Listen To The Parting Scene’s “Let’s Trigger An Avalanche”

The Partying Scene is modern rock/punk/whatever band with a chick singer. Yes, that means they SUCK! (That’s a joke. This band paid me good money not to publicly bash them.) While I often question Autumn’s “chickness” with bulches that exceed my best efforts, at least you can’t deny that she’s a human being. Wait a minute. Yes, you can.

This whole “chick singer rock band” thing was actually pretty cool. At least one person in the band was used to getting into a girl’s pants!

The Partying Scene humans show lots of potential. I hope they stick with this whole waste of time known as a music. I see some good things happening in their future. Then again, they said the same thing about JFK and The Olson Twins.

This recording was done with old drum heads, no click track, a micro budget, and my secret weapon kick drum microphone in the shop. The entire recording was done at Echo Echo Studios. I have a feeling that the next recording with the Party Scene at Echo Echo Studios will improve a notch or 10.

It was fun recording big rock guitars with a Telecaster. The old Rivera Knucklehead worked very well in that application. I really dug the bass rig. You can’t go wrong with beating the hell out of a Fender Jazz bass through a giant Ampeg SVT rig. As for drums, I have nothing good to say about Dylan. (har har)

Check Out The Parting Scene @ Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/thepartingscenelovesyou

Listen To Daniel Sexton’s “So In Love With You”

This was the 4th project I have done with Daniel Sexton. I guess you could say that Daniel and I get along pretty well. In fact, we even got a hotel room together one time. Don’t tell his wife! In all seriousness, Daniel is one of the most talented dudes I know. He could even dunk a basketball back in the day!

This project we worked extremely hard on. It’s the first producing effort to actually get finished. While there are probably a zillion things I would do differently, I’m still very proud of this album.

For this record, Daniel Sexton had no band. He walked in and we either took advantage of modern technology or hired music bums off the street. This is a great example of what is possible for just a single songwriter at Echo Echo Studios.

Daniel is from Dexter, MO which can be quite a drive for making a record, but it looks like it paid off for Daniel.

We had this album mastered at Independent Mastering by Eric Conn whose credits include Garth Brooks, The Dixie Chicks, George Strait, and about 10 billion other robo huge artists.

Check out Daniel Sexton at his Myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/danielsextonband

Apparently someone somewhere decided that I should be nominated for an award. I was really going for “best human” but I’ll settle for a “Best Engineer” nomination.

Check it out:
http://www.iommagazine.com/IOMAs/fame.html

You’ll probably want to do a search (control + F) for “Brandon”.

Personally, I would be less surprised to a see a dinosaur in my back yard.

Brandon

We recorded the firsts Fists of Phoenix recording back in the summer of 2004. Right now we are in the final stages of tracking on their 4th recording at Echo Echo Studios. Daniel Seabaugh discussed the light years they have traveled in just 3 and a half years the other day. In their latest recording, the guys are performing better than ever and writing songs that are better than ever. They are a REAL band and have as good of shot of being signed to a small indie label as anyone. I don’t see them knocking Britney Spears (I’m showing my out-of-clueness with the modern pop culture) off the top of the charts, but that was never the aim of the band.

I’ve got a GREAT feeling about the new Fists of Phoenix recording. It’s coming together better than any recording I’ve ever done at this stage in the game. There are no problems on the audio engineering end. I pull up the faders and the sound I want is there. I’m really excited about mixing this record. So I guess, I’ve grown over the years just like Fists of Phoenix has.

Of course, Fists of Phoenix isn’t the only band that has dramatically improved over the years. Daniel Sexton has always been the best songwriter I know from day one. Our first recording was just slapping down acoustic guitar and vocals. Now we have a fully produced album. Catatonic started out like an Incubus clone only different when we first recorded. Now after several albums, they are giving it hell in Chicago (and even recorded a country-ish song of all things!). Mike Renick started out with some songs and an acoustic guitar, drug in about a hundred different session guys and came out with a cool record, now he has one of the most active and biggest drawing bands in Cape Girardeau. I remember recording all kinds of little rough song demos for Promise To Burn and I hear they’ve sold out of their cds they recorded with big dog, Malcolm Springer. We are about to finish a killer Lost Possum album this month. The frustrated band came in with a “screw ‘em” attitude and I think the album is one of the best things I’ve been a part of. I think this album,which is 99% live (including vocals), is better than the album we did a few years ago that we took like 6 months on.

Get Started Now!!
The point is that it is EXTREMELY important that if you are going to be making a killer recording in the future, you had better get started recording now. This is especially true for young bands who still have a lot to learn about making a great record. Nothing teaches a band more about how to improve themselves than making a real recording in a “real” studio. (Or in a really crappy house!)

Brandon