Posts Tagged ‘ Matador Records ’

Spiral Stairs: June 23, 2017 The Bell House

June 27, 2017
By


[Photos by Rocketman]

It’s been nearly a decade since we’ve had new music from Scott Kannberg/Spiral Stairs—but the long wait is justified as his new album Doris and the Daggers is his best since Preston School of Industry disbanded in 2004. We caught up with Spiral Stairs for the first of his two night NYC stand and were rewarded with eighty minutes of tunes off the new record, plus some Pavement and Preston School of Industry favorites. If you needed reminding of Spiral’s crucial contributions to the former, the song selection here—“Date with IKEA,” “Kennel District,” “Passat Dream,” “Hit the Plane Down,” and “Two States”—will emphasize that Pavement had two major songwriters. For my money, I enjoyed hearing a couple from the criminally underrated Preston School of Industry, the wonderfully-lackadaisical “Whalebones” (which ranks up there with his signature Pavement compositions) and “Caught in the Rain.” (As an aside, there are quite a few PSOI tracks I’d still like to hear the Spiral Stairs band play live, like “Somethings Happen Always” and “Falling Away.”) But back to Doris and the Daggers: so many reviews have focused on the maturity of the record, which makes it sound overly serious. Spiral Stairs may be older and singing about real life, but he’s still doing so with a wink and smile and his penchant for an opaque but resonant turn of phrase.

I recorded this with the mics set up at the board in DIN stereo configuration, which I then combined with a board feed from the Bell House’s FOH David Hurtgen. A special thanks goes out to David for loaning me a mic stand so I could make this recording for you all. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Spiral Stairs
2017-06-23
The Bell House
Brooklyn, NY

Recorded and produced by Eric PH for nyctaper.com
Photos by Rocketman

Soundboard (engineer: David Hurtgen) + AKG C480B/CK61 (DIN, ROC) > Zoom F8 > 2 x WAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, mixdown, balance, compression, normalize, fades) + Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (tracking, tagging) > FLAC (24/48, level 8)

Tracks [1:18:31]
01. Flesh and Blood [Roxy Music]
02. Dance (Cry Wolf)
03. No Comparison
04. Exiled Tonight
05. Trams (Stole My Love)
06. Date with IKEA [Pavement]
07. Kennel District [Pavement]
08. Emoshuns
09. Dundee Man
10. Passat Dream [Pavement]
11. Hit the Plane Down [Pavement]
12. Whalebones [Preston School of Industry]
13. Caught in the Rain [Preston School of Industry]
14. Angel Eyes
15. Hypnotized
16. Two States [Pavement]

Buy Doris and the Daggers at the Spiral Stairs website
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Lee Ranaldo: January 22, 2017 Park Church Co-op

January 26, 2017
By

For all the reasons I need not repeat here, protest music is perhaps more vital now than at any other time in my lifetime if not everyone’s. Lee Ranaldo’s engagement with Occupy Wall Street has been well documented; and it was around that time that he started performing Neil Young’s classic “Revolution Blues” regularly at shows. Coming off inauguration weekend, I think we can safely call all of the songs Ranaldo performed last Sunday protest music, each song imploring us in its own language to “resist, resist, resist, resist.”

Wrapping up his two-week tour with Meg Baird and Steve Gunn (Steve’s set here, Meg’s set here), Ranaldo showed up at Park Church Co-op with a slew of new material (some of which we’ve heard before), plus covers of The Velvet Underground’s “Ocean” and the aforementioned Neil Young tune. Will the help of a few friends—left to right in the above photo that’s Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan, Lee, and Steve—the glorious crescendo of “Ocean” is as overwhelming as the lyrics’ crashing waves suggest. These days, we need art not only for protest but also to uplift, and this performance is nothing if not uplifting. Closing with “Revolution Blues,” Lee is joined by Steve Gunn and Meg Baird, both on guitar and vocals, Alan Licht on guitar, and Georgia Hubley on drums. We’ve heard Lee do this song a few times now, but trading verses with Meg the forty-year-old song and its lyrics feel refreshing as we listen with new ears.

I recorded this set from my improvised tapers section in front of board, combined with a feed from Park Church’s engineer Jasno Swarez. The sound is excellent. Enjoy—and resist!

Download: MP3/FLAC

Stream:

Lee Ranaldo
2017-01-22
Park Church Co-op
Brooklyn, NY

Recorded and produced by Eric PH for NYCTaper.com

Soundboard [engineer: Jasno Swarez] + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, compression, mixdown, normalize, fades) + Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [1:03:44]
01. Moroccan Mountains
02. Let’s Start Again
03. Circular
04. Electric Trim
05. [Uncle Skeleton intro]
06. Uncle Skeleton
07. Thrown Over the Wall (w/Alan Licht)
08. Last Looks (w/Meg Baird)
09. [Ocean intro]
10. Ocean [The Velvet Underground] (w/Alan, Steve Gunn, Georgia Hubley, and Ira Kaplan)
11. [Revolution Blues intro]
12. Revolution Blues [Neil Young] (w/Meg, Alan, Steve, and Georgia)

• Website
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• • • Buy Lee Ranaldo and the Dust records from Matador

And then, please consider donating to local organizations that support freedom and fair treatment for all, such as the New York Civil Liberties Union and the New York Immigration Coalition.

Steve Gunn: January 22, 2017 Park Church Co-op

January 25, 2017
By


[Photo via @laurencebuisson]

Steve Gunn needs little introduction in these pages. We’re big fans—and no doubt you are too. Steve has been touring the US and Canada the last couple weeks along with Meg Baird and Lee Ranaldo, the trio making up the first must-see tour of 2017 and spreading some much needed solidarity, positive vibes, and resistance in these unfortunate times. The final weekend of the tour found them playing Washington, DC on the night of the inauguration, Philadelphia the night of the next day’s massive and exhilarating marches, and wrapping up Sunday night in Brooklyn at the Park Church Co-op. The success of the weekend’s protests had people feeling pretty hopeful by Sunday night and this solo set from Gunn feels great all the way through. Seeing him solo and in a smaller, less formal space than December’s Bell House gig brought back happy memories of the days when you could regularly catch Gunn doing an intimate set at Zebulon.

I recorded this set from in front of board, combined with a feed from Park Church’s engineer Jasno Swarez. The sound is excellent. Enjoy—and resist!

Download: MP3/FLAC

Stream:

Steve Gunn
2017-01-22
Park Church Co-op
Brooklyn, NY

Recorded and produced by Eric PH for NYCTaper.com

Soundboard [engineer: Jasno Suarez] + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, compression, mixdown, normalize, fades) + Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [60:52]
01. [Intro]
02. Old Strange
03. Milly’s Garden
04. Way Out Weather
05. Ark
06. Night Wander
07. Park Bench Smile
08. [Wildwood intro]
09. Wildwood
10. Mr. Franklin

PLEASE SUPPORT STEVE GUNN: Go to matadorrecords.com or your local record store and buy Eyes On the Lines and the recent “Ancient Jules” EP. 

And then, please consider donating to local organizations that support freedom and fair treatment for all, such as the New York Civil Liberties Union and the New York Immigration Coalition.

Dead Meadow: May 13, 2016 Saint Vitus

June 27, 2016
By

Dead Meadow
[photos courtesy of P Squared Photography]

For many of us who grew up on indie rock, Dead Meadow was our introduction to psych/stoner/metal/whathaveyou, owing to a few early aughts tours with the likes of Stephen Malkmus and Sleater-Kinney (among others), and putting out records on indie-rock-label-of-record Matador. In those opening slots, Dead Meadow’s long, plodding nods seemed out of place—it’s only years later that the connected headspace between acts has become obvious. Dead Meadow is among the best at what they do and I’m sure many a thirty-something psych-freak owes at least some of their formative taste to the band. We last caught up with Dead Meadow in 2014 at the Bowery Ballroom, and the intervening couple years saw another change of drummers. But the core of the band and what they do is still there, the proof being this career-spanning set they cooked up for the second of a two-night stand at Saint Vitus.

I recorded this set from our usual location in the venue with a board feed from Dead Meadow’s FOH (if anyone knows his name, please let us know so we can credit him). The sound is outstanding, and you’re guaranteed to enjoy this one!

Download: [MP3/FLAC]

Stream:

Dead Meadow
2016-05-13
Saint Vitus
Brooklyn, NY

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

Soundboard + AKG C480B/CK61 (PAS, LOC) > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, compression, mixdown, normalize, fades) + Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [1:24:49]
01. [Intro]
02. Greensky Greenlake
03. Babbling Flower
04. To the One
05. Mr Chesty
06. Golden Cloud
07. Let It All Pass
08. What Needs Must Be
09. Good Moanin’
10. Keep Your Head
11. Rains in the Desert
12. Sleepy Silver Door
13. At Her Open Door

• Visit their Website
• • Shop the Dead Meadow store (once they’re back from touring)
• • • Connect with the band on Facebook

Dead Meadow

Thurston Moore Group: April 28, 2016 Rough Trade NYC

May 1, 2016
By

Thurston Moore Group

Thurston Moore’s post-2011 career has cycled through a few different styles and band names, from the solo-credited, introspective Demolished Thoughts to the punk-rock Chelsea Light Moving, then solo again with The Best Day for which the band toured as Thurston Moore Band, now the Thurston Moore Group. At least that’s how they were billed for last week’s stop off at Rough Trade NYC. But despite the fluidity of the band’s name, the lineup still includes Steve Shelley on drums, James Sedwards on guitar, and Debbie Googe on bass. Their followup to The Best Day is due out this year, making this Thurston’s longest-running post-Sonic Youth lineup. And it’s surely a good thing that this band has found their groove, as the material is also some of Thurston’s strongest.

Initially an intimate warmup for the band’s appearance at the Levitation Festival—scheduled for this past weekend but unfortunately canceled due to bad weather—this instead became a one-off gig that found the band relaxed enough to try out some material new and old. From The Best Day, they play  “Speak to the Wild” and “Germs Burn” (dedicated to Darby Crash). New songs from the forthcoming Rock and Roll Consciousness include a few we saw last year: “Cease Fire,” “Turn On,” “Aphrodite,” plus the newest, the twelve-minute highlight “Exalted.” Returning to the stage for four encores, the band digs back to Psychic Hearts for a few classics we haven’t heard in a while: “Psychic Hearts,” “Ono Soul,” “Staring Statues,” and “Pretty Bad.” “Ono Soul” gets stretched into a longer noise tribute, similar to the epic, sidelong Caught on Tape version recently released on Three Lobed’s Parallelogram set.

Late breaking news: the Thurston Moore Group will play an extra special set tonight (May 1st) at Baby’s All Right, with Lee Ranaldo opening. Tickets are only 15 bucks and are on sale now!

I recorded this set from our usual location in the venue with a board feed from Thurston’s FOH, Jack. The sound quality is absolutely outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Thurston Moore Group
2016-04-28
Rough Trade NYC
Brooklyn, NY

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

Soundboard (engineer: Jack) + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, compression, mixdown, normalize, fades) + Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [1:29:46]
01. Speak to the Wild
02. Cease Fire
03. Turn On
04. Germs Burn
05. Aphrodite
06. Psychic Hearts
07. [encore break]
08. Exalted
09. [encore break]
10. Ono Soul
11. [encore break]
12. Staring Statues
13. [encore break]
14. Pretty Bad

Support Thurston Moore: Website | Buy The Best Day from Matador | Preorder the lastest Sonic Youth archival release, Spinhead Sessions, via Midheaven.

Car Seat Headrest: October 15, 2015 NYCTaper Unofficial CMJ Show, Cake Shop

December 4, 2015
By

car seat headrest cereal sounds
[Photo courtesy of Cereal + Sounds]

Twenty-two year old Will Toledo, who performs as Car Seat Headrest, is one of those songwriters whose skill actually matches his high level of output and obvious ambition. That’s a clear reason how, at a young age, and after already writing, performing and producing eleven albums (!!!) on his own on bandcamp, he’s found himself signed to Matador Records, where he’s about to release Teens of Style. Lest you dump this music in the category of mumbly lo-fi bedroom recordings that we’ve all seen a hundred times before, I’d point you to the very first song of this set at our NYCTaper Unofficial CMJ Show, “The Ending of Dramamine,” which was fourteen minutes of off-kilter pop-inflected rock reminiscent of bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Cars and R.E.M. Or there’s how Toledo, prior to his affiliation with a “big time” label, had already sold 25,000 copies of those bandcamp-only releases. Oh, and those earlier efforts weren’t made in a bedroom — the story goes that the only place Toledo could find peace and quiet to record was the family car, hence the band name.

Toledo’s songs are lyrically dense, at times funny, at times teenage-confessional, unflinchingly honest. We were excited that Matador offered us the chance to have this artist close our show, because Teens of Style has already appeared on many best-of lists since its October 30 release. All of these songs appeared in some form prior to Teens of Style, but expect to hear brand-new versions of the last three — “Times To Die,” “Something Soon” and “Oh! Starving” — on that record. In the meantime, enjoy these right-on live performances, and expect much more to come, including a show on December 5 at Baby’s All Right.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones in front of the stage and a soundboard feed from Cake Shop engineer Jeff. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Catch them at Baby’s All Right on December 5. Get tickets here.

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Car Seat Headrest
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 30:19]
01 The Ending of Dramamine
02 Times To Die
03 Something Soon
04 Oh! Starving

If you enjoyed this recording, check out Car Seat Headrest’s bandcamp page, and buy Teens of Style from Matador Records.

 

Lee Ranaldo: November 13, 2015 Trans-Pecos

November 16, 2015
By

Layer 3CM2
[photo by Fred Riedel]

Over the years, we’ve seen Lee Ranaldo and his backing band, The Dust, in a variety of settings. Most have been small clubs, but this Trans-Pecos performance is the most intimate of all not because of its setting but due to the intimate format of the acoustic set. Though billed as a solo gig from Ranaldo, it turned out he brought along Dust-bandmates Alan Licht (who we caught doing his own solo set over the summer) and Raul Fernandez. Nearly every song is accompanied by a contextualizing story that illustrates just how personal each of these songs is for Ranaldo. Four new songs join the well-known tracks off Between the Times & the Tides and Last Night on Earth, followed by a rousing cover of Neil Young’s “Revolution Blues” in celebration of Neil’s recent birthday. That cover underscores the similarities between Ranaldo and Young, both guitar-weilding storytellers who effortlessly pull off the roar and the quiet, sometimes simultaneously.

This show wraps up Lee’s U.S. tour, but he has some upcoming dates in Europe. Those are listed here.

I recorded this set with the AKG’s set up at the lip of the stage, combined with a board feed from Pecos FOH, Chris. The results are excellent. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete show:

Lee Ranaldo
2015-11-13
Trans-Pecos
Queens, NY

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

Soundboard (engineer: Chris) + AKG C480B/CK61 (stage lip) > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, compression, mixdown, normalize) > Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (fades, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [1:30:58]
01. Let’s Start Again
02. Right as Rain
03. [tech break]
04. [new song]
05. Off the Wall
06. Key/Hole
07. [banter]
08. Skeleton
09. Xtina as I Knew Her
10. Home Chds
11. Ambulancer
12. The Rising Tide
13. Lecce, Leaving
14. Revolution Blues [Neil Young]

Support Lee Ranaldo: Website | FacebookBuy Lee Ranaldo and the Dust records from Matador

Yo La Tengo: October 10, 2015 Kings Theatre

October 18, 2015
By

yo-la-tengo-4
[Photos courtesy of P Squared Photography]

A Yo La Tengo show in New York always feels like a family affair, even if held in the sprawling, gorgeous new Kings Theatre in Flatbush, Brooklyn. (If you haven’t seen this space, it’s so spectacular that it might make the Beacon Theater blush). This tour’s format — an all-acoustic performance that highlights the band’s recent partial-covers album, Stuff Like That There — also lent it that air, as the band clustered together with ample space to spare, surrounded by artwork made by friends and family, plus the friends and family staring back at them from the audience. With this band, you can always count on the unexpected, so while of course they played their new “single,” a cover of The Cure’s “Friday, I’m In Love,” along with other highlights of the record like their covers of Darlene McCrea’s “My Heart’s Not In It” and Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Butchie’s Tune,” and the brand-new songs “Rickety” and “Awhileaway,” their set was more surprises than sure things.

I’d assume the band’s longtime friends in Antietam were floating around in the audience somewhere, so Yo La Tengo rewarded us with a cover of that band’s “Naples.” Okay, fine, maybe one would have anticipated that — but who would have thought the band would follow the ultra-quiet new number “Awhileaway” with a cover of the Minutemen’s “Corona”? And later, as if in a nod to us noiseniks who can’t live without the band’s extended improvisational songs, they gave us an acoustic version of “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind.” Of course, Stuff Like That There isn’t the band’s first covers-based album, so they of course had to take us back to the Fakebook days, including an excellent rendition of “Yellow Sarong” by The Scene Is Now. “Our Way To Fall” was as lovely as always, ending the main set on a subtle note. Of course the band came back, and of course it was with another excellent cover, this time Devo’s “Bottled Up,” with James taking his first vocal turn of the night. But the show’s final two numbers that will probably go down as its key moments, as the night’s opener, the famed English musician and songwriter Nick Lowe, joined the band for “Walk Away Renee” and his own song, “Rollers Show.”

As Georgia Hubley handles the vocals on many of the band’s quiet numbers, this format gave her a more prominent role. Added to the band’s arsenal for this tour is longtime partner Dave Schramm on second guitar, while James McNew ably tackled the stand-up bass. The soft/loud dynamic has traditionally been as essential to this band’s sound as their encyclopedic music knowledge, so the choice of an all-acoustic show — following a 2014 tour that had one full acoustic set before the “loud” second set — is a bit of a detour, but I can’t say I’m surprised that it worked. We’ll call this journey to the mellower side of YLT an unqualified success.

I recorded this set with the invaluable assistance of the band’s engineer Mark Luecke and the Kings Theatre staff. The recording is Mark’s mix combined with Schoeps MK41V microphones, and the sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the complete set: [MP3/FLAC/Apple Lossless]

Stream the complete set:

Yo La Tengo
2015-10-10
Kings Theatre
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Mark Luecke) + Schoeps MK41V>KCY>Z-PFA>>Edirol R-44>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (patch first song, align, mix down, amplify, balance)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, image)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Special thanks to Mark Luecke for his assistance and the patched audience portion of the first song.

Tracks
01 Tried So Hard [Gene Clark]*
02 Automatic Doom [Special Pillow]
03 Rickety
04 My Heart’s Not In It [Darlene McCrea]
05 Double Dare
06 Naples [Antietam]
07 Deeper Into Movies
08 Butchie’s Tune [Lovin’ Spoonful]
09 Awhileaway
10 Corona [Minutemen]
11 Today Is the Day
12 Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind
13 Can’t Forget
14 [banter]
15 Here Comes My Baby [Cat Stevens]
16 Friday I’m In Love [The Cure]
17 Yellow Sarong [The Scene Is Now]
18 Ohm
19 Our Way To Fall
20 [encore break/artwork intro]
21 Bottled Up [Devo]
22 [Nick Lowe intro]
23 Walk Away Renee [The Left Banke]&
24 Rollers Show [Nick Lowe]&

* no soundboard for first 1:20; audience mics are patched from the band’s source
& with Nick Lowe

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, and buy Stuff Like That There and their many other fine releases from Matador Records.

yo-la-tengo-26

Steve Gunn: April 1, 2015 Baby’s All Right – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 5, 2015
By

IMG_1102

Steve Gunn is having a blockbuster spring, having signed recently to Matador Records, and announcing that he’ll be joining Wilco on their spring tour. Gunn’s music has been one of building slowly but methodically as he nurtured different aspects of his talent, from his early solo work, to his partnership with John Truscinski on two outstanding records, to his second solo phase represented by Time Off and Way Out Weather, two fine records that have launched him onto the bigger stages he deserves. This show at Baby’s All Right represented the end of Steve’s recent tour with the “Way Out Band” comprised of site favorite Nathan Bowles on drums, Jason Meagher on bass, and Paul Sukeena on guitar, and it may be the last proper club show for Gunn for a while.

While Steve’s tours have been increasingly turning up newcomers, there to see what the buzz is about, this show was all about the hometown crowd, with the front rows lined with Steve’s personal friends and musical associates, alternating love and tipsy-but-gentle heckling. The set reflected the mood, with the band serving up long-form, loose versions of Time Off and Way Out Weather regulars. “Old Strange” set the tone, with its hypnotic opening riff, and the songs that joined it kept up its feel, with Gunn and Sukeena trading guitar lines while Bowles and Meagher kept the beat. If the slightly different band (trading Sukeena for Jim Elkington) at the 2014 Rough Trade show felt like a band growing into itself, this one was that almost-same group spreading its wings, even more road-confident than when they returned to the area back then. “Street Keeper” was a new addition I hadn’t heard at recent NY shows, making this a winner setlist- as as well as performance-wise.

You can catch Steve Gunn this spring with Wilco; please show up early and make him feel welcome in those large arenas!

Kevin Mazzarelli mixed this live set and recorded various tracks to Pro Tools; I mixed and mastered them. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete set and download individual tracks:

Steve Gunn
2015-04-01
Baby’s All Right
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and live engineered by Kevin Mazzarelli
Produced by acidjack

6 digital soundboard tracks + Audio Technica 4051>Pro Tools>8x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mix down, hard limiter, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total time: 57:14]
01 Old Strange
02 Water Wheel
03 [banter]
04 Wildwood
05 [banter2]
06 Milly’s Garden
07 [banter3]
08 Street Keeper
09 [banter4]
10 Way Out Weather
11 Tommy’s Congo

Band:
Steve Gunn – vocals, guitar
Paul Sukeena – guitar
Jason Meagher – bass
Nathan Bowles – drums

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Steve Gunn, visit his website, and buy his albums, all of which have “buy” links here.

IMG_1081

Yo La Tengo: December 6, 2014 Trocadero Philly – Flac/MP3/Streaming

December 10, 2014
By

YLT 1
[photos by Max Sall]

This show represents the only time this year that I saw Yo La Tengo live. You have to go back nearly a decade to find a calendar year when I saw the band only once. The band went out on a little mini-tour in celebration of their official 30th anniversary as a band and also in support of a new release called Extra Painful — a reissue of their classic 1993 album Painful packed with a bunch of bonus material. So since the two Town Hall shows were not conducive to recording, I made a roadtrip in the pouring rain to Philadelphia and back. The Trocadero is a converted old theatre right in the heart of Philly’s Chinatown District and its just a few blocks from the Franklin Bridge — an easy in and out of the City. Although the Troc has two balconies and an official capacity of 1200, it definitely has an intimate vibe perhaps since the actual floor is fairly small. But intimate or not, we’re used to seeing Yo La Tengo amongst “friends” at some fairly small-ish places, so there was a definite “road” feel to this show. As YLT shows go, this one had pretty much everything you could ask for including some rare nuggets (“Empty Pool”, “Demons”), special guests (Tara Key early, and full Antietam later), plenty of noisy stuff, and an absolutely ear-crushing “Story”. We are streaming a standout version of “Drug Test” that began with a (separately tracked) false start but like in so many of those situations with a “start over”, the band totally nailed it on the re-do. Yo La Tengo currently has no scheduled dates, but we’re hoping that we get more than one chance to see them live in 2015.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps mounted in the front of the soundboard booth and mixed with a superb feed provide by the band’s longtime and legendary FOH Mark Luecke. As with most YLT recordings, there are level issues — the quiet songs are whispers and the noisey songs are loud as heck — so there are some minor artifacts from my editing to create a more consistent level throughout. Ultimately the sound quality is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “Drug Test”:

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

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.

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Yo La Tengo
2014-12-06
Trocadero Theatre
Philadelphia PA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer Mark Luecke] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wavs > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:57:56]
01 Cherry Chapstick
02 Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House
03 Super Kiwi
04 [banter – Tara intro]
05 Demons
06 Mr. Tough
07 [dedication to Richard Evans]
08 If It’s True
09 [banter – 30 years]
10 The Empty Pool [Yung Wu]
11 The Whole of the Law [The Only Ones]
12 The Summer
13 [banter – XPN]
14 I’ll Be Around
15 Big Day Coming
16 We’re An American Band
17 [false start]
18 Drug Test
19 Sugarcube
20 Ohm
21 The Story of Yo La Tango
22 [encore break]
23 Today Is The Day
24 [banter – Antietam intro]
25 Orange Song [Antietam]
26 [thanks]
27 What Can I Say [NRBQ]

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