Speaking of Table & Chairs, we just released “Racer Sessions Curator Compilation: Vol. II,” the entirety of which was recorded, mixed, and mastered here at BOOM!. You can check out that record HERE, or scroll down a couple of posts for more info on that record. T&C also just released “Cross the Center” by WA, featuring the legendary Greg Keplinger on drums, and Simon Henneman on guitar. The album was recorded by Greg Williamson at the Kill Room, and I mixed and mastered it here at BOOM!. The album was a challenge to mix, but I think it turned out to be rather sonically compelling. You can check it out HERE.

Last month I wrapped up mixing the dance pop outfit Stand By the Boat‘s debut EP. We tracked it here at BOOM! in a day!

In other news, I just finished tracking for Racer Sessions Compilation, Volume II (to be released on Table & Chairs), all of which was recored here at BOOM!  Worth noting is that we recorded Andy Clausen’s “Reference Frequency,” for two trumpets, two trombones, SATB saxes, and two drummers…this made for a tight fit in my little studio!  The recording turned out great, despite cramped quarters.  I gave my best effort at achieving that “late-50s Columbia Studio C” sound, so stay tuned for sound bites.  Also featured on the Racer Compilation, Volume II, is Chris Icasiano, Seth Alexander, Wally Shoup, Naomi Seigel, Kate Olson, and Operation ID.  It’s gonna be a good one!

After the EWU session, I drove across the state to Spokane, to do a marathon recording session with the Spokane Area Children’s Chorus, in beautiful Hargreaves Hall, on the Eastern Washington University campus.  Hargreaves has incredible acoustics for classical music, and it’s always a pleasure to record there.  In the picture below, the concert choir is joined by the fabulous percussionist and pedagog Marty Ziskowski (retired EWU percussion instruction, and Spokane Symphony timpanist) for a couple arrangements of traditional African songs.

Last night was the CD release show for Table & Chairs band Operation ID, and they brought the house down.  I had the pleasure of recordng/co-producing three tracks from their debut album, Legs, here at BOOM!.  The album is an interesting format in that contains three sets of three songs, where each set was co-produced/recorded by a different engineer.  The talented Luke Bergman recorded one set, and the talented Hamilton Boyce recorded the other, which my three tracks closing the album out.  Check it out!

In other news, this past couple of weeks saw a welcome change of pace here at BOOM!  I’ve been knee-deep in getting stuff ready for the T&C launch, which has been great, but over the last two weeks I had a chance to record a couple tracks for Attack With Care, a straight-ahead rock outfit led by a good friend of mine, Tom Esch.

I recently finished mastering Sad Face’s debut record, Gosh Darn. The Sad Face fellas have a genuine solid record on their hands, and I am grateful to have been brought on board.

Yesterday we started work on a couple songs of the the talented Portland based singer songwriter, Avery D. Hill.  Avery’s got a lovely voice, and I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a vintage Sony C37 tube mic for the session, which really loved her voice!

I’ve been attempting to incorporate Katz’s calibrated monitor system for some time now, but this most recent reading of his book has led me to re-arrange my whole control room setup!  Granted, I’m working with limited space, so whichever arrangment I choose necessarily involves some sort of spacial or sonic comprimise.  I decided to try out setting-up my room more like a mastering studio than a tracking studio.  My first impression: huge improvement!  I was able to get the monitors away from the wall, and increase the size of the monitor “triangle” in my listening position.  The result is better stereo imaging, as well as a better sense of 3D imaging…suddenly I can hear more clearly what my reverb is actually doing in the mix….

Well this has all been in the midst of mixing the forthcoming Agogic record, to be released on Table and Chairs.  Perhaps not the greatest idea to switch up your monitoring environment in the middle of a project…but I think that the end result will certainly benefit!

DYNO JAMZ!  Over the last year, in the midst of a major home renovation project, and while trying to construct my studio, I produced a record with a fine young group of UW students, Dyno Jamz (www.dynojamz.com).  We did some overdubs and mixing at my personal studio; the fellas from Dyno Jamz were very patient and understanding about the fact that my studio was in various stages of construction at the time…Well today is their big CD release show at Chop Suey, and they’ll be having a number of guests appear on stage (myself included), including the fabulous Jared Douglas, whom I’ve recorded a fair amount over the past couple of years.  You can check out a couple of samples from the Dyno Jamz record HERE.

In other news, while unfinished, BOOM! is up and running.  I had the pleasure of recording Agogic (Luke Bergman, Evan Woodle, Cuong Vu and Andrew D’Angelo) for their forthcoming debut album.  We’ll be mixing that record in the weeks to come, which should be pretty sick.

I’m finishing mixes for a three tracks I recorded with Operation I.D. in October.  Theirs was the inaugural full-band tracking session in BOOM!  The three tracks I recorded will be featured on a forthcoming record, alongside three tracks recorded by the talented Hamilton Boyce, and another three recorded by Heatwarmer’s own Luke Bergman.

Speaking of Heatwarmer, recently we recorded drums for some new Heatwarmer material here at BOOM!  Check it out!