Natalia Clavier’s LUMEN is out digitally today Tuesday May 21st! Check it out on Itunes now, where it debuted at #1 on Alternative and Rock Latino chart! You can download the free single “Adios”(featuring The Echocentrics), a jammin reintrepretation of Turkish singer Selda’s “Yaylalar”, you can stream the record at KCRW’s site, but most importantly you can buy the damn thing and support good music. It will be in stores next Tuesday May 28th and you can get it there as well.

This record was a freakin blast to make, somewhat overwhelming in the scope of work but just an amazing musical experience, especially working with a talent like Nat. This record has quite the history, with a year or two of false starts and a few minor bumps in the road, but the fact that it sounds as fresh now as it did when we started a couple of years ago means it’s the real deal. Despite the obvious that this is a special record musically, it means a lot to me because

Nat was the first artist (a few years back now) to ask me to produce their record, so it goes down in my books as a sentimental one. I was honored to be a part of it.

Before I  pontificate any further I have  a long list of folks who “took their talents to South Austin” to make this the special record it is. The usual LOS suspects came through as per usual, my main man John Speice held down the drumseat for the majority of tracks, the rest of the Echocentrics crew rounded out “Adios” – Eddie Torres, John Branch (Juanillo also lent his slide guitar talents to “This Love”, Gerardo Larios, my brother from another mother Shawn Lee hooked up the mucho macho drums on “Trouble”, fellow Echocentric Mike Longoria killed the drums on unreleased (future b-side!) track “A Sign”, Nat’s husband and Argentinian renaissance man Federico Aubele was sending me lovely synth freak out tracks with 5 minutes notice, neighbor and frequent collaborator Peter Stopschinski rocked an amazing string arrangement on “Ready Now”, longtime homie from the Antibalas camp Ticklah helped me with co-production when I hit a wall on “Nada” with keys and general loveliness, piano on “This Love” was laid down in DC by the awesome Will Rast, Dj/producer extraordinaire Urusala 1000 got “Cantata” started in a direction beyond my ears, Nat’s brother Pablo Anglade lent his ears and perfect constructive criticism, Tomas Cookman and all Nacional Records let her vision shine through and Jeff Antebi and Waxploitation Records believed in Nat on little more than some demos we made. I filled in the blanks and produced, engineered and mixed over the course of two years while all the vocal tracking were left to the big dogs at Public Hi-Fi Studio – Jim Eno and Brad Bell. Erik Wofford at Cacophony Recorders mastered it to perfection and was oh so patient with my last minute freakouts. Hope I didn’t leave anyone out..gonna keep thinking on this..

As you can see it took quite the team and it’s quite the record. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it. And thanks for the opportunity Natalia, let’s start the next one already….

Been doing a lot of cool ass recording work at LOS lately – some of it producing, some just engineering. As if I don’t see these dudes enough, been recording a lot of sessions featuring the Grupo Fantasma/Brownout horns. Just finished up some recording over SXSW with producer and super-friend Steve Berlin of Los Lobos for the new Deer Tick record he’s producing, along with Rob Cowell of Deer Tick. Other projects with the horns include sessions for White Denim, hip hop producer Reggie Coby and Camera Obscura, also via Steve Berlin. Keepin the engineering chops working and taking part in good music in the process is always a good thing.

Money Chicha getting ready to record our first EP this next week, really looking forward to that. Been working on a record with old Laredo homie Dante Schwebel (City and Colour, ex-Hacienda) and Patrick Hallahan (My Morning Jacket) with a little Jesse Ebaugh (Heartless Bastards) love and a few other guests, really killer stuff…stay tuned for more info on that. I’m also producing and mixing 3 songs for a new band called Como Las Movies (former members of Maneja Beto), really cool stuff, somewhere between analog synth madness and cumbia.

What else….David Garza record mastered and in the can for a June release date, Natalia Clavier (full post coming soon) record in the can out for May 28th, Dan Dyer’s record almost there. I’ve heard Daniel Johnston’s Space Ducks will finally see a physical release soon so I’ll update on that when details are locked down. There you go – I’m busy, sorry for the two month gap between updates. AQ doin’ work.

In the process of also wrapping up my first collaboration with one of my heroes, the one and only Shawn Lee. Called the Electric Peanut Butter Co., our collaborative effort lies somewhere between “soft” psych and acoustic dusty soul, with Shawn himself stepping out for the lead vocals. Shawn and I have spoken about this for almost two years and in a matter of one email declaring “It’s Time”, about a month later the bulk of the record was done. Had a blast on this one, every new sound I get from Shawn makes me step my game up and the process of sending ideas over email only to have him turn them around in hours from his London studio is kinda some futuristic shit. Plus, the 6 hour time difference means he’s always working early in my part of the world, in my favorite time of the day-early morning.

In related LOS news, the mighty Grupo Fantasma has a 6th record now officially in the can. Produced by the legendary Steve Berlin (Los Lobos, Diamond Rugs, etc) and engineered by Jim Eno at Public HiFi (with the occasional overdub at LOS), this one is big, bold and bad, check grupofantasma.com for more info very soon, expect a summer release.

(trivia-what do Jim Eno, Jesus and Shawn Lee have in common??)

Check out the new single “Bad Trip” by psychedelic gospel group The Relatives out of Dallas, TX,  featuring your boy on guitar. The group (40 years strong) is releasing their second album in almost 40 years this year, produced by aforementioned wizard Jim Eno.

Latin funk hearthrobs Brownout are getting ready to hit the road for a short run, download a few freebies and check out dates here, including an old unreleased track called “Business at Hand” written by Beto Martinez and a couple of mixes of Brownout jams by Greg Gonzalez.

On that note, I am musical director for their upcoming Femmes for SIMS event. It features singers Nina Diaz (Girl in a Coma), Pamela Hart and Jazz Mills, backed by an all star band comprised of some of my favorite musicians-Graham Reynolds on piano, David Garza on guitar, Mike Longoria on drums, Wendy Simmons on bass. Stay tuned for more on this, you can buy tickets and read more about the event here. Also check out this awesome promo video….

Femmes for SIMS: Night of the Chanteuse from Houndstooth on Vimeo.

In Echocentrics land, Ubiquity Records will be releasing a Remix EP, featuring remixes by Grant Phabao, Max Tannone and Mcpullish. You can stream the EP here….there is ONE brand new song at 2:30, called Pioneira and featuring horns by Todd Simon, drums by John Speice, guitar by Eddie “The Mexican Edge” Torres, and vocals by Tita Lima. Enjoy….

In LOS related news – At long last, Grupo Fantasma will kickstart the follow up to 2011′s Grammy winning “El Existential.” This will be the band’s first venture working with an outside producer (I won’t be producing it, sniff, sniff) and we’re honored to have the great Steve Berlin from Los Lobos at the helm. Sessions begin in September with Jim Eno from Spoon engineering and we’re diving in head first as soon as our touring wraps up. More info to come….

More quick updates: an album I helped mix for some friends from various projects and produced and led by Felix Pacheco called Cilantro Boombox will be available this month….read about it here. Began some mixing work for homies The Greyhounds.  The Echocentrics will be releasing a new song and remix EP this fall on Ubiquity Records….speaking of Ubiquity – flagship artist Shawn Lee? yes, I’m a fan and lucky to be contemporary…collaboration? Very soon…do you like peanut butter? psychedelia? We do.

Also finishing up 4 singles for local big band powerhouse Hard Proof. You may know them from one of the many bands they moonlight in…Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, Calm Blue Sea, The Echocentrics, etc etc. The band is a beast, big, bold and bad, and we captured some of the magic at East Austin Recorders with my partner in grime, Sam Patlove, engineering. The collective talent of the band is off the meter and harnessing things like that can be a challenge with so many members, but my job is made easier when each musician is tasteful as hell. Look for some vinyl singles this fall!

Brownout has a new 7″ release on Kept Records….check out this preview on Okayplayer for “Flaximus” and “I Wont Lie”….stream my contirbution “I Wont Lie” here…

Stream “Flaximus”….

Just wrapped up a remix for my man in Paris, Grant Phabao. He’s done countless remixes for my projects with his hard roots sound. I gladly traded the favor for a song called “African Man”, stripped it down to its core and rebuilt it as a folk funk tune, with a splash o’ psychedelia.

Cut a song with Austinite turned Brooklynite Suzanna Choffel during one of her recent visits back home. One day, one song, really one half day if you want to get technical, she’s the real deal. Beautiful tune, I’ve snuck it into some DJ sets (without her permission) and it prompts many visits to the decks asking what I’m playing, a good sign. Also recently began working on David Garza’s new album. What to say about these songs….well, we’re approaching it as if it were done on a 4 track….sort of (my 4 track not working at the moment). Raw, honest, sparse and intimate, with some good old fashion rock n’roll to boot. The man, the myth, been a pleasure having him rock at LOS. Lots more to come about this project….

In other tidbits, Brownout’s “Oozy” is out now! As is Daniel Johnston’s Space Ducks!

Also also, check out this feature on yours truly on Blurt Online.

Three releases with production from LOS out this month. DC’s Funk Ark dropped their second album “High Noon” last Tuesday April 3rd. Adrian Younge vs. Adrian Quesada vinyl/digital EP comes out on Record Store Day on Ubiquity Records. You can stream a track (featuring the lovely Sonia Moore) here.

Adrian Quesada – “Last Word” by Ubiquity Records

Lastly, Brownout drops their third full length LP on April 24th on Nat Geo Music. It was co-produced by myself and guitarist Beto Martinez and bassist Greg Gonzalez. In the meantime download this FREE EP of dub remixes of Brownout classics by ATX’s McPullish.

P.S. Waiting on confirmed ITunes release date for Daniel Johnston’s Space Ducks and will update.

TUE MARCH 13th – Daniel Johnston “Space Ducks” release party @ The Belmont (Daniel Johnston, Built to Spill, Alex Maas of The Black Angels, more)
*I won’t be performing but produced the album so I’ll be there for a bit to check it out.
TUE MARCH 13th – OCOTE SOUL SOUNDS @ Ruta Maya – 11:30 PM (ESL Music Night)
WED MARCH 14th – Music Panel with Adrian Quesada, Alex Maas, Jim Eno – Austin Convention Center – 5 PM
WED MARCH 14th – BROWNOUT @ Kenny Dorham’s Backyard – 11 PM
WED MARCH 14th – MONEY CHICHA @ Sahara Lounge – 1 AM
THU MARCH 15th – BROWNOUT @ Roqlandia Party at GSD&M – 5 PM
FRI MARCH 16th – BROWNOUT @ Papi Tinos – 5:30 PM
FRI MARCH 16th – GRUPO FANTASMA @ Copa – 10 PM
SAT MARCH 17th – BROWNOUT @ Lucy’s Retired Surfer Bar – 3 PM
SAT MARCH 17th – BROWNOUT @ The Stage on 6th (Nat Geo Showcase) – 8:30 PM
SAT MARCH 17th – GRUPO FANTASMA/BROWNOUT with THE GZA @ Haven – 1 AM

Recently had the honor of playing guitar on a new album by The Relatives, the amazing funky gospel group from Dallas, TX, now 40 years strong. Great session, great ATX musicians helping out, great shit all around. A few photos below: