Keyboards on Iron and Wine Vinyl

I played keyboards on this Iron and Wine session back in 2011 for the Morning Becomes Eclectic Radio Show on KCRW in LA. The session was taped at The Village Recording Studio and they decided to make a vinyl only album for record store day. Good stuff!

New Monkey Studio on The Voice

NBC's The Voice stopped by New Monkey Studio recently and filmed a segment featuring singer Dia Frampton, I was tapped to engineer for the song portion. Our usually quiet back alley and parking lot was transformed into a movie set as the trucks rolled in and the crew went busily to work. They decided to light the studio and used a giant mirror in the back alley to reflect the sun right into the studio back door, down the hallway and into the control room. It lit up the rooms bright as day! Probably a common filming trick, but pretty cool for us musicians. As you can see the footage came out great, especially the wall of amps, the Neumann U48 and the Trident A-Range mixing board. Thanks to The Voice and Dia for stopping by!

Fuzz.com is cool!

Fuzz.com is an awesome new radio-style website that I have been really enjoying lately. Creator Jeff Yesuda wanted to make a music recommendation site, but instead of recommendations coming from algorithms (like Pandora), he felt humans could do a better job and so created Fuzz.com. Their tagline is "People Powered Radio". It's really simple, you can click on various stations to listen and you can even make your own station(s) by uploading songs form your library. The rights have been cleared and this is totally legit, check out their FAQ. Nice thing is you can discover new music by streaming personalized playlists and if you like the DJ you can follow them or give them "props" (similar to Facebook "likes"). The stations also allow DJs and listeners to comment on songs. Great way to discover new music!

One of my stations, Lightronica World, is featured this week - thanks Fuzz.com!

D. on Darox and The Melody Joy Bakers

This week at New Monkey Studio I had the pleasure of recording D. on Darox and The Melody Joy Bakers. This rag tag ensemble plays a cornucopia of old-timey sounding musics: jazz, blues, latin, Americana and various popular song forms. Leader D.on has a strong gravelly voice that can whoop into a holler or come down low and slow. The Melody Joy Bakers play various instruments including accordion, guitars, drums, upright bass, piano, banjo, trumpet, theremin, washboard, and xylophone.

It's nice to record a band that has lots of material that they have been performing live for years, but make no mistake the sound is loose and all about the feeling. They came into the studio, set up all together in the room and we cut every song live, then spent the next day picking the best tunes and mixing. Two days for a whole record, folks - that's the way it's done! In the meantime they'll be gigging around, trying to raise more money to master the album and make CDs and/or records to sell to their loyal fans. Probably have it released in the next few months, so keep an eye out for this one!

John Doe Show Aug 11

I'll be playing keyboards and guitar with John Doe (of X) and his fabulous band this Saturday. It's been a while since I rocked with John and I'm really looking forward to playing some great music. This free show is at Pershing Square in Downtown LA - always a fun event and a great place to enjoy some Rock and Roll under the glow of the city lights.

John Doe
Saturday August 11
8PM - 11PM
Pershing Square, Downtown LA
FREE!!!
w/ Gram Rabbit

J Street Documentary Soundtrack

"J Street" follows an upstart, progressive American-Jewish lobby group as they take on the  entrenched pro-Israel establishment and advocate for the Obama Administration to take a more active role in the peace process.

I've already started composing the soundtrack to this fascinating new documentary from film makers Ken Winikur and Ben Avishai. Visit the website and learn more about the film:

http://www.winikurproductions.com/jstreet/

Andrew Collberg Album Kickstarter

You can help super talented Andrew Collberg and I make a new record!

Daytrotter at New Monkey Studio

Every now and again Sean Moeller stops in to New Monkey Studio (Van Nuys, CA) to track a few bands for his website Daytrotter. Since we last saw him in 2009, his site has grown into a compendium of up and coming bands and timeless classic artists playing live in the studio with no overdubs. He then writes his own unique impressions of each band and has a drawing made, all posted on the website. Many people are saying that Daytrotter is their source for new music and with Sean's dedication he really is on track to have an incredible archive of an amazing period of music, right now. Some highlights this week include Nerf Herder, Everest, The Neighbourhood, Jjamz, Julia Holter, Everest and John C. Reilly.

Iron and Wine / Artist's Den on Hulu

If you missed the TV broadcast you can still check out Iron and Wine online. Yep, that's me on the keyboards, hope you enjoy!

Green Party Benefit

Please come support The Green Party of CA! This Thursday March 22 at V Lounge in Santa Monica. Great night of music with John Rzeznik of The Goo Goo Dolls, Glen Phillips, Nick Luca and more! Hope to see you there!

GPCA Benefit March 22

**This just in - we will be joined by John Rzeznik of The Goo Goo Dolls!**

The Green Party of California is having a benefit to raise money and awareness. There will be music and fun including myself playing some solo acoustic music, plus Glen Phillips (former Toad the Wet Sprocket) and more! March 22 at The V Lounge in Santa Monica, CA. Please come out and support this great cause! 
https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/green_party_music_benefit