Dial Back Sound

08/19/2024

Bless it! Dash Rip Rock gives their impressions of the studio and Water Valley, MS!

Bill's Report From Dial Back, Mississippi

What could be better than crashing in a band apartment behind a studio? Get out of bed, make an iced coffee, walk into the amp room, sit in the T-Model Ford chair and start rocking.

In five days of hanging and three days of recording, we cut six songs for a new vinyl EP. They are all bangers. More to come on that soon.

Bobby Matt Patton (Drive By Truckers, Laura Jane Grace (Against Me!), the Dexateens, and Model Citizen) has known Dash from wayback and was excited to have us in his place, Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi.

Bobby Matt, a musician, reminded me of producers like Jim Dickinson that I've worked with in that he knows how to communicate with a band and run a tight session. Henry Barbe (The Hernies) from Athens was engineering-- he never missed a punch. His mic selection was inventive, pulling winners from Dial Back's vintage collection. His talent for turning YouTube to slowtripcore kept the drummer happy and up late.

Things that happened:

Water Valley was very hilly. A few morning walks left us longing for the flatitude of New Orleans.

Key limes from my garden were put to good use in Mista Chuck's tequila. A bottle of Malort he brought from Chicago was feared and went untouched.

We discovered the world's largest crappie was caught nearby – I had to explain that was a Sac a Lait (the Louisiana name for the fish).

Wade found an old Stylophone and wouldn't quit playing it in the control room until it wound up on a track.

Izzy gets squirrelly in the country when he can't watch Big Brother.

Everyone everywhere I go hates my love of ceiling fans.

Food eaten:

Sprint Mart for good chicken and biscuits
BBQ from a trailer
Sweet Mama's for breakfast
The Magnolia Coffee Company for coffee
Taylor's Grocery (catfish that Wade said was the best he ever had, collard greens, Big Deb's World Famous Brown Rice, and amazing potato salad )

Music heard:

Horace Willis' voice and song picks kept our ears cocked to the bandstand at Taylor's Grocery. Go get em, Mr. Willis.

Worst video watched (Herny and Wade did this to me and I still can't unsee it):

“I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying” – this is Sting's space country moment. He's wearing a Danzig pompahawk/mopadour. When Herny slowed it way down and ran it through a delay pedal, it was good.

08/19/2024

The Great Dying 'A Constant Goodbye' is just 11 days from official release. I'm shipping pre-orders today and early next week when I get back from a couple shows. Orders made at the Dial Back Sound Bandcamp will fund future releases by and others that are in the early planning stages. Go by the link in bio to order and I'll get your copy shipped out. There are some nice bundle offers there as well. Your orders are crucial to keeping the work of this collective of artists and skilled workers afloat. Many thanks! Bobby Matt

08/19/2024

08/17/2024

Gotta big guitar day ahead of us here with Bill and !!! I’ve modeled the 59’ Champ here becuse I hear modeling amps is trending these days. Look! There it is! Thats an .rx Brown Box attenuator so we don’t fry the old thing plugging straight into the wall.

08/16/2024

Cutting vocals with Louisiana Music Hall Of Famer Bill Davis during session today. When I first began to run the studio in 2016 I sat and made a list of bands and artists I really wanted to work with and/or come in and work here. Dash Rip Rock was on that list. This is a dream for me and this place. Also glad my good timing old buddy is part of this with me.

08/12/2024

I’m so thankful for all of your BMIMBP shirt orders! Happy to see people supporting from all over! Y’all helped pay for the design and manufacture of the 1st 100 shirts!

This keeps the artists and local print shop going. Record sales have been a struggle due to shrinking entertainment budgets and the continued rise of streaming. I’ll use these profits to get the label out of a little debt before paying for an LP lacquer and manufacture and starting on other recording sessions.

That keeps audio engineers busy, plant workers pressing and ultimately artists making records. And, when those records sell the musical economy you care about thrives. I like to call it a “lower case m music business”. This way it’s much easier to see and understand who benefits and how so in a much more direct way. And, you get this neat shirt to wear to all my shows this Fall!

Go by the link in comments to order the shirt. While you’re at the Bandcamp store browse the selection of artists and LP’s and check out some of their music.
Consider buying the music made here as well. I’ll use all that to keep this little experiment in microeconomics going!
Design by
Printing by Ink Spot, Oxford, MS

08/09/2024

Stopping by Columbus, MS on Sept 5 with my friend Taylor Hollingsworth. Come see us at Sunstroke House. - Bobby Matt

Sunstroke House favorite Taylor Hollingsworth showing off his new album and with Drive-by Truckers' Matt Patton on bass!

08/09/2024

It’s Bandcamp Friday! Here are several new things in the Dial Back Sound Bandcamp store (link in comments). Everything ordered today goes a little further to help me make and press records. Subscribe while you’re there and you’ll automatically get these records when they come out!

-Bobby Matt

08/08/2024

It’s official. I’m making a shirt! I’ll be doing a short pre-order over at the Dial Back Sound and Drive-By Trucker Bandcamp stores (link in comments). Shirts will begin shipping 1st week of October just before I head back out on Fall tour with . You’ll probably want to wear one to the show!

“Why?”, one might ask would I want to make such a colossally vain and dumb shirt. Well, I am a professional musician. I think we as a society have decided that musicians will make less and less of their income by way of actually playing and/or recording any music. One way we’ve come up with to support ourselves is to essentially become traveling t shirt reps. And, as Swamp Dogg once said, “I’m not selling out. I’m buying in!”

I think the more important question here is “Who does this shirt apply to?” Well, if I am or have ever literally been your bass player in your band, on your recordings, at your show, etc and you don’t buy one from me, consider this my resignation. Do you need an actual bass player? Buying this shirt might get you a step closer to that realization.

But, let’s also consider the metaphorical, metaphysical and spiritual implications of “Bobby Matt is My Bass Player”. It’s not just something I ripped off from an old bumper sticker and rehashed for my own selfish gain, folks. I mean, it’s comical at this point that one would actually lose count trying to list all of the bands and various projects, live, studio and imagined I’ve played bass on by now. It’s also for folks who (air quotes) need a bass player because they feel like their lives need some foundation, some rhythm, some oomph! If that’s the case I am your bass player and I’m already more excited about it than my next 10 gigs! Or, perhaps we’ve connected for a moment at a show. As our eyes met it was as if we both felt I was playing just for you. If that’s happened in real life, I am your bass player!

As for the soon to be FAQ, the significance of “Play bass and ride”: that’s a reminder to myself for when I try to complicate and quibble over the true simplicity of what it is I’m supposed to be doing on this plod of mud. This invaluable wisdom was given to me by my dear friend Craig in the wee hours one cold morning somewhere in the Midwest. Craig was driving my absurdly drunk and trifling ass to the next town after having drummed all night. Craig stopped me mid-tirade to remind me that my complaints were invalid as my only real responsibility was to…….Play. Bass. And. Ride. This also answers an established FAQ: Why am I always smiling so much up there?

Peace be with you all!

Your bass player,

Bobby Matt

08/07/2024

08/07/2024

Thanks to Lauren Leadingham and American Blues Scene for premiering "Hurt Me", the brand new single off my album 'A Constant Goodbye', out August 30. Pre-order link in comments.

https://www.americanbluesscene.com/2024/08/the-great-dying-premieres-single-hurt-me-from-upcoming-album/

Single art by Craig Gates at Southron Creative

08/07/2024

Dial Back Sound will release 'A Constant Goodbye' on August 30th!

08/07/2024

Will Griffith of The Great Dying recalls coming up with Hurt Me while slinging drinks at Oxford, MS tavern Proud Larry’s. It was a rough Monday afternoon in 2019. He had Lyle Lovett’s Guy Clark tribute comp playing on repeat with Rodney Crowell, Willie, Emmy Lou, Prine and the rest. Will admits he was in a bad way personally. Something about the way his thoughts, his situation and the familiar melodies and voices mingled prompted him to jot down lyrical bits between drink orders.

After work, Will walked with purpose across HWY 6 to his duplex. He hated the loneliness. These times made him feel like “a soggy ghost of a person.” He needed to get the song out and he needed to dry out, in that order.  He was determined to set this Monday apart from the rest that literally made him want to die.

Will can only remember one other song coming together so quickly. Tying the lyrics together with the music in a matter of minutes was the way his song “Writing a Song in Blue Ink” came together. It’s a tribute to David Berman that Will penned the day news broke of the former’s passing. Pleased with the results he sent a demo of Hurt Me to a few collaborators just before going dark for a spell.

Musically Hurt Me is firmly late 60’s Buckaroos. The inspo track used in the studio was “Tiger By The Tail”. Will’s vocal delivery can remind one of Merle Haggard or a young Steve Earle doing his best Hag. But, fans of Great Dying will recognize as Will’s most comfortable and natural vocal habitat. It’s most like he actually speaks.

All the track needed to be the gem it became was the off the cuff guitar solo played by . Producers had a piano track recorded. Classic country keys seemed a bit much and perhaps a bit uptown for this 2 minute and 53 second ramble through paranoia and resentment. Pratt’s solo romp edged on abandon yet maintained the control necessary to make the cut. There’s not a moment of comping in the notes you hear.  

Enjoy “Hurt Me” today! Premiered today by
Single art by

08/02/2024

UPDATE: ONLY 10 OF THESE LEFT NOW 11:45 AM CT 8/2

Taylor Hollingsworth is working on a super limited series of hand-drawn LP covers for the release of new LP 'Yahola' (out Oct 4). There will only be 25 of these and the first 10 are already spoken for over at the Bandcamp pre-order. I'm putting a link to these in the comments here. The pre-order started a couple days ago so they are moving at a pretty good click. Folks around Birmingham know Taylor for his unique artistic style frequently on display at art shows around town. I have a couple of these pieces in the studio and my home and they are among my most asked about and favorite pieces. These LP covers will be shipped with your copy of the album including the factory cover so you can choose whether you'd like to display the art or store your record in it. Either way you're getting a unique piece from the artist themself. -Bobby Matt

07/31/2024

Announcing ‘Yahola’ by Taylor Hollingsworth, out Oct 4, 2024 on Dial Back Sound. Links to Bandcamp pre-order and streaming on all platforms can be found at the single link in bio.

Taylor hails from Birmingham, AL and is one of my oldest, closest and most talented friends. It has been one of the joys of my life to make music and especially this album with Taylor. It’s something we’re continuing to do together here even now.

Taylor and I began playing together in a Birmingham band called Cutgrass and eventually different lineups of The Dexateens before he ran off to join local heroes Verbena for a short while. He and his wife Kate made Dead Fingers albums at Dial Back Sound with original owner/producer Bruce Watson that I played bass on. He made solo records out in Omaha at ARC, home to Saddle Creek and eventually joined and wrote songs for Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band. Taylor went on to write songs recorded and covered by Oberst & Phoebe Bridgers in Better Oblivion Community Center

All amazing accomplishments, but his greatest accomplishments are overcoming incredible personal loss, addictions that plagued many including myself and his beautiful family. All of these elements are at the core of the astounding songwriting he has developed. We haven’t even talked about the guitar playing yet, I mean holy s**t!

I hope longtime fans as well as folks reading about Taylor for the first time will follow along with the album release. You can go by Taylor’s Bandcamp or any streaming platform (link in comments) to check out 1st single “Never Can Be Lonely”. It features Carole Griffin on BGVs who I’ve been in awe of since I was 15 and she was singing for Birmingham’s own Sugar La La’s.

Taylor will join Laura Jane Grace & The Mississippi Medicals on the road in September, meshing his brand of folk n roll with the folk punk LJG has perfected.

Thanks y’all,

Bobby Matt co
Secretly Distribution
📸
Album layout and additional design

07/30/2024

I love being a Mississippi Medical! We're announcing our debut EP "Give An Inch" today! It's a super slick 6 song masterpiece recorded here at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, MS. The vinyl was lacquerd up over at Sam Phillips Recording Service by Jeff Powell. It plays at a swift 45rpm for max deep grooves. The Mississippi Medicals are Laura Jane Grace, Paris Campbell Grace, Mikey Erg and myself. Check out Laura Jane's webstore in the share link or head over to Dial Back Sound Bandcamp to find a special DBS variant on "Fun Dip" colored wax! - Bobby Matt

07/30/2024

Hear’s a real one for ya! Link to webstore and DBS “Fun Dip” color wax variant in bio:

From

Let’s us now all “Give an Inch” and see what happens!

Me, & & recorded a 6 song ep together back in December of 2023 down in WaterValley, Mississippi. Now it’s ready to be heard in full!

“Give an Inch” out September 6th! Just in time for tour! Come see us on the road, yeah?

Vinyl and merch preorders available now at https://ineffable.to/giveaninch 💀

Artwork by:

07/27/2024

begins the trip home today. Sad to see my good rocking buddies head out! Here’s Tim sitting in the drum room behind what is mostly my late 60’s Ludwig Club Date kit, subbing in vanity kick because he thought it sounded better for this record. We opted not to isolate the kick for this one because it sounded like the move. Certain drummers really bring out the best in this room and Tim exemplifies this phenomenon. 2nd LP the band has cut here is now a wrap on tracking. We got to digging and realized we only have 13 copies left of their previous LP ‘Water Valley High’. It’s one of the best sellers in the DBS catalog. Might wanna get thee to Bandcamp to snag a copy or subscribe to DBS so that it will be included in the big box of records I’ll send of all the in print releases included in the deal. -Bobby Matt

07/26/2024

Day 5: Baritone obadubs happening with Greg! Getting that Roland Space Echo sound with the Roland re301 into a solid state Harmony 515 amp loaded with 2/12” speakers. Everyone seems to fall in love with this racing striped Harmony. 😍

07/25/2024

Day 4: Here’s Jeff getting in some coffee and rehearsal in private courtyard this morning. We’ve been building his main studio sound around his Tele strung up with flatwounds and my late 60’s Vibro Champ. Pictured here with my old Sears acoustic I had remade at the Baxendale shop a few years back.

07/24/2024

Day 3
sounding immaculate on ‘s H22 bass with my 1970 Portaflex “Fliptop” bass amp. It’s mic’d up and blended direct with a DI.

07/24/2024

07/23/2024

Day 2