Asti spumanti!

I write to you from a brief patch of breathing space between the shows I just played with EDDIE JOBSON/U.K. REVISITED in Japan, and the shows we’re doing next week on Cruise to the Edge (Miami > Key West > Nassau). If tickets are still available for the cruise (and I just looked at their website and tickets do indeed seem to be available – see the screenshot from their homepage below, which boldly declares “Book now”), and if there’s a part of you that’s saying to the rest of you: “the world is absolutely insane right now, I can’t think of anything I need more than a five-day prog cruise…self, we’re goin’ to Miami,” then yes, you should come see us.

I can’t even tell you how much I enjoyed the Jobson/U.K. shows in Japan, with the incredible Marc Bonilla and Marco Minnemann in the band, and Keith Wechsler and Robert Frazza our brilliant crew, and the utterly remarkable Eddie Jobson, and how much I appreciate our legendary promoter Leonardo MoonJune (see attached screenshot of him and us backstage in Osaka) and everyone from Billboard Live and all the beautiful people who came to the shows – I mean, I could tell you how much all of that means to me, it’s not like I’m legally barred from telling you – it’s more that it’s hard for me to find the words. I’m so excited to play on the cruise next week and I send love and gratitude to all involved.

But hey, let’s not get maudlin here! LOOK:

EPIC 2011 LIVE ALBUM bakin’ @ the potato!
           IS COMING TO BANDCAMP FRIDAY! 

ALL THE SONGS FROM THE WHOLE SHOW
           (with four songs previously only on the DVD) 

PLUS THE UNEDITED FULL RECORDING SESSIONS
           OF BOTH ORIGINAL COMMENTARY TRACKS

Yeah! It’s bakin’ @ the potato! for Bandcamp Friday!

This link to bakin’ @ the potato! (uncut) goes live at 11:59 p.m. PST this Thursday night, March 5, but now you can click here for a bunch more MK titles…

This album captures the MIKE KENEALLY BAND (me, Bryan Beller, Rick Musallam, Griff Peters, Joe Travers) on a particularly good night at the Baked Potato in September 2010. It was a lucky night for us (we captured Bryan Beller’s live album/DVD Wednesday Night Live on the very same night), and Mike Harris and I dedicated ourselves afterward to making sure that the audio mix on bakin’ served the performance well. This is a really good live album – everyone in the band is at the top of their game, and it features some lush arrangements unique to this era, taking full advantage of the Keneally/Musallam/Peters triple-guitar combo.

The physical edition of bakin’! was a DVD/CD release, and it’s been out of print for a number of years, so we’re highly pleased to bring this title to Bandcamp. Crucially, the Bandcamp version features every song that was on the original DVD; four of them (“Hallmark,” “Cold Hands,” “Natty Trousers” and “Career Politicians,” all solid renditions) originally had to be cut from the CD for time reasons.

Also in the Bandcamp release are the complete, unedited recording sessions for the DVD’s two commentary tracks (one track with me, Joe, and Rick, and another one with me, Griff, and Bryan via Skype from a hotel room during an Aristocrats tour). Both of these unedited tracks contain entertaining previously unreleased stuff at the beginning and ends of them. Plus you’ll get our usual quirky digital booklet with unseen photos, ephemera and maybe a surprise or two.

We hope you enjoy this comprehensive bakin’ release, and we sincerely appreciate your patronage on Bandcamp Friday, the semi-regular day when the Bandcamp platform forgoes its pie slice, and all proceeds go to the artists/labels (a large percentage of whom are independent artists for whom this particular occasional Bandcamp event has become a crucial part of their/our survival).

Our gratitude to Bandcamp, my gratitude to Scott Chatfield and Chris Opperman for keeping the Exowax Bandcamp engine stoked while I’m gallivantin’ around, and of course our thanks to you for supporting our musical efforts.

The songs of the bakin’ @ the potato! Bandcamp edition:

1. Kedgeree
2. Blameless (The Floating Face)
3. Life’s Too Small
4. Click
5. Hallmark
6. My Dilemma
7. Chee
8. Them Dolphins Is Smart
9. 1988 Was A Million Years Ago
10. Yep, Them Dolphins Is Smart, Alright
11. Bullys (sic)
12. Pretty Enough For Girls
13. Taster
14. Cold Hands
15. Tomorrow
16. Scotch
17. Natty Trousers
18. Chatfield Manor
19. Career Politicians
20. Potato

Get yer tasty bakin’ @ the potato! videos here!:

“Kedgeree,” “My Dilemma,” and “Chee.” Click ‘em and see!

IN CLOSING

Sorry to get all whatever, but – does humankind have to be a warlike species, y’think? Do our nervous systems/bloodstreams offer us no option of finally working out how to behave in another way; has it been scientifically verified that we have no choice but to inevitably and continually resort to war and violence and killing? (I could go online and research this myself, but you know, it’s a Sunday and I’m jetlagged and blah blah blah.)

Are we irreversibly programmed this way, with no real hope of ever reprogramming ourselves via any means or methodology, be it spiritual, medicinal, or what have you?

I surely don’t know, but I’m asking myself these questions a lot, and I guess I’m asking you here to ask yourself the same – maybe the combined energy generated by our collective musing could yield something positive. My heart goes to the families of the lost children at Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, and to the families of the troops who have already begun dying, and to all the people in Iran now experiencing and processing this moment, whether they be celebrating or mourning, or numb with disbelief.

My heart is with all of you, too – see you soon.

This link to bakin’ @ the potato! (uncut) goes live at 11:59 p.m. PST this Thursday night, March 5, but now you can click here for a bunch more MK titles…

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The post THE KENEALLIST: Taste the uncut live bakin’ @ the potato! on Bandcamp Friday! appeared first on The Official Mike Keneally Website.

Happy day to you!

What of things?

We’re gonna party like it’s 1999! Exowax Recordings will be increasing our Bandcamp album roster by one title (or two, really) tomorrow, Bandcamp Friday, February 6, with the addition of NONKERTOMPF/NONKERTALK.

NONKERTOMPF/NONKERTALK COMES TO
BANDCAMP TOMORROW. REJOICE! DO IT!

This link to Nonkertompf/Nonkertalk goes live at 11:59 p.m. PST tonight, but now you can click here for a bunch more MK titles…

Hurray, I say! Nonkertompf is a very important album for me.

This Bandcamp release is the digital equivalent to the original 1999 Nonkertompf special edition. That very limited issue (500 copies, as I recall) came packaged with a second CD, called Nonkertalk.

Nonkertompf is a 73-minute album, containing 35 instrumental pieces featuring me playing all the instruments. It was the first album released by Exowax Recordings, soon after Scott Chatfield and I formed the label in 1999, and was the result of Scott asking me if I harbored any long-held dreams about albums I’d always wanted to make. I instantly thought back to an album I’d first envisioned at age 12 – all instrumental, me on all instruments, and very eccentric. I was already into weird progressive music at that age, and I knew the album would reflect that love.

I also knew that I wanted to call it Nonkertompf, which was just a made-up word, signifying nothing, but somehow it captured the feeling of the music I wanted on this album. I even had the basic cover design (black & white close-up portrait, only part of the head showing) figured out when I was 12. So I’d carried the whole vibe of this album, musically and visually, around with me for about a quarter-century by the time Scott asked me about my “dream album.”

Nonkertalk is primarily occupied by an interview between me and Scott Chatfield about the album. Scott takes me on a deep dive into each of the 35 pieces, and given that we’d just finished making the album when we did the interview, all the details were very fresh in our minds, so this is as thorough a dissection of Nonkertompf as you could get. Dividing up the interview segments are pieces of music from the sessions that didn’t make the album proper, and appearing underneath the dialogue are numerous stripped-down mixes from the multitracks.

An hypnotic shot from the short “ClickFlick” video included in the Bandcamp exclusive Nonkertompf/Nonkertalk Bandcamp release.

Also included in the original physical edition was “ClickFlick,” a short film by J Warner documenting the making of the song “Click” at Double Time, which was embedded as a movie file on the original Nonkertalk CD (practically hidden there, actually – we didn’t make a lot of noise at the time about the fact that it was on there). For this Bandcamp edition, “ClickFlick” is included in your download folder, along with a pdf containing all the original artwork, scans of CD faces, a promo postcard, a hype sticker – it’s got it all!

(Saying this again, in case it’s still news to anyone: tomorrow, Bandcamp Friday, is the day when Bandcamp doesn’t take a slice of profits on downloads, all proceeds go to artists and labels. We appreciate your support of our Bandcamp Friday releases in the past – Bandcamp purchases really make a difference for independent artists in the current cultural landscape. Thank you!)

THE WINNER OF THE “FOR A SONG” CONTEST IS…SHOHEI SAWAKAWA!

In early January, the number was drawn for the winner of December’s “For a Song” contest. I drew it out of the very hat for which the hat. album was named – and we’re delighted to announce that Shohei Sawakawa of Japan is the winner! His prize is that I’m going to write and record a song inspired by him. He’s already sent me many heartfelt words which are going to prove highly inspirational for me in the creation of the song. I’m really looking forward to making it!

Here, now: look at this video featuring me, Scott Chatfield, and Chris Opperman, documenting the very moment the number was drawn, and multiple moments on either side of that moment:

NEW MIKE KENEALLY/MARCELO RADULOVICH RELEASE FOR BANDCAMP FRIDAY: SATURDAY

Saturday, the eighth album released by me and Marcelo in a little over two years’ time, is in some ways the most left-field of our albums so far, particularly in terms of its form; whereas all the previous albums are made up of multiple, often quite short selections, Saturday consists, in its entirety, of a single, just-under-22-minute-long musical construction.

The piece is highly organic, developing in intuitive and improvisational ways, but the ultimate result has a composed quality, undulating through multiple moods as it progresses. It flirts with aspects of modern classical, fractured dance rhythms, old-school prog, exploratory jazz fusion, Musique concrète, etc. etc. etc.

Saturday is a highly individual entry in the Keneally/Radulovich discography (which now consists of six different “day-of-the-week” instrumental releases, Monday through Saturday, plus two albums of vocal material, BASK and BASK 2. BASK 3 and Sunday are currently deep in the works). By the end of 2026, our collaboration will comprise a ten-album collection – for now, please check out the Saturday album on Bandcamp Friday. You can browse from all our releases now at the Titicacaman Records Bandcamp page.

WE THANK YOU PROFUSELY!

It’s true!! Thank you!! Profusely!!!

Love,

Nonkertompf/Nonkertalk goes live at 11:59 p.m. PST Thursday (tonight), but you can click here now for many more delectable MK albums…

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The post THE KENEALLIST: Exclusive Keneally Nonkertompf release on Bandcamp tomorrow! appeared first on The Official Mike Keneally Website.

Happy holidays my dear friends!

We at Exowax are consistently grateful for the support you’ve shown us over the years, and we’d like to give you a little concrete evidence of our gratitude –

Therefore, EVERYTHING in stock at The Keneally Store – CDs, CD/DVD sets, downloads, shirts, the lot – is now an entire 50% OFF for the remainder of 2025!
You can have any available item you want FOR A SONG!!

All these things make wonderful holiday gifts – even if YOU already have everything in the catalogue, you’ve definitely got some music-loving friends who don’t have it all yet…and there may still be some holes in your Keneally Kollection yet to be filled. Now is the time!

And just to sweeten the deal – ONE FORTUNATE HUMAN WHO BUYS ANY KENEALLY PRODUCT BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR WILL RECEIVE A NEWLY-RECORDED SONG, SPECIALLY COMPOSED BY ME ABOUT THEM!

This person (possibly YOU) and I will get on a video call early next year, so I can find out some details about their life which will assist me in creating this piece of music.

Every item you purchase, downloads included, counts as ONE ENTRY in the FOR A SONG contest (eg. you buy eight things, you’ve got eight entries in the contest). Following the completion of the FOR A SONG sales event, Scott Chatfield, the eminently trustworthy CEO of Exowax, will use an entirely random and gloriously fair process to select the lucky winner.

Here! Look at this jaunty graphic with all the details regarding the FOR A SONG sale/contest!

All of us at Exowax Recordings – myself, Scott Chatfield and Chris Opperman – wish you a joyous and peaceful holiday season and a wonderful 2026.

Much love to you all!

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The post THE KENEALLIST: 50% off Keneally merch, plus Mike could write you a song! appeared first on The Official Mike Keneally Website.