NAME:Built To Spill
PROGRESS REPORT: Doing final mixing for There Is No Enemy at Kingsize SoundLabs in Los Angeles with producer David Trumfio
About five years went by between the release of Built To Spill's fifth album, Ancient Melodies Of The Future, and 2006's You In Reverse. By that measure, the wait for There Is No Enemy seems short. Still, Billboard reported that Doug Martsch, along with his new lineup, were ready to wrap up their album back in May -- 2007. As you might guess, Martsch says their schedule was pretty relaxed: The band began recording in March last year, but, after recording 15 songs in Los Angeles, they re-recorded them at an old theater that was converted into a studio. "And we tried it there because we were going for a live sound. We even had a little show, invited some locals and performed the songs live in front of people and recorded those as well," Martsch explains. "But we ended up not really using that." The band returned to their original studio once every six weeks or so to do overdubs, vocals, and additional instruments before leaving for a tour last year. Martsch spent the last few months returning to the studio without the band to work on mixing. "And that's where we are now," he says. "It wasn't a year of hard work. It was a year of every once and while coming out and working. I like to sit on stuff for a while."
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Posted at 2:13 PM by Jessica in
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latest by tk.
NAME: Blitzen Trapper
PROGRESS REPORT: Recording the follow-up to 2008's Furr in Portland, Oregon.
"I don't really record records," says Blitzen Trapper leader Eric Earley. "I'm always writing and recording." And because of that, it's hard to answer some of the basic questions about the next Blitzen Trapper record. It will probably come out next year -- though it could come out now (he's already recorded over 20 tracks). It will probably be more consistent. But, since he and his band chose album tracks by simply drawing their ten or so favorite songs from those already recorded, nobody is sure exactly what will be on the album. Earley doesn't seem worried about it. He writes and records when the band's got a break between tour, scheduling just one day at a time, whenever he has a new song written. He splits his time between Mike Coykendall's and Gregg Williams' studios in Portland. Each studio has its own advantages: Coykendall's studio lets him record to tape, while Williams' has a more digital set-up, which means Earley can get warmer vocals and fine-edit the electronic elements when he needs to." I kinda just move in a lot of different directions," Earley explains. "I don't really think it terms of records. I just think in terms of songs."
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Posted at 3:01 PM by Jessica in ,
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latest by Peter K
NAME: Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy)
PROGRESS REPORT: Finishing work on Heartland, his followup to He Poos Clouds.
Owen Pallett describes the way he works as "fastidious." "I'm a Virgo, if you're into that sort of thing," he explains. The "way he works" seems to apply not only to recording his followup to 2006's He Poos Clouds, but to his life as well. He's the kind of person who takes down ambiguous Twitter messages and leaves voicemails to correct something he said via e-mail, even when (or especially when) his intentions are innocent. Even the songs he debuted at his February 28 appearance at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music ("Keep The Dog Quiet, "Lewis Takes Action," "The End Of Time," and "Tryst With Mephistopheles") display a precision that says, "please don't misunderstand me."
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latest by quartertonality
NAME: Becky Stark
PROGRESS REPORT: Performing with the Decemberists, performing and recording with the L.A. Ladies' Choir, prepping an album with The Living Sisters, recording an album with Lavender Diamond.
Lavender Diamond isn't just Becky Stark, and Stark isn't just in Lavender Diamond. Her most high-profile gig was her recent appearance with the Decemberists on The Colbert Report, and the singer/songwriter's actually been working on three other musical projects, ranging from the 10-plus member L.A. Ladies' Choir to a still-in-the-early-stages solo album, which, as far as Stark's involvement goes, require opposite amounts of attention. While writing her solo album (not out until 2010) makes her happily nervous, the choir she started last year makes her happy precisely because it can go on without her. Stark says she started writing songs a couple of years ago for a hypothetical choir of a dozen women or so. She got together a group of friends to cover Yoko Ono's "Sisters Of Sisters" at ArthurFest, but decided to form a real choir to coincide with the opening of the short film Become A Microscope - 90 Statements On Sister Corita. Since that performance, the choir has played more shows with a lineup that ranges from 8-18 women. "Now the Ladies' Choir has a life of its own," Stark explains. And because the band has a fluid membership, it can record and perform without Stark. Still, she can't wait to perform with them again, due to her love of literal (and figurative) harmonies. "It's so fun to sing together and create sharing experiences for ourselves and other women in our community," she says. "It's just a great thing to do."
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Posted at 4:43 PM by Jessica in ,
Tags: Becky Stark | L.A. Ladies' Choir | Lavender Diamond | The Living Sisters
latest by leonard
NAME: The Long Winters
PROGRESS REPORT: Recording their fourth full-length album at Electrokitty Recording, Bog Roll Studio, and Two Sticks Audio in Seattle.
"It's been a pretty hilarious process," say Long Winters main guy John Roderick of their transient recording process. Recording the followup to 2006's Putting The Days To Bed, the Long Winters have seen the inside of "half a dozen different studios," from producer John Goodmanson's studio to home setups at Roderick's place and (currently) Roderick's mom's basement. "Dave Bazan has suggested I record some of the vocals at his home studio, just to have a change of scenery and because he has some nice microphones, and Chris Walla has offered to help us record some horns and strings at his Hall of Justice in Portland," Roderick says. "So if we take those guys up on their offers we'll have been all over the place."
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latest by RunOfTheDill
NAME: The Shins
PROGRESS REPORT: Writing songs for the follow-up to 2007's Wincing The Night Away. Working on a collaborative side-project.
"You go a year without playing and you think, maybe I can't do it anymore. Maybe I forgot how to do it. I don't know," says Shins frontman James Mercer. Worrying about "keeping our name out there," seems kind of ridiculous for the Shins, who added a second Terminal 5 show in NYC this month, after the first one sold out quickly. But maybe the new tour dates are the best way to figure out where his band's at right now. Two big changes will guide the direction of their next album--one is the band's new line up, which we showed you yesterday. Ron Lewis, from Grand Archive and the Fruit Bats, joins the band on bass, and Joe Plummer, from Modest Mouse and Black Heart Procession, has taken over for drummer Jesse Sandoval. The shakeup wasn't personal, it just ties to Mercer's goals for the new record. The two new tracks they debuted this tour -- "Double Bubble" and "The Rifle's Spiral," call for a beefier rhythm section: "[The songs are] just a bit more rhythmic. They're kind of about the percussion and stuff. One of them is really angular and chunky. It's jabs with chords instead of strumming," he says. "And then the other one is really rhythmic and has kind of a mod, new wave sound to it."
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Tags: Dark Night Of The Soul | James Mercer | Modest Mouse | The Shins
latest by Rodrigoyiyo
NAME: The Flaming Lips
PROGRESS REPORT: Wrapping up recording on their 12th studio album, Embryonic: "We think it's gonna be called Embryonic but we don't know if it's gonna just be called Embryonic or it's gonna be called Embryonic and...something else, but we think it's gonna be called Embryonic. You can write that if you want and not be humiliated later."
Like a lot of properties in this economy, Steven Drodz's old house lingered on the market for about a year. But this victim of the current real estate market also turned out to be the perfect recording studio for the Flaming Lips' new album. The band set up their guitars and mics all over the multi-instrumentalists' old home over the last year, using the resonant space to record their follow-up to 2006's At War With The Mystics. "You can't do these things when a house is full of furniture and carpeting. The sound doesn't reverberate with as much clarity, or excitement, or whatever you want to call it," says Lips leader Wayne Coyne. They've been "dicking around" since then, taking a few minutes of one recorded session and splicing it to another few minutes, then saving the puzzle for another day of overdubs. The Flaming Lips have always relied on a mix of computers and fucking around to find unexpected combinations, and Coyne says it's led to a schizophrenic--but still organic--album this time. "We had stuff that we thought didn't sound like anything that we would have purposely done, that we had accidentally stumbled upon like it was somebody else's music," he says. "It's free rock. Free freakout rock. It doesn't really have a song underneath it. It's just freaking out."
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latest by Marv
NAME: HEALTH
PROGRESS REPORT: Prepping their sophomore album, Get Color (Lovepump United) for release late summer or early fall, "...barring total apocalyptic economic collapse."
After hearing about Health's recording process for their next album, Get Color, I'm wondering why the foursome don't cut loose a little more for their live performances. It seems like they could use that sort of catharsis after a recording session that member Jake Duszik and John Famiglietti describe as "stressful," "fucking nightmare," "hell," and "a prolonged stressful fucking nightmare." And despite improvements to the recording process -- this time they didn't have to load equipment in and out of the Smell each day, nor did any member touch human feces along the way -- it was still no trip to the Catskills. "No surprise, but we all have serious stress issues," Famiglietti says.
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latest by Will Duke
