Master of Mastering

So, today was the final step in completing the recording for Rusted Eyes Awake. I met up with Dave Shirk of Sonorous mastering (sonorousmastering.com) bright and early at ten am and we popped in the final mix and went to work. It went really well and we'll be sending it out to Level Plane this week along with the awesome artwork and layout that Ron Koupal (http://www.immaculatetattoo.com/) and Matt did. I'm very excited for this to come out and I wish it didn't take so long with a bigger label! But the time will fly by and we'll have copies in our hands before we know it. I don't know if I've ever worked this hard on a record before. So, hopefully all the hard work will pay off and people will love it! We then went and had really good Thai Food that I hope doesn't give me diarrhea. Here's some photo's of me and Dave goofing off/working.
-Ryan

technically speaking...

ok, so, the solo's are finally done and we have achieved rough mixage. The solo's were a nightmare for me. A few of them weren't written yet, and I just couldn't get a lot of my playing up to where I wanted it to be. But the rest of the band seems stoked on them. I tried several amps to get to where I wanted including blowing up my Bogner. I finally ended up using the Diezel. I used it for the solo's on the split with Scarecrow and wasn't toally happy with it, but it was the closest to happiness I came. I ran it through a mesa boogie 4x12 and as a front end all I ended up using was my wah pedal. I bypassed my eq boost pedal and noisegate and my MXR delay didn't get here on time, so I ended up using the echoboy plug in on a few tracks. I did split the signal into the line 6 with a bypassed tone in case I wanted to reamp it and I ended up using the Audix I5 into a Neve 1272 and the Royer R122 into an Avalon 737 with no EQ or compression both right on the cone. It was rough, but they're done! We go into master next friday and hopefully I can achieve a mix we're all stoked on by then! Ryan

If you havent been reading Grace's weekly blog on Revolver Magazine's website, you should be... she is awesome!!! http://www.revolvermag.com/content/guest-blog-landmine-marathon%E2%80%99s-grace-perry-1

On that note we are officially done recording, now comes the task of mixing. The recording sessions ended with some awesome guest vocals from Jonny from JFAC and Antony from Nightrage. We are soooo stoked on the outcome. Soon we will have track listing and some sneak previews of the artwork... this is gonna kill

bass nerd

okay, this is a couple weeks overdue as the bass tracks have been recorded quite a while ago. I am so happy with the tone and the overall vibe of the bass tracks. One of my favortie bass players is Bill Laswell, in my opinion he exemplifies all that is heavy, groovy and most of all not overdone, he plays where he needs to and locks in the low end... his work with John Zorn and Mick Harris in Painkiller is mindblowing, but also the first tape I can remember owning was a copy of the single for Herbie Hancock's ROCKIT on which Mr Laswell played bass on. So I think I was going for a Laswell meets Jo Bench thing. I love talking shop about gear, nothing gets me more stoked at a show when someone wants to nerd out with me about gear and tone.

okay more nerdyness:


on an unrelated side note; while on tour I was introduced to Jamaican food for the first time and I totally love it!! Found a new restaurant in downtown Phoenix and I am way stoked on it... only second to my favorite which is South Indian! Random I know.

mexican weddings

We played a show last week with Portland Oregon's best TRAGEDY, Japanese Punx Blowback and locals Think Fast and Day After Day at a cool mexican restuarant called Tio Leos (still not sure about the coolness of their food for my vegan stomach, but if it tells you anything they did run out of food and some beer brands by the end of the night). All of the bands were awesome and it was great to see old friends from Tragedy, I have known Todd and Paul for at least 13 years!!! It was also great to see one of landmine's former members, Eric. I hadnt seen him in almost two years and that was way too long... he is putting together a new band that will be sure to deliver some insane math-i-ness! The part of the restuarant where the bands played was in "real life" a reception hall for weddings, birthdays and other celebrations... apparently a few weeks earlier there was a mexican wedding there that ended with a good ol fashioned stabbing!!!

here is a pic of me that I really like... must have used the slimming photo filter

-matt

2GRACE1CUP

Check out Grace's ultra radicool blog she is doing for the awesome folks at REVOLVER MAGAZINE!!!!!!!
CLICK HERE

the sandwich blog!

One of the best things about recording at Arcane Digital(which is Ryan's studio by the way, and we have recorded everything we have ever done with him) is the food. My personal favorite in the neighborhood is LEE'S Sandwiches. AMAZING Vietnamese Sandwiches (I go the veg route). Did you know that Vietnamese cuisine has deep roots in French Cuisine (thank you French Colonialism). The results are seen in baguettes and toppings like pate (which I pass on!). Topped with cilantro and jalapenos, my sandwich contains a hearty mix of fried shredded bean curd, carrots and daikon radish.


-matt m

TALKIN' SHOP

Bass is the Place!

So, we had a marathon (hee hee) Landmine session yesterday. Matt came into the studio at 11 am and did Bass til about 7 pm. This would of gone faster but our friend Josh Select and Johnny from Job For A Cowboy stopped in for a few hours and we were having a blast goofing off with them. Grace then came in at 7 and we tracked the vocals for the title track. We then packed up all the gear and headed to rehearsal at 10 pm and we were wiped out about 12:30. We really needed the rehearsal cause we're playing a show in Phoenix with Tragedy tonight and hadn't had a full rehearsal in about three weeks. So, tonight is the first show with Jeff and hopefully all will go well!

-Ryan