RIP Paul Raven. I've never known any of them personally, but Killing Joke has been a guiding light of my musical life since I was a teenager, and the fact that they've continued right up to the present day making albums, exploring a sound they more or less invented from whole cloth over 25 years ago, is totally inspiring. I didn't exactly love the most ecent KJ record "Hosannas From the Basements of Hell" but I was, as always, looking forward to the eventual next record. But I can't imagine how they could continue as a band without Raven.

News?
The Avec album is finally out! They were great at Ottobar the other week.
The Bakerton Group album is finally out. They were ALSO great at Ottobar the other week (different show though).
Shortly thereafter, Jean-Paul Gaster came by for a couple of days with his friend Kelly Carmichael on acoustic and resonator guitar, and upright bass player Johnny Lawless, to record some blues standards by Robert Johnson, Blind Blake, and others ... this session was really quick and painless, a great hang and a total joy musically, AND it paved the way for the reinvention of my large iso room as the Magpie Cage Drum Booth. As a long-time hater of the whole "drum-booth" concept, I might now become a zealot (under the right circumstances of course). We got some of my favorite drum sounds ever. I am sure the player was the deciding factor here, much more than the room. But it was nice to hear such a radically different sound from what I'm used to (minimal miking in a small dead space, as opposed to lots of mics in an open room) work out so well.
The Caverns EP is out, and so is Debate's EP, and Modern Life is War's "Midnight in America." AND so is Jason Dove's feel-good-if-slightly-uncomfortable masterpiece "We Should Be Together" - though Jason really needs to be "discovered" by an actual label somewhere so people outside of Baltimore can get in on it. It's great that so many of these projects are seeing the light of day at the same time ... much better than the opposite, which happens too often, where everyone puts in their best work on a project that sort of falls through the cracks and maybe never even gets released ... any engineer reading this knows what I'm talking about.
The amazing DC band Deleted Scenes were also in the studio this past 2 weekends, doing basic tracks for 12 songs toward a full-length record. They're finishing the record with (name withheld upon request), and they have a lot of ambitions for things to go in unexpected directions, so I have no idea how the initial recordings will ultimately be transformed, but I do know the songs and sounds are great; I'm really proud of my involvement with this. Where are the labels that should be chomping at the bit to release a band like this? But then again, Deleted Scenes are a band that seems very happy to do things on their own terms. An internet-only release would seem to suit them fine ...
Honorable mention has to go to the pair of Chameleon Labs TS-1 small-diaphragm tube condensers I just got - one of the best mic purchases I've ever made. Only used them on cymbals and acoustic guitar so far, but I LOVE these mics.
And Philly's Best in Hampden makes pretty good Palak Paneer for a "pizza, subs, and Indian Food" carry-out joint.
Oh yes, and, thanks to Wino, the studio now has a working Leslie 225 cabinet.

"In Victory, You Deserve Champagne. In Defeat, You Need It."
- soviet poster advertising booze for the masses