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Alone & Together: December 15, 2017 Music Hall of Williamsburg

December 20, 2017
By


[photos courtesy of Andrew Scott Blackstein]

The concept of an all-star band can be a hit or miss prospect, but the people at Golden Gate Presents have pretty much been all hits. The organization that brought together an impressive amalgam of talent to perform the Complete Last Waltz, has now produced four “Alone & Together” tours, and the latest version was on display at Music Hall of Williamsburg this past weekend and it too was a resounding success.

This year’s A&T tour included old favorites Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats), Elvis Perkins, and Sam Cohen (Yellowbirds) sharing various instruments and the vocal duties, and accompanied by a rhythm section of Joe Russo (JRAD, The Duo), and Josh Kaufman (Yellowbirds). This particular night also saw the return of last year’s participant Kevin Morby as a guest for two numbers. The quintet performed their own material, performed each other’s songs, and sprinkled in a few tasty covers. If this band seemed to naturally gravitate towards each other, its of course from their rich talents as ensemble players but also because the various members have performed in a variety of configurations in the past (including the Last Waltz). So when it came time for Sam Cohen to sing an Elvis Perkins song for example, the performance seemed both familiar and natural but also instinctively a tribute. This was one of those shows that was so comfortable and enjoyable for the listener that a two-hour set seemed to fly by. Undoubtedly, we’ll be seeing these individual players in the near future in their other projects, but this Music Hall performance makes me hope there’s a fifth edition of the Alone & Together series.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards mounted inside the soundboard booth and mixed with an extraordinarily well balanced feed from FOH Pete Costello. The blend of sources is about 50/50 because the room mix was so strong and our advantageous position yielded excellent results. The sound quality of this recording is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream Two Tracks:

Alone & Together
2017-12-15
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer: Pete Costello] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:59:18]
01 I Must Be in a Good Place Now [Bobby Charles]
02 Mean Maybe
03 So Long
04 Let the Mountain Come to You
05 All The Night Without Love
06 All Today
07 Absolute Loser
08 Doomsday
09 [banter – Clockwork intro]
10 Clockwork
11 Humbug Mountain Song
12 One Day At A Time [Willie Nelson]
13 And Eveline
14 Dead Rider
15 Destroyer
16 Beautiful Strangers
17 There Go The Nightmericans
18 When U Love Somebody
19 [encore break]
20 There is a War [Leonard Cohen]
21 Duncan [Paul Simon]
22 Awaiting On You All [George Harrison]

PLEASE SUPPORT Alone & Together: Website

Wilco: March 24, 2017 Big Ears Festival (Knoxville, TN)

October 27, 2017
By

© Copyright David Simchock. Provided with permission by Big Ears Festival.

Wilco is the kind of popular band that is perfectly suited to a festival like Big Ears. For the past several years, the Knoxville, TN-based festival has put on the kind of genre-agnostic, fan-focused, music-focused event that is an increasing rarity in a festival environment where the top-line band is invariably a mainstream hip-hop act or LCD Soundsystem. Wilco have been called “dad-rock” and a variety of other things like it, but there’s nothing embarrassing about liking a band that has continued to focus on songwriting and continued trying to do something new. If you don’t believe that, you obviously didn’t see, or hear about, Jeff Tweedy’s experimental set during this festival with Chikamorachi (we hope to share that soon).

On this night, Wilco took the stage at the Tennessee Theatre and played a set true to the festival’s style, cranking out several extended noise-jam numbers including “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” and caterwauling “Impossible Germany.” If this didn’t offer quite the novelty of the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot set at Solid Sound later in the year, this set was nonetheless a special one, including starting with the fairly-rarely-played “Radio Cure.” The set doesn’t so much flow as exist as a series of climaxes and valleys, though the noise outro from “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” into a furious “Art of Almost” is a particular pleasure. Schmilco and its several obligatory appearances gave several points in the set a more sedate feel, as none of these songs seem to have yet established themselves as live breakouts, though “Locator” feels like the most obvious candidate to get there (and is easily the best of the Schmilco songs played at this show). Wilco ended the night with a lesser-played number of 2017, “A Shot In the Arm,” whose coda could as easily have been a message to the music festival world at large: “What you once were isn’t what you want to be any more.” Indeed, if you’re in the business of attending or putting on music festivals, I’d recommend a look at Big Ears.

This set was recorded by Matt Honkonen of the Big Ears staff with a Zoom H6 and was provided to us by Big Ears. The sound quality is a bit compressed at points, but the fairly ideal location of the recorder in the theater yields an overall pleasing result. Enjoy!

Speaking of Big Ears, we’re going to be posting a bunch of sets from the 2017 festival in the upcoming weeks in anticipation of the 2018 festival. The initial lineup announcement comes November 1 and tickets are onsale November 3. 

Download the complete show: [FLAC] | [MP3]

 

Wilco
2017-03-24
Big Ears Festival
Tennessee Theatre
Knoxville, TN USA

Recorded by Matt Honkonen
Produced by acidjack

Zoom H6 (internal mics, at SBD)>WAV (16/48)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Adobe Audition CC (compression, amplification)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time: 1:58:16]
01 Radio Cure
02 If I Ever Was a Child
03 Cry All Day
04 I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
05 Art of Almost
06 Pickled Ginger
07 Misunderstood
08 Someone to Lose
09 War on War
10 Via Chicago
11 Bull Black Nova
12 Reservations
13 Impossible Germany
14 We Aren’t the World (Safety Girl)
15 Box Full of Letters
16 Heavy Metal Drummer
17 I’m the Man Who Loves You
18 Hummingbird
19 [banter]
20 The Late Greats
21 [encore break]
22 Random Name Generator
23 Jesus, Etc.
24 Locator
25 Spiders (Kidsmoke)
26 A Shot in the Arm

PLEASE SUPPORT Wilco, visit their website, and purchase their Star Wars and their other releases from their website [HERE]

Clearance: October 13, 2017 Rough Trade NYC

October 20, 2017
By

The Chicago band Clearance have been at it for a few years now, having first gained broader notice with a track debut from their current full-length, Rapid Rewards, on Stereogum. Various corners of the Internet have compared them to Pavement, having more (to this listener) to do with their wry sense of humor than their exact musical style, which falls into the broad camp of “indie rock” or “alt-rock” or “garage-rock” or whatever you want to call guitar-driven music that isn’t made by meatheads these days, but is delivered, at this stage, with a certain professionalism that wasn’t Pavement’s stock-in-trade until career end.

This set at Rough Trade NYC represents a solid eleven (with one additional that was aborted) song introduction to the band, including “You’ve Been Pre-Approved.” But among the set, I was most taken with the band’s latest single, “Are You Aware,” an upbeat burst of optimism that might fit less within the “ironic slacker” framework, but is just the dash of musical Prozac you want on a Friday after a wearying week. By the time the song downshifts in its final segment, you’re feeling the relaxation wash over you. We also got some new songs in the mix, including “Chances Are” and “Haven’t You Got the Time,” the latter of which has a bit more of a 90s Britpop feel than some of the band’s other songs. The band closed with the short-burst anthem “She’s A Peach,” which ended abruptly in under two minutes. At first it seemed like a mistake or a joke, but then it became clear — the song had said all it needed to say. Clearance are that kind of band.

I recorded this set in the same manner as the Widowspeak set, with Schoeps MK5 microphones and a soundboard feed from Jeremy. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC/ALAC]

Clearance
2017-10-13
Rough Trade NYC
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com

Recorded and produced by acidjack

Soundboard (engineer: Jeremy) + Schoeps MK5 (DFC, at SBD, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>>Sound Devices MixPre6 (24/48)>polyWAV file>Adobe
Audition CC (align, mix down, compression, limiter)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, image)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, dither, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Had A Fantastic
02 The Prospect
03 Destination Wedding
04 Frozen Orange / No Wonder
05 Gallery Glare
06 Are You Aware
07 You’ve Been Pre-Approved
08 Owner/Operator
09 Chances Are
10 Haven’t You Got The Time?
11 Another Arrow [stops]
12 She’s A Peach

PLEASE SUPPORT CLEARANCE: bandcamp | Facebook 

Songs: Molina: September 8, 2017 Hopscotch Music Festival (Raleigh, NC)

October 12, 2017
By

After attending one of the four 2014 Jason Molina tributes put on by his former bandmates and special guests, I wasn’t sure whether the tradition would continue. Thankfully, many of those same former Magnolia Electric Co. bandmates (as well as Mike Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger) were on hand for this extremely special evening at Hopscotch Music Festival (you can see the full lineup of people below). It’s not possible to replicate what Molina had, that injured moan of a voice with such depth behind it, but as these folks have proven, it is possible for his indelible songwriting to live on through others. Molina was much more than a performer or songwriter; he was a poet of the human condition and a penetrating chronicler of his own struggles.

Though a different vibe than the intimate Hideout in Chicago, this set established its own tension between celebration and mourning. Each musician onstage was connected with Molina in some way, and the set spanned several of Molina’s projects, from Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. to his solo work. No matter what flavor or style of Molina’s work you enjoyed most, there was something for you, from the countrified “Old Black Hen” and “Hope Dies Last” to more rocking numbers like “Hot Black Silk” and the “The Dark Don’t Hide It.” But as is so often the case for me personally, it was the two closing songs from 2003’s landmark Magnolia Electric Co. that got to me most — the impeccable, powerful statement of endurance and resurrection that is “Farewell Transmission,” followed by the elegiac “Hold On Magnolia,” an anticipation of an eventual end, abetted by its desperate plea to hold on a bit longer. Molina’s music is eternal, whether or not it continues to be performed live, but my hope is that it continues to be, by this cast of characters or a similar one. He was a singular presence in music, worthy of paragraphs (and indeed, an excellent bio). But really, his music speaks for itself. So go enjoy it.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones from the floor, together with a soundboard feed. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show from its Live Music Archive page: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Songs: Molina
2017-09-08
Hopscotch Music Festival
Fletcher Opera Theater
Raleigh, NC USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

Schoeps MK4V (LOC, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA + Soundboard>>Zoom F8 (24/48 WAV files)>Adobe Audition CC (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:37:54]
01 Whip-Poor-Will
02 Hammer Down
03 Just Be Simple
04 Old Black Hen
05 O! Grace
06 North Star
07 Cross the Road
08 [banter1]
09 Leave the City
10 Alone With the Owl
11 Hard to Love A Man
12 Shenandoah
13 What Comes After the Blues
14 Hope Dies Last
15 31 Seasons In the Minor Leagues
16 Northstar Blues
17 The Dark Don’t Hide It
18 Two Blue Lights
19 Hot Black Silk
20 Lioness
21 [banter2]
22 Farewell Transmission
23 Hold On Magnolia

Band:
Wallace Cochran – vocals
Jason Evans Groth – guitar and vocals
Skylar Gudasz – vocals
Michael Kapinus – keyboard and vocals
Joseph O’Connell – guitar, bass, vocals
Mark Rice – drums and vocals
Pete Schreiner – bass, guitar, vocals
MC Taylor – vocals and guitar
Casey Toll – bass

If you enjoyed this recording, you ought to purchase the music by many of these fine musicians, including Songs: Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co., Hiss Golden Messenger.

Dinosaur Jr.: October 3, 2017 Brooklyn Bowl

October 5, 2017
By


[photo courtesy of Omar Kasrawi and Pancakes and Whiskey]

From the very outset of Tuesday night’s Dinosaur Jr. show at Brooklyn Bowl — the second of a two night run — it was fairly obvious that the sonic onslaught was in full on mode. Monday’s show was an extraordinary show that we were happy to have attended and recorded, but Tuesday was fully in your face. Any decibel restrictions that the venue may have sought to impose were disregarded as J Mascis’ Marshall guitar stack was well utilized, and the thumping bass of Lou Barlow and Murph’s monster percussion rattled the rib cage. The band also switched up the setlist, so we got some oldies for Bug fans (rare “Budge” and ubiquitous “Freak Scene”), and You’re Living All Over Me diehards (“Little Fury Things”). J and Lou also brought out old friend and Deep Wound bassist Scott Helland to perform one of the first songs the guys ever recorded for that band. We also saw a handful of guests for the “Sub Pop version of The Wagon” including legendary guitarist Don Fleming. And if that wasn’t enough, the show ended with a mini Negative Approach set as singer John Brannon (also of openers Easy Action), drummer Opie Moore and guitarist Harold Richardson joined J and Lou to play two of the seminal Michigan hardcore band’s songs. If we learned anything from this outstanding two-fer of Dinosaur Jr. shows at Brooklyn Bowl, its that this band remains a powerful presence in today’s music. Our still-ringing ears agree.

We recorded this set with the mic stand about midway on the right side of the venue and nyctaper used Schoeps cards while acidjack employed Schoeps hypers. The full sonic blast of this show is faithfully captured in both recordings. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show:
nyctaper version [MP3] / [FLAC]
acidjack version [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream nyctaper version:

Stream acidjack version:

Dinosaur Jr
2017-10-03
Brooklyn Bowl
Brooklyn NY

Digital Master Recording
FOB Audience

Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, EQ, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:25:03]
01 Thumb
02 Goin Down
03 Lost All Day
04 Left Right
05 Watch the Corners
06 Pieces
07 Out There
08 Feel the Pain
09 Little Fury Things
10 [banter – Wagon intro]
11 The Wagon
12 Budge
13 Start Choppin
14 Training Ground [Deep Wound]
15 Freak Scene
16 Gargoyle
17 [encore break]
18 Just Like Heaven [Cure]
19 [banter – Negative Approach intro]
20 Can’t Tell No One [Negative Approach]
21 Nothing [Negative Approach]

*******************************

Dinosaur Jr.
2017-10-03
Brooklyn Bowl
Brooklyn, NY USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

Schoeps MK41V (FOB, ROC, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices MixPre6 (24/48)>WAV>Adobe Audition CC (fades, limiter, light compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, image, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:24:56]
01 Thumb
02 Goin’ Down
03 Lost All Day
04 Left/Right
05 Watch the Corners
06 Pieces
07 Out There
08 Feel the Pain
09 Little Fury Things
10 The Wagon*
11 Budge
12 Start Choppin’
13 Training Ground [Deep Wound]^
14 [tuning]
15 Freak Scene
16 Gargoyle
17 [encore break]
18 Just Like Heaven [The Cure]
19 Can’t Tell No One [Negative Approach]%
20 Nothing [Negative Approach]

*w/ Don Fleming, John Moloney and Marc Seedorf
^ w/ Scott Helland
% w/ Negative Approach

SUPPORT Dinosaur Jr.: Facebook | Website | Buy Their Records

Grim Streaker: July 16, 2017 Out In the Streets Festival, The Well

July 20, 2017
By

There are many loud, fast, post-punk guitar bands — even ones with female frontpersons and catchy puns for names. But whatever that exact “it” is that makes one stand out, that makes the front rage and the bored people in the back stand up and pay attention, Brooklyn’s Grim Streaker has it. Obviously, the live performance counts for a lot in this genre, and Amelia Bushell anchors that bit of the proceedings, with wry onstage humor and intense, snarling delivery that’s matched by an equally relentless band. The Out In the Streets Festival, in its second year, was our intro to the band, and they flat-out tore it up for a concise 30-minute set that packed in nine songs. The band has a new EP, Girl Minority, on offer, and it’s a commendably strong slab of digital goodness, but the live show is where the money’s at. The band seems to get that, having released the video for “Guts” as a straightforward live production. Have a look below, have a listen to the set, and you’ll see what we mean.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed from engineer Cliff Ribiero and Schoeps MK41V hypercardiod microphones. The sound quality is quite good. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Grim Streaker
2017-07-16
Out In the Streets Festival
The Well
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK41V (PAS, LOC)>KCY>Z-PFA + Soundboard (engineer: Cliff Ribiero)>>Sound Devices MixPre-6>1x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, adjust levels)>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, EQ)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Freak Child
02 Babysitter
03 Kiss
04 Tina’s
05 Savage
06 Guts
07 Miami Girl
08 Psycho
09 Mojito Mountain

Support Grim Streaker: bandcamp | facebook

Ovlov: June 23, 2017 The Bell House

June 30, 2017
By


[Photos by Rocketman]

Just when you thought it couldn’t be salvaged, here comes Ovlov to rescue Emo from the clutches of the mainstream garbage bands these kids today are listening to. (I’ll refrain from naming names.) Ovlov take me back to the nineties Emo I love with reference points like Hum, The Promise Ring, Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil, Nada Surf—all touchstones of my high school CD collection. Naturally, they’re doing it on Exploding in Sound Records, whose taste in quality young bands is unimpeachable. This set opening for Spiral Stairs at the Bell House captures the band playing songs off their EIS album, am, plus a few new ones. Considering Ovlov have broken up at least a couple times now, it’s not insignificant that they’ve got some new songs to play us—Ovlov still clearly still have a lot of music in them.

I recorded this with the mics set up at the board in DIN stereo configuration, which I then combined with a board feed from the Bell House’s FOH David Hurtgen. A special thanks goes out to David for loaning me a mic stand so I could make this recording for you all. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Ovlov
2017-06-23
The Bell House
Brooklyn, NY

Recorded and produced by Eric PH for nyctaper.com
Photos by Rocketman

Soundboard (engineer: Dave) + AKG C480B/CK61 (DIN, ROC) > Zoom F8 > 2 x WAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, mixdown, balance, compression, normalize, fades) + Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter) > Audacity 2.0.5 (tracking, tagging) > FLAC (24/48, level 8)

Tracks [34:21]
01. Grapes
02. Tru Punk
03. I’m Your Dini
04. Short Morgan
05. Half Way
06. Stick
07. Alligator
08. Where’s My Dini

• Buy Ovlov music via Bandcamp
• • Facebook

Ween: June 7, 2017 Brooklyn Steel

June 9, 2017
By

For the second night of Ween‘s run at shiny new venue Brooklyn Steel, the band continued to reiterate what has made them such a cult favorite. As a newcomer to the band, I can’t claim to be any kind of expert in the ins and outs of the setlists, but if you’re curious what has made them one of the more welcome “reunions” of recent years, I can offer some thoughts. First, the musical diversity of the band’s sound has long been well-known, mixing bar-room rock, punk, psychedelia, country, new wave, funk and more. Though the recent accumulation of Phish fans to their ranks has been talked about, the more logical touch points for understanding this band are willfully-weird bands like the Butthole Surfers and the Meat Puppets, who similarly can’t be pigeonholed into a genre so much as a vibe. Second, in Ween’s case, there’s a brand of outrageous humor at work in many of their songs, of a kind that prompts debate on the Internet over the funniest Ween songs. Whether or not songs like “Deez Nutz” or “Bananas and Blow” are your thing doesn’t necessarily determine whether you have to like or dislike the live show, just as some Phish get more turned on by the Gamehendge element than others. Personally, I was more fired up about songs like the sprawling 1994 jam “A Tear for Eddie,” or 1990’s Butthole Surfers-esque “Licking the Palm for Guava” (also dedicated here to Gibby Haynes).

Since I know fairly little about the band, I decided to consult a long time fan on the show to get his take. In his read, compared to the previous Brooklyn Steel show, this was a relatively sedate affair, focusing more on the band’s country sound and skipping some of what this fan deemed “essential” Ween songs such as a classic cover, or any of “Dr. Rock,” “Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down),” “Push the Little Daisies,” “You Fucked Up,” “Golden Eel,” and “Buckinham Green” — all of which made it into the first night setlist.  Along with the “A Tear For Eddie” that I did, he pointed out that “Mushroom Festival In Hell” and “I’ll Be Your Johnny On the Spot” as highlights.

Wherever you are in your Ween fandom, you can’t deny that they’re as hard working a band as they come. When they promised “an evening” with them, we got one, a full two hours and ten minutes of mostly uninterrupted playing that fired up the slam-packed Brooklyn Steel floor. I have no doubt that the show was ten times more engaging for those better acquainted with the inside jokes and the general band lore, but based on this performance, I’d be up for finding out more.

Finally, if you haven’t been to Brooklyn Steel yet, know that longtime sufferers of its predecessor will finally have a mid-large venue for more popular bands that offers a full view of the stage from almost every place in the room. We’ve already enjoyed a few shows here so far, and look forward to many more. As always thanks to the professional staff of Bowery Presents for making our presence there feel both safe and welcome.

I recorded this set from the “taper’s section” with Schoeps MK41V microphones. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Night one was also recorded and will be posted soon.

Download the complete set from its home on the Live Music Archive: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Ween
2017-06-07
Brooklyn Steel
Brooklyn, NY USA

Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41V (at SBD, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CC (fades, compression, limiter)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)
>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time: 2:10:07]
01 Chocolate Town
02 Tried and True
03 Birthday Boy
04 Help Me Scrape the Mucus off My Brain
05 [banter1]
06 Take Me Away
07 Fat Lenny
08 Cold & Wet
09 Boys Club
10 [banter2]
11 Nan
12 Gabrielle
13 Bananas and Blow
14 My Own Bare Hands
15 A Tear for Eddie
16 [banter3]
17 Licking the Palm for Guava
18 Mushroom Festival in Hell
19 I Can’t Put My Finger on It
20 [banter4]
21 Baby Bitch
22 Flutes of Chi
23 [banter5]
24 I Saw Gener Cryin’ in His Sleep
25 I’ll Be Your Jonny on the Spot
26 [banter6]
27 Learnin’ to Love
28 Deez Nutz
29 Polka Dot Tail
30 [tuning]
31 Drifter in the Dark
32 Powder Blue
33 Hey There Fancypants
34 [encore break]
35 Don’t Shit Where You Eat
36 What Deaner Was Talkin’ About

Support Ween: Website | Store

Lambchop: March 30, 2017 Bowery Ballroom

April 6, 2017
By


[photo by PSquared Photography]

In my not so humble opinion, Lambchop’s FLOTUS was the best album of 2016. In a similar regard, “In Care of 8675309” is the best song released this decade. What makes it more remarkable is that the album represents for Kurt Wagner a stylistic pivot from a twenty-five year career of eclectic americana. For FLOTUS, Wagner used modern technology juxtaposed with his intimate lyrics to create a masterpiece about the maintenance of an interpersonal connection in a world increasingly enslaved to machines.

We were fortunate to capture the live debut of the FLOTUS material at Hopscotch in September. Since that time Lambchop has toured the world and performed this material more than fifty times in a live setting, so that by the time they arrived at Bowery Ballroom last Friday, we were excited for the development of the songs. Our expectations were met early in the proceedings when Wagner sweetly crooned a subdued version of “NIV” that blended seamlessly into a guitar-driven truncated version of “The Hustle” that was transformed from the hypnotic electronic bifurcated melody on the album to a more unified alt-folk ballad live. “8675309” was placed in the middle of the set but Wagner’s intense vocal performance of the epic number was perhaps the highlight of the evening. The band’s setlist included a handful of older numbers and one cover, but this night was dedicated to FLOTUS and sans the title track, the album was nearly completely performed. The keyboardist Tony Crow provided several ace solos (and some hilarious banter) and the band also includes veteran bassist Matt Swanson and Wye Oak’s percussionist/electronic wiz Andy Stack, whose expert multitasking we’ve noted previously in this pages. But it was Wagner centerstage, and while his abundant use of vocals effects may have startled some of the old guard, the packed house was clearly on board for the FLOTUS sound and hovered on every note. Lambchop’s current tour comes to a close in the next few weeks, and they’re going back to Europe in the Summer festival season, but we expect that they will return to NYC in the Fall.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps mounted in our usual balcony spot and mixed with a flawless soundboard feed. The crowd’s great respect for this performer and this material permitted us to capture the often quiet moments of this set without distraction and as a result the sound quality of this recording is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show:

Lambchop
2017-03-30
Bowery Ballroom
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Edirol R-44 (Oade Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:39:16]
01 NIV
02 The Hustle
03 Directions to the Can
04 Poor Bastard
05 Old Masters
06 Writer
07 [banter – physical comedy]
08 In Care Of 8675309
09 [band introductions]
10 The New Cobweb Summer
11 [banter – build character]
12 Howe
13 JFK
14 Relatives #2
15 Harbor Country
16 [encore break]
17 My Blue Wave
18 When You Were Mine [Prince]

PLEASE SUPPORT Lambchop: Website | Buy FLOTUS at Merge Records

Sloppy Heads: January 25, 2017 Union Pool

February 28, 2017
By

It might seem to be a self-deprecating band name, but Sloppy Heads gets you pretty close to what this band is about, if you focus a bit more on the heads part of the equation. Theirs is a group of record geeks’ loose-limbed expression of their influences that will attract like-minded music lovers with its unpredictable shifts in style and ability to have fun. After a string of 7″ and CDR releases, the band came to Union Pool to celebrate the release of their first full-length, Useless Smile, an album that is the fullest expression yet of their engaging, unselfconscious sound that draws on strains of garage rock, lo-fi, new wave, noise, and psychedelia. The Heads are a band with a lot of friends (James McNew of Yo La Tengo/Dump both opened the show and played on the album), and the combination of this music and crowd gave this show the vibe of a gathering in a cool kid’s basement in high school, with a better band and a more mature crowd (and band). Sloppy Heads gave us an hour-plus mixed with engaging tunes, good humor, and some quality jamming, most evidently as “I’ll Take My Chances” flowed into the uptempo “Love Is A Disease.” The energy climaxed with the frenetic “Resistance, Baby,” but the more thoughtful “Always Running” (the first song released from Useless Smile) was also a highlight. The Heads join Lambchop at the Bowery Ballroom on March 30, so make a date to hang with them soon.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed from Union Pool engineer Robert, together with Schoeps MK5c microphones. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Stream and download this recording via our bandcamp page:

Sloppy Heads
2017-01-25
Union Pool
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Robert) + Schoeps MK5c (at SBD, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, image)>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mixdown)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Useless Smile
02 Plane To See
03 I’ll Take My Chances >
04 Love Is A Disease
05 [banter1]
06 Try Again
07 Langue & Parole
08 Resistance, Baby
09 Me Do Love
10 [banter2]
11 Always Running
12 Possession
13 Suddenly Spills

Support Sloppy Heads: Buy their new album on Shrimper Records.

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