I just mixed a cool new band at this Japan benefit that I volunteered my mixing services for. The Head And The Heart. Good music, good people. I’m guessing they’ll do well this year. Check them out if you don’t know them already!

The title pretty much says it all. I just found out this week — my mix of a long-time crowd favorite called “New Directions” is going to be the one used on Jens’ upcoming record. AWESOME!

I made a quick day trip out to Coachella yesterday to mix my dear friends Glasser. I really love those kids and I miss them every day I’m not working with them.

The show was whatever — festival show, poorly tuned PA, monitoring nightmare — but it was fine. The band played great nonetheless. A ton of people came to see the show, and I think a lot of them really liked it, and that’s the point. They’re heading out for a short run of dates with TV On The Radio — go check them out if they’re in your area!

Shannon and I just got back from SXSW 2011. It was the first time I’ve been as a tourist, and it was not coincidentally by far the most fun of the 7 SXSWs I’ve been to. Not having to babysit is key!

I did pick up a few choice mixing gigs — this covered all our expenses, got us both artist wristbands, and even ended us up with some profit when all was said and done. (I told a friend this and his response was, “So what you’re saying is, you won SXSW!” Haha.)

One of the artists I mixed was Glasser. It turns out that iTunes recorded one of the Glasser sets I mixed, which you can check out here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/itunes-live-sxsw-ep/id427640328

These recordings were mixed by iTunes’s engineer, but they had room mics up and you can hear a good bit of the ambient and dub textures I was adding to the show. Cool!

I also notably mixed a STUNNING set by Chris Bathgate. Check him out … his new record is gorgeous.

And, best of all, we saw The Dears 3 times. I would have seen them 10 if I could. I haven’t heard a live band this good in a long while. And my god is their new record fantastic!

We picked up a new traveling partner in New Mexico. We’ve named him Lucky. When we hit a thaw we’ll find a stick and lay him to rest … but until then, he’s in for the long haul! (We’re in Iowa at the moment.)