Flora Recording & Playback

Feb 9, 2012

tucker — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:51:20 +0000

Fleet Foxes‘ Robin Pecknold and Morgan Henderson along with amazing drummer Neal Morgan were just here working on a some new material for a soundtrack.

Grammy nominations

tucker — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:29:43 +0000

Congratulations to the Decemberists and My Morning Jacket for their Grammy nominations!

Oct 3, 2011

tucker — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:06:47 +0000

We had a great time this weekend. T Bone Burnett was in the house with his engineer Mike Piersante doing a couple of tracks with the Decemberists. One for the upcoming Chieftans record and another for the soundtrack to upcoming film “The Hunger Games”.

March 4, 2011

admin — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:04:41 +0000

In the 11 months since I have last updated this news page a lot has happened in my neck of the woods. My son Tennessee was born 10 months ago and I have managed to make a few records I’m really proud to have been part of since his birth. The Decemberists record “The King is Dead” debuted at #1 which was a fun surprize to all of us. I got to work with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings on that one, a couple of folks I have long admired. Once that was done I headed South to Louisville, KY and set up shop in an old church with My Morning Jacket. Much of that record was tracked with everybody playing live in a huge room together. The recording gear was in the same room and bleed was king. The final phase happened in Nashville at Blackbird Studio. The album is called “Circuital” and is set to be released in late May or early June. The R.E.M. record that I tracked demos for comes out next week. Also since I last wrote I mixed a John Wesley Harding record, a Jenny Scheinman record with Nels Cline, Todd Sickafoose and Jim Black, a Cataldo record and a collaborative record between Mirah, Thao and TuneYards. We started tracking a new Brian Blade Fellowship record that will be continued soon. We also made some headway on a new Floratone record which features Bill Frisell, Matt Chamberlain, Jon Brion, Mike Elizondo, Eyvind Kang and Ron Miles. Mixing for that record begins next week.

April 3, 2010

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:05:46 +0000

Tuesday is the release of the debut record from Black Prarie on Sugar Hill Records. It’s an all acoustic affair with a healthy dose of spook sprinkled about. NPR is streaming the album in advance here. I’m just back from Nashville where we tracked a new record for banjo player/songtress Abigail Washburn. The tracking was finished today in Portland and the mixing shall commence immediately. We’ve had many great contributions from folks like Viktor Krauss, Kai Welch, Bill Frisell, Tim O Brien, Edgar Meyer, Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket), Old Crow Medicine show folks, Wu Fei, Jeremy Kittell, Nathaniel Smith and on and on. My goal is to get the mixing done before I become a papa which could be any day now. After a week or 2 with the baby we jump right into a new Decemberists record which we’ll be recording out in the country outside of Portland in a barn that we are converting into a studio just for this record. I’m looking forward to Peter Buck’s guest appearance on a couple of songs.

December 15, 2009

admin — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:57:45 +0000

I feel fortunate that so many of my days are spent making music that I believe in with people that believe in. I just wrapped up a new record with the great Tift Merritt who is at the top of her musical game. We recorded most of it in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina with her ace band. Mr. Jim James guested as did Eyvind Kang, Greg Leisz and Steve Moore. It’s to be released in early June and is called “See You on the Moon”. The new Laura Veirs record “July Flame” comes out on January 12. It’s a lovely record. Please consider checking it out. There are a couple of free songs available on her website. Here are some other things that have happened since I last updated. I mixed Langhorne Slim‘s new record “Be Set Free”. Thao‘s new record “Know Better, Learn Faster” came out recently. We had a nice guest visit from Andrew Bird on that one. I mixed an EP and some LP tracks for Portland’s own Loch Lomond and a full length from Viva Voce offshoot Blue Giant. Speaking of Portland, I recorded an iTunes exclusive EP with Blind Pilot and mixed some songs for the new Quasi album, the rest of which was mixed by Dave Fridmann and Steve Fisk.

I had a nice chat with NPR’s Bob Boilen which is archived here.

I had a nice Chat with Tift Merritt for her radio show “The Spark” in Marfa, Texas which is archived right here.

Hooray for nice chats!

Paste Magazine surprised me with this flattering accolade…

Lots on the horizon. See you next time!

April 25, 2009

admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:58:37 +0000

Hi folks – thanks for your interest in my recording endeavors. Since the last report, several of my projects have been released: Laura Gibson’s “Beasts of Seasons” is out now on Hush Records, The Decemberists mossy, evil epic “The Hazards of Love” was also just released. We had some fun guests on that one: Robyn Hitchcock, Jim James, Shara Wardon, Becky Stark and Rebecca Gates to name a few. Mirah’s record came out recently on K Records, it’s called “(A)spera”. I finished a project with the great band LAKE from Olympia, Washington that looks like it will be slowly released as a series of 7″‘s. I got to record and mix a new Bill Frisell record called “Disfarmer” featuring Greg Leisz, Jenny Scheinman and Viktor Krauss which will come out this Summer on Nonesuch. Drum genius Brian Blade’s new album “Mama Rosa” is the first of his guitar/singing songs and was just released by Verve. I was delighted to have taken part alongside one of my childhood inspirations, Daniel Lanois. Speaking of delighted, I did some mixes for Death Cab for Cutie‘s new EP “The Open Door”. I have begun work on the follow up to Thao‘s “We Brave Beestings and All”. I am VERY excited about the shape of the new Laura Veirs record which should be completed sometime soon. We have had amazing musical contributions. Jim James, Eyvind Kang, Stephen Barber, Karl Blau, Chris Funk and Steve Moore to name a few. I got to do some mixes for the new Tara Jane O’ Neil record “A Way’s away” as well as recent mixes for Loch Lomond. Bill Frisell, Matt Chamberlain, Lee Townsend and I have started work on a follow up to our 2007 Blue Note record Floratone. I’m excited about the drum tones on this puppy. Matt brought his 26″ kick and it was the perfect match for the the big room at Avast II in Seattle. Let’s see, what else? I had fun in Austin last month where I got to be on a producers panel called “Making Classic Records” at SXSW with Britt Daniel, Howie Weinberg, Mike McCarthy, Ed Cherney and Tim Palmer. We enjoyed arguing about dorky record making stuff…nice of you to read this far.

December 12, 2007

admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:59:54 +0000

Whoah, somebody just told me I was nominated for a dern Grammy for the recording and mixing of the Floratone record. That’s a shocker, but I suppose an honor nonetheless. I’ve been battling a herniated disk so I have had to slow it down a bit as of late but I did manage to mix some songs for Death Cab for Cutie’s Christopher Walla recently. He has a record called Field Manual coming out on Barsuk in January. In October I recorded a record for Brian Blade Fellowship which will be released by Verve Records in 2008. We also did some more work on a record of Brian’s singing record. He’s currently in Toronto with Daniel Lanois adding to those tracks which we’ll continue in the new year. I just got back from Brooklyn where some friends added tracks to the ever evolving new Mount Analog record. I also finished a new Mudhoney record for Subpop. It’s really raw and energetic. The Thao Nguyen record is all wrapped up and coming out in January on Kill Rock Stars. You can hear a track here. I got to mix some great songs for the new Transmissionary Six album, too. Jim White‘s record Transnormal Skiperoo comes out in January on Luaka Bop records. Stay tuned, I’m excited about what the new year holds…

July 23, 2007

admin — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 23:00:31 +0000

I’m chuffed to announce that on August 18 Blue Note Records will release Floratone, a collaboration between guitarist Bill Frisell, drummer Matt Chamberlain and myself producing with Lee Townsend. You can listen to some bits here.

Sufjan Stevens is coming to Flora on Friday and we shall finish what we started last Summer. 2 songs to be released on 7 inch in 2008. I just finished mixing the debut record by a band I’m excited about called Musee Mecanique. It won’t be out for a while but you can hear some sneak peeks here.

Laura Veirs record “Saltbreakers” is out now on Nonesuch Records. I got to produce, record, mix AND play drum like stuff on it! We recently got back from 2 months of touring in Europe and the US. See her page for highlights.

I also just mixed a live solo record by Colin Meloy of the Decemberists for Kill Rock Stars. He spins a mean yarn. Thanks for checking in, there’s lots more cooking here in the Flora kitchen to report soon but for now I need to go find myself a swimming hole…

March 5, 2007

admin — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 23:04:52 +0000

Hello all ye lovers of wire and wood! A few highlights of the last few months since the last update:

Toured Spain, Portugal and Australia with Laura Veirs. Saw wombats, Roos and Summertime. Got to share bills with Cat Power and Jeff Tweedy who both killed. Had Josh Rouse sit in on bass in Valencia and a surprise visit from Andrew Bird in Melbourne. Visited Graceland again, Sun Studios, Stax and the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. All transcend their touristic nature. I got to spend 5 days and nights working on the new Mount Analog record with Steve Moore and Karl Blau. This last week I started a record with an incredible, very original band from Olympia, Washington called Lake. They’ve got the best horses. Laura Veirs’ Saltbreakers record comes out on Nonesuch April 10 in the US. It turned out wonderfully. Film Guerrero is going to release the vinyl of it! Sorry for all of the exclamation points.