Matthew J Barnhart

Sean Donovan + mb, in the studio with Les Americains. Photo by Robert Erfurd.

It seems to happen every time I’m about to leave for a tour: work starts piling up, days seem to become shorter, and I find myself writing a lot of emails that say, “Sorry! It will be just a couple more days until your project is done.” Part of this is my own procrastination, part of is just bad timing. Either way, as stressful as it is, I’m getting to work on some pretty great projects these days, so I can’t complain.

The Tre Orsi LP is finally done. I can’t believe it, really, but I was able to knock out the last few overdubs and get the guys together to go over final mixes. No release date yet, but I’ll be using a day off from the David Bazan tour to master it with Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service.

I spent last weekend tracking 8 songs with the Dallas band, Les Americains. Sean Donovan, formerly of Calla, was along as producer. He helped out immensely, guiding the session and keeping an eye on performances, and allowing me to concentrate on the engineering. It was a ton of fun, and we’ll be back in a couple of weeks to mix.

Other stuff: I mixed two shows for the Swedish band, Dungen, in Austin and Dallas. I wasn’t too familiar with them before these shows, but they really blew me away. Incredible players, and very charming, warm-hearted folks. I would drop everything in a second to do a tour with them.

There’s also a backlog of mastering stuff waiting for free studio time: Little Birds (Justin from Fishboy’s band), three 7″s for The Uptown Bums, a new Polar record, a Daily Beat EP, and probably a few other things I’m forgetting.

I’m working on a couple of posts right now about the mundane tasks of making a record (can you contain your excitement?), which should be up soon. I’ve been keeping busy with more recording with The Angelus (continuing overdubs for the upcoming LP), Shiny Around The Edges (tracking, and soon mixing, for a project to be determined), and White Drugs, and Tre Orsi. I’ve also mastered a few things here and there for The Uptown Bums, Valencia, Spain’s Indigo, and Birmingham, England’s Lazarus Clamp.

Also, this Fall I will be running sound and tour managing for the excellent David Bazan, all over North America. I’ve toured with David a little bit in the past (The New Year played some West Coast shows with him a couple of years ago), but this will be his first shows with a band since the Pedro the Lion days. He’s an incredibly funny and generous fellow, and I’m excited as all get out about this tour. The dates are up on his site. Say Hi is support for the whole thing. Come say hello if you’re in the neighborhood(s).

Just got home last night from 4 shows in Spain with The New Year. We were there 7 days total, including an extra rehearsal day and a day at the end reserved for a visit to the Reina Sofia, where I stood in awe of Picasso’s Geurnica for maybe an hour (before taking a bum nap in the courtyard).

The tour was arranged by the lovable scamps at Acuarela Discos, who work with Chris Brokaw, Xiu Xiu, and other American bands in Spain. They took care of everything and hired us a driver as well, which meant I never had to worry about parking, money, hotels, or schedules — I just showed up and concentrated on the mix. It was almost like a vacation.

The third show was at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, where I was able to hang with so many brothers-from-other-mothers, including Magnolia Electric Co., Shellac, Jeremey Lemos, and more people for whom my memory of them is blotted out by too much rum.

The New Year — “Chinese Handcuffs” at Primavera Sound, Barcelona, 30 May 2009

April was a rather slow month at the studio, save for a session with Deep Snapper, whom I’ve recorded two times before. These guys always impress me with their steady work ethic and great, catchy songs. This session was extreme, even for them — we attempted to track 25 songs in 3 days, as their bass player, Pat, is shipping off for Afghanistan this summer. We ended up tracking 19 songs, and will mix them later for an LP and an EP.

I had planned on spending the rest of the month working on new Tre Orsi songs and getting to work on our garden, but as fate would have it, I was called on to mix a lot of shows all over Texas, including The Howling Hex at the Mohawk in Austin, Mogwai at Numbers in Houston, and then two shows with Josh T. Pearson (formerly of Lift to Experience), opening for My Bloody Valentine in Austin and Dallas. Josh’s backing band was Andy Young (also of Lift) and Bobby Weaver (of the Paper Chase), and despite some first-show jitters, they really slayed. The new songs are epic, even for Josh.

In the midst of this was Dallas for Tre Orsi for Good Records’ 9th birthday/Record Store Day celebration. We played early to a nice crowd of people, and avoided a lot of hassles that arrived later.

I’m really looking forward to May, which has sessions with The Angelus and White Drugs, then a week-long trip to Spain with The New Year. (Now I’m filling up with remorse for not learning Spanish, as I had promised myself I would.)

Got back to Texas Monday evening. It was odd coming home to a house without our dog, who was put to sleep while I was on tour, but it was relieving to be home nonetheless. After weeks in cold, gray climates, to see the sun, grass, and trees in bloom instantly lifted my mood.

Anyhow, this week I’ll be sorting through my record purchases from the A.C. Newman tour (including some Live Skull, Corrupted, The Nerves LP, the Death LP on Drag City, and an original, single-LP issue of The Stooges’ Metallic K.O., complete with the original iron-on transfer) and catching up on a few zillion emails.

In the studio soon with Deep Snapper and Tre Orsi, and a few others that I still need to schedule. Doing a one-off for Mogwai in Houston on Apr 19, then a week-long tour in Spain with the New Year in May. For now, though, sleep!

I’m currently home on a week-long break between legs of the AC Newman North American tours. The first, West coast, leg went exceptionally well. Everyone in the band is gracious and funny and supremely talented. I look forward to having a few less-than-9-hour drives on the East coast with them. I’m also looking forward to a devastating meal at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal.

I had planned on recording a new Deep Snapper LP this weekend during the break, but Katey’s and my beloved dog, The Chicken, is battling late-stage lymphoma, and I decided to postpone the session in order to spend as much time with her as possible. (She’s the bundle of joy in the image next to this.) Katey has had this dog for, I dunno, 12 years, and she’s been my adopted buddy since 2003. She will be sorely missed when she finally passes on.

I just received a 9-pound box of LPs and CDs I had shipped from Aquarius Records in San Francisco that I’m going to sort through now. Some Randy Newman, Rusted Shut, Ashpool, new Lungfish side-projects, Nigerian psychedlia — I’m in for a busy night.

It looks like I’m going to Spain at the end of May for a few shows. Since my airfare will be covered, I’d like to combine this trip with some other work. If any European (or European-bound) bands would like to make a record, or need a sound engineer/tour manager/driver, please get in touch. 

I’ve been doing a lot of mastering this month, including the Fishboy vs. The Om Nom Noms LP, a Shiny Around the Edges/Sounds Are Active compilation, The Lazarus Blues, and another Daniel Folmer album.

In the studio: (finally) finished The Naptime Shake’s new one; mixing an album for Austinites Beautiful Supermachines; tracking a single for The Me-Thinks; recording a few new Tre Orsi songs with Bubba Kadane helping out, as usual.

Sean Kirkpatrick sent me the mixes for the new Nervous Curtains LP, which I tracked and John Congleton mixed. John did a great, insane-as-always job with the millions of overdubs the guys laid down. I can’t wait for people to hear this.

Also, Handbrake’s Brillo’s Aftermath CD, which I recorded a few months ago (along with another EP’s worth of material, was reviewed over at Built On A Weak Spot. You can get a copy of this one at their MySpace page.

One last thing: you can follow me on Twitter, which is where my Id usually hangs out.

A big ice storm blew in last night, slowing most of North Central Texas to a crawl — schools and government offices are closed, no one’s on the roads. A perfect time to update the site, I suppose.

I spent the past two weekends recording a new EP (possibly half an album) with The Distant Seconds from Austin. I did an LP for them last year (Spectral Evidence), and we all got along famously.

The modus operandi for this session was “quick, almost dashed-off”, but as the saying goes, “No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy”. Still, setup was relatively quick, and we were tracking by about 3pm on Saturday. I tried a few different microphones for the drum recording this time, all in the pursuit of something closer to The Blank Generation or Chairs Missing:

• Kick: Electro-voice RE20 on the full front head. Typically, I use an AKG D112 or a large diaphragm condensor in this application. I used the RE20 for a more direct, mid-rangey tone, rather than the slightly hyped sound of the D112 or overly warm tube condensors
• Snare: Beyer M201 on top, rather than Shure KSM141.
• Toms: Sennheiser MD421. Typically, I use two condensors, top and bottom, on each tom, but the MD421 is really useful in these situations. (I also used these for the Great Tyrant recordings.)
• Overheads: Coles 4038, close to the cymbals. Often, I use the overheads to get a full image of the kit, but this time I really wanted a lot of detail on the cymbals. The Coles, being ribbons. are much smoother than condensors typically used here, and also have excellent transient response.
• Ambience: Neumann CMV 563 w/ M7S capsule for Mid, Soundelux e49 for Side, 4′ in front of the kit. Been playing around with these a bit, previously on the Handbrake LP and the Tre Orsi tour EP. This setup provides a nice ambience that’s not as explosive as widely-spaced omnis on the floor. In our main room, though, I think the omnis work better more often.

We also did all of the vocals through a Shure SM7, Daking pre-amp, and Purple Audio MC77. I really love this setup, though I often use another pre-amp that’s less forward in mid-range.

We finished tracking everything (including quite a few keyboard a guitar overdubs) by Sunday evening, finishing early enough for the guys to drive home to Austin that night and get a few hours’ sleep before work Monday morning. The next weekend, Matt, Charlie, and Kirk trickled in, one-by-one. We re-cut a few vocals and then started tearing through the mixes. Things went very quickly from here on out, and the last mix was printed around 8pm on Sunday.

Next up for me: a lot of mastering this week (including a new Fishboy album), then sessions with Tre Orsi, Beautiful Supermachines, and The Me-Thinks in February. Then I head out with A.C. Newman for a couple of US tours.

Also, I just finished mastering Daniel Folmer’s new album, The Roaring Twenties. This is the third album I’ve done for him in a year or so. Very prolific! Great singer, and very insightful songs. He’s playing a record release show this week in Denton at The Hydrant Café, then another at Good Records.

I’m back from vacation, well-rested and looking forward to a very busy Fall.

Vermont was gorgeous, of course. NY was fine and dandy. Montreal was all too brief of a trip. Lots of good food, good people, and almost no work. (I did sneak in a few hours here and there, advancing the upcoming tour for The New Year.)

I only did a few sessions in August: a couple of days with You and Me from Dallas, and another two days with Tre Orsi. Bubba Kadane of The New Year was co-producing again, and it was a much more productive session than our last attempt, in April. We did 5 songs, and I’ll be finishing up tracking and mixing for them next week. Most likely these will make their way onto a limited tour-only EP for our upcoming dates.

This Wednesday is my last day as an employing at the University of North Texas, where I’ve been working for four years. I’m now finally out of debt and can devote all my time to the studio and touring. To say I’m excited about this is an understatement.

This week: recording new Dallas band, Les Americains (former members of DARYL), finishing up the Naptime Shake and Tre Orsi recordings. After that, The New Year’s Western US tour starts. (I’ll be blogging about the tour here, on Twitter, and over at Food About Music.)

I spent last weekend, doing four shows running sound for Bottomless Pit and the Kadane Brothers. The whole weekend was really fun, but some highlights:

• New York show @ Knitting Factory: my last few experiences at the Knit (save for house sound guy Jason, who is always great) have left a lot to be desired, but this show went smoothly and everyone was happy. Excellent, enthusiastic crowd. The excellent Kahoots of Martha’s Vineyard opened, playing a lot of new stuff. New record should be really great.
• Boston @ Middle East: Chris Brokaw opened with one of the most diverse sets I’ve ever heard from him — some electric, some acoustic, some instrumental. Captivating. Every time I play the Middle East, I swear I’m not going to eat there again, but I did enjoy my Foul Modammas. Next time in Boston, though, we’re hitting Baraka, the Tunisian place I love so dearly.
• Montreal @ Divan Orange: had Schwartz’s smoked meat sandwiches and two dozen Fairmount bagels. Everything else was a blur. Very fun promoter, and one of my favorite cities.
• Toronto @ Sneaky Dee’s: Boris was up the street at Lee’s Palace. How you going to compete with that?

I can’t say enough good things about Bottomless Pit, as a band and as people. I’m honored to know them.