2024 #6: June 13
It’s beautiful out, my solo tour/road trip was a great time, and there’s plenty on the horizon. Some I can tell you about, some I’ll be able to tell you about in a bit. Let’s get into it…
Live:
This August, I’ll be playing bass in Sinai Vessel, and we’ll be touring alongside Little Kid — one of my favorite bands, led by one of my favorite people around, Kenny Boothby. Wow! Never coulda seen this one coming and I am super psyched for it. Also playing in the SV band is my friend/local legend Andy Krull (who plays as Red PK).
Speaking of Red PK, I’m drumming with them for the first time since November. tonight at Color Club
Filling in on drums for Harvey Waters on 7/5 at Sleeping Village
Releases:
I’m releasing the first new Options song in two years, this month (or maybe next month). It’s called Had My Share and I’ll let you know about it when it’s out. Excited to share this, I’ve been playing it live now for a while in my (Computer Music) sets so if you’ve caught those, you might recognize it.
Patter will be releasing our first two EPs on vinyl, which we’re calling Patter Themes, with huge thanks to Storm Chasers LTD. You can get one via their Patreon, or you can order one from us at some point this month via our Bandcamp page
Puddle Splashers turns 10 (!!!) on June 17th and Rob will be dropping a very awesome live session from a newer Chicago band that I love… keep your eye out! We’ve got a few more sessions finished up, and will be releasing them soon as well.
Nature’s Neighbor is releasing a new album called Projection on June 22. I tracked drums at Ohmstead and mixed it there as well — Mike recorded nearly everything else himself, and I sent every single layer through a variety of vintage tube preamps at the studio (for the heads reading this, a Gates The Yard console, Ampex MX-10, and Altec 1567a). Although my initial feeling was that this process might be unnecessary, it wound up lending a really nice glued-together quality, to an album that was recorded in a disparate way.
Recent Listening:
JT Royster dropped a new 3 song EP that’s great, this tune in particular has been buzzing around in my head this week.
Ronnie Stone’s new record Ride Again has been in frequent rotation - a really wild ride of deeply studied 80’s tones and motifs, but it’s way more than just a throwback record. Lots of exciting stuff going on here!
The new Lee Ketch album is a fun, weird, vibrant listen - a great mix between digital arranging of live sounds, and straight-up song-music. I caught his album release show at Fallen Log a couple weeks ago and the band sounded excellent… hoping he’ll do this stuff again live, in some configuration.
A friend sent me this new Birdwing record and I subsequently listened to it nearly every day of my road trip last month. Weirdo beautiful collage-y music, kinda calming and kinda chaotic, definitely very up-my-alley (and hopefully up yours, too).
If you are not yet aware of the new Youbet album Way To Be, I cannot recommend this enough. Their 2020 release blew me away, I really admire Nick’s song-craft and melodic adventurousness, and I really don’t think there’s another record like this out there. Not to mention they absolutely rock live, and are touring around this year. Go see if you can!
the new Hovvdy record is awesome, also a frequent listen on the road in May. Something intangibly pastoral about this one, it was great company while driving thru the farmland of Upstate NY and back around the Midwest from Toronto to Chicago. I read a post from Andrew Sarlo (who co-produced it), that the entire record was recorded using iPhone mics… very cool and weird and vibey!
Thank you as always for reading!
Till next month,
Seth