Shane Mehling, Great Falls bass lunatic and one of the least gifted self-promoters I know, texted me yesterday to say that I never update my website. He’s right. I’ve been planning to replace this creaky site for years and haven’t come up with an idea I like yet. For now Instagram is the best way to keep up with me regularly. I do think it’s important for creatives to avoid depending on algorithm-based social media and I really am working on that, at my own special pace.
I’ve spent Hellscape: 2020 parenting, mixing some great records, catching up with deferred maintenance and gear changes, shooting film, and studying circuits and PCB layout. A few months ago I did a production run of KWB+ pedals, my take on the unobtanium KWB. Those sold out quickly but I’m planning another run this summer. (Email me to get on the list.) I’ve been working on a few other circuits too, analog and digital. We’ll see where that goes.
Here’s some records I’ve worked on over the last while.
- Yautja – Test Subject Two rippers on this 7″. Recorded last year while we camped out at Electrical Audio to track an LP. (out soon on Relapse)
- Wren – Groundswells We recorded this massive LP at Middle Farm in England. Great band, beautiful studio. Session pics.
- Kowloon Walled City & Town Portal – Rise / Jessica Filmed before a show in Brighton. This was awesome.
- No Lights – Cassette, Stay Awake, June Bug Weird hooks, hot rockin. Ian and Dan from KWC + Matt from Early Graves.
- Tvivler – Ego Frantic Danish hardcore. Rules. I mixed.
- Cell Press – s/t Dudes from Great Sabatini, Swarm of Spheres, The Chariot, and Canada the country. RIYL gnarly riffs, gnarly drum fills, gnarl. Recorded by the legend Sean Pearson at Boxcar, mixed by me.
- Life Savings – The Remote Dutch noise rock. Aluminum guitars, Hiwatts, angular riffs, floor mics. I mixed.
- Wolves Like Us Brittle Bones Epic anthems from Oslo. I mixed. Also please see the incredible “100% Part Time” shirt.
- Harsh R The Burden Loud, stripped down industro-punk. Rules. Working on guitarless records is a delight.
- Rise And Fall Alive In Sin Belgium 2012. RAF’s final release show. I mixed this years ago and I’m stoked that it finally got released.
- Slow Mass Music For Ears 3 Beautiful reimaginings of two Slow Mass songs. I love this band. We ate bagels and tracked side A in Oakland one morning while they were here on tour, and tracked most of side B when Dave was back in town for romance. Dave and Josh recorded the rest at home in Chicago, and I mixed.
- Knucklebunder s/t Walker from Fell To Low doing incredible, stretched out through-composed weird rock. Harvey Milk meets Barkmarket. With his mom killing it on backing vox! I really love this record.
- Granite Hands Void Casual shred from southern Texas. Awesome record, awesome cover photo. I mixed.
- Pinto Slunk Fuzzed out pop nuggets from the Mojave Desert. Tracked live and headphone-free at Sharkbite.
- Kowloon Walled City w/The New Trust The Way It Will Be Gillian Welch cover. Recorded new year’s day 2018, released 18 months later.
- Strangelight Adult Themes Downstrokes, hooks, short killer songs, three fast hilarious days in Sharkbite with friends I’m glad to have. Also the last thing I recorded before plague descended.
That’s it for now. Next update by 2023!
This fall I’m leaving my day job and turning into a full-time recording engineer. Holy shit!
Finally, scheduling studio time with me will be easier, including long (days/weeks) tracking sessions. My mix calendar will get much more predictable. I’ll do more Tape Op writing, write here more than once a decade, and try to bike to the studio every day.
This is a big deal for me and my family and I am very, very grateful for their support and for taking this on with me. Thanks also to the bands I’m lucky enough to work with and get to know, and the friends who have encouraged me to do this ridiculous thing.
Let’s make records!
While I’m at it, here’s some recent (“recent”) work…
- Town Portal Of Violence
- Sleep – Live at Regency Ballroom
- Great Falls A Sense of Rest
- Kowloon Walled City w/The New Trust “The Way It Will Be”
- The Great Sabatini Goodbye Audio
- Yowie Synchromysticism
- East of the Wall NP-Complete
- Fred Frith Trio Closer to the Ground
- Ghoul “Thrash Damage” split, Macabre comp
- Glose The Second Best of Glose
- Harsh R Physical World
- War Bison Acre
- American Steel State of Grace
- Cite Tangelo
- Loyalists Ride the Trashheap of Sound
- Difficult To Heal
- Horseneck Heavy Trip
Kowloon Walled City Grievances Our third LP came out in October. We put a lot into it and we’re all proud of the results. (listen | session pics)
Ghoul Dungeon Bastards “The mosh parts have mosh parts.” I recorded and mixed. We tracked drums in two days in my tiny room at Antisleep. No grids, no samples. This record rules and, holy shit, it debuted at #13 on the Billboard hard rock charts. (listen)
Roger Waters and My Morning Jacket Live at the Newport Folk Festival, playing a Dylan song. I mixed the last song in this video. More than once, I looked at the labels on my faders in disbelief.
Fred Frith Trio Another Day in Fucking Paradise My friend Jason Hoopes plays bass in Fred’s new trio, and asked if I was interested in recording an LP for them. Sure, I guess. In January we spent three very focused days tracking at Sharkbite. I did my best to make this session smooth and painless, so the group’s inspiration and improvisation were in charge. And even though really I was running to keep up, I survived and it was great to be a part of this. Myles Boisen mixed and mastered. (listen)
Mouth Deathroll. A 12 minute LP of gnarly drum/bass hardcore. These guys came in to Sharkbite super dialed, which gave us enough time to stretch and find some cool sounds. Mixed on the Neotek at Antisleep. Great record. (listen | session pics)
Doralice Rusted Pieces Doralice is Yates and Rima from Ventid, playing acoustic chamber… jazz? While we were tracking an LP last year, we realized that the three of us all love Megadeth Rust In Peace. I started talking them into covering a song, and somehow a few months later Yates had arranged acoustic versions of the entire record. That’s insane, but anyway, we booked a day in Sharkbite to shoot a live video with my friend Colin Frangos, then track as many songs as we could manage. That turned into a 5-song EP. (listen)
Mercy Ties Proper Corruption Total ripper. Tracked (at Sharkbite) and mixed (at Antisleep) in seven days. Amazingly I think this is the first record I’ve done start to finish in one consecutive block of time. (listen | session pics)
Throes To Dust Also a ripper. Andy Patterson tracked at The Boar’s Nest, and I mixed. (listen)
Solip Dissociation Heavy, washy pedalboard doom from Oakland. Tracked in a weekend at Sharkbite, mixed on the console at Antisleep. (listen | session pics)
More recent releases:
- Ghoul Wall of Death Decibel flexi
- Fórn Weltschmerz
- Them Teeth The Knuckledragger
- The Canyon Observer FVCK
- Defending The Kingdom Black Mountain Days
- Thou Floyd the Barber
- Lysine Demonstration
- Bye Bye Blackbirds Let Your Hair Fall Down
Some Tape Op gear reviews: TK Audio BC501, AKG D12VR, xqp 535 EQ and 545 Optical Disrupter.
In the works: Less Art, NY in 64, Loyalists, Horseneck, Aberrant Phase, Bye Bye Blackbirds, can’t even remember what else.
Whew. If you read this far, thanks. Next update: fall 2019.
Working Class Audio Interview Matt’s podcast is easily the best recording podcast I’ve found, so it was cool to be a guest myself. You know, Andrew Scheps, Sylvia Massy, Billy Anderson, and me. Hah!
(listen | download)
Greg Wilkinson I interviewed Greg for Tape Op and it turned out great. (read)
Baby Boy 2015 Going-away record for this Thou side project. They tracked in Baton Rouge and I mixed & mastered. Songs about friends and dogs. (listen)
Minsk The Crash and the Draw I spent a couple of days with Timothy Mead tracking vocals for some of this epic Minsk LP. Produced by Sanford Parker. (listen)
Old Earth Until They’re Called Todd recorded the underpinnings of this EP at Antisleep in March. He had one guitar and two pedals – a looper/delay and a slapback delay. He builds little loops as he goes, then plays along. We plugged him into my Fender Twin and set up a few mics, then Todd played all three songs in one pass, first try, including the transitions between songs. Pretty rad. (listen)
Thou Whatever Nevermind I tracked Andy’s guitars for two Nirvana covers. (listen)
Roman Cities The Sharksleep Sessions Old school, Cars-inspired pop by my homie Ian Miller and some other friends. Clean guitars, noise gates, chorus pedals, songs with choruses. We tracked at Sharkbite and Antisleep, and The Greg Thompson mixed. (listen / session pics)
Mauler New York D-beats and HM-2’s. I mixed. (listen)
Mercy Ties We spent five days tracking at Sharkbite, then two days mixing at Antisleep. Great band, great session, and only one thing blew up. LP out on Glory Kid in a few months.
Kowloon Walled City We tracked a full-length a few months ago and finished it as time allowed. During that time I think I almost saw the light a few times. Out this fall on Neurot Recordings, with vinyl on Gilead Media.
Some Tape Op gear reviews: TB Audio TBDD chorus, DIYRE Colour saturator.
Also in progress: Throes, Them Teeth, Lysine, Defending the Kingdom, a bunch of other good stuff. Also some studio upgrades, adding more outboard gear. The Neotek console has been perfect so far and I’m reconfiguring a bit so I can mix on it more.
(photos: old earth sam lee; greg, minsk, thou, roman cities, mercy ties gse)