7/11The DUCK USA/Canada tour starts tonight!
We had an incredible time in Mexico this past week, playing 3 shows in Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City. Thank you so much to everyone who came to see us and made each gig very memorable for us!
Now we are back in the US of A ready to begin the next stage of the tour. We start in Ramona/San Diego tonight, before heading all across the states and Canada. All the dates and ticket links can be found HERE. Hope to see you at a show soon!
7/10Read the story of DUCK!
What happens when an Antarctic island Duck gets in trouble at home and flees a penguin policeman all the way to New York City? CLICK HERE to read the story of DUCK. We’ll be publishing this one chapter at a time over the next few months, and chapter 3 is now online! ;-)
6/11BANG BANG BANG!
What happens when Guthrie Govan sits down to write a pretty fusion tune and suddenly construction workers noisily invade his block of flats? Guthrie explains, as only he can, exactly why “Here Come The Builders” didn’t turn out as he’d originally expected…
And here’s yet another reminder that The Aristocrats DUCK Tour hits North America this summer! We added three new dates the other day in case you missed it. Get the latest info and ticket links HERE.
5/20AND THEN, REVISITED
Instead of our standard video featurette for the song “And Then There Were Just Us/Duck’s End”, Marco (who wrote it) did something completely different. Let him tell you about it in his own words:
“Whilst composing and recording new material, I found myself browsing through my computer files and reorganizing folders, when the following item caught my attention: the raw demo footage and recordings for ‘And Then There Were Just Us/Duck’s End’, a piece consisting of two parts which ended up being one of my offerings from the most recent Aristocrats albums, titled ‘Duck’.
Being tempted to accumulate and tailor a ‘making of’ video of said piece, I curiously opened and investigated the folder. Immediately I felt inspired to revisit the music in regards to the thought of a scenario of ‘what would this track have sounded like had it been released on one of my solo albums?’
Well, I replayed and rearranged/recomposed a bit and am actually quite pleased to hereby offer this humble solo and still ’demoish’ version of ATTWJU/Duck’s End. Hope it brings some of you joy and I think overall it really gives everyone a bit of an insight of how in my case an Aristocrats demo sounds like.”
Check out the track on Bandcamp HERE.
4/16The Aristocrats announce DUCK North American tour dates this summer!
Tickets are available NOW from our website HERE.
Having recently wrapped an exclusive run of completely sold out dates on the west coast of the United States (the “Duckling” tour) around the DUCK album’s release, guitarist Guthrie Govan, bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann will now bring their trademark musical virtuosity and inherent absurdity back to stages all across the United States, as well as Canada and Mexico. They’ll be playing (and perhaps even explaining) a sizeable chunk of their new album DUCK, as well as classic cuts from their five-album catalogue.
Of the upcoming tour, Guthrie commented, “Our new concept album tells the tale of a Duck who travels thousands of miles from his home on a small island and ultimately finds himself in the US… As the sole UK-based member of The Aristocrats, I’m particularly looking forward to retracing his anatine steps this summer!”. Marco adds, “It was exciting experiencing the great response and equally great fun we had taking our newest ‘Duck’ material briefly out on the road for a test drive. I cannot express more how much I look forward to presenting our most recent offerings to all of you wonderful people around the globe.” Bryan concludes, “We’re extremely proud of the DUCK album, but live onstage is where our music always truly comes alive. With that said: North America, we’ll see you soon!”
4/04THE SONG THAT STARTED IT ALL!
When Marco first wrote a tune that evoked classic 70s/Motown vibes and cheekily named it “Sittin’ With A Duck On A Bay”, he had no idea the whole album would end up being named DUCK. But it’s funny how things turn out. Here’s a short feature on that very song, along with some behind-the-scenes talk about the DUCK story evolution.
3/14Introducing Rusanda Panfili – the first ever instrumental guest on an Aristocrats album!
The Balkan-flavored madcap final cut on DUCK is entitled “This Is Not Scrotum”. Yes, we know, you have questions. No story spoilers yet, but we’re more than happy to tell you about the first ever instrumental guest on an Aristocrats album – world class violinist Rusanda Panfili (Hans Zimmer Live, Andrea Bocelli, and many more)!
Rusanda’s roots in Moldova bring an unrivaled authenticity to our take on Eastern European fusion, and we’re very grateful that she agreed to appear on such an…*inelegantly* named song.
Some of this live-in-studio footage is from the DUCK DELUXE package bonus material. Just in case you were wondering where to get it. ;-)
