Category: Blog

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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

Reggie Watts: A Live at Central Park premieres this Friday night (May 11) at 1 AM on Comedy Central. The special was directed by Duncan Skiles (who did The Fuzz and edited the doc Still Life that I mixed a while back) and it’s a cool stand-up/musical/narrative mish-mash of absurdity.  I mixed it earlier this year, and always laughed at the end of this clip I posted…. that’s what goes through my head now anytime I think of Staten Island.

A couple new songs from some records I had worked on came out today, which was really exciting.  Pitchfork posted new tracks from the upcoming Fergus & Geronimo record Funky Was the State of Affairs, “Roman Tick” and its intro/aside “The Strange One Speaketh”.  I recorded the album with those guys last fall and had a total blast – we did the album purely analog at the Seaside Lounge, and it was one of the best recording experiences I’ve been a part of.  The album sounds nuts, I’m psyched to see it coming out August 7th on Hardly Art.  Check this out:

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/13567-the-strange-one-speaketh-roman-tick/

The first track from Junk Culture‘s upcoming Wild Quiet debuted today too.  I mixed the record earlier this year, and am a really big fan of this one.  I love Deepak’s songs and production on this record, and I’m really pleased with the way everything turned out.  It comes out July 31 on Illegal Art.  The song’s called “Oregon” and came out, fittingly I suppose, on the Portland Mercury blog.

http://endhits.portlandmercury.com/endhits/archives/2012/05/08/premiere-junk-culture-oregon

On a personal note, I got engaged over the weekend to my girlfriend Lauren Gregory.  Not to get too gushy, but aside from being a great friend and a lovely human being, she is also an incredibly gifted painter and animator.  If you haven’t already, you should check out some of her work.