Welcome to Bobby’s Motel – the debut full-length by Montreal art-punks Pottery – has finally arrived! The record has been widely praised – Album Of The Week on both Stereogum and Brooklyn Vegan, four-star reviews in NME and AllMusic, and a host of other loving reviews of the record, most of which include the word “fun” multiple times. I produced the album with the band last summer, recording in Montreal at Breakglass Studios and mixing in NYC at Studio Windows, with Josh Bonati providing the masters. Working on this LP was one of my all-time favorite record-making experiences, and I couldn’t be happier to finally share it with the world! Welcome To Bobby’s Motel is out now on Partisan Records & Royal Mountain.
Pottery – my favorite Montreal acid-fried art-rockers – return with the new single “Hot Heater!” Stereogum premiered the “very addicting” track, the fourth single from their upcoming debut album Welcome To Bobby’s Motel. I adore this record we made together – recorded at Breakglass Studios in Montreal, mixed at Studio Windows in Brooklyn, and mastered by Josh Bonati – and am so proud to have one more gem to share before the LP proper. Welcome To Bobby’s Motel is out June 26 on Partisan Records.
Montreal art-rock quintet Pottery have postponed the release of their debut LP, but here’s a new single to tide us over, courtesy of Stereogum. “Hot Like Jungle” is the final track on Welcome To Bobby’s Motel (which I produced, recording at Breakglass in Montreal & mixing at Studio Windows in Brooklyn), and it was also the last song we worked out for the album. What started as a goofy dance-popper ended up being the most genuinely touching moment on the whole album, and was tracked in about three takes after figuring out the direction for the song in the studio. The hand-drawn animated video was created by the band’s drummer Paul Jacobs, who also did the album’s bizarro art as well as the previous videos for “Texas Drums” and “Take Your Time.”
Welcome To Bobby’s Motel is now out June 26 via Partisan Records/Royal Mountain. If you need more Pottery NOW, check out their recent interviews in DIY Mag and So Young. Also recommended: Paul Jacobs’ wealth of solo material over at Bandcamp!
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.
Montreal art-rock quintet Pottery have a new single called “Take Your Time” taken from their upcoming album Welcome to Bobby’s Motel. I produced this record last year – recording in Montreal at Breakglass Studio and mixing in Brooklyn at Studio Windows – and am so excited to be able to share another song from the album. As opposed to lead single “Texas Drums” (which was recently named KEXP’s Song of the Day), this song is a bit more nervy and direct with a sweet & sour verse/chorus structure. Check it out on Brooklyn Vegan, Stereogum, Paste or others, and don’t miss the truly psyched-out video by the band’s own Paul Jacobs. Welcome to Bobby’s Motel is out April 10 on Partisan 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!
3/06 – NYC @ Trans Pecos: RECORD RELEASE w/ Gauche, Macula Dog, DJ Montana Simone
3/18 – 3/21 Austin @ SXSW
4/03 – NYC @ Baby’s All Right w/ Activity (Record Release), Noel Heroux
“Texas Drums” is the first single from the debut LP by Montreal-based art-pop quintet Pottery. Steve Lamacq premiered the track on BBC 6 Radio, Stereogum (who named Pottery one of 2019’s Best New Bands and their No. 1 EP one of the Best EPs of 2019) gave the song a glowing review, and it was featured in Brooklyn Vegan, Consequence of Sound, Paste, and other publications as well. Stereogum nailed it when they called the band “a roiling, infectious entity, frantic grooves and tightly wound guitar rhythms and psychedelic synth affectations moving as one organism until the band unleashed it all into danceable, artier chaos.”
I produced “Texas Drums” and Welcome to Bobby’s Motel last summer – recording it with the band at Breakglass Studios in Montreal and mixing it at Studio Windows (my studio in Brooklyn) – and Josh Bonati mastered the madness. Working on this album was genuinely one of my favorite record-making experiences ever – the group is so fun, so bonkers, and absolutely incredible live! They’re touring extensively through Europe with a week of North American dates this spring/summer, so do yourself a favor and get your tickets now. You can stream the song in its entirety, watch the video for Part I, and pre-order the album now. Welcome to Bobby’s Motel is out April 10 via Partisan 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 