On all her previous records, Baltimore-based singer/songwriter ellen cherry’s principal instrument is guitar. And as the title implies, her new EP, Please Don’t Sell The Piano, represents a break from that tradition, as she explores black and white keys for the duration of the six songs. Having long since found a distinctive songwriting voice on her primary instrument, ellen cherry is taking a risk here, stepping out of her comfort zone.

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The gambit at the heart of Please Don’t Sell The Piano is an unqualified success on at least one front: it sounds great. Country singer/songwriter Caleb Stine produced the EP, and his simple, direct way of recording ellen cherry’s performances, playing the piano and singing simultaneously, captures both an undeniable sense of intimacy and a comfortably spacious room tone. On two tracks, Stine overdubs string arrangements that only enrich that sound, particularly on the colorfully textured “Pickett’s Charge.”

Something is lost, however. In the past, ellen cherry has often seemed brimming with personality and humor, especially in her live performances. Whether she is adopting a deliberately different persona for Please Don’t Sell The Piano or simply hasn’t learned to loosen up as much behind a piano as behind a guitar, that playfulness and charisma is missed. It does return in flashes, particularly in the relatively upbeat title track. But then, at only six songs, the slower, more somber mood of the EP isn’t given time to wear out its welcome. And after all, she wouldn’t be the first singer/songwriter to vary her music widely when playing guitar but then reserve the piano primarily for ballads.

I am not a crazy gear head. But don’t get me wrong. I love solid gear that will do what I want it to, but I don’t focus on the specs. It doesn’t matter if it’s tube or solid state. If it’s discrete or has IC chips. If it does what I want, when I want, and doesn’t flake out, then I am happy.

The Blue Mouse FET (large diaphragm condenser) does just that. It never gets in the way. It captures. And it captures accurately. Not to mention makes everything sound huge and amazing. And to be specific, I am talking about the early model that was black/gray that indicated it has the transformer inside. It really stands up to the Neumann FET 47. The FET 47 tends to be a tad unfocused in the lower-mids. I’ve used these two mics side by side and I generally grab the Mouse first. The bass is smooth and the upper-mid aggression is what you need to make instruments sit perfectly in your mixes.

I tend to use the Blue Mouse FET on many things. Namely, it sounds phenomenal on bass cabinets, 4 – 8 feet away from the cabinet. Ampeg SVTs sound great with a Blue Mouse FET. It also works well on kick drum or 18″ floor toms. And when I track with electric guitars and put the Mouse on it, I rarely need to EQ. It’s pretty versatile and great mic to have in your cabinet. Sure, it’s not the cheapest mic you’ll ever buy, but it will pay you back in time not needed in post-prodution. Oh and I did I mention this mic kills it on vocals? Open, airy, yet just the right amount of focus.

If you are bored with your RE20, U87 or random cheap chinese-built condensers, check out the Blue Mouse FET.

Instruments I use with the Blue Mouse FET

• Bass cabinets
• Kick drums
• Female vocals
• Upright bass
• Large floor toms
• Clarinet
• French horn

Among Wolves have been working on their second album, and previewing songs from it in their rousing, raucous live show, for so long that I felt like I loved This Is A Wave Goodbye before ever hearing it. The Baltimore quartet is a rare breed, an old-fashioned rock band with multiple singers and songwriters whose different voices and visions fit together into a unit that’s greater than the sum of its parts. That unit has a tendency to get drunk and play sloppy renditions of their twangy roots rock compositions, but that’s just in keeping with the tradition passed on by the band’s influences, which loom over the album without swallowing it up.

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“Trigger” is the Jason Butcher-fronted rocker that vaults This Is A Wave Goodbye into high gear after the solemn, piano driven “Broken Afternoon” gently opens the album like an extended intro. But even “Trigger” soons open up into a gorgeous, harmony-driven bridge. From there, the band keeps bouncing between different singers, different moods and different tempos, managing to make a relatively short, concise album feel like a journey with an emotional arc. Even the straightforward, synth-driven power pop of “Sailboat” ends up feeling like a welcome curveball in the context of the album’s moody second half.

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Even though the loose cameraderie of the band’s live shows as they trade instruments and take turns at the mic is missed on the album, the focus and clarity afforded by a lengthy gestation period in the studio more than makes up for it. And on the album’s best song, the roaring, careening midtempo barnstormer “3 AM,” a little of the band’s wild chaotic energy starts to seep in, from the ad libbed howl that opens the song onward. Even the slight sloppiness of the song’s guitar solo gives it a little bit of an edge that makes the track come alive. Many bands continue to mine the same fertile intersection of classic rock, indie pop and alt-country as Among Wolves, but few make it sound so vital and their own.

Between the title, one of the simplest and most universal phrases in the English language, and the cover art, a commonplace portrait of the planet Earth from outer space, Jason Urick’s latest album I Love You seems to be pursuing an aesthetic that’s as neutralized and devoid of detail or personality as possible. The only thing he could’ve done to make the exterior packaging of the album more generic would be to change his last name to Smith. But that’s not to say that I Love You suffers from a lack of ideas or creative expression. If anything, the album is a culmination of a running theme in Urick’s music, which often takes very specific source material, and stretches and manipulates the samples until they become abstract and ostensibly meaningless, sound for sound’s sake.

Although Urick, a longtime fixture of Baltimore underground music, recently located on Portland, Oregon, I Love You was partly recorded at Floristree, the Baltimore performance space he previously ran and lived in. Like the 2010 album Husbands and Urick’s other solo releases on Thrill Jockey Records since the breakup of his band Wzt Hearts, I Love You is a collection of a handful of lengthy tracks, mostly running from six to ten minutes, each with its own particular palette of sounds that slowly unfurl in subtle variations. It’s a headphone album in the classic sense, with the pure aural beauty of its best moments being derived primarily from the way the sounds drift from the left to right channel or vice versa.

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The most ear-catching overtly rhythmic track is “Ageless Isms,” which keeps a consistent groove even as its central loop is buried under more and more layers of echoing noise. “The Crying Song (Album Mix),” an alternate version of a track from the single that preceded I Love You, is at the other end of the spectrum as Urick at his most ethereal, with the kind of trebly, pixellated swirl of sound that might be compared to ’80s new age music but only could’ve been made in the 21st century era of laptop avant garde sound manipulation. In either case, Urick’s very individual aesthetics and ideas can’t help but shine through, as much as he may mask them in seemingly impersonal packaging.

On a recent day in September, music fans everywhere reacted to the news that R.E.M. had decided to break up. However, the same day a much less famous band, but perhaps one that still had a bit more potential for future growth, also announced that it was calling it a day. The breakup of the wonderful, inventive Baltimore quartet Ponytail was not exactly a shock — in fact their split had been preceded by a lack of touring and lots of speculation about the band’s status — but it was still sad to hear. But the band left behind one last album, Do Whatever You Want All The Time, released earlier this year before calling it quits, and it’s a worthy addition to their legacy.

The seven tracks on Do Whatever expand on the already expansive palette of sounds Ponytail displayed on 2007′s Ice Cream Spiritual. Guitarist Dustin Wong’s ear for unique textures has even grown with the experiments of his 2010 solo album Infinite Love, and vocalist Molly Siegel continues to be an inimitable, indefinable presence rather than a typical frontwoman.

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“Flabbermouse” stands out as one of the best tracks on the album, beginning with sweetly melodic guitar licks that could be out of a ’60s surf rock song,. But soon Ponytail are pouring a dozen other sonic elements into the pot, and letting the intensity of the track rise and fall in gentle waves, too subtle and unpredictable for a stereotypical post-rock band’s simple loud/quiet contrasts. The members of Ponytail may have had their reasons for disbanding, but their final album sure sounds like a band still thrilling each other with the joy of creativity.

It’s time to showcase a condenser mic this month! And there’s nothing we like more than a versatile mic you can find for under $400.

I first got into recording doing a lot of solo and acoustic performers. I emailed one of my favorite songwriter/recordists at the time and asked him what mic he used to track his acoustic guitars. It just so happened the Audio-Technica 4033 was the mic he’d been using for years to record guitars and vocals. This being THE first studio mic for me, I put it in front of as many instruments as I could and received pretty incredible results. Audio-Technica even boasts that this was the mic to break the $1000-barrier in it’s class.

The 4033 is a fixed cardiod large-diaphram condenser, with a super wide and flat frequency response and a slight boost around 6k. It also features a 10db pad, and a bass roll off around 80Hz. It seems like a pretty basic mic, but I can’t tell you how many albums I’ve done almost entirely with this mic. Even today with all the vintage gear and fancy tube mics we’ve got in the studio, I still find myself grabbing this mic for most projects…call me sentimental!?

Instruments I like in front of the AT 4033

• Male/Female vocals
• Acoustic Guitars
• Banjo
• Cello
• Guitar cabs
• Brass Instruments
• Upright Piano
• Organ
• makes a decent room mic too!

No, not the SM57. The S-M-Seven.

While it’s not my favorite mic, nor is it the most interesting, by any means, it certainly reproduces many sounds wonderfully and accurately. Simply put, it’s utilitarian. And build like a tank. My SM7 has taken many o’ falls and still, many many years later, works like a charm. I’d say, in any given record I produce it’s used multiple times. And not on just one instrument. It yields great results with vocals, drums and bass/guitar amps. I’ve even used it on kick drums (more of the vintage flavor) and have been very happy with the output. It’s claim to fame was when it was discovered that engineer Bruce Swedien used this mic for most of the vocals on Michael Jackson’s 1982 record, Thriller. You know the record that spawned seven top 10 singles and has sold over 110 million copies? So aside from the fact that Michael sounds great behind it, other people do as well. It’s not just Michael’s amazing voice. It’s a cardioid dynamic mic that can stand up next to a U47, U87 or any other variety of vintage condensers.

Instruments I like in front of the Shure SM7

• Snare
• Male vocals
• Sibilant female vocals
• Kick
• Guitar cabs
• Voice over & broadcast
• Trumpet

What’s also nice about this mic is that is has two switches for bass rolloff and mid-range emphasis (presence boost). All that and you can score one brand new for $350!

In a way, the continued existence of The Death Set doesn’t really make a lot of sense after the 2009 death of one of its two founding members, Beau Velasco. Not that remaining frontman Johnny Siera shouldn’t have pushed forward, but the band’s hyperactive fusion of hip hop and dance beats and pop punk sugar rush hooks simply doesn’t seem like a creative vehicle that can handle that kind of sadness hanging over it, and even the Death Set’s name feels awkward and perhaps even in poor taste now.

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Despite all that, their second album Michel Poiccard manages to both retain the Death Set’s unique energy and pay fitting tribute to Velasco’s memory. That takes shape in many ways, from the clip of Velasco’s voice at the beginning of the album, to songs like “It’s Another Day”  and “I Miss You Beau Velasco” marry the band’s speedy, yelping aesthetic to pretty, reverb-heavy guitar tones and memorably melancholy melodies.
Mostly, however, The Death Set is the same funny, chaotic band they’ve always been. “Kittens Inspired By Kittens” is a hilariously strange, short collage of beats and meows, while “Slap Slap Slap Pound Up Down Snap” takes their aesthetic to nearly irritating extremes while remaining as catchy as possible. Instead of taking a tentative step forward after tragedy, or squeaking out one more album before an uncertain future, Michel Poiccard sounds like The Death Set affirming that they are still alive and kicking.

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It’s quite possibly my favorite mic. It’s a dynamic. But it certainly has qualities of a condenser. It’s definitely one of the most accurate, flat and detailed of the mics in my collection. I love what it can do with female voices that have a lot of sibilance. It’s my go-to mic for snare bottom. I love what it does to guitar cabs with just a little too much presence. What’s even better about this mic is the off-axis rejection with its super-cardiod polar pattern. Which means it’s incredible to use live, either in the studio or for performance. The mic also has a 5-switch bass roll-off just like it’s younger sibling the 421. It also has a high/presence boost which I rarely use, unless a snare is really dull.

Instruments I really enjoy sticking in front of the 441:

• Flute
• Female Vocals
• Electric Guitar
• Snare (bottom or top)
• Sax
• Clarinet
• Acordian
• Toms
• Percussion like tambourines and shakers

It’s pretty much my desert island mic. I can pretty much stick it in front of anything and it sounds great! I [heart] you 441!

White Life is something of a departure for Jon Ehrens, the prolific and chameleonic singer-songwriter previously best known for indie bands like the idiosyncratic Art Department and the lo-fi Repelican. For one of the first times in his career, Ehrens is sharing vocal and production duties on White Life’s self-titled debut, which was recorded with Chris and Mickey Freeland at Beat Babies, and features several lead vocal performances by his sister Emily Ehrens. But more significantly, White Life is a big stylistic left turn for Ehrens into the world of synths, drum machines and unabashedly pop vocal performances.

I Want Love
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The eight songs on White Life’s album, out this week on Ehse Records, each offer different variations on the project’s polished aesthetic and retro sensibility. The closer “I Want Love” is the album’s most overtly R&B track, with a bubbly synth bassline and a euphoric vocal by Emily Ehrens that could pass for an early ’80s boogie classic by Deniece Williams.

Follow
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Elsewhere on the album, the ’80s evoked by White Life is more along the lines of brooding synth pop, with Jon Ehrens offering some of the most passionate vocals and nakedly emotional lyrics of his career, which effectively lend a sense of gravity and sincerity to what could otherwise be an exercise in campy, ironic nostalgia. On one of the best tracks in that vein, “Follow,” his staccato verses give way to a chorus. that soars with help from backing harmonies by Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak.