Nick Luca

Live Performance Culver City Wed June 18 6-9PM

Nick Luca with his new band, featuring Joel Patterson (drums), Greg Cortez (guitar) and Jimi Hawes (bass), performing live! free! all ages!

Culver City, CA - Culver Hotel Outdoor Plaza - Wed, June 18 - 6 to 9 PM

The band is firing up the ol' engines and gettin' ready to roar out on the streets of sunny Cal-i-for-ni-a. The city known as Culver has been putting on 3rd Wednesdays events each month to delighted crowds. This Wednesday, June 18 has been named a Top Pick of the week by the LA Weekly. They write:

Culver City Neighborhood Happy Hour Just in time for more hot weather, Culver City host its third neighborhood happy hour, featuring spiked lemonade. Check in at Melrose Mac or Lundeen's Gifts and pick up a "passport," with a list of participating restaurants, bars and retail shops. You then get this stamped each time with each sample of hard lemonade (non-alcoholic options available). There's a raffle at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and live music throughout downtown Culver City.
WHAT: Culver City Neighborhood Happy Hour
WHEN: Wednesday, June 18, 5-9 p.m.
WHERE: Downtown Culver City
COST: No entrance fee; discounts available at restaurants, bars and shops

See you there!

New album from Particle Wave - Grand Unifier

I had the pleasure of co-producing So Cal band Particle Wave and their third album, Grand Unifier. Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist Greg Maechling came to me with a great batch of tunes and I could immediately hear not only his growth as an artist, but also the direction and sound of the band (Chase Harris – Drums, Bryce Stoddart – Guitar, Brian Arthurs – Bass). We headed off to New Monkey Studio and did the basic tracking, with some overdubs at Kingsize Soundlabs, mixed at New Monkey and mastered by JJ Golden. Now available for your listening pleasure!

Pre-order now at Bandcamp.

So far, the reviews for Grand Unifier have been fantastic!
From http://www.examiner.com/article/particle-wave-is-the-grand-unifier

Particle Wave is a band centered on psychedelic rock. Based in Los Angeles, the sound of the surf echo throughout an ethereal and modernistic mix of exquisitely crafted rhythms and lyrics that are enjoyable and deliver a balance of the easy and the hard elements of rock music. Their third studio album, Grand Unifier, is a euphonious and pliant music collection.

The opener which happens to be the title track is a tuneful journey through an ambient lyrical landscape. Lead vocalist Greg Maechling feels at home within the piece and that is always exceptional to notice as it gives a song more feeling and depth. "I Know" offers a kind of Wilco vibe and brings to mind visions of beach waves, and the sunshine, even though the lyrics appear to be about love and the many emotions that come from being in a relationship.

"Know It's Right" takes it up a notch and blares through the speakers into the ears of the listener. It is pure rock, sounding as a nod to the old and the new in alternative music; while "Welcome You In," is a swaying melody that is just as calming as "I Know," but appears to focus on the instrumentation and production rather than the lyrics. The final track "Wish Them Peace" is quite possibly the favorite of the reviewer as Maechling's vocals once again feel at home, and the song is a mix of the tense and excitement of rock music coupled with unhurried and undemanding side of the genre.

Particle Wave found a way to merge a myriad of rhythms, pushing the envelope of conventional alternative. The result is an album that sounds more refined and fearless, presenting a lavish and extensively elaborate picture of what music can be.

Final Grade: A

For more on the sonic sounds of Particle Wave, visit these pages:
http://particlewave.net
https://www.facebook.com/particlewave
https://twitter.com/pwavemusic

Grand Unifier is a wave of enlightening psych-garage-surf-gaze-rock that pays homage to the band’s classic rock roots while delivering a unique blend of noises, grooves, and melodies to create a modern garage rock soundscape.
These 11 songs make me think of Pink Floyd jamming with the Beach Boys and Wilco in the SoCal surf while trying to decide if bringing in Nick Cave from the Bad Seeds would be a good idea.
This album is relaxing, bittersweet, complex yet simple, but somehow remains well balanced. It is quite the experience.

Read more at http://www.midtnmusic.com/particle-waves-grand-unifier/#EvEtTCk7uAwzrV1a.99

California Shows With Calexico

I'm looking forward to joining up with Calexico on a set of California shows in October. It's been a while since I performed with the band and it's always a thrill to play some incredible music and hang out with good friends. Two big festivals, one in San Francisco and one in Santa Monica and two club dates including The Belly Up in Solana Beach. Get tickets here - Hope to see you there!

Oct 4 - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival - San Francisco, CA

Oct 4 - Slims - San Francisco, CA

Oct 5 - Way Over Yonder Festival - Santa Monica Pier, CA

Oct 6 - The Belly Up Solana - Beach, CA

Live Shows With Sky Parade

LA based band, Sky Parade, has released a new album, "Broken Hearts Will Kill Us All". It's a cool, but upbeat, collection of psychedelic rock with a bit of shoegaze thrown in. The music is fun and surprisingly catchy. The album was selected as a featured release on iTunes and has been gathering critical acclaim. Lead singer/songwriter Tommy Dietrick has put together a band to play some live shows and I've joined as guitarist. We'll be hitting the West Coast for a few shows playing with David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets fame.

Sept 7, 2013 - Desert Stars Festival at Pappy and Harriett's in Pioneertown, CA - Free!! www.desertstarsfestival.com

Sept 12, 2013 - Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco - www.cafedunord.com

Sept 13, 2013 - Blank Club in San Jose - www.theblankclub.com

New Records Coming Out This Season

It's been a crazy couple of years in the studio, but all the hard work is about to pay off. September sees the release of several albums that I had the pleasure to work on in one capacity or another. Here's a quick list of what's to come, more details as the records are released. Enjoy!

Califone - Stitches

Neko Case - The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You

Andrew Collberg - Mind Hits

D on Darox and The Melody Joy Bakers - Tango

Pot Luck Audio Conference 2013

Heading back to Tucson, AZ this weekend, Aug 1-4, to attend The Pot Luck Audio Conference 2013. It's a gathering of the greatest minds in pro audio, well some great minds at any rate - even if they are being destroyed by beer. Peers, legends, up and coming and well established - they will all be there. I will be playing some guitar for the main event with dear friends, Devotchka drummer, Shawn King and Calexico's Sergio Mendoza. Plus I'll be sitting in at the Royer/Mojave microphone casita with vocalist Susan Marshall. Looking forward to seeing all the other engineers, producers, studio owners, audio equipment manufacturers and general audio geeks once again!

SXSW: KaiL Baxley, Andrew Collberg & Tucson Music

I'll be heading to SXSW this year, looking forward to the usual good times and great music in Austin - lots of both! I'll be playing guitar with up and coming singer/songwriter KaiL Baxley, whose deep southern soul is working it's way across the airwaves. Check out the video above. His new double EP comes out March 19, pre order it here: Heatstroke / The Wind and the War.

I'm also looking forward to seeing Andrew Collberg, who has a new record coming out that yours truly co-produced. Andrew will be playing with a host of Tucson bands including long time friends Giant Sand at a special Tucson Night show! Austin here we come!

Engineering at Skylab Studio

I am excited to be joining the engineering staff at Skylab Studio! Skylab is a professional project recording studio in Los Angeles. Started in 2001 by Tommy Dietrick (Sky Parade, The Brian Jonestown Massacre), Skylab has become the go to studio for discerning LA bands, musicians and recording artists who appreciate quality sound and dedicated engineers. Skylab is currently expanding to include a brand new control room, a welcome addition to the already impressive space and gear. I've been busy learning the system and have already enjoyed making some great music with some awesome bands. For more information and booking check out Skylab Studio.

Tommy Dietricks's credits include:
Sky Parade
Robby Krieger (The Doors)
Glen Matlock (The Sex Pistols)
KRS One (Hip Hop Legend)
Courtney Taylor and Zia McCabe (The Dandy Warhols)
Reeves Gabrels (David Bowie/Tin Machine)
Clem Burke (Blondie)
Dizzy Reed (Guns and Roses)
Mark Gardener (Ride)
Derek Forbes (Simple Minds)
James Greer (Guided By Voices)
John “Twink” Alder (The Pretty Things)
Pete Kember (Spacemen 3)
Nick Jago (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club)
Ziggy Sigmund (Econoline Crush)
Jay Aston (Gene Loves Jezebel)
James Stevenson (Gene Loves Jezebel, Sisters Of Mercy)
Nate Ryan (The Black Angels)
Bob Schutz (Brazillian Jazz)
Nick Schutz (Masanga)
Robert Kyle (renown saxophone artist)
Scott Martin (Tito Puente)

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!