Winter/Spring 2014/2015

9.14: Holy Sons – The Fact Facer LP

A little blast from the past: A song or two that Emil Amos and I did back in 2005 are featured on his debut release for Thrill Jockey. Emil, probably best known for his drumming work in Grails and Om, is also an incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, who has been releasing music under the Holy Sons moniker for over ten years now. This is one of the songs I engineered over at Type Foundry, back in the olden days. What always has amazed me about that session with Emil is that he started the songs with laying down the drums, rather than starting with the guitar and overdubbing the drums over that.

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12.14: Valet Mixing

I spent a few pre-holiday days over at Mix Foundry  finishing up mixes for the new Valet record, out in May on one of my favorite labels – Kranky Records! Here’s the beautiful title track from the record:

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12.14:: Cibo Matto Tour

I did a short tour as tour manager/sound for Cibo Matto in December. We did four shows opening up for tUnE-yArDs. It was such an immense pleasure traveling with both bands, and seeing them all play for a week straight.

Wed 10 Dec – The Wiltern, Los Angeles

Thu 11 Dec – Fox Theater, Oakland

Fri 12 Dec – Roseland Theater, Portland

Sat 13 Dec – Moore Theater, Seattle

 

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2.15:: HTRK Tour

I joined Australia’s HTRK for a week on the West coast/Chicago. It was a great little tour that included an amazing art house in Del Mar (A Ship in the Woods), and a couple of shows with L.A. based dark electronic duo Dva Damas.

Sun 21 Feb – Ship in the Woods, San Diego

Sun 22 Feb – The Echo, LA

Wed 25 Feb – Elbo Room, SF

Thu 26 Feb – Smart Bar, Chicago

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3.15:: Swahili – Amovrevx LP Release/Vestal Video

The Swahili record is finally out! I know this record was a massive, long undertaking for the band, and I think it came out great! The Soundcloud page to stream all the songs is below, as well as a new video for Vestal, one of my favorites from the album.

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3.15:: Girls In Trouble – I’m Done Dressing Up Video Release

The new Girls In Trouble record that I recorded last Spring/Early Summer is done and out soon. The album was tracked at Type Foundry and mixed up in Anacortes by Karl Blau. Here’s one song from the record, in animated video form:

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3.15:: Peter Rainbeau – Mosquitoes Video Release

A new video release for a great record I mixed a couple years back – Peter Rainbeau “Perfect Perfect Old“!

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4.15:: Houndstooth – No News From Home LP Release

Houndstooth‘s second LP, tracked in part by me at Type Foundry last year, was just released on No Quarter Records. Love this band. Here’s the title track from the record:

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4.15:: Derek Hunter Wilson recording for Beacon Sound

I spent a couple of days over at Stan Wright’s Buzz Or Howl Studios tracking on their Yamaha grand piano with Derek Hunter Wilson. It is the start of what will be a neo-classical/ambient record released by my good friend Andrew’s label, Beacon Sound. We’re off to a great start on this one! The piano is sounding great!

 

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4.15:: Ty Segall/King Tuff Split LP from Easy Sound/Pickathon

This past fall Nalin Silva and I started mixing the first Pickathon live split record, to be released on Easy Sound Recording Co. The first one, a split LP by Ty Segall/King Tuff is due out this month. A second from Diarrhea Planet/Those Darlins will follow soon thereafter. More are in the works for the coming months!

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4.15:: Young Audiences Live SET

Last fall I was commissioned by Young Audiences of Oregon and SW Washington, the local branch of a national arts in schools nonprofit, to design and implement a curriculum for teaching live sound to high school students. The result is Live SET (Sound Engineering for Teens) I spent November hard at work on it, and we implemented the first pilot program starting April 2015 with 9 students.

 We were lucky enough to be able to use Mississippi Studios as our classroom, and the whole set of classes will culminate in early May with a live concert featuring local artists The Resistance, Fringe Class and Edna Vasquez. The students will run the show, and utilize what they’re learned in a real life setting. The plan is to design and implement an advanced course for later this tear, as well as running another series of the entry level course. For more information about the program, go here.

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Pickathon Channels

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been working on an ongoing project for Pickathon called Pickathon Channels. Each month in 2015, leading up to the festival in early August, has a series of live videos taken from the 2014 festival. Each stage is hosted and released by different music blogs such as OPB Music, Aquarium Drunkard, Bluegrass Situation and Wondering Sound.

Below is one of the songs I mixed, a Townes Van Zandt cover by Jolie Holland in the Galaxy Barn, hosted by Aquarium Drunkard:

And another by Nashville’s Diarrhea Planet hosted by OPB Music. This mix will also be appearing on the split 12″ with Those Darlins due out in the coming months: