Catching Up With Battle Tapes

Jeremy Ferguson, mastermind of Battle Tapes, was nice enough to catch us up with all the craziness he’s been involved in for the past few months.

last we spoke of the old battle tapes schedule, i was getting ready to go into the studio with turbo fruits, i think. well, the january session ended up being sorta preproduction/warmup for the new fruits lineup in the studio at welcome to 1979 and we cut 11 tunes, one of them making the bside of the new “Mama’s Mad Cos I Fried My Brain” 7″ that fat possum released earlier this month or something. we completed recording for what has become the 18 songs which are currently being put into possible varying track orders for LP2 in the uk and us. it’s a really fantastic group of tunes and i’m really excited for people to hear it… should be out around the end of september or beginning of october, i’m thinking.

i finished up the privates ep, motion (theory 8), at some point in february or march and it is now out there and is fantastic… i love the way it sounds and i think a lot of that has to do with one rollum haas. i think i could stick one microphone in front of that guy’s kit and it would sound amazing… talk about a balanced drummer… go get the ep!

i finished an ep by shoot the mountain in april and it’s a tasty little nugget at 6 songs (though one of them is like 8 minutes long and could be 3 or 4 songs and is about time travel… that shit is awesome.) it’s called “islands” and it’s out on theory 8 as well. go buy that. we should be picking back up on the full length sometime around july. the new songs i’ve heard live are a bit different than some of the stuff on the ep but these guys are still developing their sound and, with a new drummer in tow, are shaping up very nicely.

i also finished the full length record by the tits called “jesus says relax” sometime around april and you can find that for free at their shows and at grimey’s, if they haven’t already given away all 1000 copies yet. it’s a raw piece of energy and you should buy it, crank it up, and feel the summer around you. it’s a lot of fun. we’ve also tracked 5 or 6 songs by bands from nirvana to motorhead to the beatles for an ep that’ll be out sometime this year on spat! records. we did that in one afternoon and it’s a fun little ditty.

i did one day with a new group called Bad Cop and we turned out a really cool demo ep that they’re also giving away for free to anyone who asks for one… it’s been getting a lot of notice lately and they’re still only like 4 or 5 months old as a band… and a band of 19year olds at that… a lot of fun and, at times, very psychedelic. we’ll be going to welcome to 1979 for about a week at the beginning of july to cut the full length and then they’ll be attacking your ears all the time.

at the beginning of march, i did a record in 10 days with nyc’s finding fiction… they kind of remind me of the band failure, in the best possible way, but are also kinda in the wilco vein… i didn’t know them beforehand but got to be really tight with them in those days and it was a blast kicking out a record that quickly again… just go at it for 14 hours a day and, after 10 days, it’s off to mastering. it turned out really nicely, though i have yet to hear the final approved master… i *think* they’re releasing it in july and then touring a lot so look out for them next time they’re in nashville and you’ll get a nice treat.

i did a few days with beth for the eliza the arrow album, which is still a work in progress that beth and doni have been tackling mostly alone at doni’s new place/studio… they worked with brian carter on a mix of the single “toast the tiger” and i helped them with some last minute touches on that and will be helping them continue to finish and mix it in the months ahead… actually, this weekend we’ll be working on it and Timbre, the harpist whose debut album i did (and which was released last year), will be coming in to play on it… pretty fantastic stuff, a huge departure from forget cassettes.

still working with tristen. in late april (i think?), we finished 6 songs for a “tour ep” so she’d have something to sell at out of town shows. i don’t know that she’s selling them at shows in town or not but i’m sure if you ask her nicely, you can buy one off of her. we’re still putting the finishing touches on her full record, which is turning out quite nicely.

right after finding ficiton, i did 3 days with the hannah barbarians. i’ve been a fan of theirs for a little while and though i’ve heard they have members moving and may not be a band a whole lot longer, what we’ve started for this ep has already turned out really cool and we still have a little ways to go so i’m expecting it to be reeeaaalllly cool by the end. and all this is even after their singer got me seriously sick with a flu for two weeks after being here sick the whole time we were tracking. i forgive them. haha.

in march, hands down eugene‘s second album, “white stone / black witch” was released after a year’s worth of recording, mastering, vinyl pressing, and packaging assembly took place (mostly by me, except the vinyl pressing part). it’s pretty cool and should be in stores but probably isn’t so who knows how you can get ahold of one of those… if you see some bald tall dude with a long beard, you can bug him about it, if you really want.

at some point, i finished mixing the new umbrella tree album, the letter c, for them and, as of now, it should be at pressing… it’ll come with a dvd containing videos for every song on the album, one of which may or may not star me as an angry police officer… either way, it’s a GREAT record, even better than the one i produced for them the album before, and was recorded by zack gresham, the band’s male singer, at his place in kingston springs and it sounds amazing.

we also finally settled on a master for the new lylas record somewhere in there and it should be released on vinyl in the very near future.

during this time, i also did a week and some change on a new age record produced by the legendary mac gayden, i did a few days with my old pal, andra moran, i did some days with dan sommers (drummer for hotpipes) on some solo stuff that i really need to find time to finish with him, and i did favors for my friends by mastering stuff for them… people like jason thomas, john richard westberry (both recorded by zack gresham), the slow and steady winner (great instrumental album), the carter administration, millionaire magicians (the album being a mix of stuff done by me here at battle tapes and stuff done by my genius friend andy willhite at his home studio), and hammertorch (recorded by jesse newport and mixed by the band).

the coming months show no sign of slowing with june bringing a possible rebirth of the sleep study, ttotals (brian miles’ new group), and kelli-shay hix, just to start off. july has me traveling for the first time to a studio called echo mountain in asheville to do a day with nashville’s gunslinger… i’m EXTREMELY excited about this cos that studio looks badass and the slingers want to do a live album there so it’ll be on the toes and ready for action. august will bring hotpipes back to the studio for a new record and the new songs i heard are amazing so i can’t wait to get started on this, not only cos those guys are like my brothers now. and then i have tentative stuff for sept-oct but i’ll save that for another time.

at some point, i also hope to have my bionic ears installed and maybe visit another dimension… we’ll see what i have time for.

oh, and don’t forget to go to the sudekum planetarium in june for laser beatles! i’ll see you there!

jeremy ferguson