Over the past 12 years, The Aristocrats – guitarist Guthrie Govan (Steven Wilson, Hans Zimmer, Asia/GPS), bassist Bryan Beller (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Dethklok), and drummer Marco Minnemann (Steven Wilson, Joe Satriani, Steve Hackett) – have established themselves as one of the most musically original, refreshingly irreverent, and astoundingly entertaining instrumental rock-fusion acts on the planet. Anyone who’s witnessed their live musical high-wire act – employing random amounts of rock, jazz, pop, metal, country, and anything in between – feels the spirit of a true band, one whose improvisational soul allows for anything to happen onstage at any moment…including the occasional Frank Zappa-influenced wink and nod at the audience.
The buzz from their supposedly one-off debut gig at the Anaheim NAMM show in 2011 led to The Aristocrats self-titled debut album. Tracked in just eight days, The Aristocrats [2011] was hailed as an instant classic in leading music publications worldwide, appearing on many of that year’s top ten lists. The Aristocrats then proceeded to make three more critically acclaimed studio albums over the next decade, two of which landed in the Billboard Top 10 Jazz Chart. (Jazz? Ok, sure.) Four world tours and three live albums later, the band is known on five continents as a must-see whirlwind musical experience.
In the midst of breaking the lockdown seal with their worldwide 2022/2023 DEFROST TOUR, the band produced their fifth and most ambitious studio work to date – a concept album. Duck is the story of a web-footed Antarctic island native fleeing a penguin policeman all the way to New York City…where considerable misadventure and danger await. The new album releases on February 16, 2024, coinciding with the DUCKLING tour, a series of five select USA west coast dates to celebrate the occasion. Duck takes The Aristocrats’ collective artistry to a whole new mindblowing – albeit ridiculous – level. More touring is sure to follow.
