From April 2011 to February 2012 I assisted the Everyone Orchestra mastermind Matt Butler in assembling, editing and mixing the first EO studio session. The session was 2 days at Brooklyn Recording where over 5 hours of material was brought back to Portland. Our job was to make an album out of the “jams” that Matt conducted in the studio. Everyone Orchestra is a unique live band experience where Matt is conducting a group of players on the fly. The goal of bringing that improvisational spirit to a record was really challenging but in the end proved to be a really creative way of composing even after the session. Here is behind the scenes video from the actual recording session in New York. 

This was one of the best projects yet.  And for more visit kinografx.com/ 

This week the film How The Fire Fell by E. P. Davee will screen at the Nashville Film Festival in Tennessee. The original Score is finally available (FREE) for download. Joe Haege and I are beginning the score work for E. P. s new film Long Division which is in production now.

Had fun doing the music for this one (no my voice is not melodyned) with Paul Golden at ffake.
Jason Edwards did the sound.

I did a remix for Cloud Seeding’s “Ink Jar” featuring Marissa Nadler. You can listen to it here.
And… It is an Otherworldly Mystics casette release.

Although other sources are there, it looks like the M49 and the 57 together are the winners.

Working with Alela on her new record has been a really great experience. At this stage we have done 5 live “sessions” at Flora Recording. Each “session” has a different feel or mic arrangement (this day we were getting most of the take from the M49). We have now selected the takes from the various sessions and are adding in very minimal additions and colors to what have turned out to be amazing live versions that require very little to complete. The original idea was to do the album all live like this and then add in instruments around. But Alela’s performances on her songs are turning out so well that most of the songs will remain pure to the original moment. This is a total treat.

Laura Veirs drinking some Parlor guitar beers.

Garth Klippert (Old Lights) on the Vox.

Animator (and Cinematographer) Patrick Neary has wrapped up this great Stop Motion Cartoon which will premier at the Ashland International Film Fest in 3 weeks. It was another collaboration between Patrick, Jason Edwards (sound design, voice) and me (score). Its a hilarious movie that looks amazing. Sounds good too.

Tucker Martine came by to try out the Burrows with Beth Orton’s new one. 

Working with Brent Knopf is always amazing. We have done a few projects together but always with me at the recording side of it. This time Brent had me play instruments! Who knows where they went or what he did but there is bass, electric guitar and keys. Here is “Spore” from the new album “Prophet”.

Hey here’s another song we did at Scenic Burrows over this last Summer. This one is my favorite. I just did a remix of this that will be available somewhere, someday. Who knows. But a good song indeed.

Just wrapped up a really good week of recording with The Corin Tucker Band over at Seth’s LIttle Golden Book Studio. Getting to record one of my favorite drummers Sara Lund was a true highlight. Plus, I had a pair of Sony C500’s and they were everything I remember.

Just got news that DRRT is finally released. I mixed it last year sometime and so glad it is out.  This is an amazing package for star gazing fans too. To buy it visit the bandcamp page below. Check it out. 

Fun with recording! Here is the Allergy Parade sing-a-long that we did here an afternoon over the summer.  It was recorded as a demo for the idea of the parade in the show. With Fred on drums and Carrie on guitar ie in one take. Perfect. Listen to it here.

Over the Summer months Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein came by again for more Portlandia recording. Once they even brought in The Parson Red Heads (the nicest band in the world) to do a big sing a long.  I can’t tell you which songs we recorded but I will say it involves a “Parade” and another involves “Jewelry”. Keep your ears peeled.

For what its worth here is the Best of 2011

1. PJ Harvey- Let England Shake
2. Brain Eno - Drums Between The Bells
3. A.A. Bondy - Believer
4. Wye Oak - Civilian
5. Drive- Original Soundtrack
6. Richard Buckner- In Our Blood
7. Crooked Fingers - Breaks In The Armor
8. Hanna - The Chemical Brothers
9. Bill Callahan- Apocalypse
10. The Black Keys - El Camino
11. The Road - Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

Best Song - The Words That Maketh Murder - PJ Harvey

What did I actually listen to?
Grinderman 2.
Tron - Wendy Carlos
The Social Network - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Harry Nillson-  All of it
Roberta Flack - First Take

(2010)

It was a test drive for her new songs in a great setting at Flora Recording. Love that place and love her new songs. Thanks to Scott for the photos.

Two of the films that I scored this year took honors at the Northwest Film Forum Local Sightings Film Festival 2011. E.P. Davee’s “How the Fire Fell” won Best Feature Film and Brett Eichenberger’s “Light of Mine” won the Audience Award.  Also, “Light of Mine” won the festival’s first annual Composer’s award for Best Musical Score.

Ji Tanzer and I spent 3 days in September having a total freak of a good time trying drum sounds out but mostly coming up with some serious “swamp”. Care for a preview?

From the moss of the Burrows on one gray afternoon,  Cory Gray, Brian Wright, Willy Vlautin and I made this version of the Lefty Frizzell song “If You’ve Got The Money Honey”. Turns out its pretty flippn cool.  I suppose it should be mentioned that the purpose of the recording was for an NFL commercial when there was a strike (I don’t know much about the ol’ football world but apparently there was a strike). Never heard back from the NFL football people in charge, hmmm, but we had a hell of a good time making this song.

Back to Portland, E.P.Davee’s film How The Fire Fell screens this weekend. Joe Haege and I did the score for this beautifully shot movie based on true events from the Northwest in early 1900.  http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/pride-and-joy/Content?oid=5062014

From the new album DRRT. to be released Jan 12, 2012, this video is amazing. Made entirely from clips from a night of TV as filmed using an iphone. by Jonnie Ross.
It was a year ago this month, that I mixed this album with the two greatest Dropbox users ever: Matt Sheehy and Brent Knopf.

From the site:
A montage of an entire night’s TV filmed off the screen with an iPhone. Edited like mad. The first video for amazing new band Lost Lander (http://www.lost-lander.com).
Lost Lander is a new music project founded by Matt Sheehy and produced by Brent Knopf. This video was directed by Jonnie Ross, in collaboration with Matt Sheehy.
Special thanks to: Andrew Bell, Kelly Brickner, Ryan Flynn, Jon Goldman, Brent Knopf, Kim Krizan, Franco Leng, Trevor McMahan, Jon Munn, Stefan Nadelman, David Ross, and Shana Sheehy.

The latest mic shootout: A 70’s Sony C-38b (they still make them now) up against the tube version Sony C-37a.  The C-38b in question is a vintage version of the mic Sony still makes now. It is used a lot in broadcast in Japan.
Here is what Pro Sony has to say:
The Sony C-38B is an all-purpose, large diaphragm microphone with a proven track record of reliability in broadcast production, music recording studios, or wherever circumstances demand a combination of powerful performance, versatile operation and simplicity of microphone set up. Ideal for vocal and instrument recording, this microphone is particularly adept at handling loud instruments such as percussion and wind instruments. The condenser element of the C-38B microphone provides dual switchable, omni-directional and uni-directional polar patterns, providing control over the pick up angle for flexibility in any recording senario. A low cut filter switch helps eliminate low frequency noise, and an 8 dB pad switch maximizes gain and reduces distortion noise. With its established performance record, the C-38B microphone continues to be the reliable, affordable choice of recording engineers around the world.

and for more you can read more here from Mix magazine

This is cool! Last year sometime Fred Armisen came by to record with me after-hours from Portlandia. Just found out that Fred contributed the song called “Happy Birthday, Sea Otter” to a compilation benefit album for Japan called The Animal Within Us.

My friend Seth Lorinczi (Golden Bears, Corin Tucker Band, Little GoldenBook Studio) fixed the Echolette M40. Pretty much the coolest amp around. Both Meric Long (Dodos) and I fell so in love with this amp while making No Color last year, that now he owns one and now Seth wants one. Its warm and burly sounding and generally speaking they can be found on ebay or thereabouts, for around $200 bucks (these are generally broken). Anyway, Seth gave me a bit of rundown of how the amp is laid out and how to keep it running properly. Here is the schematic for it in case anyone that has one of the M40’s wants to see inside.

Most of our 4 days of recording was done downstairs in Seth’s awesome Little Golden Book Studio. This photo was from our final day of tracking where we took over Seth’s living room and got Sarah’s drums to sound amazing. Love the living rooms.

With some Type Foundry Reverberocket.

With the first days of school, and the Fall not so far off, we here in Portland see Music Fest NorthWest rumble through town. So to start off this missive, here are the shows i’m not going to miss: Corin Tucker Band at the Mississippi, Richmond Fontaine performs The High Country at the Mississippi, Centro-Matic at Bunk, and Rebecca Gates Consortium with Ted Leo at the Wonder Ballroom. 
As for what is gone on this Summer and what is about to go on this Fall? I had the great privilege to produce and record the new one from Richmond Fontaine called The High Country. This album just released yesterday in the UK and will be out in the US next week.  The band is leaving for their EU/UK dates next week. September 2, marked the release from City Slang’s Dear Reader called “Idealistic Animals”. I mixed this album with Brent Knopf last February.  The last few weeks have brought some really fun sessions with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein for their show Portlandia. As an extra bonus I got to spend the day recording The Parson Red Heads for an episode they guest appear in. They are the nicest band in the world.  Speaking of which, the new album from Wild Flag came out this week on Merge. I got to record some guitars and vocals on the song “Romance” which went over to Dave Friedman to mix. Yehaw. Its a really good record. Go buy it!  Although the Winter saw the release of the Thug Life Nicole E.P. from Hosannas, we have already started the makings of the next Hosannas album which brought in Akron Family, and all around rad guy, Dana Buoy for drums. This album is going to rule. And Dana’s album is in the works. So keep an eye out for it.
The last week of August was amazing: Tucker Martine just opened his amazing newly built FLORA Recording and Playback. For 5 days he let me drive the recording Schooner for a test run. I ended up tracking with Ji Tanzer (Blue Cranes/ Rebecca Gates) for two days and then the Carcrashlanderists Cory Gray and Brian Wright for two days. Holy cow this is a great studio. I’ll continue to dream on… but so far so good. A great place with a great vibe.
Lastly,  this week I will be working in the cool basement studio of Seth Lorinczi called Little Golden Book Studio to record the beginnings of the next Corin Tucker album. and next week tracking Ramona Falls. And straight into the spooky day of Halloween is the final turn on the score for the horror film Nightscape! Yes! Turning out to be a good Fall so far. More as drips through the filter!|

Mixed on the Neotek with Producer Brent Knopf. We did some pretty dorky stuff for this album. See if you can tell.  But so happy to have been involved for this one. Go get this!
Listen to the entire album HERE.

If you find one of these, buy it for me.

Brian Wright on drums, here is what a few hours at Type Foundry sounds like.

Nightscape Editor Ben Meader put together a short behind the scenes of recording the cars. So many of the sounds you see here being recorded are a major part of the score.

From Left To Right back row: Marco Benevento, Reed Mathis, Jeff Coffin, Jamie Masefield, Jennifer Hartswick, Jans Ingber, Al Schnier, Jon Fishman
Steve Kimock (in chair), Matt Butler (in front)
I first got to know Matt Butler 3 or so years ago. Now Matt’s improve collective Everyone Orchestra has recordings from 4 days at Brooklyn Recording in New York. Matt and I are editing and tweaking the performances to make an album. Almost there. Currently, there is close to 45 minutes of music that will soon be available to listen.  Photo by Michael Weintrob

Fold in the Wind by House of Wolves was recorded some time ago but recently re-mastered with new songs added.

I suppose the best part of working hard on a record is seeing it finally come out and having people listen. Richmond Fontaine’s “The High Country” is starting to gurgle to the surface and I couldn’t be more excited. I do suggest wearing headphones and playing it loud. Here is The Mechanic’s Llife. 

Shooting to commence mid July. Score to commence now.

In a random afternoon in April I did some tracking with Wild Flag… this is where it went. PS Carr amps = no. Ampeg Reveberocket = yes.

Lost Lander is Matt Sheehy. So happy to have mixed this amazing album. But going over to the Lost Lander web site you will find the official Telethon for Lost Lander. Help finish DRRT.

Just out today.

Things continue to evolve. Here is how the pile looks these days.

Ickee’s are coming. Recently Zing Toys asked me to do music for their up and coming new toy collection called Ickee (http://www.ickeeplanet.com). Jason Edwards of newkrackle did a killer job with the sound design.

Spent an afternoon with Willy Vlautin creating this music for the Oregon Lottery “Plywood” campaign. Paul Brainard came by and played pedal steel and dobro!  This one was recorded at the Rauner Fort called Jalopy.

Victor Nash (Pt Juncture WA, IOA, Stiff Wiff), has created such an amazing recording zone. The big-barn-room-sound is unique and warm (heard the new Deer or the Doe) and Victor is totally utilizing it. His recordings are so good. I finally got a chance to listen to his very own, built by his hands, plate reverb. He has it on the top floor (attic?) of the barn and wow it sounds good. Really want to record over there.  Or hang out with Victor while he tracks.
-John

“This footage was captured by the incredibly talented and mysterious Mr. Emile Rosewater.
The song can be found on our album Together.”

Visit HUSH RECORDS for the free download of the EP.

April 7, 2011. Sound Supervisor/ SFX man Jason Edwards (newkrackleaudiblefx) set up a recording session at Loyning Machine Shop to use the Dyno for the cars that will be featured in the film Nightscape. So I took advantage of this and headed over to get my own recordings of some key sounds that I would integrate into making the score. I grabbed many sounds from both cars as they were both on and off the dyno (the El Camino and a ‘57 Studebaker):  ideling, doors opening and closing, slams, trunks, interior growl, under the hood, fan belt, radiator hum, and mostly tho, the fantastic sound of the studebaker hitting heavy RPM’s on the dyno. This is a car that sounds amazing especially at high speeds!!!  So Jason was micing the car from every nook and cranny for his own sound design but he and I have decided that much of the “score” for the film and the “sound design” for the film could at times be one in the same. The idel of the cars could be low interior drone, doors slamming and hum of belts cold become instruments throughout. Will people actually be able to hear that these sounds ARE the sounds of the cars from the movie?? Maybe not. But we will. And have you ever heard a ‘57 Studebaker going 110 MPH pitched down to 20 BPM and looped into a delay that swarms a scene through a cafe?

Director Brett Eichenberger and writer Jill Remensnyder are premiering their movie “Light of Mine” this weekend at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. I am fortunate to be involved providing the score for this film . Actors Ji Tanzer and actor Rebecca Sanborn (also of the amazing Blue Cranes) also do a lot of great music in the film. If you are anywhere near Ashland this weekend, make it to one of the screenings.  Oh and I should also mention that the freaky good cinematographer Patrick Neary (Calvin Marshall, Nightscape) did the shooting which follows the two actors through the West of the US.

Finally, the record Rey and I embarked on at Type Foundry and Scenic Burrows is mastered and finished. House of The Wolves is Rey Villalobos. And I am so happy this album will finally be out there for ears to listen.

A while back I mixed this album by THEMES. Cory Gray recorded this album at Scenic Burrows.  I was blown away when I saw the final package (vinyl soon i’m told!) and discovered the artwork was created by Sara Sanger. Definitely worth hauling over and checking this out. Not to mention this album is a dark, reverb spook fest of baritone guitar radness.

Director Ted Devee (How The Fire Fell) finished a great video for “Sad Story” from Hearts on Hold.

Time to do my first horror movie score. Trying to do the entire score using only sounds from a car. Soundman Jason Edwards is hitting a Dyno so i’ll tag along with a mic. What’s a Dyno? I have no idea except that the “cars” will be there.

Hosannas is now Rico and Brandon (this is Rico with Logan and Meric). The new EP is in the can and at Saff’s mastering majesty!

This is a big deal: Buellton is one of the greatest bands in the world and although its been 10 years since “Avenue of the Flags” was released, Buellton is finally finishing up their second album. Last winter we tracked and this month we mixed. With some good hours still ahead to finalize, this album is a ringer.

Brent Knopf recently recorded and produced the amazing album 2nd album from Berlin/ South Africa band Dear Reader. We spent 2 weeks in January mixing. I am super happy with how this album came together and as usual, I learned a ton in the process. Recently getting into Decapitator (Sound Toys) and TL Space (to name a few) this was the first album done in Pro Tools 9. Now here is the question: is there really such a thing as a digital fragment?