Tag: Wiccans

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parquet courts band photo

Light Up Gold has been re-issued on What’s Your Rupture (home of Royal Headache and Iceage), and Parquet Courts have officially blown the fuck up.  I couldn’t be more thrilled – not only did the record turn out better than any of us had imagined, but all four of these guys are amazing people.  The album currently has an 87% rating on Metacritic, including a 5/5 review by the Guardian, a 9/10 in NME, and a host of other glowing reviews. Pitchfork threw their muscle behind the band with a super-positive review and a Rising feature.   Light Up Gold and the first single “Borrowed Time” made their way onto a number of Pitchfork’s year-end staff lists, and eMusic voted the band #1 Band to Watch in 2013 and and the album the #15th Best Album of 2012.

Most humbling of all, the band named ME one of the best things in 2012 in Pitchfork’s year-end Guest List…. I’m blushing now as I type this….   I can’t wait to see what else is in store for these guys this year – we were already thrilled with the work we had done and looking forward to the next one, but now more so than ever.  Hold onto yr butts.

Sweet Talk‘s new album Pickup Lines is out now on Gerald Cosloy’s (of Matador Records and Homestead Records fame) label 12XU.  I was introduced to these guys through the Parquet Courts and Wiccans albums, and mixed the record this past fall.  Think “the best parts of Cheap Trick, early UK power pop and the dual guitar work of Thin Lizzy.”  There’s a video for the song “Last Dance” above, and you can stream the title track over at the label’s Soundcloud page.

I’ve been doing a lot of sound design work recently, working on a feature and a couple shorts, including The Apocalypse by Andrew Zuchero, which just debuted at Sundance Film Festival.  Sundance has shared the short (along with a handful of others) in its entirety, which you can stream above!  It’s been really fun digging into these projects, and while some of the info on the others is still hush-hush, we’re really hoping to be screening and premiering them at festivals soon… I’ll keep you posted!

One of the sound design projects I worked on last year, Reggie Watts‘ A Live in Central Park (for Comedy Central), made it onto Vulture’s Top 10 Stand-Up Specials.  It was a really fun project to work on – the director Duncan Skiles did an amazing job blending all these different elements together – and I hope more people get a chance to see it!

Field II Cover

And one of my favorite records that I worked on last year, Wiccans’ Field II, got some year-end nods as well.  It was Magnet’s #5 Punk/Hardcore Record of 2012 and A.V. Club’s #7 Loud Record of 2012, as well as making Parquet Courts’ Pitchfork Guest-List.  If you haven’t heard this bad boy yet, check it out.

2013 is already shaping up to be an amazing year!  I’ve got a number of exciting projects coming up over the next couple months, and a number of projects I did in 2012 should be coming out soon… I’m seriously excited.  If you wanna get in touch, please just write me at jonathan.schenke[at]gmail.com – thanks, as always, for reading this!

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I just finished mixing the new record by Forest Fire for Fat Cat Records this weekend.  We started the initial recording two months ago in mid-September at Tree Time Studio, which was awesome.  Since then, we’ve been doing overdubs and mixing at Doctor Wu’s, with some preliminary editing and mixing at my place.  I’m really excited about this record, my first proper producer credit!  It’s a good batch of catchy songs with inventive arrangements, with some krautrock and glam flair… I really tried to channel my Inner Eno on this one.  I can’t wait for people to hear this.

A couple weeks ago, I did sound design and mixing for a short film called The Apocalypse.  It stars Martin Starr (from Party Down and Freaks and Geeks) and Ella Rae Peck (of Gossip Girl fame), and was written and directed by Andrew Zuchero.  It’s about the end of the world (duh), and was so much fun to work on.  I don’t want to spoil things, but some of the sounds I was doing Foley for were pretty unbelievable   The Apocalypse will hopefully be making the rounds on the festival circuit this spring.

I also worked with Andrew last month on a series of Intel spots, which you can view at the Intel Ultrabook site.  It’s really hard and fun to do sound design with no music!!

The new Fort Lean EP Change Your Name is out tomorrow.  I co-engineered some of the sessions (the initial drum/bass sessions and some guitar overdubs) along with Jake Aron from the band (and Doctor Wu’s).  It was produced by Patrick Wimberly from Chairlift, and mixed by Michael Brauer – pretty fucking hi-fi!  Check out a couple songs on Stereogum and MTV.

I recently had the opportunity to do another recording upstate, this time with the band Wild Leaves.  We borrowed my friend Austin’s Tascam 388 to record an EP in a quonset hut, and spent a long weekend recording and hanging out by the campfire.  It was a great camp-out style adventure, until Hurricane Sandy came and I ran back to Brooklyn!

Before that, I worked with Jeffrey Gray Somers on an EP of solo material.  We did the basic tracking at Seaside Lounge, and are wrapping up vocals and mixing at Doctor Wu’s in the next few weeks.  It was awesome to be back at Seaside Lounge (were we did Funky Was the State of Affairs), and it’ll be cool to work some Wu magic to the tracks.   You can hear some of his stuff as Jung Bulls on Last.FM

I also recently mastered the new I Ching Quartet record Birdsongs at Doctor Wu’s.  I worked on a few of their records back in Chicago, and I can say with certainty it’s their best yet.

If you haven’t heard the new Parquet Courts LP Light Up Gold yet, do it now.  We tracked it back in February on a Tascam 388 (3 days), mixed it at my place (2 days), and I mastered it after the first one got messed up (1/2 day).  I’ve been a total fan of the LP since we started working on it – it’s one of the best punk records I’ve heard in a long time – and it’s awesome to see all the attention its been getting since it came out in August.  Check out all the kind words from Pitchfork, Stereogum (it’s in their Heavy Rotation), eMusic and Aquarium Drunkard that I’ve seen recently.

Another record that’s been getting some (well-deserved) love is Field II by Wiccans.  I mixed it at Doctor Wu’s this summer, and it’s just an awesome, heavy, brainy beast of a hardcore record.  The AV Club just nominated it the second best Loud album of the month and called it “one of the most intriguing, ambitious, ass-kicking hardcore records of the year”.  They’re almost sold out of the first pressing (which will hopefully be repressed, because they’re beautiful objects), which you can buy (or download for free) here.

I’ve got lots of cool stuff on the calendar, which I’m really looking forward to.  If you ever want to check out Doctor Wu’s or just talk about sound stuff, hit me up: jonathan [dot] schenke [at] gmail [dot] com.  And thanks, as always, for taking the time to read this.

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Field II, the new album by Texan hardcore misfits Wiccans, is out now on Katorga Works.  It’s available as a beautiful LP (I got a copy from them on their last tour, and it’s truly striking design) and as a completely free download.  I mixed the record at Doctor Wu’s, and it sounds huge!  Grab your copy here: http://katorgaworks.bigcartel.com/product/wiccans-field-ii-lp

I just got back from a week of tracking with the band Forest Fire at Tree Time Studio in Cornwall, NY.  It was an absolutely beautiful place to record…. trees, crickets, waterfalls, fire pits, the works…  We had some choice gear and a lot of synths to choose from, all tracked to 2″ tape.  This record is going to be a real heady groover, mark my words!  I’m really excited to pick it back up in a couple weeks.  Massive shout-outs and much love to our amazing hosts, Adam Pierce (of Mice Parade & Fat Cat) and Big Jake!!

Thanks for reading all this!  Please write me if you’d like to talk more… jonathan.schenke[at]gmail.com

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Spin Magazine debuted the next new song from Fergus & Geronimo‘s upcoming album Funky Was the State of Affairs last week.  This is one of my favorite jams on the record, and was really fun to record with the second drum part and freaked-out chorus.  Spin had a really nice write-up about it here, and Pitchfork picked it up today too.  Hardly Art is releasing the record August 7th, so mark your calendars!

Wild Quiet, the new Junk Culture record, is coming out next week (July 31st) on Illegal Art.  I’m really amazed at how this record turned out, and I can’t wait for people to hear it.  In preparation, Deepak put together this video for the song “Growing Pains”, which debuted last week on Consequence of Sound.  Check out what they had to say here, and/or head over to RCRDLBL to download the track.

 

The new Wiccans album, Field II, is mastered (impeccably by Josh Bonati) and at the presses.  In celebration, Katorga Works posted the track “Telepathy” to stream.  Also, Wiccans are hitting the road next week – check out their tour dates on their Facebook page.

And Starring debuted a new video for the song “Aphonia” on Ad Hoc yesterday.  This is one of my favorite songs on ABCDEFG, the main riff kills…. if you haven’t heard it yet, their new album is sooooo good!  Spin gave it 8/10 and calls it “Frothing, Brooklyn-based chamber pot of gloriously skewed neo-classical noise-prog.”  Check it out already, man!

 

I just got back to NYC from Chicago, where I was mixing at Pitchfork Music Festival (for the sixth year straight, whoa).  It’s always a pleasure to be working with my old friends and co-workers at the fest, and this year had a lot of solid talent performing.  This year I had the pleasure of mixing Dirty Beaches, Thee Oh Sees, The Men, and Liturgy – all bands that have blown me away in the past.  Other things that I hadn’t heard before but were awesome: Willis Earl Beal, Danny Brown, and the Field…. I’m sure there were others, but my brain got fried in the heat and the rain!

 

Thanks for stopping by to read this!  Please hit me up if you want to talk about stuff: jonathan.schenke [at] gmail.com

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Impose Magazine has debuted an exclusive album teaser for the new Fergus & Geronimo record Funky Was the State of Affairs.  Check it out above, or with an accompanying interview on their site.  I’m so excited for this record to drop – we recorded it all-analog last fall (at the wonderful Seaside Lounge in Brooklyn), and it’s a wild trip of a record!  It comes out August 7th on Hardly Art.

The new Starring record ABCD…. is out now on Northern Spy.  I recorded one track for the album, the epic centerpiece “…7…”, and Matt Mehlan (from Skeletons) mixed the record.  MTV (of all publications!) debuted the track recently on their blog!  I really love this record – it’s a great pop/prog experiment – and their recent live shows have been killer.  They’re playing this Saturday at 285 Kent (with another local favorite of mine, PC Worship) and taking off on tour soon with Guardian Alien.  Check out their dates here.

I just finished mixing the new record by Wiccans, Field II, coming soon on Katorga Works.  It’s a rowdy half hour thrill ride, and was a total blast to mix.  I mixed this at my home studio and over at Doctor Wu’s.  Check out the album info here and an umastered track from the album here!

We’re doing some renovations at Doctor Wu’s this weekend, as the studio is continuing to come together.  I’ve worked on a few projects there so far, and everything has come out incredible.  If you want to check it out some time, just get in touch!

Thanks, as always, for checking out this site!  Please feel free to reach out if you’re so inclined; my email is jonathan.schenke [at] gmail.com

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The first recording I’ve done at the new Doctor Wu’s Studio is now online.  It’s an EP by Bob Jones & the Golden Tones called Remainderman, and you can stream it in its entirety online.  Bob had all these beats and grooves and ideas floating around, so we holed up in the studio for a few days to record and arrange and see what took.  The result is a suite of synth ambience, krauty grooves, and driving post-punk.  I’m really proud of how it came together, both sonically (the gear at Doctor Wu’s is truly gorgeous sounding) and compositionally.  Check it out!

The companion CD for Reggie Watts’ A “Live” in Central Park also recently dropped, and received this excellent review from Consequence of Sound.  I had the good fortune to step in and mix it after the Comedy Central special, and I’m glad that other people enjoyed it as much as me!

“The album is a perfect snapshot of an artist at the top of his game. Watts may be a new generation’s Andy Kaufman and Miles Davis rolled into one hyper creative genius; as a result, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more entertaining artist out there.”

Woo!  Read the whole thing here: http://consequenceofsound.net/2012/05/album-review-reggie-watts-a-live-at-central-park/

I just wrapped up mastering the final album by Chicago’s sludge-metal heros Cacaw for Permanent Records.  Bat Skin Robes was recorded last year by Cooper Crain (of Cave and Bitchin Bajas) and is the by far my favorite of their albums.  The band is so intense and powerful live – like an even more warped and damaged Melvins – this is the closest representation I’ve heard.  I scored a cassette version of it last year from Rotted Tooth Recordings, and I’m glad that it’s finally getting a wider release.

I’m currently working on mixing a couple albums by Chicago/Brooklyn band the Keepsies (a collection of amazing Beatles-esque jams that transcend idle worship into something insanely catchy and enjoyable) and Denton-based Wiccans (wild and wooly hardcore rooted in the Germs and Black Flag).  I’m really psyched on both, and can’t wait for people to hear them!

Thanks for checking out this stuff, and I hope you like some of it!  As always, feel free to get in touch, I’d love to chat – jonathan.schenke [at] gmail.com