Posts Tagged ‘ psychedelic ’

Ryley Walker: September 12, 2021 Tubby’s (Kingston, NY)

November 1, 2021
By

Since my last post here (on March 9, 2020) New Yorkers have sought refuge in all kinds of places and a bewildering number of distractions. Vinyl record sales surged even more, Instagram overflowed with DIY baking, sedentary people discovered hiking, gym rats discovered the joys of being sedentary. New Yorkers moved to the Hudson Valley, New Jersey, Florida or farther-flung destinations.

Ryley Walker ended up in Vermont, running his nascent but growing label, Husky Pants and, as is his norm, recording and releasing a slew of new music. Course In Fable, the follow-up to 2018’s Deafman Glance, represents another stunning evolution in his sound. Prog-rock courses through its compositions, recorded with pristine sonics by Tortoise vet John McEntire. If anyone worried whether Ryley’s first post-sobriety album would lose the magic of his blurrier past, the answer is not only no, but the exact opposite. This is Walker’s most self-possessed work to date, bringing all of collaborators Ryan Jewell, Andrew Scott Young, and Bill McKay’s musical strengths firmly under one voice, with lyrics that can be evocative but obtuse as well as devastatingly direct. If Course In Fable is remembered as the finest album of Walker’s career, it will be worthy of the title.

It made sense to see these songs in the tiny but welcoming back room of Tubby’s, a venerable Kingston bar reinvented as a serious live music venue. The space itself feels like a refuge; its size compels an intimacy and familiarity that have been hard to come by for most of us in this part of the world recently. I’m not sure I’ve been to another venue of its size that has bookings at the level they do, and I hope Tubby’s keeps it up.

This show featured most of the Course In Fable lineup, with Walker joined by Jewell and Young, and the trio moved through this set of later-period (Course and Deafman Glance) tunes with aplomb. The Course tunes stayed fairly true to their original arrangements, with “The Halfwit In Me” serving as the 18-minute improvisational centerpiece of the set. While I’d love to hear some of those talents applied to the live new songs eventually, for this go, the thrill came in hearing the original arrangements live in a room, that special kind they were written for.

Ryley is on a west coast swing right now, and will be back east supporting Dinosaur Jr. to close out the year, followed by… well, his usual slew of tour dates in 2022. Just how it should be. See his tour dates here.

This recording was an extra-special collaboration between Kliked and I, using a combination of my Schoeps omnidirectional mics up front, his MBHO’s at the soundboard, and Zoots’ feed of the (mostly) vocals. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the recording at the Live Music Archive [MP3] | [FLAC]

Ryley Walker
2021-09-21
Tubby’s
Kingston, NY  USA

Recorded and produced by Kliked and acidjack

Source 1: Schoeps MK5o>KCY>Z-PFA (stage lip, PAS)>Sound Devices MixPre6Source 2: MBHO 440 (at SBD) + Soundboard (engineer: Zoots)>Sound Devices MixPre3
Source 1 24/48 WAV + Source 2 24/48 WAV>Audacity (time align, EQ, fades, tracking, limiter, compression)>24/48 WAV>FLAC ( level 8 )

Personnel:
Ryley Walker
Ryan Jewell – Percussion
Andrew Scott Young – Bass

Tracks [Total Time:59:28]
01 Striking Down Your Big Premiere
02 Rang Dizzy
03 [banter1]
04 Opposite Middle
05 [banter2]
06 Telluride Speed
07 [banter3]
08 The Halfwit In Me
09 [banter4]
10 Shiva With Dustpan
11 [banter5]
12 22 Days

Please support Ryley Walker: [bandcamp] | [website]

Kikagaku Moyo: November 15, 2019 Warsaw

November 18, 2019
By

If you’re like me, it was our friends at Beyond Beyond Is Beyond who first turned you onto Tokyo’s Kikagaku Moyo with their stateside release of the band’s second album, Forest of Lost Children. Judging by the sold-out crowd at venerable Greenpoint venue Warsaw this past Friday, quite a lot of people have now gotten the message. Besides the obvious (musicianship, attention to melody), one of the things that makes this band so special is their comfort with different styles, from instrumental jammers like “Dripping Sun” from their current LP Masana Temples, to delicate folk numbers like “Cardigan Song,” which they played acoustically along with an unreleased new song they’ve been working on during this tour. Those barely scratch the surface of all there is to love in this 80-minute set as this band’s virtuosity hits its peak, as they draw from both their compatriot forebears like Ghost to the wide world of American classic rock. This night felt like another step in these guys’ slow-built success (we saw them at Sunnyvale not that long ago), and we can’t wait to hear some of these new tunes laid down on record.

I recorded this set with touring FOH Eric Lemke’s feed, plus Schoeps MK41V hypercardiod mics. All credit here goes to Eric, as this room may never have sounded as good as it did for this set. Enjoy!

Download the complete show at the Live Music Archive in MP3/FLAC. Download the Apple Lossless version here: [ALAC].

Kikagaku Moyo
2019-11-15
Warsaw
Brooklyn, NY

Recorded and produced by acidjack

Soundboard (engineer: Eric Lemke) + Schoeps MK41V>KCY>Z-PFA>>Sound Devices MixPre6>24/48 polyWAV>Adobe Audition CC>Izotope Ozone 5>Audacity 2.3.0>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Tree Smoke
02 Nazo Nazo
03 Green Sugar
04 [unknown1]
05 [tuning/banter]
06 unknown2
07 Cardigan Song (acoustic)
08 Entrance
09 Dripping Sun
10 Gatherings
11 [encore break]
12 [unknown3]
13 Smoke and Mirrors
14 [unknown4]

PLEASE SUPPORT KIKAGAKU MOYO & BUY THEIR RECORDS: GuruGuruBrain | Beyond Beyond Is Beyond

Sunburned Hand of the Man: October 3, 2019 Nublu

November 8, 2019
By

Sunburned Hand of the Man are the type of act that people might call “hard to pin down.” Over their sprawling catalog (their sprawling bandcamp page has only a fraction of their 100+ titles) these guys’ music runs the gamut from the bizarre (“Clowns In Jail”) to the improvisationally psychedelic (the “Blizzard of Zozz” show we recorded in 2017) to bordering-on-conventional songs (recently-released “microdose” Intentions).

This night at Nublu fell somewhat in between the two, as a relatively stripped-down version of the band performed this long-form improv with a running spoken word narrative, with a current of the occult running throughout. It felt appropriate to the season, and was a hell of a lot of fun to listen to. Dig in.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones up front in the venue on the right side. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC/ALAC]

Sunburned Hand of the Man
2019-10-03
Nublu
New York, NY USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK4V (FOB, ROC)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices MixPre6>24/48 WAV>Adobe Audition CC>Izotope Ozone 5>Audacity 2.3.0>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 New Blue Sounds

GO BUY THE DIGITAL DISCOGRAPHY. TRUST US.

Woods: September 28, 2019 Woodsist Festival

October 14, 2019
By
Photos courtesy of P Squared Photography

For the tenth annual Woodsist Festival, label founder and Woods vocalist/guitarist/founder Jeremy Earl brought the proceedings from the West Coast — where they enjoyed several successful years at Big Surprise — to upstate New York. Here in the tiny town of Accord, on the grounds of Arrowood Farm-Brewery, Woodsist showed what the purpose of a music festival ought to be.

It was: a cloudless day, not too warm; a gathering place where families with small kids, curious locals, and heads from near and far could converge to enjoy music, in an environment that welcomed all; sonically, a confluence of like-minded artists who knew each other well, who’ve cross-pollinated each other’s work in many cases and will do so again, and who shared many stages on this day. It was, in many ways, the perfect festival.

Woods has been one of the signature New York bands of this era since its inception, particularly so during this festival’s lifetime. They’re part of a rarified group whose shows are a virtual guarantee of something unique, that always leave you thinking about their music differently by the time you leave. It felt right, then, that this festival brought together the “2009 lineup,” including Kevin Morby and G Lucas Crane. Likewise, the setlist reflected the band’s best-known music from that time period, from “Rain On” and “Blood Dries Darker” to the classic one-two sequence of “jam songs,” “Bend Beyond” followed by “I Was Gone” (albeit, a short version this time).

Whatever its original intention, this ended up being more than a highlight set for this era of Woods. Several of these players were part of David Berman’s backing band for his final project, Purple Mountains, for which Jeremy Earl and Jarvis Taveniere were also producers. Berman’s suicide left a hole in music that can never be filled. For the many of us who had hoped to see him play music again (as was the plan with the Purple Mountains lineup), it was a generous and rare gift for the Woods crew to play two of his songs to close out the set. The first, “All My Happiness Is Gone” (with Little Wings‘ Kyle Field on vocals), was one of the darkest and most sobering songs on an LP full of them. Hearing it live for the first time in this context didn’t exactly change the song’s tone, but maybe it showed, in a small way, what could have been.

The set closed with Morby on vocals for “Random Rules,” from Silver Jews’ 1998 masterpiece American Water. It is, in my opinion, a perfect Berman song, a damaged plea to a former lover, whose series of brilliant couplets still make you crack a smile still on the thousandth listen, even with the melancholy at their core. For all the ache at its core, though, the song ends on a note of hope, however temporary: “Honey, we’ve got two lives to live tonight.” Despite the circumstances, it was a joy to hear Berman’s words sung from a stage again.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed provided by Evan, and Schoeps MK5 microphones in the FOH tent. It’s an excellent capture of the day. I hope you enjoy it — and please support this festival in the coming years!

Thanks to Woods for allowing us to record and share the set. Other recordings from the festival will be made available for those artists who permit.

Download the complete show from its page on the Live Music Archive

Or go here for Apple Lossless

Woods
2019-09-28
Woodist Festival
Arrowood Farm-Brewery
Accord, NY USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack

Soundboard (engineer: Evan) + Schoeps MK5c (at SBD, DFC, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>>Sound Devices MixPre6>24/48 polyWAV>Adobe Audition CC>Izotope Ozone 5>Audacity 2.3.0>FLACS ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Out of the Eye
02 Blood Dries Darker
03 Find Them Empty
04 Pushing Onlys
05 Rain On
06 To Clean
07 Bend Beyond
08 I Was Gone
09 Suffering Season>
10 Military Madness
11 [banter/break]
12 All My Happiness Is Gone [Purple Mountains]*
13 Random Rules [Silver Jews]$

Joined by Kevin Morby (bass) and G Lucas Crane (vox, other) all set

* w/ Kyle Field on vocals
$ w/ Kevin Morby on vocals

Please support Woods: website | Facebook | store

Garcia Peoples: June 15, 2019 Rocks Off Concert Cruise

June 18, 2019
By

Many bands struggle to display excellent musicianship when they’re standing on solid ground. An even smaller percentage can pull it off when they’re literally rocking and rolling on the second floor of the stern of a tourist boat. Garcia Peoples hopped aboard the Lucille, temporarily purposed for a Rocks Off Concert Cruise, and showed why they continue to be one of the most compelling live bands in New York today — even when they can hardly stand up straight.

You might think it hard for a band to compete with the obligatory water view of the Statue of Liberty and some unexpected fireworks over the East River, but Garcia Peoples know their audience. Hearing a jammer of a “Total Yang” (from their current release, Natural Facts) transition into the new “Hourglass” as the Manhattan skyline coasts by was a special treat, as was the brand-new song “Hotwire,” played for the very first time live on this boat. Sure you could stand outside and count the number of high-rise foreign money laundering residential towers going up all over the city’s central isle, but you’d have been a fool to miss any of the action indoors, made all the more special by the stand-in of our bud Hans Chew for the band’s often-keyboardist Patrick Gubler aka P.G. Six.

There were times during this set where things seemed sure to come unglued, through no fault of the band’s own — boat wakes can make for some rough water. But that was ultimately the one-of-a-kind thrill of this set — the added physical challenge of playing in this environment (even the audience did a lot of swaying and grabbing solid objects) makes you even more impressed with what these guys can accomplish.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK5 cardiod microphones and a limited soundboard feed. A boat isn’t the best place to jam from a standing-up-straight or sound quality perspective, but it’s still a good quality listen. Enjoy!

Thanks to Beyond Beyond Is Beyond and Garcia Peoples for making this happen!

Download the complete set from its Live Music Archive page

Garcia Peoples
2019-06-15
Rocks Off Concert Cruise
The Lucille
New York, NY USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

Schoeps MK5c (at SBD, ROC, PAS)>KC5>CMC6 + Soundboard>>Sound Devices MixPre 6>24/48 polyWAV>Adobe Audition CC>Izotope Ozone 5>Audacity 2.3.0>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:08:16]
01 bon voyage jam>
02 High Noon Violence
03 Feel So Great>
04 Break Me Down
05 [banter]
06 Hotwire
07 The Spiraling
08 Total Yang
09 Hourglass
10 Show Your Troubles Out

w/ Hans Chew on keyboards

PLEASE SUPPORT GARCIA PEOPLES: bandcamp | Twitter

Wooden Shjips: May 22, 2019 Brooklyn Bowl

May 24, 2019
By

We here at nyctaper are fans of all things Ripley Johnson. Of late, that’s meant attending the shows of his excellent project Moon Duo, who’ve graced us here in NYC several times in the past few years. But as for his larger vehicle Wooden Shjips, it’s been since 2012 that we’ve caught a live show by the band.

I’m happy to say that drought has now ended, with a show worthy of the wait. Ripley and his bandmates rolled into Brooklyn Bowl with purpose and a light show that almost made you forget you were in a bowling alley. This set spanned the band’s entire career, including their most accessible album to date, V. Two of that album’s strongest songs, “Ride On” and “Staring at the Sun,” provided a mellow tempo downshift in the middle of a set that was largely a burner, including the very-early album track “Death’s Not Your Friend” into a Ripley-fied version of the VU’s “What Goes On” to close out the main set. Not to be ignored, too, is the band’s cover of New Zealand psych lords Snapper’s “Buddy,” which we’d last seen them play in 2011.

Ripley has another important piece of news today: It’s the release date of his latest project, Rose City Band, the name a nod to his current hometown of Portland. Hopefully we’ll be seeing them around these parts before too long — and it’ll be a shorter distance between our next cruise with the Shjips.

I recorded this set with MBHO microphones up front in the venue. The sound quality is excellent. Hope you dig it!

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

Wooden Shjips
2019-05-22
Brooklyn Bowl
Brooklyn, NY USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

MBHO KA200N>MBP603a (FOB, ROC)>Sound Devices MixPre 6>24/48 WAV>Adobe Audition CC>Izotope Ozone 5>Audacity 2.2.2>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time: 1:14:44]
01 Eclipse
02 In the Fall
03 For So Long
04 Other Stars
05 Ride On
06 Staring at the Sun
07 Motorbike
08 Ghouls
09 Lazy Bones
10 Death’s Not Your Friend>What Goes On
11 These Shadows
12 Buddy [Snapper]

PLEASE SUPPORT Wooden Shjips: Buy their records from Thrill Jockey | Website

Ryley Walker / David Grubbs / Ryan Jewell / C. Spencer Yeh: March 26, 2019 Union Pool

April 15, 2019
By

Ryley Walker’s March residency at Union Pool covered all the bases of Walker’s sound, from relatively “straight-ahead” song-based performances to instrumental blowouts with friends and colleagues like Ryan Jewell and Steve Gunn. Count this final night’s performance firmly in the latter camp, as Walker and residency mainstay Jewell were joined by David Grubbs (Gastr del Sol, others) and C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core) for a full set of avant-garde experimentation that found Walker stepping away from the mic but fully present as guitarist and spiritual force.

Ryley Walker’s March residency at Union Pool covered all the bases of Walker’s sound, from relatively “straight-ahead” song-based performances to instrumental blowouts with friends and colleagues like Ryan Jewell and Steve Gunn. Count this final night’s performance firmly in the latter camp, as Walker and residency mainstay Jewell were joined by David Grubbs (Gastr del Sol, others) and C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core) for a full set of avant-garde experimentation that found Walker stepping away from the mic but fully present as guitarist and spiritual force.

Over the course of these residency shows (plus bonus Queens show), I’ve said my piece about Ryley Walker and “who” he is musically, so I won’t belabor the point. Suffice it to say that even if you follow all things Walker, this unique collaboration is a standout, something not likely to be repeated. Walker made it known what an honor it was for him to play with these musicians. It was equally our honor to have heard it.

I recorded this set in the same manner as the other Union Pool shows, with Doug Graham’s outstanding house mix leading the way. Enjoy!

Thanks to Union Pool and Will S for continuing to book and host interesting and experimental music in north Brooklyn.

Download the complete show from its Live Music Archive page.

Ryley Walker/David Grubbs/Ryan Jewell/C. Spencer Yeh
2019-03-26 (Residency Night 4)
Union Pool
Brooklyn, NY  USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack

Soundboard (engineer: Doug Graham) + Schoeps MK5c (XY, at SBD)>KC5>CMC6>>Sound Devices MixPre 6>24/48 polyWAV>Adobe Audition CC>Izotope Ozone 5>Audacity 2.3.0>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 UP Quartet Jam Pt 1
02 UP Quartet Jam Pt 2
03 UP Quartet Jam Pt 3
04 UP Quartet Jam Pt 4
05 UP Quartet Jam Pt 5

PLEASE SUPPORT RYLEY WALKER: Bandcamp | Dead Oceans

Object Hours: September 8, 2018 Merge Records/OCSC Day Party, King’s (Raleigh, NC)

October 22, 2018
By


[Photo courtesy of Dave Schwentker]

Sometimes the daytime action at Hopscotch can be even more intense than the evening, as showcases like the Merge/OCSC day party at King’s have a habit of bringing out top local talent to draw the local crowd. For my money, few local acts are more exciting right now than Carrboro, NC’s Object Hours, whose bandcamp helpfully promises to keep songs “under 25 minutes for your sake.” The band’s instrumental explorations, at least during this set, aren’t quite that long, but it’d be just fine if they were. The players — Nora Rogers, Jenny Waters and Harrison Haynes — are vets of a number of bands, and that experience and confidence shows in their improvisational style. For any fan of modern music for heads, add Object Hours to the top of your list — this is a band to watch.

Our man Dave Schwentker made this recording from an optimal spot in the venue using an Olympus LS-10 and its included mics. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Object Hours
Merge/OCSC Day Party
King’s
Raleigh, NC  USA

Recorded by Dave Schwentker

Tracks
01 Fuse Blower/Vikings
02 The Turning Point
03 Fear Based Excellence

SUPPORT Object Hours: bandcamp | Instagram

Wet Tuna: December 10, 2017 Trans-Pecos

March 20, 2018
By

What’s better than an early Sunday evening kickin’ it with the deep space musings of Matt “MV” Valentine? How about Matt plus PG Six, aka Pat Gubler, who’ve been touring (and are about to put out a record) together as Wet Tuna? The pair of guitarists (plus some pre-recorded beats) were in NYC for a pair of shows, the first night (recorded) at Brooklyn’s Ceremony, the second this jaunt at the revitalized Trans-Pecos.

Given that the night kicked off with a DJ set from WFMU’s DJ Jeff Conklin, whose beloved Avant Ghetto show is a must-listen for fans of this kind of music, it felt appropriate for the Tuna to launch with “I Know You Rider,” the traditional blues song popularized by the Grateful Dead. From there, we got two more sick covers – Michael Hurley’s “Water Train” followed by Incredible String Band’s “Empty Pocket Blues,” which flowed into the Livin’ the Die track “New York Street.” Along with this performance with the Tuna, we’ve also caught Matt on some recent solo outings — so stay tuned for that as well.

This set was recorded directly from the Trans-Pecos soundboard. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC/ALAC]

Stream the complete show:

Wet Tuna
2017-12-10
Trans-Pecos
Queens, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Produced by acidjack

Soundboard (house PA mix saved to SanDisk thumb drive)>16/48 WAV>Adobe Audition CC (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, fades)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 I Know You Rider [Grateful Dead version]
02 Water Train [Michael Hurley]
03 Empty Pocket Blues [Clive Palmer/Incredible String Band]>Empty Mood Jam>Space/Drums>New York Street

SUPPORT WET TUNA: Buy Livin’ The Die from them right here.

Bardo Pond: February 17, 2018 Union Pool

March 6, 2018
By

If Williamsburg venue Union Pool is better-known among the GenZ semi-grownups that populate the nabe’s bars these days, don’t tell the people who crowded the room for the Bardo Pond show on this snowy Saturday night — many of us grinning as the hookup-seeking set turned away from door not only by the “SOLD OUT” sign but also the deep noise emanating from behind it.

Bardo Pond is one of those bands that will always cast a deep but not wide net, nestling in the psyche of those able and open to embracing them. Their massive oeuvre — their latest and misleadingly titled Volume 8 is far from only their 8th record — attests to fans’ insatiable desire for what they’re into. Tonight’s set, short on number of songs but long on jams, was anchored by a sprawler from the new album, “And I Will” along with some recent tour favorites. The night capped with a longtime band classic, “Tommy Gun Angel,” putting an exclamation point on the idea that whatever other fleeting things might pass on that Saturday night in that room, this band always leaves echoes long after they’ve left the building.

I recorded this set with Lesley’s house PA feed together with Schoeps MK5 cardiod microphones. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Stream and download the complete show (and donate to the band) from our bandcamp page:

Bardo Pond
2018-02-17
Union Pool
Brooklyn, NY

Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK5c (at SBD, PAS)>KC5>CMC6 + Soundboard (engineer: Lesley)>>Sound Devices MixPre6>2×24/48 WAV>Adobe Audition CC (align, mix down, compression, limiter)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Kali Yuga Blues
02 Out of Reach
03 My Eyes Out
04 Under the Pines
05 And I Will
06 Tommy Gun Angel

SUPPORT BARDO POND: Website | Buy Volume 8

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