Guitarist Joe Satriani has unveiled a video for Sahara, the lead single from his new album The Elephants of Mars. His signature tone is in full swing, with quite a few references to the music of Northern Africa and the Middle East. Eric Caudieux plays the Oud adn its modern day equivalent, the Cümbüş, adding extra colour and texture to the song. Long-time collaborators, bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Kenny Aronoff are on board for an intricate rhythm foundation.
Low end maestro Bryan Beller (The Aristocrats, Joe Satriani) has posted a video of him playing bass along with Metallica's Damage, Inc:
I’ve always loved this song, ever since it came out in 1986 and I was 15 years old. For that time, it was lightning fast. In order to play it fingerstyle and have half a chance at keeping up, the tune forced me to come up with a “flicking” technique - something I still use to this day for other purposes.
Bass player extraordinaire Bryan Beller was interviewed by Kevin Johnson for No Treble. He talks about playing with The Aristocrats for ten years and their new live album FREEZE! Live In Europe 2020.
Bass player and composer Bryan Beller will release his long-awaited progressive concept double album Scenes From The Flood on September 13. An impressive roster of musicians helped him out to create an old school sprawling record that is both complex and compelling. Beller constructed the 18 songs over an 11-year period. As an in-demand musician (The Aristocrats, Joe Satriani, Dethklok, Steve Vai) he had to scramble for time to get some work done on this project. He has made a video for The Storm.
Power fusion rock trio The Aristocrats will share their knowledge during a three day course (June 18-20) dubbed The Aristocamp @ Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, NY. Guthrie Govan (guitar), Bryan Beller (bass) and Marco Minnemann (drums) will offer the opportunity to ask them any questions you might have. Tickets go on sale on February 28th.
Bass player Bryan Beller has posted a trailer for his forthcoming modern progressive double album Scenes From The Flood, his first solo effort in ten years. He wrote a lengthy piece about his project on his website last year.
As that mysterious looking purple-ish pic above might suggest, it will be a bit before I’m able to release it, but I thought it would be nice to at least give a little peek under the hood. Eventually this entire website will receive a much needed overhaul, and the aesthetic will reflect the world of this new release. Eventually.
Baas player Bryan Beller is finally finding the time to work on a new solo album. It will be ""A Modern Progressive Musical Concept" album,. There will 18 tracks in all and he has recorded demos for about half of them so far. From his website:
It's been ten years since I wrote the material that became 2008's Thanks In Advance, my last studio solo album. Many, many things have happened since then, and while I was fortunate to be busy with lots of fulfilling work, a noise was building in the back of my head for years about what my next solo album would look, feel and sound like. That noise became a roar last year, as I realized I was walking around with enough material in my head for not just a new album, but a new double album. And when I refer to what was "in my head", I mean pretty close to the whole thing: The album title, the song titles, the melodies, the sonic textures, the grooves, the album narrative, the sequence, the transitions…everything. It's been a bit odd, as you can imagine.
Guitarist and keyboardist Mike Keneally won't be playing at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock on April 4th with his Beer For Dolphins sidemen (Bryan Beller on bass and Joe Travers on drums).
Live dates:HCTF review of Scambot 2 + Inkling
Guitarist and keyboardist Mike Keneally takes his Beer For Dolphins on the road for a short East Coast tour. Bryan Beller is on bass and Joe Travers is on drums.
Live dates:
Guitar maestro Joe Satriani will wrap up 2016 with a tour in Mexico and South America in December. He will be playing with Marco Minnemann (drums), Bryan Beller (bass) and Mike Keneally (keyboards & guitar).
Live dates:Innerviews has an in-depth interview with Bryan Beller, The Aristocrats' bass player. He discusses his thoughts on being an independent artist and band manager of sorts, life on the road as a Joe Satriani sidemen, his friendship with Mike Keneally, and how to make ends meet as a working musician.
He plays down his capabilities as a bass player:
The big joke of my career is that I’ve been thrust into this world in which everyone is a hot-shot player. I’m not. There are so many bass players that can play complete circles around me, technically. I’m really a meat-and-potatoes bass player. I never worked on technique when I was a kid. I only worked on learning songs. If I couldn’t learn the song because there was a technique I couldn’t play, then I would figure out a way to do it. But I never sat and practiced scales with a metronome. I never practiced right-hand technique. I only practice for gigs, recordings and making sounds. I’ll sit in rehearsal rooms with my pedal board and tweak forever until I get something I know will work live.
Watch Joe Satriani perform @ Hellfest in Clisson, France on June 18th with Marco Minnemann (drums), Bryan Beller (bass) and Mike Keneally (keys & guitar).
Caveat: the first four minutes sound like shit (there is even a guy going "one-two, one-two" from the sound feed from an adjacent stage), but otherwise it's fine.
Setlist:
After the announcement of three shows in Italy, it has just been confirmed that the G3 guitar extravaganza will hit Germany in July. The usual suspects Joe Satriani and Steve Vai will be joined by The Aristocrats, the first band to be labeled as a "G". Since their guitar player is named Guthrie Govan it makes perfect sense. And the band's rhythm section - Bryan Beller on bass, Marco Minnemann on drums - are part of Joe Satriani's live band.
Live dates:The G3 guitar extravaganza touches down in Italy. The usual suspects Joe Satriani and Steve Vai will be joined by The Aristocrats, the first band to be labeled as a "G". Since their guitar player is named Guthrie Govan it makes perfect sense. And the band's rhythm section - Bryan Beller on bass, Marco Minnemann on drums - are part of Joe Satriani's live band.
Live dates:Tickets go on sale on February 26th 2016 at 10am via ticketone.it. More G3 shows will be announced.
The backing tracks for Tres Caballeros, the latest album from The Aristocrats are now available on Jamtrackcentral. The package includes full notation and Tabs. Guitar player Guthrie Gowan:
We've learned a lot since we started this band - four years, three studio albums, two live DVDs and about a billion notes ago! - and I think our latest offering reflects this in all kinds of ways. The decision to road-test our new material in front of a live audience before commencing the recording process; the choice to record in a studio which had some thoroughly inspiring rock'n'roll 'mojo'; our sudden urge to become more bold and experimental with overdubs rather than feeling any pressure to record exclusively in a strict 'trio' format... all of this has had some kind of positive effect on the way the new record came out.
The Aristocrats are on tour in Europe.
Bass player Bryan Beller fount the time to have a chat with Echoes And Dust in the midst of The Aristocrats' European tour. On reconnecting with the fan base:
Well, I think we have it a lot better than a lot of the pop acts out there! [Laughs] The good news about being in our little muso ghetto is that, once you get some fans, you have them for life. And we appreciate that and are very grateful for that. I always feel like we actually carry our brand with us, as opposed to [being a ] ‘flavour of the month’. So, I don’t necessarily see it as a hindrance that we’re playing weird music. I think it’s a feature, not a bug.
Being on tour is a 24/7 job, so there isn't much time to listen to music. However, Beller heartily recommends checking out T H I S C L O S E , the new album from Janet Feder:
Bryan Beller (The Aristrocrats, Joe Satriani, Dethklok) talks shop in an interview with Bass Musician Magazine. He is quite pleased with his new 5-string:
I have a new bass in the arsenal. I’m still a true blue Mike Lull guy and they make my signature model, which is a souped-up, ash/maple, very bright 5-string jazz bass with active EQ and a few custom tweaks to make it a more aggressive “rock” sounding instrument than some others in the family. I also still use their passive 5-string P/J, which I think is a beautiful option for warm, dark, chocolate-y sounds. But I wanted something that was completely “un-Fender-y” for lack of a better phrase, with a tighter-focused midrange and a different feel, while still having some edge on top. So I have an Alex Webster Signature Spector for a few tunes going on now. I’ve always loved the way a Spector sits in a recording mix – I’m especially referring to Dan Briggs of Between The Buried And Me, and also Doug Wimbish on a variety of things. The traditional Spector sound is great and totally identifiable…but as always, I’m always looking for a little more edge than the typical stock instrument provides. Fortunately for me, Alex Webster – the bassist for Cannibal Corpse! – Already did the hard work of making a more aggressive-sounding Spector. People might think: Ok, really, the bassist from Cannibal Corpse developed a signature model that the bassist for The Aristocrats and Joe Satriani is using? But for those who don’t know, Alex is not just an amazing player, but he’s also a first-class bass geek, and he’s got books out on advanced technique and has done some really cool stuff. So when I found out that he led the charge on this instrument, I wasn’t surprised.
Bryan Beller is on tour with Joe Satriani right now. Next: a Fall tour with The Aristrocrats.
HCTF review of Tres Caballeros (The Aristrocrats).
Tres Caballeros, the new album by jazz rock fusion trio The Aristocrats, is a bit more relaxed and less in your face than their previous records. This time Guthrie Govan (guitar), Bryan Beller (bass) and Marco Minnemann (drums) entered the Sunset Sound studios in Hollywood after a successful world tour that made them into an even tighter unit, plus they had booked Alvas Showroom in San Pedro, CA for a four-night stand to test the new songs in front of a live audience. Recordings weren't rushed thsis time, because of lack of other pressing commitments. More overdubs, a piano, keyboards and even some vocals on one track (the biggest surprise) signal a subtle change of pace for the band.
Skill and humour are the two corner stones of their music. Right off the bat with the album's rocking Minneman opener Stupid 7 (it's in 7/8) The Aristocrats are pulling the listener into their own world. Longtime followers of the trio will appreciate the second installment of the life and times of small time crook Furtive Jack in Guthrie Govan's Jack's Back. A real life incident inspired Bryan Beller to write Texas Crazypants, after he was cornered on a parking lot by three screaming females accusing him of damaging their car. The Lone Star state gets another shout out in Minneman's ZZ Top, a twisted boogie prog rave up that will turn some heads among music students.
Power fusion instrumental rock trio The Aristocrats have posted a stream of The Kentucky Meat Shower, a track from their forthcoming third studio album Tres Caballeros. Named after an incident in 1876 they serve up spicy mix of hard rock and prog with a Nashville twang. Catchy and complicated at the same time.
The album will be released in a Standard Edition (CD) and Deluxe Edition (CD/DVD), which will include a 30-minute documentary featuring live and in-studio footage, outtakes, demos, and more. Release date: June 23. Pre-order from their website.
North American dates:HCTF review of Secret Show: Live In Osaka.
After the announcement of a show in Holland made some waves on the interwebs power fusion rock trio The Aristocrats let the cat out of the bag: they will hit Europe for an extensive Winter Tour to promote the release of their new album Tres Caballeros (out on June 23).
The second part of the European tour is scheduled January 17-February 18, 2016. Details coming soon.
Live dates:HCTF review of Secret Show: Live In Osaka.
