nyctaper posts

In the interest of full disclosure, Pierce Turner is a long time personal friend. That he also happens to be an immensely talented songwriter, compelling performer, and thoroughly entertaining stage presence is a matter of public record as well as personal opinion. The superlatives flow, and yet traditional “success” in the old music business definition has always eluded him — including the criminally under-appreciated most recent release The Boy to Be With. But as the music business has been turned upside down, the non-traditional performers have thrived. Pierce continues to pack houses in Dublin, Wexford and counties West in the part of the year when he resides in Ireland, and sells out venues like Joe’s Pub during his all-too-infrequent New York time.

This week a rare Pierce Turner experience awaits the music lovers who shed the shackles of St. Patrick’s day cliche, and find the most genuine Irish performer of this generation. Pierce returns to Puck Fair, the locale of his 2000-2001 residency, and performs again with the String Quartet with whom he enraptured Swift’s throughout his 1996-1999 residence. The atmosphere promises to be abuzz and the setlist will contain some old and rare chestnuts. nyctaper will be there with the microphones, a pint of Guinness, and a smile.

When: Sunday March 16, 2008
Time: 6 p.m.
Where: Puck Fair
Address: 298 Lafayette Street (half block below Houston) [map]

PLEASE SUPPORT Pierce Turner and purchase his releases directly from the online store at his website.

Save the date!
Sunday May 11, 2008 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The anniversary bash celebrating one year of nyctaper is going to happen! Its all coming together very quickly. We have a venue booked (in NYC of course), and we have two bands committed. We are currently in negotiations with a third (headliner) band. We also have one major blog to photograph and review the event, and perhaps several more.

As soon as the headliner is booked, we will announce all the details.

[photo by Beth]

The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum opened in 1972. I first entered this arena in 1973 to witness megastar “Dr. J” Julius Erving carry the New York Nets to the ABA championship. That very same year Bruce Springsteen released his second album The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Thirty-Five years later, we returned to Nassau to witness the ageless wonder Springsteen perform an epic song from that very album, “Incident on 57th Street”, as if no time had passed at all. In a show that last over two and half hours, Bruce chose heavily from his 1970’s catalog, and performed highlights including “Because the Night”, “Adam Raised a Cain”, and “Jungleland”, along with a rare “Ramrod” from 1980’s The River.

Although the ill E-Streeter Danny Federici was noticably absent — Bruce hoped for his return later in the tour — the Band was running on all cylinders. Little Stevie was as energetic as ever, but the guitar work and harmonies of Nils Lofgren were particularly strong and notable. One wonders how long this unit can continue to perform at such quality and at such length, but last night time truly stood still as Bruce magically transported us back 35 years.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
2008-03-10
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Uniondale, NY USA

Setlist:
[Total Time 2:32:24]
01 [Introduction]
02 Night
03 Radio Nowhere
04 Lonesome Day
05 Adam Raised a Cain
06 Gypsy Biker
07 Magic
08 Reason to Believe
09 Because the Night
10 She’s the One
11 Livin’ in the Future
12 The Promised Land
13 Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
14 Incident on 57th Street
15 Devil’s Arcade
16 The Rising
17 Last to Die
18 Long Walk Home
19 Badlands
20 [encore break]
22 Girls in Their Summer Clothes
22 Jungleland
23 Born to Run
24 Ramrod
25 Dancing in the Dark
26 American Land
27 [outroduction]

Our readers who seek a recording of this concert can peruse the web.

Meredith Monk is perhaps the most profoundly unique performer in any genre of music today. She combines the talents of a composer, vocalist, choreographer, performance artist, and musician into a wholly original presentation.

At Symphony Space on Friday night, Meredith led a rare performance of the complete Vocal Ensemble. The Ensemble has changed personnel over the years, but the two talented “arms” of Monk were present. While Allison Sniffin is the solid and reserved musical foundation, the more animated Katie Geissinger projects vocal confidence and charm. Each in their own way represents a different aspect of the musical personality of Meredith herself. The other veteran player, Ching Gonzalez, anchors the Ensemble with a joyous stage presence and deep and rich baritone.

The Symphony Space performance comprised two acts — the first act featured a career retrospective and the second act was a lengthy segment of Monk’s new release Impermanence. First act highlights included “Gotham Lullaby”, which retains its originality after many performances over the last 30 years, and the closing “Waltz in 5’s”, which featured all of Monk’s talents and the complete Ensemble.

The “new” material from Impermanence has been performed in various venues and formats in the last several years, creating a level of familiarity, but the Symphony Space performance was the first as a complete Act. The power of the piece in this presentation was something to behold, as the Ensemble brought this new Monk treasure to fruition. As the stage lights dimmed and the crowd rose to its feet, it became all too apparent that this incredible performer has not lost her touch after 40 years of creativity.

The Program from this concert is available (here). Unfortunately, I did not get an answer to my request to record this performance, and ultimately did not record. This was particularly regrettable because of my perfect location, and the true power of this performance. Symphony Space does offer streaming audio of select performances, so one hopes Monk will eventually be offered to listeners.

Please support Meredith Monk, visit her website and purchase her official releases. Impermanence will be released on March 18, and can be pre-ordered here.

We will be attending three concerts this weekend, and hopefully recording them all.
Here is the schedule:

Friday — February 15, 2008:
Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble
Symphony Space, NYC
The thoroughly unique vocal pioneer, composer, and interdisciplinary artist performs with the Vocal Ensemble for the first time in NYC in two and half years. We have communicated with Meredith Monk’s people and are awaiting a decision on recording permission.

Saturday — February 16, 2008
Citizen Cope
Gilman Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music
The compelling cross-genre artist appears at the BAM Brooklyn Next Festival, which celebrates the borough’s diverse musical creators. Cope’s management has approved the recording of the opening number for posting on nyctaper.

Sunday — February 17, 2008
Calvin Johnson
Bowery Poetry Club, NYC
The post-punk pioneer and founder of indie stalwart K Records makes a rare solo appearance in NYC at Bowery Poetry. The dubnarcotic.org people have given permission for nyctaper to capture this event.

The Antlers are performing live at Pianos on Ludlow Street at 10 p.m. on Friday, February 8. nyctaper will be there at the invitation of The Antlers to record the concert and offer it at this site.

The Antlers are Peter Silberman’s recording project with a full live band for performances. In November, Antlers released In The Attic Of The Universe, an album of intelligent well-crafted pop songs with hooks and harmonies to spare.

Sample a song from the album (several other tracks are available for download at the Antlers site):
The Antlers — The Universe is Going to Catch You

While In the Attic is one of our favorite albums of 2007, its also a great example of the power of the new forms of internet distribution. In April, Peter offered the album as a free download on their site. In the following months, word of the superb quality of the album spread and the label Fall Records picked it up for release. By November, the album was released in physical form. Purchase the CD directly from Fall Records (here).

nyctaper will no longer be offering direct downloads to anonymous people who come to the site, download and leave. From this point forward, all readers who wish to download a concert will need to email [email protected] with a request for access to the recording. Private link locations will be provided to those readers who seek a particular recording. This will also apply to the recordings currently on the site, as those downloads will be removed from the public server one by one.

Please be aware that download statistics and server access statistics are available to the administrators of this site. If password abuse occurs, then recordings will be removed entirely.

We are abundantly aware of the people who are our faithful and supportive readers. Those people will receive priority.

We’ve been admirers of Kimya Dawson since her days in the Moldy Peaches playing down the street at the Sidewalk Cafe. These days, she’s enjoying well-deserved success in part as a result of the movie Juno and its Soundtrack.

Kimya is coming to town this week for three local gigs. There is a Juno Soundtrack release party at Sound Fix Records in Brooklyn on Tuesday January 15 at 8 p.m. She will also be performing at Europa in Brooklyn on Wednesday January 16 at 7 p.m.

nyctaper will be attending and recording the all-ages show at Southpaw on Sunday January 13 at noon with our daughter. Kimya permits open taping, and confirmed this in a nice email to nyctaper this afternoon.

Please support this incredibly talented and unique artist and visit her website and myspace page, and buy her official releases.

Frankly, the Natalie Merchant removal has become kind of embarrassing. In reality, we should have received permission or not recorded at all.

From this point forward, we will attempt to get permission in advance from artists (unless those artists already have a pre-existing “taper-friendly” policy or have previously communicated agreement to us) and will not record without permission. We had been more strict in this policy earlier in the existence of this site, but we’ve become a bit brazen lately.

The result will probably be less of a variety of music on this site, but we feel it will assist in the continued viability of the site. For the immediate future, we have contacted the NY Guitar Festival, Magnetic Fields, and Meredith Monk with requests for permission. Decisions on those recordings are pending. We will not record Springsteen. All of the other artists listed in upcoming events will be recorded.

The Natalie Merchant removal has created a bit of a stir in her official forum. Again I’m being accused of “profiting” from live recording. The total ad revenue for this site for the entire 8 months of existence is a grand total of $56, which is just about exactly what I paid for the ticket for that singular concert.

The ads are exponentially more trouble than they are worth. This site loses money by the bucketful, so $56 less is just one less drop in that bucket.

The Amazon links that are currently in each existing post (for which nyctaper has received $11 in commissions total) will remain. No new Amazon product box links will appear for new recordings. The readers will have to seek out official releases through the links that will still be provided to artist’s official website. Please continue to support the artists, that is the primary goal of this site.

So the ads are gone. The donation button remains ($17 since the beginning of December for those who are curious). And yes, at the risk of the appearance of corruption, I will accept a beer if you see me at a show.

Now how am I going to fill up the sidebars!