Scale the Summit have begun posting video episodes of the time they spent here.  This first episode is pretty shred centric, but I highly recommend you stick with it because “Spider Monkey” Pat does a really really good Jabba the Hut imitation at the end. No really. Seriously. It’s laugh-out-loud funny… Don’t doubt me, hater.   

Scale The Summit studio footage, Recording “Carving Desert Canyons” from Scale The Summit on Vimeo.

It’s been pointed out to me by concerned parties that I haven’t posted anything since June, and that if you’re gonna have a studio blog, you better write in that blog or people are going to think that there’s nothing going on. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Here are a few bullet points… highlights shall we say.  

Finished up the Right on Dynamite EP. It sounds super good,  everybody’s happy. The lead-off track, “Time” has already landed in a Ford Sync (that’s where you talk to your car and tell it to do shit) commercial. You can see it here:  www.fordvehicles.com/discoversync. It’s the sixth spot. And, yes, I did try to embed it, but the Ford website does not offer that option, which explains a lot about their current predicament.  

In September, a band called Scale the Summit came up all the way from Houston to record their Prosthetic Records debut. They play  instrumental metal. Yeah, yeah I know… are you done laughing? We’ll you’re wrong. They’re fucking AMAZING. Melodic, memorable, compositionally savvy… the whole deal. And funny to boot. After the drummer Pat, finished his tracks, he basically sat on the couch and made weird Yoda noises. Excellent tension breaker when you’re trying to figure out if that Mixolydian run might actually need to be Lydian… or something. At any rate, the record is complete and will be released in February. I am very proud of the the work we did. No corners were cut, no deals made with the demon of “eh, that’ll probably sound ok with all the other tracks on top of it.”The band made and excellent blog about the experience that you can see here.

Here’s some footage of that little fuckin’ spider monkey Pat. When the camera pans you can see Travis, the member of the band most likely to die of a stress related coronary before he reaches the age of 24

Since Scale The Summit wrapped in mid October, there’s been a bunch of super cool artists making the trip up the dreaded 66 steps to the NH including Bird of Youth, a group featuring singer/songwriter Beth Warena that’s being produced by Okkervil River singer Will Sheff and Twilight Procession, a bunch of rugged dudes from Jersey City who have enlisted the help of noted songstress Heather Duby for additional vocals and keys. 

Our good friend Matthew Caws of Nada Surf also popped in to record a version of Winter Hours’ “One Small Achievement” for A Few Uneven Rhymes a tribute album to the band that will be released December 30 on Mainman Records. 

 Here’s some video of WH in their late-eighties prime.

 November also saw the Nuthouse’s first foray into the strange yet ever-expanding world of the humorous musical duo. It’s a concept that dates back to the Smothers Brothers.

And also includes Cheech and Chong

Tenacious D

Flight Of The Conchords

And the guys I recorded, Good For The Jews, a comedy rock twosome feature Blender Magazine Music Editor Rob Tannenbaum and former Rosenburgs frontman David Fagin. They were super cool, laid down some seriously mean vocal harmonies, and wouldn’t let me pay for a single meal. Solid.

 This weekend,  I  mix “Victory” a new track from the Austin/Nola band Jerusalem which features members of the the Gutter Twins and the Twilight Singers. It has strings, horns, mandolin, 12-string you name it. I have my work cut out for me!                                                         

Nick, bassist and vocalist for Right On Dynamite, the Greenpoint, Brooklyn band that I’m recording right now is like a fucking stealth video blogging savant. Whenever he come to the studio, he bust s out this little handheld digital camera, disappears for an hour and returns with a totally happening video for the band’s blog. http://www.rightondynamite.wordpress.com  

So Sasha Frere-Jones from the New Yorker decided to write a feature in the magazine about the Antares plug-in  Autotune, and a friend of mine gave him my number. I was mentioned in the piece, although unfortunately the studio wasn’t. The accompanying podcast, however, in which Sasha comes to the studio and has me tune his rendition of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You Been Gone” made it all the way to Gawker. Here it is…. http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/06/09/080609on_audio_frerejones 

Wow. has it really been six months since I last posted? That’s pretty lame. What the hell, man. Oh yeah… I was finishing the studio, almost killing myself by solvent asphyxiation in the progress, figuring out how to heat and cool the joint and then, miracle upon miracles… recording stuff. Good stuff! Stuff that I actually got paid for and will be released worldwide stuff. The kind of stuff that makes you feel like maybe, just maybe, the whole nightmare was at least partially worth it.

So why am I back up now, because I need to bitch about something. I feel that Duncan Rowe from Primal Gear sort of screwed me. And as I’ve decided that I’m not going to sue him, report him to the better business bureau, or hack his website and put a picture of a stripper with a swastika on her forehead and a strap-on dildo raping a baby seal in the mouth (feel free to substitute that appalling image with your own) I’m going to just tell you exactly what happened.

About 15 months ago, when I started looking for a desk to put in my new studio, I happened upon the Primal Gear, and a Neve 5106 console that seemed to fit my budget and needs.

You can still see the listing here: www.primalgear.com/noname.html. Note that the listing claims that the console was recapped and that is has eight busses.

So I call this cat at, Duncan Rowe, at Primal Gear (I am repeating his name ad nauseum not because I think you’re stupid, but for the benefit of your favorite search engine.) I’m like, “Hey what’s up. I’m buying my first console that’s not a Mackie. I want something that doesn’t need too much maintenance or fixing up because I’m not that guy. Got me? I’m not the motherfucker with the Ohm meter and soldering iron. Is this Neve 5106 a good fit for me? His response, “Yeah buddy, this thing is GREAT!It was totally recapped and the pres are awesome. They’re not 1073’s but for the money, you can’t go wrong. This console is perfect for you.” So I’m like, OK coo, let me think about it.

And I shit you not, after that, the dude started calling me at least once a week, to see where I was at. Finally, he’s like, look, the seller wants it out of his space, so he’s authorized me to drop the price 5 grand. So I finally crack. Which makes me a fool because:
1) I never saw the console.
2) I assumed that the dealer who was selling it and NOT for ONE MINUTE representing it as a consignment had verified that the product he was selling was in fact the the product he was advertising.
3) I did not find a tech to go check the thing out.

So yeah, yeah: I’m a sucker. However, the whole reason that I went through a dealer in the first place was so that there would be a middleman who was accountable if everything went sideways.

Everybody still following me?

So i buy the console. The thing arrives on something like Oct 27, 2006. I still don’t really have a studio (see earlier posts), so I throw it under a tarp until January. At this point, I hire a local tech, Jeff DeBello to come check the thing out. He pulls a few of the channel strips and is like, “Dude they told you this thing was recapped? This was never recapped. These caps are probably as old as the console.” I was shocked and appalled and called Duncan who said, “Well I never said ALL of it was recapped, I’m sure there are some new caps in there.” So I’m like, “Dude the listing says recapped. Don’t get all fucking Bill Clinton on me. That means it was completely recapped. Don’t fuck with me. I work for a magazine and will expose you.”

Duncan tells me not to threaten him, buddy and that he’s going to send his own tech, Dan Zellman, out to investigate. Dan comes out to Hoboken, looks the thing over and says, “Yeah, this was never recapped.” Duncan says he is going to contact the original seller to see if he’ll help out… I eventually end up on the phone with the guy who’s like (paraphrasing here), “Fuck Duncan, he sold the console for way more than he said he would and s still only paying me 17 grand. He made like 100% commission. He will not see another penny from me. ” Ok then.

So Duncan,finally says, “OK, you’re gonna send me 24 of the channel strips, this dude Doug Oberkirker will come grab the rest of the channels and the master section.”

Fast forward to April (May?) when I’m finally getting things (like real electricity) online. I get the the strips and the master section back. Only the input and output sections, not the EQ or Dynamics have been recapped. Awesome. We also discover, once the console is online, that the talkback does not work, the busses don’t seem to work, that the stereo mix outs do not work and that, 12 of the channels now barely pass signal. Excellent. But you know what? I don’t bug Duncan. I buy a Hear systems talkback, use my stereo insert outs for mixing, and get on with it. Then sometime around AES, I crack. Every time I try to use more than 8 channels, something crackles and fucks up. It’s like mixing and tracking through the Millenium Falcon where you have to hit shit and pray it works. I’m selling it. Fuck it.

So i fish around for a buyer, and even tell Duncan that the 5106 is on the block. He asks me for pictures AND RELISTS IT ON HIS SITE WITH THE SAME FUCKED DESCRIPTION that it had a year ago.

Eventually, I hook up with Michael Block, a console dealer/recording engineer from Philadelphia who specializes in V series and Baby V Neve consoles. He comes up to see the thing and is shocked. The thing is much worse that even i could have imagined. It’s probably just best to let ou read his own evaluation:

re/Neve 5106

Hey Tom, thanks for taking the time last week to allow me to go through your Neve console # 5106. My tech, Bill Courtright, spent an additional day going through your Neve and I’m happy to report that the console model number is correct, but unhappily, little else in the console’s description matches whatever literature and propaganda you showed me. The console is a four buss board, with eight groups (and the eight groups are chopped and non-functional). Speaking of chopped and non-functional, the entire master section and all associated switching sections are missing and they have been replaced with a homebrew gadget that is maybe the least Neve-like thing imaginable! Solo, master outputs and buss systems are all genuinely compromised. The console has approximately 80% original 85 degree capacitors and each and every one appears to be dry and sadly out of gas. The EQ and comp/limiter sections of the board have never been touched. I think the reason those sections have been ignored is that the ribbon cables within the modules have become stiff and the insulation is cracked and coming apart…which shorts the modules completely. This happens when the caps are not replaced and the heat then builds beyond the console’s tolerances. Visual inspection found five modules out of six to be mostly in the category of parts.

While the board still has value, I will only pay you $7,500.00 for the entire package. I purchased the exact same board eleven months ago from John Guerin, a tenured NYU professor at Tish, for $5,000.00 cash. I spent months on the board, and fully restored it. My tech services bill was $11,000.00 alone, and I don’t have the parts lists and time elements to give you full figures, but I sold it for $20,000.00 in perfect condition to Donald Robinson in the Philadelphia marketplace. The value of your console is in some ways subjective, but if you paid $30,000.00 for a piece in this shape I would say you should lick your wounds and “march on”… and shame on whomever sold it to you. There are no moving faders…no re-capping except for inputs…no eight busses…and the general console condition is deplorable and tired. While I know a loss like this is not what you want me to tell you is the way to proceed, it probably is in your best interest to start over.

I will pick up the gadget whenever you want. Let me know your thoughts.

Regards,

Michael Block

Heavy right? So I emailed Duncan the following:

Duncan

I sold the console today, so please remove it from your site when you get a chance. It turns out that on top of everything else, the entire original master section had been torn out and and half replaced on this thing, thus explaining why the talk back, mix outs and a variety of other things would not function. This is also why the Status section was missing. I won’t even get in to the fact that you only redid the input and output sections on the channels (or that 12 came back worse than they left?I took a hit on that too.

I’m glad that I found someone who knows this stuff to buy the thing (two wrongs don’t make a right) but as you can imagine, I got nailed on the price as this thing will be a nightmare to refurbish. . I will be forwarding you a letter with the buyer’s tech’s analysis.

At any rate, given all this, the 30 grand you charged me for this thing was outrageous, and I’m a little outraged. Maybe the seller misrepresented it, but again that’s not my problem.

We have to find a way to make this right. Some gear, some money back?whatever. I don’t like hounding people and I’m certainly not some zealous advocate of consumer rights, but I this is beyond the realm of excusable.

I hope to hear from you soon

Tom Beaujour

His response?

Tom,
First let me say I apologize for the way you feel, and I am very sorry it has been rough on you. You need to know that when I found out things weren’t represented to me as I had thought I immediately went in to action and started to resolve the issues. I was unaware you were having more issues with some modules and would have been happy to have Doug come and fix them…as far as the master section goes we both had people look at the console so why is it coming up now that you sold the desk as I would have had that fixed as well. I feel like I have been very accountable during this process much more then alot of brokers I know would have been. I paid $17, 500.00 for the console plus paid Doug $5000.00 for his services and another two or three grand with my guys and all the parts it took to re cap this desk, it’s not like anybody was getting rich of the sale of this desk……. so if you add all that up I have over 25K into this console myself and I feel what you paid (especially after all the work was done) was a fair price. I sold one like that a little before yours for the same price. You need to know this was not easy on me either as I hate it when I have unresolved business. I really feel like I did the right thing. Having said that I can’t see where there is any room for me to refund money or give you gear as I just can’t go anymore in the hole on this thing, but I am willing to do something. How about I agree to sell you any gear that I carry that you purchase for the next say couple of years at my cost to get back in your good graces. It may not seem like this to you but I have a very good reputation out there. Again I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Gear at cost? Are you serious? Dude. I get gear at cost. And frankly, I don’t trust you to tell me what COST is!

I know you’re probably asleep by now, but the story gets a little better.

About two weeks ago, Michael Block took the console out of the studio, set it up somewhere and started working on it. He called me cracking up two days later: “Dude you mixed on this thing? There are caps shelving everything below 65Hz and and above 12K!!! I’m amazed you got anything done at all!

So let’s leave it at this: Primal Gear’s slogan is “Saving the world from bad mixes.” I strongly, and now vociferously, disagree.

Just a quick note. i figured out who putthe holes in my wall. It was Reggie the contractor. Evidently, he lost his stud finder, so he just started drilling in the hopes of getting lucky.

Also, Wille has a hernia and is in the hospital.

I can’t claim that there’s a direct relationship between the studio and the bizarre dream I had last night, but as all footpaths intersect in the wooded glens of the psyche, the dream I had last night must have some root in my studio Nuthouse travails. There I was at a wedding in a large, dark church (not sure of the denomination), and as these things happen in la-la land, I knew that this was none other than Ace Frehley’s big day. I somehow knew that Ace was waiting to talk to me in the rectory, so I went out a side door and into a smoky chamber where the Spaceman himself sat on what just might have been a throne.

“Hey what’s up, Squirrel,” said Frehley with his legendary cackle.
“Not much, Ace. Congrats on getting married,” I replied.
“Thanks, man. Hey look, I’m sorry to do this, as I know that you’ve really become attached to the little squirt, but I need Wallace back. Thanks for watching him for me, but I can get five grand for him stuffed in this desert diorama that I friend of mine in Vegas is putting together.”

And then I woke up. I shit you not.

I’m not a dialog writer, so watch this hilarious clip if you want the dialog to have the proper Frehlian (Frehliesque? Frehleyish?) flavor.

The Swingin’ Neckbreakers

One of the best things about having a studio with no electricity is that when people hire you to do stuff, you have to scrounge the money to go do the work somewhere else (it’s not their fault that I hired a bunch of retards who were nonetheless able to hustle mw) or risk losing the client. Of course, by bringing people to other studios that are actually (gasp!) functional, you risk losing them too. This weekend I’ll be mixing an album that I produced by the Swingin’ Neckbreakers www.neckbreakers.com at the pigeon club in Hoboken.

I’ll be trying the new EMTEC 1/4″ tape and will let you know how it is.

…but just take a second to check this fotage of the Band out. It makes the hair on my arms stand up that dudes in a room were able to just, you know, play this all at once.