My lady and I just got back to Chicago from a Thanksgiving trip down to Texas…. nice drive, y’all.  If anyone has the chance to go to the Menil Collection in Houston, or see any works from Robert Gober, I would HIGHLY recommend it!

Before I hit the road, I got to record two friends of mine (one old, one new) – Jim Elkington and Nathan Salsburg – in my living room.  They’re working on an album of ol’ timey acoustic guitar duos… a great way to spend a day, if you ask me.  Jim has played in both the Zincs and the Horse’s Ha (with Janet Beam and Fred Lonberg-Holm also in the band), and he and I did some tracking earlier in the year for a forthcoming solo record.  Nathan and I bonded over our mutual love of Elephant Micah, and we went to the release party for his new anthology Ouled Bambara: Portraits of Gnawa, a CD/DVD combo of Moroccan spiritual music on Twos & Fews/Drag City.  Pretty amazing stuff, and a good review here: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13723-ouled-bambara-portraits-of-gnawa/

I’m picking up where I left off, working on the first 12″ single from CX Kidtonik’s KRAK ATTACK for Stones Throw Records.  It’s for a song called “Black Girl White Girl”, with a track featuring MF DOOM on the B-Side.  Pretty fucking banging…. a full length LP and another 12″ single are also slated for early next year.

I’ll also be starting on mixing a record by Chicago’s CAW! CAW! (not to be confused with Chicago’s Cacaw – also awesome).  They tracked the album out in LA this summer, and we’ll be mixing for the next month or so.  The tunes are sometimes epic, sometimes intimate, but mostly rockin’.  It should be a blast to mix this thing.

Other stuff surely coming up, talk at you soon….

Whoa, doggie!!  It’s been a while since I’ve updated this site!

This week I’m putting the finishing touches on a master for an upcoming release by my friend(s) Elephant Micah called Elephant Micah Plays the Songs of Bible Birds.  It’s a collection of four track recordings from a few years ago featuring members of one of my favorite Chicago bands Pillars & Tongues.  Gorgeous songs…. It will be available on CD & LP from Time-Lag Records in the near future.

Also of note, Time Lag will also be releasing a very limited edition of the previous Elephant Micah record The Exiled Magicians – my personal favorite, and another one I mastered.

I’m also wrapping up an EP for my friends Unmanned Ship.  We tracked this live at the Hideout in September, and it’s a beast.  Think Lightning Bolt or blown out Black Sabbath.  We got together over the weekend to tweak the mixes, and I’ll be doing the master over the next couple of days.  I’ll keep posting as things develop, but they’re looking to put out a tape on their own Sparring Records.

And to update my site, over the past few months I’ve worked on a couple of films (Scrappers – a documentary on scrap metal scavengers – and Riot Acts – a documentary on trans-gender musicians); done some tracking with Swiss pianist Hans-Peter Pfammater and an assortment of Chicago improvisers (Frank Rosaly, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Tim Daisy, and many others), as well as an EP with drone-metal band Rabid Rabbit; and some mixing and mastering for a record and some singles by CX Kidtronik & Krak Attack for Stones Throw Records.  Mittens on Strings put out our new LP Let’s Go to Baba’s and the SOUNGS site has been launched!

Whew…. I’ll certainly be updating this more often…

Food Party is a show created by my friend Thu Tran.

She and our friends have been making this show for years now, and a brand new episode premiers Tuesday June 9th at 11:15 on cable’s own Independent Film Channel.

We spent the spring making five new episodes for IFC.  I was working with them doing foley (food-related sounds, setting fires, and an assortment of squishy noises) and editing and mixing sound for each episode.

You can find out more and view early episodes and teasers at these sites:

http://foodparty.tv/

http://www.ifc.com/food-party/

http://www.vimeo.com/thutran

ENJOY!!