The new Shake the Baron music video for Ghost Hits title track premiers today on Baeble Music. It stars yours truly getting beaten to a bloody pulp in a boxing ring … enjoy. Baeble writes, “The song is the title track off the bands’ sophomore studio album, released last year (get it here), and it combines a frenzied guitar jangle with the cooling, tidal flow of Andrew Oedel’s voice. The video, directed by Alex Amoling, brilliantly juxtaposes the song’s tone with a bloody barrage between the sexes. The ending is surprising and refreshing, and we’re certain that it’s totally different from any boxing flick you’ve ever seen – although it would be pretty awesome to see Rocky III end in such a manner.”

Ghost Hits is my band’s second full-length release. The title track is the most collaborative song we’ve ever made– it came entirely out of an impromptu ten-minute jam. Guitarist Jon Markson and I recorded the album ourselves in the band’s basement practice space and at The Gallery Recording Studio in Brooklyn. The album was mixed by Justin Gerrish (Vampire Weekend, Weezer) at DNA Downtown in Manhattan. Dig on iTunes.

NYC-based sextet The Rooks recently released their debut EP, “Something You Can Take.” I recorded and mixed it at Fortune Recording Studio here in New London. We were striving for the most tight, punchy, and clear representation of the Rook’s take on soul music that we could get. These guys can really play– all the basic tracking was live, which led to some really organic grooves and exciting improvised moments. I’m becoming more and more convinced that all recorded music should be made this way … enjoy below, along with a teaser by filmmaker Melissa McClung.

George Watsky recently released his excellent full-length record, Cardboard Castles. The album spent some time at #1 on the iTunes Hip-Hop/Rap charts, de-seating Macklemore’s The Heist, and their current tour promoting the album has been largely sold out. It features production from mayne mang Kush Mody, and I play guitar on a couple tracks. I’m also featured playing guitar/bass/percussion and singing on the bridge of tongue-in-cheek track, “Kill a Hipster.” Much less self-aware about this now that I’m not living in Brooklyn …

Had a great time working with Boston-based buds Bearstronaut in Fortune recently. We did live takes of a couple tracks to promote their excellent new album, Paradice. Here’s a video of our session for the single “A Better Hand.” I recorded and mixed the track and Melissa McClung shot and edited the video.

Had the fantastic NYC-based band The Rooks come out to Fortune this past weekend for the first half of tracking their stellar debut EP. These guys are stupidly tight players and soulful songwriters. We’ll be working together again this week to complete tracking, and then I’ll start mixing ASAP.

The band’s production notes were all relating to D’Angelo and Erykah Baduh … Thus I’ve been doing some serious homework on the great Russ Elevado, who I had the immense pleasure of second-assisting at Avatar Studios a few years ago for about a week. Voodoo and Mama’s Gun have become my bread and butter. I’m going for bold, dry, crisp sounds across the board, with very stripped down miking techniques and arrangements. I may not have a 24-track 2″ tape machine … but I’ma get these joints as vibey as possible. The Rooks did all their basic tracking live in the beautiful Fortune Hall, where we’ll continue to work this week for overdubs. Very much looking forward to continuing work with this amazing crew.

Below are some photos courtesy of the talented Kelsey Grousbeck who dropped by the studio for an afternoon. Our friend Melissa McClung is also producing a short film doc about the band’s process, which will be released around the time the EP drops. More on that soon!

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Had an excellent time on Wednesday working with Providence-based Sludge Metal trio Predator Drone at Fortune Studio. They are insanely tight, aggressive and fun. I’m hoping my mixes will stack up to the energy of their awesome 5-song EP– I’ll try to blend the higher definition sounds we got with the lo-fi shazamitude of their last album. Stay tuned!

Director extraordinaire Nick Heller recently conducted a brief interview about his music video for George Watsky’s track “Stupidass,” which has proven to be one of George’s most popular Youtube pieces. (Nick also directed the most recent Shake the Baron music video for the song “Crazy Align.”) In this interview George describes his process for writing the song– interesting that he didn’t write the track until after shooting the video … pretty atypical process. I mixed the track, which was produced by Kush Mody.

Stay tuned for more from George in the coming months– he’s got a new album dropping soon produced by Bad Mind boys Kush Mody and Nils Montan.

2013 is shaping up to be ridiculous. I’m exceedingly fortunate to have some amazing artists on the calendar at Fortune over the next couple months. Looking forward to making mad wreckids with The Rooks, The Pilgrims, Bearstronaut and Predator Drone, to name a few.