The Aristocrats \u2013 instrumental rock\/fusion\u2019s rowdy new power trio featuring guitarist Guthrie Govan (Asia\/GPS, Dizzie Rascal), bassist Bryan Beller (Steve Vai, Dethklok, Mike Keneally), and drummer Marco Minnemann (Adrian Belew, UKZ, Necrophagist) \u2013release their eponymous debut album The Aristocrats worldwide on October 25, 2011. The album showcases a uniquely explosive band chemistry, featuring three compositions from each band member, translating each individual\u2019s well-known virtuosity into an aggressive, melodic, and sometimes even cheeky group dynamic\u2026in which anything goes.<\/p>\n
The band was formed practically by demand after a wildly enthusiastic response to a single performance at The Anaheim Bass Bash during the Winter NAMM show in January. With just one rehearsal the night before the gig, the trio unexpectedly floored the audience \u2013 and themselves \u2013 with near-telepathic interplay and boundless musical energy, leaving heads shaking in disbelief that it was their very first gig. \u201cThe chemistry was so great,\u201d recalls Govan, who was just featured on the cover of Guitar Player, \u201cthat when we came offstage, we all said to each other, \u2018This is working. We should record this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Not content simply to rush together a remote recording, each far-flung band member left their homes (outside London; Nashville, TN; southern California) to meet in a Chicago studio and track the record in person, which took just under two weeks. The music became a melting pot of their respective influences, ranging from \u201970s fusion (Return To Forever) to prog (King Crimson, UK) to instrumental rock (Vai, Satriani) to groove metal (Rage Against The Machine) to just plain absurdity (Frank Zappa). Says bassist Beller, \u201cWe ended up using our different influences to write for each other. I wrote \u201cSweaty Knockers\u201d specifically for Guthrie to have fun with, while Guthrie wrote \u201cI Want A Parrot\u201d with bass leads in mind. As for Marco\u2019s material, we\u2019re just lucky to be able to keep up with it!\u201d<\/p>\n
The ever-mischievous Minnemann\u2019s song titles \u2013 such as \u201cBoing!…I\u2019m In The Back\u201d (borne from a publicly indescribable incident in Russia) and \u201cBlues Fuckers\u201d (in which a typical blues form is violated in every way imaginable) \u2013 along with Beller\u2019s shameless pole-dance rocker \u201cSweaty Knockers,\u201d prompted Govan to wonder if the band shouldn\u2019t be named The Aristocrats, after the infamous dirty joke and movie of the same name. It stuck, and The Aristocrats were born. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a raucous rock vibe and a sense of humor about the music,\u201d says Govan, \u201cwhich you might not expect to find in other muso projects in which people are flung together to make an album in a hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rock\/fusion\u2019s rowdy new power trio (guitarist Guthrie Govan bassist Bryan Beller and drummer Marco Minnemann) debuts with explosive band chemistry translating their individual virtuosity into an aggressive melodic and even cheeky group dynamic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"content-type":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"product_brand":[7261],"product_cat":[4,1963],"product_tag":[117],"class_list":["post-1217","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_brand-boing","product_cat-compactdisc","product_cat-boing-records","product_tag-117","pa_gtin-upc-ean-isbn-5154","pa_gtinupceanisbn-4085","pa_label-boing","pa_sku-bm00001","pa_street-date-10252011-2","first","instock","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"\n