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Hipsters Out Of Metal!

HEY IT’S A PIC OF MASTODON WITH THEIR NEW PRODUCER

 Thursday, May 26th, 2011 at 2:00pm by

Is producer Mike Elizondo a weird match for Mastodon? Do you foresee Mastodon jamz with funky beats and cloying catchphrases? Is this pairing the result of label meddling, artist contrarianism, and/or ambition? Will Elizondo grapple with the Mastodon sensibility or is he a mute concession to a returns-hungry record label?

Mastodon’s triumphant 2009 album  Crack The Skye was helmed by Brendan O’Brien, a super hands-on producer. Far from the type to cover his face with a newspaper and fall asleep at the mixing board, dude will play on your jam, co-write it, and arrange it. He gets up in there. It’s like having an extra band member who can play instruments that require study and who owns a studio.

So, it may mean something that Mastodon’s forthcoming fifth album will be produced by a maker of vacuous pop music for Alanis Morissette, Pink, and Maroon 5. A hip hop beat button-pusher! A bass player!! Well, that’s Mike Elizondo, whose recent track record includes timeless greats Switchfoot and Avenged Sevenfold. That’s the guy charged with shepherding the next Mastodon classic. That’s him above left!

-ADF

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Adam-Steemson/575374964 Adam Steemson

    Switchfoot? ahahahahaa

  • Matt

    “Well, that’s Mike Elizondo, whose recent track record includes timeless greats Switchfoot and Avenged Sevenfold.”

    That sentence slightly worries me.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aidan-Blackmetal-Smith/1244041753 Aidan Blackmetal Smith

      this

    • James M.

      hey, I like Switchfoot.

    • Kid Gruesome

      Mike Elizondo also produced the last Fiona Apple album, so he gets a pass in my book. Also to everyone who wants to say something crappy because I like Fiona Apple…fuck you, she’s great. I don’t know any of you, so I pretty much could care less if you got run over by a forklift or something else equally as horrific.

      • Howie

        Tough guy here!

        • Kid Gruesome

          Nah, I’m not that tough. I mean, I listen to shit like Fiona Apple, so you can draw your own conclusions.

      • Avocadobride

        “I don’t know any of you, so I pretty much could care less if you got run over by a forklift or something else equally as horrific.”

        I am pretty sure I am going to have to sign off all my messages like that from now on.

        • Matt

          I know someone that got ran over by a forklift and was fine. He of course got fucked up, but he’s still kicking….

          • Kid Gruesome

            My heel got ran over by a forklift once, and it hurt so I take back what I said. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

  • Buckaroo

    I think this shot is when Brann told Mike, “Shut up, go back in the control room, and do everything we say. No, don’t even LOOK at Brent!”

  • M’Ike

    I’m worried, too. I thought the songs were great on Crack the Skye, but the sound quality compared to Blood Mountain was lacking. Who they should be working with is someone like Bob fucking Ezrin, a producer who can not only record a pristine album, but also motivate the band to create an epic masterpiece of biblical proportions.

  • builtforsin

    Please do not make fun of pop-music here… Very sensitive feelings around these parts.

    • canea

      I’m living as free as my hair.

  • Hammer_Smashed_Hurtt

    Looking way too into it. I personally dont want to hear Crack the Skye II so if bringing in someone different to produce keeps that from happening, so be it

    You motherfuckers are fickle..give dude a shot. If their new album sucks..it sucks.

    This matters not. Its not going to be crack the skye II therefore I foresee 93% of this blog’s followers being letdown

    • Grindcorp

      I could care less as long as its not Blood Mountain 2. That was a shitty record

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bobby-Hoffman/48600864 Bobby Hoffman

        Blood Mountain 2: Electric Boogaloo?

      • evilfatguy

        THANK YOU. Jesus, I was beginning to think I was the only one who didn’t like that album. I thought Crack The Skye was really good too, but Blood Mountain sounded just so… uninspired to me.

        • Kid Gruesome

          Put me down for the not so hot on Blood Mountain camp also. I was starting to think I was weird for not liking it as much. Like Crack the Skye alot though.

  • dr. doomdrummer

    Not sure about Bob ezrin. That dude produced THE ELDER. Killed kiss instantly.

    • M’Ike

      But he did produce Destroyer & made Kiss huger than huge. And the Elder didn’t kill Kiss ’cause Creatures of the Night kicked ass. The stuff they put out after Lick It Up killed Kiss!

      But let’s not use Kiss as an example of Bob’s genius, but rather Pink Floyd’s The Wall. That said, let’s look to a more modern equivalent of Bob Ezrin, whom I would deem to be Nick Raskulinecz (Deftones, AIC, etc.).

  • SP420

    They’re done. They’re “selling out.” I’m calling it now. This album will be their highest selling one. Everyone will hate it here.

    • Jim Heine

      Sit down, man. They’re signed to Warner Bros. and their music is played during NFL coverage. We’re passed the fear of them selling out. That said, This is Mastodon we’re talking about here, these guys managed to be the best part of the Jonah Hex movie. I guess we just need to wait until more details emerge.

  • The Ghost With The Most

    We might get a “No One Knows” from Mastodon on those “modern rock” radio stations! Then they’ll play a Hinder song afterwards. Mmmmmm……sacrilecious.

    • Steph

      Blood and Thunder is their No One Knows.

      • The Ghost With The Most

        They never played Blood and Thunder on “modern rock” stations, dumbass.

  • Pat

    Play-doh factory for false metal.

    • Jim Heine

      I’d be eager to hear you explain yourself over this, friend. Mastodon is mainstream, no point arguing that, but they’re still an important band to the scene and I don’t think its fair to call them blasphemy unto the form until we can at least hear the music first.

  • Frampler

    Am I the only one to think that it might not make a shred of difference who produces this record? It’s not like Mastodon are novices lacking in musical ability or ideas.

    • evilfatguy

      Think of any band that you consciously know switched producers. Now think of the album in question and the album following it. How much of that do you really think was just the band ‘growing’ or ‘changing their sound’? Do you know what a producer does?
      Every band I can think of that has switched producers was changed in a fundamental way when making the transition. The last band I worked with was in possession of a flat, muddy, uninspired, half-done record. They pretty much walked out on their old ‘producer’/engineer and I offered to do their album for practically free (friends of friends). I made them re-record everything and the finished product was what I knew they were capable of and something that they were extremely happy with.
      The most obvious relevant band here is Metallica. Nothing more needs to be said.
      Look at Deloused in the Comatorium. A great album with excellent performances from every member involved. Extremely dynamic and somewhat subdued. RICK RUBIN. Everything after that was produced by Omar pretty much as self-indulgent and flat-sounding as music can get.
      I’m also reminded of LoG and Ashes Of The Wake. Devin Townsend drew a HUGE sound out of that band with ATPB, with great performances from every member, and it remains one of my cornerstone albums for reference when mixing metal tracks; ‘Machine’ took that very same band, who were still in a similar writing mode as ATPB, and made an album that was pretty much only passable by the same standard. (I mean it sounded ‘good’ but it was kind of “so what?”) I’m not going to comment on where the band went from there because it’s not relevant, but I can safely say that changing producers isn’t a small influence on the sound of an album or an artist’s view of their own music. Hiring a producer for your album is pretty much like saying “this is my music: how do you want it to sound?”

      Anyways, tl;dr Mastodon wouldn’t hire a producer if they would sound the same regardless.

      • Kid Gruesome

        Holy Shit thank you! I always try to tell people that De-Loused is their best album and it has to be because of Rubin, but you hit the nail with the comment on the Omar produced records. But I have to disagree with you on LoG. I think Ashes is there best album but I think Machine fucked with them too much on Sacrament, so you’ve got a very valid point.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Connor-Couzens/580622274 Connor Couzens

    It’s all over. At least they’ll always still have four great records. (Yes I love Blood Mountain AND Crack the Skye, kiss my ass)

    • Ramon C.

      what’s wrong with blood mountain and crack the skye? I love those albums Mastodon has never had a bad album IMO

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Connor-Couzens/580622274 Connor Couzens

        Nothing at all, in my opinion. Quite a few people strongly dislike them, though.

  • http://apintfordionysus.wordpress.com/ Grotusque

    Worrisome.

    I think about what Bob Rock did to Metallica’s sound and see this guy’s resume and I do not feel confident in this album.

    I don’t want to be one of those contrary fucks who insists that bands never change and certainly Mastodon has demonstrated that they are a band with plenty of ideas, even frequently interesting ones BUT when I look at who they’re asking to help shepherd those ideas, I prepare for disappointment.

  • Seb

    Who gives a shit? Let’s wait, be rational, and hear what it sounds like first…oh…wait…this is the internet. My Bad.

  • Dude

    Let’s not forget the guy who produced the Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Neil Diamond and The Dixie Chicks also produced Slayer, System Of A Down, Danzig, and Rage Against the Machine. (If you don’t know, I’m talking about Rick Rubin)

    A good producer knows how to stay true to a musician’s style and enhance it. Whether Elizondo can do that or not, only time will tell. But I am not concerned about the producer affecting the album unless they get Kanye West to produce it.

  • ACoffinShip

    Oh god it’s gonna be exactly like Chris Cornell’s Scream.

    Hmm. Nah. Probably not. I’m not really concerned, I just want to hear some samples.

  • Austin

    You’re all worrying for nothing. It’s mastodon, it’ll be good.

  • The Uncool Guy Down The Hall

    This article is pretty premature and useless. We know the album won’t get the official “this sucks” stamp here until we see how many units are sold. What with suckiness being proportional to the number of units sold.

    • The Ghost With The Most

      Unfortunately that’s true (most of the time).

  • Hammer_Smashed_Hurtt

    So we delete comments on MS now?.Hmmmm

    • He who has had his comments erased

      Half the comments that were in my inbox aren’t here. So they most definitely are deleting them. They’re also “banishing” certain words (they’ve banned some of my names too). If you post something with a word (or phrase) in it that’s been “banished”, it says “comment awaiting moderation” above your post. Sometimes it’s hard to even tell why (then again sometimes I know exactly why), and then it vanishes. It does seem like they’ve started cherry picking comments though. The proofs right here.

      I just change my I.P. address and use a new name. They can’t really “banish” me. I’m obviously still here, right?

      If you guys take this comment down, I’ll put it right back up. Fuck you, MetalSucks.

      • Hammer_Smashed_Hurtt

        Ya I think i figured out the word that got my post deleted. Whatever.

        “You can do it your own way. if its done just how I say”

        • He who has had his comments erased

          Exactly. I’m willing to bet it has something to do with money. Like the fucks who run ads here complaining about something that was posted.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ryan-Sean-Heron/9391234 Ryan Sean Heron

    this is unquestionably a perfect example of label meddling. this is what happens to artists with integrity who sign big label deals.

  • Hammer_Smashed_Hurtt

    Come the fuck on?? ‘Big Label’ deals??!! Labels are practically extinct at this point. Quit fucking worrying about who produces the Album, if you dig it great- if not go listen to something else.

    Its their band, their music, their choice. At this point im sure they arent going to succumb to “label pressure” or whatever crap and crank out singles to please the suits.

  • heyheygety

    I think Alanis Morissette is pretty far from vacuous. She’s no Bob Dylan, but I’d say that she has written some thoughtful and enjoyable music (except for So Called Chaos, that album just sucks).

    If nothing else, she’s certainly a hell of a lot better than some of the overpraised bands featured here.

    • heyheygety

      Okay, I just figured out that Mike produced 2 of Alanis’ not-so-great songs for different soundtracks and was originally set to produce the aforementioned So-Called Chaos until she decided on someone else.

      Okay MetalSucks, you win this time. But Alanis still kicks ass.

      • DirtyWarriorMan

        She totally kicks ass.