P.E. – the psychedelic industrial pop quintet I started with members of Pill & Eaters – released a video for the song “Machine Machine”. Edited & created by my bandmate Jonny Campolo (who also designed the artwork for the group), the video is featured on Treble. Stream it here, there, or on our Bandcamp page. Person is out now on Wharf Cat Records.
Person by my group P.E. is one of Treble Zine’s Best Albums of 2020 So Far! Treble has been extremely kind to the project so far – naming multiple singles Essential Tracks and Person Album Of The Week – and it’s lovely to see the record included here too. “That it’s a catchy pop record that also happens to at times be an intense experimental record doesn’t make it a irreconcilable contradiction—that makes it one of the most endlessly fun listens of the year.” Person is out now via Wharf Cat Records, and is available on LP, CD, and special-edition LP+bonus mixtape Sick, Sad, Fun! – please check it out if you haven’t already!
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.
P.E. – my new group featuring members of Pill & Eaters – released our newest single “Pink Shiver” today. The track premiered on Flood Magazine, who likened the energy of “Pink Shiver” to Tom Tom Club, and Stereogum describes Veronica as “opening up to the wild terrain of the human body with a humid zeal.” This song wasn’t really a “song” until the last day together in the studio – it was always just a goof, more of an inside joke than a coherent idea – but it’s become one of my favorite moments on the record. Also today, Treble Zine posted an interview where we discuss the creation of the band and the upcoming debut LP Person. Person is out March 6 on Wharf Cat Records, and the band is hitting SXSW in March and the northeast with Pottery in May. Stream “Pink Shiver” below, check out the tour dates, and pre-order your LP (or special edition LP + Sick, Sad, Fun! mixtape) now!
My group P.E. (featuring members of Pill & Eaters) has released our latest single “Soft Dance.” Stereogum calls it “a beguiling slow shuffle filled with horns and little guitar licks that make up something that has a lot of empty space but also never stops moving. It might not inspire dancing, but it might inspire the sort of introspective light you can find on a dance floor;” BrooklynVegan and Ears to Feed picked up the song as well. I also participated in a Talkhouse interview with Angus Andrew from Liars (one of my favorite groups of the last couple decades) and my bandmate Jon Campolo (who also makes all of the artwork for P.E.) – it was so fun to talk about sound together! “Soft Dance” is from P.E.’s debut album Person, out March 6 via Wharf Cat Records.
Happy New Year & Decade!
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.
P.E. – my new group with members of Pill and Eaters – has released our first single “Top Ticket”, featuring a remix by Liars. Stereogum premiered the track, BrooklynVegan called the group “a veritable sonic Reese’s Cup”, while Ears To Feed and Pop Bollocks wrote more in-depth track reviews. “Top Ticket” is the first taste of our debut LP Person, which is due March 6 on Wharf Cat Records. The album was produced at Studio Windows, edited and arranged from live improvisations with the group, and mixed/mastered by myself. You can stream the tracks below, and pre-order Person on Wharf Cat’s site, the Special-Edition of which includes the bonus cassette Sick, Sad, Fun!
Jonathan Schenke 