Maxband – the indie-rock quartet featuring members of Parquet Courts and A Beacon School – have released their debut full-length album On Ice. Following press in Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, and So Young Magazine, the album shows the group twisting their tight grooves into interesting shapes. We recorded this at Living Rooms in Ridgewood, Queens, and I mixed it at Studio Windows, with Mikey Young doing the mastering. It’s rare that I’ve laughed so hard and still gotten so much done as we did while making this record, and I love how simultaneously catchy, goofy, and weird these songs turned out. Maxband On Ice is out now via Holm Front Records.
Maxband (featuring members of Parquet Courts and A Beacon School) is back with “Nothing’s Changed”, the opening track from their upcoming album “On Ice”. ”Nothing’s Changed” was featured on Stereogum, So Young Magazine, and others, with So Young writing “the single showcases a newfound sense of community within the band, with each member having the chance to spotlight their own talents.” Well said! The album was recorded last year at Living Rooms and mixed at Studio Windows, and mastered by Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring). Maxband On Ice is out April 5 via Holm Front Records.
Several Songs About Fire is the sophomore solo record from A. Savage of Parquet Courts. Produced by John Parish and featuring contributions from Jack Cooper (Modern Nature, Ultimate Painting) and members of Cate Le Bon‘s band, this album finds Savage refining the types of songs & arrangements he has explored on his debut solo record Thawing Dawn and in Parquet Courts’ more narrative-based songs. I did additional recording for the album at Studio Windows (including the vocals for lead single “Elvis In The Army”), and love hearing my friend continue to expand his incredible discography in exciting directions. Several Songs About Fire is out now on Rough Trade Records.
A. Savage of Parquet Courts has announced his upcoming sophomore solo LP Several Songs About Fire. The single “Elvis In The Army” was featured on Pitchfork, Stereogum, The FADER and many others, and comes on the heels of last month’s song “Thanksgiving Prayer”. The album was produced by John Parish in Bristol, UK, and features contributions from Jack Cooper (Modern Nature, Ultimate Painting) and members of Cate Le Bon’s band and Caroline. I recorded the vocals for “Elvis In The Army” at Studio Windows, along with additional vocals & guitars for various songs on the record. Several Songs About Fire is out October 6 on Rough Trade Recordings.
Light Up Gold by Parquet Courts came out 10 years ago today! Stereogum and Brooklyn Vegan both ran features to celebrate the anniversary, as the band continues to tour the world behind their seventh record Sympathy For Life. Making this record with them was like capturing lighting in a bottle… we recorded everything in three days onto a Tascam 388 in their old practice space, and mixed & mastered it in my old apartment in even less time. “Stoned and Starving” was the first song we tracked, and I still remember getting chills as I heard them bash it out in the room around me, crossing my fingers that everything was actually recording correctly. Needless to say, it did work, and in ways we never could have expected. Light Up Gold is out on What’s Your Rupture.
My group P.E. is back with the new single “Tears In The Rain”, co-written and featuring A. Savage of Parquet Courts. Rolling Stone premiered the track, calling it “the perfect soundtrack for a neo-noir”, and it was featured in Stereogum, Under The Radar, and Brooklyn Vegan. Andrew’s been a part of the P.E. family since before the band began – he put out records by both Pill and Eaters on his label Dull Tools, both bands played with Parquet Courts, and I’ve worked on many Parquet Courts records over the years. This song – built around a sample of Jonny Campolo at the piano, and featuring a gorgeous one-take sax solo by Ben Jaffe – was special to us from the beginning, and it was Andrew that helped see it through by writing lyrics for Veronica (and she for him). This is honestly one of my favorite pieces of music I’ve ever worked on, and it was made with some of my closest & long-running collaborators… I hope you enjoy it too. The Leather Lemon is out March 25 via Wharf Cat Records.
Protomartyr – who just released the excellent Ultimate Success Today earlier this year – have announced the live album Security By Shadows. The set is from a show in 2014 that I recorded at Sugar Hill Supper Club, along with Parquet Courts (who were celebrating the release of Sunbathing Animal), Future Punx (who also released an excellent new album earlier this year), and Xerox. I mixed and mastered the performance this summer at Studio Windows, and the limited-edition vinyl-only release is available now for pre-order directly from the band.
Parquet Courts are celebrating their 10-year anniversary this December with the concert film On Time, and along with the announcement came the previously-unreleased song “Hey Bug”. I found the song in my archives from the Tally All The Things That Broke/Sunbathing Animal sessions – it was recorded at Seaside Lounge in spring 2013 (the same sessions featuring the tape-machine shootout) and mixed that fall at Doctor Wu’s. I always liked this song, but it never made the cut for Sunbathing Animal, ContentNausea, or any of the 7″s fromthattime…. I’m happy to finally see it out in the world! You can pre-order a limited-edition flexi 7″ at their Bandcamp, and purchase tickets for the December 10th stream of On Time, which features a live performance at Pioneer Works and other archival footage.
It is a supreme pleasure to have Person, the debut LP from my group P.E., out in the world! I loved putting together this record with my band mates and how the band has evolved since – genuinely one of the most fun and liberating creative experiences of my career – and it’s humbling to receive such praise for something so out there.
Person was Treble’s Album of the Week and a Bandcamp ‘Essential Release’ of the week. Loud and Quiet featured both an incredibly insightful article by Isabel Crabtree and an 8/10 review. Finn of Popbollocks wrote a touching review of the record, praising not only the music but also my personal production/mix work. Bill Pearis shared our bonus mixtape Sick, Sad, Fun! (a collection of live takes/out-takes/new ideas available with the special edition of the record) on Brooklyn Vegan and put Person is his Indie Basement weekly roundup of notable records. The group also hung out with Lola Pistola for an afternoon, got some great photographs, and a lovely feature in Alt Citizen.
P.E. is playing our record release show tonight at Trans Pecos before heading down to SXSW in a couple weeks. We’re also doing two tours in the northeast this May – one with Pottery, and the other with Parquet Courts. Check out the dates below, stream the record on a platform of your choosing, and order the special edition while their are still tapes available! Person is out now on Wharf Cat Records.
Of the dozens of albums & singles I worked on that came out in 2019, Phantom Rhythm by Gong Gong Gong is particularly near & dear to my heart. I produced/recorded/mixed the record (and earlier singles) with the group starting back in 2017, and played the works-in-progress for friends & colleagues, leading to tours with Parquet Courts, Bodega, and Flasher and a relationship with the always-interesting Wharf Cat Records. Unsurprisingly, this fresh take on “multinational blues” made its way onto a number of Best Of 2019 lists, including Loud and Quiet, Aquarium Drunkard, and Raven Sings the Blues, as well as writers’ lists in The Wire and The Guardian.
Phantom Rhythm also made its way onto Post Trash‘s Best of 2019 list, where it shares space alongside Duo Duo by electro-rock whiz kids Operator Music Band (another personal fave that I co-produced/recorded/mixed), and two records that I mastered: noise-punks Weeping Icon’s self-titled debut and Dehd’s stellar breakup-pop LP Water.
Gimme Tinitus‘s Best of 2019 also featured Gong Gong Gong, Operator Music Band, and Weeping Icon, as well as Brooklyn noise-rock duo ESSi and their mind-bending debut Vital Creatures (which I co-produced/recorded/mixed/mastered).
Perhaps the most touching was seeing Parquet Courts in a number of Best of the Decade lists. The albums I produced with them (and Light Up Gold in particular) launched the band’s career, and were massively important for me and my trajectory as a producer/engineer. In the seven years since Light Up Gold was first released, I’ve watched their popularity and stature steadily rise, as their name became a short-hand comparison for literate, catchy punk bands. Nevertheless, it was humbling and exciting to see Light Up Gold rank #16 in Rolling Stone (and #2 in writer Rob Sheffield’s personal list), #37 in BrooklynVegan (and #7 in writer Bill Pearis’ personal list), #39 in AV Club, #41 in Treble, #78 in Vice, and #80 in Stereogum; Sunbathing Animal rank #140 in Pitchfork; and their break-out single “Stoned and Starving” rank #16 in Rolling Stone and #89 in Stereogum.
Snail Mail’s Lush also graced a number of these Best of 2010s lists. I helped to record the album, which was produced & mixed by my studio partner Jake Aron. Lush was undoubtedly important not just to the music culture of the last couple years, but also to our work: it was the first album tracked in the new Outlier Inn (where I’ve recorded many albums since Sunbathing Animal in the studio’s previous setup), and the first album mixed in our own Studio Windows. Lush ranked #48 in Stereogum and #122 in Pitchfork, and its lead-single “Pristine” ranked #87 in Stereogum and #97 in Pitchfork.
One last thing I almost missed: Catherine – the short film & web series by Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp (the minds behind Marcel The Shell With Shoes On) was featured in Vulture’s Favorite Comedy Moments of the Decade. I don’t do much for sound-for-film these days, but this was certainly a highlight for me, and I’m happy to see it still getting some (admittedly confused) love.
I’m looking forward to 2020, with the debut album Person by my new group P.E. scheduled in March, alongside albums I’ve produced for Pottery, Public Practice, Dougie Poole, and Brandy also arriving this spring. Regardless of how arbitrary Best Of lists can seem, it does feel like a great way to start off the new year & decade…. thanks for reading & listening.
Jonathan Schenke 