Tag: analog recording
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The Sonic Alchemist of Champaign: Mark Rubel, Pogo Studio, and a Lifetime in Sound
Sitting in a Parkland College recording class inside downtown Champaign’s Pogo Studio in the late 1990s, I watched Mark Rubel push up the faders on rough, in-progress mixes of Hum’s Downward is Heavenward. From the theatrical rock of Captain Rat and the Blind Rivets to tracking over 1,000 records on analog tape and directing education…
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Prairie Soundscapes: How Champaign-Urbana Built an Indie Rock Universe in the 1990s
Two hours south of Chicago, surrounded by flat miles of cornfields, Champaign-Urbana built a sonic empire in the 1990s. From the drop-D space-rock of Hum and sweaty nights at The Blind Pig to the rise of Polyvinyl Records and American Football, here is how a prairie enclave reshaped independent rock.