Posts Tagged ‘ aquarium drunkard ’

Kevin Morby: October 24, 2014 Aquarium Drunkard CMJ Showcase, Rough Trade – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

December 1, 2014
By


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Expect to see Kevin Morby‘s outstanding 2014 release, Still Life, on many best-of lists here at year end. Since striking out on his own with Harlem River last year, the former Babies frontman and Woods member has firmly established himself as one of the most exciting songwriters of his generation. At Morby’s first solo show that we covered, Morby debuted several of the forthcoming Still Life tracks. Nine months later, Morby was at the Aquarium Drunkard showcase at Rough Trade ready to acquaint us with more of the new record. Though Morby arrived onstage last, after midnight, most of the crowd had stuck around to catch him, and he rewarded us with a poised set that showed his tour-worn comfort with the newer songs. He also played a classic number covered by one of our other favorite bands recently, Bill Fay’s “I Hear You Calling”. Morby’s sound congeals increasingly well with the West Coast move that in part prompted his solo breakout; his songs feel like a breeze blowing across your face as you lie on the hood of a car in a beach parking lot, staring at the coast. It was a fine way to end the night, not to mention this incredible showcase. Look for more material from it to come, joining this and the Ryley Walker set already posted.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 supercardiod microphones set up in our usual position in the venue. As it was the end of the night, and the soundboard feed was inadvertently turned off during this set, there is a bit more crowd chatter on this one than the other sets from the night, but the sound quality is nonetheless excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show: 

Kevin Morby
2014-10-24
Rough Trade NYC
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41 (DFC, PAS, at SBD)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (exciter effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (tracking, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 44:56]
01 Reign
02 Sucker In the Void (the Lone Mile)
03 Harlem River
04 I Hear You Calling [Bill Fay]
05 All of My Life
06 Amen
07 Miles, Miles, Miles
08 If You Leave And You Marry

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Kevin Morby, visit his website, and buy his releases from Woodsist.

Ryley Walker: October 24, 2014 Aquarium Drunkard CMJ Showcase, Rough Trade – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

November 21, 2014
By

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[photos by acidjack]

It seems only appropriate to post a recording of Ryley Walker on the heels of one by the great Hiss Golden Messenger. These two artists represent among the very finest of their time, separated by a generation but potentially on very similar career trajectories. The two are also likely to have a lot of overlap in fans, because those drawn to authenticity, a canny understanding of their musical past, and honest songwriting are likely to find good company with these two. My first experience with Ryley Walker — playing with a full band at the Hopscotch Music Festival — also mirrored my first live experience with HGM two years before. Here, at the Aquarium Drunkard CMJ showcase at Rough Trade, Ryley proved himself alone (with a supporting bassist for part of the set). More to the point, Ryley proved himself an unmitigated master of his art, far beyond his years in poise and style.

Most CMJ sets tend to be truncated versions of artists’ “best stuff”, run through in perfunctory fashion to get the most bang for the buck in terms of setlist. Walker saw things differently, leading off with a twelve-minute, spine-tingling “Summer Dress” that equaled about a third of the set. That time wasn’t wasted, either, as Walker soared on improvised vocal runs that took the song beyond the singer-songwriter realm into something spiritual, his voice becoming its own instrument rather than the mere vessel of lyrics. As with the bulk of the set in North Carolina back in September, this focused entirely on new material in lieu of Walker’s outstanding album of earlier this year All Kinds of You. That alone should say something about how prolific this artist is at this point. The ability of the young Chicagoan to distill such pain and emotion into his work is a humbling surprise, the kind of thing you’d never guess from the rest of his happy-go-lucky stage persona. This is a man possessed of rare gifts, and we cannot wait to see them brought to a wider world.

I recorded this set primarily with a soundboard feed by Rough Trade engineer Kameron Biehl, with a small amount of Schoeps audience microphones added for ambiance. Other than a few glitches with a DI during one song, the sound is excellent. Enjoy, and spread the word!

Thanks to Ryley Walker and Aquarium Drunkard for permitting the recording.

Download the complete show via the Live Music Archive: [FLAC] | [MP3]

Stream the complete show:

Ryley Walker
2014-10-24
Rough Trade NYC
Brooklyn, NY USA

Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Soundboard (engineer: Kameron Biehl) + Schoeps MK41 (DFC, PAS, at SBD)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (exciter effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (tracking, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Summer Dress
02 The West Wind
03 [banter1]
04 Primrose Green
05 [banter2]
06 Sweet Satisfaction

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Ryley Walker, like him on Facebook, and buy his records here.

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Hiss Golden Messenger: September 18, 2014 Rough Trade NYC (FLAC/MP3/Streaming)

September 19, 2014
By


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[photos by acidjack]

I have only seen Hiss Golden Messenger once before with a full band, a revelatory performance at the 2012 Hopscotch Music Festival. Since then, I have caught Mike Taylor several times in what one might call his de facto state, as the solo artist on his own, playing songs the way he did for his stripped-down, four-track album Bad Debt. In my time following Taylor’s work, I have come to see HGM as the embodiment of two different instincts — one, the band-leading artist drawing on his love of audience-pleasing, crowd-moving southern rock and gospel found in particular on Haw and Country Hai East Cotton; the other a man alone in a kitchen beside a sleeping baby, wrestling with his demons as the tape spools away like time. The challenge, and the reward, of Hiss Golden Messenger is the ability to reconcile those impulses.

This set at Rough Trade NYC, sponsored by Aquarium Drunkard, began with one of my all-time favorite HGM numbers, “Red Rose Nantahala” from Haw. As that song segued into the upbeat “Saturday’s Song” from Taylor’s Merge debut, Lateness of Dancers, it almost told the story of the latter-day band in two songs. The first finds Taylor pleading “Oh Lord, let me be happy” and “let me be the one I want”. The next, from an album that by all rights should take HGM to the “next level“, is a grown-up father’s song, about wanting to cut loose on the weekend, drink some whiskey, Sunday hangover be damned. The character in that song seems resolutely himself. Content at last, hangover be damned.

After that second song, Taylor slapped his guitar and noted that a Hiss Golden Messenger tour used to just be him and that single instrument (that’d be as recently as March, when he played a tour de force performance at Mercury Lounge). Today the band is a five-piece that features longtime collaborator Scott Hirsch on bass, Matt Douglas on saxophone, vocals and guitars, Megafaun‘s Phil Cook on keys, banjo and vocals, and Matt McCaughan (Rosebuds, Portastatic, Bon Iver) on drums. In some ways, the band reflects Mike’s changing circumstances, not only as a more known musician, but as an ever-more-firmly entrenched member of the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, North Carolina music scene whose players pop up as regularly on each other’s records as they do at one another’s shows. Lateness feels less like a purely Mike Taylor album and more like a Triangle music album circa 2014, at a time when the scene is flourishing in all sorts of ways, but also ever-more-mindful of its roots. It leans, then, more toward Mike’s country-rock and gospel impulses, and that’s a fine thing.

So when we heard the Poor Moon classics “Blue Country Mystic” and “Call Him Daylight” in this new configuration, they were part of the “dance portion” of the set, an entire concept new to HGM sets that I’ve seen. “Daylight”, in particular, became a twangier, country-funk number, and as Douglas’ sax breakdown hit, the most striking thing of all was that people actually did dance. I shook my head a tad at a reckoning with god inspiring that reaction in people, but when Taylor hit the song’s final, climactic verse, the chills were there. As far as southern rock-via-HGM goes, it’s hard to beat “Lucia” from Lateness, or the equally compelling “Raven (Snake Children” that followed. This was my first time hearing both of these songs live, and they seemed to benefit most from the band and this setup (which isn’t surprising, since these players recorded them). Similarly, the Lateness material I had heard live before — “Southern Grammar” and “Chapter & Verse” — sounded better-realized than ever.

In another sign that today’s HGM is a more collaborative effort these days, the show’s final song was played on the floor, unamplified, with Taylor and the band pressed in on all sides by fans, performing “Drum” as the crowd added its own percussion and sang along. “Take the good news / and carry it away”, the crowd sang, rendering Mike’s voice just one among many. Hiss Golden Messenger has grown from one man and one instrument to a true band, and the good news for us is, they’ve got many miles left to travel. “We’re going to play a lot of shows this year. I guess everybody up here needs to get ready for that,” Taylor told us earlier in the set. That goes for you fans out there, too — here are the current tour dates.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones at the soundboard and a stereo feed from house engineer Cameron. The sound quality is outstanding, though of course note that “Drum” was sung on the floor unamplified, so it sounds like that. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show: 

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Hiss Golden Messenger
2014-09-18
Rough Trade NYC
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK4V (inside SBD cage, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard (engineer: Cameron)>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, adjust levels, limiter)>Izotope Ozone 5 (light EQ, imaging, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks:
01 Red Rose Nantahala
02 Saturday’s Song
03 [banter]
04 Mahogany Dread
05 Day O Day (A Love So Free)
06 [banter2]
07 Busted Note
08 [banter3]
09 Blue Country Mystic
10 [banter4]
11 Call Him Daylight
12 [banter5]
13 I’ve Got A Name for the Newborn Child
14 [banter6]
15 Lucia
16 I’m A Raven (Snake Children)
17 [banter7]
18 Southern Grammar
19 [encore break]
20 Chapter & Verse (Ione’s Song)
21 [banter8]
22 Drum [played on the floor]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Hiss Golden Messenger, visit his website, and buy Lateness of Dancers from Merge Records and his other records from his shop. And see the band on tour.

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