We Used To Be Family is a post-rock quartet based out of Baltimore which at time echos the likes of Godspeed You Black Emperor and The Arcade Fire (sans vocals). There is something insanely special about them. Half the band is classically trained and the other half learned by the seat of their pants. How the later half keeps up with all the odd time signatures is beyond me, but somehow they nail it every time. Their music has severely dramatic cresendos that take minutes, at times, to develop. This isn’t a pop record, so you’ll have to give each of their songs time to settle and build in to their beautiful swell of noise.

I had always wanted to work with We Used To Be Family, and after their set at NoVo earlier this year, Ruby came up to me asking if I’d be interested in producing their debut record. I was floored. It was a dream come true. The recording process was seamless. Alex Champagne engineering always helps that process with his finely tuned ears and impeccable work with strings. They were well rehearsed and were simply amazing people to work with. They didn’t even flinch after I asked them to track the the strings more than a 2 dozen times complete with harmonies. It was almost like that was how it was supposed to happen and they knew it.

The interesting thing about this band is that there is no one person who takes the leads. They all switch off and share democratically, which makes for an insanely dynamic listen. Ruby Fulton, effortlessly and always with a smile plays the violin, trumpet and Wurlitzer. Andrew Histand plays the cello (sometimes with heavy distortion through an amp and always shredding the hairs off the bow in to a pile by his feet), Michael Yoon plays the Twin Peaks guitar, Michael Shank plays the guitar that at times doesn’t even sound like a guitar and Mr. Brian Litz plays the drums like it’s the last day on earth.

Here are my two favorite tracks from this record. Be sure to listen all the way through. These songs take a while to build – especially with Jerkface Shipley. Check out that ending. The massive amounts of strings will blow your ears to the moon.

Rose Isn’t A Better Stickball Player Than Randy Milligan

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Jerkface Shipley

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Yukon is a hard band to pin down with words. Luckily the great people over at What Weekly wrote what I couldn’t express with words:

…try imagining that the band Tool was originally a jazz trio in the 1960?s who were influenced by Pink Floyd and then caught in a temporal disturbance during a live performance that transported them through space-time. They then found themselves on the International Space Station in the year 2056 where they were forced to perform and write music while orbiting the earth. In an attempt to travel back through time back to the 1960?s, they missed their mark and ended up in 2010 where they brought their futuristic/post-rock/mind warping/jazz, but not at all jazz/brain music, to Baltimore

Anyways… I was curious as to what what Yukon would do at their microshow. Would they play loud? Would they rearrange their songs? They ended up doing a more stripped down yet articulate minimal set complete with a Lungfish cover. They kept the excitement of their normal stage show but didn’t decimate your ears with their sheer sound pressure levels. That said, this was no acoustic set where you could hear the cop cars roll up Charles Street. They brought it. Any you can re-witness it for yourself below.

Techincal info: Kick: Beta 52, Snare: Sennheiser 441, OH: Shure SM81, Tom: Sennheisser 408, Floor Tom, Sennheisser 308. Nick’s guitar: 421, Sam’s guitar: Sennheiser 509, Brad’s bass: 421, Keys: AT PZM.

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Cameron came in earlier this spring for me to produce his second record. Keep in mind his last record barely came out 9 months prior. Nothing can stop this man. He is a prolific creator of wonderfully crafted pop songs.

He completely stripped down his band relying predominantly on his guitar/piano, Geoff Knorr on cello, Christopher Pierorazio on drums and Dave Hadley on pedal steel. A super-group of sorts. Complete pros.

As always, working with Cameron was a joy. He knows exactly where he wants to go with his music and having worked together previously eased the creation of this work. Plus he knows when to take advice to create the best possible song.

Cameron is someone who changes things up every step of the way and while many would see this as a challenge we thrive on trying things differently. Creating music the same way every time would be more of an obstacle.

Also to be noted is that David Manchester at teamAdelle Studios did the wonderful album artwork. Here are three of my favorite songs.

Baby Come Home

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Never Taught Much

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Every Hundred Miles

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Small Sur’s last record We Live in Houses Made of Wood was in heavy rotation in my household last year. So when Bob Keal came by the studio to have his next record Bare Black mastered, I was honored.

Small Sur is a collective run by songwriter Bob Keal. Bob writes beautifully haunting songs that remind me of being outside and traveling, of the feeling of moving from one place to another. Or simply leaning back against a tree staring at the stars. This newest record takes you to a place with insanely crafted melodies, occasionally droney textures, and haunting minimalist arrangements. Multi-instrumentalists Austin Stahl and Andy Abelow join Bob on this record.

Bare Black was released last week for Aural Slates Records. The sample song below is a complete reworking of a track recorded for the 2008 Friends and Friends of Friends Compilation on their former label Tender Loving Empire.

Other guests include Geoff Graham (bass; member of Lower Dens/Jana Hunter), Susan Alcorn (pedal steel) and Natasha Tylea-Cooke (vocals). Engineered by Chris Freeland and mixed by Adam Cooke, whose collective credits include Beach House (Sub Pop), Double Dagger (Thrill Jockey), Lower Dens/Jana Hunter (Gnomonsong), Oxes (Monitor), and Wye Oak (Merge).

Please enjoy my favorite track below.

Weeds

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