Update!

Mainly been mixing the past many weeks and have gotten to work on some really good projects. Things got a little sidetracked by a medical situation which now appears to be under control (despite the worst wishes of one obsessive, mentally deranged individual) but hoping to this week wrap up mixes with the.blackout.district. It's been a highly educational set of sessions as their vision for the songs is often really different from mine so working to find a ground we both can stand happily on has led to working out some nifty new tricks.

Finished two EPS prior to this, one with the super secret band that I'm still not certain I can reveal the identities of (heh) and a group called The Dustys, which I co-mixed with Nick. This group is absurdly good. They've got these great ways of layering really lovely vocal melodies and almost-over-the-top '70s psych-metal guitars that sound exactly the way electric rock'n'roll should sound. The recording was done over a stretch of time both at their homes and at Inner Ear with Nick, who's recorded guitar sounds are always so good as to make me feel rather insecure. I'm really glad to have been able to get involved, and will definitely be giving copies of this EP out for holiday gifts. It's really really good stuff. Death By Sexy has been in a few days as well mixing a full-length Nick tracked which is obviously full of great sounding guitars. I hope we get to make a blooper reel of this one. Those guys have a knack for mid-song banter, and Dex put a flanger across the drum bus at one point. I salute him for his verve, as well as his floor tom skill.

Have one more day of tracking with e.l.m.s. - a project starring Emily and Susan of Exit Clov, Laura Burhenn of her own well-deserved repute and that of Georgie James, and May Tabol, who once was in a band called Le Loup and now has a band called Pree (also w/ some lovely guitar atmosphere courtesy of one Mr David Barker) who are so good that if they aren't the darlings of everyone who loves music by this time next year I may lose all faith in humanity. It's a holiday song! It feels like great 60s/70s folky stuff; I've been sort of using "The Only Living Boy in New York" as a sonic model for it (and in fact was so happy after our last tracking day that, after a few glasses of wine, I had to record my own somewhat silly take on the Simon & Garfunkle tune.) Emily and Susan are always really wonderful on violin and vocals, and it was no exception here. We've been tracking generally a few sources at once to get some bleed - with violins it's been the TM2 on one and the Reslo ribbon on the other - one a rich, dark tone, the other more reedy and sorta haunting. Vocals have pretty unfailingly been with the MD1a+76+MC77. And wow, the vocals! Each of the four were awesome. Like two takes, no splicing, just straight up excellence. I was so dumbfounded by how great it sounded and how freaking easy it was I could barely talk straight.

And woah. As the total opposite... had a guy in the other day who'd gone to Memphis to record at Al Green's old place. Done to 2" and flown into PT, he needed some quick reference mixes done. Just a fast, couple hour service. Right? Holy shit. Like 144-bus ProTools sessions, multiple playlists, menus I didn't know existed, routing configurations that went everywhere but the simple way. I would love to see what this place looked like inside what with all the crazy routing done on those sessions that now had their actual hardware endpoints removed. Luckily the guy was super nice, and the band he'd had playing with him were seriously professional. I'm dying for a Wurli 200 as a result. It definitely reminded me it's time to dig a little deeper into what PTHD can do, but as well that sometimes just pretending it's a tape deck living in the computer feels really nice.

Anyways. We've got sessions booked at Inner Ear in Jan/Feb for more Blackout tracks and the completion of the Bellflur record, and perhaps some new stuff with the super secret mystery band as well. It's nice to be busy.