12/17Joe Satriani, Guthrie Govan, Tosin Abasi and Andy Aledort Talk G4 Experience
The headline pretty much says it all – if you want to see a 10-minute YouTube video conference call recorded via Skype with Joe Satriani, Guthrie Govan, Tosin Abasi (of Animals As Leaders) and Guitar World Senior Editor Andy Aledort all talking about the G4 Experience coming in late June, 2015 to Cambria, CA, then you know what you must do:
Meanwhile, some late-breaking news: We’re moving up the schedule for the presale of Culture Clash Live a lot. Like, very soon. Days, not weeks. Watch this space. :-)
-The Aristocrats
12/05“Culture Clash Live” Drops On JANUARY 20 – Plus “Secret Show: Live In Osaka” Comes Out Same Day!
We’ve been working on this for nearly six months, and everyone has waited long enough, so we are proud to announce, finally, the following news:
* Culture Clash Live – a sprawling, professionally-recorded CD/DVD two-disc compilation taken from 6 shows in 5 countries on 3 continents – will be released on January 20, 2015
* Secret Show: Live In Osaka, a 2CD limited-release that serves as the tour’s “official bootleg”, will come out on the same day – the first 1,000 will be signed by the band
* Culture Clash Live physical units will be available at our webstore and eventually major e-tailers, and the audio CD will be available digitally at our webstore and on iTunes, etc. A digital version of the DVD will be available via Littlecast (details forthcoming).
* Secret Show: Live in Osaka will be available exclusively at our webstore and live merchandise tables
* Both items will go on presale in early January, exact date TBA
We’ve got a lot going on right now – the live releases, the 4-show residency at Alvas Showroom in late January, the recording of our next studio album…and all of the details can be found in the press release which we’re simply going to post below.
We know you waited a long time for this, and we’re proud to finally have it done and nearly ready for you to check out. Preview videos will come soon. In the meantime, read and enjoy. :-)
****************
THE ARISTOCRATS –
FEATURING GUTHRIE GOVAN, BRYAN BELLER AND MARCO MINNEMANN –
TO RELEASE CULTURE CLASH LIVE CD/DVD ON 01/20/2015
Also to be released: SECRET SHOW: LIVE IN OSAKA – limited-edition 2CD live disc, completely raw and unedited from the very special last night of the Asia tour
An intimate-venue Los Angeles residency and tracking of new studio album to immediately follow, at world-famous Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, CA
The rock/fusion power trio supergroup The Aristocrats – featuring Guthrie Govan on guitar, Bryan Beller on bass, and Marco Minnemann on drums – will release the live CD/DVD Culture Clash Live, on January 20th 2015. Captured in six different locations in five countries on three different continents during the band’s 100+ show Culture Clash World Tour, it showcases The Aristocrats in full flight: Virtuosic, melodic, spontaneous, outrageous, and still having more fun than any group of world touring muzos has any right to have.
Culture Clash Live will be released on the band’s label, BOING Music, and available physically as a CD/DVD package containing 8 audio tracks on the CD and 9 cuts on the DVD. Only three tracks are the same performance on both CD and DVD – all others are unique, giving fans a chance to hear how the songs evolved while on tour. DVD bonus features include: a look behind the scenes at the video setup in Tokyo; an extra drum solo shot with 20 cameras; and demos from the Culture Clash album.
Physical units will first be sold through the band’s webstore at http://thearistocrats.spinshop.com. The digital audio-only will be available through iTunes and other major e-tailers. New for this release: Digital-only versions of the DVD will be available through LittleCast.
As if that’s not enough, the band is also releasing a 2CD set called Secret Show: Live In Osaka, which shows The Aristocrats at the peak of their live prowess: Equal parts raw, funny, bracing…and with no editing in any of the performances comprising the two-disc set. The band didn’t even know they were being recorded until after the show, when they were presented with a live-to-two-track recording by the soundman. The first 1,000 units of Secret Show will be signed by the band, and the limited release will only be available at the band’s website and live merch tables.
Each band member had unique thoughts on the tour, which ended up in the liner notes for the package. Some highlights:
“Every time we play a song live, it seems to evolve slightly,” says Govan. “However hard we might try to capture definitive versions in the studio, the true nature of any given composition inevitably reveals itself during the subsequent touring process, mutating incrementally from one night to the next as we do our best to maintain the element of spontaneity and encourage the occurrence of little musical ‘accidents.’”
While the music evolved and the audiences made each show unforgettable, the live recording process was anything but smooth. “The panoply of technical pitfalls that ensued reached a certain comic level of absurdity,” Beller remembers. “The crowds were unremittingly awesome, only to be rivaled in ferocity by the gremlins in each location.” So the project became a Frank Zappa-style live compilation by necessity, which gave it a rollicking international flavor – a culture clash after all.
Drummer Marco Minnemann put it all in perspective. “I remembered sitting in a van on our ride to one of our shows, listening to one of the songs – which I usually avoid, because it’s sort of like looking in the mirror trying to fix your hair or something – saying out loud, ‘Hey, we’re actually not that bad!’ You sometimes just gotta let go and enjoy the real-time moments without questioning them.”
To top it all off, the band is slotted to play a four-show residency at Alvas Showroom in San Pedro, CA in late January 2015 to work out new material…and then just two days later, they go back into the studio to make their highly anticipated third studio album at world-famous Sunset Sound, where Van Halen (1), Led Zeppelin IV, and Rage Against The Machine’s The Battle Of Los Angeles were tracked, among hundreds of others. The Aristocratic musical mayhem continues…with a tentative release scheduled for July of 2015.
The members of The Aristocrats first performed together as a trio at the Anaheim Bass Bash during the winter NAMM show in 2011. After a huge response from fans for the trio to become permanent, the band (named after the infamous dirty joke of the same name) quickly recorded their first album The Aristocrats in 2011, to instant wide acclaim. The band released a live album, Boing, We’ll Do It Live! in 2012, followed by their breakthrough second studio album Culture Clash, which debuted at #8 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart in July of 2013 (we know: jazz…?). Guitarist Guthrie Govan has been featured on the cover of Guitar Player Magazine and is known for his solo album Erotic Cakes, as well as recent touring work with Steven Wilson, and performing with the band Asia/GPS from 2001-2006. Bassist/solo artist Bryan Beller graced the cover of Bass Player Magazine in late 2012, and is recognized from his work with Dethklok, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Mike Keneally. Drummer Marco Minnemann is a multi-instrumentalist and prolific solo artist/composer, was featured on the cover of Modern Drummer, and is known for his live work with Necrophagist, Kreator, Adrian Belew, UKZ, and Steven Wilson – as well as his Telly Award-winning DVD Extreme Drumming.
Culture Clash Live CD Track Listing
- Sweaty Knockers (Whittier, CA, USA)
- Ohhhh Noooo (Whittier, CA, USA)
- Get It Like That (Whittier, CA, USA)
- Culture Clash (Whittier, CA, USA)
- Gaping Head Wound (Whittier, CA)
- Louisville Stomp (Manchester, UK)
- Desert Tornado (Bangkok, THAILAND)
- Living The Dream (Zoetermeer, NL)
Culture Clash Live DVD Track Listing
- Furtive Jack (Tokyo, JAPAN)
- Ohhhh Noooo (Bangkok, THAILAND)
- Lousville Stomp (Manchester, UK)
- Get It Like That (Tokyo, JAPAN)
- Culture Clash (Bangkok, THAILAND)
- Blues Fuckers (Mexico City, MX)
- Gaping Head Wound (Mexico City, MX)
- Desert Tornado (Bangkok, THAILAND)
- Living The Dream (Zoetermeer, NL)
************
10/28The G4 Experience: The Aristocrats, Joe Satriani, Animals As Leaders and Mike Keneally!
While we put the finishing touches on Culture Clash Live, we have some breaking news:
We are proud to announce that The Aristocrats will take part in The G4 Experience featuring Joe Satriani, Animals As Leaders and Mike Keneally, a superfun and intense weeklong retreat in beautiful Cambria, CA from June 28 – July 2, 2015. Tickets are limited and they just went on sale today! Guthrie, Bryan and Marco will be doing individual workshops as well as a group workshop, and who knows what else will happen with that collection of people all in the same vicinity.
Says Guthrie: ““Every aspect of this event promises to be a lot of fun, but I must say I’m particularly looking forward to the fact that the whole Aristocrats trio will be there: this means that we’ll be able to move beyond a strictly guitar-centric focus and devote some time to the way band members work together when writing, rehearsing or touring. That stuff is hugely important but all too often gets overlooked.”
For more info and to purchase tickets, just go here:
Meanwhile, the Saturday night show for our January 2015 4-night residency at Alvas Showroom (where we’ll be debuting our new material!) is nearly sold out, and the others are filling up as well. Don’t forget about this, as by the time January comes around this small venue might not have seats left:
THE ARISTOCRATS
FOUR-NIGHT RESIDENCY AT ALVAS SHOWROOM
SAN PEDRO, CA, USA
Thursday, January 29, 2015, 8:00pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693143
Friday, January 30, 2015, 8:00pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693144
Saturday, January 31, 2015, 7:30pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693145
Sunday, February 1, 2015, 5pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693146
More news on the release date for Culture Clash Live very, very soon.
Cheers to all,
The Aristocrats
9/19January 2015: The Aristocrats First-Ever Residency – At Alvas Showroom
The Aristocrats are proud to announce our first-ever residency, at one of our favorite venues: Alvas Showroom in San Pedro, CA.
The four shows will take place the week after the January 2015 NAMM show in Anaheim, CA. And it’s a special occasion, because we’ll be debuting material from our upcoming third studio album, which we’re going to record right after this residency is over. So we’ll be working through these songs for the first time live, and the idea is that we’ll carry that live energy into the studio with us.
Even though we’re doing four shows, seats are still limited (Alvas capacity is about 80), so if you’re thinking of attending, we strongly recommend advance purchase through the Alvas website, at the links below:
THE ARISTOCRATS
FOUR-NIGHT RESIDENCY AT ALVAS SHOWROOM
SAN PEDRO, CA, USA
Thursday, January 29, 2015, 8:00pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693143
Friday, January 30, 2015, 8:00pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693144
Saturday, January 31, 2015, 7:30pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693145
Sunday, February 1, 2015, 5pm
http://alvasshowroom.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=693146
Hope to see you there. Should be fun. :-)
Best wishes to all,
The Aristocrats
9/08The “Culture Clash” World Tour Is Over…
After 15 months and over 100 shows around the world, the Aristocrats’ Culture Clash World Tour is now in the books. T H A N K Y O U to everyone all over the world who came out to see us play way too many notes and make funny noises with toy animals and smartphone synth apps. BOING, we’ll do it again…sometime next year.
We didn’t manage to get any great end-of-tour pictures due to darkness and other factors (*cough* alcohol *cough*), so instead we’ll leave you with this fairly comprehensive website photo album from our gig in Vietnam, which goes a long way to symbolizing just how many amazing places we were able to see on this tour, and also how many wonderful people we met and shared our music with. Culture clash? Not with our fans.
Check out this amazing photo essay from our Vietnam gig right here.
In the meantime:
* The “Culture Clash” bass/drum backings and transcriptions/tab remain available at
https://jamtrackcentral.com/official-tab-store/aristocrats
* Work on the CD/DVD set Culture Clash Live continues, with more and more material being packed into it with every passing week. Here’s a sneak preview of the artwork for the t-shirt that will accompany the package for those who want such a thing:
* And now your reward for reading this far: Our next shows will be in Southern California in the last week of January 2015 (the week after NAMM), where we will do a four-night residency to debut our brand new material for the third studio album. More info and official announcements on that soon.
Once again, thanks for following us and making this all possible. We remain grateful and can’t wait to do it again…after we get some rest.
-The Aristocrats
9/01Bass/Drums Transcriptions/Tab/Backing Tracks For “Culture Clash” Available NOW!
It’s here: The full transcriptions and backing tracks packages for bass and drums on the album Culture Clash are now available at Jam Track Central!
Bassists who pick this up will get PDF transcriptions (notation + tab) of every song on the album, personally proofed by Bryan Beller. They’ll also get a set of music-minus-bass audio tracks – with guitar and drums only, for playing along.
The drums package is the same, all verified by Marco Minnemann, with a little bonus: Drummers will get music-minus-drums tracks with click *and* without click, so they can play along either way.
Guitarists shouldn’t feel left out either. Protip: If you get the bass package, the no-bass mixes expose every nuance of Guthrie’s playing in a way that you may not have heard before. Of course, if you want the guitar transcriptions, that’s in the guitar package only.
Just click right HERE to check it out (with free audio previews) and pick it up today.
Meanwhile, we’re full speed ahead on what will be called Culture Clash Live – a CD/DVD 2-disc set that will contain performances literally from around the world:
* Whittier, California, USA
* Mexico City, MEXICO
* Manchester, UK
* Tilburg, NETHERLANDS
* Zoetermeer, NETHERLANDS
* Bangkok, THAILAND
* Tokyo, JAPAN
Seven shows, six countries, three continents – it takes the Culture Clash concept to a whole new level!
Plus, we’re working on a special surprise for the Super Deluxe package. More details coming soon, but we hope to have it available by the end of 2014.
Thanks as always for following along and being interested in our Aristocratic activities. And don’t forget the last four shows of the Culture Clash World Tour:
Sep 1 – Porgy & Bess – Vienna, AT
Sep 3 – Cafe Rosenberg – Reykjavik, ICELAND
Sep 5 – P60 – Amstelveen, NL
Sep 6 – The Woolley Festival – Merkins Farm, Bradford Leigh, Bradford on Avon, UK
If you’re closeby, come on out! It’ll be a while before we’re back out touring, so…you know what to do.
Best wishes to all,
The Aristocrats
8/20Thank you ASIA – Now Back To EUROPE!
And that’s that. Thank you ASIA for an amazing three weeks! We sign off from Osaka, Japan, for just a few days before we reconvene in Italy for the final 5 dates of the “Culture Clash” world tour. And here’s some news:
* We ARE working on a live CD/DVD of the “Culture Clash” tour, and it’s going to contain footage from literally all over the world – including two stops on our Asia tour. More details on this soon!
* The bass/drums backing tracks and complete transcriptions from “Culture Clash” will be available at JamTrackCentral on September 1.
* Here’s the European dates that will wrap up the entire “Culture Clash” World Tour:
Aug 28 – Rock On Festival (free entrance) – Martirano Lombardo (Catanzaro), IT
Sep 1 – Porgy & Bess – Vienna, AT
Sep 3 – Cafe Rosenberg – Reykjavik, ICELAND (venue updated on Aug 28!)
Sep 5 – P60 – Amstelveen, NL
Sep 6 – The Woolley Festival – Merkins Farm, Bradford Leigh, Bradford on Avon, UK
And finally, as we like to say, here’s a shot of the band in Osaka after the last show ended last night. Thanks again to all!!
