Posts Tagged ‘ philadelphia ’

Spacin’: December 14, 2014 Glasslands – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

January 27, 2015
By

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Spacin‘ were the right kind of band to see in my last time at Glasslands. Live, they’re not a fussy bunch: They take the stage, launch into their thing, and sear your ears without pretense. They’re not guaranteeing an upscale kind of rock show; this lo-fi Philly band is guaranteeing a good time. Likewise, even in its quasi-DIY last incarnation, Glasslands was never trying to be a slick-sheened rock club. Glasslands wanted you to feel welcome as soon as you got in the door, and to have a blast.

Although this was a different formation than the Spacin’/Purling Hiss beast I saw at Hopscotch a few months earlier, Spacin’ played several numbers from that set as well as some others I have come to know well. The band’s cover of MC5’s “American Ruse”, heavily retooled in Spacin’s image, is always a high point. As that eight-minute rocker wound down, the band segued into a psychedelic intro that led into the bread-and-butter mid-set of “Human Condition” followed by “Sunshine No Shoes”. For the band’s moment on the Glasslands stage, they played the appropriate-enough “Empty Mind”, with its heavy-chugging bass line and ample opportunity for exploration.

Even if we won’t be able to visit Glasslands anymore, the spirit of the place will live on elsewhere. Where there are bands and fans in need of a real home, a place where you feel less like a customer and more like a welcome friend, there will be right-minded people there to fill that gap.

I recorded this set with our installed sound system at Glasslands and a soundboard feed by Josh Thiel. The sound quality is quite good and much better than the Spacin’/Hiss set earlier this year, but it’s still gritty enough not to confuse anyone what this is about.

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

Stream the complete set:

Spacin’
2014-12-14
Glasslands
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Josh Thiel) + Naiant X-R (PAS, DFC)>Roland R-26>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mix down, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, harmonic exciter, imaging)>Audacity 2.0.5 (tracking, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Over Uneasy
02 American Ruse [MC5]>
03 Human Condition
04 Sunshine No Shoes
05 Empty Mind

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Spacin’, check them out on Facebook, and buy their album Deep Thuds from Midheaven Mailorder.

Antietam: December 6, 2014 Trocadero Philly – Flac/MP3/Streaming

December 16, 2014
By

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[photos by Max Sall]

As are their friends, Antietam is also celebrating a 30th anniversary of sorts this year. As bassist Tim Harris noted, Yo La Tengo’s first ever show was also Antietam’s third show and the two have lived virtually parallel lines ever since. Each are a trio anchored by a married couple. But in the case of Antietam, they are clearly not as prolific as YLT (including a hiatus of several years) and as a result the band members lead regular lives. Tara Key is by day a librarian at Columbia University and when not playing in the band she’s a world class pinball wizard by night. But when Tara straps on the Gibson and takes the stage with Antietam, she, Tim and drummer Josh Madell are a well-oiled machine led by the incendiary guitarist. At the Trocadero, Antietam opened for YLT and played a superb forty-five minute set of material new and old. They were joined at times by vocalist Sue Garner and on “Hands Down” by YLT’s Ira Kaplan (streaming below). Ira has performed on the original recording of the song, and when these two bands play on the same bill there is always appropriate collaboration — Tara later joined YLT for a song on which she has played on the original recording. Antietam’s set began when the venue was not entirely full but as the set gained momentum the crowd filled and reacted with increasing enjoyment. In particular, the last four songs beginning with “Sunshine” were absolutely ripping and Tara’s guitar play dominated the room much to the delight of the crowd.

I recorded this set in the same manner as the Yo La Tengo set — Schoeps and a fine board feed provided by the Troc’s excellent house FOH. The empty spaces in the room early in the set created a little echo that was easily removed with some gentle EQ, and ultimately the sound quality of this recording is superb. Enjoy!

Stream “Hands Down”:

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.

Antietam
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 44:54]
01 Time Creeps
02 1-2-1
03 Breathe
04 Satisfied
05 Right Between Your Eyes
06 Bird Watching
07 Sunshine
08 [banter – Ira intro]
09 Hands Down
10 Clarion
11 Stowaway

If you download this recording from NYCTaper we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Antietam, visit their website, and their blog, and their Facebook page, and purchase their official releases from Carrot Top Records [HERE].

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]

If you download this recording from NYCTaper we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, and purchase the Extra Painful reissue from Matador Records [HERE].

Purling Hiss: October 23, 2014 NYCTaper CMJ Day Show, Cake Shop – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

October 28, 2014
By


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[photos by acidjack]

Purling Hiss, the scuzz-rock project of Philadelphia-based guitarist/songwriter Mike Polizze, has emerged from his early records’ soup of fuzz with the band’s best-recorded, best album of righteously weird rock n’ roll, appropriately titled Weirdon. We couldn’t have been happier as longtime fans to feature this band as the headliner of our annual unofficial CMJ day show at Cake Shop, where the Hiss gave us thirty minutes of the most badass shredding we saw all weekend. Appropriately enough, we first caught the band opening for fellow Philadelphian Kurt Vile, another artist who has cultivated his early sound into something still-vital but more accessible to the masses.

A set like this shows you another thing, which is that while Weirdon is certainly Polizze’s most complete song cycle yet, it’s as much a triumph of production as evolved songwriting. When you hear a Hiss classic like “Run From the City” next to some of the best new numbers like “Forcefield of Solitude” and “Learning Slowly”, you realize just how much the aesthetics of a recording actually do matter, even in the earbud age. Despite a CMJ-typical truncated set time, Polizze and the band put everything into what they had, with Polizze on his knees bent over his guitar at several points in front of a crowd that, in the best Cake Shop tradition, was practically on top of him. Closing out with the very early PH song “Almost Washed My Hair”, Polizze drew a straight line from then to now. To hear the live version below is to realize that, if you weren’t, you should have been on this bandwagon from day one.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones mounted just in front of the band on the ceiling, plus Clint’s excellent soundboard feed of the house mix. The sound quality makes this likely our best Purling Hiss recording. Enjoy!

Purling Hiss plays more New York dates, including this Wednesday at Death By Audio, and Friday night at 338 Moffat.

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

Stream the complete show (you can also download the MP3s from the Soundcloud page):

Purling Hiss
2014-10-23
NYCTaper CMJ Day Party
Cake Shop
New York, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK4V (stage lip)>KC5>CMC6 + Soundboard (engineer: Clint)>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, compression, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (light EQ, exciter)>Audacity 2.0.5 (tracking, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 30:26]
01 Mercury Retrograde
02 Forcefield of Solitude
03 Rat Race
04 Airwaves
05 Learning Slowly
06 Run From the City
07 Where’s Sweetboy
08 Almost Washed My Hair

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Purling Hiss, like them on Facebook, and buy Weirdon directly from Drag City.

The War on Drugs: September 4, 2014 Hopscotch Music Festival, Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh, NC (FLAC/MP3/Streaming)

September 8, 2014
By



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[photos by acidjack]

The Hopscotch Music Festival, held in Raleigh, North Carolina, has made it five years — not quite an eternity in a world of corporate music festivals like SXSW and Lollapalooza, but a rare achievement for an organically grown festival in a “midsize market” that has proven over and over that they are willing to take chances. Hopscotch is the festival willing to put a heavy metal band on its largest, outdoor, downtown stage on its Saturday night, rather than a more accessible mainstream act.  Hopscotch dedicates entire venues, at various times, to genres like experimental noise, ambient, thrash, black metal, and indie hip-hop. It is hosted in a city whose good humor and kindness borders upon unreal, sprawled across a fast-growing downtown, and unlike the best-known festival that attempts to use an entire city’s music venues as part of its sprawl, it opens everything to everyone, not reserving entry to “the big stuff” for the connected and the corporate.

Hopscotch, then, has much in common with The War on Drugs. I’ll make this bold claim now: they are the best rock act who has released an album this year. They didn’t get to that point quickly, or with flash, or with marketing, or even at times with buzz, though we did our best over here at this site. Three years ago, we caught them opening at Bowery Ballroom for Sharon Van Etten, another artist whose acclaim grew slowly on the back of honesty and hard work. This band grew on the back of the validity of their mission, the honesty of their approach, and their hard, hard work. Just like Hopscotch.

Adam Granduciel’s herculean writing and arranging on Lost In the Dream is well documented. He has applied that same intensity to the expanded live show for this tour, which we first caught on back to back dates in March, including the band’s rather hyped cover of “Mind Games”. Not every band’s play for the big time might include a bunch of double-radio-length songs, but not every band is The War on Drugs. What we got here at Raleigh’s Lincoln Theatre was a set that resembled some of what we heard back in March, including the expanded band that includes Jon Natchez on keyboards. A packed and somewhat chatty room got to see the band joined by local music maven Brad Cook of Megafaun on “Ocean” followed by a searing rendition of “Red Eyes” and closing the main set on the album’s title track. The highlight of the encore was another rare cover, Bill Fay’s “I Hear You Calling”, which ended my first night of Hopscotch in exactly the right way. If you don’t see another act this year, go see The War on Drugs, a band whose heart matches their massive sound, bound for the arenas they deserve.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 supercardiod microphones at the soundboard rather than our preferred spot in Lincoln Theatre that is a bit closer. Due to technical issues a soundboard feed was not available, and there is some enthusiastic audience chatter on this that makes the sound inferior to the two recordings from March, though still quite good. Plenty more Hopscotch recordings will be coming 0ver the next month or so as well. Keep your eyes on this space.

This recording is now hosted on the Live Music Archive.  Download the complete show via these links: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream “I Hear You Calling” [Bill Fay]

Stream the full set:

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.

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The War on Drugs
2014-09-04
Hopscotch Music Festival
Lincoln Theater
Raleigh, NC USA

Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41 (DINa, at SBD)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (fades, mix down, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:32:48]
01 Burning
02 Comin’ Through
03 Eyes to the Wind
04 Under the Pressure
05 In Reverse>
06 An Ocean In Between the Waves
07 [banter]
08 Brothers [with Brad Cook of Megafaun]
09 Baby Missiles>
10 Suffering
11 [banter2]
12 Red Eyes
13 Lost in the Dream
14 [encore break and segue music]
15 Disappearing
16 Your Love Is Calling My Name
17 I Hear You Calling [Bill Fay]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT The War on Drugs, visit their website, and buy Lost In the Dream from Secretly Canadian. 

Marah: July 26, 2014 XPonential Music Festival, Marina Stage (Camden, NJ) – FLAC/MP3/Streaming Full Set

August 15, 2014
By

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[photos courtesy of WXPN]

Marah‘s latest album, Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania, represents an audacious turn for the Philadelphia-based roots rock band, as the band decided to bring folk songs discovered in the 1930s screaming into the 21st century more or less intact (you can read more in our post from last month, here). For a band willing to do that, I guess having a ten-year-old join the band as a permanent member — on fiddle as well as guitar no less — seemed like an achievable feat.

If part of this audience at the XPonential Music Festival, presented by WXPN, came to take in the novelty of watching young Gus Tritsch take the stage, they stayed because he and the band were setting the entire outdoor Marina Stage on fire. In addition to rockified versions of the Mountain Minstrelsy songs, the band served up classics from their catalog like 2000’s “The Catfisherman” and the acoustic “City of Dreams”, about vocalist David Bielanko’s hometown of Philadelphia. As with the Bowery Electric show, we got to experience some of the band’s fiercest jamming on the hard-charging version of “Rattlesnake” transformed a great deal from the short-but-sweet album version into an epic sendoff. 

I recorded this set with a flawless soundboard feed from the local engineer Tom, combined with Schoeps MK5 microphones flying back at the board. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT RADIO – DONATE TO WXPN HERE

Direct download of complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the full set:


Marah
2014-07-26
XPonential Music Festival, Marina Stage
Camden, NJ USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Tom) + Schoeps MK5c (PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mix down, adjust levels, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (tracking, fades, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 [WXPN Intro]>Highlander intro
02 A Melody of Rain
03 The Catfisherman
04 Limb
05 [banter1]
06 City Of Dreams
07 Barstool
08 Ten Cents at the Gate
09 Rattlesnake

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Marah, visit their website, and purchase Marah Presents Mountain Minstrelsy from the Merchandise link at their Website [HERE].

Dave Hause: July 26, 2014 XPonential Music Festival, Marina Stage, Camden, NJ (FLAC/MP3/Streaming Full Set)

August 6, 2014
By


hause1
[photos courtesy of WXPN]

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT RADIO – DONATE TO WXPN HERE

Dave Hause is the quintessential hometown hero. A veteran punk and hardcore player, most famously with The Loved Ones, which he co-founded, Hause has aged gracefully into a thrilling second act as a grown-up-but-still-rocking songwriter, whose punk-tinged blue collar anthems were the perfect way to end the day on the Marina Stage at the XPonential Music Festival in Camden, NJ, presented by WXPN. Hause had more friends in the audience than just about anyone at the festival, and he rewarded us with outstanding renditions of his latest work, focused especially on his 2013 record Devour. 

To experience Hause live is to take a trip down Thunder Road, to revel in cathartic major-chord rock. The passion in Hause’s voice is matched by his incisive lyrics, such as those on “The Great Depression”, an anthem for the victims of modern economic collapse. Part of what makes Hause’s approach so appealing is that, even when the story being told is a sad one, the exuberance of Hause’s delivery claims the listener’s interest and holds it. Hause closed the set with “The Shine”, where he sings:

Cause we don’t stutter when we sing
Our melodies grow little wings
Huddled here grinding tears into red wine
Meet the darkness with the shine

No matter how you felt when you arrived that day, Hause left you feeling right. His are the perfect words to be sung by a Philly musician on the banks of Camden, a Mid-Atlantic town verging on despair, but grasping, as ever, for hope.

I recorded this set with a flawless soundboard feed from the local engineer Tom, combined with Schoeps MK5 microphones flying back at the board. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

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

Stream the full set:

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. Please feel free to re-post the Soundcloud links.

hause2

Dave Hause
2014-07-26
XPonential Music Festival, Marina Stage
Camden, NJ USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Tom) + Schoeps MK5c (PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mix down, adjust levels)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, compression, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (tracking, fades, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 45:19]
01 Autism Vaccine Blues
02 Damascus
03 Melanin
04 [banter1]
05 Time Will Tell
06 Same Disease
07 [banter2]
08 The Great Depression
09 We Could Be Kings
10 [banter3]
11 Resolutions
12 [banter4]
13 C’mon Kid
14 The Shine

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Dave Hause, visit his website, and buy his records there.

Jeremy Messersmith: July 26, 2014 XPonential Music Festival, Marina Stage (Camden, NJ) – FLAC/MP3/Full Set Streaming

July 31, 2014
By


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[photos by acidjack]

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT RADIO – DONATE TO WXPN HERE

Jeremy Messersmith is one of those consummate singer-songwriters who keeps fans engaged with a combination of hard work and compelling music. Though he first broke out in 2006, appearing on this site in 2008 as he toured behind the outstanding The Silver City, to hear Messersmith play again two albums later is to fall in love with his music all over again. It retains its easygoing spirit, with lyrics that are poignant but not labored and hooks that dig in and don’t let go. This appearance at the XPonential Music Festival on the Camden waterfront, put on by the stalwart independent Philadelphia radio station WXPN, brought us a more mature but still playful Messersmith who looked comfortable playing to a sizable outdoor crowd. The set focused on his new record of fractured love songs, Heart Murmurs, but didn’t shy from some of his best-known rockers from earlier albums, like the propulsive “Dillinger Eyes” and set closer “Violet!” from 2010’s The Reluctant Graveyard. Even if Messersmith did sing a song about wanting to be a one-night stand, I suspect fans’ commitment to him will continue to run much deeper than that.

I recorded this set with a flawless soundboard feed from the local engineer Tom, combined with Schoeps MK5 microphones flying back at the board. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

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

Stream:

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. Please feel free to re-post the Soundcloud links.

IMG_7513

Jeremy Messersmith
2014-07-26
XPonential Music Festival, Marina Stage
Camden, NJ USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Tom) + Schoeps MK5c (PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mix down, adjust levels)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, compression, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (tracking, fades, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 46:27]
01 [intro]
02 Tourniquet
03 It’s Only Dancing
04 Lazy Bones
05 Knots
06 I Want To Be Your One Night Stand
07 A Girl, a Boy, and a Graveyard
08 Dillinger Eyes
09 Organ Donor
10 Hitman
11 Ghost
12 [banter]
13 Violet!

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Jeremy Messersmith, visit his website, and buy his records in his online store. 

The War on Drugs: March 20, 2014 Bowery Ballroom – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

March 24, 2014
By


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[Photos from the 3/19 show courtesy of P Squared Photography]

My thoughts on The War on Drugs don’t differ much from those expressed in nyctaper’s review of the previous night, but I do think some things bear repeating. Nine times out of ten — more like 95 times out of 100 — worthy bands who toil in the trenches don’t make it. One thing doesn’t go right or another. Maybe there’s a lack of commitment on someone’s part. Or a lack of confidence. Or, in most cases, a lack of pure dumb luck.

We’ve posted a lot of recordings of this band over the past few years not because we thought one day they’d be able to way-sell-out three nights in a row here in New York, which they just did, but because we believed they were worthy. As a fan, your biggest hope always ought to be that the band you’re rooting for makes it. For Adam Granduciel, who toiled for over a year creating his magnum opus Lost In the Dream, it didn’t yet seem to have sunk in that his band had. He showed a bit of nervousness before kicking off the opening number, “In Reverse”, but after that, this show unfolded like the victory party it was meant to be. Compared to night one at the Bowery Ballroom, the band was looser and more poised, playing one song after another as easily as “Suffering” transitioned straight into “An Ocean In Between the Waves”. Just as heavily-produced album tracks like “Under the Pressure” shone as rendered live, so too did re-arranged versions of the band’s classics like a slowed-down “Brothers”. With the bevy of personnel at his command, including a saxophonist, the band’s more complex numbers took on a Destroyer-like caste at times (we’ve recorded WoD opening for them). Granduciel makes that work, too, being the kind of musician who can add complexity without letting it turn to overindulgence.

Normally when you can hear a crowd screaming at the stage between songs it’s mindless heckling; if you listen closely to this recording, what’s being hurled at Granduciel are compliments on the album. This was that kind of show, right through Granduciel acknowledging the fakeness of encores, asking for the lights to go up some so he could read the lyrics to John Lennon’s “Mind Games” (streaming below) a bit more clearly. The War on Drugs may be critical darlings now, but this is isn’t overnight success. This is it being done the old fashioned way. The kind that lasts.

I recorded this set from my usual spot in the venue with Schoeps MK5 cardiod microphones and a stereo soundboard feed provided by house engineer Kenny. The sound quality is outstanding, marred only slightly by light static during two songs. Enjoy!

Stream “Mind Games” [John Lennon]

Stream “Under the Pressure”

This recording is now hosted on the Live Music Archive.  Download the complete show via these links: [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.

the-war-on-drugs-11

The War On Drugs
2014-03-20
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK5 (DINa, balcony, LOC)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard (engineer: Kenny)>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, adjust levels, mix down, compression, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time: 1:39:24]
01 In Reverse
02 Baby Missiles
03 [banter]
04 Under the Pressure
05 Suffering>
06 An Ocean In Between the Waves
07 Eyes to the Wind
08 Red Eyes
09 Come To the City
10 Brothers [Slow Version]
11 Burning
12 [banter2]
13 Lost In the Dream
14 [banter3]
15 Mind Games [John Lennon]
16 Coming Through
17 [banter4]
18 Arms Like Boulders

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT The War on Drugs, visit their website, and buy Lost In the Dream from Secretly Canadian.

The Lawsuits: October 26, 2013 Backyard Brunch Sessions – FLAC/MP3/Streaming Full Set

November 22, 2013
By


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[Photo by Steve Alexandre]

Philly’s The Lawsuits are just straight up quality. This young act, who have established a reputation in their hometown that is growing around the East Coast, are one of those bands so ready for primetime that you can’t believe you’re seeing them in someone’s living room. Such are the advantages of living in New York City, I suppose.

This Backyard Brunch Session, like the Field Mouse set from later in the day, wasn’t exactly true to the format in terms of being (a) in a backyard or (b) acoustic, but The Lawsuits played this backup location the same way I’m sure they’d have played Bowery Ballroom. Dual lead vocalists Brian Dale Allen Strouse (also guitarist/keyboardist and lead songwriter) and Vanessa Winters give the band a wide palette to choose from vocally, and the core rhythm section of Brendan Cunningham on bass and Josh Friedman on drums (joined for this set by guitarist Joe Bisirri) give power and structure to the intricate arrangements. As a unit, the band’s highlight was probably “Love Is Weight”. With its hooky keyboard backing and catchy chorus, the song would be as at home in any of the last four decades, and it’s a home run now. The strongest individual performance could well have been Winters’ on the country-blues number “Long Drive Home”, where her vocals soared in the room without need of amplification. But it’s hard to be partial to any one performance out of this excellent set — even the impromptu, unrehearsed cover of Tom Petty’s “American Girl” brought a huge smile to everyone’s face. If a choice of cover song could fully encapsulate the spirit, style and vibe of a band, the choice of that song by The Lawsuits might well be it. The band has shows in Philly on December 6 and New Year’s Eve, and should be touring New York again next year. Don’t miss them.

I recorded set with MBHO microphones on each of the lead vocalists with a mid-side pair of Schoeps MK5 and MK8 in the middle of the room. Of all of the site’s Backyard Brunch recordings, I believe this is the finest quality one yet. Enjoy!

Stream the full set (with banter removed):

The incorrect version of “You Won’t Love Me If You Won’t” has been replaced with the right song.

Download the full set: [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.

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[Photo by Paul Dryden]

The Lawsuits
2013-10-26
Backyard Brunch Sessions
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK5 (cardiod)+Schoeps MK8 (M-S) + MBHO KA200N>MBP603>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Voxengo MSED (decode M-S)>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (various effects and mixdown)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.03 (fades, tracking, light compression, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 Fine Quality
03 Ebony Rose
04 Long Drive Home
05 [banter]
06 Dreaming #26
07 [banter2]
08 Onion
09 Love Is Weight
10 [banter3]
11 You Won’t Love Me If You Don’t
12 American Girl [Tom Petty]

Players:
Brian Dale Allen Strouse (vocals, keys, guitar)
Vanessa Winters (vocals)
Brendan Cunningham (bass)
Josh Friedman (drums)
Joe Bisirri (guitar)

If you enjoyed this recording, please support The Lawsuits, visit their website and buy Cool Cool Cool and their merchandise from their online store.

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