nyctaper Recordings

[photo credit]

The Forms unique melodic post-shoegaze songs translate well in an outdoor Summer setting. Their performance at the After The Jump Festival in June was well received but unfortunately, they had to split the audience with the concurrent amazing indoor performance by Ponytail. When we last saw and recorded The Forms it was last Summer in an opening slot for The National in the rain at the Seaport. The setlist at After the Jump was primarily material from their excellent Fall of 2007 release of The Forms (Rebel Music), and the band appeared more mature and confident than last year.

We recorded this set from the identical location and equipment as the Pela recording. The quality is quite 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].

The Forms
2008-06-21
After the Jump Festival
Main Stage (on N. 6th Street)
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from in Front of Soundboard Booth

Neumann KM-150s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Monster XLR cables > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 16bit 44.1kHz wav file > Soundforge 8.0 (set fades, slight level adjustments) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2008-07-31

Setlist:
[Total time 30:54]
01 Alpha
02 Red Gun
03 Focus
04 Bones
05 Stravinsky
06 Sunday
07 Transmission
08 Blue Whale
09 Classical

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Forms, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases from links at their MySpace page.

[photo credit]

Last night in Chicago, Matmos concluded their tour in support of the new CD Supreme Balloon. Last week, the tour came through NYC for two shows at Le Poisson Rouge, the first night of which we were fortunate to experience. If the virtual pioneers of modern electronic music can be said to have “departed” from their art, then their new CD composed entirely with synthesizers would be Matmos‘ new direction. In the live setting however, our wizards were back together with their gadgetry, as the opening two numbers were “experiments” with a theremin and with a computer-created “psychic”. If there is anything predictable about a Matmos performance — and last Friday was no exception — its that the audience will leave the venue entertained and amazed by the experience.

We recorded this outing at LPR from the floor area below the soundboard. We were centrally located among the many PA speakers strategically placed around the superb sounding venue, and as a result captured a fine full spectrum recording. The only flaw is the noise from the bar and its patrons during quiet moments. Enjoy!

Many thanks to Matmos for permission to record and for the setlist.

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Matmos
2008-07-18
Le Poisson Rouge
New York NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from In Front of Soundboard Booth
Dead Center on Floor

Neumann KM-150s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav files > 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
nyctaper
2008-07-29

Setlist
[total time 1:04:49]
01 Theremin Experiment
02 Psychic Experiment
03 Rainbow Flag
04 Public Sex for Boyd McDonald
05 Sun on 5/ The West/ Bo Diddleyesque
06 Supreme Balloon
07 [encore break]
08 Improvisation [with Leprechaun Catering]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Matmos, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases from the links at the music page on their website, or directly from the Matmos webpage at Matador Records.

[photo credit]

Freedy Johnston performed his classic album Can You Fly on Friday night at Maxwell’s and brought along a cast of all-star friends in support. The original co-producer of the album, legendary bassist Graham Maby played on about half the songs, and the uber-guitarist Dave Schramm played pedal steel on a handful of numbers. Longtime Freedy collaborator Kevin Salem provided the primary lead guitar work, and the rhythmic backbone was drummer Linda Pitmon (also of the Miracle 3), and versatile bassist Jared Nickerson.

In 1992, Can You Fly established Freedy Johnston as a premiere songwriter and performer. The years have not tarnished his abilities at all, and in fact Freedy is significantly more at ease with the audience than when he first appeared on the scene in the early 90’s. The performance on Friday was a faithful rendition of the album and proved its value in surviving the test of time. For the final two encores, Freedy was joined by Steve Wynn, and while the Blue Oyster Cult cover was fairly goofy and sloppy, the band’s run through Dylan’s “Outlaw Blues” was quite inspired.

We recorded from the exact rig as the Steve Wynn set. The quality of this recording is somewhat compromised by an extremely chatty crowd, which contained a group of rude people at the bar area who were impatiently waiting for the late show. Other than the chatter, this is a superb matrix mix. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Freedy Johnston
2008-07-25
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ 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 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, slight level boost, downsample, dither) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-07-27

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:21:01]
Can You Fly
01 Trying to Tell You I Don’t Know
02 In the New Sunshine
03 Tearing Down This Place
04 Remember Me
05 Wheels
06 The Lucky One
07 Can You Fly
08 Responsible
09 The Mortician’s Daughter
10 Sincere
11 Down in Love
12 California Thing [false start]
13 California Thing
14 We Will Shine
15 [encore break]
16 Bad Reputation
17 Don’t Fear The Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult)**
18 Outlaw Blues (Bob Dylan)**
**with Steve Wynn vocals and guitar

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Freedy Johnston, visit his website, and purchase his official releases from the store at his website.

[photo credit]

As the old adage says, without the rain, there would be no rainbow. When we canceled our outing to see Mark Knopfler in Central Park on Wednesday, the forecast called for the skies to open and at least an inch of rain to fall. Two tapers with more courage than I did attend the show and report that the rain held off almost exactly for the period of the concert. Knopfler went on a little early (before 8 p.m.), and the skies literally opened five minutes after his performance was over.

While we are extremely disappointed to have missed this show, we are quite fortunate to have a recording to offer our readers — the legendary taper Scott Brown has generously offered to permit nyctaper to host the 16-bit flac files of his superb recording. Odds are that if you have collected the highest quality unofficial live recordings offered in the NYC area in the last 10 years, you have more than one Scott Brown recording in your collection.

Scott’s mobile recording rig contains the same microphones as nyctaper (DPA 402X series) but his recorder is superior, as he captured with the pro-quality Sound Devices 722 digital recorder. He recorded Knopfler from the prime location and the quality of this recording is absolutely phenomenal. Enjoy!

There will be NO MP3 files for this Recording. Grab the FLACS!

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Mark Knopfler
7/23/2008
Rumsey Playfield, Central Park
New York, NY

Recorded by: Scott Brown
Source: DPA (B&K) 4023s (in hat) > Sound Devices 722 @ 24 bit, 96khz
722 > Apple MacBook Pro > Spark Xl 2.8.2 (tracking, normalize, resample to 44.1khz) > Sample Manager 3.1.2 (dither to 16 bit using MBIT+) > xACT 1.65 > flac
Location: about 20-30 feet from stage, dead center

Disc 1

01 Intro 00:42.11
02 Cannibals 05:16.52
03 Why Aye Man 06:47.71
04 What It Is 05:16.00
05 Sailing To Philadelphia 06:57.19
06 True Love Will Never Fade 05:06.73
07 Fish and The Bird 04:24.14
08 Hill Farmer’s Blues 05:02.43
09 Romeo and Juliet 08:49.37
10 Sultans Of Swing 08:52.74
11 Song For Sonny Liston 07:08.01

Disc 1 Total: 64:24.20

Disc 2

01 Band Introductions 04:25.18
02 Marbletown 10:12.05
03 Speedway At Nazareth 06:47.29
04 Telegraph Road 16:00.61
Encore:
05 Brothers In Arms 07:14.19
06 So Far Way 04:57.55
07 Going Home 05:27.67

Disc 2 Total: 55:05.29

notes:
-Mark went on a few minutes before 8PM, and I missed the first minute of Cannibals. I spliced in Dan Molda’s Audio Technica U853-C > Nady CBM-40T > Denecke PS-2 > Edirol R-09HR (24/96) source for the Intro track and the first minute or so of Cannibals.
-This is a 16 bit, 44.1khz recording for CD. The original 24 bit, 96khz recording exists in flac format.

compiled by scott brown on 7/27/2008

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Mark Knopfler, visit his website, and purchase his official releases from the Mark Knopfler Store at his website.

The Dream Syndicate

“Welcome to 1983!” was Steve Wynn‘s facetious introduction last night before he and his current band The Miracle 3 performed the entire classic album The Days of Wine and Roses from Steve’s previous band The Dream Syndicate. Ultimately, the return to 1983 was not entirely accurate. The twenty-five years have given Wynn the maturity and perspective to perform the album — the title of which refers to the fleeting nature of time — with a sense of purpose and direction. Technically the performance was top notch, with all instruments tight and focused at the proper moments and loose and relaxed when the band opened up to flesh out the songs. Of particular note was the jam in “Halloween” that reached an energetic crescendo, and the closing title track where Steve brought the band down to silence before ending the song with a fury. We anticipated that this performance would be special, but Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3 exceeded all of our expectations.

We recorded with the matrix mix we have used for each of our recordings at Maxwell’s this year. The Neumann microphones were mounted at the front of the soundboard booth and raised to eight feet, and were mixed with a feed from the board. The results are absolutely outstanding. We are extremely pleased to have captured this historical performance with a special recording. Enjoy!

Many thanks to Steve Wynn for permission to record this performance and for his invitation to the soundcheck. The quality of this recording is a tribute to this artist.

This recording is available for download as FLAC or MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3
2008-07-25
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ 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 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, slight level boost, downsample, dither) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-07-26

Setlist:
[Total Time 55:28]
The Days of Wine and Roses
01 [introduction]
02 Tell Me When Its Over
03 Definitely Clean
04 That’s What You Always Say
05 Then She Remembers
06 Halloween
07 When You Smile
08 Until Lately
09 Too Little, Too Late
10 The Days of Wine and Roses
11 [encore break]
12 Season of the Witch (Donovan)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Steve Wynn, visit his website, visit his MySpace page, and purchase his official releases from the Steve Wynn Store at his website.

Read more »

[photo by Matt, links to full resolution photos below]
[photo 1] [photo 2] [photo 3] [photo 4] [photo 5] [photo 6] [photo 7]

When we posted yesterday about the Dirty on Purpose gig at the McCarren Pool Afterparty, the day time pool bands were TBA for August 10. We did not realize that just a few hours later the bands would be confirmed for that date. Felice Brothers are the headliners, and our old friends Deer Tick are also on the bill.

We figure this is good time to offer a download of Deer Tick‘s (John solo) performance from the Bowery opening for Jaymay in June. This recording was captured by Matt from brooklynvibes, and he reports that John was very well received by the crowd who also included Jaymay in the audience for this set. To bring this post full circle, Jaymay also supported her friends in Dirty on Purpose with a guest vocal on “Like Bees” earlier this year.

Matt recorded this with his high end AKG microphones and the sound is spectacular. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

John McCauley of Deer Tick (Solo)
New York, NY
Bowery Ballroom
June 10, 2008

Taper: Matt Casey
Source: AKG 414’s> Sound Devices 702
Conversion: Matt Casey
Source: CF> USB> Wavelab (normalizing)> CDWAV (tracking) >FLAC

Setlist:
01 [introduction]
02 Straight Into A Storm > Spend The Night
03 Live Fast Love Hard Die Young (Faron Young)
04 Art Isn’t Real
05 Mexican Home (John Prine)
06 Baltimore Blues No. 1
07 The Ghost
08 Dirty Dishes
09 Little White Lies
10 Ashamed
11 Poor Poor Pitiful Me (Warren Zevon)
12 These Old Shoes

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Deer Tick, visit their website, visit their myspace page, and purchase the War Elephant release from Itunes, or emusic, or order it directly from Feow Records when its back in stock.

[photo credit]

Twelve hours after Bell opened the After The Jump Fest with a noon performance at Galapagos, Health tolled the midnight bell as the last band to perform at the Festival. Health’s percussive experimental noise rock ignited the exhausted crowd and closed the long day with an appropriate bang.

We recorded this set from inside the soundboard booth with our DPA microphones mounted to the soundproofed wall above the booth. The sound in this venue is always outstanding and this recording reflects that quality. 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].

Health
2008-06-21
After the Jump Festival
Music Hall of Williamsburg
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Inside Soundboard Booth

DPA 4021s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM Mod) > 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
2008-07-20

Setlist:
[Total time 31:11]
01 Zoothorns
02 Crimewave
03 Heaven
04 Tabloid Sores
05 Party Zone
06 Death+
07 Triceratops
08 Perfect Skin
09 Girl Attorney
10 Courtship

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Health, visit their myspace page, and purchase their official releases from the links at their website, or at the Health Cartel Store.

[photo courtesy of Dese’Rae L. Stage] [more of Dese’Rae’s excellent photos here]

If there’s anything predictable about The Fiery Furnaces, its their unpredictability. The touring band continues to morph and the arrangements of the songs continue to evolve. We knew this would be another interesting Furnaces show when the nearly eight-minute opening “Navy Nurse” began with two minutes of Eleanor’s new improv lyrics, followed by a brief Mozart interlude from Annabelle, before proceeding to the song proper.

Annabelle’s multitude of melodic percussion added a nice touch to the band’s sound, perhaps a bit more appropriate than the strong presence of Kyle Hollingsworth’s brief time with the Furnaces. The other band changes were the return of Michael Goodman on percussion and Jason Loewentein‘s absence (he’s literally on summer vacation). Additionally, Matt played guitar on about half the songs — the first time he’s played guitar live in several years.

The renovated East River Park Bandshell had a great atmosphere, with an LES vibe mixed with the river surroundings. The acoustics of the shell were quite good and the amphitheatre seating offered a fine view for all in attendance. We recorded from the front rail next to the soundboard and captured an excellent recording, compromised only by the hum of the generator during quiet moments. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Fiery Furnaces
2008-07-17
East River Park Bandshell
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Dead Center
Front of Board — Front Railing at 50 Feet

Neumann KM-150s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Monster XLR cables > Edirol UA-5 (Oade digimod) > 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
2008-07-19

Setlist:
[total time 1:25:27]
01 Navy Nurse
02 Up in the North
03 Duplexes of the Dead
04 Automatic Husband
05 Ex-Guru
06 Single Again
07 I’m In No Mood to Comb My Hair
08 Evergreen
09 Japanese Slippers
10 I’m Waiting To Know You
11 Chris Michaels
12 Straight Street
13 Slavin’ Away
14 Philadelphia Grand Jury
15 Tropical Ice-land
16 Pricked in the Heart
17 Blueberry Boat
18 In My Little Thatched Hut
19 [encore break]
20 Benton Harbor Blues

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Fiery Furnaces, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from The Fiery Furnaces Store.