294 search results for "Hum"

Tredici Bacci: January 25, 2017 Sunnyvale

February 15, 2017
By


[still from this video]

I walked into the main building of The New England Conservatory of Music as a youngster in the Fall of 1975 when my older sister enrolled at the school. My childhood recollection is of a large staircase in a classic large atrium like something out of a 19th Century mansion. I left with the feeling that this was an important and serious place in the world. All these years later, I find that NEC is the oldest music school in the country — dating back to 1867. But the more impressive aspect of NEC is that its still a vibrant institution producing some of the best new musicians in a vast array of fields. Last year we welcomed to these pages the amazing Guerilla Toss, a band consisting primarily of graduates of NEC. This year its Simon Hanes, a former sometime member of GT whose band Tredici Bacci reflects his own eclectic and unique approach to composition undoubtedly honed inside of the classic halls of the New England Conservatory.

The music of Tredici Bacci is in some ways nothing like we’ve ever featured here before. Hanes’ fixation on Italian movie soundtracks from the 1970s is surely odd, but when the music is so meticulously constructed and utterly true to the form it has the effect of affording the listener the opportunity to conjure a movie plot in their imagination while Hanes soundtracks the image. At Sunnyvale in January, Tredici Bacci was a ten-piece band of prime musicians who projected Hanes’ compositions onto our imagined technicolor movie screen. The set was a relatively short thirty minutes, but accomplished what it set out to do — with precision, style and some humor. Tredici Bacci released their new album Amore Per Tutti (NNA Tapes) in November and this set featured two tracks from that album, a couple of older cuts and what appears to be some newbies. What is obvious from seeing Tredici Bacci live is that Simon Hanes has a fertile musical mind and we can expect to see more of Hanes and his many musical projects on these pages moving forward.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards mounted at the front and center of the stage and mixed with a nice board feed. We were initially skeptical that the recording could balance the full band, but after a fairly standard mixdown of the sources, this recording really does a superb job of capturing the band in all its glory. Enjoy!

Download this Recording in FLAC or MP3 from our Bandcamp page [HERE].

Stream the Complete Show:

Tredici Bacci
2017-01-25
Sunnyvale
Brooklyn NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + On-Stage Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Schoeps CCM4u’s > 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 28:40]
01 Introduction – Winter Fireworks
02 Columbo
03 Swedish Tease
04 Motto
05 Sesso In Futuro
06 Hey, Come On Motherfucker

The band on this night:
Sami Stevens: voice
Abby Swidler and Siv Brun Lie: violins
Joanna Mattrey: viola
Dan Pencer and Will Greene: saxophones
Ezra Weller: trumpet
Jesse Heasly: bass
Peter Moffett: drums
Simon Hanes: guitar

Please SUPPORT Tredici Bacci: Facebook | Bandcamp | Purchase Amore Per Tutti via NNA Tapes [HERE]

Suuns: February 11, 2017 Saint Vitus (Early Show)

February 14, 2017
By


It’s not easy to be a live band like Suuns. When you make spare, often trancelike music that relies on repetition, fueled by loops and electronics as well as live players, you need to be more than competent on your instruments; you need to be technically almost flawless. Their music can indeed put you in a trance, but the communion is broken if anything — almost anything — is out of time or introduced at the wrong moment. The amazing thing about Suuns is that nothing ever is — if “precision” was their band name instead, it wouldn’t be wrong. Their latest album Hold/Still continues their streak of infallible, tight production, made all the more impressive this time by the fact that they reputedly recorded most of it live. Hearing the songs live, it’s somewhat easier to believe. Suuns songs often tend toward modern paranoia and anxiety, but in execution of them, the band members’ melding of the human and technological is at ease.

On this winter night, the band played two full sold-out sets at Saint Vitus, an intimate, appropriate clime for the band’s dark, almost claustrophobic sound. Drawing on elements of krautrock and electronic music, Suuns’ sound is as distinct as it is penetrating. If escapist fare like “La La Land” and whatever pabulum won most Grammys last night is hailed as the right cultural output for our times precisely due to its unreality, Suuns owes equal claim to the title precisely because it sounds like just this moment. When vocalist Ben Shemie intones the single lyric from “Resistance,” over a fractured guitar line and its vaguely militaristic backbeat, you almost forget that this song was actually written in 2015. It meant something different to me when I first saw it, nearly two years ago to the date.

To that end, another exciting song to see come to fruition was “Infinity,” a number the band has worked on in various forms for several years, but finally laid down for Hold/Still. After a solid dose of newer material for the bulk of the set, Suuns took us back to their first record, Zeroes QC, for a bit, with “Arena” making an appearance, and the set closing with one of their best early songs, “Pie IX.” If Hold/Still is any guide, this band’s next few years are going to be equally fertile ones.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones and a soundboard feed. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC/Apple Lossless]

Stream the complete show:

Suuns
2017-02-11
Saint Vitus
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard + Schoeps MK4V (at SBD, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CC>Izotope Ozone 5>Audacity 2.0.5>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:01:12]
01 Images du Futur
02 Music Won’t Save You
03 Powers of Ten
04 Instrument
05 Translate
06 2020
07 Resistance
08 Infinity
09 Paralyzer
10 Arena
11 Edie’s Dream
12 Pie IX

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Suuns, visit their Facebook page, and buy their albums on their bandcamp site or from Secretly Canadian.

Earthless: December 13, 2016 Bowery Ballroom

January 5, 2017
By


[photo by BevRock]

The music of Earthless is as if the climax instrumental portion of the best of early 70s head-rock became a single fifteen-minute song. In other words, there’s no filler in their music, just improvisational highlights. While Earthless has existed for fifteen years, the band’s recorded output consists of just four full-lengths. This is a band clearly comfortable as a live unit, despite that all three members of the trio play with significant other bands, including drummer Mario Rubalcaba in Rocket from the Crypt and Off!. The band doesn’t tour often, but in 2016 we got to see them twice, including our recording of their Mercury Lounge set in March.

At the Bowery Ballroom last month, the band played an hour-long set of three songs that was capped off by a relatively quick encore of the FM staple track from Led Zeppelin’s first album. Interestingly, the set did not include the band’s 2016 release “Acid Crusher”, half of a split release with their Tee Pee Records mates Harsh Toke. But the set was exactly what the crowd came to see — plenty of riffs, thumping bass and monster percussion. This was the art of stoner rock taken to its logical conclusion and Earthless nailed the set from start to finish.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards in our usual location in the balcony. The house mix was used to fortify the drums which did not carry up to the balcony as well as the stacks of guitar amps. The result is an excellent recording. Enjoy!

Download and Stream the Complete Show from our Bandcamp Page [HERE]

Earthless
2016-12-13
Bowery Ballroom
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer: Kenny Lienhardt] + 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 1:07:14]
01 Uluru Rock
02 Violence of the Red Sea
03 Sonic Prayer
04 [encore break]
05 Communication Breakdown [Zep]

Support Earthless: Facebook | Bandcamp | Buy their records from Tee Pee Records

Lambchop: September 8, 2016 Hopscotch Music Festival (Raleigh, NC)

November 14, 2016
By

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By now, Lambchop fans have had a chance to hear the band’s daring new record, FLOTUS, a critically-acclaimed shot across the bow to anyone who would dare claim a classic artist can’t reinvent themselves. But back in September, at the Hopscotch Music Festival, fans were probably more ready for a show like the one we witnessed there in 2012, or any number of the band’s lauded full-band shows whose cast can stretch to over a dozen people.  So when Kurt Wagner sang the first Vocoder-enhanced lines of “NIV” — a song nobody there had heard before — a fan might have been forgiven for being freaked out. When the entire show, including pre-FLOTUS material, continued in that vein, you have to imagine more than a few WTFs were exchanged. But that would have been a serious mistake, as not only are these new songs compelling in their own right, but the very fact of their existence says something special, too. Artists in the third decade of their career don’t often make these kinds of stylistic moves, and when they do, they often ring hollow. Wagner had already experimented with an electronic sound with his side project HeCTA in 2015, but for that to migrate to his main act represents an additional leap.

Wagner, on the other hand, has made a stripped-down, gorgeous album whose songwriting, pacing and structure (bookended by two epic-length tracks) are as equally of note as the dedication to the vocoder. The new sound echoes something essential about our era, taking a style once so resolutely organic and making it largely electronic. You feel both excited by the new possibility, yet threatened by the loss of something more natural, more human.

Here, in Raleigh’s comfortable Fletcher Opera Theater, those electronic tones were warmed up by not only the band’s physical presence, but Wagner and his bandmates’ banter, which alone was worth the price of admission. If he gets tired of music, pianist Tony Crow might well have a career in front of him as a comic sideman, as he traded jokes with Wagner throughout the night. Though this was the first time that many of these songs saw the light of day, it turns out that these versions are faithful to the album versions. Equally interesting were the FLOTUS-fied versions of earlier material like the standout Mr. M track “If Not I’ll Just Die” and several of its fellow Mr. M tracks. Stripped of that album’s lush arrangements, we’re left with arctic tone of Wagner’s altered words. The effect was unsettling but lovely, adding focus to Wagner’s words.

If you haven’t heard FLOTUS yet, I’d encourage you to give it a shot. Whether you knew Lambchop before or not, the album, and the quality of its songs, stands on its own as an of-the-moment document by an artist who has followed his own muse for decades. Also, I’d like to thank our friends at Merge Records for letting us post this recording. As eager as we were to share it with the world, both Merge and we thought the best thing was to hold back this live show of a large chunk of the new album until fans have gotten to hear it for themselves. Now, you can compare the two side by side.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed and Schoeps MK4V microphones. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC/Apple Lossless]

Stream the complete show:

Lambchop
2016-09-08
Hopscotch Music Festival
Fletcher Opera Theater
Raleigh, NC USA

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

Soundboard + Schoeps MK4V (ROC, at SBD)>KC5>CMC6>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (compression, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 NIV
02 The Hustle
03 [banter]
04 Poor Bastard
05 Old Masters
06 If Not I’ll Just Die
07 [banter2]
08 Gone Tomorrow
09 In Care of 8675309
10 [banter3]
11 Nice Without Mercy
12 [banter4]
13 Directions To the Can
14 [encore break]
15 When You Were Mine

PLEASE SUPPORT Lambchop: Website | Merge Records

AJJ: November 6, 2016 Warsaw BK

November 13, 2016
By

ajj_byericalauren02
[photos by Erica Lauren]

“You’re an irreplaceable human soul with your own understanding of what it means to suffer” sings Sean Bonnette in AJJ’s “People II 2: Still Peoplin'”. The band formerly known as Andrew Jackson Jihad has spent its decade-long career writing songs about the myriad of issues involving depression, anxiety and bi-polar disorders. This year AJJ released its sixth full-length album The Bible 2 and the record offers a breakthrough of sorts — not in a traditional music industry sense — but rather a true explication of a path beyond a life dictated by the limitations of mental illness. The linked tracks “No More Shame, No More Fear, No More Dread” and “Small Red Boy” plot a path to wellness through self-determination. While the message may not work for everyone, the concept that we are in control of our own destinies — even if only a little bit — is inspiring and hopeful. AJJ has often used dark humor to offset the troubles of the characters in their songs, but the protagonist in songs like “People II: The Reckoning” lives in a spiral of “manic depression” that “comes and goes”. The Bible 2 offers a character who swears off doubt, resentment, fear, and fixations, and ultimately controls the inner devil “Red Boy” through power, truth and nurture.

AJJ are currently on tour in support of the new album and arrived in Brooklyn last Sunday for a show at Warsaw. This is the band’s third performance at this venue, after the date last year that we recorded at Knitting Factory. From the outset, the energy was palpable — this is a band with a tremendous relationship with its fans. There was two times during the night when AJJ had to ask the crowd to move back to prevent crushing the people up front. The set was culled from a strong representation of the band’s best material and included most of The Bible 2. In the end, it was clear that this is a band at the top if its game and offering a message that is both welcome and necessary for all of its fans.

I recorded this set by using the hypercardioid Neumanns from the front of the soundboard in this large venue. The excellent board feed was provided by the band’s superb touring FOH Stripes and the mix resulted in a recording of which we are extremely pleased. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show:

AJJ
2016-11-06
Warsaw
Brooklyn NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [engineer Stripes] + Neumann KM-150s > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wavs > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3/tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:32:27]
01 [introduction]
02 The Michael Jordan of Drunk Driving
03 Gift of the Magi Two
04 Distance
05 Cody’s Theme
06 [banter – false start]
07 Fucc The Devil
08 Love in the Time of Human Papillomavirus
09 A Song Dedicated to the Memory of Stormy the Rabbit
10 Bad Bad Things
11 Coffin Dance
12 Do Re And Me
13 American Garbage
14 [banter – Erica]
15 Little Prince
16 People II – Still Peoplin
17 Rejoice
18 El Paso Border Patrol
19 My Brain Is A Human Body
20 No More Shame, No More Fear, No More Dread
21 Personal Space Invader
22 Love Will Fuck Us Apart
23 Back Pack
24 Terrifyer
25 [banter – Samsung]
26 Heartilation
27 Kokopelli Face Tattoo
28 Black Dog
29 Goodbye, Oh Goodbye
30 Small Red Boy
31 When I’m A Dead Boy
32 Big Bird
33 [encore break]
34 Brave as a Noun

SUPPORT AJJ: Website | Facebook | Purchase The Bible 2 from SideOneDummy Records [HERE].

ajj_byericalauren01

PUP: October 22, 2016 Bowery Ballroom

October 24, 2016
By

poooop-1
[photos by Amanda Fotes – follow her on Instagram]

PUP‘s latest album The Dream is Over (SideOneDummy) is on my short list of best albums of the year. The record captures the manic energy of this Toronto quartet with a collection of songs that exhibit the band’s ability to craft punk rock anthems of angst with a bit of excess and plenty of humor. Dream also brings out the deeper side of PUP with tracks such as “The Coast” and “Pine Point” that delve into that special brand of Canadian loneliness. The album has earned PUP a nomination for a Polaris prize, and universal praise worldwide.

The concept of the album’s production was to bottle up the energy of a live PUP show and put that on a record. This is a band that is in the midst of playing 100 total shows in 2016 where the PUP magic takes place virtually on a nightly basis. But since the last time I saw PUP live was almost three years ago at a modestly attended show at Cameo Gallery before either of their records were released, I wasn’t quite keyed into the true contemporary live PUP experience. That is, until this past Saturday night at Bowery Ballroom.

From the very outset of the show’s opening number “If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will”, this very sold-out crowd at Bowery was one massive syncopated group of heads and arms and legs. From our usual vantage point at the front of the balcony, we get a clear bird’s eye view of the floor, and this PUP crowd never stopped dancing, surfing and singing along to every song. We haven’t seen a crowd this animated in a long time or a band as motivated to drive that energy. PUP’s set drew upon both of their albums pretty equally, with nine of the sixteen songs performed coming from Dream and the other seven songs from their self-titled debut album. The crazy energy culminated in lead singer Stefan Babcock literally crowd-surfing the entire floor to the back bar where, while elevated, he downed a shot of whiskey and returned surfing the entire crowd back onto the stage. It was an accomplishment only made possible by the sheer will of the fans and their utter faith in this band.

PUP’s current US and Canadian tour dates continue into mid-December, before the band goes to England in early 2017, all dates [here].

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards in our usual location and mixed with Kenny’s excellent feed. There are some drum level adjustments in the first two tracks, but afterwards the sound is completely dialed-in and is quite an excellent capture of the amazing energy at this show. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show:

PUP
2016-10-15
Bowery Ballroom
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer: Kenny] + 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 59:53]
01 If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You I Will
02 DVP
03 Dark Days
04 Lionheart
05 My Life Is Over and I Couldn’t Be Happier
06 Doubts
07 Back Against the Wall
08 Guilt Trip
09 Can’t Win
10 Familiar Patterns
11 [banter – ex-punks]
12 Mabu
13 Sleep in the Heat
14 The Coast
15 [banter – tour]
16 Reservoir
17 [banter – Stefan stage dive]
18 Old Wounds
19 [encore break]
20 Factories

SUPPORT PUP: Website | Bandcamp | Buy The Dream is Over from SideOneDummy Records

nestor-1

MAKE: September 9, 2016 Hopscotch Music Festival, Pour House (Raleigh, NC)

September 29, 2016
By

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MAKE represent another of my favorite recent finds from the Triangle in North Carolina. The three-piece, consisting of Scott Endres, Luke Herbst and Spencer Lee, make the kind of intense, loud-as-hell, but thoughtful metal that, with doom, black, and stoner elements, and a decent dose of flat-out classic rock, puts them in a category beyond a single niche scene. Like more than a few bands in the area, MAKE has been fighting hard against North Carolina’s bigoted HB2 law, including with their most on-the-nose contribution, the song “Human Garbage,” featuring Governor Pat McCrory’s face on the cover. That song made the rotation during this Hopscotch Music Festival show at the Pour House in Raleigh, which remains one of the best places in the area to see heavy music.

The band’s performance, kicking off the night in the venue, shook the rafters with Endres and Lee’s deep riffage, bringing the heaviest elements of the band’s sound to the fore. That’s in keeping with their latest album, Pilgrimage of Loathing, which (perhaps reflecting their view of the political situation) is a harder-edged and more rage-fueled affair than 2015’s The Golden Veil, which keeps company at many points with an entirely different group of bands (Sleep, Om, Arbouretum) than the references you might hear on Pilgrimage. The juxtaposition was thrilling live — experience the whip-turn from “The Somnabulist” and “Human Garbage” to “The Absurdist” and “The Architect” from The Golden Veil. It showed, in a relatively short set, how versatile, and how enjoyable, this band can be, and one would hope to see them around this part of the world (paging Saint Vitus) sooner rather than later.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V at the soundboard booth. The vocals are a bit quieter than I would like in the recording, but otherwise this is an excellent representation of this band. Check out Pilgrimage of Loathing on bandcamp, which is also streaming below, and the band’s other records. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Check out Pilgrimage of Loathing:

MAKE
2016-09-09
Hopscotch Music Festival
Pour House
Raleigh, NC USA

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

Schoeps MK4V (LOC, at SBD)>KC5>CMC6>Zoom F8>24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (hard limiter)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 The Somnambulist
02 Human Garbage
03 The Absurdist
04 [banter]
05 Birthed Into A Grave They Made For You>
06 The Architect

PLEASE SUPPORT MAKE: Facebook | Bandcamp

mccrory

Big Ups: July 16, 2016 Out In the Streets Festival

July 21, 2016
By

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Big Ups is one of the very best live bands in New York right now. At the core of that has to be the kinetic-but-controlled performance of vocalist Joe Galarraga, who reminds at times of a skinny Henry Rollins with a sense of humor. Mugging for the crowd, twisting his body into unusual positions, he never loses sight of the music or the message being delivered, which he propels at you in spoken word that rises at the right moments to scream. Brendan Finn (drums), Amar Lal (guitar) and Carlos Salguero (bass) make that performance possible, with controlled dynamics that pay as much attention to the softer interludes as to their songs’ frequent climaxes. Having seen these guys twice in 2014, promoting their first album Eighteen Hours of Static, and been blown away each time, we were eager to see where they’d gone from there.

The band’s 2016 record, Before A Million Universes, advances the conversation both lyrically and musically. At this performance at the Out In the Streets Festival, the band’s growth was evident in the current-album numbers “Contain Myself,” “Hope for Someone,” and “National Parks,” as well as a new piece that explores the soft/loud dynamic even further. On this sweltering, thunderstorm-pocked afternoon, the band commanded a friendly crowd who clearly knew them well, and made the most of the thirty minutes’ time allotted. The band’s music may be darker in tone, but Galarraga doesn’t let that get in the way of having a laugh with the crowd, or pulling faces that fall on the lighter side of serious. Even with the sun shining, by the time the set reached the band’s most straightforward hardcore number, “Goes Black,” we were all living in his world, and there was nothing else around.

In a crowded festival season, Out In the Streets is a perfect, smaller-scale local standout, with a tent to shield the bands and the music part of the crowd in the middle of Ridgewood’s historic Onderdonk House’s ample backyard, ringed with vendors, lounge chairs and picnic tables, and (not to be underestimated) plenty of bathrooms. The lineup, of course, reflected that ethos, with many of the best local acts (including Big Ups and, coming soon, Guerilla Toss) that Brooklyn fans see year-round at clubs like Shea Stadium and Baby’s All Right. It was one of those days that brought together like-minded people in a comfortable, manageable way — and gave us yet another serious jones for more Big Ups.

nyctaper and I recorded this set with his Neumann TLM-102 large-diaphragm microphones and an excellent house mix by Cliff Ribeiro. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Stream the full set:

Big Ups
2016-07-16
Out In the Streets Festival
Onderdonk House
Queens, NY

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

Neumann TLM-102 (FOB, DFC, PAS) + Soundboard (engineer: Cliff Ribeiro)>Sound Devices 744T>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix
down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (light EQ, exciter, image)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Contain Myself
02 Hope for Someone
03 Not Today
04 Wool
05 [new song]
06 T.M.I.
07 Goes Black
08 National Parks

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Big Ups, visit their website, like them on Facebook and buy Before A Million Universes from Exploding In Sound.

Downtown Boys: June 24, 2016 Market Hotel

July 18, 2016
By

downtown-boys20
[photo by Chona Kasinger – originally posted at Bandcamp Daily]

Its been a very discouraging year for forward-looking people. Tonight begins the tacky celebration of the nomination of a vulgar racist xenophobe of a major political party for President of the United States. Its as if for the next three days, forty percent of the country will be giving a massive middle finger to people of color, and anyone with a conscience and a sense of justice feels helpless.

The question then becomes what can we do. If you’re a group of young multicultural people from Providence Rhode Island, you form a punk band with a message — that hatred and xenophobia are things of the past and we, a “bi bilingual political dance sax punk party” are here, and we are the future. Downtown Boys are certainly a breath of fresh air in this toxic world. The band’s themes of inclusion and acceptance within the realm of punk (with a sax!) isn’t particularly a new idea, but add in bi-lingual lyrics and LGBT elements, and the idea of the perfectly integrated musical act becomes closer to realization. That the band executes their message with energy and commitment makes their music all the more compelling.

The Downtown Boys show at Market Hotel was one of those nights that won’t soon be forgotten. The band’s increased popularity brought out a truly diverse crowd, and given the Market’s goal of providing a community of musical performances of diverse styles and backgrounds, the band represented an inspiring coupling of ideals. In 2015 Downtown Boys signed with the most excellent Don Giovanni Records and released Full Communism to universally positive reviews. Its an encouraging development for the band that their call for human rights is reaching a larger and more accepting audience. At the Market, the set saw the performance of most of Full Communism, a few older tracks, and what I believe are six new songs that hopefully portends a 2016/2017 new album from Downtown Boys.

Downtown Boys return to NYC for a show at Studio at Webster Hall on September 16.

I recorded this set with the installed AT mics mixed with an excellent board feed. The sound is live and raucous and in the moment and totally excellent. Enjoy!

Download Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show:

Downtown Boys
2016-06-24
Market Hotel
Brooklyn NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Upfront Audience

Soundboard [Engineer: Jason Kelly] + Audio Technica 4051 > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 52:08]
01 Future Police
02 Haz Algo
03 Wave of History
04 Tonta
05 One Hundred Percent Inheritance Tax
06 Santa
07 Maldito
08 [Poder intro]
09 Poder Elegir [Los Prisioneros]
10 Callate
11 It Can’t Wait
12 Slumlord Sal
13 [banter – power]
14 Clara
15 Lola
16 Dancing In The Dark [Springsteen]
17 Cost of Living
18 [banter – thanks]
19 Break A Few Eggs
20 Monstro

Support Downtown Boys: Bandcamp | Facebook | Don Giovanni Records Page

Wilco: June 3, 2016 Mountain Jam – Hunter NY

June 5, 2016
By

Wilco Mt Jam Jill 1
[photos by Jill from For The Love of Brooklyn]

This weekend I came across a photo of Jeff Tweedy with Bob Dylan at Bonnaroo in 2004. In the photo, Dylan is wearing a cowboy hat and looking very much like the bemused elder statesman and Tweedy is wearing a baseball cap, an exposed laminate pass and a look of a satisfied fan. To be fair, at that point in his career Jeff Tweedy had already founded one of the most influential alt-country bands (Uncle Tupelo) and carried Wilco through a series of superbly received albums and tours for nearly ten years.

Fast forward to this weekend at Mountain Jam and twelve years later its now Tweedy wearing the cowboy hat and taking the role of elder statesman. The large video screens give the crowd an ability to see closeups even if we’re fifty feet from the stage, and throughout the set it was a hoot to see the bemused look on Tweedy’s face as the Jam crowd roared for every familiar song. But like Dylan before them, Wilco’s set wasn’t just a band churning out the hits — this is an active group with new material and although Star Wars wasn’t played straight through as with the Portchester shows a few months back, the newer songs were well represented in the show, and fit well sprinkled among the familiar songs. The highlight of the set was another veteran/protege appearance, as current alt-country star Jason Isbell joined Wilco for a tremendously well played “California Stars” with dueling guitar solos between Nels Cline and Isbell. And at that high point of the set, Tweedy didn’t look bemused but truly pleased with the superb collaboration.

I recorded this set with the large diaphragm Neumann cards set up in the taper’s “section” on the hill. The sound quality absords some of the crowd chatter and some of the outdoor elements, but overall its an excellent capture. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show:

Wilco
2016-06-03
Mountain Jam
Hunter NY

Digital Master Recording
FOB Audience

Neumann TLM 102s > Sound Devices 744t > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:37:13]
01 [EKG intro]
02 More
03 Random Name Generator
04 The Joke Explained
05 I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
06 Art of Almost
07 Pickled Ginger
08 Hummingbird
09 Handshake Drugs
10 Where Do I Begin
11 Cold Slope
12 King of You
13 Via Chicago
14 Spiders
15 Jesus Etc
16 Box Full of Letters
17 Heavy Metal Drummer
18 I’m the Man Who Loves You
19 Dawned on Me
20 Impossible Germany
21 The Late Greats
22 California Stars
23 Red Eyed and Blue
24 I Got You
25 Outta Site Outta Mind

If you download this recording from NYCTaper we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Wilco, visit their website, and purchase their Star Wars and their other releases from their website [HERE].

2016-MountainJam-Wilco-5

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