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One benefit of having your own website is the ability to showcase your studio work in a manner that suggests that it's all at least as good as what's listed here. As if. What's here are .mp3-format excerpts from officially released tracks by nine different artists (all of whom have graciously given permission to bryanbellerdotcom for posting). They average ninety seconds in length and 1.25 MB in file size, so even dialup browsers shouldn't get too hung out to dry. For more info on the recording, simply click the siren for the official discography entry. NOTE: These are all studio recordings I've done for other artists. If you're interested in audio downloads and other studio information regarding my solo album View, click here.
Now, in
reverse chronological order, we begin.. "Louie" – Mike Keneally Band Big sloppy goops of heavy rock - with the bass tuned to low 'A' - alternate with a song form structure only Mike Keneally could write. Whoever Louie is, he would approve.
I get silly with the Mo' Bass synth effect. What else is there to do with this indescribably weird song? If you want to hear Rick Musallam's answer (overdub a bazouki part), you should check out the DOG DVD, which has a 15-minute video on the constructional physics of "Physics."
Imagine the Mike Keneally Band and Motown's Funk Brothers somehow occupying the same musical space. Now forget about how wrong that sounds. And listen to the "Mikitacaster" '51 Custom Precision Re-Issue make its first appearance on a Keneally record since "Voyage To Manhood."
Just your typical refrain and subsequent guitar solo in 17/16, that's all. Dig the clavinet working overtime in the background. Pretty aggressive bass mix, too.
That Nick
D'Virgilio, he sure can write songs. And play drums. And sing. And groove.
Me, I just leaned on the bridge pickup and had fun.
Gothic
prog-metal with a nice twist: distorted, overdubbed bass effects, with
an homage to Meshuggah near the end of the clip.
The
notoriously difficult, nine-minute instrumental piece that comprised
part of my original audition with Dweezil's band Z back in '93. This
excerpt is only a small section of this musical nightmare, which we
somehow performed live on tour the following year.
A
mechanical doubling of a tight, sixteenth-note infested synth bassline
opens up into a triple-tracked, bass-distorted chorus. Only Yogi lets
me do stuff like this. "Throw
Me A Bone" - Yogi We
were King's X for a day. My very best Doug Pinnick impersonation, albeit
with only five strings. "Ragged
Ass" - Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins As weird
as the title suggests and every bit as raucous. Especially near the
end of the clip, where I set out to play the ugliest bass lick ever
recorded.and may have succeeded. "Kedgeree"
- Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins The high-octane
album closer, with aggressively mixed solo bass breaks sprinkled throughout
the excerpt. The band tracked the basics live, in one take. It was that
kind of day in the studio.
"Taster"
- Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins A more
reflective side of the Keneally project: slow, moody, and, to my ears,
downright eerie.
"Jazz
Bastards" - Neil Sadler While
Zappa alumni horn players Albert Wing (tenor sax) and Bruce Fowler (trombone)
crank out blazing solos, I play a walking bass line literally as fast
as I can. From the sick mind of Neil Sadler, a thoroughly modern composer.
"Lucky
Charms" - Steve Vai Just
your typical solo section in 11/16, with Steve Vai on guitar and Robin
DiMaggio on drums.
"Fever
Dreams" - Steve Vai A
track on which I played bass and Steve played everything else. The selected
excerpt from this straight-ahead rocker is the song's coda.
"Formosa
Café" - Janet Robin Ever
heard me play a pop song? I can do it. Really. I'm serious. Why are
you laughing?
"Will
U Still Kiss Me"
- Janet Robin Now
this is my idea of a pop song. Weird harmonic content, bass mixed
way up front, and a sweet melody over a traditional song structure.
Number one with a bullet.
"Voyage
To Manhood" - Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins The deconstruction
of a rock shuffle: fast, furious.and silly. For my part, I used the
strangest bass in my collection-a '51 Fender P-bass re-issue-and got
the raunchiest sound I could conjure up.
"Why
Am I Your Guy?" - Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins Another
up-tempo rager, with full-on fuzztone all the way through. Somehow this
whole song ended up as a bass solo.
"What
It B" - Z I always
thought that Z sounded best when staying faithful to its hard rock roots.
This track-a musical trio of Dweezil, myself and Joe Travers on drums-inspires
the headbanging thing without apology
"Siberian
Khatru" - Stanley Snail (Kevin Gilbert, Mike Keneally, Nick D'Virgilio
and myself) The late,
great Kevin Gilbert led this one-time-only lineup in a Yes tribute track
of which I'm proud to have been a part. The audio snippet available
here doesn't give away the surprise halfway through the full track.
As it shouldn't. Recorded at Lawnmower and Garden Supplies Studio.
"My
Dilemma" - Mike Keneally A watershed
recording for me, both in terms of studio sound (as in "actually good")
and performance (as in "actually musical"). There was magic in the air
of Double Time Studios that day.
Just
about the first professional recording I ever tracked. Uh, make that
double-tracked. |
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