Louisville-based weirdo rocker trio Wombo are back with their new LP Fairy Rust. The record is Brooklyn Vegan’s Album Of The Week on Indie Basement (and you can read an interview with them elsewhere on the site), Paste Magazine says the album “casts an unbreakable spell”, and The Fader calls it “an intriguing art-rock elixir”. The band recorded with long-time collaborator Nick Roeder in Louisville, mixed with Dave Vettraino in Chicago, and I mastered it at Studio Windows in Brooklyn. Fairy Rust is out now on Fire Talk Records.
Winnipeg-based slowcore experimentalists Living Hour have released their latest single “Miss Miss Miss”. The song was featured on Stereogum, Under The Radar, Our Culture, and other zines, and comes with a video by Rebekah Hepner. “Miss Miss Miss” is one of 4 songs that I produced & mixed from their upcoming album Someday Is Today and it was an immediate standout to me. The band and I traded ideas and files back & forth, layering the arrangement and playing around as we went, to arrive at this blissed out single. The album was recorded at No Fun Club in Winnipeg, and also features songs produced & mixed by Melina Duerte (Jay Som) and Samur Khouja (Cate LeBon). Someday Is Today is out September 2 on Kanine Records.
NYC/Austin-based quintet Why Bonnie are back with their new single “Nowhere, LA”. The song was featured on Stereogum, Under The Radar, Clash, and other publications, and is the fifth song shared from their upcoming LP 90 In November. This song stands out in my memory as one really came together in the studio – replacing the vocals and adding layers of piano, guitar, and other textures to the arrangement – to become a standout on the album. I’m psyched it’s a single! 90 In November comes out August 19 on Keeled Scales.
NYC-based weirdo pop group Foyer Red are back with the new single “Pickles”, which Stereogum calls “tightly would and spunky”. I recorded this song at Living Rooms Studio and mixed/mastered it at Studio Windows with them earlier this year, and it is from the same sessions as the previously released “Flipper”. Like that song, these are from the same era as the Zigzag Wombat EP, but played live with the expanded quintet lineup they have now. These two new songs just scratch the surface of where this band is headed – y’all are in for a treat! “Pickles” and “Flipper” are available now on Bandcamp.
Medicine Singers – the full-length collaboration between Yonatan Gat and the Eastern Medicine Singers – is out now! The album takes powwow and traditional songs of the American indigenous peoples, infuses them with avant rock, jazz, and experimental electronic elements, and features a wide cast of musicians including Ryan Olson (Polica, Gayngs), Jamie Branch, Laraaji, Ikue Mori (DNA), and members of Swans (Thor Harris, Christopher Pravdica). These songs were recorded and mixed by various people at a number of studios (including Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets and Daniel Schlett at Strange Weather), and I did additional mixing & production at Studio Windows for much of the album.
They’ve since made the most of that happenstance, honing their industrial dancepunk sound into a gleaming and sleek set of razor’s edge grooves on sophomore album The Leather Lemon. The group’s penchant for experimental sounds hasn’t been smoothed over, but even as they continue to follow the thread of where their improvisation takes them, their songwriting has grown even stronger, whether on the dancefloor stomp “Contradiction of Wants” or the melancholy sophisti-pop ballad “Tears in the Rain.”
While you’re at Treble’s site, also check out this feature on Broadcast, where I wrote about Tender Buttons.
NYC-via-Texas indie rockers Why Bonnie have announced their debut full-length 90 In November and shared its title track. The song was featured in The Fader (“a blissful track that feels like a ray of sunshine”), Stereogum, and others, and follows the previously released single “Galveston” (which is also featured on the LP). The album was recorded in Silsbee, TX by Tommy Read, and I worked with the group to finish arrangements, mix, and master at Studio Windows. I loved working with them on these songs (this one is particularly special), and I’m thrilled to be able to share it with the world! 90 In November is out August 19 on Keeled Scales.
NYC-based art-pop weirdos Foyer Red are back with a new song “Flipper”. After turning a lot of heads last year with their debut EP Zigzag Wombat, this new track was featured on Paste (“the band somehow manage to outdo themselves”), Under The Radar (“one of the most promising and entertaining new voices in indie rock”), Stereogum (“sweetly manic”), and others. “Flipper” is the first of a batch of new songs I worked on with the group, recording at Living Rooms Studio and mixing/mastering at Studio Windows. If you’ve seen Foyer Red live, you’ll know that this group is really coming into their own, and this is just a taste of what’s to come. “Flipper” is out now!
LIARS is back with a brand-new remix of “My Pulse To Ponder” by my group P.E.! Brooklyn Vegan premiered the remix, writing “P.E. have turned it into a saxy, skronky club track that is basically a whole new, awesome song.” Check out the statements from Angus and me & Jonny Campolo, the video (by Jonny C), and pick it up over at Bandcamp. The Apple Drop is out now on MUTE Records.
Angus Andrew of LIARS – “I’d classify ‘My Pulse To Ponder’ as the zaniest track from The Apple Drop so it felt apt to hand it over to the happiest band I know – P.E. Jonathan Schenke, as part of his day job, mixed The Apple Drop and so already had deep insight into the song’s inner workings. In fact, while mixing ‘My Pulse To Ponder’, JS had wielded significant influence by encouraging me to push this song further to its extreme – at which point a horn section was added.”
P.E. – “One of the recurring conversations between Angus and members of P.E. has been about how affable people get known for making ‘dark’ music, and ways to bring ‘fun’ into the mix without sounding too corny. With the ‘I Gotcha!’ remix of ‘My Pulse To Ponder’, we scavenged samples from the original and reshaped them into something completely different, a Frankenstein-ed banger built from two different directions. Staying true to the maximalist palette of The Apple Drop, we dubbed, scrubbed, washed and dried ‘My Pulse To Ponder’ until it resembled both of our worlds, like looking through a kaleidoscope at both bands. As the single artwork suggests, the song sounds like peeling back LIARS to reveal the sneaky shock of P.E. freaking out behind the curtain.”
The Leather Lemon – the second full-length album from my experimental electronic-pop group P.E. – is out now on Wharf Cat Records. The record was Album Of The Week on Treble Zine and at Big Love Records (in Tokyo), and it received a glowing review from Bill Pearis on Brooklyn Vegan (“their best record yet… the production is wilder, the hooks are bigger, and everything feels more confident.”). I also did a Talkhouse interview with Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, and our singer Veronica Torres was profiled on Audiofemme. I am so proud of this album – from both creative and professional standpoints, it’s simply one of the best records that I’ve ever had a hand in making. Pink, teal, and black LPs are available at record shops worldwide! The Leather Lemon is out now via Wharf Cat Records.
Jonathan Schenke 