nyctaper Recordings

[photo credit]

Xiu Xiu performed a tight fifty-five minute set to a nearly completely reverent crowd at Bowery Ballroom on Thursday night. On tour in support of their latest CD Women as Lovers, Xiu Xiu is anchored by the frenetic and captivating stage presence of leader Jamie Stewart but musically propelled as a trio by the superb percussion work of Ches Smith. Although the set was a nice mix of old and newer material, the brevity of the set and lack of encore left a sense of incompleteness to an otherwise excellent performance.

We recorded from the perfect location in this venue with our best mobile rig and the results are outstanding. Enjoy!

Evangelista was also recorded and will be posted next week.

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

Xiu Xiu
2008-08-28
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from FOB
Dead Center 30 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
2008-08-29

Setlist:
[Total Time 53:32]
01 [introduction]
02 Nieces Pieces
03 20,000 Deaths For Eidelyn Gonzales, 200,000 Deaths For Jamie Peterson
04 The Leash
05 Pox
06 Hello From Eau Claire
07 Sad Pony Guerrilla Girl
08 No Friend Oh
09 Don Diasco
10 F.T.W.
11 Bunny Gamer
12 Fabulous Muscles
13 Boy Soprano
14 Bog People

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Xiu Xiu, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases, including the latest CD Women as Lovers at the Xiu Xiu Store at their Website [HERE].

Darren Jessee has found his own voice — and it is melodic, melancholy, poignant and ultimately hopeful. Eight years after the premature demise of one of the 1990’s greatest alt-pop bands, it has become abundantly clear which member of Ben Folds Five was responsible for the serious and profound songs (i.e. “Brick”), and the intricate vocal harmonies. With Hotel Lights brand new CD Firecracker People, former BFF drummer/songwriter/vocalist Darren Jessee has produced an album of rich melodies, sweet harmonies, and lyrics that speak of the difficulties in finding your own voice. When Jessee sings in “Your Choice” of having “spent years keeping part of yourself down”, its as if Firecracker People is both his coming out party and his long-awaited triumph.

On Tuesday night, Hotel Lights celebrated the release of Firecracker People with a set at Mercury Lounge. The live version of the band is tight and faithful to the recorded songs, and Darren is clearly the focus. He conducts himself with modesty and humor on stage, but when the music begins the songs are voiced with precision and confidence. We expect to see much more of Hotel Lights in the future and expect that the new CD will see many spins in our deck.

This concert was recorded from our standard location at the Mercury Lounge, slightly in front of the board and to the right. This is a recording of fine clarity and the cardioid microphones and the height of the microphone pole avoided much of the moderate chatter in the back of the room. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Hotel Lights
2008-08-19
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Board

Neumann KM-150’s > Monster Cable > Apogee Mini-Me > digital coax > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge 8.0 (level adjustments, downsample) > CD Wave 1.75 > Flac Frontend (level 7) > flac

Many thanks to Darren for permission to record and Bar/None for the invite.

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2008-08-23

Setlist:
[Total time 43:54]
01 [introduction]
02 Blue Always Finds Me
03 Dream State Flying
04 Down
05 Chemical Clouds
06 Flicker in My Eye
07 Amelia Bright
08 Firecracker People
09 Nobody Let You Down
10 Marvelous Truth
11 Norina

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Hotel Lights, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their new CD Firecracker People at the Bar/None Records Website [HERE].

[photo credit]

We generally trust ToddP’s recommendations with bands. So when he sent out a glowing email about the Minneapolis band Best Friends Forever and their first two NYC concerts tonight and tomorrow, we made our best effort to catch this band, despite our previous engagement. We arrived at The Tank several songs into their set, and set up as quickly as possible. We managed to catch the final 20 minutes of the Best Friends Forever set, which was about two-thirds of its total length.

What became quite apparent when we took time to watch the band was that besides the obvious infectious pop songs, Best Friends Forever are also quite excellent musicians. Bri sings and plays both keys and guitar fluently while Joe keeps a frenetic beat. We were particularly impressed with Jess’s fret work on the bass, which is displayed quite prominently on the last track.

We recorded from the rear area of the room, which was only about 30 feet from the stage. The sound quality in this room was quite good and the recording is a very nice capture of this excellent band. Enjoy!

Best Friends Forever perform again tonight (8/20) at Death By Audio — catch them before they go back home!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Partial Recording in FLAC [HERE].

Best Friends Forever
2008-08-19 The Tank
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from 30 Feet

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Monster XLR Cables Apogee Minime >digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge 8.0 (set fades, leveladjustments, dither, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2008-08-19

Setlist:
[total time 17:24]
Partial Set
06 Tracks

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 Scott Bernstein – the taper not the Hidden Track guy]

Its hard to believe that this moe. show was two months ago. It was nearly a perfect day in all respects. We got to the Ferry at 6 p.m. and took the nice short ride across the harbor after meeting some friends on the boat. Governor’s Island is an untouched classic old military base, and it is perfectly manicured. After a short walk to the concert site, we set up in front of the soundboard and checked in with our old taper friends. What followed was an excellent moe. concert which we experienced as a nice relaxing show on the grass. After over 3 hours of music, the only drawback was the wait for the ferry until after 11:30 p.m.

Our recording is one of the best we’ve ever captured. In the ideal location with our best rig, we were treated to a perfectly mixed concert by moe.’s superb sound crew. Enjoy!

This recording is offered as a direct download as the files are hosted on the Internet Archive server. Right click and “save file as” or “save target as” to download individual tracks.

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

More about FLAC

moe.
2008-06-15
Governors Island
New York, NY USA

FOB 16-bit Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Dead Center
Front of Board at Exactly 45 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, downsample, dither) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
[email protected]
2008-08-11

Set 1
[total time 1:00:44]
01 [introduction]
02 Tailspin
03 Darkness
04 Bring You Down
05 Tambourine
06 Rise
07 Happy Hour Hero

Set 2
[total time 1:54:35]
01 [introduction]
02 Head
03 Time Ed
04 Head
05 Four
06 Spaz Medicine
07 Brent Black
08 She
09 Brent Black
10 [encore break/announcements]
11 I Wanna Be Sedated

Information (txt file)
Verification (md5 file)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT moe. and buy their official releases at their website. The new moe. album Sticks and Stones can be purchased directly from the moe. store here.

[photo credit]

Monotract were one of the “older” bands at the After The Jump Festival, as they have been recording and performing their compelling experimental “noise-wave” for a decade. In 2006, they caught the attention of Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, who signed them to Ecstatic Peace. Thurston also performed with Monotract at SXSW in 2007.

The late afternoon performance at After The Jump seemed a bit rushed due to time constraints, so that Monotract only played for 20 minutes. However, in that time frame they displayed the frenetic energy that has served them well for a decade of accolades. This is the matrix mix from the Galapagos stage and the sound recording is excellent. Enjoy!

After The Jump is a charitable organization of NYC music bloggers who donate all proceeds of their events to the advancement of music in NYC schools. nyctaper requests that if you download this recording, that you support this cause. Selected tracks from the recordings to be featured on this site from the ATJ Festival will be produced into a compilation, with all proceeds being donated to the music programs in NYC schools. When the compilation becomes available, all nyctaper readers who downloaded ATJ sets will be expected to purchase the release.

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Monotract
2008-06-21
Galapagos Main Stage
After The Jump Festival
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard/Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Front of Board Neumann KM-150s > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 16bit 44.1kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, level adjustments) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2008-08-08

Setlist:
[total time 20:16]
01
02
03
04
05 Game 7

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Montract, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases by visiting their website “Records” page, and their page on the Ecstatic Peace website.

[photo credit]

At Cake Shop on Sunday night, Sharon Van Etten opened her headlining set to an enthusiastic crowd with a new song we believe is called “Whoa!”, and contains the refrain “oh, slow down”. Sharon could well be singing about how fast so many aspects of her career are moving. The very next day after Cake Shop, Sharon began another tour, this time with Festival, Bowerbirds and others, that runs through the end of August and covers the South and Midwest. The exciting date on the tour is Sharon’s appearance at the 47th Annual legendary Philadelphia Folk Festival on August 16. She has also booked an appearance at an official CMJ showcase in October, with more details to follow.

We recorded Sharon’s final NYC appearance of the summer from the upfront location at Cake Shop that we have used in the past. Unfortunately, the air conditioning at Cake Shop was broken, and the room was ventilated with two rather loud electric rotating fans. The recording has a consistent hum of the fans in the background. Otherwise, its an intimate recording of a outstanding performer. Enjoy!

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

Sharon Van Etten
2008-08-03
Cake Shop
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Upfront
10 Feet from the PA

DPA 4021s > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge 8.0 (level adjustments, downsample 16/44) > CD Wave > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2008-08-06

Setlist:
[Total time 40:17]
01 Whoa
02 I Wish I Knew
03 Consolation Prize
04 Picking Up Rocks
05 You Didn’t Really Do That
06 A Perfect Day
07 Damn Right
08 Strong

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 this summer.

[photo credit]

One night after their excellent gig at Lollapalooza in Chicago, and one day before they will fly to Norway to begin a tour of Europe, The National made a pit stop in the middle of New York City and performed an outstanding set at Central Park Summerstage tonight. Despite all the travel, the show was quite energetic from the start, as “Brainy” and “Secret Meeting” set the tone for a 90-minute set of The National at full power. The middle of the set featured some rare nuggets, including “The Geese Of Beverly Road”, and the set closing was top notch. Matt Berninger was so over the top during “Mr. November” that he pulled his microphone cord out of the jack more than once. The band seemed to be enjoying themselves and expressed disappointment that the set was over at the curfew.

We recorded from the perfect location at Summerstage with our best mobile rig. We thought we had captured an outstanding sound quality performance of The National at BAM in February, but frankly this recording is a significant improvement even over that excellent recording. We “nailed it” tonight. Enjoy!

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

The National
2008-08-04
Rumsey Playfield
Central Park
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Board Center
30 Feet From Stage (“Sweet Spot”)

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

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper 2008-08-04

Setlist:
[total time 1:31:11]
01 [Flume introduction]
02 Brainy
03 Secret Meeting
04 Baby We’ll Be Fine
05 Slow Show
06 Squalor Victoria
07 You’ve Done It Again, Virginia
08 Abel
09 The Geese Of Beverly Road
10 Ada
11 All The Wine
12 Daughters Of The SoHo Riots
13 Apartment Story
14 Green Gloves
15 Mistaken For Strangers
16 Fake Empire
17 [encore break]
18 Start A War
19 Karen
20 Mr. November
21 [band introductions]
22 About Today

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The National, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from The National’s Merch store directly.

[photo credit]

Fiasco are young, bold, and on the move. In May, the proto-punk/speed-metal kids from Brooklyn signed with Impose Records, in June they headlined the Galapagos stage at After The Jump Fest, this week they are running away with the voting for Deli Magazine band of the month, in August they will tour the East Coast in support of their upcoming release, Native Canadians, which drops this October, and on October 24 Fiasco will play the Panache CMJ showcase at Knitting Factory. Tomorrow night, Tuesday August 5, the Fiasco tour kicks off with a gig at the Market Hotel.

Back in June, we recorded a small portion of the Fiasco set at After the Jump. We offer this ten minute portion to give readers a taste of the intensity of this excellent band. This recording was captured with the same rig as all previous bands from this stage. Enjoy!

After The Jump is a charitable organization of NYC music bloggers who donate all proceeds of their events to the advancement of music in NYC schools. nyctaper requests that if you download this recording, that you support this cause. Selected tracks from the recordings to be featured on this site from the ATJ Festival will be produced into a compilation, with all proceeds being donated to the music programs in NYC schools. When the compilation becomes available, all nyctaper readers who downloaded ATJ sets will be expected to purchase the release.

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download this Partial set in FLAC [HERE].

Fiasco
2008-06-21
Galapagos Main Stage
After The Jump Festival
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard/Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Front of Board Neumann KM-150s > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 16bit 44.1kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, level adjustments) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2008-08-03

[total time 09:37]
Partial Set – 5 Tracks

Fiasco August Tour Dates:
Aug 05 – Market Hotel / Brooklyn [w/ Ninjasonik, The Homosexuals, Pony Pants]
Aug 06 – International Waters / Philadelphia [w/ Pony Pants]
Aug 07 – The Talking Head / Baltimore [w/Eyeball Skeleton, Smarts]
Aug 08 – Comet Pizza and Ping Pong [w/ The Apes, Double Dagger!], Washington DC
Aug 09 – AD Lib / Lancaster, Pa. [w/ DEERHUNTER, Times New Viking, Hot Guts]
Aug 10 – O’Reilly Club Parking Lot / Springfield, MA [w/ Bat Attack & American Business Machines]
Aug 11 – AS220 / Providence, RI [w/ The Brown Book & Bat Attack]
Aug 12 – House party / Boston, MA
Aug 13 – The Bakery / Burlington, VT [w/ Bat Attack + more tba!]
Aug 14 – Daniel St Club / Milford, CT [w/ PANTHER & Digital Leather]
Aug 15 – Silent Barn / Brooklyn [w/ Future Islands, EAR PWR, more]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Fiasco, visit their MySpace page, and purchase Native Canadians when it is released in October.