MIKE KENEALLY & BEER FOR DOLPHINS: HALF ALIVE IN HOLLYWOOD

(First written review.) Mike Keneally is a young American guitarist-keyboardist-singer-composer who has played in Frank Zappa's group and is audibly influenced by Zappa. His music is quite fast, hilarious, quirky, jazzy rock with not much deeper feeling or variety. Oh, sorry for sounding so sure, this double disc is my first encounter with Keneally - and the last, no doubt. It was entertaining to listen at first but frankly I got completely tired of it before the ending of the second disc.

For a fan this offers a close view at Keneally's ways of doing music, since he writes shortly about each track (41 of them!). Not about any 'meanings' behind them - what meanings?! - but about recording these live tracks. The first disc was recorded live in the studio while the second offers a real gig. For example he describes how vocals (disc 1) were done in a very careless manner in order to redo them later, but finally the original vocals felt better.

I think Keneally is a sort of "musician's musician": technical interest overshadows emotional interest totally. He's a gifted player, mainly a virtuoso guitarist. He's accompanied by a bassist and a drummer, both very good. I could imagine having a good time listening to them in a park concert, hanging around for 45 minutes maybe, but going elsewhere if the same music still goes on and on. I rate this lowly because music is not just about technical brilliance. For me it's mostly emotions and this leaves me cold.