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 original, refreshing, and entertaining instrumental rock-fusion bands in the world. Anyone who has witnessed their live musical performance, where rock, jazz, pop, metal, country, and everything in between randomly interweave, can feel the spirit of a true band whose improvisational soul allows anything to happen on stage at any moment… including the occasional wink and nod to the audience in the spirit of Frank Zappa.

The buzz from what was supposed to be a one-off debut performance at the NAMM show in Anaheim in 2011 led to the release of their debut album The Aristocrats. Recorded in just eight days, The Aristocrats [2011] was instantly hailed as a classic by major music publications around the world and appeared on numerous “Top 10 Albums of the Year” lists. In the following decade, The Aristocrats released three more critically acclaimed studio albums, two of which reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Jazz chart. (Jazz? Well, sure…) After four world tours and three live albums, the band is now known across five continents as a must-see musical experience.

In the midst of a pandemic lockdown break, the band created their fifth and most ambitious studio effort yet — a concept album. Duck is the story of a spider native from an Antarctic island fleeing from a penguin police officer all the way to New York City… where considerable misfortune and peril await. The new album was released on February 16, 2024, coinciding with the DUCKLING tour — a series of five select West Coast U.S. shows marking the occasion. Duck takes the collective artistry of The Aristocrats to a whole new stunning — albeit absurd — level.