294 search results for "Hum"

[Bunnygrunt live on tour.  Photo courtesy of Rob Severson]

Hailing from St. Louis, MO, Bunnygrunt may not be a household name to most on the East Coast, but core band members Matt Harnish and Karen Ried have been making fan-beloved, often humorous pop music under this moniker since 1993.  The band’s style is all about uncomplicated lo-fi pop, with few songs clocking in above the two-minute mark.  Despite a Sunday daytime slot at the NYC Popfest 2010 at Littlefield, the band brought one of the biggest crowds of any of the day’s acts, and deservedly so, as they gave the Brooklyn crowd a rapid-fire dose of 13 songs (in 32 minutes!) of pure Midwestern power pop.  The set closed out with “Southtown Famous” and it’s simple mantra – “Gonna get drunk tonight, tonight / gonna get drunk tonight!”  On a hungover Sunday afternoon, sometimes light, economical pop is the perfect antidote (even if the song is about drinking more).

I recorded this set in the same manner as the other NYC Popfest sets, with the DPA microphones and an excellent soundboard feed.  Please help out with the setlist if you can.

Stream “Southtown Famous”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/B2305Bunnygrunt0210/13%20Southtown%20Famous.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Bunnygrunt
2010-05-23
NYC Popfest 2010
Littlefield
Brooklyn, NY  USA

An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

Equipment: Stereo soundboard feed + DPA 4021>Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) (24/44.1)
Position: ROC, left wall of SBD cage, mics at 8?
Mastering: 2×24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (set fades, mixdown, tracking, amplify channels)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total time 32min]
01
02
03
04 S. Kings Highway Bubblegum Factory
05
06
07 Frankie Is A Killer
08
09
10 Let It Out
11
12
13 Southtown Famous

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Bunnygrunt, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their records from HHBTM Records here.

[photo by nyctaper]

Its hard to distinguish between the multitude of “garage” bands these days, as the genre has reached its critical mass. The proliferation of three and four-piece guitar-bass-drums lo-fi two-minute-song band can be dizzying, especially when it seems that a new one is championed every day by Pitchfork. What separates Harlem from the rest, and what likely resulted in their signing to Matador, is the obvious songwriting ability and vocal talents. Harlem can be screamers, but the band can also harmonize — making them less Nuggets-style garage and more British Invasion-esque (“Someday Soon” sounds like a Beatles Vee-Jay Records outtake). Although some of their contemporaries can be somewhat hard on the ears, Harlem’s new album Hippies (released in April, 2010) is a delectable collection of fine pop songs dressed up in youthful recklessness. That style was on display as Harlem opened for Titus Andronicus a couple of weeks ago at Maxwell’s. As the band worked from an improvised setlist, the show picked randomly among songs from their two albums, but the energy was positive and the interplay with the crowd was good-natured and humorous. The band dedicated their final song “Beautiful & Very Smart” to a couple in the crowd who had just gotten married that day.

We recorded this set as a four-track soundboard/audience matrix from out usual location in this venue and the sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Harlem
2010-04-24
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-05-07

Setlist:
[Total Time 30:50]
01 Witchgreens
02 Someday Soon
03 Gay Human Bones
04 South of France
05 Be Your Baby
06 Friendly Ghost
07 Number One
08 Caroline
09 Scare You
10 [banter]
11 Beautiful & Very Smart

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Harlem, visit their MySpace page, and purchase Hippies directly from Matador Records [here].

[photo by nyctaper]

Twenty years ago, Jonathan Donohue was a member of both The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. Although his tenure with the Lips lasted just two albums, echoes of the humanistic psychedelic indie folk-rock that both bands helped create still reside in Donohue’s songs. And while both bands reached their critical and artistic peaks in the late 90’s, the Lips with The Soft Bulletin and Mercury Rev with Deserter’s Songs, in recent years their parallel paths have diverged. The Flaming Lips of recent vintage concentrate more on the theatrical and marginally bombastic elements of their music, and seem to be content to deliver the same prop-heavy performances year after year. Donohue has maintained a lower profile and has delivered a series of excellent albums, the most recent of which, Snowflake Midnight, contains what is arguably his most heartfelt lyrical work. On Saturday night at the Truck America Festival, Mercury Rev headlined the main stage with a new wrinkle — a string section conducted by Joe Bennett. Additionally, Mercury Rev alums Justin and Jason Russo joined the band for this special show.  From the outset it was abundantly clear that this was no ordinary set, but rather was more a career-celebrating retrospective.  Jonathan acknowledged his long time fans, referenced the twenty year old self-released cassettes that he brought along to the festival, and delivered a set that included a song from those old cassettes (“Car Wash Hair”), a moving Nico cover (the Jackson Browne penned “These Days”), and indeed one of his Flaming Lips contributions (“There You Are: Jesus Song No. 7”). The string section did not just work well, it was almost as if each song demanded the contributions of these outstanding musicians and the seamless scoring of Joe Bennett. Of particular note, the guitar and clarinet work of Sean “Grasshopper” Mackowiak was sublime and superb. At the close of the set, “Isn’t It A Pity” was such a strong emotional number that although the stage was set to close for the night, Mercury Rev was called back for an encore. It was the only encore we saw all weekend.

I recorded this set in the same location and with the same rig as The Joy Formidable set from the previous night. However, the mix for this set was quite excellent, and as a result the sound quality of this recording is outstanding. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Mercury Rev
2010-05-01
Truck America Festival
Big Indian, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-05-05

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:02:35]
01 Endlessly
02 [banter]
03 First-Time Mother’s Joy (Flying)
04 Car Wash Hair
05 Blue Clouds (Daniel Johnston)
06 Tonight It Shows
07 Runaway Raindrop
08 [banter]
09 Opus 40
10 There You Are: Jesus Song No. 7
11 Holes
12 These Days (Jackson Browne)
13 Isn’t It A Pity
14 [encore break]
15 Goddess On A Hiway

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Mercury Rev, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the store at the Mercury Rev website [here].

[Owen at Webster Hall in December photo by Kate Ehle]

While I watched Owen Pallett perform his magic from the front of the crowd at Webster Hall last night, I puzzled with an attempt to remember a performer who is capable of creating such a beautiful depth of sound with so few instruments. “This is harder than it looks”, he joked with the crowd after hitting a rare off-note. And indeed, while Owen makes it seem so effortless — as he sings, plays violin and keyboard over quad-layered samples in perfect sync — I could think of no other artist with such gifts capable of making such complicated music so accessible. The outstanding new album on Domino Records, Heartland, is one of the year’s best releases, but Owen performed just five of the twelve songs from the album last night. Instead, supported by multi-instrumentalist Thomas Gill for about half the set, he drew from all three full-lengths, from several singles/EPs, and one new song to compile a representative setlist. The show closed with a goofy Mariah Carey cover which proved that even this most serious artist retains his sense of humor.

I recorded this set from upfront in the crowd with my best mobile rig and the sound is outstanding. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Owen Pallett
2010-04-22
Webster Hall
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Upfront, 20 Feet from Stacks

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level boost, slight eq) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2010-04-22

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:10:07]
01 E Is for Estranged
02 This is the Dream of Win & Regine
03 Scandal in the Parkade
04 [banter]
05 That’s When The Audience Died
06 Midnight Directives
07 Keep the Dog Quiet
08 The Great Elsewhere
09 Lewis Takes Action
10 Don’t Stop the Party on My Account [new song]
11 He Poos Clouds
12 Flare Gun
13 The Butcher
14 Many Lives -> 49 MP
15 [banter]
16 Lewis Takes Off His Shirt
17 [encore break]
18 The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead
19 Fantasy (Mariah Carey)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Owen Pallett, visit his website, and purchase his new album Heartland from the Domino Records website [HERE].

[photo courtesy of Alexis Maindrault]

You can tell much about the quality of a band by their ability to play different sizes of venues with equal success. Back in February, we saw Obits at the tiny basement-like Cake Shop — a show that featured much new material and a very intimate vibe. At Irving Plaza on Friday, Obits faced a more difficult task as the band performed middle-bill to a decidedly Jersey-centric weekend crowd there primarily to see Ted Leo’s homecoming. But there is something universal about Obits’ gritty garage guitar roots-rock, and when its delivered by four pros with impressive veteran resumes, its irresistible. And with the exception of one loud buffoon, Obits managed to convert the crowd with a set that steered mostly clear of the new material played in February and stuck to the bulk of their 2009 Subpop debut, I Blame You.

I recorded this same from the same location as the Ted Leo set and the sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Obits
2010-04-09
Irving Plaza
New York, NY USA

Digital Audience Four-Track Master Recording
Recorded from Center of the Floor

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-04-13

Setlist:
[Total Time 44:11]
01 SUD
02 One Cross Apiece
03 New August
04 Put It In Writing
05 [Sohrab humiliates heckler]
06 Light Sweet Crude
07 Widow Of My Dreams
08 Run
09 [banter]
10 Two-Headed Coin
11 Back And Forth
12 Lilies In The Street

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Obits, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase I Blame You from the Subpop Records website [HERE].

[Photo courtesy of bumpershine]

John Roderick is the distinctive voice of The Long Winters, as well as a good friend of Nada Surf.  Nada Surf had promised that their three-night run of NYC full-album performances would feature “special guests,” and Roderick’s appearance at The Bell House for the second of these gigs (which we also recorded) was the most welcome of all.  Although the rest of his band did not make the trip out from the Pacific Northwest, Roderick performed many of The Long Winters’ most beloved songs as well as a new number, “Not Moving to Portland.”  The acoustic setting highlighted Roderick’s unique voice and his talents as a lyricist, as well as his great sense of humor!  Roderick closed out his set with Nada Surf as his backing band on “The Commander Thinks Aloud.”

Like the Nada Surf recording, this recording was made with a combination of the DPA microphones and a stereo soundboard feed, for excellent sound quality.

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE). Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Stream the complete show:

The Long Winters (John Roderick solo)
2010-03-26
The Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

An acidjack master recording
recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

Equipment: Stereo soundboard feed + DPA 4021>Edirol R-44 (24/44.1)
Position: ROC, mics at approx 11? from floor height, pointed at stacks
Mastering: 2×24bit WAV>Audacity (mixdown, adjust levels, slight compression, set fades, tracking, amplify each channel, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Stupid
02 banter/false start
03 Honest
04 Seven
05 Pushover
06 banter
07 Not Moving to Portland [new]
08 banter
09 The Worst You Can Do Is Harm
10 banter
11 Cinnamon
12 banter
13 Ultimatum
14 banter
15 The Commander Thinks Aloud

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Long Winters, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from Barsuk records here.

[Not particularly good iPhone photo by acidjack]

Since their founding in 2001, Magik Markers have slowly evolved from a more experimental act specializing in epic psych/noise jams into the band they are today.  As demonstrated on their latest record, Balf Quarry, the band have not abandoned the psychedelic rock by any means – but today their musical vision is transmitted via actual songs as well.   One constant throughout the Markers’ career has been their reputation as an excellent live band.

A Markers show has the feel of controlled chaos, going in unpredictable directions.  Some numbers seem to end as abruptly as they began; between lead singer/guitarist Elisa Ambrogio’s freeform lyrical style and the virtuosity of all of the band members, you can never be sure they haven’t invented something new on the spot.   At Union Pool the band’s reputation remained intact – they were alternately humorous, jammy, blunt and contemplative- sometimes almost within the space of a single song!

I recorded this set with a combination of a stereo soundboard feed and the DPA mics mounted to the balcony.   Due to the venue’s size, the soundboard feed in this venue consists mostly of vocals and drums, which have been balanced with the audience mics to create an excellent recording, though at times you will perceive adjustments being made by the sound engineer.  Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE).

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Magik Markers
2010-03-19
Union Pool
Brooklyn, NY, USA

An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

Equipment: Stereo soundboard feed + DPA 4021>Edirol R-44 (24/44.1)
Position: Clamp to balcony rail, right of soundboard, mics pointed at stacks
Mastering: 2×24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (mixdown, adjust levels, set fades, tracking, EQ, amplify each channel, dynamic compression, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks (setlist help appreciated)
01 Intro
02 Jerks
03 banter
04 The Lighter Side of Hippies
05 banter
06
07
08 Don’t Talk In Your Sleep
09 banter/false start
10
11 banter/tuning
12 Taste

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Magik Markers, visit their website, and purchase their excellent album Balf Quarry from Drag City Records here.

[photo from WMW MySpace page]

WhoMadeWho stole the show on Monday night at the BrooklynVegan Pre-SXSW show at Knitting Factory. At 11 p.m., the Danish dance/funk/electronica trio turned the machines on, started the beat, and never let up. The packed crowd by necessity opened up in the middle of the room for a make-shift dance floor, and it seemed like the only thing missing was a rotating mirror ball. For their part, WhoMadeWho exhibited a ton of energy and good humor from the stage — their songs can be both playful and dark at the same moment — so that the cycle of fun was complete. The band are in the US through the end of the week in Austin.

We recorded this set in the same location as the Wave Pictures recording and the sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

WhoMadeWho
2010-03-15
Knitting Factory
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 16bit 44.1kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-03-17

Setlist:
[Total Time 43:11]
01 Small Town City
02 [new song “Outside World”]
03 Space For Rent
04 Rose
05 [new song “Time”]
06 Keep Me In My Plane
07 [new song “Got To Get it Right”]
08 Satisfaction

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT WhoMadeWho, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases from the Gomma Records site [here].

[photo courtesy of Jonny Leather]

Acidjack reports:
Cincinnati, OH’s Bad Veins, the duo of lead singer/songwriter Benjamin Davis and percussionist Sebastien Schultz, are probably the first band I have seen use an old rotary phone as a mic (in addition to a regular mic).  Davis’ songs are instantly catchy, all pop hooks and easily discernible vocals (the easier to hum that way). Long after I had left the Knit, I found “I’m Afraid” and “Gold and Warm” stuck in my head, in particular. That rotary phone is used appropriately and sparingly, giving Davis’s otherwise rich, clean voice the necessary indiepop fuzz. The band are presently on tour behind their excellent record, Bad Veins, released last year on Dangerbird Records.  This set, opening for We Were Promised Jetpacks (the recording which we hope will be authorized by the band and posted shortly), was a relatively short one, but it gave an excellent sense of the promise of this band.  The recording was made using a high-quality stereo soundboard feed and DPA microphones from the optimum spot in the venue, and the sound is superior.  Enjoy!

Thanks to the Knitting Factory for the high-quality board feed, and to Bad Veins and Dangerbird Records for inviting nyctaper to record this performance.

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Bad Veins
2010-02-15
Knitting Factory
Brooklyn, NY

An acidjack master recording
recorded and produced by acidjack

Equipment: Stereo soundboard feed + DPA 4021 microphones>Edirol R-44 (24/44.1)
Position: Clamp to soundboard cage, mics at 9′, DIN
Mastering: 2x24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (mixdown, set fades, tracking, amplify channel to -0.1dB)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Setlist:
01 Found
02 Gold and Warm
03 Crosseyed
04 Afraid
05 Dry Out
06 Falling Tide
07 The Lie

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Bad Veins, visit their website, and purchase their debut album directly from the Dangerbird Records website [here].