[photo courtesy of Greg Aiello]

Its been almost three years since we last saw MGMT. That night they opened up for Fiery Furnaces at Music Hall, and MGMT was soon to sign with a major label and release their outstanding debut Oracular Spectacular (we bought a pre-release copy at their merch table that night). We recorded that 2007 show and passed along a copy to their management with good vibes all around. When the CD was released, accolades and popularity soon followed and the band ultimately received a grammy nomination earlier this year. I’ll admit to losing track of MGMT when they blew up, but a recent post on their Facebook page drew us back in — “we are not restricting audio recording all current shows”. Upon reading that invitation I couldn’t help but hope that their positive experience with our taping three years ago helped open their eyes to the positives of a pro-taping policy. As the band is now on tour to support their new release Congratulations, so I bought a ticket for last night’s show at Radio City. The most striking aspect of the night before the lights went down was the age (or lack thereof) of a large portion of the audience — many early teens and pre-teens with their parents. While I guess this is a sign of mass popularity — two sold-out shows at Radio City nothwithstanding — MGMT didn’t pander to the youth. In particular, “Siberian Breaks” is an eight minute song with downbeat lyrics and it appeared in the setlist immediately preceding their most popular number “Kids”. MGMT also took time to explore their psychedelic side as “The Handshake” contained a lengthy dissonant jam. In between, the band did serve up the songs to satisfy the crowd, as “Electric Feel” (sampled below) was the third song of the set. We left with the feeling that although MGMT is probably more popular than even they might have imagined, the band has not lost their focus nor do they cater to the mainstream.

I recorded this set from an excellent location in the venue with my best mobile rig. We are a bit disappointed in the level of the vocals in the house mix, but overall the sound is superb. Enjoy!

Stream “Electric Feel”:
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/M4530MGMT3429/03%20MGMT2010-08-17_nyctaper_t03.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

MGMT
2010-08-17
Radio City Music Hall
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Orchestra Section Row C

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 2010-08-18

Setlist:
[total time 1:40:54]
01 Pieces Of What
02 Brian Eno
03 Electric Feel
04 [banter]
05 Destrokk
06 Flash Delirium
07 Of Moons, Birds & Monsters
08 It’s Working
09 The Youth
10 Weekend Wars
11 Song For Dan Treacy
12 Time to Pretend
13 Siberian Breaks
14 Kids
15 Congratulations
16 [encore break]
17 Future Reflections
18 Someone’s Missing
19 The Handshake
20 I Found A Whistle

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT MGMT, visit their website, and purchase their CDs from the links at their website (HERE).

[photo courtesy of Devyn Manibo]

In the next few weeks, Real Estate will release a single that will again point their career arc upwards. “Reservoir” b/w “Out of Tune” will be released on True Panther Records and based upon the live performances of both songs we have heard, this single will be huge. In June at Music Hall, “Reservoir” was the untitled “new song” that we streamed and raved about. Now with a title, “Reservoir” is an irresistible upbeat number with a melodic guitar line and a relaxed vocals. “Out of Tune” has been the opening song for the last two Real Estate recordings we captured, and its slower with more of a 70’s vibe than its flipside. At Pier 54 on Thursday, both songs were on display, along with a completely new debut performance of a song preliminarily called “All The Same” during a nice forty-five minute opening set. The band continues to get tighter live and with this high quality new material on the horizon, Real Estate is going places. Those places include a tour with Deerhunter in October with a local date of Webster Hall on October 15.

I recorded this set under the same conditions as the Deerhunter recording, but the sound in the venue was clearer and more well-balanced during this set. Enjoy!

Stream “Reservoir”:
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/R2410RealEstate9229/06%20RealEstate2010-08-12_nyctaper_t06.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Real Estate
2010-08-12
Pier 54
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front Row
15 Feet From Left Stack

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 2010-08-16

Setlist:
[total time 47:28]
01 Younger Than Yesterday
02 Beach Comber
03 Pool Swimmers
04 Green River
05 Suburban Beverage
06 Reservoir
07 Out Of Tune
08 Art Fandelet
09 Suburban Dogs
10 [new song – “All The Same” debut]
11 Fake Blues

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Real Estate, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their releases from Woodist Records, Half Machine Records, and Underwater Peoples (currently sold out).

[photo by Anika]

Common Prayer released their debut album There is a Mountain on June 1 on Big Potato Records and have received rave reviews from diverse sources such as the BBC and Other Music. While the album is regarded as a superb “under the radar” release, Common Prayer is simply the latest project in the musical career of Jason Russo — founder and leader of psychedelic alt-rockers Hopewell, and one-time/sometime touring member of Mercury Rev. Russo and partner Alexandra Marvar recorded the album in England with help from the Bennett Brothers (of Truck Festival) and brother Justin Russo (Silent League) and the album maintains a friends and family appeal — Americana with a British countryside flavor. The live band includes Russo and Marvar with three additional players on drums, keys and vocals. At Rock Shop on Friday night, Common Prayer played a thirty-minute set of songs from album, along with one excellent cover. Jason is clearly the focus of the band, but all players were in unison throughout the relaxed set which captured the feel of the album while also adding a little live muscle to the material. Common Prayer will perform again at Union Pool on September 3, and then again at Glasslands on September 16.

I recorded this set as I had the two Rock Shop sets from last week (Sharon Van Etten and Tune-Yards) — a nice soundboard feed mixed with high-end microphones. This time I used the Neumanns. The sound quality is quite exceptional. Enjoy!

Stream “Us vs. Them”:
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/C1308Common1020/4%20CommonPrayer2010-08-13_nyctaper_t04.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Common Prayer
2010-08-13
The Rock Shop
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-08-15

Setlist:
[Total Time 32:44]
01 commonprayer
02 Marriage Song
03 Hopewell
04 Us vs. Them
05 Sara G
06 Of Saints
07 Free Air
08 Everything & More
09 Love –> Building on Fire (Talking Heads)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Common Prayer, visit their website, and purchase There is a Mountain from the links at their website.

[photo courtesy of Natasha Ryan]

The last time we saw Deerhunter, it was two years ago (at Music Hall) and the band was riding the success of Microcastle and performing as a five-piece band. Bradford and the band were relaxed and playing with more confidence than ever. In the intervening two years, Deerhunter has not been particularly active as a touring band, as Bradford has released an Atlas Sound album (and tour) and the band got busy recording the next album — Halcyon Digest due for release on September 28 on 4AD Records. Last night in the rain at Pier 54, Deerhunter returned to NYC as a four-piece and played a blistering guitar-heavy set that featured four new songs and several re-worked older numbers. Of note were the upbeat “Rainwater Cassette Exchange”, a long (eight minute) shimmering “Fluorescent Grey” (streaming below) and the completely rabid twenty-minute “Nothing Ever Happened” that devolved into a lengthy multilayered and looped guitar jam. Deerhunter means business with this more muscled approach and we expect that Halcyon Digest will be a superb new release.

This set was recorded with our mobile DPA rig from the first row on the rail, directly in front of the left PA stack at about 15 feet. The recording has an in-your-face directness and clarity, but the sound mix in the outdoor venue was spotty at times, and often over-modulated Bradford’s guitar. With those caveats, enjoy!

Stream “Fluorescent Grey”:
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/D9090Deerhunter8282/09%20Deerhunter2010-08-12_nyctaper_t09.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Deerhunter
2010-08-12
Pier 54
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front Row
15 Feet From Left Stack

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 2010-08-13

Setlist:
[total time 1:19:53]
01 Desire Lines
02 Hazel Street
03 Revival
04 Rainwater Cassette Exchange
05 Never Stops
06 Spring Hall Convert
07 Fountain Stairs
08 Wash Off
09 Fluorescent Grey
10 Helicopter
11 [encore break – loops]
12 Cover Me (Slowly)
13 Agoraphobia
14 Nothing Ever Happened / Jam

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Deerhunter, visit their MySpace page, visit the band blog, visit the Halcyon Digest page, and purchase Halcyon Digest when it is released by 4AD Records [here].

[Photos courtesy of Sarah Dinkz Lu]

Shark? closed out the Gaza Benefit Show this past Saturday on a strong note, the perfect prelude to another few hours of drinking.  If you had not been enjoying too many of “The Stoop” cocktails proffered at the bar, you would have noticed that despite the inevitable “lo-fi” tag earned by their Fear! (they love punctuation), Noise Maker and School Night! EPs, their live show is more straight-ahead rock, with frontman Kevin Diamond’s vocals out in front and not buried behind distortion.  More like The Feelies, less like Blank Dogs or The Black Lips, if you will.  The band covered surefire favorites from all of the aforementioned EPs, plus at least one song, “Slap Dash” that will hopefully appear on their fully Kickstarter-funded forthcoming full length album.   Gifted with a healthy sense of humor and an ability to distill songs to their tuneful, head-bobbing essence, Shark? should be fixtures on the scene (and maybe beyond) for awhile.  Just listen to the call and response of the main set’s closer, “Shark?” and the instantly catchy final number, “Tiny Violins”.   Imagine that music, a dark club (or maybe a backyard), a few beers, and a weekend ahead of you.  That, friends, is the simple pleasure of Shark?

I recorded this set in the same manner as the Soft Black recording, with a board feed for vocals and the mics right in front of the band, and the sound is excellent.  All songs are properly tagged for easy importing into iTunes.  Enjoy!

Stream “Tiny Violins”:
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/S2801Shark2211/Shark-TinyViolins2010-08-07.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Shark?
2010-08-07
Gaza Benefit Show
A Backyard in Bushwick
Brooklyn, NY  USA

An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

Equipment: DPA 4021 + stereo soundboard feed>Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) (24/44.1)
Position: Mics “onstage”, ORTF
Mastering: 2×24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (compress board track, mixdown, set fades, amplify and balance channels, light EQ, tracking, downsample to 16bit)>FLAC (level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 31:04]
01 I’m An Animal
02 [tuning]
03 Oh My!
04 You Don’t Love Me Anymore
05 Pipeline
06 Fear!
07 Slap Dash
08 Hey Grrl
09 I’ve Got Friends
10 Shark?
11 [encore break]
12 Tiny Violins

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Shark?, visit their MySpace page, and download their official EPs directly from Bandcamp (here).  And please, support the band when their forthcoming album is released as well!

Please also consider supporting the causes that were the reason for this show: UNRWA and the Free Gaza Movement.