The Aristocrats

The Aristocrats, a virtuosic rock trio whose broad musical inclinations shape their sound, fuse instrumental prog rock, jazz fusion, heavy metal, and funk into a singular style. An impromptu 2011 performance unexpectedly launched a sustained career, prompting guitarist Guthrie Govan, bassist Bryan Beller, and drummer Marco Minnemann to tour globally and issue distinctive albums including Culture Clash in 2013 and Tres Caballeros in 2015. Emerging after a three-year hiatus, the band reconvened in 2019 to record their fourth album, You Know What...?, before delivering the irreverent concept LP Duck in 2024.

Prior to the group’s formation, Britain’s Govan had performed with Asia, GPS, and Young Punx!. California native Beller, who earned a degree from the Berklee College of Music, had appeared with Dethklok, Steve Vai, and other artists. German-born Minnemann, a San Diego-based drum instructor in high demand, has issued numerous solo albums. The musicians first assembled for an unplanned showcase at the 2011 NAMM convention, where Govan filled in at the last minute for guitarist Brian Howe. The enthusiastic response convinced them to continue as a formal band. They adopted their name from a notorious off-color joke recounted in a 2005 documentary of the same title, then released their self-titled debut studio album in 2011. The live album Boing, We'll Do It Live! appeared in 2012. Culture Clash, their second studio album, followed two years later. In 2015 Beller and Minnemann guested on guitarist Joe Satriani’s Shockwave Supernova. That same year the trio issued their third studio album, Tres Caballeros.

Over the ensuing eighteen months their touring schedule took them through North America, Europe, and Asia. The Aristocrats then entered a hiatus so members could concentrate on separate projects. Regrouping in early 2019, Govan, Beller, and Minnemann tracked You Know What...? at Ojai, California’s Brotheryn Studios and released it in June of that year. Three years later they joined Poland’s Primuz Chamber Orchestra for Aristocrats with Primuz Chamber Orchestra, an album of nine re-imagined songs from their catalog arranged for a 22-piece string section. Their fifth studio album, 2024’s Duck, presents a compact, high-impact set of genre-spanning tracks loosely organized around a narrative tracing a waterfowl’s international travels after expulsion from its Antarctic island by a malicious police penguin.