Sonic Youth Producer Takes On Ex Models

The Ex Models — one of the many post-punk groups helping to breathe new life into New York City's vibrant underground scene — will head back into the studio at the end of this month to record their second album with Martin Bisi, who is best known for producing Sonic Youth. The new album will be released this spring, according to a publicist who works with the band.

"The band was the one who made the initial contact with me," Bisi, who produced Sonic Youth's 1985 release, Bad Moon Rising, and 1986's Evol, wrote in an email. "They pretty much hit the right buttons on the phone; primarily that they were into this recording of Lo-Hi [Say It More] that I'd done. If someone is really into one or several of the recordings I've made, it's a sign that the chemistry will be good and that's the main thing I need."

It was Bisi's work with Lo-Hi — an NYC R&B-ish punk rock band led by Boss Hog drummer and Lo-Hi vocalist Hollis Queens — that inspired the Ex Models to get in touch with him. "[The Ex Models] got hooked up with Bisi through Hollis Queens," Marisa Handren, a publicist who works with the band, wrote in an email. "Bisi worked on some songs on the Say It More record and [Ex Models lead singer/guitarist] Shahin Motia, I believe, liked the way those particular songs sounded. They also like the fact that Bisi has this recording history with bands that the Ex Models like."

Bisi wrote that the band — Motia alongside his brother, guitarist Shahryar Motia, bassist Zachary Lehrhoff (also of the post-punk group The Seconds) and drummer Jake Fiedler — will begin recording Nov. 30 at his own B.C. Studios in Brooklyn. The new album will follow-up on their well-received debut, Other Mathematics, which was released in the spring of 2001 on Ace Fu Records. The band has not yet settled on a label to release the new album.

Fans can expect a slight shift in sound, due in part to the replacement of the band's original bassist, Mikhail Masiello. "I have heard some of the new material live and it's more herky-jerky than the last record," Handren wrote. "And I think that's because [Lehrhoff] has replaced the band's old bass player."

The Ex Models' second longplayer also follows the split EP recording — released on My Pal God Records in June — that the Ex Models did with The Seconds, a Brooklyn three-piece whose drummer, Brian Chase, is also a member of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

The Ex Models first garnered attention for their angular guitar work and frantic structure-less songwriting. One can hear in the band's sound the influence of the New York punk and post-punk (No Wave/No New York era) bands including Richard Hell and the Voidoids, The Contortions and Talking Heads. — Jenny Tatone [Thursday, Nov. 21, 2002]