[Photo by acidjack]
“It’s some heady shit.”
That was my introduction, via a fellow attendee, to what to expect from Herbcraft, and I’d say his summary was accurate. This set at Mercury Lounge found the band edging away from their more Eastern-tinged work toward a more straight-up psychedelic rock vibe. That said, these four songs, three of them played in a seamless sequence, were still far out. As with many emerging artists, Herbcraft began as a one-man band in a bedroom, with Matt Lajoie making compositions on his own, but in the intervening half-decade, it has become much more. The band’s organic style, evidenced on five previous releases including their most recent, The Astral Body Electric, translated easily in the live setting, where the band could expand its horizons even further. Herbcraft came straight at us, with screaming guitars and heavily distorted, almost ritualistic vocals, sometimes impossible to distinguish from the surges from the guitars. What struck me most, as this half hour of awesome ended, was the sense of momentum of the work; Lajoie and the band started somewhere, experimented wildly along the way, but got us to our destination. A place that, once we arrived, we didn’t even know we would end up.
I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 microphones and a Sound Devices USBPre2 preamp. What you’re hearing is house engineer David’s PA mix, and it’s a beauty, especially on headphones. Enjoy!
Stream the complete show
Download the complete show [MP3] | [FLAC]
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Herbcraft
2014-01-24
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA
Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack
Schoeps MK41 (PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, EQ)>Audacity 2.0.3 (fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )
Tracks [Total Time: 33:44]
01 Fleet Guru>
02 Fit Ur-Head >
03 Push Thru The Veil
04 Bread Don’t Rise
If you enjoyed this record, please support Herbcraft, like them on Facebook, and visit Woodsist or their bandcamp page, where all of their releases are for sale.
thanks for this, appreciatio !!
Thanks a million. I had never heard of this band and love the show.
Update. I can’t quit listening to this and have also bought all of their releases. Fingers crossed that at some point NYCT captures them again.
Heady shit indeed! Another good discovery thanks to NYCTaper (not to mention great recording too).