Andrew from The New Age Outlaws recently came in to Mobtown to have their debut record mastered. Andrew, a recent high school graduate recorded the record himself at home. Quite an impressive feat for someone barely 18. Andrew has some skills and I had a great time working on the project with him. Here are a few songs I enjoyed:

Fool
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Hardly Working

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Thu, July 2nd at 9:00pm
The Talking Head Club @ Sonar

The Jagged Hearts and e.joseph and the phantom heart play a joint CD Release Show/Party together this Thursday! With influences from English rock to roots rock, both are darling bands, but know how to rock your face. You will not be disappointed!

This past spring Cameron Blake put together a live show that benefited The Maryland Food Bank at the Village Church in Hampden. Cameron Blake, E.Joseph & the Phantom Heart, and Caleb Stine & The Brakemen played. Eric and I had the opportunity to record that amazing night and had a great time in the process.

We had such a fun time mixing Caleb’s set we decided to put a few songs from the night up here.

Be on the lookout. The live record will be released July 23rd.

Lonesome Kid

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I’ll Fly Away/Will The Circle Be Unbroken

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Sweet Jane
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Last week, we hosted Austin Stahl for our monthly microshow. He brought new and moving interpretations from his latest solo record, The Things You Carry, and pulled some songs from the vault, including covers of Private Eleanor, Hank Williams, Small Sur and Bruce Springsteen. It was a warm and intimate night and so still as we held our breath listening to each heart-rending verse.

Tech stuff: U87 on vox. Shure SM81 and SP C3 on the acoustic/banjo. The acoustic also was DI’s through a RedDI by A Designs (Thanks Frank!) on a few tracks. The electric mandolin was mic’d using a SM57 on a Fender Champ.

Mike from Arlington Sleeps recently came in to have his band’s CD mastered with us. These guys are awesome. Tight as hell. And balls to the wall. They are about to go on a tour this summer, so check them out where ever you are.

The record turned out great and is on sale this week at Big Cartel - check it out.

The Royal Breather
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Cameron Blake recently came in to Mobtown for some tracking and mixing for his sophomore full-length, En Route. He was great to work with and he is an incredible songwriter. Some of the highlights included experimenting with crazy reverbs on his voice and working with two players (french horn and oboe) from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Cameron’s chamber pop music style is an anomaly here in Baltimore. It’s refreshing and if anything will stand out in a crowd of hipsters. I’ve enjoyed working with Cameron. His music is creative, filled with emotions and fun.

Also, if you are in town this Friday, he’ll be playing at Joe Squared at 10pm.

This Is All
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Lonely Towns
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When It Comes Down To It
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I just finished mastering Austin Stahl’s (Private Eleanor, Small Sur) first solo record, The Things You Carry. It’s a great record. Wonderful lyrics and beautiful melodies. He recorded it on his cassette 8-track at his house. You can download the record for free here.

Prelude/The Things You Carry
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The Ballad Of Buena Vista
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There’s also a bonus record called 1982 which is his birth year and contains songs released that year. My favorite is definitely the Bruce Springsteen cover of “Used Cars”.

Jon Ehrens is a serial band inventor in the Robert Pollard mode. Just as the Guided By Voices frontman frequently comes up with aliases to release music under, sometimes fashioning unique musical identities and even elaborate fictional backstories, Ehrens constantly records under names like the Hypnic Jerks, Factoid of the Dustbowl, and Spittn’ Images, often just for one album or a few songs, before moving onto the next idea. One of his many solo recording projects, The Art Department, even became a live trio that gigs steadily around Baltimore.

With all the different voices and aesthetics he tries on throughout his different projects, it’s tempting to wonder what the ‘real’ Jon Ehrens sound is. And if there is one, it’s a safe guess to start with Repelican, the name he’s recorded under on and off for 10 years. It quickly becomes clear with one listen to Repelican’s new album, Don’t Mumble The Manifesto, however, that he’s still behind a bit of a sonic mask, whether it’s a dense fog of tape hiss, or an affected singing style that sometimes sounds like a caricature of Bruce Springsteen in rockabilly mode. That’s not to say that he’s hiding his true self, or that it’s all an elaborate put-on; if anything, it’s a confirmation that the lo-fi production and twangy melodies common to so much of Ehrens’s records are simply part of his musical DNA. And where a record by, say, the Art Department might be almost stubbornly dedicated to a specific style from song to song, Repelican benefits highly from a wider swath of tempos and moods.

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The album ends with “Diana,” one of the few tracks that gets past 3 minutes, and easily its most fully formed pop tune, featuring the same hiccupy rockabilly vocal style as much of the rest of the album. But other wise, Don’t Mumble’s brisk half hour running time is full of distorted classic rock miniatures like “Ripened Horse” that would make Bob Pollard himself proud.

Static Brigade, an eletropop outfit from Baltimore and England, recently finished tracking an EP and we got the opportunity to work with them on mastering the mixes. They’ve been slaving on these tracks, but between tweaking the knobs of their killer analog synths they opened up for the Ting Tings at Sonar a few weeks ago.

That said, they wanted the record to pound in the clubs yet still retain it’s flexing musicality. It’s a lot of fun and clearly gives nods to New Order, MGMT, Nine Inch Nails, Information Society, and David Bowie.

Here’s a taste of what’s to come:

White Noise
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Adam Trice, better known around town as Red Sammy, recently published a book of poems and decided to create some music to accompany the literary project. He recorded 5 songs at a friend’s house. They were tracked wonderfully but he decided to seek an extra dimension for the mix.

I Stay In Bed
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The Current
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I put these mixes for Adam together a few weeks ago. The book/CD is out and you can buy it here.