2024 #3: April 5

March got crazy, pt 2 letter didn’t happen, but — lots has been up! Here we go….

Music stuff

Live:

• No shows for me this month!

• If you’re in Chicago, I highly recommend catching two Free Monday shows at the Empty Bottle (aka the best rock venue in America): Harvey Waters plays 4/15, and Alta Vista (and Prathloons’ EP release) plays 4/22.

• In early May, I’ll be going on a short Options (Computer Music) tour around the East Coast, and one date in Chicago…. will send out a note about it later this month. What the #*!@ is Computer Music? It’s kinda like this but “cooler” and “better” 😎. For live sets, I sing into an autotune pedal with an iPod nano playing the tracks.

Releases:

• The hits keep rolling out from Mister Goblin’s newest LP Frog Poems, which comes out this month. Lucky you, it’s Sam’s best record yet. His newest single The Notary is out now on all streaming platforms.

• A live cut of The Notary from Mister Goblin band’s live session has dropped over on the Puddle Splashers YouTube channel.

• More on Puddle Splashers: a great live cut of Stress Positions’ White Leech/No Sympathy (For the Police) dropped today! They’ll be on tour out West this month in support of their full length Harsh Reality, which I recorded.

• The newest Lamniformes album, The Lonely Atom, has been out for a week! I played drums on this way back in 2020, recording it myself at Pallet Sound. Ian enlisted an awesome cast of collaborators to bring his vision to life, and it turned out great.

• Cusp’s newest record Thanks So Much, which I recorded drums and bass for, came out 3/15. It rocks, and my new friend Scoops did a killer job on the mix.

• Terrill Mast’s first full length release in a few years Holding Space, which I mastered, came out 3/20. Very adventurous tunes, and a fun listen. Terrill rocks and so does this record.

• Again, it’s Bandcamp Friday — I’ve got the Wind’s Gonna Blow crewneck sweatshirts, some T-shirts, records, and tapes on the BC Store

Recording:

• Recording a new LP for Excrucis this weekend, juuust under one year after we tracked their first. Very psyched for this - great band and great people, and always grateful when artists want to work on another project together.

• I got a pair of Barefoot Footprint03 monitors for my home mix setup. The Footprint01s at the studio have been really revelatory, and the 03s have proven remarkably helpful at home too.

• If you’re thinking about getting in touch about a tracking project, give me a shout! Time is pretty open starting in June (but likely not for long). If you’d like to work with me at Ohmstead, another studio, or in a scenario with my Mobile Rig, hit me up and let’s make it happen!

Non-music stuff

• Slowly been making my way through The Creative Act by Rick Rubin — a very heady book full of meaningful insight into the actual magic of what it means to make stuff. Regardless of how you might feel about Rick (whether you think he’s a worship-worthy music Icon, or an obnoxious hack who says he can’t use a mixing board, or both), the book is really great and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the creative process. It’s entirely non-technical and not about “him,” and rather is about his observed experiences as a producer and facilitator since the 80’s till now.
  If you have any thoughts or feelings on this book and wanna chat about it, give me a shout!

• Been keeping my Pathos, Inchplant, Spider plant, Coleus, cactus, and snake plant alive! Nice! I’ve grown almost all of these from clippings, and I’m very pleased they’ve made it thru the Chicago winter.

• Still in smoothie-land and loving it. Got some nice suggestions from folks last month — thank you for those!

As always, I appreciate you listening (and reading), and keep your eye out for my lil’ tour announcement!

- Seth