Posts Tagged ‘ dc ’

The Messthetics: April 20, 2018 The Bell House

April 22, 2018
By

I guess you can’t really talk about the Messthetics without mentioning that the band features Fugazi’s rhythm section of Joe Lally on bass and Brendan Canty on drums, joined by jazz/experimental guitarist Anthony Pirog. But if you’re showing up to a Messthetics show looking for the second coming of Fugazi, you won’t be so much disappointed as woefully uninformed. Instead, you’ll find yourself in the midst of wrench-tight math rock, emphasis on the rock. Lally and Canty have been playing together pretty much forever at this point, and those guys don’t miss a beat. Pirog, a youngster in comparison, adds a fresh guitar sound to the mix, playing sometimes rhythmically and sometimes wildly. Their self-titled Dischord release is only a month old, but already the band brought with them four new songs in addition to playing the entirety of the album. They continue touring the U.S. through May, followed up by some Japan dates. Scope all those dates at the Dischord site.

I recorded this from dead center, with the MBHO’s in DIN stereo configuration, combined with board feed from the Bell House FOH Travis. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [FLAC/MP3]

The Messthetics
2018-04-20
The Bell House
Brooklyn, NY

Recorded and produced by Eric PH for nyctaper.com

Soundboard (engineer: Travis) + MBHO MBP603/KA200N (DIN, FOB, DFC) > Roland R-26 > 2 x WAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, balance, mixdown, normalize, fades) + Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (tracking, tagging) > FLAC (24/48, level 8)

Tracks [1:03:58]
01. Mythomania
02. Serpent Tongue
03. Quantum Path
04. Your Own World
05. The Inner Ocean
06. [New Song 1]
07. [New Song 2]
08. Once Upon a Time
09. Radiation Fog
10. Crowds and Power
11. The Weaver
12. [New Song 3]
13. [encore break]
14. [New Song 4]

Bandcamp

Soulside: December 17 and 18, 2014 Saint Vitus – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

December 22, 2014
By

soulside[video still via (((unartig)))]

It came with nearly no warning that Soulside announced their first shows in twenty-five years. The reunion was initially prompted by the release of the highly anticipated DC hardcore documentary, Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980–90). Announced first as a single date at legendary DC club The Black Cat to coincide with a screening of the film, the reunion quickly expanded to include two nights at Brooklyn’s Saint Vitus and an additional night at The Black Cat. The four shows sold out almost immediately with a bare minimum of hype and promotion.

Of the 1980s DC hardcore scene, Soulside are hardly the most well-known. Fugazi is, of course, the most visible of all those bands. Soulside often get pegged as followers of Fugazi, but in fact they were active years before Fugazi and the relationship between the two bands is less of one band following another and more of a cross-pollination within a community. After disbanding in 1989, lead singer Bobby Sullivan would take a break from music, later forming the bands Rain Like the Sound of Trains and Sevens. The rest of Soulside—Scott McCloud (guitar), Johnny Temple (bass), and Alexis Fleisig (drums)—would go on to form seminal noise rock band Girls Against Boys.

Twenty-five years to the day since the band’s final gig, Soulside took the stage at Brooklyn’s Saint Vitus. Over two nights, from the rumbling opening bass riff of “God City” to the lean punk of “Under the Glare,”  the band draws from their entire body of work. Many of us relative newcomers too young to have experienced Soulside during their initial run encountered the band via the CD collection, Soon Come Happy, which gathers the better known Dischord albums Trigger and Hot Bodi-Gram. Each of those albums is well represented here. From Trigger, which was recently reissued by Dischord and expanded to include the Bass • 103 single, we get some of Soulside’s signature tracks: “Baby,” “Trigger,” and “Name in Mind.” They play almost all of their final record, Hot Bodi-Gram, the highlights of which are “God City,” “Pembroke,” and the duo of “New Slow Fucky” and “New Fast Fucky.”

For longtime devotees—or simply those old enough and hip enough to have been there—“Under the Glare,” and “Lookin’ Around” date back to 1984 when the band was called Lunchmeat. And from the band’s first album Less Deep Inside Keeps, originally released in 1987 as a joint venture between Dischord and Sammich (another essential DC Hardcore label), they play “Pearl to Stone,” “Fresh Air,” “Other Side,” and a cover of Wire’s “Ex-Lion Tamer.”

Soulside is a band I never thought I’d see play live. And looking around at Saint Vitus each night, it was clear I wasn’t the only one. Most of the crowd didn’t look old enough to have seen the band during their initial run. But whether people were drawn to the band like I was, through Girls Against Boys, or whether people discovered them through the punk rock education that is the Dischord catalog, it was clear the songs still resonate. It was an absolute pleasure to get to see these guys perform together and I’m extraordinarily proud to have taped these sets.

I recorded these shows with a pair of AKG C480/CK61 cardioids set up in front of the soundboard, combined with a feed from Saint Vitus FOH, Nick. The sound in the room for both nights was excellent and these recordings reflect that. Enjoy!

Download the complete December 17th show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Download the complete December 18th show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete December 17th show:

Stream the complete December 18th 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.

Soulside
2014-12-17
Saint Vitus
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Soundboard (engineer: Nick) + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV(24/48) > Audacity 2.0.5 (mixdown, fades, EQ, amplify, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

Tracks [1:05:15]
01. God City
02. What Do You Know About That?
03. Punch the Geek
04. Baby
05. Trigger
06. Name in Mind
07. New Slow Fucky
08. New Fast Fucky
09. Bass
10. Under the Glare
11. X-Lion Tamer [Wire]
12. Lookin’ Around
13. Clifton Wall
14. [Encore Break]
15. War
16. Pembroke
17. A Love Supreme
18. Pearl to Stone

Soulside
2014-12-18
Saint Vitus
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Soundboard (engineer: Nick) + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV(24/48) > Audacity 2.0.5 (mixdown, fades, EQ, amplify, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

Tracks [1:04:26]
01. War
02. Pembroke
03. Trigger
04. Baby
05. Punch the Geek
06. Bass
07. New Slow Fucky
08. New Fast Fucky
09. Fresh Air
10. I Find the Other Side
11. Bad Show
12. Clifton Wall
13. A Love Supreme
14. [Encore Break]
15. God City
16. Pearl to Stone
17. What Do You Know About That?
18. Under the Glare

If you enjoyed these recordings, PLEASE SUPPORT Soulside—like them on Facebook and buy the Trigger reissue from Dischord.

Mike Doughty: November 22, 2013 9:30 Club (DC — 2 sets) + November 23, 2013 Webster Hall – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

November 25, 2013
By


IMG_6292
[photos by acidjack]

Mike Doughty promised to reimagine some of the favorites he wrote with Soul Coughing, and with a successful PledgeMusic campaign, he made it happen. The new LP features brand-new arrangements that hew closer to the vibe of Doughty’s solo work, with more straight singing and less of the scatty sing-speak that he popularized as “M Doughty” back in the Soul Coughing days.

Doughty has refused to play Soul Coughing songs live for years; his book documents his animosity toward his former bandmates and his perception of how and why the band ended. When he played an acoustic doubleheader at City Winery earlier this year, it was the first time I had seen Soul Coughing material live since the late ’90s.

You don’t have to buy into, or agree with, Doughty’s perspective on the band’s breakup to enjoy the new-old songs. If you were a fan of the band in its heyday, it won’t take long to remember how infectious and unusual many of these songs were. From their breakout hit “Super Bon Bon” to their big hit “Circles” to Ruby Vroom’s standout “Screenwriter’s Blues”, this sound hasn’t been replicated by anyone. It was Doughty’s, and his bandmates’, alone.

We are offering three shows in this post: First, an exclusive “VIP” acoustic performance of five songs prior to the main set at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC; second, that night’s main set, where Doughty paid a much-deserved and touching tribute to the deceased longtime 9:30 Club fixture Josh Burdette, the kind of person that, if you have ever been to that club, you would remember. Finally, we have a homecoming performance at NYC’s Webster Hall, which due to my failure to charge my preamp, is missing the last few songs. It and the 9:30 Club set are fairly similar.

The acoustic set is the best example of where Doughty is musically today — you hear him deliver some powerful renditions of both his solo stuff and Soul Coughing material in a manner that he grew more comfortable with over the past decade-plus. It’s heartfelt and reflective, more personal than any Soul Coughing performance ever came across.

The Soul Coughing material presents a different challenge. You have a performer who used to be known for spastic, hyperkinetic performances in his 20s, backed by musicians from a variety of disciplines, trying to redefine that material in a newer, more mature image. Soul Coughing shows were just that — shows — and some songs’ delivery covered up some of the original arrangements limitations. In some instances, these “re-imagined” Soul Coughing songs felt the way Doughty said in The Book of Drugs that he wanted them — leaner and meaner, with fewer distractions. “Unmarked Helicopters”, from the X-Files soundtrack, certainly makes that argument, as do, among others, songs like “True Dreams of Wichita” and “Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago”. “St. Louise is Listening” highlights its essential opening lyric when Doughty’s smoother arrangement is deployed.

In other cases, the reimagination becomes more of an adjustment: Without the classic bass line once played by Sebastian Steinberg, a song like “Super Bon-Bon”, with its mad flow and seemingly random lyrics, is no longer what it was. Absent the classic loop credited to Mark De Gli Antoni on “Screenwriter’s Blues”, Doughty’s lyrics have a different cast than they did in the original. That said, that Doughty dared to mess with his original success on this album is a credit to his growth in the past 13 years. As a fan of both his solo work and Soul Coughing, I think I speak for more than myself that we always hoped to hear some of his ’90s work alongside his current material. So, Mike — thank you.

DC-based friend of the site Kubacheck recorded both of his sets with MBHO cardiod microphones. My recording from Webster Hall was made with Schoeps MK4V microphones in a mobile fairly close to the stage. We have streaming tracks and full downloads of each, and all three are excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “Fully Retractable” from the 9:30 Club acoustic set: 

Stream “St. Louise Is Listening” from the 9:30 Club

Stream “True Dreams of Wichita”

Download the 9:30 Club acoustic set from the Live Music Archive: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Download the 9:30 Club main set from the Live Music Archive: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Download the Webster Hall set from the Live Music Archive: [MP3] | [FLAC]

IMG_6257

Mike Doughty
2013-11-22
9:30 Club
Washington, DC USA
[VIP acoustic set]

Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded by kubacheck
Produced by acidjack

MBHO KA200N>MBP603a>Naiant adapter>Naiant Tinybox>Roland R-05 (24/48)>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (adjust levels)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter)>>Audacity 2.0.3 (tracking, amplify, additional level adjustments, parallel compression, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 Sunken-Eyed Girl
03 Fully Retractable
04 [tuning/banter]
05 No Misfortune
06 27 Jennifers
07 American Car
________________

Mike Doughty
2013-11-22
9:30 Club
Washington, DC USA
[Main set]

[same info as acoustic set]

Tracks [Total Time: 1:23:11]
01 [intro]
02 Is Chicago Is Not Chicago
03 Sugar Free Jazz
04 Bus to Beelzebub
05 The Idiot Kings
06 Unmarked Helicopters
07 Lazybones
08 Screenwriter’s Blues
09 Uh, Zoom Zip
10 Mr. Bitterness
11 Soft Serve
12 How Many Cans?
13 Monster Man
14 True Dreams of Wichita
15 St. Louise Is Listening
16 [banter]
17 Moon Sammy>So Far I Have Not Found the Science>Moon Sammy
18 Super Bon Bon
19 [encore break]
20 Janine
21 Circles
________________
Mike Doughty
2013-11-23
Webster Hall
New York, NY USA

Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK4V (FOB/DFC)>KCY>tinybox v2>Sony PCM-D50>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (tracking, amplify, additional level adjustments, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time: 54:11]
01 Is Chicago Is Not Chicago
02 Sugar Free Jazz
03 Bus to Beelzebub
04 The Idiot Kings
05 Unmarked Helicopters
06 Lazybones
07 Screenwriter’s Blues
08 Uh, Zoom Zip
09 Mr. Bitterness
10 Soft Serve
11 Monster Man
12 True Dreams of Wichita
[rest of show cuts]

If you enjoyed these recordings, PLEASE SUPPORT Mike Doughty, visit his website and buy his record of Soul Coughing songs reimagined there.

The Dismemberment Plan: October 18, 2013 Terminal 5 – FLAC/MP3/Streaming Full Set

October 21, 2013
By


the-dismemberment-plan-62
[Photos courtesy of Sean O’Kane for Bowery House List]

Before Pitchfork anointed The Dismemberment Plan‘s third LP Emergency & I as the best album of 1999 (and there were some good ones that year), The Plan were a quirky, well-loved cult band from Washington, DC, but they were hardly a household name even among dedicated indie fans. I first saw them in 1996, around the time of release of !, their first record, when their sound was at its most freeform and spastic. The bill was The Plan, first, then Smart Went Crazy, then Archers of Loaf. Even in that eclectic company, I remember my main impression of The Dismemberment Plan being this band is weird. That late-90s Pitchfork crew weren’t kidding when it came to extolling the band’s uniqueness. They were also right when they foretold the Plan’s influence on a number of sounds that would come to commercial fruition in the coming decade. None of that benefited the band itself much (of course), but all you R&B and dance-copping indie bands of the aughts, you can tip your hats now, thanks.

The Dismemberment Plan, in the end, were way too weird to make it “big” in the way bands of the era like Modest Mouse somehow managed to. However refined the pop technique on Emergency & I and its worthy successor, Change, this was still not a band that fit will onto “alternative” radio or manning huge festival stages. In the same way that cult faves like Neutral Milk Hotel now sell out venues three or four times bigger than what they played during their halcyon days, it felt really weird to see The Dismemberment Plan playing the Bowery Presents‘ midtown behemoth Terminal 5 (albeit with the top balcony closed). But after seeing the band in action in that space, I think I’d sold them short. The band’s four members had more room than they needed on the huge stage, but the sound they put out was massive yet focused enough to give T5 a feel reminiscent of their old club shows. The band — frontman Travis Morrison in particular — not only looks like they’re still on their game, they sound like it.

That’s another critical distinction between The Dismemberment Plan and certain other ’90s acts taking their victory laps. This show wasn’t some nostalgia trip or “one time only” reunion. Rather, The Plan were here for a purpose, promoting their new Partisan Records release Uncanney Valley, an album that’s been well-received to date and stands to add several new standout tracks to the live show. The set opener, “Invisible” was one of my favorites, as was the melancholy, “Daddy Was A Real Good Dancer”. The record grew out of the band’s reunion shows for the Emergency & I vinyl release, after the four discovered they had new ideas to explore. The hope is that Uncanney Valley is the beginning of a new phase, not the end.

Of course, for those nostalgic for older stuff, this 90-minute set hit pretty much all the biggest highlights. For me, that meant “The City”, “You Are Invited” and “What Do You Want Me To Say” from Emergency & I, “Time Bomb” and “The Face of the Earth” from Change, and “OK Jokes Over” from !, among many others. But the set closer — “Ice of Boston” from The Dismemberment Plan Is Terrified, that made for the most Dismemberment Plan-moment of all, as Morrison invited the crowd to join the band onstage. Not every band can turn a song about a cold, depressing New Year’s Eve drinking alone in Boston into an edifying rave-up. But then, no other band is quite like The Plan.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 microphones and a super-clean Sound Devices preamp to capture the maximum amount of clean, direct sound. The recording is excellent. Enjoy!

Thanks to The Dismemberment Plan, their management team, Partisan Records and the Terminal 5 staff for making this possible.

This NYCTaper recording is being hosted on the Live Music Archive.  You can stream the entire show by clicking the song titles below or download it via the links provided.

Direct download of the entire show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the entire show:

the-dismemberment-plan-32

The Dismemberment Plan
2013-10-18
Terminal 5
New York, NY USA

Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41 (BOB, DFC, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2>Sony PCM-D50>24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter)>Audacity 2.0.3 (fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:33:56]
01 Invisible
02 Time Bomb
03 [banter1]
04 Mexico City
05 Spider In the Snow
06 Lets Just Go To the Dogs Tonight
07 The Face of the Earth
08 The City
09 [banter2]
10 No One’s Saying Nothing
11 A Life of Possibilities
12 Follow Through
13 Do the Standing Still
14 [banter3]
15 White Collar White Trash
16 [banter4]
17 You Are Invited
18 Ellen and Ben
19 Daddy Was A Real Good Dancer
20 What Do You Want Me To Say?
21 [banter5]
22 OK Joke’s Over
23 [encore break]
24 Lookin’
25 [banter6]
26 Waiting
27 Ice of Boston

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT The Dismemberment Plan, visit their website, and buy Uncanney Valley from Partisan Records.

the-dismemberment-plan-82

The Caribbean: June 5, 2011 Mercury Lounge – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Song

June 18, 2011
By

carribean
[Photo by acidjack]

No, there is nothing tropical about The Caribbean. Hailing from Washington, D.C. (not exactly Antigua, by any stretch), this experimental pop trio has been putting out their challenging brand of music since 1999, after the DC bands Townies and one of my personal favorites, Smart Went Crazy, imploded. Their latest record, Discontinued Perfume, continues the band’s tradition of marrying traditional softcore indie rock songwriting to jazz and ambient textures. If you want fist-pumping, major-chord-driven rock, keep moving – The Caribbean aren’t interested in delivering the big hooks and immediate melodies that drive today’s car-commercials-first mainstream. Theirs is a style that rewards repeat listens and a little deep thinking. Lucky then, that we caught them on a very subdued Sunday night at the Mercury Lounge, where we had a chance to fully appreciate the band’s set without distraction. The material from Discontinued Perfume was the focus, and it deservedly stood out, including the closer (and one of the catchier songs on the record), “The Clock Tower.”

hi and lo and I recorded this set from our usual location in the venue with Schoeps supercardiod microphones running into an ultraquiet preamp. This is an excellent capture, especially thanks to the use of the high end preamp and the respectful crowd. Enjoy!

Stream “The Clock Tower”:
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/C6500Caribbean2011/09 The Clock Tower.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [MP3]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Follow acidjack on Twitter

The Caribbean
2011-06-05
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

An acidjack master recording
Recorded by acidjack and hi and lo for nyctaper.com
Produced by acidjack

Equipment: Schoeps Mk41>CMC6>EAA PSP2>Sony PCM-M10 (24/44.1)
Position: At soundboard, ROC, mics PAS
Mastering: 24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify and and balance)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Collapsitarians
02 Artist In Exile
03 [unknown]
04 Do You Believe in Dinosaurs?
05 Mr. Let’s Find Out
06 [tuning]
07 Supply Lines
08 [unknown]
09 The Clock Tower

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Caribbean, visit their website, and buy their records directly from Hometapes [HERE]

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