Posts Tagged ‘ manhattan ’

Dirty Dishes: October 15, 2015 NYCTaper CMJ Party at Cake Shop

October 29, 2015
By

Dirty Dishes Cereal and Sounds
[photo courtesy of Cereal + Sounds]

The story of how the band Dirty Dishes came into being reads like something out of a Judd Apatow movie. The guy who vomits on the girl’s shoes at a party later calls to apologize and buy her new shoes, and eventually the two decide to start a band. The nagging question is why anyone would want to start a band with a shoe-puker — but after about thirty seconds of seeing Alex Molini play bass guitar the answer is obvious. The dude can flat out play. While Jenny Tuite’s lead vocals and melodic guitar lines are the centerpiece of the band, its the Molini bass presence that sets Dirty Dishes apart and are a large part of the reason why we invited them to our play our CMJ Day Party this year. The band had other gigs later in the evening so they needed to start early, which gave us the opportunity to see the band up close unfettered by the massive crowds that filled the Cake Shop basement later in the day. The Dirty Dishes set drew primarily from their 2015 release Guilty (Exploding in Sound Records) with two apparently new songs. It was the interplay between the band’s guitarists that impressed throughout and proves that no matter how you meet, its always a good thing to find your musical mate.

Dirty Dishes’ Fall Tour continues throughout November as the band travels through the East coast, Canada and the Midwest — all dates here. This tour includes a return to NYC for a show at Silent Barn on November 22.

Acidjack recorded this set in the same manner as the WOMPS set posted last week — Schoeps mounted on stage and mixed with a board feed. The sound quality is superb. 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, and feel free to repost the Soundcloud links.

Dirty Dishes
2015-10-15
NYCTaper CMJ Day Party
Cake Shop
New York, NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + On Stage Audience Matrix

Schoeps MK4V (onstage) > KC5 > CMC6 + Soundboard (engineer: Jeff) > Edirol R-44 [OCM] > 2x24bit/48kHz WAV > Adobe Audition (mix) > Soundforge (post production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Please support this excellent band:
http://dirtydishes.bandcamp.com/

Recorded by acidjack
Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 23:28]
01 Red Roulette
02 Guilty
03 All Of Me
04 Sick Sentiment
05 Thank You Come Again
06 Dan Cortez

If you Download this recording from nyctaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Dirty Dishes, visit their Bandcamp, and purchase their new album Guilty from Exploding In Sound Records [HERE].

Zs: September 8, 2015 Bowery Ballroom

October 26, 2015
By

zs_live_2012_hi-res
[photo from Zs website]

Our recent post of the great Greg Fox’s Hopscotch Festival duo set with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma reminded me that we had this Zs performance from September at Bowery Ballroom in the archives. The chance to go back and produce the recording gave me a second listen to what was at the time an excellent set but in retrospect is really one of the most astonishing shows we’ve seen all year. Zs opened this night for Thee Oh Sees (posted here), an odd pairing at first glance but one that gave band leader John Dwyer a chance to reunite with Zs founder Sam Hillmer after years playing in parallel music scenes. Sam founded Zs fifteen years ago, and while the band has been a fixture in the DIY scene since 2000, the personnel has morphed over the years. The current trio of Sam, Greg and guitar wizard Patrick Higgins has coalesced into a unique mix of noise, jazz, and avant to form a truly superb musical conglomeration. The band’s latest album Xe was released on the excellent local label Northern Spy in January to very strong reviews.

This performance at Bowery lasted less than an hour but kept the crowd transfixed for the entire set. For a 500-strong who came expecting some raging gararge rock, the powerful avant trio must have been a bit of a culture shock, but most picked up on the vibe pretty quickly. Zs worked through the new album in order, skipping only the opening track. The centerpiece of the set was the nearly nineteen-minute “Corps”, which gave each band member a chance to take center stage and showcase their immense talents.

Zs will be playing another local show at Palisades on November 20.

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, and feel free to repost the Soundcloud links.

Zs
2015-09-08
Bowery Ballroom
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 48:11]
01 [introduction]
02 Woolf Government
03 Corps
04 Weakling
05 Xe

If you Download this recording from nyctaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Zs, visit their website, and purchase their new album Xe from Northern Spy Records [HERE].

WOMPS: October 15, 2015 NYCTaper Unofficial CMJ Show, Cake Shop

October 19, 2015
By

womps2

We couldn’t have been happier to kick off this year’s NYCTaper Unofficial CMJ Show at Cake Shop with the band WOMPS. As any CMJ veteran knows, this quasi-festival can be a bit of a slog — tons of shows played at venues all over town in a compressed amount of time, often for no pay. Add to that that you’ve come all the way from Scotland to do it, and well, that’s not a recipe for a good attitude or a good performance. What a delight, then, that straight off the bat these young guys brought great songcraft and the party spirit to launch this day show. You probably haven’t heard of this band, as they’ve just a seven-inch to their name currently, but big things are expected: Right now, they’re considering offers from several labels for their already-recorded debut, for which no less than Steve Albini was behind the boards. It’s not hard to see why, as they’ve got an approachable garage-rock sound that wears its angst well. The highlight of the set for me was “Dreams on Demand,” with its tuneful hook and classic 90s sound (you can easily imagine on the radio on KROQ or the like back in those days). In their short career, they’ve shared stages with the likes of METZ, Cloud Nothings and UK breakouts Royal Blood, and the good folks over at NME are already on the case. So, WOMPS may not be a household word in the U.S. just yet, but get a taste now before we say we told you so.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones at the front of the stage, combined with a soundboard feed of mostly vocals from Cake Shop engineer Jeff. The sound quality is not quite what I’m sure Steve Albini has done on their debut, but it’s still great. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Stream the show [Note: “Live A Little Less” is not included as the track was partially cut]

WOMPS
2015-10-15
NYCTaper Unofficial CMJ Show
Cake Shop
New York, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK4V (onstage)>KC5>CMC6 + Soundboard (engineer: Jeff)>>Edirol R-44>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, fades, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, EQ, image)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 23:00]
01 Live A Little Less [fades in]
02 Ritalin
03 Cancer of the Bone
04 Another Cell
05 Plasticine
06 Dreams On Demand
07 Three Cheers

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT WOMPS, visit their website, and buy their 7″ here.

Luna: October 7, 2015 Bowery Ballroom – Flac/MP3/Streaming

October 14, 2015
By

Luna Dean Keim 2
[photos by Dean Keim]

Ten years ago Luna retired with a series of shows at the Bowery Ballroom that eventually became part of the documentary Tell Me Do You Miss Me. In their return for two shows last week the band were well aware of the connection, but in their infinite jest used the reference as inspiration for their usual relaxed and often hilarious banter. When a band feels like they’re playing in front of friends, the show tends to be a celebratory affair and that was exactly feeling on this Wednesday night. In terms of the setlist, Luna pulled out a few numbers that haven’t seen much rotation this tour — “Fuzzy Wuzzy” and “Anesthesia” among them, the latter of which we are streaming below. Its going to be a good time for Luna fans here at NYCTaper. After this Bowery show, we’ll also have at least two more recordings.

I recorded this set in our usual location at Bowery. The mix in the room was terrific and we supplemented that with a feed from the board that fortified the vocals. The result is a superb recording. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “Anesthesia”:

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, and feel free to repost the Soundcloud links.

Luna
2015-10-07
Bowery Ballroom
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer: Paul] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:28:48]
01 Chinatown
02 Going Home
03 Double Feature
04 Sideshow by the Seashore
05 California
06 Malibu Love Nest
07 Tracy I Love You
08 [banter – champagne cork]
09 Moon Palace
10 Lost in Space
11 [banter – different time]
12 Bonnie and Clyde
13 Bewitched
14 Friendly Advice
15 [encore break]
16 Fuzzy Wuzzy
17 Anesthesia
18 Twenty Three Minutes in Brussels
19 [second encore break]
20 Blue Thunder

If you Download this recording from nyctaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Luna, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the links at their website, from Bandcamp and the Long Players Box Set from Captured Tracks Records [HERE].

Destroyer: October 4, 2015 Webster Hall – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

October 6, 2015
By

destroyer-7
[photos by P Squared Photography]

With the newly-released double LP Poison Season, Dan Bejar, aka Destroyer, has absolutely outdone himself. His finest album to date, Poison Season is a lush exploration of Bejar’s psyche, the melancholia of his words a perfect compliment to the abundance of wistful, purposeful arrangements of strings and brass. But if you talk to long time fans, what impresses them most about Destroyer in 2015 is how incredible the live show has become.

This set at Webster Hall couldn’t have been better timed, coming on a Sunday night the day after Bejar’s birthday. His evident good spirits — buoyed by fans singing “Happy Birthday” in the crowd — elevated what already promised to be a memorable evening in front of a sold out crowd. Destroyer on this tour is a full eight-piece band capable of rendering even the most intricate Poison Season arrangements with beautiful detail, as Bejar swoops about the stage in his loose beige overcoat, microphone in hand. His songs, bathed in the soft rock and smooth jazz sounds of the 70s and 80s, have always existed apart from the current moment. It might be that — and the crystal-clear detail and wit of his lyrics — that makes Destroyer so memorable to fans. Rarely if ever do I see grown men singing along with the passion of teenage girls at a Dashboard Confessional show circa 2004, but that’s what Bejar inspired in more than a few pockets of this crowd. Compared to our last outing with the band, at Webster Hall in 2011, this set felt even more confident, complete and assured, with Bejar firmly in command of his vocals without the assistance of the backup singer he had last time. Poison Season is of course the star of this tour, but each night’s setlists bring gems from all over the catalog. In this case, for example: “Rubies” and “European Oils” from 2006’s Destroyer’s Rubies and of course, “Kaputt,” “Savage Night at the Opera” and “Chinatown” from 2011’s Kaputt, and “Shooting Rockets (From the Desk of Night’s Ape)” from the band’s 2008 record Trouble In Dreams.

This was one of those shows where there wasn’t a literal or figurative note out of place, as impressive a technical achievement in the live setting as the production of Poison Season is on the album. It’s hard to pick one or two moment of this over others; what mattered was the cohesion, the progression and the sense of straight-up rightness this set had with it. A band feeling their game, an adoring crowd who knows what they want and is loving getting it, and songs that either revealed new angles or rewarded those who’d studied them for years. Destroyer doesn’t tour often, making each one a treat. This particular outing continues down the East Coast and then on to the West Coast and Europe (check the dates here). However the rest of this goes, it’ll be hard to top this night in New York City.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed from Destroyer’s FOH (please send his name if you have it) and the Webster house engineer Raphael, combined with Schoeps MK41V supercardiod microphones. The sound quality is exceptional. Enjoy!

Thanks to Merge Records and Dan Bejar for permitting this recording. 

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

Stream the complete show:

Destroyer
2015-10-04
Webster Hall
New York, NY USA

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

Thanks to Merge Records and Dan Bejar

Soundboard (engineers: Raphael and [if you have Destroy engineer’s name, please send!]) + Schoeps MK41V (at SBD, DFC)>KCY>Z-PFA>>Edirol R-44>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (fades, align, mix down)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, compression)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:12:34]
01 Bangkok
02 Forces From Above
03 Savage Night at the Opera
04 European Oils
05 Sun In the Sky
06 Chinatown
07 Midnight Meet the Rain
08 Shooting Rockets (From the Desk of Night’s Ape)
09 Times Square
10 Poor In Love
11 Hell
12 Kaputt
13 Dream Lover
14 [encore break]
15 Girl In A Sling
16 Rubies

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Destroyer, like them on facebook, and buy Poison Season and their other records from Merge Records.

destroyer-26

Babes In Toyland: September 17, 2015 Irving Plaza – Flac/MP3/Streaming

September 22, 2015
By

babes-in-toyland-18
[photos by PSquared Photography]

We have become fairly experienced and well-versed in covering band reunions from the 1980s and 1990s. Whether it be everything from the huge (i.e. Dinosaur Jr.) or the fairly obscure (i.e Cap’n Jazz), these get-togethers seem to follow a basic course — older and wiser forty-somethings re-connect with old friends to play the music that made them great in their youth to older fans who re-live the experience and younger fans who were too young to be there back in the day. Given the blessings of hindsight and sobriety, the formula has been quite successful. For the most part, the reunited bands are tight, more focused and seemingly more appreciative of the experience. The Babes In Toyland reunion had been brewing for a couple of years and began with an announcement that Kat Bjelland and Maureen Herman had begun writing songs together again. When the duo ultimately reunited with drummer Lori Barbero, the band played its first show together in 14 years in Los Angeles in February with a couple of tours to follow. The wrinkle in this reunion occurred at the end of the first leg of the tour when the band amicably split with bassist Herman, whose goodbye message to the fans is one of the classiest breakup announcements we’ve ever read.

The good news about the Thursday Irving Plaza show arrived early in the week and that was the fact that the night was sold out. The crowd ended up being a nice mix of old punks and newer fans, but all of them brought the energy — the room was buzzing all night. New bassist Clara Salyer debuted with the band in late August and by Thursday, all three band members were truly in sync. Opening with a bang which never let up, Babes In Toyland worked through an hour-long set that touched on all of their original three albums, each song generating a sing-a-long from the crowd. We’re streaming “Oh Yeah!” and the single encore “Dust Cake Boy” which I believe were excellent versions of these songs, but really we could have streamed any song, as the show was that tight and well-played.

This leg of the tour is complete, but the band will return next month for more shows on the East coast and the South. Yesterday, Babes in Toyland announced another upcoming NYC show — on October 23 at Saint Vitus.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards mounted in the front center of the balcony and mixed with a superb board feed provided by the band’s FOH Rubes Harman. Our readers should be familiar with Rubes’ terrific mixes from some previous recordings at Baby’s All Right, and this mix is equally terrific. The result is that the sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “Oh Yeah!”:

Stream “Dust Cake Boy”:

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, and feel free to repost the Soundcloud links.

babes-in-toyland-26

Babes In Toyland
2015-09-17
Irving Plaza
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer Rubes Harman] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 59:15]
01 [introduction]
02 He’s My Thing
03 Bluebell
04 Ripe
05 Spit To See the Shine
06 Oh Yeah
07 [thanks]
08 Bruise Violet
09 Right Now
10 Swamp Pussy
11 Won’t Tell
12 [banter – Eliot]
13 Drivin
14 Ariel
15 Handsome and Gretel
16 Spun
17 [banter – Rockland]
18 Pearl
19 Vomit Heart
20 Sweet 69
21 [encore break]
22 Dust Cake Boy

If you Download this recording from nyctaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Babes In Toyland, visit their website, and purchase their official releases at your favorite retailer.

babes-in-toyland-2

Thee Oh Sees: September 8, 2015 Bowery Ballroom – Flac/MP3/Streaming

September 14, 2015
By

Thee Oh Sees 2
[photos by Will from We All Want Someone To Shout For]

I’ve been pronouncing Thee Oh Sees at one of the best live bands around for several years now. As our readers can now attest — since we’ve compiled a nice live archive of their NYC shows — this band is an aggressive, tireless, and a thoroughly committed live act. The band added a second drummer earlier this year and for recent shows, Thee Oh Sees are featuring the two percussionists side by side at center stage. The new configuration accentuates the rhythmic qualities of the band’s music, but make no mistake bandleader John Dwyer is still in the spotlight. The band is currently on an extensive Fall tour in support of their new release Mutilator Defeated At Last which for our money is one of the best albums released in 2015. These new songs have become quite familiar over the last year as we’ve watched their development live going all the way back to last Summer at McCarren Park and through a pre-release show at Hotel Vegas for SXSW. In between, last year’s Bowery show was our best sounding recording of the band thus far. Tuesday’s show mixed in the newer songs with older classics seamlessly, as the first eight songs rotated old and new but kept the crowd bouncing and jumping throughout. Thee Oh Sees even managed to slip what appeared to be three completely new songs into the setlist. We’re streaming the punky “Rogue Planet” from Mutilator and the final jam, a lengthy version of the oldest number of the night “Contraption/Soul Desert” which the band stretched for more than twelve minutes before bidding the sated crowd goodnight.

Thee Oh Sees also played two nights at Warsaw later in the week before continuing the tour throughout the South, dates here.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards mounted in the balcony and mixed with an excellent board feed provided by Bowery legend Kenny. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “Rogue Planet”:

Stream “Contraption/Soul Desert”:

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, and feel free to repost the Soundcloud links.

Thee Oh Sees
2015-09-08
Bowery Ballroom
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:21:08]
01 I Come From the Mountain
02 Tunnel Time
03 Poor Queen
04 The Dream
05 Turned Out Light
06 Tidal Wave
07 Toe Cutter-Thumb Buster
08 Withered Hand
09 [new song 1]
10 Dead Energy
11 Encrypted Bounce
12 [new song 2]
13 [banter – light]
14 Sticky Hulks
15 [new song 3]
16 Rogue Planet
17 Web
18 [banter – thanks]
19 Contraption – Soul Desert

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Thee Oh Sees, visit their website, and purchase Mutilator Defeated At Last from Castle Face Records [HERE].

Mac DeMarco: August 17, 2015 Bowery Ballroom – Flac/MP3/Streaming

September 3, 2015
By

Mac-Demarco-Bowery2
[photo by Geoffrey at According to G]

Three years ago Mac DeMarco was a newcomer to NYC and a brand-new signee to Captured Tracks records. At the time it was a bit of a puzzler, as the Canadian songwriter did not fit the label’s mold. His guitar-based songs showed very little Eighties influence and his goofy sense of humor didn’t quite fit with the stoicism of Captured Tracks’ other artists. Despite all that, his charm was undeniable and the songwriting was legit. Ultimately, the signing was prescient as Mac has become perhaps the label’s most successful artist on its roster. This Summer, DeMarco released a new EP Another One and as a special treat to his adopted city, Mac played a series of four local shows on consecutive nights at four different venues.

We caught the first of these four shows at Bowery Ballroom. Freshly back from having played Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, the band seemed to have picked up a bug on the cross-country flight as Mac confessed that he was running a fever at the outset of the night. But sick or not, Mac DeMarco delivered a highly entertaining show exactly as we expected. It was a ninety-minute run through the best of his material focusing on the new release (with a few goofy covers) while simultaneously impressing us with his musical ability and songcraft all while seemingly joking around at every turn. We are streaming the opening track from the new EP “The Way You’d Love Her”, and also one of Mac’s classic songs “Cooking Up Something Good”, but make sure to download the entire show at this night was a entertaining ride from start to finish.

Mac has a full slate of tour dates coming up, as he’ll be in Europe through September before returning to NYC for another local date at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester on October 10. After that, he’s touring across the US for a couple of months before finishing the year in Australia, all dates here.

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “The Way You’d Love Her”:

Stream “Cooking Up Something Good”:

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, and feel free to repost the Soundcloud links.

Mac DeMarco
2015-08-17
Bowery Ballroom
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:24:23]
01 [introduction]
02 [Broken String Jam]
03 The Way You’d Love Her
04 [I Need a Second Jam]
05 Salad Days
06 No Other Heart
07 The Stars Keep On Calling My Name
08 [banter – mandela effect]
09 Yellow [Coldplay]
10 Another One
11 Cooking Up Something Good
12 [banter – diseases]
13 Ode to Viceroy
14 Blackbird [Beatles]
15 Without Me
16 Just to Put Me Down
17 Let Her Go
18 Reelin’ in the Years [Steely Dan]
19 [banter]
20 I’ve Been Waiting for Her
21 A Heart Like Hers
22 Still Together
23 [encore break]
24 Enter Sandman [Metallica]

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Mac DeMarco, visit his artist page at Captured Tracks, and purchase his new EP Another One from Captured Tracks [HERE].

Eleventh Dream Day: August 21, 2015 Mercury Lounge – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

August 24, 2015
By

edd1

Eleventh Dream Day is one of those bands that you can’t believe never became more famous. The Chicago stalwarts — whose core includes singer/guitarist Rick Rizzo, bassist Doug McCombs (also of Tortoise and Brokeback) and drummer/singer Janet Bean (also of Freakwater), now joined by guitarist Jim Elkington (Tweedy) and keyboardist Mark Greenberg — have been at this since the 1980s, and are often hailed as the Midwest’s answer to Yo La Tengo. There’s some truth to that, to be sure, in terms of what their musical choices suggest about their record collections, as well as the more obvious female drummer comparison, but EDD put forth a harder-edged, more blue collar aesthetic than their NYC counterparts. Nobody ever tags the oft-heralded YLT as “underrated,” either. Like a lot of bands that got swept up in the post-Nirvana gold rush, Eleventh Dream Day weren’t so much “underrated” as “screwed over by major label incompetence,” but nobody is denying that they belonged on bigger stages. Unlike the majority of their peers who found themselves in the same spot they persevered, and even thrived, as part of the underground where they belonged in the first place.

EDD’s tour this year consisted of a scant four dates built around the members’ other commitments, and we were lucky enough to get one of them at Mercury Lounge. The vets are out flogging their latest release, Works For Tomorrow, which also has the distinction of being one of the very best among their deep catalog. The band came out swinging with the the album’s title track, followed by the new (and arguably album-defining) “Vanishing Point” and “Go Tell It” before heading into the hyper-political “The People’s History.” Bean and Rizzo’s interplay as vocalists works well, such as on the new “The Unknowing.” After that, we got one of the band’s older tracks, “Bagdad’s Last Ride” from 1989’s Beet. Before heading back into new material, the band treated us to one of the night’s two covers, this one the Wiper’s “Taking Too Long.” Fans of the old-school material had plenty to love in “Orange Moon” from 1994’s Ursa Major, whose dark lyrics seemed more deeply felt on this go than on the album original. The second cover, an rocked-up version of Judy Henske’s damaged-folk jam “Snowblind,” might well have been the night’s culminating moment, letting Bean match Henske’s gasoline-drinking vocals as the guitarists got some room to shred. It’s not really fair to call a band of this impact “Chicago’s Yo La Tengo.” Eleventh Dream Day are Chicago’s Eleventh Dream Day, and they did their home city and their fans proud with this one.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed from Dave Lefcourt, combined with Schoeps MK41V supercardiod microphones. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete show:

Eleventh Dream Day
2015-08-21
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Dave Lefcourt) + Schoeps MK41V (PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>>Roland R-26>2×44.1kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mix down, compression, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, imaging)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time: 1:09:25]
01 Works For Tomorrow
02 Vanishing Point
03 Go Tell It
04 The People’s History
05 The Unknowing
06 Bagdad’s Last Ride
07 Taking Too Long [The Wipers]
08 Deep Lakes
09 End With Me
10 Cheap Gasoline
11 [banter1]
12 Orange Moon *
13 [encore break]
14 Snowblind [Judy Henske]
15 Tarantula

* w/ Matt Rizzo

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Eleventh Dream Day, visit their website, and buy Works For Tomorrow from Thrill Jockey.

Mates of State: July 10, 2015 Bowery Ballroom – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

July 15, 2015
By

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Mates of State have been at this since 1997 — an eternity in music career terms, even more so when you consider how au courant their synthpop sound remains in 2015. Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel being married themselves, it’s no surprise that they’re an inspiration to their fellow couples, who comprised most of this Friday-night crowd at Bowery Ballroom. The band’s euphoric sound made a good match for the summer night, as they sailed around their catalog. The set hit its stride about three songs in, with “Staring Contest” from the newly-released You’re Going to Make It EP. After that, things didn’t slow down as the pair demonstrated why they’ve remained relevant for this long. If this live show didn’t quite have the polish of their albums, where the dual-sung verses can be synced and tone-aligned after the fact, it burst with the natural exuberance of the style and setting. Gardner and Hammer didn’t take many pauses as they ripped off this 19-song, 77-minute set rapid fire. My favorite of the numbers was probably “Get Better” from 2008’s Re-Arrange Us. The tempered hope of its conclusion (“Everything’s gonna get lighter / even if it never gets better”) is good advice for anyone.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed from longtime Bowery engineer Kenny and Schoeps MK4V microphones. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete show:

Mates of State
2015-07-10
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

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

Thanks to Martin Barna for the setlist

Soundboard (engineer: Kenny) + Schoeps MK4V>KCY>Z-PFA>>Roland R-26>2x24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, EQ)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time: 1:17:08]
01 So Many Ways
02 Palomino
03 Staring Contest
04 My Only Offer
05 The Re-Arranger
06 Gonna Get It
07 Whiner’s Bio
08 Parachutes (Funeral Song)
09 Now
10 Sides of Boxes
11 Get Better
12 Ha Ha
13 You Are Free
14 Like U Crazy
15 [banter]
16 Punchlines
17 Beautiful Kids
18 [encore break]
19 Hoarding It For Home [w/ Good Graeff]
20 Someone Like You
21 True Love Will Find You In the End

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Mates of State, visit their website, and buy their records from Barsuk Records.

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