Tres Caballeros

Tres Caballeros

• Shrink-wrapped

The Aristocrats - by any measure the hottest new band in instrumental rock/fusion today - rewrote their own rules for their third studio album, ''Tres Caballeros''. After two fairly raw trio albums, guitarist Guthrie Govan (Steven Wilson, Asia/GPS), bassist Bryan Beller (Joe Satriani, Dethklok) and drummer Marco Minnemann (Steven Wilson, Joe Satriani) set up camp at legendary Sunset Sound studios in Hollywood, CA, where Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Van Halen all recorded landmark albums. The result: Nine new compositions of greater sonic depth and breadth than ever before, with unique textures and lush layering augmenting the band's preternatural ability to improvise at the highest levels possible. But it's all still tempered with a steadfast refusal to take themselves too seriously, and The Aristocrats are still having more fun than a fusion band has any right to have. ''We've learned a lot since we started this band - four years, three studio albums, two live DVDs and about a billion notes ago! - and I think our latest offering reflects this in all kinds of ways,'' says guitarist Guthrie Govan. ''The decision to road-test our new material in front of a live audience before commencing the recording process; the choice to record in a studio which had some thoroughly inspiring rock n roll mojo ; our sudden urge to become more bold and experimental with overdubs rather than feeling any pressure to record exclusively in a strict trio format... all of this has had some kind of positive effect on the way the new record came out. Plus, I think the material on this album is some of the most interesting stuff we've ever written for each other, so€¦ here's hoping our noble listeners will like the finished product as much as we do!''