nyctaper Recordings

[all of the excellent photos on this page are by J Caldwell and Alexis Stember – click on the photos here for links to full resolution versions]

If Tuesday night was a celebration of history, Wednesday night at Bowery Ballroom, Animal Collective exhibited why they deserve the accolades. In the most intimate venue they may ever play, AC performed a ninety minute set of near perfection — an impressive balance of energy and proficiency. The Grand Ballroom began slowly and built the energy. The Bowery Ballroom started with an explosive “Also Frightened” that segued neatly into “My Girls. As Animal Collective worked through a setlist front-loaded with trance-inducing tribal chant numbers, the only point in which the show relaxed was the encore segment where the reworked “Winters Love” flowed seamlessly into Panda Bear’s “Comfy in Nautica”. Other highlights again included “Fireworks”, where during the jam segment we focused on the manic percussion work of Panda, and the new number “Blue Sky” (working title) — but in reality, the entire show was a highlight.

[nyctaper vantage point!]

We recorded this set under the most ideal conditions. The sound quality is the venue was outstanding, and the sound staff mixed the band to perfection. The photographers J and Alexis provided us with a “buffer” against any crowd chatter, and our location was a direct line to the PA stacks. The result is a recording that we are confident in declaring is the best unofficial live recording of Animal Collective that you will ever hear. It gives us great pleasure to present a recording of this quality. Enjoy!

Listen to this recording in streaming audio or download below:

These are direct downloads in FLAC and MP3 from another server (right click and “save file as” or “save target as”), or use a download manager.

Firefox users can Down Them All! at once (here).

More about FLAC

Animal Collective
2009-01-21
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Balcony Rail
Next to Soundboard

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (set fades, slight level adjustments, Downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2009-01-22

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:28:44]
01 Also Frightened [FLAC] [MP3]
02 My Girls [FLAC] [MP3]
03 Blue Sky [FLAC] [MP3]
04 Slippi [FLAC] [MP3]
05 Leaf House [FLAC] [MP3]
06 Summertime Clothes [FLAC] [MP3]
07 Guys Eyes [FLAC] [MP3]
08 Lablakley Dress [FLAC] [MP3]
09 Fireworks [FLAC] [MP3]
10 Lion in a Coma [FLAC] [MP3]
11 Brother Sport [FLAC] [MP3]
12 [encore break] [FLAC] [MP3]
13 Winters Love [FLAC] [MP3]
14 Comfy in Nautica [FLAC] [MP3]

Information: [TXT FILE]
Verification: [MD5 FILE]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Animal Collective, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases directly from Domino Records site [HERE].

[photo courtesy of Jonny Leather]

On a day when the world took an historic step forward, Animal Collective made a little history of their own. Tuesday was the release day for Merriweather Post Pavilion, the band’s eighth studio album that had gathered stellar reviews and “best of 2009” raves even before its release — along with the announcement of a world tour.  The celebration of the new album took place last night appropriately at a Ballroom, and there was clearly a festive atmosphere. Although the band took things slowly at first, the set gradually built the energy for such Merriweather highlights at “Summertime Clothes”, a slightly reworked “Daily Routine” and the set closing “Brother Sport”. It was however, the performance of Strawberry Jam’s “Fireworks” where AC really shined, as Avey began the song with a brief version of the obscure “Lablakely Dress” before stretching out “Fireworks” to nearly 13 minutes — including an inspired middle “jam” section. The remainder of the set — which included “My Girls” and two encores — was merely icing on the celebratory cake.

We recorded this set from the “sweet spot” on the floor with our mobile rig. Although the large ceilings created some muddiness in the sound, we feel that the hyper-directional microphones did some excellent work. Enjoy!

Listen to this recording in streaming audio or download below:

These are direct downloads in FLAC and MP3 from another server (right click and “save file as” or “save target as”), or use a download manager.

Firefox users can Down Them All! at once (here).

More about FLAC

Animal Collective
2009-01-20
Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from FOB
Dead Center 40 Feet from PA

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level boost, slight eq) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2009-01-20

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:36:15]
01 In The Flowers [FLAC] [MP3]
02 Leaf House [FLAC] [MP3]
03 Blue Sky [FLAC] [MP3]
04 Guys Eyes [FLAC] [MP3]
05 Summertime Clothes [FLAC] [MP3]
06 Daily Routine [FLAC] [MP3]
07 Lion in a Coma [FLAC] [MP3]
08 Lablakely Dress [FLAC] [MP3]
09 Fireworks [FLAC] [MP3]
10 My Girls [FLAC] [MP3]
11 Brother Sport [FLAC] [MP3]
12 [encore break] [FLAC] [MP3]
13 Banshee Beat [FLAC] [MP3]
14 Slippi [FLAC] [MP3]

Information: [TXT FILE]
Verification: [MD5 FILE]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Animal Collective, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases directly from Domino Records site [HERE].

[photo by Ian Weintraub from Jonathan Segel’s MySpace photos]

After his impressive multi-instrument performances with Camper Van Beethoven on Friday and Saturday, Jonathan Segel stepped forward and performed a set at Pianos last Sunday. Segel’s solo work features primarily his songwriting and outstanding guitar work. Although the Pianos set was limited by time constraints, there was certainly enough time for Segel to exhibit his guitar proficiency to the intimate yet enthusiastic crowd. The highlights included “Civil Disobedience” and the catchy “I Can’t Help It”.

We recorded this set from our standard location at Pianos. Although perhaps the drums were a bit too loud in the room, the clarity of this recording is quite excellent. Enjoy!

The Victor Krummenacher and Sharon Van Etten sets were also recorded and will be featured on nyctaper in the near future.

This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Jonathan Segel
2009-01-11
Pianos
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Board
30 Feet from Stage

Neumann KM-150s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Monster XLR cables > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge 8.0 (set fades, slight level boost, resample 16/44) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2009-01-19

Setlist:
[total time 34:15]
01 In Orebro
02 Angels
03 I Love You
04 Greedy
05 I Can’t Help It
06 Civil Disobedience
07 Enough Air

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Jonathan Segel, visit his website, visit his MySpace page, visit the Magnetic Motorworks site, and purchase his official releases directly from Magnetic Catalog and the Pitch-A-Tent Store [HERE].

[photo credit]

As if Friday night’s thorough two-hour career retrospective was not enough, Camper Van Beethoven returned to the Bowery Ballroom on Saturday and delivered a similarly energetic show with sixteen different songs in the setlist. The band dug deep into the catalog for such rare gems as “Joe Stalin’s Cadillac”, “Where the Hell is Bill?”, and “Abundance” among the 33 songs performed. Although we would have preferred to see “Interstellar Overdrive” again, it seemed fairly clear that CVB consciously aimed to provide a completely different and yet equally compelling show on the second night of the stand.

We recorded from the same location as Friday night’s recording, but the mix in the room was slightly better on Saturday. Although the large crowd and more rambunctious fans attended Saturday’s show, our location avoided any significant noise and ultimately this is likely the superior recording of the two nights. Enjoy!

This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC or MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Camper Van Beethoven
2009-01-10
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Balcony Rail
Next to Soundboard

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (set fades, slight level adjustments, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2009-01-12

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:41:13]
01 ZZ Top Goes to Egypt
02 Flowers
03 Waka
04 Pictures of Matchstick Men
05 Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China
06 Turquoise Jewelry
07 Tania
08 Eye of Fatima Part 1
09 Eye of Fatima Part 2
10 New Roman Times
11 Balalaika Gap
12 Tina
13 Good Guys and Bad Guys
14 Joe Stalin’s Cadillac
15 R n R Uzbekistan
16 All Her Favorite Fruit
17 She Divines Water
18 Seven Languages
19 The History of Utah
20 Abundance
21 Payed Vacation: Greece
22 Where the Hell is Bill?
23 Ambiguity Song
24 Take The Skinheads Bowling
25 Skinhead Stomp
26 Might Makes Right
27 Hippy Chix
28 The Day Lassie Went to the Moon
29 Club Med Sucks
30 [announcements]
31 [encore break]
32 White Riot
33 Wasted
34 Shut Us Down
35 We’re a Bad Trip

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Camper Van Beethoven, visit their website, and purchase their official releases directly from the store at their website [HERE].

[photo by nyctaper]

When Victor Krummenacher and Alison Faith Levy perform together as “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” the chemistry between the two is obvious. At Bowery Ballroom on Friday night, the duo opened for Camper Van Beethoven and provided a compelling fifty-minute set of bluesy-americana backed by a band of superb musicians. The setlist consisted primarily of material from Krummenacher’s solo albums, including the recently released Patriarch Blues.

We recorded from the identical location as the Camper set and the sound quality is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Victor Krummenacher is performing a solo set as part of the NYCTaper Presents show tonight (January 11) at Pianos.

This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Victor Krummenacher (McCabe and Mrs. Miller)
2009-01-09
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Balcony Rail
Next to Soundboard

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (set fades, slight level adjustments, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2009-01-11

Setlist:
[Total Time 55:21]
01 My Baby’s Brown Hair
02 Bittersweet
03 Southern Heights
04 Fare Thee Well
05 Forgiveness
06 Playground
07 [banter and band introductions]
08 Time For Leaving
09 Cock Crows
10 Paradise

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Victor Krummenacher and Alison Faith Levy, visit Victor’s website, visit Alison’s MySpace page, visit the Magnetic Motorworks site, and purchase their official releases directly from Magnetic Catalog and the Pitch-A-Tent Store [HERE].

[photo by nyctaper]

If its possible to summarize twenty-five years of making music into one show, then Camper Van Beethoven was about as successful as possible last night at Bowery Ballroom. The well-paced set lasted nearly two hours and the twenty-nine songs were selected judiciously from their entire catalog. Each member of the band had their moments, but we were particularly focused on Jonathan Segel, who flowed naturally from violin to guitar to organ, often simultaneously, and all while he provided vocal harmonies. The highlight of the evening was the main set closer, an intense cover of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive”.

We recorded this set from the balcony rail next to the soundboard in a direct line and eye level to the PA stacks. The sound quality is quite excellent, enjoy!

Camper Van Beethoven performs again tonight (Jan 10) at Bowery Ballroom. Jonathan Segel and Victor Krummenacher perform solo sets at Pianos on Sunday Night (Jan 11).

This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Camper Van Beethoven
2009-01-09
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Balcony Rail
Next to Soundboard

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (set fades, slight level adjustments, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2009-01-10

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:47:51]
01 All Her Favorite Fruit
02 Sweethearts
03 Waka
04 Pictures Of Matchstick Men
05 Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China
06 The History of Utah
07 [banter – opening for Talking Heads]
08 The Long Plastic Hallway
09 Circles
10 Cowboys from Hollywood
11 Sad Lovers Waltz
12 Tania
13 Eye Of Fatima Part 1
14 Eye Of Fatima Part 2
15 New Roman Times
16 Unabomber Song
17 White Riot (Clash)
18 Wasted
19 Shut Us Down
20 R ‘N’ R Uzbekistan
21 The Poppies of Balmorhea
22 [banter – Pianos and NYC]
23 One Of These Days
24 Ambiguity Song
25 Take The Skinheads Bowling
26 L’Aguardiente
27 Cattle (Reversed)
28 Club Med Sucks
29 Interstellar Overdrive
30 [encore break]
31 When I Win the Lottery
32 Seven Languages

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Camper Van Beethoven, visit their website, and purchase their official releases directly from the store at their website [HERE].

[photo from Ira’s Hanukkah Diary]

When we posted the nyctaper recording of Yo La Tengo’s performance from this seventh night of the Hanukkah shows, we spoke about their encyclopedic knowledge of popular music. In the selection of Willie Alexander and The Boom Boom Band to open this night, it was as if YLT covered an entire volume of that history. In a forty year career, Willie has in Zelig-like fashion crossed paths with almost all elements of popular culture — from the Velvet Underground to the Rathskeller in Boston to French New Wave to even Stephen King. A summary of his career biography reads like a novel.

It was with that level of experience that The Boom Boom Band took the stage Saturday last, and in true rock-n-roll fashion delivered a non-stop blistering forty-five minute set of pub/punk/power/poetic pop. As if undeterred by the passing of time, the band whose debut album appeared in 1978 performed energetic renditions of a career’s worth of material, and finished the set with an appropriately manic “Dirty Eddie”.

We recorded this set from the same location as the YLT recording and the sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band
2008-12-27
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Audience Master Recording
Recorded from Front Corner of Sound Desk
Dead Center, approximately 30 feet from the PA

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Monster XLR Cables > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, slight level adjustments, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2009-01-05

Setlist:
[Total Time 43:35]
01 High Tide Heroes
02 [Charles Olson]
03 Fred Buck’s Footsteps
04 Hey Kid
05 Hit Her Wid de Axe
06 Looking Like a Bimbo
07 Aaww
08 Hair
09 Radio Heart
10 Dirty Eddie

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Willie Alexander, visit his website, and purchase his official releases directly from the store at his website [HERE].

[photo by Matt]

This is another one of those recordings that sounds a lot better than we originally thought. The process of recording Sharon Van Etten is always subject to the room noise, and during this particular night at Pianos there was much — including what sounded like a reconstruction of the soundboard booth directly behind us. Fortunately, the directional microphones avoided a good amount of the noise so that this is definitely a very listenable capture. In terms of a review of the performance, we will defer to Matt from The Music Slut blog, who wrote an excellent piece on this Sharon show the day after the event. Read it [HERE].

Sharon Van Etten will perform quite a bit this month. Tomorrow night, she appears at Cake Shop with The Antlers and Pet Ghost Project. And on January 11, she will open the NYCTaper Presents show at Pianos with members of Camper Van Beethoven. Sharon will also perform this month at Zebulon, Glasslands, Secret Project Robot and Joe’s Pub. Complete information is at her MySpace page.

This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Sharon Van Etten
2008-12-08
Pianos
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Board
30 Feet from Stage

Neumann KM-150s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Monster XLR cables > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge 8.0 (set fades, slight level boost, resample 16/44) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
nyctaper@nyctaper.com
2009-01-01

Setlist:
[total time 43:15]
01 Consolation Prize
02 Strong (false start/tech problems)
03 Strong
04 I Fold
05 I Am Giving Up On You
06 Call It a Joke
07 You Didn’t Really Do That
08 Picking Up Rocks
09
10 I Wish I Knew
11 Damn Right

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Sharon Van Etten, visit her website, visit her MySpace page, purchase one of her custom-made self-released CDs directly from her website, and purchase her new CD Because I Was In Love when it is released in 2009.

[ Best Friends Forever in Philly this summer: photo credit]

We became big fans of Best Friends Forever this year. We saw them live four times in 2008, including this opening set of the NYCTaper CMJ show. The band had three shows scheduled that day, but still agreed to do our show, for which we are eternally grateful. The downstairs of Cake Shop quickly filled for their 3:30 set and BFF delivered a burst of their energetic pop to start off the day. Expect to hear more from BFF in 2009, as they have gathered some major label interest.

This recording was a surprise holiday present. We were going through some old wav files, including the soundboard feed that we ran for this CMJ show — a recording we originally thought was unusable. Fortunately, while the rest of the downstairs sets have problems, the BFF set is actually quite well mixed soundboard recording and has very little of the peak distortion that plagues the others. Enjoy!

The nyctaper recordings of Best Friends Forever in August and at another CMJ show are [here] and [here].

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Best Friends Forever
2008-10-23
NYCTaper CMJ Show
Cake Shop
New York, NY USA

Digital Soundboard Master Recording

Soundboard > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 16bit 44.1kHz wav > Soundforge 8.0 (level adjustments, set fades) > CD Wave > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2008-12-31

Setlist:
[Total time 18:42]
01 Eisenhower is the Father
02 HWF
03 Circus
04 Handpocket
05 Twins in Love
06 Disaster

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Best Friends Forever, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases at the Plan-It-X Records Website [HERE].

[photo by nyctaper]

As a lead up to their annual New Year’s run in NYC, Gov’t Mule offered their fans a pair of intimate semi-acoustic shows at the Orensanz Center — a beautiful renovated 150 year old former synagogue on Norfolk Street. On Sunday night, we were witness to an extraordinary display of multifaceted musicianship appropriate to the concert setting. Warren Haynes began the show with a series of solo acoustic numbers, as each band member joined gradually throughout the set. As the first set concluded, what had began as a mellow display evolved into full-fledged Mule music with a rocking “Kind of Bird”. The second set carried on in a similar vein, and featured classic blues, hard rock, and even a Nirvana cover (“All Apologies”). At the end of the evening, the crowd offered its respect for nearly three hours of outstanding music, as the closer “Goin’ Out West” was finished with the voices of “choir”.

Gov’t Mule will perform this evening and on New Year’s Eve at the much larger Hammerstein Ballroom — tickets are still available.

We recorded this set from directly in front of the soundboard on the floor, in the center aisle. The acoustics on the venue were outstanding in our location, as the hyper directional microphones avoided any of the echo or boom from the high ceilings and accentuated the warm feel of sound in the seated area. Enjoy this outstanding capture of a memorable evening!

The nyctaper recording of Govt Mule on December 28, 2007 is still available [here].

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Govt Mule
2008-12-28
Angel Orensanz Center
New York, NY USA

Digital Audience Master Recording
Recorded from Front Corner of Sound Desk
Center Aisle, approximately 50 feet from the Stage

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Monster XLR Cables > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, slight level adjustments, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-12-29

Setlist:
Set 1:
[total time 1:16:48]
01 Loves Open Door
02 The Real Thing
03 In My Life
04 Dolphineus
05 Painted Silver Light
06 Beautifully Broken
07 Patchwork Quilt
08 Wild Horses
09 One
10 Long Distance Call
11 So Weak, So Strong
12 Kind of Bird

Set 2:
[total time 1:17:57]
01 John The Revelator*
02 Change Is Gonna Come
03 Fallen Down
04 The Other One Jam
05 Drums
06 All Apologies
07 Endless Parade
08 You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
09 Soulshine
10 [encore break]
11 Hallelujah Boulevard
12 Goin’ Out West
*with one verse of When The Levee Breaks

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Gov’t Mule, visit their website, and purchase the official releases and merch from the store at their website [HERE]. Purchase official live recordings at Mule Tracks [HERE].