Well folks, I'm sitting here at Chad's house and I thought I would send you a little note as I eat Kirkland Signature Ice Cream and eat Pretzel Chips (which are like flat pretzels). We're two sessions away from completing the as-yet-untitled LP by SF songwriter Michael Steven. I'll start mixing that the third week of September or so. We've got awesome SF band Rin Tin Tiger getting ready to make their record this fall, and I just booked Oakland cover band ZZ Topless (guess who's tunes they cover?) to come in and make their demo in October, featuring your friend and mine, Peter from Lariats of Fire. As if all that weren't enough, south bay reggae group Vintage Music Collective is hard at work on their first ever recording after 5 years of gigging hard all around the area. Whew!

At any rate, exciting things are happening at RRRC. We hope you'll enjoy hearing it VERY soon. Now, back to my ice cream and flat pretzels...

Friends, we're back. Well, we never left or stopped grinding out tunes, but we're sort of back. ANYWAY, I was at the studio last week doing a song with a terrific San Francisco by-way-of San Jose band called Rin Tin Tiger. They just finished up an EP that they funded with a Kickstarter campaign and after seeing them perform live with Dogcatcher, we decided they might be a good fit for RRRC and they most certainly are! Stay tuned to this space to hear some of their tracks, but hit up that link above in the meantime to buy their EP for a measly $5.

That's all for now, but we've got TONS of exciting stuff coming up, so I'll be in touch soon. Bye bye! (and get yourself to your nearest movie theater to see Winnie the Pooh, it's incredible)

Hey friends, we've had so much going on that I haven't had time to tell you what's been going on! Since we last talked, we had living legend Terry Scott Taylor come in with his latest batch of odd tunes in the same vein as the music he did for the videogame 'The Neverhood' in the 90s. He did the tracking for the 18-song record at Neverland Studios in Nashville with Derri Daugherty, who is also awesome, as well as one tune with us here at RRRC. We mixed the record pretty quickly and it is SWEET. Can't wait for you to hear it.

Anyway, we're back at it with Michael Steven from SF tomorrow, then it's more tracking next week for the next Dogcatcher album. Talk to you soon!

Hi everyone, quick update: we tracked an EP (or lovingly-named '3P') for semi-local band (San Jose and San Luis Obispo) Fialta in March and now it's here! Check it out at their site, where you can sample all of the songs and get the whole thing for a measly $3. The band consists of a couple of good friends of RRRC, Mike and David of Sherwood, as well as lovely ladies Beth and Sarah, who are also now friends of RRRC. It was lovely to have them in and we hope to see them all again sometime soon. In the meantime, take a listen to '3P'.

We've got some very strange and wonderful things in the mix for the next couple of months, so keep your ear to the ground. See you soon!

Yes, yes, yes. You are now able to purchase all of the Red Rock Recordings albums that we've done over the last couple of years (collect 'em all!) in the store section of our fine website here. Colin Carthen, Dogcatcher, East of Western, they're all there. The store enables you to download each one in lossless format (for you audiophiles out there) as well as classic MP3 format, complete with artwork and whatnot. So please, do yourself a favor and grab them at your earliest convenience. You can also pick up a physical copy of East of Western's LP and Colin Carthen's LP, as well as our 'Freedom?' abolitionist compilation at our lovely coffee shop in Mountain View, CA, the Red Rock Coffee Company. Come on by, listen to some samples, enjoy the music of the south peninsula. We love you...

Well true believers, things are back to normal at RRRC. We've finished a few records and now we're ramping back up to do more! We've started a back-to-basics acoustic rock record with SF songwriter Michael Steven, which will be 10 catchy tunes for your listening pleasure available this year. We did foundation rhythm tracks over the last couple weeks and things are coming along smoothly! In the meantime, you can stop by our sister coffee shop, the Red Rock COFFEE (not Recording) Company and check out our new Listening Station! That's a picture of it above. You can check out all the records we've done on our Red Rock Recordings label and purchase them at the register. You can also grab our records digitally at our online store here. That's all for now, see you soon!

Well, we made it. The three records we were working on at RRRC are all finished and available for your enjoyment. KILR by Dogcatcher is a terrific record lovingly described as 'Thelonius Monk plays poppy Blind Melon' by Jared Milos, the bassist for East of Western, whose record Panic is through and through, a rock album in the best way possible. It turned out beautifully and we couldn't be happier. The Highway Community's 4th album of church music is called Heavy Lifting and saw its release this last Sunday. If you're around on Friday in the SF Bay Area, Dogcatcher and East of Western are dropping both records formally at Cafe Du Nord and you should come.

Coming up, we've got sessions lined up with rock legend Terry Scott Taylor, Fialta and Michael Halatyn, so there's still a lot going on. But for now, go listen to music.

Hi everyone, a few things happened this week. If you've been keeping score, you know that we've been completing 3 records: 'KILR' by Dogcatcher, 'Panic' by East of Western and 'Heavy Lifting' by the Highway Community. So here's what happened: 'KILR' has been sent to our friend Masaki to be mastered and will be pressed in the coming weeks, 'Panic' has been fully mixed and will be sent to the mastering plant tomorrow and 'Heavy Lifting' is in the final stages of mixing. I just heard 'KILR' for the first time and it's INCREDIBLE. Make sure and check out the CD release party for 'Panic' and 'KILR' at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco on March 18th (get your tickets at ticketweb.com). More information on these releases soon / hope to see you at the release!

I know I sound like a broken record, folks, but the nature of recording is that everything is in a perpetual state of almost-completion. Tracking is wrapping up on 'Heavy Lifting', 'Panic' by East of Western is in the mixing phase, and the Dogcatcher record 'KILR' is 99.9999999% done. Here's what you need to do: go to the Peacock Lounge on Wednesday nights and catch Dogcatcher play, or catch (no pun intended) them on the first Saturday of every month at the Red Rock Coffee Company (yes, we're related). You can hear a sweet preview at those places.

(Pictured above, we've got our local covers band, Folk Atrocity, playing a charity poker tournament last week, featuring Kevin from East of Western and Andrew from Dogcatcher. It was fun stuff...)

In other awesome news, we've got some members of the illustrious Lariats of Fire coming in this week to lay down some harmonica and pedal steel on the Highway record 'Heavy Lifting'. Very exciting! Anyway, go listen to some good tunes in the meantime. I recommend 'Marquee Moon' by Television (THE album of the 70s) and 'In the Cool of the Day' by Daniel Martin Moore. Until next time...

Ol' Kevin, pictured above, is currently reviewing mixes for his new record 'Panic' from our friend Masaki at One Way Studios in Benicia, Brian from our friends in the local group Picture Atlantic, and when I do them, me, Ryan, your buddy here at RRRC. Things are wrapping up on 'Panic', the as-yet-untitled Dogcatcher record and tracking is concluding in the next couple of weeks for 'Heavy Lifting', the new record from the Highway Community. That's THREE new records being released in the first month of the new year, all from RRRC. (Check out the final mixes of four of the new Highway tunes here.) It's an exciting time, but while you're waiting, head to the Dogcatcher Facebook page down one entry in the feed and get watching Andrew's video of one of his new tunes, performed on his way to LA in the passenger seat of an automobile. It's lovely, and so are you. Happy Christmas, we'll see you all soon...

Hey all! Dogcatcher is officially done tracking! Nate (FOTOMOKIO) will be putting the finishing touches on the mix this Christmas break. Expect the album to be out early January, debuting possible at a joint CD release show with Kevin's band, East of Western! In the meantime you can check out some Dogcatcher here

Friends, colleagues, it's been too long. But that doesn't mean we haven't been doing anything! The Dogcatcher LP is criminally close to completion, the East of Western record is being mixed as we speak and the Highway Community record is wrapping up tracking here in December to get ready for mixing / mastering. The Highway Community album has also received artwork and a title: 'Heavy Lifting'. Additionally, we've got a few kids coming in from the Highway Community this week to flex their pipes on a couple of original Christmas songs to get in the spirit of the season. Keep your eyes and ears open as we roll out these great releases and others over the coming months. Catch you soon...

Hello folks, Ryan here for a short update on the happenings of RRRC. Young rock hero (and member of the terrific throwback-y rock band Black Sand) Mitchell Cairns stopped by last week to aid us in giving the studio a bit of a face lift. We've also got some photographs going up on the walls in some redwood frames and plenty of music making its way toward ultimate completion! Engineer Nate Lewis told me yesterday that the Dogcatcher record is almost finished and he played me a track that sounded incredible. Scroll down in the feed to hear an early version of one of the songs. That's all for now / come by and see us sometime!

Check out an unmixed track from the new record from the Highway Community of Christian spiritual songs being done here at RRRC right here. Still lots of work to be done, but things are coming along...

Well, we're trucking along on new records from Dogcatcher, East of Western and the Highway Community. Not a lot of news to share, but Andrew (Dogcatcher) and engineer Nate Lewis are hard at work mixing the record which may or may not be titled Somebody Touched Me, For(N)ever, Hot Mess, Loudest Common Denominator, or U Can't Lurn Imaginashun. Songwriter Kevin Marks is finishing up tracking his East of Western record, which is likely going to be called Panic, or Panic at the Disco. Finally, the Highway record is coming along nicely and we're about a third of the way there with tracking. It will probably be called Fear of a Black Planet. Talk to you soon... (samples from all of these are coming at you soon!)

Why hello, true believers! Quick update: we're hard at work on a new record of spiritual songs at RRRC for a local church, the Highway Community. If you look at the whiteboard in the image above, the green is what's done and the red is what's left to do. As you can see, there's lots to do! Below, there's a picture of me playing the drums badly. I'm on, like, my 20th take at the time of the photo. We're hoping to have it tracked in the next month or so and ready for your ears a month after that. Big fun, for sure.

Stay tuned for more Dogcatcher news coming up soon. I was in here on Tuesday tracking with Andrew Heine and the tracks are really sounding terrific. Can't wait for you to hear them! Until next time...

Hello friends, Ryan, the lead engineer here. Just wanted to give you a short update of what's been happening around RRRC. We did a second day with Bay Area rock band Black Sand to track and mix two more of their songs entitled 'To Remain Nameless' and 'The Mirror'. Dogcatcher's record (produced by Nate Lewis) is in it's later stages, hopefully seeing release in the next couple of months. It sounds terrific, I can't wait for you to hear it. We completed a series of sessions with Palo Alto songwriter Chris Cotton and we're just beginning heavy tracking for a spiritual songs record for the Highway Community church in Mountain View.

In short, there's a TON going on! Keep checking back for samples of new music and I'll catch you next time...

RRRC has set a date for Dogcatcher's album completion. Well, not an exact date...but you can get your ears in it sometime during the end of September.
We have just finished a pretty final edit on our first completed track, which will probably end up being the last track of the record. There are talks to press this baby on vinyl too.
If you like the artwork you see here, you should know that Dogcatcher (Andrew Heine) is also an artist. Check out his website here

Photo courtesy of Isaac Pritzker (c) 2010.

Hey folks, just wanted to check in and let you know what we've been up to at RRRC. I've been engineering and mixing some tunes for local songwriter Chris Cotton. He's been doing 5 songs for the last few months and we've got three in the can (The Loudest Sound, Sun / Girl and Meandering Away, all available to stream at myspace.com/cottonchris). Make sure and check out those songs as well as the wealth of terrific photos taken at RRRC as well as Hyde Street Studios in the city at his official site, chriscottonmusic.com.

Black Sand, this year's winner from our annual GIG©, is now in the studio recording an EP (with Ryan Kingsmith producing). FYI their epic sound is influenced by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, Dream Theater, and Rammstein. Prepare yourselves.

Black Sand is:

Travis Osterback- Vocals
Trey Fiebich - Bass & B.G. Vocals
Reece Fiebich - Guitar
Mitch Cairns - Drums

Week by week, with shows between, Dogcatcher (Andrew Heine's brainchild), has been puttin' in hard hours at the RRRC. But it takes more than studio time to develop this unique project. Many nights around the campfire with producer and collaborators Nate Lewis, Jason Wei, and Ramon Esquivel factor into the project's formation. Check out a demo for "Lay Back Down" below. We'll keep y'all updated!

Hey folks, sorry for the delay! Lots going on lately, so here's what's going down:

Oakland's Lariats of Fire are working through the mixes of their tunes AS WE SPEAK, so we expect their record will be done in the next couple of weeks. Again, it's called 'Jack Jenkins' Last Ride' after one of the records tracks, so watch this space and lariatsoffire.com for info on the honky-tonk up-and-comers, and catch them live if you get the chance!

An old friend of RRRC, Amelia Dunaway, dropped by the studio a little bit ago and we realized that we had never polished up the EP she recorded last year for mastering. Thus, we rerecorded 2 vocal parts and it's nearly ready to go! She's recently relocated to Nashville, so we miss her around the Bay, but check back for link to listen to her EP. I (Ryan, lead engineer) got to play on it a bunch and am really happy with how it's coming together, so we'll load up an MP3 in our player as soon as it's done. For now, pick up a copy of our 'Freedom?' compilation to hear her song 'Alone', which also appears on the EP.
Anyway, that's all for now. See you soon!

Hey party people, here's all the exciting stuff that's been going on at RRRC. Pictured above is the East Bay's own honky-tonk sensations Lariats of Fire. Late last year, they tracked 14 (!!!) songs of country goodness in only 2 days. After some final overdubs and a bouncing new baby coming into guitarist Jason Greenwald's family, we're ready to start mixing. The record, 'Jack Jenkins' Last Ride', should be ready for your enjoyment very soon. Check out a live set for free at lariatsoffire.com.


Andrew Heine's newest record as Dogcatcher is coming along nicely. He told me recently that the foundation of 6 of the album's songs are in the can, so upward and onward. You can check out a couple of older tunes on his Myspace (what's that?) page, which he hasn't visited since 2008.


Veteran blues and folk guitarist Chris Cotton is currently tracking songs for a new LP at RRRC. We were tracking drums all day on Wednesday and things are coming together. You can check out his older stuff on iTunes or on chriscottonmusic.com


That's all for now. Until next time, go Dodgers!

Here here! The debut album from area rock band Given the Helm entitled 'Patriarch' is available for free download in its entirety! 'Patriarch' was recorded and mixed at the Red Rock Recording Company in 2009 and is now ready for your ears. Check it out at the url below...


http://www.dittynet.com/~vdk/Patriarch/