Color Green: November 21, 2024 Tubby’s

December 6, 2024
By

What would you do if I told you that a four-piece rock and roll band is driving around in a van and kicking all sorts of ass at venues across the country?  What if I also told you that it features screaming guitar harmonies with intricate melodic interplay propped up by one of the most badass rhythm sections you’ll see this year? What if I told you this band is called “Color Green,” and they are on tour right now?

What started as a duo recording project has morphed into a four-piece band. With that transition has come a clearer focus on the songs and playing. On their excellent new record, “Fool’s Parade,” the stoney haze of the earlier releases is joined by more focused songwriting, well-structured dueling guitars, and a rhythm section ready for battle. It’s like adding a touch of Heron Oblivion to your Burrito Brothers.

While standing outside preshow, Noah mentioned they would start us off slow before hitting the throttle, and that’s exactly how it played out. Opening with the contemplative “Through The Looking Glass,” the band and audience had a minute to calibrate before it was time, as Casey Rose stated, to “have some fun,” and, for the next 45 minutes, that’s precisely what happened.  The back half of this set, from “Coronado” through “Kick The Bucket,” featured wildly dynamic guitar playing that was a thrill to hear.  It’s rare to find two guitarists who so actively listen to each other to create that sort of experience.

Color Green is closing out its tour with only a few West Coast dates remaining. West Coast tapers get out to a show! The world needs more live Color Green!

You might notice that the picture at this post’s beginning isn’t very good. That’s because I was too busy standing in the back by my gear, crushing beers, and playing air guitar to remember to move up and get a quality shot. This was a straight-up scorcher, a no-bull-shit rock show. 

I recorded this from the usual spot with an excellent board feed from Tubby’s FOH engineer Wil.  The sound is fantastic.

Download and stream form the Live Music Archive!

Color Green
2024-11-21
Tubby’s
Kingston, NY

Source: MBHO 440 + SDB > MixPre 3 > SD (24/48) > Adobe Audition/Izotope 9 > Audacity Flac (lvl8) > Mp3Tag

Thanks to Tubby’s FOH engineer Wil for the board patch!

recorded and produced by kliked for nyctaper.com

  1. Intro
  2. Through the Looking Glass
  3. When The Clouds Roll In
  4. God In A $
  5. Sour Grapes
  6. Coronado
  7. Four Leaf Clover
  8. Night
  9. Kick The Bucket
  10. You Wreck Me

Support this excellent band!
https://colorgreen.bandcamp.com/

Support the venues bringing you interesting music!
https://www.tubbyskingston.com/music-calendar

Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears: August 10, 2024 Deep In The Valley

December 2, 2024
By

Photo by Christopher Bruno

The NYCTaper coverage of the 2024 Deep in the Valley festival continues with Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears!

I’m going to be completely upfront about this: This was the set I was most looking forward to going into the event, simply because I’d been pestering Andy from Raven Sings The Blues for at least two years to get Sean Thompson to play Deep In The Valley.

Sean is a guitar player, songwriter, and generally good dude from Nashville. I’ll skip the background info; you can get all that on a recent episode of Good Friend of the Site J. M. Hart’s consistently excellent Brokedown Podcast. The critical thing to glean from the interview is that Sean is now actively writing and focusing his energy on the “Weird Ears” project. 

I was lucky to sit with several people who were unfamiliar with Sean’s work before this set. With “country music,” in whatever that means, having a bit of a moment in the larger psych/improv/jam scene, it’s easy to draw comparisons to more well-known names. In the moment, I attempted to sell it to the uninitiated as “similar to the name brand country-tinged jam folks but more authentic, weirder, and much more psychedelic.” To me, that translates to way more interesting, but that doesn’t do Sean’s work justice, and, to be fair, it was just lazy on my part. 

Luckily for Sean, he doesn’t need me to sell you on this; him and his band will do it on their own.  This excellent-sounding set features tracks from his superb Selt Titled 2022 album as well as some new jammers, including the latest single, “Ridin’ In The Van,” which has a brand new video (debuting today!) to go along with it:

Ridin’ In the Van

Pre order your copy of the new Weird Ears album “Head In The Sand” (out February 7) here. If he makes it back to the Hudson Valley for a proper full length set you can be sure I’ll be there!

I recorded this set with my MBHOs at the stage lip and a phenomenal soundboard feed from FOH engineer Daniel Stout.  Play it LOUD.

Download and stream from the Live Music Archive!

Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears
2024-08-10
Deep in The Valley Festival
From The Ground Brewery
Red Hook, NY

Source: MBHO 440 + SDB > MixPre 3 > SD (24/48) > Adobe Audition/Izotope 9 > Audacity Flac (lvl8) > Mp3Tag

Recorded and produced by kliked for nyctaper.com

Thanks to FOH engineer Daniel Stout for the board patch!

  1. Raspberry Pie
  2. New Trailway Boogie
  3. Before The Flowers Bloom
  4. Ridin In The Van
  5. Street People

Please support this excellent artist!
https://seanthompsonsweirdears.bandcamp.com/

Please support Raven Sings The Blues!
https://www.ravensingstheblues.com/

Photo by Christopher Bruno:
https://christopherbrunophotography.pixieset.com

Weak Signal: October 4, 2024 Tubby’s

November 25, 2024
By

When you pull on the string dangling off Weak Signal’s hoodie what unravels is the last 60 years of NYC’s music history.  Which is probably why they aren’t huge.

I have this belief that some of the best things from New York, particularly NYC, can’t truly be understood by outsiders. In a just world, “I’m Waiting for the Man” would have been a far bigger hit in 1967 than “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie” just as M.O.P’s “Heistmasters” should have been a bigger hit than “Fantastic Voyage” in 1994. Maybe the grim realities of New York City are more than most people can, or want, to handle.  

There is a sound to NY, and anyone with the city in their bloodstream knows it. In his genuinely incredible piece on DJ Premiere’s work, Dave Thompkins wrote, “Premier’s loyalty to his sound is a dedication to neighborhoods still living the same crisis narrative that played out in his music two decades ago. Nothing will ever displace Group Home’s “Livin’ Proof” in a piercing January wind.” Listening to Weak Signal is hearing the street-wise coolness of the VU directly alongside the hard-hitting realities of Mobb Deep because it’s rooted in the same crisis narrative Premiere accessed: the reality of living and creating art in NY. This isn’t  a band built for Instagram and lifestyle influencers.  This is a band built for people who work in bars that don’t have websites; for the blue paper 10 ounce coffee cup that says “we are happy to serve you” in a vaguely Greek font.

On their new record, “Fine” (12XU), you’ll find the usual cocktail of snarling guitar tones mixed with equally cynical lyrics. They’ve added a floater to that of the most refined production of their career which helps to highlight bassist Sasha Vine and drummer Tran Huynh. I always found this to be one of the most exciting rhythm sections working today. You can really feel the swagger on this record. This is Weak Signal standing on the corner, taunting the condo developer while making sure Halal cart guy’s spot is secured. There will always be someone to represent the sound of NYC.  And right now, that’s Weak Signal.

I recorded this from my usual spot in the back with my MBHOs and an killer soundboard feed from Tubby’s FOH engineer Kyle. The sound quality is fantastic!

Download and stream form the live music archive!

Weak Signal
2024-10-04
Tubby’s
Kingston, NY

Source: MBHO440 + SDB > SD MixPre 3 > SD (24/48) > Adobe Audition/Izotope 9 > Audacity Flac (lvl8) > Mp3Tag

recorded and produced by kliked

Thanks to Tubby’s FOH engineer Kyle for the board patch

  1. Out On A Wire
  2. Poor People
  3. Hallelujah Baby
  4. Chill
  5. Rich Junkie
  6. Spooky Feeling
  7. Disappearing
  8. Yr Deal
  9. Wannabe
  10. Drugs In My System
  11. Tell Me How You Like It

Support this excellent artist:
https://weareweaksignal.bandcamp.com/

Support the venues bringing you interesting music!
https://www.tubbyskingston.com/music-calendar

Shannon Lay: June 28, 2024 Tubby’s

October 2, 2024
By

Shannon Lay’s new single “Mirrors” got a lot of play around my house this Spring.  It’s beautifully recorded and sounds like the sunlight that filters through the trees and lights up my kitchen while I cook. So it was a pretty sweet and timely surprise to see her coming to Tubby’s on a stacked triple bill with Anna St. Luis and Shana Fullana.

Shannon’s songs are so intricately crafted that it’s had to find a single point to dissect them.  Do you lead with the profoundly introspective lyrics or the mind-boggling finger-style guitar playing?  Or maybe you should focus on her tremendous vocal control? 

I will start with the guitar playing because I spent most of the night trying to understand it. Her technical command seemed effortless but was never overshadowed by the profoundly emotional resonance of her playing. Her playing came from a place of pure vulnerability, drawing listeners in with the raw intensity of her expression.

The set was drawn from her entire catalog and included the aforementioned “mirrors” and stellar covers by Elliott Smith and Karen Dalton. Every song felt like a highlight, but a particular moment felt most affirmative.  After a brief acknowledgment of Kingston’s parking woes (a local hot topic), she settled into “Come Together” off 2017’s “Living Water” and somehow, what started as a discussion of parking tickets turned into a moment where could collectively reflect on all of the outside pressures and ills. We could choose to ignore those stressors and move forward to positivity:

“We all have enough

Come on shake your broken shoulders

Come on move your broken shoes

Come together”

I’d like to give a special shout-out to the Tubby’s crowd on this particular evening. Generally speaking, recording solo acoustic singer-songwriters in a bar is an exercise in futility.  You can only do so much limiting, but everyone was incredibly respectful of the songs and performers, and you can hear that in the recording.  The quality is excellent, so please enjoy.

Download and stream from the live music archive!

Shannon Lay
2024-06-28
Tubby’s
Kingston, NY

Source: MBHO440 + SDB > SD MixPre 3 > SD (24/48) > Adobe Audition/Izotope 9 > Audacity Flac (lvl8) > Mp3Tag
Recorded and produced by kliked for nyctaper.com

Thanks to Tubby’s FOH engineer Wil for the board patch

  1. A Thread to Find
  2. Sure
  3. Angeles*
  4. The moons detriment
  5. Recording 15
  6. Come Together
  7. Mirrors
  8. Coast
  9. Simpsons Interlude
  10. All this life goin down
  11. Rare to wake
  12. Awaken and Allow
  13. Something On Your Mind^

*Elliott Smith

^Karen Dalton

    Support this excellent artist!
    https://www.shannonlay.com/
    https://shannonlay.bandcamp.com/

    Support the venues bringing you interesting music!
    https://www.tubbyskingston.com/music-calendar

    BASIC: September 14, 2024 Seuffert Bandshell

    September 30, 2024
    By
    Photo by Christopher Bruno

    Long before This is BASIC—the new album from Chris Forsyth, Nick Millevoi, and Mikel Patrick Avery—Forsyth and Millevoi had both separately been discussing the uniqueness of Robert Quine’s discography and playing. Forsyth gave an interview in Raven Sings the Blues back in 2019 where he praises the overlooked, even disliked, album from Quine and drummer Fred Maher, Basic. In 2021, Millevoi breaks down Quine’s “unpredictable” playing for Premier Guitar, complete with music notation. As an observer and non-player, it’s fascinating to hear musicians talk about their influences in ways so clearly project their excitement and awe. It’s worth mentioning also that Quine was a taper, having captured some of the key surviving Velvet Underground performances, including three renditions of “Sister Ray”!

    The current lineup of BASIC has Doug McCombs, who should need no introduction, sitting in with Forsyth and Avery. Catching up with them here in Forest Hills park, BASIC are anything but. Mikel Patrick Avery’s percussion, a mix of triggered sounds and analog drumming, is mesmerizing as it reverberates throughout the bandshell and park. McCombs plays a six-string bass which opens up its own unique possibilities as a foil for Forsyth’s guitar. They play the album through in order but with the new lineup it’s morphed into something unique. I expect as this trio continues playing together, they’ll further adapt into new forms.

    BASIC is about to kick off their West Coast tour and then return to Brooklyn in December with 75 Dollar Bill at The Sultan Room or at Tubby’s in Kingston with Chris Brokaw. If you’re local, don’t miss those. If not, check out the BASIC tour dates and catch them near you:

    Sat 10/5 Portland @ Star Theater w Marisa Anderson
    Sun 10/6 Seattle @ Sunset Tavern w Diminished Men
    Tues 10/8 Arcata CA @ Richards Goat w Eta Corina (Chasny/Aolani)
    Thurs 10/10 San Francisco @ Thee Stork Club w Bill Orcutt
    Sat 10/12 Los Angeles @ Zebulon w Sessa
    Sun 10/13 Joshua Tree Music Festival

    Wed 12/4 Brooklyn @ The Sultan Room w 75 Dollar Bill
    Thurs 12/5 Kingston NY @ Tubby’s w Chris Brokaw Rock Band
    Fri 12/6 Boston @ Middle East Upstairs w Chris Brokaw Rock Band
    Sat 12/7 Philadelphia @ Johnny Brenda’s w The Early & Totally Automatic
    Sun 12/8 Washington DC @ DC9
    Mon 12/9 Pittsburgh @ Bottlerocket Social Hall
    Wed 12/11 Detroit @ Outer Limits Lounge
    Thurs 12/12 Chicago @ Judson & Moore w Yr Knives
    Fri 12/13 Milwaukee @ Cactus Club w Yr Knives
    Sat 12/14 Minneapolis @ 7th Street Entry w Yr Knives

    Stream and Download at the Live Music Archive

    BASIC
    2024-09-14
    Seuffert Bandshell
    Queens, NY

    Recorded and produced by Eric PH for nyctaper.com

    MBHO KA200N/603A > Naiant PFA >> Sound Devices MixPre-6 > WAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC + Izotope Ozone 5 > Audacity 3.0.2 > FLAC

    Tracks [46:15]
    01. For Stars of the Air
    02. Nerve Time
    03. Positive Halfway
    04. Last Resort of the Gambling Man
    05. Versatile Switch
    06. New Auspicious

    75 Dollar Bill: September 30, 2023 Tubby’s Fifth Anniversary

    September 11, 2024
    By

    The NYCTaper coverage of the Tubby’s Fifth Anniversary continues with 75 Dollar Bill!

    On March 7, 2020 I went to Tubby’s to see 75 Dollar Bill.  I had contacted Che beforehand via email to ask permission to record, and he was gracious enough to approve. So for the duration of their two sets, I stood as still as possible (so as not to create phasing issues with the tiny mics clipped to my hat) and recorded what eventually became the “Live at Tubby’s” album.  I knew during the performance I was witnessing something special.  The feeling in the room was electric with everyone completely lost in the polyrhythms and endless white-hot solos being fired off from the band. It was easy, in the moment, to be oblivious to what was on the horizon.  

    In the coming days and months, that recording became something else completely. 75 Dollar Bill’s record “I Was Real” got good press, but the band couldn’t play to support it. Tubby’s, a new venue at the time, had just had its highest-profile show to date and now had to shut its doors. No one knew when things would return to normal.  The band released the recording as a “pay what you want” on one of the first “band camp Fridays.” Then, a label chose to press it to vinyl. Then Rolling Stone put it on its year-end list.  Suddenly, during a time when no one could go anywhere, a tiny venue in the Hudson Valley had a worldwide reputation. That recording became a reminder of what was and what could, hopefully, be again someday. Since that release, word has gotten out, and tons of excellent bands have come through, but it is safe to say that 75 Dollar Bill was the first “big” name associated with Tubby’s.  

    When Cory first mentioned that he was planning a large-scale celebration for Tubby’s fifth anniversary, 75 Dollar Bill’s inclusion seemed obvious.  The last set of the weekend to take place in the actual venue had to be them, and that’s precisely what happened.  The same lineup from that night in 2020, supplemented with three additional members, set up on the floor in the front room by the bar and took us on a journey.  

    The set opened with “Water in the Lock,” which should have been the first track on “Live at Tubby’s,” had I not missed the intro and started the recording halfway through. A run of “Tetuzi Akiyama” off the aforementioned “I Was Real” was next before the band jumped head-first into the meat of the set. First was a new composition titled “21,” in which the band stretched out to over 26 minutes of dense rhythms and solos. The night closed, just as it did in 2020, with a 20+ minute version of WZN#3 with Tim Barnes leading the charge on Maraca. 

    I recorded this set with the same little AT-853’s and Roland R-07 I used in 2020 blended with a soundboard feed from Tubby’s FOH team of Wil and Kyle.  The quality is excellent and full of life so enjoy it loud and be happy we can all celebrate music together in person again. 

    Download and stream from the live music archive.

    75 Dollar Bill
    2023-09-30
    Tubby’s
    Kingston, NY

    Source 1: SP-CMC-4U (AT853 cards, low sens mod) > SPSb-11 > R-07
    Source 2: SDB > MixPre 3
    Source 1 + Source 2 > Adobe CC (time align, EQ, compression) > Audacity (tracking, fades) > FLAC (lvl 8)
    Recorded and produced by kliked for nyctaper.com

    1. Intro
    2. Water in the Lock
    3. Tetuzi Akiyama
    4. 21
    5. WZN#3

    Thanks to Tubbys FOH engineers Wil for the patch and Kyle for the mix!
    This was part of Tubby’s 5 Year anniversary celebration.

    75 Dollar Bill Little Big Band:
    Rick Brown – Plywood crate, percussion
    Che Chen -Guitar
    Karen Waltuch – Viola
    Cheryl Kingan – Baritone Sax
    Steve Maing – Guitar
    Sue Garner – Bass
    Tim Barnes – Maraca
    Talice Lee – violin
    Barry Weisblat – cowbell, maraca
    Jim Pugliese – congas

    Support this excellent band:
    https://75dollarbill.bandcamp.com/

    Support the venues bringing you interesting music:
    https://www.tubbyskingston.com/music-calendar

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