We had a lot of activity in July, despite the vicious heat. The worst drought on record is sadly preventing us from celebrating with fireworks. David Willingham worked with The Patient Patient, Matthew Barnhart mixed the new Pinkish Black album and started new albums for YAM and It’s Native, and Matt Pence worked on projects for Dodgy and the Bird Dogs.

We also picked up a couple of beyerdynamic M160 ribbon mics and an Electroharmonix Microsynth pedal, which have been big hits so far.

And now for our twice-yearly news update. . . Sheesh! We’re now on Facebook if you’re so inclined.

Cool projects this year:

• Between tours with Superchunk, Destroyer, and the Dodos, Matthew Barnhart has worked on records for Nervous Curtains, Deep Snapper, Pinkish Black, Zapruder Sequence, Chris Brokaw, and some others I can’t remember right now.
• Matt Pence has been busy touring with Centro-matic (for their incredible new record, Candidate Waltz), but has managed to work on records for Rossif Sutherland, Sarah Jaffe, Waterloo, Flipside, and others.
• David Willingham has done lots of mastering this year, as well as continuing to work on an upcoming Carl Finch/Mike Dillon project.
• Justin Collins has been around a lot as well, working with RTB2, and helping out on the new Why? record.

Happy New Year! We already have a really busy schedule for the first few months of 2011. We’ve also been slowly marching forward, doing renovations on our client apartment and adding some cool new gear, like a pair of Bock Audio 195′s.

The last few months had some exciting projects in, including new albums from True Widow and The Von Erichs. We’re looking forward to lots more in 2011.

Despite the brutal summer, we keep humming along nicely here. Dave Willingham worked on new records by Stumptone and Raised By Tigers. Matt Pence started on a new True Widow album. Matthew Barnhart continued work on a new Distant Seconds album. Justin Collins did sessions with Daniel Folmer, Old Snack and Psychic Rattlers.

Wow! It’s been a while since our last update. Sorry about that!

Tons and tons of sessions have been going on in the past few months.

• Matt Pence mixed the new Midlake and John Grant albums. He also worked on records for Fishboy, Micah P. Hinson, The Heelers, and the Mag Seven.
• Dave Willingham has been swamped with new projects from Brave Combo, Mike Dillon and Carl Finch, Stumptone, the Angelus, and Les Americains.
• Matthew Barnhart been on the road with The New Pornographers, David Bazan, Midlake, Yann Tiersen, and Fuck Buttons, and starts touring with Superchunk this Fall. In the interim, he’s done great new records with Deep Snapper, White Drugs, The Great Tyrant, Drink to Victory, Dust Congress, Shiny Around The Edges, and more.
• Justin Collins has been working with A.M. Ramblers, Spooky Folk, Daniel Folmer, and Old Snack.

Upcoming stuff: we’re new, fast-as-all-get-out internet service from Verizon. We’re also collecting cool new effects pedals, including a bunch of stuff built by White Drugs guitarist Jeff Helland.

After a blissfully cool start, summer has now finally rolled in, in all its humid majesty. Or something. Anyhow!

People who visited the Lab in July:

• Cocky Americans worked with Matt Pence
• Paul Slavens’ Chameleon Chamber Group worked with Justin Collins
• Shiny Around The Edges, White Drugs, The Angelus, and Tre Orsi worked with Matthew Barnhart
• Honeybutton worked with guest engineer, Mark Elliott (of Leaning House Records)

Also, our very dear friend Pat Ferguson (of Deep Snapper, Birth to Burial, Raised by Tigers, and a million other groups) was deployed to Afghanistan with his Navy Reserves unit. He left a good chunk of his personal instrument and amp collection with us for safe-keeping, including an Ampeg V-4 head, several Gretsch, Fender, and G&L guitars, and a Keeley-modified Ibanez delay pedal. We wish our friend a quick, safe, and speedy return home.

We’ve added a small photo gallery to the web site. Expect more stuff there soon.

May had a lot of great sessions in between the new furniture construction and spring-time plant-potting:

• Glossary and Bridges and Blinking Lights finished up new albums with Matt Pence.
• UNT’s Fred Hamilton and Ed Soph recorded a new album with Dave Willingham. The Band Formerly Known As Transona Five also worked with Dave on some recordings, as did History at our Disposal and Chris Blanton.
• Glen Farris did some tracking with Justin Collins.
• The Me-Thinks, Tre Orsi, White Drugs and Slow Rewind all spent time with Matthew Barnhart on their various projects.

We’ve been doing some cleaning and remodeling here at the studio as of late, in between sessions with Grassfight, The Me-Thinks, Will Johnson, Deep Snapper, and UNT’s Fred Hamilton.

We also added a Top Hat Ambassador 50 guitar head and 2 x 12″ cabinet, and a custom Rosewood Jazzmaster guitar to our equipment list.

Our good friends, Bridges and Blinking Lights, recorded their new album here with Matt Pence a few months ago. Here’s a great video they made of their time at the Lab.

Bridges & Blinking Lights in the Studio from Jake Wilganowski on Vimeo.