Article Archives

February 12th, 2007

New Album Employs Matched Pair of M16 MkII Tube Mics

Engineer and producer Steven Miller chose a matched pair of Telefunken | USA’s R-F-T M16 MkII microphones for the recording of the upcoming studio album from The Dave Matthews Band.  Sequestered at Matthew’s Virginia studio, the band has been tracking the follow-up to 2005’s hit album, “Stand Up.”

“I’ve known Telefunken | USA’s founder Toni Fishman since he started the company six years ago,” recalls Miller.  “I met him at Ocean Way Recording when he was working with Allen Sides to research the recreation of prized microphones from Allen’s extensive collection.”

February 1st, 2007

Two pairs of Klein + Hummel near-field monitors were installed at Haunted Hollow Studios in Charlottesville, Va., a private facility where the next Dave Matthews Band full-length release is currently in production. A pair of O 300D active three-way reference monitors were set up for use in the B room, which is typically used for songwriting and vocal recording, while a pair of O 110 two-way near-field monitors were acquired for the main tracking and mix room.

So far, according to engineer Steven Miller, the two new sets of monitors have proved to be important tools during the early stages of the production for the Dave Matthews Band's next release, the follow up to its 2005 Platinum album, Stand Up. "I'm using the O 110s in the main room when I really want to work super-quiet," Miller says.

January 14th, 2007

BY ARTHUR UTLEY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

The favorite musical group for Eddie Swink, director of development for the Virginia State Golf Association Foundation, is a no-brainer.

The answer is The Dave Matthews Band, and one of the reasons is the charitable arm of the megastars from Charlottesville, Bama Works, has made a significant gift to the VSGA Foundation.

The three-year commitment will give young golfers the opportunity to use the sport as a way to learn and develop personal and life skills through the Robins Junior Programs at Independence Golf Club in Midlothian, the statewide home for golf that is owned and operated by the foundation.

January 10, 2007

_{Thomas Mennecke}

Yesterday, Slyck wrote about the benefits of using BitTorrent to distribute large files online. It vastly decreases the amount of server overhead by distributing bandwidth outside of a central resource. It also fosters a community atmosphere, or in the case of AntsMarching.com, a Dave Mathews Band fan site, furthers an already established community.

Dave Mathews Band has separated itself from many other other artists by allowing fans to record live tapings of its concerts and freely trading and distributing them. Whether trading CDs or other digital copies, fans are permitted to distribute live sound recordings without consequence of copyright infringement.

December 21st, 2006

BY FRAN SPIELMAN

After committing nearly $300 million to free agents this winter, the Cubs are more desperate than ever for cash not subject to Major League Baseball's revenue-sharing edict.

Enter the Dave Matthews Band, whose bus driver unloaded 800 pounds of human waste on a tour boat passing under the Kinzie Street bridge in 2004.

The Cubs are asking City Hall for permission to hold their second pair of outdoor concerts in two years -- this time starring Matthews on the weekend that follows July Fourth.

City Council approval is needed next month in order to seal a place in the band's busy schedule. The concerts are expected to be held July 8 and 9.

The concert precedent began in 2005 with a pair of Labor Day concerts by Jimmy Buffett.

November 23rd, 2006

in issue 0547 of the HooK. - By DAVE MCNAIR

In covering the recent dedication of UVA's $43 million state-of-the-art Wilsdorf Hall, the local media seems to have missed the involvement in the project of one of our famous native sons.

While much was made of the $15 million donation by 1971 UVA grad-- and private astronaut-- Gregory Olsen to the center designed to foster collaborative research in materials science and engineering, chemical engineering and nanotechnology, little was mentioned about Dave Matthews' investment in the project. Matthews put in $500,000 for a "connector" to the chemistry library, and the Matthews family foundation put in another $500,000 for a suite of labs.

While Matthews didn't donate as much as Olsen, his involvement was as much personal as financial.

November 9th, 2006 

by Tony Kiss

Dave Matthews will make his first appearance in Asheville at this year’s all-star Warren Haynes Christmas Jam, Dec. 16 at the Asheville Civic Center.

Also on the show: Marty Stuart, Robert Randolph, the New Orleans Social Club, The John Popper Project featuring DJ Logic, and Haynes own blues-rock band Gov’t Mule and more.

Tickets, priced at $43.50 and service charges, first go on sale at 3 p.m. Monday to Haynes fans through the Web site www.xmasjam.com and then to the general public at 10 a.m. Nov. 24 at the Civic Center box office and through the Ticketmaster online at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone at 251-5505.

The Civic Center will seat 7,200 for the show, but don’t expect tickets to last long.

“I think this will be the quickest (sell-out) they’ve had,” said Marcia Hart, the Civic Center’s building administrator.

November 7th, 2006

The track list for the new two-disc Dave Matthews Band “Greatest Hits” CD, entitled The Best of What’s Around – Vol.1 is out, and fans everywhere can begin pre-ordering the CD for its November 7 release.

As the hook.net reported in August, the DMB had asked fans for input on track selections via an online poll on their website. Remarkably, the collection “compiled by fans” features two studio tracks from each album on disc one, and no live tracks recorded before 2000 on disc two.

According to Waldo Jaquith, who runs the DMB fan-favorite website, nancies.org, there have been some fan complaints about both discs.

October 26th, 2006

in issue 0543 of the HooK. - By VIJITH ASSAR

It seems that finishing up Live From... The Hook would be a big enough task for producer Andy Herz if the production schedule were taken at face value-- after all, he's been working on it for six months, and projects of this magnitude aren't usually put to bed without a fight.

Unfortunately for him, other people have been working on it-- in one form or another, most of the time without realizing it-- for over 20 years.

The crew he assembled to put together the documentary on '80s Charlottesville rock bands will likely subsist entirely on Vivarin and Red Bull between 2am on October 21-- when the doors closed on the Starr Hill reunion show for Virginia rock forefathers Captain Tunes and his Fabulous Noteguns-- and 8pm on October 28, when the film premieres at the Paramount Theater as part of the Virginia Film Festival.

"It's definitely a work in progress," says Herz. "There will still be some polishing and probably some final interviews to do after the 28th."

Director Joe Grafmuller has a pretty focused to-do list: "The biggest thing I'd like to have is Dave Matthews himself in the film," he says. "We have Boyd Tinsley so far, but we're still working on the details of trying to get Dave or Carter or LeRoi or Stefan. Since day one, we've been actively trying to get more of them involved."