Happy Springtime!

Hi!

Thought I'd give ya'll a little springtime update.

Let's start with some things I've been working on:

The end of February I was able to spend a nice, snowy evening with Speedy Ortiz. This newish band was started by Sadie Dupuis, who's previous band, Quilty, recently split up. Speedy Ortiz plays some really fun, catchy rock music that definitely makes a nod to bands like Pavement, the Amps, Polvo, etc., while maintaining their autonomy.. The guitars go from clean and fiddly to HEAVY. They boast great dynamic shifts, fantastic lyrics, and O so catchy guitar riffs. I highly, highly recommend checking out their stuff. The project we worked on was start by Paul Q. Kolderie at Mad Oak in Boston. We comped vocals, added Matt Robidoux's (Graph) guitars, and mixed it together. Dig the tracks on their bandcamp page. They got more on the way 2!

Western Mass's very own Psychic Blood and I have just put the bow on top of their forthcoming 9 song, 33 minute noise/punk LP. I'm not sure when it's coming out but get psyched!

Hush Arbors and I mixed their upcoming side of a split LP with Arboretum coming out on record store 2012! The record is being released by Thrill Jockey Records!

Other Record Store Day-related projects I worked on this year:

-Elder
-Heavy Blanket

I began the epic task of mixing Rusty Belle's forthcoming live record. We're just about finished with it so we're hoping it'll see release in the very-near future!

Dinosaur Jr. released a live DVD this past February. The show was recorded at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC this past summer. Tim Herzog (who does FOH for Dinosaur, among many other things) and I were responsible for making sure the set was recorded properly on the night of the show. His microphone placement, my Pro Tools prowess. During the autumn of 2011, J and I mixed the tracks at his studio, Bisquiteen, in Amherst, MA. It's called Dinosaur Jr. Bug: In the Hands of the Fans.

In the works are some pretty amazing projects that I probably shouldn't get too specific about but I can't help but to mention:

1. An amazing combination of musicians playing together to record one amazing song: J Mascis and Lou Barlow meets The Melvins in the studio!

2. J Mascis and Lee Ranaldo recently teamed up for a fun ditty, written by someone else. It's an amazing song that you've probably heard before. It was a hit, yet it was instrumental, and remains that way on this version.

3. A certain three-piece from western Massachusetts has been in the studio since February 1st, 2012 working hard on their third record since their reunion. This band features ex-members of Deep Wound.

I would also like to officially congratulate David Sweetapple and Outer Battery Records. They are new to this world and it's looking like they're gonna make people happy!

Lastly, but certainly not leastly: my new recording studio and practice space complex is VERY close to being open. We're awaiting some official documents and once we get those, we'll start wheeling in tape machines, consoles, amps, drums, pianos, etc. and start wiring this place up! Mark Miller of Slaughterhouse, as you know, is my partner in this venture. We're very close on this and are starting to book sessions from May 2012 on!

In preparation, I've started to build myself some mic preamps. I'm very excited about these. So far I've got 4 OPAMPs built (2 based on the original API 2520 'Huntington' and 2 based on the beautiful-sounding Melcor 1731). I tested out both and honestly could not believe the different between the stock API pre amps and these kits.

Once my actual microphone preamp kits arrive, I'll start tearing through those. I've had the pleasure of using these preamps in other recording studios, and I was very impressed! I have my second API Lunchbox ready for these bad boys!

Thank you for entertaining another scattered rambling of my goings on!