Wow. It’s been almost 5 months since I posted something on the ol’ Ultrasuede Blog. I guess I’m not much of a blogger. I don’t even really like the word “blog” that much. The studio has been pretty busy, tho. Here’s a rundown of everything that’s been going on...

WOXY.com moved from Cincinnati to Austin, TX taking longtime Ultrasuede freelance engineer Brian Niesz with them. It’s bittersweet. The city lost a valued musical resource and Utrasuede lost a talented and productive engineer (and musician). On the bright side, WOXY is surviving despite difficult times for radio and media in general. Brian gets to move to one of the country’s best-known music cities with a full-time job in his chosen field. Brian will be mixing the Lounge Acts live sessions for WOXY. During his time at Ultrasuede, he engineered/produced records for The Sundresses, Heartless Bastards, Paper Airplane, The Dragline Brothers, Lions Rampant and many others. So we’re very happy for everyone but we’ll miss them, too.

Speaking of transitions, Ultrasuede Studio intern Chad Wahlbrink is off to Nashville for his freshman year at Belmont for their recording/music program. Chad excelled as an intern and I’m sure he’ll be successful in college and beyond. His internship was part of a HS senior study program and he fulfilled the required hours in his first couple weeks. By the end of the year, Chad was running sessions on his own and working on releases for Enlou, The Firs and Pomegranates, as well as his solo stuff.

Wussy continues to receive stellar reviews latest self-titled disc, including one from Uncut Magazine. Wussy was just in to record a couple songs as part of an upcoming series of Shake-It singles featuring different artists covering Eddie Hinton. Other artists include Greg Dulli.

Cincinnati’s Midpoint Music Festival just wrapped another successful year. The All Night Party had our debut on Friday at The Blue Wisp. It was a fantastic way to start our new endeavor. The bar was crowded for the entire evening. Mallory, Scotty Lust And The Two Timers (Louisville), The Magic Shop (Detroit) and The Sundresses all turned in tight, energetic sets. Party goers unable to penetrate the crowded floor could browse The Scene Store which featured a wide range of regional music merchandise for sale. Dozens of artists sold CD’s, T-Shirts, Drop Cards and more. On a sad note, one of the scheduled MPMF bands, The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, had a serious accident en route from Chicago to Cincinnati. The accident left several members of the band in the hospital and destroyed most of their gear. If you’re reading this, take a second to visit their website. Maybe leave them a nice message or help them out with a donation.

Songwriter Robert Cherry dropped in to record a couple new songs with the same musicians that backed him on his 2007 disc, Paint No Devils. This includes Toronto-based guitarist Calvin Brown and drummer Andrew McMullen as well as yours truly, John Curley, on bass. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday. Unless you had Bengals tickets. And they were beating the reviled Steelers. Which they did. Who Dey.

The Hiders were in to work on a few songs for a new album. It looks like this one will be recorded partly at Billy Alletzhauser’s Bat Cave Studio and partly at Ultrasuede, or Wayne Manor, if you will. Even if you won’t.

Silver Bridge Disaster was back in to record a couple new songs. It’s good to see those guys again. Their last visit was in 2005 when they were working on their Death of a Song” CD.

Sohio’s new CD is done and it sounds great. It’s been almost three years in the making, with a few long breaks. They have expanded their songwriting and musical chops since 2006’s “Money and Love” CD. I’m not sure what the new one will be called but it’ll be worth getting. These guys can write hooks and they manage to weave them into pop songs, ballads and rockers with ease. Some of the songs were recorded on location at their band compound, in the rural farmland outside of Hamilton, OH.

Me or The Moon’s CD is done. This is a really cool band comprised of drums, upright bass, Wurlitzer electric piano and m’bira, an African “thumb piano” also known as a kalimba and played by songwriter Matthew Shelton, who also sings. It was a bit of a challenge to get all the different tones and rhythms to gel in the mixes but we did. The result is a catchy and interesting listen that is new, exciting and familiar at the same time.

Sparrow Bellows (formerly The Emeralds) blew in and cranked out an energetic, catchy and thoroughly rocking LP in the time it takes to get your oil changed. The self-titled debut release was mastered by Dave Davis, who did an outstanding job. If you like hooky rock music in the vein of Cheap Trick, you will probably like these guys.

Seth Bender’s new three-piece, Purple No. 7, is working on a record. Basic tracks and overdubs are done. Seth was the singer and guitar player in The Pernicious Knifs, who recorded their CD, Almond Extract at Ultrasuede in 2005.

The Kentucky Struts released a teaser EP for Midpoint highlighting three songs from their next CD. In other KYS news, look for a guest appearance from multi-instrumentalist Paul Patterson. Paul’s day gig is a violinist the Cincinnati Pops but he and his wife, Sylvia Mitchell, who also plays with The Pops, record and perform with many of Cincinnati’s “underground” artists, as well.

Ultrasuede was the site of a recent “trans-Atlantic” recording session. My old bandmate from Staggering Statistics, Austin Brown, now lives in Berlin, Germany. He’s a prolific writer so it’s no surprise that he’s managed to write two albums worth of songs while touring with Why. When the time came to replace the drum loops with real drums, Austin enlisted another ex-bandmate, Keynote Speaker’s Dave Cahill, along with Why drummer Josiah Wolf and friend Michael Horrigan (ex-Afghan Whigs, current Hiders’ bass player) to supply the beats. During the drum overdub sessions, Austin was in the control room via iChat video while monitoring via custom mix straight off the board in near real time. We all thought it was pretty cool.

Future projects include Magnolia Mountain, The Fairmount Girls, The Seedy Seeds, You, You’re Awesome, The Wolverton Brothers and a new Wussy full-length

Ultrasuede Studio is now on Twitter.

That’s it for now...

- John