Dancing
Eccentric rock virtuoso Mike Keneally was born Dec. 20 1961 in Long Island.  Largely self-taught, he plays guitar and keyboards, sings and composes and produces and does a lot of other things, all of which are fascinating to listen to and nearly impossible to describe.  He played in Frank Zappa's last touring band and has appeared on a bunch of Zappa albums, has recorded or performed with XTC, Robert Fripp, Sting, Kevin Gilbert, Steve Vai, The Loud Family, Henry Kaiser, Michael Manring, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Andy Prieboy, The Persuasions and scads of others, and has been producing solo works since the early 90's.Keneally's most recent solo album, "Nonkertompf," prompted these comments by David Fricke in Rolling Stone magazine: "I saw guitarist Mike Keneally play with Frank Zappa in the 1980s, nimbly negotiating the maestro's knotty charts, and I've watched Keneally cook hard with his twisted-fusion outfit, Beer For Dolphins. But none of it prepared me for the color and density of 'Nonkertompf,' a whirl of thirty-five instrumental miniatures, played by Keneally in their entirety and advertising not only his spicy fluency on the guitar but a flair for hot melodic sabotage rooted, yet not imprisoned, in Zappology. The music flies mad and fast, but what the hell? You have a whole century to digest it."Keneally's other releases include 1992's "hat.", 1994's "Boil That Dust Speck," 1996's "Half Alive In Hollywood" and 1997's "Sluggo!". 1995 brought the left-field classic "The Mistakes," which found Keneally teamed with Henry Kaiser, Andy West and Prairie Prince to scintillating effect.  A number of things involving Keneally have been nominated for Grammies, and some of them have won.  His music invokes such rabid fan response that a group of Keneally enthusiasts from around the world joined together in San Diego during the summer of 2000 to present "Nonkerstock," their own fan-produced-and-promoted tribute to all things Keneally, culminating in a performance by Keneally and his eight-piece band, Beer For Dolphins.This band will be issuing its new album "Dancing" in late September of this year.  About Keneally and Beer For Dolphins, Matt Resnicoff wrote in Time Out New York: "This band, with such a peculiar genius leading it, is a thing to savor."Mike Keneally - lead vocals, guitar, keyboards Bryan Beller - bass, vocals Jason Harrison Smith - drums, vocals Marc Ziegenhagen - keyboards, vocals Rick Musallam - guitar, vocals Evan Francis - saxophone, flute Tricia Williams - marimba, vibes, percussion Chris Opperman - trumpet, keyboards