We interviewed Mike Campbell for issue #150, right around the time he and his band, The Dirty Knobs released their second LP, External Combustion. A year on, the band has released a new collection of music, Vagabonds, Virgins and Misfits. The Dirty Knobs consists of Campbell, guitarist Chris Holt, bassist Lance Morrison, and drummer Matt Laug. Much of the album was co-produced by longtime Tom Petty studio collaborator, George Drakoulias.
Check out the video for "Dare to Dream" (feat. Graham Nash)
With hindsight, you could look at Wilco’s A Ghost is Born as a transitional album. Much has been written about their previous LP, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and a documentary film, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, chronicles how during the making...
Here’s a fun and upbeat track from an unlikely collaboration between John Legend and Sufjan Stevens. Check out the first single “L-O-V-E” that features Legend’s wife Chrissy Teigen and their children along with Sufjan...
Now that the Tape Op iPad app is available, we've been trying to figure out the best ways to get the magazine to other digital formats. Expansion to other full-fledged tablets (Android, etc) is a fairly straightforward - if laborious - process, in...
Every few years it seems time to give a brief explanation of how Tape Op Magazine "works." We constantly get letters from folks who are amazed that this magazine arrives to them for free. Well, it's actually very simple: you pay for...
When I was younger and flat broke, I was offered a place to stay in my friends' house. It was a room in an old, unfinished basement, and I thought it'd be nice to have some walls. Being without funds to hire anyone, I decided I could probably...
My pal David Lowery (Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven) has been doing a cool blog called 300 Songs, telling stories of how songs came about and other crazy stories. The most recent one is about the late Don Smith, who produced and engineered a bunch of...
Producer, mixer and engineer Eric Valentine has a video series out that digs into making records. This video takes a look at his approach to mixing drums. Enjoy!