[Photos courtesy of Sarah Dinkz Lu]
During what turned out to be a bit of crazy event thrown to benefit the people of Gaza and two charitable organizations working to assist them, Brooklyn’s Motel Motel saved the day (and night). After the NYPD ejected the bands and concergoers from the 210 Cook St. rooftop where the show was scheduled to occur, the show ended up in their drummer’s backyard. Naturally, being the night’s heroes, Motel Motel went on first at the new location, and they gave us a hell of a show, playing us five new songs from their forthcoming LP, The Big Island, a bunch of which was previewed at the last Motel Motel show we covered back at Union Pool this January. As The Big Island is clearly keyed around Hawaii-related themes (guitarist/bassist Timo Sullivan is from Hawaii), these songs fit the warm-but-not-too-balmy night perfectly. Sure, we were surrounded on all sides by concrete, glass and grass rather than warm sand and ocean, but outdoor summer city revelry tends to require some extra imagination.
Motel Motel are amazingly consistent, led by vocalist Eric Engel’s distinctive, timeless vocals, and their garage-Americana remains one of the more unique sounds on the NYC scene right now. The Big Island doesn’t promise a radical departure from their previous album, New Denver, but the songs are more memorable, continuing their tradition of evoking a strong sense of place. We are looking forward to their album release party on August 24 at Union Pool, and they also have several other NYC dates between now and then. I hate to keep using the word, but they are one of the most consistently enjoyable bands to see in this city, and there has never been a better time to see them while the new record is about to drop.
I recorded this set in the same manner as the Soft Black recording, with a board feed for vocals and the mics right in front of the band, and the sound is, I believe, the finest recording we have made of this band to date. All songs are properly tagged for easy importing into iTunes. Enjoy!
Stream “Thunderhead”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/M2609Motel9922/MotelMotel-Thunderhead2010-08-07.mp3]
Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]
Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].
Motel Motel
2010-08-07
Gaza Benefit Show
A Backyard in Bushwick
Brooklyn, NY USA
An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com
Equipment: DPA 4021 + stereo soundboard feed>Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) (24/44.1)
Position: Mics “onstage”, ORTF
Mastering: 2×24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (compress board track, mixdown, set fades, amplify and balance channels, light EQ, tracking, downsample to 16bit)>FLAC Level 8
Tracks [Total Time 30:19]
01 Intro
02 Kaimanu
03 [tuning]
04 Thunderhead
05 Keauhou
06 [tuning]
07 Wolf Road
08 Cowboy
If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Motel Motel, visit their website, and purchase The Big Island when it is released later this month from the band’s store here.
Please also consider supporting the causes that were the reason for this show: UNRWA and the Free Gaza Movement.
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