Dustin Wong’s performance at the August 12th microshow was one of the most engaging we’ve seen. Known primarily for his role in Ponytail, he’s been gaining momentum as a solo artist and Thursday’s set was a testament to his massive skills as a composer and guitarist. His solo music is a study in patterns and signal theory. His methodology is formulaic, almost mathematical, but the result is anything but expected. He builds each song or sequence by layering simple melodies and rhythms, adding one layer, looping it through his corral of pedals, then adding another. He repeats and tweaks until it reaches a swaying, hypnotic, yet thoroughly musical, cacophony. Then he abruptly stops and immediately enters into a new, suddenly quiet and uncluttered, layer. Before you realize he’s ended one song, he’s off into a new sequence.

The approach itself isn’t entirely novel. His real genius lies in his ability to edit, to pick through a seemingly infinite combination of variables, and to write and combine numerous songlets without ever sounding redundant or trite. His music draws at times from Philip Glass and Raymond Scott and hints at subtle Japanese Gagaku themes in the layering. Download the tracks from the show and we think you’ll be amazed as we were that all this came from one dude and a guitar.

Techincal info: U87/SM57 on front cab (1176), Sennheiser 441 on rear, AT PZMs for room.

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I recently mixed The Yellow Albatross’ debut album produced by Paul Mercer. The Black Island of Abulia is a concept album written and performed by Patrick Martel with a few instrumentalists. According to Patrick, it’s “the portrayal of all emotion suppressed under a doldrum life finally erupting and pulsating out with highly dynamic songs, complex and delicate instrumentation.”

I see this record as a wonderfully constructed indie-pop record, masterfully produced by Paul.

Enjoy my two favorite tracks from the album.

Bed Of Whales

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Six Days Of Summer

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We Used To Be Family is a post-rock quartet based out of Baltimore which at time echos the likes of Godspeed You Black Emperor and The Arcade Fire (sans vocals). There is something insanely special about them. Half the band is classically trained and the other half learned by the seat of their pants. How the later half keeps up with all the odd time signatures is beyond me, but somehow they nail it every time. Their music has severely dramatic cresendos that take minutes, at times, to develop. This isn’t a pop record, so you’ll have to give each of their songs time to settle and build in to their beautiful swell of noise.

I had always wanted to work with We Used To Be Family, and after their set at NoVo earlier this year, Ruby came up to me asking if I’d be interested in producing their debut record. I was floored. It was a dream come true. The recording process was seamless. Alex Champagne engineering always helps that process with his finely tuned ears and impeccable work with strings. They were well rehearsed and were simply amazing people to work with. They didn’t even flinch after I asked them to track the the strings more than a 2 dozen times complete with harmonies. It was almost like that was how it was supposed to happen and they knew it.

The interesting thing about this band is that there is no one person who takes the leads. They all switch off and share democratically, which makes for an insanely dynamic listen. Ruby Fulton, effortlessly and always with a smile plays the violin, trumpet and Wurlitzer. Andrew Histand plays the cello (sometimes with heavy distortion through an amp and always shredding the hairs off the bow in to a pile by his feet), Michael Yoon plays the Twin Peaks guitar, Michael Shank plays the guitar that at times doesn’t even sound like a guitar and Mr. Brian Litz plays the drums like it’s the last day on earth.

Here are my two favorite tracks from this record. Be sure to listen all the way through. These songs take a while to build – especially with Jerkface Shipley. Check out that ending. The massive amounts of strings will blow your ears to the moon.

Rose Isn’t A Better Stickball Player Than Randy Milligan

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Jerkface Shipley

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Yukon is a hard band to pin down with words. Luckily the great people over at What Weekly wrote what I couldn’t express with words:

…try imagining that the band Tool was originally a jazz trio in the 1960?s who were influenced by Pink Floyd and then caught in a temporal disturbance during a live performance that transported them through space-time. They then found themselves on the International Space Station in the year 2056 where they were forced to perform and write music while orbiting the earth. In an attempt to travel back through time back to the 1960?s, they missed their mark and ended up in 2010 where they brought their futuristic/post-rock/mind warping/jazz, but not at all jazz/brain music, to Baltimore

Anyways… I was curious as to what what Yukon would do at their microshow. Would they play loud? Would they rearrange their songs? They ended up doing a more stripped down yet articulate minimal set complete with a Lungfish cover. They kept the excitement of their normal stage show but didn’t decimate your ears with their sheer sound pressure levels. That said, this was no acoustic set where you could hear the cop cars roll up Charles Street. They brought it. Any you can re-witness it for yourself below.

Techincal info: Kick: Beta 52, Snare: Sennheiser 441, OH: Shure SM81, Tom: Sennheisser 408, Floor Tom, Sennheisser 308. Nick’s guitar: 421, Sam’s guitar: Sennheiser 509, Brad’s bass: 421, Keys: AT PZM.

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