Hamilton Leithauser Revisits The Lodge for Solo Debut

The Walkmen’s front man, Hamilton Leithauser, has officially released his solo debut album Black Hours, via Ribbon Music, and critics are calling it “lively, confidant, and charming.” It’s sound is reminiscent of an old classic New York, when late nights were filled with jazz and good bourbon. The album, vinyl and special release Record Store Day Alexandra 7” vinyl were all mastered at The Lodge by Chief Mastering Engineer, Emily Lazar, and assisted by Rich Morales. The Lodge also mastered the very well known You & Me album by The Walkmen. 

 Hamilton Leithauser and Rostam Batmanglij in “Alexandra.” 

Shortly after The Walkmen announced that they would be taking an “extreme hiatus” Leithauser took to the studio to embark on a solo career.  Even though Leithauser is now solo, his album contains a slew of big-name collabs, including Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman, Fleet Foxes’ Morgan Henderson, The Shins’ Richard Swift and longtime Lodge friend, Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend. The Lodge has worked with Swift and Batmanglij, mastering Chutes Too Narrow, Wincing the Night Away, and Port of Morrow for The Shins, and Vampire Weekend, Contra, and Modern Vampires of the City for Vampire Weekend.

 Hamilton Leithauser's "I Retired" official lyric video.

The album was produced by Hamilton Leithauser, Rostam Batmanglij and fellow Walkmen guitarist, Paul Maroon.  Leithauser worked alongside Batmanglij, as he also co-wrote the two singles “I Retired” and “Alexandra”. Additional mixing of the tracks by Scott Jacoby and Emily Lazar; both were mastered at The Lodge by Emily Lazar.

Over the past several months, the album has been receiving a lot of recognition: “What’s most impressive about Black Hours is how Leithauser can bounce from one style to another without disrupting the flow of the album.” His recent two-day debut solo performance at Joe’s Pub in NYC was impeccable. The intimate 190 seat sit-down venue on Lafayette Street felt lush and elegant, and seemed to elevate Leithauser’s big-band sound. The album translated to the stage beautifully, as the show sold out both nights. 

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Vampire Weekend Named Rolling Stone’s #1 Album of 2013

Its official: Rolling Stone has named Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires Of The City the number one album of 2013!!  This is the third studio album for the NYC indie rock band, which was released in May via XL Recordings.    

The album, which was released on multiple mediums including vinyl, has earned massive amounts of praise throughout the year including near perfect reviews from media outlets such as MSN, Pitchfork,  (received Best New Music title) and was also named SPINMagazine’s Band of the Year.

Chief Mastering Engineer of The Lodge, Emily Lazar, mastered Modern Vampires of the City alongside the album's artful producers, band member Rostam Batmanglij and Ariel Reichstaid. Lazar also joined forces with producer/mixer, Scott Jacoby to co-mix the track “Unbelievers,” the highest charting single from the album thus far. Rolling Stone also featured two tracks from Modern Vampires of the City on its 100 Best Songs of 2013 list: Unbelievers at #42 and Hannah Hunt at #4. 

There is no arguing that Vampire Weekend has had a truly amazing year; as Rolling Stone has recently declared: “Vampire Weekend is one of the most innovative artists of the last decade."  

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Vampire Weekend #1!!

Vampire Weekend's new album Modern Vampires Of The City  soars to #1. The album debuted at #1 on its May 14th release via XL Records on the iTunes charts, and has sold 134, 000 copies since it's release last week. Placing them at #1 on the Billboard 200 according to  Nielson SoundScan as well as topping the SoundScan Vinyl, Indie, Alternative and Digital Charts. Read about Vampire Weekend topping the charts in  Rolling Stone, Spin,  Entertainment Weekly, MusicWeek, New York Times, MTV and many more.

This is Vampire Weekend's second time debuting at #1, their last album Contra also debuted at #1 in 2010, making this the first time an independent rock band has entered at #1 with two consecutive releases. Congratulations to all four band members Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Chris Baio and Chris Tomson!

Modern Vampires Of The City is Vampire Weekend's third album mastered at The Lodge by Chief Mastering Engineer Emily Lazar. Modern Vampires of the City was engineered by Rostam Batmanglij, Ariel Rechtshaid, Dave Schiffman, Michael Harris, Nick Rowe, and Juan Pieczanski. The album was produced and mixed by Batmanglij and Rechtshaid, with additional mixing by  Emily Lazar and Scott Jacoby (Eusonia Studios, NYC), and Rich Costey (Eldorado Recording Studios, L.A.). We are so happy to see the band being acknowledged for all their talent, hard work and great music!

Check out Vampire Weekend's full length featured articles in  
Electronic Musician,  Mix Magazine,  New York Times,  Pitchfork,  Fader, and stay tuned for a more in-depth look into mastering Modern Vampires Of The City soon!

Pick up the album on MP3, Flac, CD and Vinyl at XL Records or on  iTunes and Amazon. 

Emily Lazar Moderates Rostam Batmanglij's Presentation at Apple Store SoHo

Rostam Batmanglij and Emily Lazar at Apple Store SoHo's "Meet The Musician" Presentation

Earlier this year, Emily Lazar, The Lodge's Chief Mastering Engineer and President, was handpicked to moderate Rostam Batmanglij's (of Vampire Weekend) presentation at the Apple Store SoHo, as part of their "Meet The Musician" Series.
The series features prominent artists, producers and music taste makers offering a deliciously in-depth glimpse into each artist's creative world and has hosted luminaries such as The Miles Davis Quintet, Anthrax and Hip Hop producer 9th Wonder.

Batmanglij is a man of many talents: a multi-instrumentalist, a producer and one of the main creative forces behind Vampire Weekend's infectious world-music bending pop gems.
Rostam's relationship with The Lodge started in 2007 when both Vampire Weekend albums "Vampire Weekend" and "Contra" were mastered at The Lodge by Emily Lazar and Joe LaPorta. A world-wide success, Vampire Weekend's second album debuted at number one on Billboard 200 chart with 124,000 copies sold in just the first week! A milestone for an indie band in this decade! Emily and Joe have also mastered several side projects for Rostam including his R&B synth pop collaboration with Wes Miles (of Ra Ra Riot) named Discovery.

With Emily as his moderator, the duo geeked out on everything from the recording process, the evolution of a Vampire Weekend demo, how the four-piece writes their songs to his production techniques. He even offered a sneak peak into his newest venture in film scoring! Rostam recounted his experience scoring his brother Zal Batmanglij’s psychological thriller "Sound Of My Voice" (which premiered at Sundance) and offered before and after sound clips to the audience. Check out a clip from the movie, featuring Rostam's first official feature film score!



In the upcoming months Apple will be posting a recorded podcast of Emily and Rostam's entire discussion on their website- stay tuned!

Indie All Stars Present "All Summer"

Popular indie artists Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend), Best Coast, and Kid Cudi teamed up to write the breezy "All Summer," for a Converse exclusive release. Part of Converse's music-collaboration series "Three Artists, One Song," the seasonal track features Batmanglij's smooth pop production, signature glassy vocals by surfer-rock songstress Bethany Consentino (Best Coast) and carefree rhymes by rapper Kid Cudi. The song was recorded by Justin Gerrish (John Mayer, Weezer, Muse, Vampire Weekend) and mastered at The Lodge by Emily Lazar and Joe LaPorta.

Watch SPIN Magazine's behind-the-scenes video coverage here.

And click here to download the summer jam for free from Converse's website.

Keyboard player from Vampire Weekend + Singer from Ra Ra Riot= Discovery!

Discovery (XL Recordings) is the awesome new concoction of Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot's Wes Miles.
The album was mastered by Emily Lazar and Assistant Joe LaPorta at The Lodge in spring 2009 and is due to be released on July 7th.

Simply titled "LP", this album is bound to be your summer soundtrack; with sweet infectious hooks, 80's sounding synth bursts, hand claps and Wes' soothing voice..you will be hooked! And you don't need to wait too long to listen to it; the band has posted some mp3's on their website for your listening pleasure.

Check it! www.dscvry.net