Corin Tucker Band: September 27, 2012 Mercury Lounge – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

October 4, 2012
By


[Photo courtesy of Tom Choi. See his flickr stream HERE]

Corin Tucker is 39 years old. She spent most of the 90s and a solid chunk of the 2000s fronting Sleater-Kinney with co-frontwoman Carrie Brownstein, and she has also played in the bands Cadallaca, Heartless Martin and Heavens to Betsy. Corin may be (by rock standards) “getting older”, but she sure is making it look like fun with the Corin Tucker Band, now on their second LP.

“Groundhog Day”, one of the standout tracks on her band’s latest, Kill My Blues, tells her current story with its opening lines

Huh? Que pasa? I’ve just woken up / Like Rip Van Winkle in a denim mini skirt / Wait, you see, now, I took a rest  / I took some time to be a mom and have some kids

The rest of the song takes Tucker through some familiar territory for her – a disappointment with the state of modern feminism, a bewilderment at a cause that she feels is stagnating – “Instead of going forward, where the hell we going now?”.  So yes – Tucker is no longer 22, and yes, she is a mom. But take one listen to Kill My Blues, and take a look at the band that took the stage at Mercury Lounge on a recent Wednesday night, and tell me she doesn’t still have the fire. Corin’s first solo record, the critically-loved 1,000 Years, was touted as a more subdued “middle-aged mom record” in her words, Kill My Blues is a caffeinated, lacerating return to the form that made her contributions to Sleater-Kinney so memorable.

Which is to say, Tucker has the kind of voice that’ll rattle your cage when in full throat, and she lets it rip on most of these new songs. While many of her contemporaries in like-minded bands could hold their own in terms of raw power, Tucker’s voice is notable for her control and unique tonality as well as its power. Songs like “I Don’t Wanna Go”, Tucker’s tribute to Olympia, WA punk scene fixture Natalie Cox, push those vocals to the max, and live, Tucker is even more visceral than on record. This night’s lineup of the Corin Tucker Band featured Portland journeyman Dave Depper on bass, Seth Lorinczi (of Golden Bears) on guitar and keys, and Sarah Lund (of Unwound) on the drums, and they proved to be a formidable rhythm section, so tight that the show sounded like a studio outing at points. But for fans who thought that 1,000 Years was too subdued, Tucker had an answer, too, as the band tore through “Doubt” to close out the main set with a squall of perfect Pacific Northwest-style noise. For an encore, the band served up two covers, including Blondie’s “Atomic” and “Three Minute Hero” by the UK ska greats The Selecter. Seeing Corin Tucker Band will certainly help sate your Sleater-Kinney craving; it might also kill your fear of getting “older”.

I recorded this set with a flawless soundboard feed of the house mix by Jeff Hylton Simmons, the band’s FOH, together with Schoeps MK41 supercardiod microphones in my usual location. This recording demonstrates how good the club’s new PA system is, and it could well be my personal best Mercury Lounge recording of this year. Enjoy!

Stream “Groundhog Day”

Stream “Doubt”

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE] | Direct download of FLAC files [HERE]

If the direct FLAC link has expired, email nyctaper for the FLAC files

Follow acidjack on twitter

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.  

Corin Tucker Band
2012-09-27
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41 (PAS)>KC5>CMC6 + Soundboard >> Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mix down, adjust levels)>Izotope Ozone 5 (light EQ, exciter)>Audacity 3.0 (tracking, set fades, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 59:05]
01 None Like You
02 Kill My Blues
03 No Bad News Tonight
04 Half A World Away
05 Tiptoe
06 Handed Love
07 Groundhog Day
08 Constance
09 Summer Jams
10 I Don’t Wanna Go
11 Joey
12 Neskowin
13 Doubt
14 [encore break]
15 Atomic [Blondie]
16 Three Minute Hero [The Selecter]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Corin Tucker Band, visit their website, and buy their records directly from the band, in digital, LP or CD format [HERE]

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

6 Responses to Corin Tucker Band: September 27, 2012 Mercury Lounge – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

  1. Dave Depper
    October 4, 2012 at 11:46 am

    NICE WORK. I’ve been a fan of your site for years now, and it’s a treat have been part of it twice (having played with the Fruit Bats at the Bowery last year). A band never knows exactly how it comes across on stage, but your recordings bring us as close as we can get. Keep up the good stuff!

  2. acidjack
    October 4, 2012 at 11:49 am

    Thanks Dave! That means a lot, especially coming from someone actually in the band! Cheers!

  3. October 5, 2012 at 2:14 am

    I have to say that Tucker has the kind of voice that’ll rattle your cage when in full throat, and she lets it rip on most of these new songs.

  4. steven
    October 6, 2012 at 3:37 am

    thank you for another great recording—this was a good show.– and another thank you for taping since i got there a couple songs into the show—corin keeps writing great songs—and still sounds great!

  5. John
    October 16, 2012 at 7:17 pm

    Awesome – I was truly hoping this show would make an appearance, your efforts are greatly appreciated!

  6. M Milner
    June 22, 2016 at 9:15 pm

    Hey,

    Thank you for sharing this! I just stumbled across it after reading about Tucker’s live set in the new Greil Marcus book and had no idea it was recorded, let alone so well. Thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

SUPPORT NYCTaper




DISCLAIMER and LEGAL NOTICE

nyctaper.com is a live music blog that offers a new paradigm of music distribution on the web. The recordings are offered for free on this site as are the music posts, reviews and links to artist sites. All recordings are posted with artist permission or artists with an existing pro-taping policy.

All recordings and original content posted on this site are @nyctaper.com as live recordings pursuant to 17 U.S.C. Section 106, et. seq. Redistribution of nyctaper recordings without consent of nyctaper.com is strictly prohibited.

nyctaper.com hereby waives all copyright claims to any and all recordings posted on this site to THE PERFORMERS ONLY. If any artist posted on this site requests that recordings be removed, those recordings will be removed forthwith.