With a February 16th release date looming for their first effort in five years – the Duck concept album – rock-fusion trio, The Aristocrats, have just released a new visualizer for the track, “Aristoclub.” Duck will be available via the BOING Music label, distributed by Hostile City Distro/MVD in North America, in both standard and deluxe edition formats as well as vinyl. Check out the “Aristoclub” visualizer and more from The Aristocrats below.
Pre-order Duck here.
The Aristocrats expressed “Aristoclub is our tongue-in-cheek pastiche of an ultra-mainstream 1990s dance song. Bryan wrote it to be loosely inspired by C & C Music Factory, Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch, and Technotronic – unlikely source material for Aristocrats-style guitar-driven instrumental rock/fusion, to be sure! But Guthrie did some amazing guitar sequencing on this, and Marco put his own spin on some classic dance beats. It goes to show we can throw just about anything in the blender and have it come out the other side as something fun and wild.”
“In keeping with the concept album’s narrative, the Aristoclub is also one of the first places our Duck protagonist lands upon arriving in the big city, thousands of miles from his Antarctic island home. It’s loud and crazy in there, and he just wants to have a good time after such an arduous journey – but is he being followed?”
Duck’s standard edition features the original CD, whilst the deluxe edition contains the original CD along with a USB Duck drive with behind-the-scenes footage, demos and more, a Duck pass laminate with QR code for bonus features and a custom Aristocrats-branded lanyard. Duck will also be available in 180-gram double vinyl. It was mixed by Forrester Savell (Karnivool, Twelve Foot Ninja, Dead Letter Circus) and contains original character artwork by film animator Lance Myers (Space Jam, Anastasia, Quest For Camelot).
Coinciding with the release of Duck, The Aristocrats will headline select dates on the West Coast of the United States for the “Duckling” tour. All dates are nearly sold out. Please see below for the itinerary. Click here to purchase tickets.
Of the inspiration for Duck, The Aristocrats explained, “It 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.” Of its genesis, they elaborated, “We’ve always been writing with a storytelling aspect in mind, and our live shows always include our stories behind the songs…But the stories had mainly been about us. Then Marco came into the studio with a song about a duck, and we all looked at each other and said, ‘What if all of stories for the songs on this album…happened to a duck? What’s that story about?’ And suddenly we had a concept album on our hands.”
The Aristocrats United States West Coast tour dates:
February:
16 Seattle, WA The Triple Door – SOLD OUT
17 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios – SOLD OUT
19 Redding, CA The Dip
22 Mill Valley, CA Sweetwater Music Hall – SOLD OUT
24 Los Angeles, CA The Echo – SOLD OUT
More from The Aristocrats:
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.
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.
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