Matthew J Barnhart

After some extremely long, drawn-out sessions in late 2007/early 2008, I’ve actually managed to shoehorn in quite a few new records, some of which are just about ready to see the light of day:

• The new albums by The Distant Seconds and American Werewolf Academy are being mastered at Golden Mastering right now.
• New albums The Great Tyrant, Handbrake, and Shiny Around The Edges are in the able hands of Carl at Saff Mastering.
• Did a quick, one-day, live-in-the-studio session for singer/songwriter Billy Blaze.
• Recently spent two days recording an almost live-in-the-studio album for The Naptime Shake. Vocals were almost entirely done live, except for two lines in one song that were overdubbed. The only other overdubs were some backing vocals, percussion, and keyboards.

I’ll be taking a break from recording in August — in particular, Katey and I are taking a much-needed vacation to Vermont, Montreal, and New York (to see the huge The Ex/Getatchew Merkuria/Alemayehu Eshete/Mahmoud Ahmed/Extra Golden show at Lincoln Center). I’ll have a couple of quick sessions in September, then I head out with The New Year and Tre Orsi for quite a bit of touring, though Thanksgiving. I’ll get back into studio work more fully in December.

Last Saturday, The Marked Men played what will probably be their last show ever (or at least their last for a few years). It was a simultaneously joyous and sad occasion, as most final shows for beloved bands are, and by the end of their freight-train of a set, I was left damn-near breathless.

I really hate the list-mania so prevalent in music writing and general blogarrhea, but fuck it, I’ll fall into the trap: The Marked Men are one of the 10 best bands from the state of Texas, ever. They’re in league with the 13th Floor Elevators, ZZ Top, Bedhead, and Scratch Acid, and their 2nd album, On The Outside, is nearly perfect from start to finish. They embodied the best parts of garage/pop-punk (tunefulness, brevity) and did it with more energy and obsessive devotion to quality than almost anyone else going. All of this, combined with a reverence and true understanding of pop music created something far more special than a tossed-off “Dickies Meets Hot Snakes” comparison. They were, to me, the embodiment of a perfect band.

So yeah, I will miss this band like few others. To re-use a quote from Adam Reach in the Silkworm documentary trailer: in 20 years, if people aren’t freaking out about The Marked Men, I’m going to go on a killing spree. I’ve rarely been prouder of my town and my state than last Saturday night. Thanks for doing your thing, Marked Men.

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.

A litany of stuff:

• Spent last weekend recording Denton band, Handbrake. They tore through 10 songs on the very first day, and we were still done by 7:30! Great guys, really interesting, occasionally captivating guitar work. We’re doing vocals and mixing this coming weekend, then we’re done.
• Also this week, been in the studio finishing up mixes for both American Werewolf Academy and The Distant Seconds. In both cases, the workflow has been similar to both the recent New Year and Shearwater albums: I do mixes “in the box” with Cubase, then the bands listen, make notes, and I tweak the mixes, then send another round of references. Once all is approved, I buss the tracks out through our console and to tape.
• It’s been a while since our MTR-10 1/4″ stereo machine has seen service, so I sent the heads off to JRF Magnetics for an evaluation. I hauled our old Otari MX-5050 1/4″ stereo machine out of storage, to use in the interim. I honestly don’t remember the last time it was used (there’s a Post-it on it that says, “Setup for Quantegy 456 –mb, 31 Mar 2001″), but after cleaning it up and setting it up, it’s as solid as ever. It handles tape like a bouncer handles drunk, but whatever.
• Greg Norman of Electrical Audio recently rebuilt both The Echo Lab’s Neumann CMV 563 mic systems. They now run on 120V power, have new mic connectors, new tubes, and were generally cleaned up and brought back to spec. They sound phenomenal.
• Doing four shows running sound for Bottomless Pit and the Kadane Brothers (of The New Year/Bedhead) next week. NYC, Boston, Montreal, and Toronto. Come say hello!

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c15b7eb0-3e64-11dd-b16d-0000779fd2ac.html

A couple of years ago, I recorded an album for Peter Schmidt & His Gentleman Scholars which never saw an official release. Quite a shame, as I personally think it’s Peter’s best work in an already-impressive 20 year music career. Recently, though, he posted a track from the album, “Who Will Forgive You?”, on MySpace.

As you probably know, Peter’s been at the helm of many important Dallas bands over the years (Three On A Hill, Funland, and Legendary Crystal Chandelier), as well as having a hand in Bedhead (filling in for Tench Coxe as “Substitute Schmidt”) and The New Year. I hope the rest of this impressive album finds its way out into the world eventually.

Currently in the studio, mixing The Great Tyrant’s new LP. This is an incredible band, such a wonderful mix of influences: Magma, Scott Walker, Neurosis, and much more obscure stuff I couldn’t even try to name. We did a few more overdubs yesterday and mixed the first song, “Adorable”. (Best line: “We are all accidents/you have an adorable accident”.)

The original tracks were recorded at the beginning of February with my usual calibration: 24-track, 15ips, CCIR equalization, +6/250 nWb/m, no noise reduction, using RMGI Emtec 900 tape. For overdubs and mixing, we transferred the tracks into Cubase at 24-bit, 96kHz. (Deron had to do a synth overdub on one song that is basically in free time, and needed to see the drum hits to play in time.) I’m using Cubase as a glorified tape machine, doing the actual mixing on the console rather than using plug-ins, and everything is going down to our Otari MTR-10 1/4″ machine with RMGI Emtec 911 tape, 15ips, CCIR, +3/250 nWbm. I’m really, really looking forward to hearing and seeing the final release of this.

Locally: Mark Burroughs soundly defeated the inept, borderline-malfeasant Perry McNeill, becoming our city’s new mayor. This is the first time in 20 years an incumbent mayor has lost an election. From everything I’ve seen of Burroughs, he will be a thoughtful leader with his attention on the community, something desperately needed for the 9th-fastest growing city in America.

And finally, Tre Orsi played the Denton Humane Society’s “Cats and Dogs” benefit at Rubber Gloves last night, which I neglected to mention or list anywhere. Ooops! It was our first show since April, and we had barely played together since, but it was lots of fun, and I was able to introduce my signature drink, the Red Hot, to a few new folks. (A Red Hot is a mix of Goldschlager and cranberry, on the rocks.)

Back to work.

This Saturday is the final day of voting for a very important local election, one that will impact the development and growth of Denton for years to come.

Our current mayor, Perry McNeill, has shown absolutely ZERO leadership and is unqualified to govern a growing, diverse, dynamic city. I believe a vote for Mark Burroughs will help make Denton toward a more livable and enjoyable place to call home.

Already, more than 2400 early votes have been cast in this run-off. (There were about 1900 early votes in the main election.) Especially in local elections, every vote counts — please vote on Saturday, and encourage everyone you know to do the same.

Mike Cochran’s message is included below, along with voting information.

Thanks,
mb.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Mike Cochran
Date: Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Subject: Save Fry St.- Vote Reminder
To:

Save Fry Street
Mayoral Run-off Election Reminder
Saturday, June 14th
7:00 AM to 7:00 PM

Dear Friends of Fry St.,

I am writing to remind you of the upcoming run-off election for the Mayor’s race here in Denton and urge you to vote for Mark Burroughs. The election run-off will be tomorrow, June 14th and the outcome could well have an impact on future development on Fry St.

As many of you will recall, Mayor Perry McNeil was a strong supporter of United Equities and Buster Freedman. He met with them on numerous occasions and assured them that their ill-conceived plan would be a “slam dunk” at City Council. He set the tone that caused the city staff to be so supportive of the developers. He set the tone that subtly let the developers know they did not need to make concessions to the community. He set the tone that allowed this issue to become so divisive in the community, and I lay the responsibility for that debacle at his feet.

Those of you (11,000 of you) who signed the Save Fry St. Petition may appreciate that McNeil was seen (by 2 sources) laughing with Buster Freedman at the petitions, discounting the hard work and deep feelings of the community that supported sensitive development. We don’t need a Mayor that represents the interests of Houston developers over those of our citizens. We need a Mayor who is better than that.

It is a fact that the Fry St. zoning case will return. I have heard that the developers were waiting to see who would be on the new City Council before trying the same plan again. We need a Mayor that understands the issues and will represent the people.
I have talked with Mark Burroughs throughout the Fry St. zoning process and know he has a deep understanding of the issues. I served with Mark for 2 years on the City Council and found him to be a thoughtful, decent, man of character who really did look at the issues carefully and voted with the whole city in mind. I know him well enough to know that with Mark as Mayor, our side will get a fair hearing and that he’ll come to the table with an open mind and offer no “slam dunks” poorly planned development.

Typically, turnout at run-off elections is poor. Therefore it is really important that you go vote tomorrow and let’s have our own little “slam dunk” for Fry St., for Mark Burroughs.

regards,
Mike Cochran
Save Fry Street
Please pass this on to interested friends.
To determine your precinct #, just reference your voter card, if you
don’t have it, call
Denton County Elections Administration office at (940) 349-3200

District One -
1300 Wilson St
Denton, TX 76205
District Two -
3020 N. Locust
Denton, TX 76209
District Three -
2001 W. Windsor Dr
Denton, TX 76207
District Four -
1001 Parvin
Denton, TX 76205

I’ve made a half-hearted attempt at updating my audio resumé, for those interested. This isn’t everything (not by a long mile), but it’s at least a little more complete than before.

Shearwater’s Rook LP is out this week on Matador. Also, Deep Snapper’s Into The Ugly is available directly from them. I’m pretty happy with the way both of these records turned out.

I’m taking a much-needed, though brief, vacation out to Ray Roberts Lake tomorrow night. Myself, my band mates in Tre Orsi, and Dave Willingham are biking out Saturday afternoon and staying overnight. Man-camping is a fine substitute for touring these days.