The 2024 BIG EGO Record CLUB

We HAve moved all of our manufacturing from overseas to the USA.

This was a lot of work and it’s costing us a bit more money behind the scenes but it’s something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. Our vinyl records are now being pressed at Physical Music Products in Nashville, Tennessee. We’re switching to heavy duty “Old Style” Tip-On sleeves that are printed by the folks at Stoughton Printing Co. in City of Industry - about a 30 minute drive from the studio. Our lacquers are cut by long time mastering engineer JJ Golden and the plates are being made at RTI in Camarillo.

What’s in the club this year?

Four albums, including the newest records from my band Psychic Temple, Brooklyn’s Emergency Group, the newest installment from David Lord with Chad Taylor, and a thrilling quintet album from legendary saxophonist Vinny Golia that will see a co-release with his trailblazing Nine Winds imprint.

As usual, I produced and mixed all the released. Devin O’Brien engineered and photographed. JJ Golden mastered. The Emergency Group album was done out at Figure 8 in Brooklyn with Michael Hammond engineering.

So, this year’s record club includes four vinyl albums, one tape (more on that later), a bumper sticker, and a three color Psychic Temple baseball tee printed with Calimucho in San Pedro.

$150 in US and $210 outside the US with free shipping.

We will ship out two packages. One in June that will include everything you see in the picture and one in October that will include the David Lord and Vinny Golia albums. We also ship our records out in Whiplash V3 mailers - the very best that I know of and also, made in Michigan

I went into this record thinking it could be the last Psychic Temple album. Not for any particular reason. I’ll be 47 this summer. I’ve got a family and I’m trying to run the studio and the label… I know I won’t stop making music but the idea this could be the last PT album was really liberating.

I had a bunch of songs in my back pocket and it felt good to sing and play them with everybody. We cut half the record out in Joshua Tree at a place called the Time Machine and the other half at BIG EGO here in Long Beach. So many of my favorite musicians and people are featured: Dave Easley on pedal steel guitar. Tabor Allen, Ben Lumsdaine, and Ryan Jewell on drums. Josh Ottum, Doug McCombs, and Davin Givhan on bass. Junatime’s Heather Sommerhauser contributes keyboard, songwriting, and vocal talents alongside Ann Thaiss, Alicia Walter, Eamon Fogarty, Adriana Schlarb, and Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon. And how about this group of guitarists? Mike Baggetta, Chris Forsyth, Michael Krassner, Max Knouse, T.J. Masters and yours truly. No overdubs were flown in or recorded elsewhere. We were always in the same room together and I think you can hear that.

In the spirit of those great CSNY and David Crosby albums from the early 70’s I had to go with a family album style gatefold cover. It was incredibly expensive but we had all these amazing film photographs from the sessions and, you know, if it’s the last one… do it right!

Cover photo by Adriana Schlarb. Liner notes by Jason P. Woodbury.

You can watch a little 60 second TV ad, shot on 16mm film here.

I was at the studio when I got a call from Emergency Group guitarist Jonathan Byerley. We hit it off immediately and he threw out the idea of the band coming out to BIG EGO for their next album. I proposed a counter-idea: since they all live in New York, let’s find a studio out there and I’ll fly out to produce it. My friend Michael Hammond had recently started working as a house engineer at Figure 8 in Brooklyn. I called him up and we booked the session. I flew out the morning of July 17th, 2023 and got to the studio just as the band was getting levels. We recorded for a couple hours, grabbed dinner, came back, and finished the record. I mixed everything down at BIG EGO a couple weeks later and the whole thing is still a blur. Such a wonderfully open and raw album. Maybe we’ll try to do a couple shows together this summer.

Cover artwork by Jaime Zuverza. Liner notes by Jesse Jarnow.

Good music is hard to find. We're making it easier.