The Viewing Room

Yep, it's August and the only thing going slowly is me updating this website...

Several albums are in the works, a nice run of different mastering projects coming through and quite a few new and old friends have been stopping by.

The Nu-Sonics have a new favorite club to play, Union Hall in Park Slope! (photo by Amy Niebel)
Super-hospitable folks and the sound is excellent!

Deena Shoshkes (of The Cucumbers) and my wife Rebecca Turner have been hosting a very cozy songwriters' circle every month since January. You can read more about it in the May 11th New York Times. Pretty cool!

The swap also has a MySpace page with mp3s of the latest round of songs.

photo by Sherri Zuckerman, mic from the collection of Brian Kelly

A nice chunk of new MG submissions in the first couple of weeks, some new friends, and a bit of press interviewing Chris Butler and yours truly.

http://blog.nj.com/jerseyblogs/2008/04/writing_the_worlds_longest_son.ht...

I warned you last fall The Major Glitch was gonna happen... and now it has finally launched in its ever-growing glory! Chris has blogged a bit about the project launch:

"in 1996, i wrote a 69 minute song with over 500 verses called "The Devil Glitch". engineered by the formidable Scott Anthony, the Guinness Book of World Records declared it to be the "World's Longest Pop Song".

In the past couple of weeks I've been really enjoying Last.fm, more specifically the Similar Artists playlist associated with some of my favorite musicians. It's kind of the same joy as Pandora, but much more cohesive and the listening doesn't get repetitive quite as quickly...

So I've created a Last.fm playlist of available songs I've worked on, whether it be recording or producing or editing or playing or mastering. Check out the pop up player and let it run for a while... it's a nice mix.

"Isn't my dad cool?"

John Pinamonti asked me to snap this pic mid-session 'cuz the maroon trim on Shorty matches the chair perfectly... the Jerry Jones 12 was sitting close by and got thrown in...

The studio has been getting a few requests for a piano lately, so we've been scouring the planet for just the right thing. What we've discovered is a wonderful Knabe console piano with a big, round tone. I managed a studio in Manahattan a few years ago where the Knabe baby grand was a favorite among the NYC jazz crowd for recording.

More Knabe folklore:
The Knabe piano was the official piano of the Metropolitan Opera house in New York for over 40 years.
Albert Einstein, who was a devoted music lover, owned a Knabe piano.

Yep... another analog tape machine for the arsenal, this one's a classic.

The MCI JH-110C 1/2" 2tk (30, 15 ips) I found has brand new heads! These are not 3rd party heads either, they are original MCI issue.

I really must warm up the digital cam and post some new pics soon...