Matthew J Barnhart

RIP, Vic Chesnutt

I’ve been extremely busy since returning from the David Bazan tour in Novemeber, working on several different records with lots of great bands. I leave January 4th with Midlake, with whom I’ll be touring (as tour manager, front of house, and monitor engineer) until at least June 5th — hopefully I’ll have more time for writing on the bus.

The end of 2009 will be a sad one, due to the death of Vic Chesnutt. I had the pleasure of working his epic show at Hailey’s in Denton on Dec 4th. (Here’s his performance of “Flirted With You All My Life” from that show, courtesy of Kerm Rivas.) I hope he’s finally found relief.

Those wishing to help his family with his remaining debts can donate at Kristin Hersh’ site.

The pre-tour backlog begins

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.

What I’ll be doing this Fall

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).

Here comes the summer. . .

Finally, after a relatively mild start, the miserably humid Texas summer I know and love is here. I was up by 7:00 this morning (thanks to the 3 month-old pup at the left here begging for breakfast), and took an hour-long bike ride. Even at this ungodly hour, I was drenched in sweat halfway through.

Work at the studio has been steady, a nice combination of recording/mixing sessions (with Deep Snapper and Tre Orsi), mastering work (Last of the Interceptors, a solo record from Aryn Dalton, formerly of the Paper Chase), and studio upkeep and upgrades (a new rack, lots of re-arranging and fixing up of stuff). Along with all of that, I’ve been occasionally filling in at the House of Blues in Dallas. Most of the shows there aren’t exactly up my alley, but the equipment is top-notch and the crews that come through are generally easy to work with and pleasant to be around.

Upcoming sessions include more work with Shiny Around The Edges, White Drugs, The Angelus, and Les Americains, as well as (finally!) finishing up the Tre Orsi LP. After all of this studio time, I’m looking forward to hitting the road for a while this Fall.

Oh yes, about the pup: her name is Lomax. She’s a Heeler/American bulldog mix, about 15 weeks old, and of course, is the cutest thing in the world. We’re very happy to have her around. (Well, Katey and I are happy — the cat is less than thrilled. C’est la vie.)

The New Year, Spanish tour May 2009

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

“There are dreams left empty and blank. . .”

I’ve been listening to the first Flipper album non-stop for the past week. Ted Falconi’s guitar playing is like magic wrapped in fuzz. The rhythm section is lumbering, but solid. The lyrics should be juvenile, but are actually pretty affecting. I have loved this album since I first heard it years and years ago. Anyhoo!

This month, I spent a few days in the studio with The Angelus and their producer, Josh Pearson, tracking a new LP. They’ve been kicking around for a long time (I recorded their EP back in 2003), and after a few line-up changes have finally started working on a full-length. We tracked 8 songs in 3 days, and will return later this summer for overdubs and mixing.

Next up was a session, tracking and mixing 7 songs for the great White Drugs. They too have been around a while, and put out a fantastic album in 2007 that got some glowing reviews. Their previous recordings were 4-track, beautifully blown-out and overloaded, and I think we achieved a nice balance between that sound and a fuller studio recording.

The actual recording was pretty typical (close mics on the drums and ambient mics on the floor), but we added a distorted omni mic in the middle of kit, and used a mono overhead (Coles 4038 ribbon) through a Universal Audio 1176 compressor. Jeff and Christian, the guitarists, are obsessive about their tone (between them, there were probably 15 – 20 boutique fuzz pedals). Their rigs sounded incredible from the get-go, so I mic’ed the guitars with Royer R-121′s through John Hardy preamps. It sounded absolutely ripping through the studio monitors.

I mixed the songs to an old reel of Quantegy 406 1/4″ tape, an older formulation that compresses and distorts wonderfully. We also sent the stereo mix through a pair of Distressors, adding additional grit to an already-overloaded mix. We even got done a few hours early, leaving me time to get home and play with my new puppy.

So much other stuff has happened, but this is already too long. I’m headed to Spain on Monday for a week of shows with The New Year. It also looks like I’ll also be out on the road with David Bazan later this year. But for now, I’m gonna go ride my bike before the weather gets worse.

Happy May Day

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.)

Finally, back home

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!

Between tours…

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.

Shorties

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.