Tag: doctor wu’s

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Parquet Courts at Outlier Inn

The new Parquet Courts LP is nearly done!!  I spent a week upstate with the guys and my Otari MX-5050 earlier this month, recording at the wonderful Outlier Inn. Massive thanks to our gracious hosts Josh and Ambika – they made our stay there so comfortable and productive, I can’t recommend it highly enough.  We then went to Doctor Wu’s to mix those sessions along with tracks from our previous sessions at Seaside Lounge.  Everything is sounding wild – it’s a real step up sonically from Tally All the Things That You Broke, even though it’s still on the same 8-track tape machine.  We’re still working on a final track order, but it’s a total trip of a record!

For Austin’s birthday, they played Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which still kinda blows my mind.  And on Friday, I’m flying to meet them in New Zealand for a tour with Laneway Festival and Total Control.  HUZZAH!!

In the meantime, I sound designed and mixed a couple shorts for Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate (while they were at Sundance Film Festival for the showing of Catherine).  They’re really great shorts called Childs’ Playhouse, which were written by and starring small children.  Plus, they’re for Disney, so I can scratch “make something for Disney” off my bucket list!

Last fall, I mixed a film with my friend and film maker Duncan Skiles (director of Why Shit So Crazy by Reggie Watts and The Fuzz) called Last of the Great Romantics.  I’m particularly fond of this charming and funny little rom-com!  There’s a new trailer online, with screenings coming later this year.

I also mastered a couple projects over the last week: an album by Fennec called Let Your Heart Break (out February 11th), and an EP called Reach House by the Brooklyn band Railings.

EATERS - front cover ref

Maybe the thing I’m most psyched about though is unveiling Eaters to the world.  My friend Bob Jones and I started working on this project nearly two years ago, and I couldn’t be happier with how things have developed.  We’re playing our first show tonight (at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn), the first single drops in a couple weeks, and the album comes out in April on Driftless Recordings…

Thanks for reading!  I’ll be in and out of the Internet for the next few weeks, but as always, feel free to send me a note if you’d like to talk about sound – jonathan.schenke[at]gmail.com

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HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!! I’m so thrilled to be starting 2014!  2013 was great and all, but there is so much to look forward to over the next few months, I don’t know where to begin…

Catherine

… maybe with Catherine playing at Sundance this year?  I mixed and designed the sound for this short film version of the series by Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer Camp (who also made Marcel the Shell).  I’m working on some new shorts with them now, which are just as mind-numbingly weird and funny.

The Poisoner @ Lincoln Hall

… or maybe with the preview screening of The Poisoner on January 10th at Lincoln Hall?  It’s the strange and beautiful second feature film by my friend Chris Hefner, which we mixed last month at my studio in Brooklyn – check out the official trailer.  Daniel Knox provided an alluring score, and will be performing live at the screenings.  I highly recommend all Chicagoans reading this to buy tickets for this screening.


… I know!  Maybe with the release of the remix of “Sorrow” I made for Frankie Rose! I mixed it at Doctor Wu’s, based on a string arrangement by Grayson Sanders of Snowmine, with my studio partner Yale Yng-Wong executing a beautiful Moog bass part before taking a nap.

… but I should probably first just take a few moments to reflect on how great 2013 was.  Sure, it had its difficult bits, but I had opportunity after opportunity to make and do good work with good people.  I spent a month in India; travelled around the states with friends, family, and colleagues; made an album with my boy Bob Jones (EATERS 2014 BABY!); made lots of new friends; and did some of the best work of my life.  I can only hope that things will continue that way in 2014.

Light Up Gold Cover

… and I have to spend a minute marveling at the success of Parquet Courts and Light Up Gold.  These guys have become really close friends of mine over the last couple years since we banged this out in their practice space, and I couldn’t be happier about everything coming their way.  Their music made countless year-end lists – from Pitchfork (Light Up Gold, “Stoned and Starving”, and the cover art) and Rolling Stone (Light Up Gold, “Stoned and Starving”, and writer/VH1-talking-head Rob Sheffield’s personal list), to NPR (Sound Opinions’ numbers 1 and 2 top album) and Associated Press, to Other Music and Amoeba Music – pretty much everyone loved it.  And who could forget Tally All the Things That You Broke?  Its release sealed the deal, as far as I’m concerned.  We’re going upstate tomorrow to finish recording the new record at Outlier Inn – fingers crossed that people will love it too.

I hope everyone has something to look forward to in the coming months!  Thanks for reading, and please write if you’d like to talk about sound – jonathan.schenke[at]gmail.com

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Parquet Courts @ Seaside

Words cannot describe how much fun I had recording with Parquet Courts earlier this month.  Seriously, that much.  We holed up at the always-awesome Seaside Lounge in Park Slope for a week-and-a-half, and recorded as much as we could.  Check out our setup in that pic above, and there are some more photos from the sessions on the Parquet Courts website.

From a sonic perspective, I’m really thrilled with what we did.  It sounds like Light Up Gold, but way more!  We tracked to an Otari MX-5050 8 track, which is the same model that a lot of early Sub Pop records (like Bleach and Superfuzz Bigmuff) were made on, as well as a lot of the Daptone stuff.  It sounds awesome!!  To help guide our decision, we did a shootout in the studio between the MX-5050 and the Tascam 388 (which we did Light Up Gold on) – I’ll be posting the results here soon for all my fellow recording nerds.

After the recordings, I edited everything at my place and we went over to Doctor Wu’s to mix.  Look for an EP later this year – I can’t wait for people to hear these songs!

If you’ve read all this and still wanna read more about me working with Parquet Courts and about the recording process in general, then you’re in luck!!  The Deli interviewed me recently about just that!


Since then, I’ve been mixing and working on sound design for a new web series called Catherine.  It was made by Jenny Slate and my old Food Party cohort Dean Fleischer-Camp, who also brought us Marcel the Shell.  I’m still genuinely weirded out by it, but I can’t stop watching it!!  The first three episodes are up now on the JASH Network (Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim and Reggie Watts’ new Youtube collective).

I had someone ask recently, so I thought I’d write something about it – I link to as many projects as I can find on my pages, so there’s actually a ton of stuff to listen/watch laying around here!  Thanks again, as always, for checking out my site.  And if you’d like to talk sound directly, please email me at jonathan.schenke[at]gmail.com

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Recording Beverly

I spent a week in the studio this month with Beverly, the new band by Frankie Rose and Drew Citron (of Avan Lava and Frankie’s touring band).  We did a round of tracking at their practice space, a bunch of vocals and overdubs at Doctor Wu’s, and a few days of editing and mixing at my place.  The songs are really cool – punky and melodic, on a real Last Splash/Pacer tip, with killer vocal harmonies.  We’re taking some time off to work on other projects, but I’m really looking forward to getting back into it in a couple months… I think people are really going to love this!

I’ve been doing some mastering over the last few weeks too…. I mastered an album by the Chicago band Warmbloods (featuring members of Watchers and Low Skies).  It was particularly fun to work on since my old studio mate/mentor from Experimental Sound Studio Jacob Ross played on and recorded it…

I also worked on a reissue series of the 80s Australian band The Sunday Painters, remastering from transfers of the original reels.  Their three EPs and two LPs were self-released in the early 80s in very limited numbers (like 250-500 copies each), and have long been out of print.  The sound really runs the gamut across the releases, ostensibly a punk band but with songs ranging from almost twee pop to full-on noise and everything in between.  I think a good frame of reference would be some intersection between Big Black, Swell Maps, and Flying Nun records.  A lot of really good stuff here, I’m really looking forward for these to come out.

My good friend Chris Hefner is nearing completion of his new feature film The Poisoner.  To raise the last of the funds (for Daniel Knox‘s score and sound mix by yours truly, among other things), he’s holding a presale in the form of a Deluxe Investor Ticket – a  limited-edition, signed and numbered, screen printed ticket for a special screening of the film after its completion.  I’m a big fan of Chris as both an artist and a person, and am really looking forward to working with him on this over the summer.  Check out a teaser above.

Chris has also posted The Pink Hotel, his first feature (which I also mixed), in its entirety.  Get spooky!

But honestly, the thing I’m most excited about doing right now is going back into the studio with Parquet Courts!  We’ll be at Seaside Lounge for tracking (where Andrew and I did Fergus & Geronimo’s Funky was the State of Affairs), and Doctor Wu’s for mixing.. two of my favorite studios in NYC.  They’ve got a bunch of new stuff ready to lay down to tape, and we’re all eager to get in there to see what happens. They’re also playing some sick shows coming up, opening for the Roots at BAM(!) and the Breeders(!!).  If you still can’t get enough, here’s some videos from Vice/Noisey and MTV getting in on the action.

Please write me at jonathan.schenke[at]gmail.com if you wanna talk about sound.  Thanks for reading through all this!

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I got some exciting news this week: The Apocalypse – a short film by Andrew Zuchero, which I sound-designed and mixed – will be premiering at Sundance in January!  It was such a fun project to work on, and I think it turned out truly great… I’m very happy about this.  “Four uninspired friends try to come up with a terrific idea for how to spend their Saturday afternoon”, starring Martin Starr from Party Down and Freaks and Geeks and Ella Rae Peck of Gossip Girl fame.

The love for Light Up Gold by Parquet Courts continues to pour in! Time Magazine just named the opener “Master of My Craft” its #5 song of the year (better than Skrillex, almost as good as Taylor Swift). Stereogum has gotten behind it too, premiering the titular track and ranking the LP as the 49th Best Album of the Year.  NICE!  What’s Your Rupture is re-releasing Light Up Gold (on CD as well) just in time for their tour this winter (check out their site for details).

Since their signing, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Kevin, the owner of WYR and all-around cool guy.  One project he brought me on board for is a restoration of a recording by Brett Smiley.  I was unfamiliar with who this was, but Kevin schooled me pretty quickly – teenage glam heart-throb who worked with Del Shannon and then Andrew Loog Oldham, recorded a LP, then had it shelved for 30 years.  The album Breathlessly Brett was finally released in 2004, but these tapes are from before then, when Brett was working with Del Shannon (of Runaway fame).  It features 5 recordings done with Shannon (3 of which are previously unreleased) and some unheard demos…. needless to say, it’s been a cool project to work on.

Another recording to recently resurface is the original Hindu Windmills by Elephant Micah.  Joe O’Connell (E.M.) and I recorded this eight(!) years ago, late at night in a performance hall on the Northwestern campus, while we were working on the Mittens on Strings album Look Up the Sky!! (another album worth revisiting).  Joe wasn’t thrilled with his performances, and as we were discussing what to do with them, a mutual friend accidentally leaked the mixes, which quickly spread across the Internet.  In response, Joe re-recorded the songs himself, which were released a couple years later on Time Lag.  As the years have passed and water has flowed under the bridges, Joe decided to put our sessions online for posterity.  I found the original mixes, did a quick remaster, and they are now available online for a donation as the Hindu Windmills: First Sessions.  I have to say that while I can hear the tiredness at times, and that I will always be disappointed that these songs leaked the way they did, I’m really pleased to have them properly out in the world now – they’re great recordings of wonderful songs.

If you’re free tonight and around the NYC area, come to Glasslands to celebrate the release of Fort Lean’s new EP Change Your Name, and see why the New York Times recently gushed: “Three or four decades ago, Fort Lean would have been a mainstream success spawning emulators. Nowadays it’s a one of one, not that anyone should bother trying to compete.”  Patrick from Chairlift (who produced the EP) will be DJing, and Ludwig Persik (who recently released an awesome self-titled EP) and Cruiser open.

Thanks so much for reading through this!  I sincerely hope you like this stuff as much as I sincerely do.  If you’d like to talk about sound or come check out Doctor Wu’s, please drop me a line: jonathan[dot]schenke[at]gmail[dot]com

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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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Light Up Gold, the new album by Brooklyn’s Parquet Courts, is out now on gold-colored vinyl and digital download from Dull Tools.  We tracked this on a Tascam 388 in the late-winter, and I mixed and mastered it at my personal studio…. we are all really proud of how it turned out – solid performances of cool songs, great tones and good vibes, and the sequencing and design & packaging (by the band’s A. Savage) really seal the deal.

It’s been getting lots of blog love too… always nice when things work out like that.  Brooklyn Vegan gave a great review of their record release show a few weeks back at Death By Audio, which was a total blast.  Noisey/Vice debuted “Stoned and Starving”, one of my favorite jams from the record, with a nice tangental rumination by bassist Sean Yeaton about drinking milk.  Raven Sings the Blues and The Needle Drop both raved about “Borrowed Time”, with the Needle Drop giving a positive (if somewhat rambling) review of the LP.  The Deli NYC gave Light Up Gold “two thumbs up” and Internet punk mecca Terminal Boredom had lots of love for the album, even going so far as to say “The recording by Jonathan Schenke is crystal-clear, and it suits the band perfectly.”  Aw shucks!!

If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, go to their bandcamp page now, or just man up and buy an LP before they run out of the gold ones!

Austin Brown, one of the guitarists from Parquet Courts, has a new band called the Keepsies, who just released their first digital single Dumb Fun.  It’s some of the best straight-up pop/rock I’ve heard in a loooong time, inspired by classic 60’s and 70’s sounds and nailing it wholeheartedly.  The title track will totally get you going, and you’ll swoon by the end of the closer “Saturday”.

The band is a bunch of fellow Texan ex-pats: Austin, Vince McClelland and Jason Kelly (from Fergus & Geronimo and Wax Museums).  Jason recorded these songs (and others) on Austin’s Tascam 388 (same one as the Parquet Courts record, fyi), with Austin and I recording a bunch of overdubs.  I then mixed it at my place, with a final pass through at Doctor Wu’s.  It’s amazing what you can do sometimes with only 8 tracks…

The Keepsies have two more singles on deck for later this year, and hopefully some live performances sooner rather than later!  Expect to be hearing a lot more about these guys….

… and as always, thanks for stopping by and checking out my shit.  Please reach out if you wanna chat: 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