Reporting: tour tour thor

Hey!
I'm home! Home in NJ. Sorry for the lack of posts over the last... well...

ok!

Everything was da bomb, as I had expected...

It went like this:
Balimore MD: mixing with The Tall Grass
Raleigh NC: Lonnie Walker
Athens GA: Cara Beth Satalino
Athens GA: Mouser
Raleigh NC: Grass Widow
Baltimore MD: Ecstatic Sunshine (later)

There are a few photos (not many) on my flickr page

So I'm back in NJ with a whole bunch of mixing in front of me.

Here's some good news: Cara's album is finally done! Well, almost. Probably a few revisions still, but whoa! We started that project in June! Wow! I'll post a song or two when it's all set, ok?

Ecstatic Sunshine and I recorded three pieces in about four days in March. Also working on the project was Joe Williams of White Williams, who helped out with the extensive post-recording processing (sherman filterbank, tape, effects pedals). One of the songs will probably end up on a split with Lucky Dragons, from LA. I think that's cool for me to list, right? The lineup is now Matt on guitar, Kieran on space drum and a loop pedal, and Dave playing samples through an array of pedals. The loops have gone even more out of sync since last time we recorded in September. The line seems to have blurred between texture and melody. Also, structural changes are much subtler in the newer pieces, mostly slow fades, or adding or taking away one loop or note.

The guitar has become a slave to the cloud.

I got hooked up with Grass Widow from Raleigh, NC through their bassist, Mike Dillon, who I recorded in summer 2007 with his former band Tron Valdez. Grass Widow is much more straight up garage rock punkin it up and angst gimme guitars baby. You'll see, I'll be posting a song or two once I mix 'em. We did four songs total.

Working with Cara Satalino again was awesome. We had a killer time rappin' and garfieldin' and crosswordin' and nancy. We finished up the bass parts for two songs that had been in limbo since the summer. We even got two all new songs recorded, including a fullrocky/grungy version of "Shimmering Thing", a song that has been on her myspace in demo form since before we worked over the summer, (right)? This stuff is just about done. All mixed.. just minor revisions. FUCK YES!!!

In Athens, I also worked with Mouser. I had been talking to their drummer Mercer since the fall about doing some recording at some point, and we finally got to it. The band is in the middle of a big album project, and they wanted several of the songs to based around live performances. I was working as the tracking engineer for these songs, and when we finished up, I handed the sessions over to them to add upon. We were recording in the basement of the Secret Squirrel, which is the basement of Mercers home/business where he has a lot of really cool shows. I'm excited to hear where they take this stuff, but I think I'll have to wait like everyone else.

This whole southern jaunt was actually planned around trying to get down to Raleigh to work with Lonnie Walker in Raleigh, NC. I've worked with these guys twice, once last summer and most recently in January, when we got 90% of a record recorded at the Terpsikhore studio in Raleigh. I'm mixing it right now! Oh, also, I fell kinda good about building a little connection between these guys and Cara, who agreed to record a minor vocal part in their song "Crochet".

One more important note!
The Tall Grass LP that was tracked in November is finally done! Yay! Mixing with them was both the first and last stop of the tour. Whoa is right! I'll get somma that stuff up to, ok? Man, I need to update that fucking player... woot

Here's a photo of me wearing the cool flannel shirt that was given to me by Geoff from The Tall Grass, and mailed to me by Cara after I left it in Athens.
This link goes out to you guys!

Ooh! ooh!!
Cara gave me eleven Neil Young albums while I was down there. I don't think I can get my fill. I've been gettin down to Zuma. I'm really feelin Tonight's the Night. On the Beach slays me.
I guess I decided that if yr down with what Neil's got, then I'll be down with what you got, ya know?