A.J. – Andrew Jacobs

They Were Only Satellites

I recently wrapped up some mixes for They Were Only Satellites. 3 songs quickly finished for the myspace page, compilation submissions, etc. Work on the full length continues and we’ll probably add some candy to the tracks we’ve finished. 

They Were Only Satellites is:

Clayton Mars: Vocals, Guitar, Songwriter
Tom Chaffin: Drums
Steve Brecht: Guitar
and myself: Bass, Backing Vocals

Check out a sample track by clicking the player below:

“Baby I Turn to You”  

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This past Saturday (2/21/09) I had the pleasure of hosting Joe Jack Talcum of the Dead Milkmen here in the studio for a ‘living room’ style acoustic show. Thanks to John and Marshall from the Stinging Nettles, we were able to transform the big room here into a performance space and have 30 guests come to this special event.

Joe was joined by Hugh Hamilton on stage who provided dobro, banjo, shakers, tambourine, and vocals. More of Hugh’s music can be found at myspace.com/hughhamilton and iacmusic.com/hughhamilton. Marshall Fischer from Stinging Nettles joined in on Bongos for a few tunes as well.

The entire show was recorded and filmed and we hope that a CD and/or DVD will be released at some point. Here are a few photos of the event. Special thanks to Nina Sabatino for the photos.

Click the player below to hear the song “Methodist Coloring Book”:

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It’s with much internal debate that I part with my beautiful 1997 Les Paul Custom Shop. This is a Canary Yellow Les Paul from the Catalina Series. I bought this guitar new when a friend of mine’s high end music store was going out of business at the time. I remember walking in and looking at what was left at the time (not much!) and seeing it from afar. “That’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen!, I must have it!”

Hey, it is canary yellow! so it’s not for everyone. But as far as the sound… nothing beats it. I won’t bore you with the details, so if you’re interested you can check out the Ebay Auction or click on the link in the sidebar.

(just wanted to give props to Sebastian Spier, the developer of the EbaySalesLister widget for Wordpress. You can have your auctions listed on the sidebar of your site)

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted here, but hey, I’ve been busy.

The Stinging Nettles mixes started last Thursday afternoon and today is a little thing I like to call ‘day 8′. We’ve averaged about a day per song and have overshot our time by about double… but that’s OK. The mixes are turning out great and we’re looking forward to finishing up strong.

I’m happy to say that this record was mixed on a console with most processing done with outboard gear. I used a few plugins from Logic for certain special effects, but otherwise we worked “out of the box”. The mixes themselves are very musical and dynamic as John (Huebner) and I were able to ride the faders on every mix and really dial in what we wanted. The mix becomes the final performance in sense.

Anyway, back to work. The mixes should be done by this weekend, then we send it off for mastering. Look for a March 2009 release.

Hi All – just a quick note that our (They Were Only Satellites) show was cancelled this Saturday night at Quip’s Pub do to a scheduling conflict. We’ll be getting back on the horse after the new year.

Also, we did start recording the record for the Satellites a few weeks back. I’ve been too swamped to post any details about the recording, but I hope to do more of that as we go along.

And furious work continues on the Stinging Nettles record. We are slated to mix the second week of January and are shooting for a Feb. 2009 release! exciting times. Be sure to check out the new Stinging Nettles Blog where you’ll find updates, anecdotes, and all things Nettles!

Be Well,

A.J.