on having digitally developed this weekend. Now, if only I could remember taking them… BUZZWORTHY
KENEALLY: Carson Daly may never know, but there's gonna be some brand
spankin' new MKB shit goin' down this weekend at Victor's in San Diego.
It is hot, baby. For those in the area, make sure you get there
on time. The new stuff will be front-loaded in the set. A lucky few
may even get to meet the Webmistress Katy Towell, who will be in attendance.
No pictures, though. She hisses like a rattlesnake. WINNING
UGLY: I'm back…and, yes, I made it to the top of Mt. Whitney.
I'm saving the dirty details for a major essay, but the Screed's title
should tell you that it wasn't pretty. That said, I'm looking forward
to writing this piece more than anything I can remember. DEPARTURE: I leave in a little over six hours for the High Sierras and my attempt to conquer Mt. Whitney. I should be asleep by now, as I'm trying to adjust my internal clock for a 4:00 AM wake-up call on Saturday morning, but nailing the 26-point itemized List Of Necessary Things To Bring proved too much for even me to handle until the last minute. So here I am packing, checking and double-checking. I'll sleep eventually. Thanks to all those who've wished me well. You can rest assured that I'll whip up quite the piece of illustrated literature upon my return. AND IF
I DON'T COME BACK…: My parents will receive comfort in the knowledge
that, before he fell off the side of a mountain to his untimely death,
their firstborn son was commissioned by his alma mater to write an
instructional article, and it was actually published. Click here
to view the just-posted Berklee Today article "Life Beyond
The Money Notes." It can double as a eulogy if necessary. WITNESS
TO A CALAMITY: Four days and counting until the Big Whitney Hike.
I leave for Lone Pine, CA and the Whitney trailhead sickeningly early
on Friday morning for a day of acclimation before the real thing starts
at 4:30 AM the following day. That is, if I can make it out of here
without getting either injured or killed. Both almost occurred yesterday.
I'm going to save the story for when I write the whole Whitney saga.
Hint: The Webmistress was watching the whole time. OH, SO VERY EXCITING: This happens to be one of those periods where nothing much is going on in the world of bryanbellerdotcom. That would explain the dearth of updates as of late. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. If I strayed, I might say that one of these days I'll get off my lazy ass and update Photographic Evidence in both "the great outdoors" section (as promised) and the long-neglected "city of angels" section (in order to document a wild BBQ that occurred here Saturday night). That is, if I strayed. On the other hand, the Berklee Today instructional article should post soon, and the Whitney hike is less than two weeks away. Somebody alert the media. ADAPTING TO HER UNNATURAL HABITAT: Webmistress Katy now has a week of Southern California living under her belt, and you'll be glad to know that, despite the abundance of sunshine, her vibe and soul is still as dark as ever. Now if only she could find a way to deal with her sunburned scalp, all would be well. THERE'S
ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE: Yep, I bought the Tyson-Lewis fight this weekend.
I admit to actually having enjoyed watching Iron Mike eat Lewis' jab
for seven rounds before swallowing a right to the chin for dessert.
The BBQ'ers didn't seem to mind it either. Like Don King says, only
in America. SITTING
IN AN ENGLISH GARDEN…: If the sun don't come, you'll get a tan
from reading the newest piece of press, darling: the Keneally (with
Beller sidebar) feature
article from the April edition of England's fine Guitarist
magazine. Now available in the friendly confines of bryanbellerdotcom.
We are the high priests of reprint permission, are we not? TWO'S COMPANY: As of Friday night, the Webmistress Katy Towell became my temporary roommate. She made the drive out to L.A. from Kansas and is settling in L.A. for good--she just needs a roommate. (Any takers? Psychos need not apply.) bryanbellerdotcom will surely benefit from such an arrangement, as site updates can happen practically in real time. Now I just have to get off my lazy ass and do some. In the meantime, check out this shot of Katy [Webmistress' Note: objects on monitor may be smaller and less bovine than they appear...] and her A-list clientele attending a local show in her soon-to-be new home, the San Fernando Valley. From left to right, it's the WKT, Wes Wehmiller, Joe Travers, and your humble narrator. Keneallyites Rick Musallam and Stacey Ferguson were also in attendance. Quite a scene, it was. ADIEU,
SACRAMENTO: I really wanted the Kings to beat the Lakers in
the Game 7 overtime classic that just occurred, simply because Phil
Jackson needs a comeuppance like no one else I know. But, the Game
6 touch-a-Laker-and-get-a-foul travesty aside, the Kings missed so
many free throws in Game 7 that I can't say they should have
won. You have to hand it to Shaq, who looked like Jeff Hornacek at
the foul line and carried them in overtime because Kobe literally
had nothing left in the tank. But wait 'til next year. Like they said,
the Kings are not going anywhere. And Mike Bibby is a damned freak.
Either way, it was the best NBA playoff series I've ever seen. FANTASTIC SCUMMY DICK, GREG: Buried in the four-word heading for this Screed are fragments of working song titles for the next Keneally record. Rick, Nick and I dove headfirst into Mike's latest embryonic creations last week, and I can't even begin to tell you how cool it all was. This band has the potential to make the best Keneally record ever, I tell you. Or, at the very least, to make an album just as good as Motley Crüe's Girls, Girls, Girls. OK, better. BALDY
BAGGED: I made it! 14 miles, nine hours roundtrip, very tough
up-and-down-grade hiking. The kicker was that the trail went up to
two peaks before Baldy, and descended after each one before the final,
extremely steep ascent to the Baldy summit. So the amount of total
elevation gain from the climbing in both directions was 4,700 feet,
even though it was all between 8,000 and 10,000 feet elevation-wise.
Physically I felt like I could have gone longer…but as far as
training for Whitney is concerned, I'm still not sure how you train
for being at 14,000 feet other than hiking up to 14,000 feet. Anyway,
Baldy pictures are being developed, and I'll whip something together
for Photographic Evidence soon enough. Oh, and my legs hurt…but
only half as bad as after the Half Dome trip. I'll take it, throbbing
quads and all. A LITTLE LESSON IN THE ART OF ZEN: On Saturday I set out to conquer Mt. Baldy, in what was supposed to be a practice hike for my upcoming trip to Mt. Whitney in June. Web and phone research indicated it was a ten mile roundtrip, starting at 7,000 feet and peaking at just over 10,000 feet. Then the adventure started: the road to the trailhead was closed, adding four more miles. Then I took the wrong trail for a mile, turned around, found someone with a map, turned around again, took the same wrong trail for three miles downhill about 3,000 feet, turned around again, climbed back up to where I started…and by the time I finally found the correct trailhead, it was 3:00 PM and I'd already logged 12 miles on foot. I went almost a mile up the "Devil's Backbone," got a good feel for it, and turned around, realizing that I'd had a beautiful day's hike, my legs were close to shot, it was getting late, and the mountain would still be there the following weekend when I tried again. Truly a lesson in the "it's not the destination, it's the journey" philosophy. So I had a bad map, and the road closure was unexpected, and the trailhead was buried below a high curve and not marked like the USFS website said it would be. I did fourteen beautiful miles in the Angeles National Forest, and my body held up well enough to work out the following day. Onward and upward. THE FABULOUS FLYING FOSTERS: The inimitable Dave Foster and his father Mick are the ones responsible for the 3/27/02 Omaha Mars Music document, which spawned the two new acoustic files up on the Audio Sampler Platter. So what I'm saying is, they should be thanked. ADVICE
FOR THE SLEEP DEPRIVED: Write an owner's manual for a bass amplifier.
Works every time. Also effective when proofreading said document.
Zzzzzzzzz. BRYANBELLERDOTCOM UNPLUGGED: Well, maybe not unplugged, but at least it's acoustic/electric. Two new audio files are up in the "on a stage" section of the Audio Sampler Platter. On the menu today are choice cuts from the 3/27/02 Keneally/Beller Taylor Acoustic Clinic at Mars Music in Omaha, Nebraska: "Hello" (from Keneally's Wooden Smoke), and my cover of the John Patitucci solo piece "Backwoods." (Birkenstocks not required for downloading.) ON LOCATION
FROM PECKS MILL, WEST VIRGINIA: Where else would I find the inspiration
for Bass Player Column #14, "The
Legend Of Lightning Mac"? Now available for online perusal
at your leisure. I continue to be amazed and grateful to the editorial
staff of Bass Player for allowing me such unfettered editorial
freedom. Wonder if they'll publish the Screed one of these months? CASING THE JOINT: I spent yesterday up in Lone Pine, CA, scoping out the road to the Mt. Whitney trailhead, the campsite I'll be staying at the night before, the hotel (complete with in-room Jacuzzi, oh yeah) I'll be crashing at immediately afterwards, etc. etc. On a lark I brought my bike with me, and I ended up riding straight up seven miles, from 3,600 feet to 5,800 feet. The trailhead sits at 8,360 feet. I didn't make it up that far. (Surprise.) But I got a rush out of just being near it. I wish June 22 were tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm doing a practice hike up Mt. Baldy (7,000-10,000 feet, 10 miles round trip) this coming weekend. Sure beats working. COMING
SOON TO A BROWSER NEAR YOU: Now that I've finally submitted both the
column for Berklee Today and the latest Bass Player
piece, I'll soon be updating the site in a much more meaningful way
than I have of late. A couple of new audio files, a new Bass Player
column (for bryanbellerdotcom, anyway), and more. And, just so you
know, I'm really excited about the Berklee Today piece. It'll
be posted on the web, along with .mp3 files of the four musical passages
I transcribed. Seeing the middle section of "'Cause Of Breakfast"
all charted out in Finale gave me a lump in my throat. Stay tuned. GIG REPORT: At last, the Keneally Quartet brought a show to Los Angeles that contained discernible amounts of the November tour's magic. It happened last night (5/4) in the deep, dark heart of the San Fernando Valley at a club called Paladino's. The place is a total '80s throwback joint, with equal parts men-with-mullets and women-with-red-leather-chaps-over-jeans for regulars, and the vibe was similar to our first "home" venue, the infamous Bourbon Square (yet another seedy Valley bar). Why we rule the trashy rocker bars in the Valley is likely a mystery best left unsolved. OH YEAH, THE MUSIC: While working without a set list was the ticket on the November tour, such "looseness" is, we've found, less appreciated in the Pro Music Bidness confines of La-La-Land. So we wrote one, rehearsed it, mostly stuck to it, and--voila!--the pacing was much better than the previous two shows. Oddly enough, what Paladino's lacks in style it makes up for in substance, namely a sound system that's quickly gaining a reputation as the best in the entire Valley. The band keyed off the warm, yet crisp onstage sound and went for broke…and despite the fact that I should have slowed down (or, better yet, stopped) after my fourth drink, we played a nice show with plenty of great improv sections for the studio audience (read: tapers) at home. The night was capped by a flourish of conceptual continuity as Swan, the soundman for both the run of 1995 Bourbon Square shows and this show, joined us for an encore of "Good Times, Bad Times." Swan, you see, also fronts a Led Zeppelin cover band called Led ZepAgain. Lots of fun all around. And if I can get through listening to the sure-to-be-good-sounding document without cringing at my own alcoholic sloppiness, it may be a keeper. HELLO,
THIS IS THE POLITBURO, CAN WE HELP YOU?: Compared to the three hours
I spent today browsing online and calling various numbers to secure
the necessary wilderness and campsite permits, the hike up Mt. Whitney
should be a freakin' breeze. COMING THIS SUMMER TO A JAZZ FESTIVAL PROBABLY NOT NEAR YOU: Some big news awaits you over at the Coming Attractions page. THE 97
SWITCHBACKS: Anyone who gets the reference would know that I'm flirting
with the idea of hiking Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower
48 states. Research indicates that, while not as death-defying as
Half Dome (which I successfully hiked in 1999, albeit within an inch
of my life; read the story here),
it's a tougher overall climb. I know it's a longer day hike: 22 miles,
a 6,000-foot elevation gain, a 14,000+ foot summit, and approximately
15 hours roundtrip. Now that I've put it out there, it'll be that
much tougher for me not to do it. We'll see if I have the nerve--and
the aerobic capacity--to pull it off. I'm shooting for late June. ON DEADLINE:
I submitted the instructional column for Berklee Today this
morning, and even though I officially finished it an hour past the
deadline of Monday 4/29, I'm still quite happy with it. A nice fringe
benefit for those who've requested online transcriptions (yes, for
some the site will always be incomplete) are the following passages
I chose as musical examples: "Career/Quimby #1" (the penultimate
lick with the crazed 32nd notes through to the end), the chorus of
"We'll Be Right Back" complete with harmonics, three reharmonizations
of the second solo vamp in "Hum," and--most importantly--the
definitive statement on what the hell is going on in the infamous
"out of time" passage of the instrumental middle section
of "'Cause Of Breakfast." The bassline transcriptions are
in traditional notation (bass clef), plus tab (though I pity the fool
who takes my fingering as gospel). The full piece will run in the
Summer issue, which is due to publish in late May. And it'll be online
at the Berklee site as well. I'll have more details when it actually
happens, but I just have to say that my alma mater absolutely rocks.
I have no qualms about being a walking billboard for the place; a
great deal of whatever success I've had is owed to my time spent at
Berklee. Boston, on the other hand, is a good place to go to college
and a better place to leave when you're done. FOR ONCE,
IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT ME: My good friend, fellow Berklee alumni and excellent
bassist Wes Wehmiller has just launched his own website at www.weswehmiller.com,
and I urge you in the strongest possible terms to go and check it
out. And not just because the Supreme Webmistress Katy Towell did
his site as well; it's a uniquely odd use of bandwidth, filled with
"documentary" movies (one of which is about Keneally tech
Thomas Nordegg), hysterical literature on a variety of topics, hi-res
pictures from locales far and wide, and enough barely-controlled anger
to make Dennis Miller blush. Wes himself celebrated his site going
live by crashing his girlfriend's pickup truck into an oncoming bus.
He extricated himself from the near-totaled vehicle by removing the
crushed door from the inside with his feet—he kicked the door
off its hinges.After walking away unscathed, he called me and said,
"I feel like a man, you know? It was a bus." Like
I said, it's worth checking out. YOU KNOW YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT WHEN…: This, from a Bass Player Letter To The Editor, on my column "Dear Jane" that ran in the March issue: "Bryan Beller's cheesy piece was a total waste of space!" God forbid Mike (who declined to sign his last name to the letter) ever visited this site; the reckless occupation of bandwidth would surely send him over the edge. NOT AN HONORARY DOCTORATE, BUT CLOSE: The quarterly alumni publication of Berklee College Of Music, Berklee Today, has commissioned me to write a one-off instructional column, complete with musical examples. I'm honored and grateful, but I'd feel better if I knew what the hell I was going to write about, seeing as it's due on Monday. I see a late Sunday night in my future. SOUR GRAPES: My beloved New York Knicks are not in the NBA playoffs for the first time since something like 1984. But now that Scottie Pippen has been exposed as the loser he really always was, I'd happily settle for a humiliation of Phil Jackson. Not that I'm bitter about all those Bulls championships, but Sacramento, are you listening? POLITICAL FALLOUT: Reaction to my Middle East column "The Elephant In The Room" has been surprisingly uniform, and even more surprisingly positive. Thanks for indulging me. Now for your reward--more unsolicited commentary. The Bush foreign policy team looks like they're really lost right about now, don't they? No wonder Karen Hughes wants out. Memo to Bush and Powell: Quit playing both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Get off the fence before we get pushed off. NO MORE EXCUSES: I went out and got myself a new laptop this week, an HP Omnibook with a 20GB hard drive, 256MB of RAM, lots of other goodies…and Windows XP Pro for an operating system, which I have to say is pretty damned cool. So the next time I hit the road, all systems should be fully operational. When would that be? Right now it looks like another double-barrel trip for both Keneally and SWR, with stops in Amsterdam and Nashville over a 10-day period in July. Things should firm up soon. FAIR
WARNING: The Supreme High Webmistress Katy Towell is wrapping up work
on a new website for a good friend of mine. I'll be linking to it
in a big way. Trust me, you will not want to miss this. TAKING
SIDES: If you don't care for my forays into politics, now would be
a good time to scroll down. [pause] Still reading? I've written a
political column on the situation in the Middle East, entitled "The Elephant In The Room." Not because I think I have
all the answers, but simply because I felt compelled to do so. Once
again, constructing it only increased the respect I have for those
who do this for a living--and manage to say everything in 800 words
or less. Hopefully I won't be shown to be a complete idiot in a week's
time. Or, on second thought, hopefully I will. THIS
JUST IN: Act 42 of The Life Of Bryan, the first new LOB installment
in nearly a year, is available for your reading pleasure.(I wanted
to keep it at the top of the Screed for a little while longer.The
ingenuity never stops.) JIM
JEWELL'S AT IT AGAIN: Yes, there's another Jewell-improved audio file
up. This time it's the Berklee-era cover of Pink Floyd's "Pigs
(Three Different Ones)" in the Music section's Audio Sampler
Platter (under "rarities").It sounds better and the file's
smaller.This guy must be good.
AUDIO SAMPLER RE-MIX: Keneally enthusiast and engineer Jim Jewell has taken it upon himself to improve the sound quality of one of my poorer audio files, specifically the live "Naked Horse (Tressa Version)" from NYC back on the 11/01 Quartet Tour.For those who care—or may have downloaded the previous version—it's in the Audio Sampler Platter of the Music Section, under "On A Stage."Jim Jewell, we salute you. LOOKING
FOR LANDAU: After singing the praises of former Keneally drummer Toss
Panos' latest work with legendary L.A. session guitarist Michael Landau
all throughout the latest Taylor clinic tour, it turns out that his
website is moving and is currently down.I'll update the Links page
accordingly (thanks, John Willcoxon). For the Toss fans out there,
if you don't know about the CD Michael Landau Live 2000, you
don't know what you're missing.Good luck finding it. SCREEDS AND LINKS AND COMING ATTRACTIONS, OH MY: Yes, I'm back, and updating just as fast as I can. Check out the latest glut of Coming Attractions (just hit that button by my right ear), as well as the Screeds below. LIFE OUTSIDE THE DIGITAL REALM: As I continue combing through the nearly 200+ e-mails I had waiting for me upon my return, I must say that, though inconvenient, it was strangely liberating to be without internet access for two whole weeks. The last time I'd been offline for that long was 1998. I'm sure I'll have a new laptop by the next time I hit the road, but I highly recommend the occasional digital holiday regardless. Now we just need to federalize the concept so we don't feel like the world is going on without us. Wait—you mean…it does anyway? THANKS: To all who came out to see Keneally and I on our recently completed Taylor Acoustic Tour, I can't thank you enough. I didn't know we had fans in Iowa and Arkansas, and it was about time we got back to Indy as well. You folks made my March. Is Taylor amazing for letting us do this or what? I'D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY…: Check out this shot of SWR CEO/President Daryl Jamison and I accepting the MIPA award for Best Bass Amp of 2001 at this year's MusikMesse in Frankfurt, Germany. I'll have you know that I wore actual, honest-to-goodness slacks every day of the show except this one. Thanks to Cosette Trombino-Santiago for the heads-up on the link. FLEET STREET, HERE I COME: The incredibly kind and talented Simon Bradley wrote this piece on Keneally and I for this month's issue of British M.I. mag Guitarist. The print version also contains a Beller-only sidebar, which I hope to post (pending permission) over here at the "press, darling" area of the Music section. One thing I'd like to know is why I always end up with scads of exclamation points in my quotes. Am I really that much of a hopeless spaz? EPISTOLARY MISOGYNY: I've always wanted to use those two words back-to-back. Find out why over in the Literature section, where a new Bass Player column has been posted, entitled "Dear Jane". UNSOLICITED
POLITICAL COMMENTARY: Why is it that, whenever I see Yasser Arafat
on TV lately, I think of the movie Mars Attacks? You know,
how those smiling, harmless-looking little green men kept telling
everyone "we are your friends" over and over again while,
at the very same time, indiscriminately killing everyone within eyeshot? LAPTOP
DOWN: This Screed actually originated in longhand... because my 1996
Micron Millennia Transport (133 MHz, 32 MB RAM) has, shall we say,
moved on to a better place. As a result, I won't be able to post any
more Screeds from the road. E-mail is also out until 4/2. I'm pretty
disappointed, but I'm looking at it as an excuse to purchase a nice
new piece of hardware. As for the Micron: Yit-gadal, v'yit-kadash... NICK D'VIRGILIO, KING OF EUROPE: For anyone who's in Germany at the Messe who might be reading this, my performance with fellow Keneallyite Nick D'Virgilio is in a gigantic hall called the Festhalle, Saturday 3/16 (today), at 3:00 PM. I stopped by the Meinl cymbals booth yesterday to see if I could find him. I didn't, but I was practically attacked by a larger-than-life-sized glossy poster of Nick's head surrounded by some fine Meinl product. Our man was looking very serious, with his pouty lips in full flare. I'm still recovering. WHATEVER GETS YOU THROUGH THE NIGHT: Just when I thought I was fully adjusted to West European Standard Time, I went to bed at 10:30 hoping for a full night's sleep...and woke up at 2:30 AM wondering what the hell was going on. In other words, this Screed is being written in my half-sleep, so I get a disclaimer in case something like 78fr9nhfxn8gfggf3uy happens by accident. RV^ffbuyeB$E%@(Nn. And, uit6i. (I've been told that's German for, "Do you have anything to eat besides schnitzel? And how can I order it in a way you might understand?") AND THE WINNER IS...: They have this big award ceremony called the M.I.P.A. awards (Music Industry Product Award, I think), given by a consortium of 51 M.I. mags from around the world (Bass Player, Guitar Player, Modern Drummer, Guitarre und Basse, etc.). Believe it or not, SWR won two awards. One for Best Bass Cabinet (general), and one for Best Bass Amp...the Mo' Bass. They called President/CEO Daryl Jamison and I up to the stage and handed us a big lucite statue while flashbulbs popped and everything. Totally unreal. I got pictures of it, which you'd better believe will be posted here sometime soon. The rest of the night, you couldn't pry that Mo' Bass award from my hand with a crowbar. THE KISS
OF DEATH: As you can imagine, I've cleaned up my appearance act pretty
hardcore to fit in with the other businessmen, lest they think I'm
just some 30-year-old kid in over his head. (Truth be damned.) We're
talking belts, tucked in shirts with collars, black dress shoes, etc.
Then a touring bassist from America approaches me and says, "Aren't
you Bryan Beller, the columnist for Bass Player? Man, I love
your column. But you look a lot more conservative than I'd imagined
from reading what you wrote." As Livia Soprano once said, "I
wish the Lord would take me now." ONE RELUCTANT FOOT OUT THE DOOR: For the first time I can recall, I'm sad to be leaving for a trip abroad. Not because I'm not looking forward to conquering exciting new business frontiers for SWR, and certainly not because I'm viewing the upcoming Keneally/Beller acoustic clinics with anything less than full-throated enthusiasm. It's about leaving this beautiful place in which I'm privileged to live. Today I rode my bike up a mountain in the Angeles National Forest--a 1,500-foot incline over two miles--and I only had to ride four miles from my home to get to the base of the climb. Later in the day, the sunset turned the mountains orange and pink as I watched it from the deck of my apartment. Somehow the thought of Frankfurt, Germany--a dreary business city; imagine the Houston of Europe--is not nearly as appealing now as it was when I lived in North Hollywood. FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF SWEEPING GENERALIZATIONS: The coffee in Germany is as you might expect. Brutal and effective. OY GEVALT: Germany followed by Texas. Not your average Jew's itinerary, but I'm pushing the envelope for all of us tribe-members, one of whom (a friend of mine from New York City) described the opening two legs of my trip as the "Achtung, Darlin'" tour. AUDIO FEEDBACK: Thanks to all who've expressed their gratitude for the presence of the Audio Sampler Platter on this here site. More than one person has said I'm lucky to have been able to work with the people I have. They're right. The least I could do was make some previously unheard material available to those who cared enough to keep track in the first place. What I didn't fully realize until just yesterday is that, now that the Platter is up, the website is essentially complete in the form I'd originally envisioned. It's a little strange not to wake up and think, "OK, what do I need to do on the site today?" That being said, it's a relief to think that I can get back to writing at will on the topic of my choosing, a key reason I created this behemoth in the first place. A FINAL
STATESIDE UPDATE: I'll be dropping in little Screeds from the road,
but e-mail will be difficult until I return to the States on 3/18.
Those who may be attending the Messe can now know that whatever I
do with Nick D'Virgilio at the Meinl booth will occur on Saturday,
3/16. I just don't know when yet. And, last but not least, it looks
like the Keneally band will be working in San Diego in April (check
the Keneally site at www.keneally.com) and--you heard it here first--most
likely back in L.A. in May. Now I'm off to find easy-to-remove shoes
to wear for my pre-flight security check. I've been helpfully advised
not to wear an underwire bra. The price of freedom, for sure. THE 121-MEGABYTE UPDATE: That's right, ladies and gentlemen…the Audio Sampler Platter is, at long last, available for your perusal. (That's under "music, bass in particular" for those who care.) It's forty-four separate .mp3 files in four categories. I can't tell you how much I learned about ripping and snipping digital audio over the last two months. Admittedly, some files sound better than others, but the source has to be considered. There's stuff up there that's never really been heard before by anyone, as well as plenty of showcase material for newcomers who may have no idea what I do with an instrument (other than a keyboard) in my hand. Even though I'm leaving the country in four days—and won't be back home until early April—I'll have my laptop with me, so let me know what you think of it. And just so you know, the Webmistress and I were stunned by the popularity of the "Under Construction" picture we used. We're glad you enjoyed it. It's gone, but if you want it I've got three words for you: Google Images Search. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: Again, in the music section, "now playing" gets an update. We've got three new links: two music links (the last two) and one extra-special bonus link (hint: a rare estrogen sighting on bryanbellerdotcom). Finally, dig the bottom of the front page. What is it about the phrase "All Rights Reserved" that sounds so, well, authoritative? SHE SAT IN MY LAP AND EVERYTHING: I met the All-Seeing, All-Knowing Webmistress Katy Towell in person for the first time last week. Quite an experience. There's photographic evidence of this paragraph's subject heading, but whether or not she'll ever allow me to post it is a matter as yet unresolved. (I don't think I could bait her to comment any more effectively than this.) [Webmistress' Note: It's all fun and games until somebody gets out the camera...] NEVER
AGAIN: I know I'll regret saying this, but this business of no updates
for nearly three weeks was bogus, and I know it. I'll happily blame
it on the painstaking construction of the Audio Sampler Platter, and
declare that, since this was the only part of the site not yet complete,
such a heinous period of inactivity will not occur again anytime soon.
Uh, is it really bright in here, or is that a bolt of lightning coming
straight at my right eye? GIG REPORT: It took long enough, but the Mike Keneally "Quartet" finally hit Los Angeles last night. L.A. is a strange place to play; there's fewer fans and more friends, less business and more pleasure. For some reason, that decidedly does not make it easier to play there. Just the opposite, in fact. So it felt like the opening show of a new tour, even though we'd played the material plenty. It had that edgy, excited feel to it. Plus, we played "'Cause Of Breakfast," arguably the hardest song in the repertoire, for the first time with this lineup…and I had chills. Plans for more local shows are already in the works, and I can't wait. This is a band that needs a residency. SLOGGING THROUGH: I'm finally almost done creating and compiling the files for the Audio Sampler Platter. I still have a mountain of text to write and an organizational structure to conceptualize, but at least there's a dim light at the end of the tunnel. I'm thinking the end of February. KANSAS'
LOSS IS CALIFORNIA'S GAIN: The High Priestess of HTML and Official
Webmistress of bryanbellerdotcom, Katy Towell, is due to visit Los
Angeles next week. This is a girl with whom I spent months communicating
via phone, e-mail, carrier pigeon, you name it…but I've never
actually met her in person. That's obviously about to change. Hopefully
I won't scare her into changing her plans, which involve a permanent
move to L.A. later this year. Katy, care to comment? STOP IF THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR: I admit, I've been slacking off on the Screed as of late, but with good reason. Creating and compiling the Audio Sampler Platter is taking much, much longer than I'd anticipated. Part of that is because-surprise!-it's turning out to be a huge section. When complete, there will be over thirty audio files to peruse, some of which even the most hardcore of hardcores have never heard. Rest assured, it'll be worth it. LIES,
DAMNED LIES, AND TOUR ITINERARIES: The Keneally/Beller Taylor acoustic
tour is now starting in Dallas, not Austin as mentioned below. Some
dates are already up at the Keneally page, but I think
I'll wait until the tour is complete and then post the whole thing
at once in the Coming Attractions. OK? OK. INTO THE TOASTER: March is shaping up to be quite a month. I'll be flying to Frankfurt, Germany for the MusikMesse (think European NAMM) on behalf of SWR…and then directly from Frankfurt to Austin, TX for the start of what's shaping up to be quite a Keneally/Beller clinic tour for Taylor Guitars. Front to back, it should be a three-week venture. Can you say "crispy fried" in German? How about in Texan? NOT EXACTLY
A MILESTONE, BUT…: It's the one-month anniversary of bryanbellerdotcom.
That doesn't even register on the official chart (one year is the
Paper Anniversary, if you must know), but we can make one up. How
about the Compost Anniversary? The Dust Anniversary? The Enron Stock
Certificate Anniversary (remember, it's got to be worth less than
paper). Well, I'm having fun. Hope you are too. WELL,
IT'S ABOUT TIME: Behold, a Los Angeles-area Keneally gig has just
been announced for February. Check out the Coming Attractions. PHOTOGRAPHIC
OVERLOAD: There's a whole mess of new stuff over at Photographic Evidence.
Over twenty pictures from the Keneally double Euro-American tour of
late 2001 (which earns it a whole new subsection), plus six new SWR
shots from the 2002 Winter NAMM show. Not to mention the stellar collection
of pithy captions from yours truly. What, you need more convincing? AS
PROMISED: The Joe Travers article I wrote for Modern Drummer
is up in the Literature section, under Published Potpourri. The webmistress
has got her afterburners going today. NAMM, DAY FOUR: Anti-climax. NAMM Sunday is my customary "walk the floor" day, since I'm pretty tied down over at SWR for the first three days. Checked out SWR founder/Raven Labs President Steve Rabe's new product, the Universal Instrument Preamp (amazing); said hi to endorsement company friends at Mike Lull and D'addario; got some more great quotes for the next Bass Player column; got reprint permission from Modern Drummer to post the article I did on Joe Travers (hence the delay in bryanbellerdotcom postage); came back and watched Jennifer Lopez bassist Oscar Cartaya turn the SWR booth into an authentic Latin-jazz festival. Keneally and I did the last of the Taylor acoustic performances, this time joined by fellow Dolphin Rick Musallam. For reasons totally unrelated to Rick's presence (I assure you), this one was a struggle due to Keneally equipment failures and set-pacing weirdnesses, but people were still smiling at show's end. So if they were happy to be there, or happy to see it end, either way we left them happy. Mission accomplished. About
halfway through NAMM Sunday, everyone with a booth starts wishing
they were tearing down already. So when the show closed at 5:00 sharp,
the SWR team joined me in obsessive-compulsive mania and had the thing
broken down by 7:30. After a run to Round Table Pizza to feed the
crew, I said my goodbyes amidst the din of reverse-beeping pallet
loaders and forklifts, got in the car, and made it home by 11:00 PM.
Have I mentioned that I'm still sleeping as I write this? NAMM, DAY THREE: Mayhem. Started off with the annual Music Player Network breakfast (parent company of Bass Player Magazine), sat at a table with the heads of Ashdown and Aguilar...and Bob Moog. Quick conversation with bigwig at St. Louis Music (parent company of Ampeg; yes, we all talk to each other, and nicely at that). Made it to SWR booth in time to jam with Brad Houser (New Bohemians, Critters Buggin') and Nashville bass legend Dave Pomeroy. Helped narrowly avoid a disaster with Rocco's SWR performance; last minute equipment requests nearly sunk the whole thing, but the SWR team swung into action and saved the day just minutes before I had to run across the hall to make the Keneally performance for Taylor Guitars--which went great. Keneally and I then did an interview with a British guitar mag, which I left early to make my appointment with the editor and technical editor of Bass Player for the all-important "SWR New Products for 2002" demo. I don't remember anything after that from the show floor, but I did get some great quotes for my next Bass Player column (due date: Tuesday). I had
every intention of going out to make the post-show scene at the Hilton,
but somehow I ended up going back to my hotel to take a nap...which
lasted nine hours. NAMM, DAY TWO: A blur. Attended the Taylor Guitars Clinician's breakfast at 9:00 AM, only to have to leave early to make my SWR booth opening duties at 10:00 AM...saw Andy West play the SWR booth at 12:00 noon...introduced Rocco Prestia (and his custom-made new SWR rig) to a waiting crowd at the Dean Markley booth at 1:00...set up the SWR P.A. for a gear-intensive show by Adam Nitti (freak bassist extraordinaire) at 2:00...did the Keneally Quartet show at SWR at 4:00; the SWR soundroom was packed, overflowing, and surrounded by people on the outside walls (thanks to all those who braved the conditions)...and then, at 6:00, the SWR Workingman's 8004 amp and Workingman's Tower 8x10 speaker cabinet (the custom Rocco rig) won an award from Gig Magazine, its "Proven Performer" award. SWR President Daryl Jamison and I posed for pictures. Not bad for a day's work. Then
it was time for dinner in Downtown Disney at a Mexican place called
"Y Arriba Y Arriba" or something. Keneally and Sarah, Dennis
Hill and wife Laura, Rick Musallam and I were entertained by the strangest
band frontman I've ever seen, complete with scary, Hitler-esque exhortations
to CLAP on his command. Finally, it was over to the Hilton Lobby Bar
for drinks and debauchery. Wait, do I have to go to work tomorrow?
You mean the show actually gets busier tomorrow? NAMM, DAY ONE: After an agonizingly late Wednesday night (until 1:00 AM) setting up the SWR booth, we kicked off NAMM today and the reaction to the new products is...awesome. We're getting raves. I feel more relief than anything, but every once in a while it kicks in just how much effect we (me and the SWR engineering team) have on what the bass-buying public sees and says. Pretty weird. All that, plus I tucked in my shirt and wore a belt today. What's happening to me? On the second career front, Keneally and I did the first of the three Taylor acoustic duo performances today. 'Twas a packed house and they sure did appreciate the show. The Taylor booth is amazing; it's all covered in expensive wood wall paneling and is well-furnished with big comfy couches, not to mention Peanut M&M's and pretzels. You'd be surprised just how meaningful a single Peanut M&M can be under such arduous circumstances. Sometime late today, Michael Manring and I jammed out on a bass duet version of "Footprints" in the SWR soundroom. That guy is incredible. I just tried not to get in his way too much. After
the show hours expired, Rick Musallam, Keneally, Ron Spiegelhalter,
myself and four friendly others polished off an insanely decadent
meal at Tony Roma's. Tomorrow's full-band show at the SWR booth should
be...fun. COVER
ME, I'M GOING IN: I'm heading off to NAMM tomorrow, so I'll be unable
to respond to website e-mail until next week. Also, the Photographic
Evidence updates and the Audio Sampler debut are looking a little
further away than I'd hoped, but it'll all happen once I recover from
this circus of humanity they call a trade show. (Hopefully some of
that humanity will be interested in one of the thirteen new
and/or revised products SWR is offering up this year.) The good news
is that I'm planning on posting little Screeds—however pithy
they may be—at the end of each day. I may live to regret announcing
this if the show gets too crazy, but nothing motivates me like a self-imposed
directive. If you're coming to the show, see you soon. If not, stay
tuned. I'm bringing a camera. MONKEY
BUSINESS: By popular request, bryanbellerdotcom proudly introduces
a search feature. It's useful for both inside the site and out, accessible
from just underneath my neck, and even comes complete with a primatial
mascot. John Ashcroft can now rest easy, as this makes it plain I
have nothing to hide. TAYLOR
HAM: Check out Coming Attractions for the scoop on the times and dates
of the Keneally/Beller acoustic performances in the Taylor booth at
NAMM. This info is official…finally. THE MOTHER OF ALL UPDATES: A new Bass Player column…six new pieces of "published potpourri" in the literature section…plus the new Steve Vai entry in "red light fever" in the music section (got the front cover graphic, thank you)…holy mother of updatage. How is this possible? As I was sprinting towards the finish line to hit the 1/1/02 deadline, turns out that I plain forgot about some pieces I'd written. Check 'em out. NAMM-MANIA:
As with all things NAMM, the schedule for the Keneally/Beller Taylor
booth performances has changed. To what I'm not exactly sure, but
I know there will be shows on Thursday 1/17, Saturday 1/19, and Sunday
1/20. Add in the SWR booth performance on Friday 1/18, and that's
a show every day of the convention. Can you stand the excitement? INSTANT KARMA: Several of you have pointed out that Steve Vai's cover of "Celluloid Heroes" is indeed out as part of the box set. Thanks for the scarily fast info. I'll update "red light fever" as soon as I can get a nice graphic of the front cover of the CD. Any takers? BRYAN, I AM YOUR FATHER: My fave reaction to the site so far is Jon from Joytown's appropriate notice of my ambivalence in having created such a thing: "Welcome to the dark side." Resistance is futile after all. CONSTRUCTION
UPDATE: I spent New Year's Day ripping my PC tower apart and making
a CD-Writer drive work inside it. You'll be happy to know that, after
six hours of hardware and software drudgery, I'm now fully operational
in the ways of CD burning, audio ripping, WAV/mp3 file conversion,
audio editing, and everything else I need to start working on the
Audio Sampler Platter. Question is, what do I put up there that isn't
already floating around? Oh, I'll think of something. THE
DEBUT: After six months, hundreds of pages, and nearly 600 e-mails,
it's finally done. I have but three things to say: 1) I hope you enjoy
it; 2) Katy Towell, the webmistress of bryanbellerdotcom, is a saint
for putting up with me all this time; 3) my fingers hurt a lot. |
