As if further proof were needed, this first-time collaboration between Mary Lattimore and Bill Nace proves that she is easily the most versatile and dynamic harpist on the planet. As for Nace — perhaps best-known of late for his work in Body/Head but with a decades-long list of experimental guitar solo projects and collaborations under his belt — anyone who has seen him perform knows that you can never be sure what you’ll hear, but you can be assured it will be done with intention and skill.
This set, during the outdoor portion of the final day of the Three Lobed Recordings 21st anniversary festival, might have been the most special I’ve seen from either artist. Nace brought a rare (in the west) instrument, the taishogoto, to the table for the collaboration, and the combination with Lattimore’s harp proved extraordinary — something so delicate, rare and beautiful that the pairing of the two musicians almost felt obvious instead of new. Early word on the street is that the musicians agree: we may well see something committed to release at some point in the future.
Don’t take my word for it. Press play on the stream below, make sure your set and setting are smooth, and drift in.
I recorded this set with Wayne’s excellent house mix and Schoeps mics in the audience. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!
Steve Gunn has been a key presence in the Three Lobed universe since the 2006 release of the Heavy Elements CD. His dynamic growth as an artist in the years since — including his current Matador-backed full band work — has been a thrill to watch, to the point that it’s hard to pick favorites among his work. That said, it’s hard not to consider his duo work with John Truscinski among the very best. As this set demonstrates, improvisation between these two is almost an unspoken language at this point. Fans of the band’s most recent LP, Soundkeeper, which includes one of my Union Pool recordings, can attest that the band’s live improvisations can be some of their best work. Tonight’s first song was one such moment — an untitled new number that already feels like a forthcoming GTD classic. As to the rest of the set, it consisted of exactly those — “Banh Mi Ringtones” and “Ocean Parkway,” both from Three Lobed’s second GTD LP, Ocean Parkway. These renditions were as inspired and electric as the entire evening, perhaps never more so that the climactic interplay around the eight-minute mark of “Banh Mi.” This whole night — the whole festival — celebrated all that’s right with independent music. John and Steve are certainly a big part of that.
I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V mics mounted on the center of the balcony, with a soundboard feed from Christopher Scully-Thurston’s mix. It sounds like it.
A sunny spring afternoon in North Carolina, with a light breeze in the air, audience members in uncramped splay on the ground, Wet Tuna onstage as a new lineup, here to celebrate the 21st anniversary of a label whose longevity and success both might once have felt improbable, but now seem inevitable. All of this smack in the middle of the lush arboreal campus of an elite American university, one equally improbable as the location of a weird daytime concert and birthplace of said label. Like the first song says, so much vibe in the world. So much right here.
Held on the outdoor grounds of the Karsh Alumni Center at Duke University, Wet Tuna’s set kicked off the third and final day of Three Lobed Recordings‘ 21st anniversary celebration, one of many things postponed by the pandemic. Tuna’s third full-length, Warping All By Yourself, was released recently by Three Lobed, and is the band’s first that isn’t a collab between Matt “MV” Valentine and Pat “PG Six” Gubler. So, for its expanded embrace of funk, we have only Valentine himself to thank — and today’s live lineup including MV&EE collaborator and partner Erika “EE” Elder and Jim Bliss for bringing that vibe to the live audience this afternoon.
This set began in the mellow embrace of “So Much Vibe In the World” and ended with the straight up boogie of “Sweet Chump Change,” which might be the most “approachable” Tuna jam yet. In between, don’t sleep on the band’s take on Peter Laughner’s “Baudelaire,” the new album’s centerpiece, “Raw Food” (this being closer to version 1 of the 2 versions offered) and “Cowpath 40” which sets the stage for the segue into “Sweet Chump Change.” This day couldn’t have opened more smoothly or in any way that felt more right. It was good to be here, in this welcoming space, back in the zone.
I recorded this set with a soundboard feed from longtime area sound engineer Wayne, together with Schoeps MK4V mics. MV’s outbound mix to the board did most of the work here; like the day itself, it’s right on.
Download the complete show in FLAC, Apple Lossless and MP3 [HERE]
Tracks [Total Time 56:00] 01 [Rayborn intro] 02 So Much Vibe in the World 03 Baudelaire [Peter Laughner] 04 Raw Food (version 1) 05 Cowpath 40> 06 Sweet Chump Change
Personnel: Matt Valentine – guitar/vox Erika Elder – keys, vox Jim Bliss – bass/synth
Since my last post here (on March 9, 2020) New Yorkers have sought refuge in all kinds of places and a bewildering number of distractions. Vinyl record sales surged even more, Instagram overflowed with DIY baking, sedentary people discovered hiking, gym rats discovered the joys of being sedentary. New Yorkers moved to the Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Florida or farther-flung destinations.
Ryley Walker ended up in Vermont, running his nascent but growing label, Husky Pants and, as is his norm, recording and releasing a slew of new music. Course In Fable, the follow-up to 2018’s Deafman Glance, represents another stunning evolution in his sound. Prog-rock courses through its compositions, recorded with pristine sonics by Tortoise vet John McEntire. If anyone worried whether Ryley’s first post-sobriety album would lose the magic of his blurrier past, the answer is not only no, but the exact opposite. This is Walker’s most self-possessed work to date, bringing all of collaborators Ryan Jewell, Andrew Scott Young, and Bill McKay’s musical strengths firmly under one voice, with lyrics that can be evocative but obtuse as well as devastatingly direct. If Course In Fable is remembered as the finest album of Walker’s career, it will be worthy of the title.
It made sense to see these songs in the tiny but welcoming back room of Tubby’s, a venerable Kingston bar reinvented as a serious live music venue. The space itself feels like a refuge; its size compels an intimacy and familiarity that have been hard to come by for most of us in this part of the world recently. I’m not sure I’ve been to another venue of its size that has bookings at the level they do, and I hope Tubby’s keeps it up.
This show featured most of the Course In Fable lineup, with Walker joined by Jewell and Young, and the trio moved through this set of later-period (Course and Deafman Glance) tunes with aplomb. The Course tunes stayed fairly true to their original arrangements, with “The Halfwit In Me” serving as the 18-minute improvisational centerpiece of the set. While I’d love to hear some of those talents applied to the live new songs eventually, for this go, the thrill came in hearing the original arrangements live in a room, that special kind they were written for.
Ryley is on a west coast swing right now, and will be back east supporting Dinosaur Jr. to close out the year, followed by… well, his usual slew of tour dates in 2022. Just how it should be. See his tour dates here.
This recording was an extra-special collaboration between Kliked and I, using a combination of my Schoeps omnidirectional mics up front, his MBHO’s at the soundboard, and Zoots’ feed of the (mostly) vocals. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!
Personnel:
Ryley Walker
Ryan Jewell – Percussion
Andrew Scott Young – Bass
Tracks [Total Time:59:28]
01 Striking Down Your Big Premiere
02 Rang Dizzy
03 [banter1]
04 Opposite Middle
05 [banter2]
06 Telluride Speed
07 [banter3]
08 The Halfwit In Me
09 [banter4]
10 Shiva With Dustpan
11 [banter5]
12 22 Days
Howlin’ Rain rolled in from the West Coast into Union Pool a few Friday nights ago and proceeded to deliver a lick-filled, thoroughly jam-forward set that gave us all a quick reminder of why the band’s latest record is Under the Wheels: Live From the Coasts Vol 1. Many fewer bands cry out for the live album treatment as compared to those pushing bad-sounding, paint-by-numbers dreck. Rest assured that Howlin’ Rain are solidly among the good guys; not only does the new record boast an almost completely different setlist than this show, it’s also an outstanding recording that foregrounds Ethan Miller’s guitar pyrotechnics. If you attended this show and didn’t grip a copy of Under the Wheels afterward, I hope it’s because you already bought one.
As to this set, the band kept things loose, giving us seventy minutes’ worth of music in the form of seven songs, including a typically extended Calling Lightning Pt. 2″ and “Under the Wheels” — both of which feel like strong candidates for what I have to assume will be an Under the Wheels: Vol 2 at some point in the future.
We’re also offering a bonus recording here, with Eric PH’s capture of a Brooklyn Bowl barnburner from the band’s extended NYC run last year. It take the place of being there, but making a quick date with these recordings and the new LP ought to perk your ears for the band’s next trip through.
I recorded the Union Pool set with Doug Graham’s soundboard feed and Schoeps MK5 microphones; Eric recorded the Brooklyn Bowl show with his MBHO hypercardiods. Both recordings sound great. Enjoy!
Tracks [Total Time 1:11:25]
01 Burn Down
02 Under the Wheels
03 Don’t Let the Tears
04 Missouri
05 Calling Lightning pt 2
06 Rotoscope
07 Alligator Bride
Band: Dan Cervantes: guitar, b. vocs Jeff McElroy: Bass, b. vocs Ethan Miller: vocals, guitar Justin Smith: Drums, B. vocs.
Howlin’ Rain 2019-08-07 Brooklyn Bowl Brooklyn, NY
Recorded and produced by Eric PH for nyctaper.com Photos by Christopher Bruno
Tracks [1:05:07] 01. Burn Down 02. Under the Wheels 03. Don’t Let the Tears 04. The Wild Boys 05. Rotoscope 06. Calling Lightning, Part 2 07. Alligator Bride
If you’re like me, it was our friends at Beyond Beyond Is Beyond who first turned you onto Tokyo’s Kikagaku Moyo with their stateside release of the band’s second album, Forest of Lost Children. Judging by the sold-out crowd at venerable Greenpoint venue Warsaw this past Friday, quite a lot of people have now gotten the message. Besides the obvious (musicianship, attention to melody), one of the things that makes this band so special is their comfort with different styles, from instrumental jammers like “Dripping Sun” from their current LP Masana Temples, to delicate folk numbers like “Cardigan Song,” which they played acoustically along with an unreleased new song they’ve been working on during this tour. Those barely scratch the surface of all there is to love in this 80-minute set as this band’s virtuosity hits its peak, as they draw from both their compatriot forebears like Ghost to the wide world of American classic rock. This night felt like another step in these guys’ slow-built success (we saw them at Sunnyvale not that long ago), and we can’t wait to hear some of these new tunes laid down on record.
I recorded this set with touring FOH Eric Lemke’s feed, plus Schoeps MK41V hypercardiod mics. All credit here goes to Eric, as this room may never have sounded as good as it did for this set. Enjoy!
Sunburned Hand of the Man are the type of act that people might call “hard to pin down.” Over their sprawling catalog (their sprawling bandcamp page has only a fraction of their 100+ titles) these guys’ music runs the gamut from the bizarre (“Clowns In Jail”) to the improvisationally psychedelic (the “Blizzard of Zozz” show we recorded in 2017) to bordering-on-conventional songs (recently-released “microdose” Intentions).
This night at Nublu fell somewhat in between the two, as a relatively stripped-down version of the band performed this long-form improv with a running spoken word narrative, with a current of the occult running throughout. It felt appropriate to the season, and was a hell of a lot of fun to listen to. Dig in.
I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones up front in the venue on the right side. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!
Did you make a mistake and miss Philly’s Long Hots at their two prior Three Lobed / WXDU day show appearances during Hopscotch? Might’ve been an easier ticket than getting into the door at the packed Slim’s this year, where the Hots brought the fire in this seven song set. This show was so slammed I couldn’t even get in the door, but our man Dave Schwentker had it covered with a fine setup. Don’t let that bookstore ad fool you into thinking that this was anything less than what it was: a no-BS guitar slammer that, for those who actually got in the door, was one of the highlights of the entire festival.
Dave recorded this set with Church Audio CA-1 mics mounted on the ceiling, into an Olympus LS-10. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!
What else to say about Ryley Walker? We first saw the champ at this festival, Hopscotch, way back in 2014. In that span of 5 years, he’s expanded his sound, produced definitive records (and the definitive Dave Matthews cover album), gotten wild, gotten sober, and hit stages all over the world. As much has changed, his essence hasn’t — a relentlessly searching, gifted musician who doesn’t pause his growth to keep his audience comfortable, but gives that audience his very best every night. If being the top card late at night at Nash Hall wouldn’t seem like the right opportunity for a wild 90-minute set, you need to know more about Ryley.
Beautifully recorded by our bud Randy Hoke, this set has all the elements — some inside-baseball music biz comedy, classic songs (“On the Banks of the Old Kishwaukee”), and of course, long-form improvisation, in particular, the closing “Primrose Green,” which Ryley seemed determined to push as far from its roots as possible. I think he agrees with us that among his many performances this year, this one was a particular winner. Have a listen and I think you’ll agree.
In a useful piece of Ryley news, he’s launched his own private press label, which includes a sold-out LP pressing of his Walker/Jewel/Gunn trio performance from Union Pool back in March. If you’re lucky, you might find a copy out on tour…
Randy recorded this set with a soundboard feed, AKG shotgun mics at the back of the room, and onstage AKG mics. Even though this room is a challenge, he made an outstanding recording. Enjoy!
Tracks [Total Time 1:24:06] 01 [intro banter] 02 Telluride Speed 03 [banter/tuning] 04 The Halfwit In Me 05 [banter2] 06 Spoil With the Rest 07 [banter3] 08 22 Days 09 [banter4] 10 On the Banks of the Old Kishwaukee 11 [banter5] 12 Opposite Middle 13 [banter6] 14 Primrose Green
It seems reductive to call Joshua Abrams Natural Information Society “jazz,” but language has limits that music does not. To quote our friend Eric PH in his own earlier review, “Mandatory Reality, the latest double-LP from Joshua Abrams Natural Information Society, sounds like a band erasing borders.” I couldn’t agree more — and this night’s single session, dubbed “Surveil Echo Analeptic” by Abrams, plumbs yet more deep territory, incorporating elements of drone, traditional North African music and, yes, jazz into a hypnotic moment. Joined on this night at Union Pool by the very special guest Jim White (Dirty Three, Xylouris White, etc.), Abrams (on the guimbri), Lisa Alvarado (harmonium), Jason Stein (bass clarinet) and White created a piece that felt free and otherworldly, but no less meticulous; Abrams is a master at creating an environment that elevates all players rather than restrain them.
In further good news, while Abrams’ catalog of releases on experimental Northampton, Mass. label Eremite Records are almost perpetually sold out, a second pressing of Mandatory Realityhas appeared. Get it while you still can.
I recorded this set with Schoeps MK22 “open cardiod” mics and a soundboard feed from Doug Graham. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!
Thanks to Joshua Abrams for permitting us to record and share the performance.
Natural Information Society on this night: Joshua Abrams – guimbri, composition Lisa Alvarado – harmonium Jason Stein – bass clarinet Jim White – drums
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