Backyard Tire Fire will take to the road for the coming week before heading off to the studio. Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin has signed on to produce the trio’s next recording, the follow-up to last year’s The Places We Lived. The Illinois group will trek out to Type Foundry Studio in Portland, Oregon where Jeff Stuart Saltzman (Death Cab for Cutie, Stephen Malkmus, The Decemberists) will engineer the sessions. Tonight’s show is the first of two in Bloomington, IL at Louie’s, after which the band will support JJ Grey & MOFRO through February 8. Then, when BTF starts up again, it will do so from its home state, with an appearance on March 13 in Joliet at Chicago Street. After this, Backyard Tire Fire will gig through early May, with dates in the South and Midwest.