BellerBlog

Now Booking Kira/Bryan April-May House Concerts: Eastern Seaboard, Upper Midwest!

The headline pretty much says it all. Smokin’ hot wife Kira Small and I are setting up one of our patented R&B duo house concert tours in the second half of April into May, and we’re planning on hitting the following states/areas:

VA, DC, MD, DE, PA, NJ. NY, CT, MA, NH/VT/ME (we’ve never played New Hampshire or Maine, hint hint), upstate NY, Western PA, WV, OH, KY.

Can we make all that happen? Only with your help. If you’ve read and heard about these house concerts and find yourself curious about hosting, first congratulate yourself for your fine taste and inquisitive nature. Then click here to read the latest BellerBytes for video clips and more details about how to make it happen.

There’s also a great new review of the Kira/Bryan live duo CD “Live At The White House” up at Thunder Row, which you can check out here.

And let’s not forget about WesFest 7, featuring headliner The Aristocrats, and a ton of other great music for a truly worthy cause. It’s happening on Sunday, March 4, at The Roxy in L.A. Save the date, SoCal!

Meanwhile, NAMM’s right around the corner, as is a run of west coast shows with the aforementioned Aristocrats. It’s a busy month for promo-whoring. We at Beller Enterprises, Inc. hope and trust you understand.

BB

2012 New Stuff: Bryan Beller Bass Instructional DVD, Mike Lull BB Signature Model Bass, Plus January Shows Galore

I just sent out a BellerBytes that’s got a pretty comprehensive wrap-up of what’s going on in BellerWorld for 2012. But I’m not above cutting and pasting from it right here. (I am, however, too lazy to redo *all* of the links, so if you want those, click here to read the whole thing in its HTML glory.)

First, the calendar summary:

JANUARY
* Sat 1/14 – Mike Keneally Band gig at the Baked Potato in LA, CA (not a Keneally/Beller “same band” gig, just the good old Mike Keneally Band rockin’ out!)
* Thurs 1/19 thru Sat 1/21 – NAMM appearances (Mike Lull, D’Addario, Alfred booths)
* At NAMM: Introducing the Mike Lull M5BB Bryan Beller Signature Model Bass!
* At NAMM: Introducing the debut Bryan Beller instructional DVD: Mastering Tone & Versatility (part of Alfred Publishing’s Artist Series)
* Sat 1/21 & Sun 1/22 – The Aristocrats gigs at Alva’s Showroom in San Pedro, CA
* Fri 1/27 – The Aristocrats gig at Biscuits & Blues in San Francisco, CA
* Sat 1/28 & Sun 1/29 – The Aristocrats gigs at The Rendezvous in Seattle, WA
* Tues 1/31 – Beller Bass clinic at Premier Bass Guitars in Denver, CO

MARCH
* Fri 3/2 – The Aristocrats gig at Brick By Brick in San Diego, CA
* Sun 3/4 – WESFEST 7 at The Roxy in LA (featuring headliner The Aristocrats)
* 3/7 thru 3/24 – The Aristocrats tour UK, Netherlands, France, Spain, Turkey, Israel!

For more complete info on all of this, check my official website calendar, always your best source for where I’m at and when.

Now, the new stuff: I am very, very proud of the instructional DVD I have coming out through Alfred Publishing. They were great in giving me the freedom and resources to create a vision and see it through all the way to completion. It has three main parts:

1) First is tone, tone, tone: A 90-minute course on everything from bass archetypes to hand placement to EQ frequencies and more. It goes deep.

2) Second is live performances: Thoroughly explained and broken-down performances with The Bryan Beller Band, Kira Small, and bass-and-drums-only live versions of three Dethklok tunes with the Atomic Clock, drummer Gene Hoglan (super-exclusive footage!)

3) Third is me playing to tracks by Steve Vai, Mike Keneally, and myself, all with explanations and hi-res closeups of what I’m doing.

Check the cover art. Available for purchase here.

Also, I can’t even believe that Mike Lull made a Bryan Beller signature bass. But they did, and it’s modeled after my trusty red Lull that some of you have seen in pictures over the years (and which I used on the Vai tour, countless Keneally tours, my own stuff, The Aristocrats album, etc). It’s a 35″-scale 5-string active jazz bass, Seymour Duncan Basslines pickups, Bartolini preamp with 3-band EQ, AAAAA quilted maple top, ash body and maple fingerboard, Hipshot bridge and tuning keys. Extremely like mine!

Here’s a promo shot of me making a fairly gruesome “groove face” while playing the trusty red monster.

My nutshell on it is that it’s the best-feeling active 5-string jazz bass I’ve ever played, and sounds exactly like a jazz bass should, but with just a little extra aggression in the mids and upper mids for perfect “cut-through” in the mix. It’s a great ROCK 5-string bass, but it does everything well, as a good jazz bass should.

Interested? Just contact Mike Lull’s shop in Seattle right here.

There’s even more in the BellerBytes (like sneak preview news about the next Kira/Bryan tour in the NE and upper midwest in April and May). So if you’re still hungry, go read it.

Meanwhile I’ll be at NAMM, drinking.

BB

A Holiday PSA: Help Find Guthrie Govan’s Band’s Stolen Gear

(reprinted from the latest BellerBytes)

A Holiday PSA: Help Find Guthrie Govan’s Band’s Stolen Gear

I was just going to write a short and sweet holiday message for the last BellerBytes of the year, but something terrible happened to my dear friend Guthrie Govan and his band while on the road in Rome, Italy: The entire contents of their gear van were stolen. And Guthrie and his crew could really use your help – especially if you’re in Europe – in tracking it down.

Some of you may have heard about this already through social media. For those who haven’t, I’m going to turn it over to Guthrie himself (who is quite the writer; he went to Oxford for a bit, you know) so you can get caught up:

********

An appeal for your help, after a recent van break-in in Rome

The following isn’t exactly a fun read, but it would be hugely appreciated if y’all could have a quick look through the following: we need your help!

I’ve just finished a tour of Italy with Dave Kilminster, Seth Govan and Pete Riley. Unfortunately, someone broke into our tour van in Rome, during the afternoon of Dec 17th, and stole pretty much the entire contents.

This sucks on a number of levels: not only did the theft make it very difficult for us to play the remainder of the shows we had booked on our Italian tour, but also we’re now faced with the prospect of having to find some way of replacing a lot of equipment – both rental gear and personal stuff.

Some of the stolen gear – particularly Seth’s Warwick bass, which he’s played almost exclusively for the last 22 years or so – also has considerable sentimental value, as you can doubtless imagine.

The Italian police didn’t seem to think there was anything they could do about this situation, so… we’re reaching out to you, the denizens of the internet, in the hope that maybe someone out there can help us to retrieve at least something.

Please have at least a quick look through the following list, and report any suspicious sightings: our only real hope of recovering this stuff lies in the fact that some of it is fairly distinctive/unusual, so in theory it should be hard to sell and easy to spot, if you know what to look for…

If you can think of any website or forum where it might be helpful to post this stuff, please, please copy/paste the following as you see fit!

(NB – although the theft took place in Italy, it seems feasible that the people responsible might instinctively head for the border of some nearby country and try to sell our gear there…?)

Anyhow… here’s a list of what was taken. I’ve left out the various cables/power supplies etc, but needless to say we lost a lot of that stuff, too…

SETH’S BASS GEAR

1989 Warwick Streamer bass, natural finish.

(Distinguishing features: smaller replacement Schaller tuners; screw for lower strap button replaced with a Philips style screw; thumb-sized indentation above the “P-Bass” pickup; long dark stripe/imperfection in the wood on the back of the bass, above the through-neck; small knot in the wood near the top of the inside upper horn…)

SWR SM900 head, serial # 4400106010
SWR Goliath 4×10 speaker cabinet (4 Ohm) serial # 4410500410
Boss OC-2 octave pedal, Boss TU-2 tuner, Boss power supply, various cables.

PETE’S DRUM GEAR

1x left-handed Drum Workshop DW 5000 double kick drum pedal.

DAVE AND GUTHRIE’S GUITAR GEAR

2x Brunetti Mercury heads, serial numbers ME10550 and ME10650 (in flight cases);
2x Brunetti 4×12 cabinets (in flight cases).

DK’s pedals:

Boss Chorus Ensemble;
Boss TU-2 tuner;
Boss digital reverb;
Xotic Effects “EP” Booster;
Suhr Riot distortion;
Dunlop “Van Halen” signature wah;
Ernie Ball VP JR volume pedal.

GG’s pedals:

(mounted in a distinctively crappy-looking “tea tray” pedalboard):
Xotic Effects “EP” Booster;
RetroSonic “Vintage Vibes” chorus;
tc electronics Flashback delay;
tc electronics Polytune tuner;
Guyatone WR-3 envelope filter;
Dunlop “Jerry Cantrell” signature wah;
Ernie Ball VP JR volume pedal.

OTHER

1x unique bag with the emblem “Roger Waters – The Wall”;
Various camcorder tapes containing yet-to-be-edited footage from a professionally filmed 3-camera shoot – for what was intended to be a live DVD of a gig we played at Lapsus, Torino

Well… profuse thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to help us out with any of this!

Cheers,
GG (and the band)

********

It’s hard for me to believe that I just met Guthrie for the first time this year, in January. The whole Aristocrats project – a 2011 creation – has been one of the coolest things I’ve ever been fortunate enough to be a part of, largely because Guthrie is such a kind, generous, and fun dude to be on the road with (let alone play with!). (And yes, Oxford would surely frown upon the previous sentence’s structure.)

All that to not-so-cleverly say that it’s horrible that this happened to Guthrie’s mates, and especially to his terrifyingly talented bassist/brother Seth. I’ve lost my main axe in a theft back in 1994. It’s a bloody awful feeling.

It’s difficult enough to make a living as a musician without stuff like this happening. They could really use your help. If there’s anything you can do to help, especially for those in Europe with knowledge of how used gear gets sold over there, I would deeply appreciate it, as I know Guthrie would as well.

********

Kira and I have so, so much to be grateful for. 2011 was an amazing year. Between the Wednesday Night Live CD and DVD, The Aristocrats CD, the Kira Small/Bryan Beller Live At The White House CD, and the Bryan Beller Instructional DVD for Alfred Publishing (coming out in early 2012), I somehow completed five releases this year. Without your gracious support, none of this would work. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Believe it or not, it is difficult for me to express my gratitude for this in words.

I think 2012 will be a music writing year. I’m overdue.

And that’s pretty much all I got.

Happy holidays and happy new year to all,
Bryan Beller

Kira Small/Bryan Beller Southern Tour 2nd Leg Starts This Week: FL, SC, AL, TN

Let’s go south in December, we thought. Good idea, we thought. So we are.

We’ve got four stops in Florida coming right up: a clinic in Jacksonville (first time ever!),  house concerts in Hernando Beach and Orlando (where we tracked our live album Live at the White House!), and a venue show in St. Pete. Then it’s off to Florence, SC, Birmingham, AL, and one last show in Nashville.

Would you believe I wrote a new BellerBytes about it? Click for details, and believe.

It’s been an amazing year. If you’re down south somewhere in our path, please do come out and celebrate this crazy trip around the sun being nearly complete.

And hey, let’s not forget about The Aristocrats headlining WesFest 7. You read about that directly below, right? Right?

BB

WesFest 7: Sunday 3/4/12 at The Roxy In L.A. – featuring The Aristocrats!

Yes, it’s true. The Aristocrats are headlining WesFest 7.

I will freely admit that this wasn’t my idea. I’m usually the central organizer and promotions guy for WesFest, even if I’m playing here and there. But everyone else on the team felt really strongly about it, so I’ll just say that, on behalf of Marco and Guthrie, we’re all proud to be a part of this amazing event.

The rest of the lineup is pretty killer as well: The Casualties Of Jazz (a Black Sabbath jazz organ trio!), Mike Keneally, Jackie Daum, Joe Brooks, Colin Keenan, and Danny Mo & The Exciters, featuring 2011 Wes Wehmiller Scholarship Winner Hayley Jane Batt, and the legendary John “JR” Robinson on drums.

Our goal for the WesFest 7 fundraising drive is to raiser another $20K for the fund. We’ve done it each of the past two years, and with your help, we’ll do it again. You don’t even have to go to the show to help out – you can just donate. Please visit The Wes Wehmiller Website to learn more about Wes himself, why we do WesFest every year, and what the cause is all about.

Some sponsors really stepped up to support this year’s event, and I want to thank each and everyone of them right now:

Gallien-Krueger Amplification
Mike Lull Custom Basses
D’Addario Strings
DW Drums

There’s a ton of info about WesFest 7 over at the official WesFest 7 webpage. Please check it out, and know that you’ll be hearing more from me about this amazing event over the next couple of months. Thanks in advance (heh) for your indulgence. In the meantime, please enjoy this awesome WesFest 7 poster graphic.

BB

Kira Small/Bryan Beller Southern Tour Starts This Week! AR, OK, TX, LA, MS, TN…

That’s right. I’ve been home for way too long. 10 whole days. Time to get back out there, Southern-style.

Kira and I are hitting Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and even our hometown in support of our just-released album Live At The White House. (Thanks SO much to all who pre-ordered that, by the way!) It all starts this week.

Details can be found on the Calendar page,  as well as in the latest and greatest BellerBytes. There’s also some brand new 2012 dates, freshly posted for your perusal. And the BellerBytes has some insider info about my instructional DVD, coming out in early 2012.

Time to rehearse. Gotta remember how to play fewer notes for a while.

BB

Only 4 Days Left In Presale For Kira/Bryan Live Duo CD “Live At The White House”

Hey all you procrastinators and fencesitters out there who’ve been thinking about getting a signed and numbered copy of the Kira Small & Bryan Beller live duo CD “Live At The White House” and haven’t done it yet because, well, it’s not the very last minute yet…the very last minute is approaching.

Maybe a 5-minute audio montage preview of the whole album will do the trick, eh?

Seriously, it’s a fine CD and filled to the brim with soul/R&B goodness. Lots of bass grooving and soloing, and Kira kicking ass all over the place on vocals and keys. Just click here to pre-order.

And while you’re at it with all that clicking, here’s the latest BellerBytes, which has a summary of the November/December tour dates as well.

The Keneally/Beller tour was a blur and a blast. So was The Aristocrats tour. A million thanks to all who came out and supported both ventures. Now, please pardon me while I catch my breath for 10 days.

BB

Keneally/Beller West Coast Tour Starts, Like, Really Soon (10/12)

I have just a few seconds to write this because it’s hotel checkout time…but I pretty much said it in the subject line above.

By now, hopefully you know that my band’s west coast (outside of L.A.) touring debut starts on October 12, and that we’re doing it “same band” style opening up for The Mike Keneally Band.

Here’s a BellerBytes with every last stinking detail.

Lazy? Here’s a list of dates:

Wednesday 10/12 – Don Quixote’s, Felton (Santa Cruz), CA
Thursday 10/13 – Biscuits & Blues, San Francisco, CA
Friday 10/14 – Music Max, Palo Cedro (Redding), CA
Saturday 10/15 – Humbrew’s, Arcata, CA
Monday 10/17 – Mt. Tabor Pub, Portland, OR
Tuesday 10/18 – The Rendezvous, Seattle, WA
Friday 10/21 – Winston’s, San Diego, CA
Saturday 10/22 – The Baked Potato, Studio City, CA
Sunday 10/23 – The Lark Barn, Anaheim, CA

Or you can go to the calendar page and see for yourself. There’s no easy out on this. You will be informed whether you like it or not.

OK, seriously, pleeeeze come out to these shows if you’re on the west coast. It will be quite some time before this happens again in this area.

So, I just want to tell you all, good luck. We’re all counting on you. (Points to those who get the reference.)

Out the hotel door,
BB

P.S. Toronto! Chicago! Don’t forget to come to The Aristocrats shows these next few days!

The Tale Of 3 Tours: The Aristocrats (now!), Keneally/Beller Bands (October), Kira Small w/Bryan Beller (November/December)

I write this humble missive on not just the eve of The Aristocrats East Coast/Canada/Chicago tour, but also on the eve’s eve of the Mike Keneally/Bryan Beller bands’  October West Coast tour, and on the eve’s eve’s eve of two tours with Kira Small later in the year. does that equal a fortnight? I’ve always wondered what that was.

Anyway, here’s the headlines, in order of actual happening:

1) THE ARISTOCRATS – U.S. EAST COAST, CANADA, CHICAGO
2) MIKE KENEALLY BAND/BRYAN BELLER BAND – U.S. WEST COAST
3) KIRA SMALL w/BRYAN BELLER – AR, OK, TX, LA, MS, AL, FL

And, as always, here’s the compete BellerBytes with all of the attending detailature. Man, I just love making up words.

Plus some big news: Kira Small and I are releasing a live duo album in November! That’s in the BellerBytes as well. So, like, read it.

Gotta pack. See you soon.

BB

BB & Kira Small Hitting North Carolina This Coming Weekend

I know it’s all-Aristocrats-and-Keneally/Beller-tour all the time here lately, but superbad R&B/soul singer/songwriter Kira Small (aka wife) and I are hitting nearby North Carolina this coming weekend for a few shows that should not be overlooked, in my humble opinion. Here’s a brief itinerary, featuring a 3-night stand in Charlotte (finally, our first time playing there!):

Friday 9/9 – House Concert, Weaverville (Asheville), NC
Saturday 9/10 – Tosco Music Party, Charlotte, NC
Sunday 9/11 – House Concert, Charlotte, NC
Monday 9/12 – Evening Muse, Charlotte, NC
Tuesday 9/13 – Playhouse 211, Southport, NC

All the details are – you guessed it – on the calendar page. Tarheel Staters, we’d love to see you at one or more of these very special engagements.

And of course, the Aristocrats CD presale continues unabated, and the Keneally/Beller west coast tour is still very much a hot topic ’round these parts.

There’s your update. As you were, kind netizens, as you were.

BB