Harlem: April 24, 2010 Maxwell’s – Flac and MP3 Downloads

[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].