Posts Tagged ‘ Schoeps MK41V ’

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

Nest Egg: September 7, 2017 Hopscotch Music Festival (Raleigh, NC)

October 6, 2017
By

Like any well-curated music festival, Hopscotch is very much an national and even global gathering, bringing in bands who otherwise might not make Raleigh, North Carolina one of their tour stops. But as much as Hopscotch should be celebrated for the riches it brings to the hometown crowd, it’s equally if not more responsible for giving a bigger platform to local and regional talent. To wit, on a stage that found Oh Sees and The Brian Jonestown Massacre headlining the night, the festival placed one of my favorite new bands of the festival, Asheville, North Carolina’s Nest Egg. With a dark, krautrock-inspired sound, Nest Egg went perfectly with the spooky light show and the “basement” (the giant bottom floor of the Raleigh Convention Center) setting. It’s hard to fully capture the effect of seeing this band live, but in person, the difference between them and the “merely OK” was evident; their sound is driving and delivered with precision, and that amplifies the already-considerable intensity of their music. In that respect, they remind me in a good way of the recently-disbanded Disappears, a longtime favorite of ours. Have a look at Nest Egg’s current material, and be on the lookout for future stuff from this outstanding band.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41V microphones inside the soundboard cage, coupled with a soundboard feed. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Nest Egg
2017-09-07
Hopscotch Music Festival
“The Basement”
Raleigh, NC USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack
Hosted at nyctaper.com

Schoeps MK4V (at SBD, DFC)>KCY>Z-PFA + Soundboard>Zoom F8 (24bit/48kHz WAV files)>Adobe Audition CC (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Eraser
02 Smgfx
03 Booze Your Illusion
04 Gore ’92
05 Nfo
06 Gocg
07 Dmtiv

SUPPORT NEST EGG: Pay to download this recording, and buy their records on bandcamp

Cap’n Jazz: September 23, 2017 Brooklyn Steel

September 26, 2017
By


[photo by Norman Brannon via Instagram]

Cap’n Jazz have reunited once again in 2017, having last done so in 2010 (both of which shows we covered ). If you’re not aware of the band, they’re more or less the godfathers of the so-called “emo” genre, spawning not only a wave of spinoff bands, but many imitators. With only one record to their name, the easiest point of entry is the Analphabetapolothogy compilation, first released in 1998. This show at Brooklyn Steel, billed as the band’s last U.S. reunion show (for now) was a freewheeling, crazy-making night of almost compulsive stage diving, silly stage banter, and rapid-fire delivery of the band’s favorites (plus that A-ha cover there near the end). If you had said to me prior to this night that Cap’n Jazz are more popular than ever, I’m not sure I’d have believed you, but the full floor at this massive venue (compared to sub-1000 capacity Brooklyn Bowl and sub-500 capacity Maxwell’s seven years ago) more than made the point. This was a show that put enthusiasm and energy first; if the band’s all-out delivery and Tim Kinsella’s shirtless stage diving didn’t necessarily mean he hit every lyric or the band hit every note, it couldn’t have mattered less. If later iterations of this style were criticized for being overly self-serious, they didn’t learn that from the brothers Kinsella and the current Cap’n Jazz crew (Victor Villarreal, Sam Zurick and Nate Kinsella), who put together a stage show that was really a show, the kind of experience fans want on a Saturday night. As Kinsella fumbled through a semi-serious cover of A-ha’s “Take On Me,” followed by the relentless closer “Ohh, How I Love You,” it felt like the right kind of sendoff before this pathbreaking band heads to Europe. This may have been the “last U.S. show” of this reunion, but no doubt we haven’t seen the last of these musicians, in one format or another.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41V supercardiod microphones at the soundboard, adding a pair of Audio Technica 853 shotgun microphones to add in a bit more direct sound. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Cap’n Jazz
2017-09-23
Brooklyn Steel
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK41V (at SBD, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA + Audio Technica 853 shotguns>Sound Devices MixPre6 (24/48 WAV)>Adobe Audition CC (mix down, limiter)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 Oh Messy Life
03 In the Clear
04 Basil’s Kite
05 [banter1]
06 Puddle Splashers
07 Planet SHHH
08 The Sands Have Turned Purple
09 Yes, I Am Talking To You
10 Little League
11 [banter2]
12 Tokyo
13 We Are Scientists
14 [banter3]
15 Olerud
16 Forget Who We Are
17 Que Suerte!
18 [banter4]
19 Take On Me [A-ha]
20 [banter5]
21 Ohh How I Love You

PLEASE SUPPORT CAP’N JAZZ: Website | Bandcamp

The War On Drugs: September 19, 2017 Terminal 5

September 21, 2017
By


[screen capture from this video]

This is what the “next level” looks like. On the heels of the release of their 2017 major-label debut, A Deeper Understanding, The War On Drugs showed up for a two-night stand in New York, first at a packed Terminal 5, to be followed by a sold-out Central Park Summerstage on this Friday night. If the band’s Radio City show in 2015, right after they signed with Atlantic Records, portended what was to come, here we were, in the thick of the actual next step. I won’t retell the story from that 2015 post, but it’s worth a read if this is your first time with a War On Drugs recording from this site.

Being on a major label, or selling out lots of bigger shows, doesn’t signify whether a band is “good” or not, or worthy or not, of course. In fact, this part of the process can be a nasty trap for many musicians — anyone who knows anything about Nirvana or a zillion other bands can tell you that. But in the case of this band, the product of years of hard work, with a wide-open, intricate sound that screams for a bigger stage, it’s the right result, and it’s one that validates Adam Granduciel’s songwriting efforts in particular. Granduciel is the perfect vehicle for big-tent lyrics, writing songs that are both personal and universal, and the sound he has developed is of a piece with that. Beginning with Lost In A Dream, and continuing in a major way with A Deeper Understanding, War On Drugs albums have a precise, densely arranged, melodic sound with an almost otherwordly sheen to it. Of course, what’s funny about that is that it’s so unusual today. If you grew up in the 1980s, or listen to much music from that era, having albums that sounded good was table stakes for even cult-favorite bands. Studio budgets, and album sales, were different then. Many fewer bands show up these days with fourteen instruments credited to a single track — nearly half of them, in many cases, played by Adam Granduciel.

To reference the 1980s, and stalwarts like Tom Petty and Springsteen in particular, is not to malign this band at all. If anything, this show at Terminal 5 underscored that The War On Drugs are rightful heirs to that personal-yet-massive rock style. Like the best of their forebears, The War On Drugs are also able to translate their studio sound to the stage. Perhaps in a nod to many of the newer fans in the audience (one of us got asked if we first heard of the band on NPR), this set focused exclusively on the last two albums, and the band was so dialed-in they could very well have been playing the album over the PA. Of course, that would have deprived us of the added guitar pyrotechnics, and the joy of realizing, for the umpteenth time, that even in 2017, a band comprised of talented musicians of limited gimmickry but exceptional live performing skills can still make it big, can still mean something to people who these days are more accustomed to “musical precision” coming from an Ableton Live setup.

In this broad-reaching survey of the band’s last two albums, the band’s other most remarkable quality — consistency — was evident, to the point that it’s almost impossible to focus on a highlight. But for me, The War On Drugs song that will always best-represent this evolution in the band’s journey is “Under the Pressure,” which so elementally captures both Granduciel’s mindset in the making of Lost In A Dream, but also in many ways the enormous weight of the band’s current success. It’s another of those songs with specific meaning to its author that is also able to capture an almost-universal anxiety among its listeners. To see a band that we personally have liked and supported for so long reach this point — not only making it to this proverbial “next level” but thriving against the pressure — is a special and rare thing. To hear, even in the relatively few snippets of stage banter on this night, how they remain the same people who played in tiny bars ten (or even six) years ago, is rarer still. I have to acknowledge, briefly, that I realize this band doesn’t “need” the support of a website like this, but their treatment of us as fans, both in the past and today, says a lot. We appreciate it.

We each recorded this set from our usual location directly at the soundboard, acidjack’s with Schoeps MK41V microphones and nyctaper’s with Neumann KM150s. The sound quality of each is excellent, and both versions are offered here. Enjoy!

Special thanks to The War On Drugs, their management, and the Terminal 5 staff for allowing us to record the show. 

Download the nyctaper Neumann version of this show at Archive.org [HERE] [MP3] / [FLAC]

Download acidjack’s Schoeps version: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream acidjack’s version here:

Stream nyctaper’s version here:

The War On Drugs
2017-09-19
Terminal 5
New York, NY USA

Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41V (at SBD, DFC)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices MixPre6 (24/48)>WAV>Adobe Audition CC>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, image)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 In Chains
02 Pain
03 An Ocean Between the Waves
04 Strangest Thing
05 Holding On
06 Red Eyes
07 Knocked Down
08 Nothing To Find
09 Up All Night
10 You Don’t Have To Go
11 Burning
12 Eyes to the Wind
13 [encore break]
14 Under the Pressure
15 Clean Living
16 In Reverse

************************

The War On Drugs
2017-09-19
Terminal 5
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Recorded at Soundboard Booth

Neumann KM-150s > Sound Devices 744t > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:47:30]
01 In Chains
02 Pain
03 An Ocean Between the Waves
04 Strangest Thing
05 Holding On
06 Red Eyes
07 Knocked Down
08 Nothing To Find
09 Up All Night
10 You Don’t Have To Go
11 Burning
12 Eyes to the Wind
13 [encore break]
14 Under the Pressure
15 Clean Living
16 In Reverse

PLEASE SUPPORT THE WAR ON DRUGS: Buy A Deeper Understanding from their website

Phish: July 29, 2017 Madison Square Garden

July 30, 2017
By

Night seven of the Baker’s Dozen was dubbed the cinnamon donut night. And while there are an overwhelming number of obvious and not-so-obvious songs that fit thematically, the band didn’t go overboard with cinnamon references aside from the semi-predictable Neil Young cover (which they pulled off perfectly). Otherwise it’s a varied set—at least for this Phish newbie—that has them jamming on a (pardon me) blazing “Blaze On” to open the second set, a first-set closing “I Am the Walrus,” and a killer “Alumni Blues” with the “Letter to Jimmy Page” bridge. While nothing could hold a candle to the previous night’s “Chalk Dust Torture,” this is no doubt a solid set throughout.

Eric PH recorded this set with the Schoeps MK41V’s mounted in the official taper’s section, from row 1 seat 1. NYCTaper will follow up with his Schoeps source shortly. Enjoy!

Download the complete show (Schoeps MK41V source): [MP3 / FLAC16 / FLAC24]

Stream the complete show (Schoeps MK41V source):

Phish
2017-07-29
Madison Square Garden
New York, NY

Baker’s Dozen #7

Recorded and produced by Eric PH for nyctaper.com

Schoeps MK41V (OTS, LOC) > Aerco MP-2 > Zoom F8 > WAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (compression, normalize, fades) + Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter) > Audacity 2.0.5 (tracking, tagging) > FLAC (24/48, level 8)

Set 1:
01. Llama
02. Wilson
03. Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan
04. Ya Mar [Cyril Ferguson]
05. Tela
06. The Birds
07. The Line
08. Water in the Sky
09. Vultures
10. Train Song
11. Horn
12. I Am the Walrus [The Beatles]

Set 2:
13. Blaze On
14. Twenty Years Later
15. Alumni Blues > Letter to Jimmy Page > Alumni Blues
16. Meatstick
17. Dirt
18. Harry Hood
19. [encore break]
20. Cinnamon Girl [Neil Young]

SUPPORT Phish: Website | Store

Grim Streaker: July 16, 2017 Out In the Streets Festival, The Well

July 20, 2017
By

There are many loud, fast, post-punk guitar bands — even ones with female frontpersons and catchy puns for names. But whatever that exact “it” is that makes one stand out, that makes the front rage and the bored people in the back stand up and pay attention, Brooklyn’s Grim Streaker has it. Obviously, the live performance counts for a lot in this genre, and Amelia Bushell anchors that bit of the proceedings, with wry onstage humor and intense, snarling delivery that’s matched by an equally relentless band. The Out In the Streets Festival, in its second year, was our intro to the band, and they flat-out tore it up for a concise 30-minute set that packed in nine songs. The band has a new EP, Girl Minority, on offer, and it’s a commendably strong slab of digital goodness, but the live show is where the money’s at. The band seems to get that, having released the video for “Guts” as a straightforward live production. Have a look below, have a listen to the set, and you’ll see what we mean.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed from engineer Cliff Ribiero and Schoeps MK41V hypercardiod microphones. The sound quality is quite good. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Grim Streaker
2017-07-16
Out In the Streets Festival
The Well
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK41V (PAS, LOC)>KCY>Z-PFA + Soundboard (engineer: Cliff Ribiero)>>Sound Devices MixPre-6>1x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, adjust levels)>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, EQ)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Freak Child
02 Babysitter
03 Kiss
04 Tina’s
05 Savage
06 Guts
07 Miami Girl
08 Psycho
09 Mojito Mountain

Support Grim Streaker: bandcamp | facebook

Ween: June 7, 2017 Brooklyn Steel

June 9, 2017
By

For the second night of Ween‘s run at shiny new venue Brooklyn Steel, the band continued to reiterate what has made them such a cult favorite. As a newcomer to the band, I can’t claim to be any kind of expert in the ins and outs of the setlists, but if you’re curious what has made them one of the more welcome “reunions” of recent years, I can offer some thoughts. First, the musical diversity of the band’s sound has long been well-known, mixing bar-room rock, punk, psychedelia, country, new wave, funk and more. Though the recent accumulation of Phish fans to their ranks has been talked about, the more logical touch points for understanding this band are willfully-weird bands like the Butthole Surfers and the Meat Puppets, who similarly can’t be pigeonholed into a genre so much as a vibe. Second, in Ween’s case, there’s a brand of outrageous humor at work in many of their songs, of a kind that prompts debate on the Internet over the funniest Ween songs. Whether or not songs like “Deez Nutz” or “Bananas and Blow” are your thing doesn’t necessarily determine whether you have to like or dislike the live show, just as some Phish get more turned on by the Gamehendge element than others. Personally, I was more fired up about songs like the sprawling 1994 jam “A Tear for Eddie,” or 1990’s Butthole Surfers-esque “Licking the Palm for Guava” (also dedicated here to Gibby Haynes).

Since I know fairly little about the band, I decided to consult a long time fan on the show to get his take. In his read, compared to the previous Brooklyn Steel show, this was a relatively sedate affair, focusing more on the band’s country sound and skipping some of what this fan deemed “essential” Ween songs such as a classic cover, or any of “Dr. Rock,” “Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down),” “Push the Little Daisies,” “You Fucked Up,” “Golden Eel,” and “Buckinham Green” — all of which made it into the first night setlist.  Along with the “A Tear For Eddie” that I did, he pointed out that “Mushroom Festival In Hell” and “I’ll Be Your Johnny On the Spot” as highlights.

Wherever you are in your Ween fandom, you can’t deny that they’re as hard working a band as they come. When they promised “an evening” with them, we got one, a full two hours and ten minutes of mostly uninterrupted playing that fired up the slam-packed Brooklyn Steel floor. I have no doubt that the show was ten times more engaging for those better acquainted with the inside jokes and the general band lore, but based on this performance, I’d be up for finding out more.

Finally, if you haven’t been to Brooklyn Steel yet, know that longtime sufferers of its predecessor will finally have a mid-large venue for more popular bands that offers a full view of the stage from almost every place in the room. We’ve already enjoyed a few shows here so far, and look forward to many more. As always thanks to the professional staff of Bowery Presents for making our presence there feel both safe and welcome.

I recorded this set from the “taper’s section” with Schoeps MK41V microphones. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Night one was also recorded and will be posted soon.

Download the complete set from its home on the Live Music Archive: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Ween
2017-06-07
Brooklyn Steel
Brooklyn, NY USA

Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41V (at SBD, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CC (fades, compression, limiter)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)
>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time: 2:10:07]
01 Chocolate Town
02 Tried and True
03 Birthday Boy
04 Help Me Scrape the Mucus off My Brain
05 [banter1]
06 Take Me Away
07 Fat Lenny
08 Cold & Wet
09 Boys Club
10 [banter2]
11 Nan
12 Gabrielle
13 Bananas and Blow
14 My Own Bare Hands
15 A Tear for Eddie
16 [banter3]
17 Licking the Palm for Guava
18 Mushroom Festival in Hell
19 I Can’t Put My Finger on It
20 [banter4]
21 Baby Bitch
22 Flutes of Chi
23 [banter5]
24 I Saw Gener Cryin’ in His Sleep
25 I’ll Be Your Jonny on the Spot
26 [banter6]
27 Learnin’ to Love
28 Deez Nutz
29 Polka Dot Tail
30 [tuning]
31 Drifter in the Dark
32 Powder Blue
33 Hey There Fancypants
34 [encore break]
35 Don’t Shit Where You Eat
36 What Deaner Was Talkin’ About

Support Ween: Website | Store

Bardo Pond: April 1, 2017 Knockdown Center

April 10, 2017
By

It was heartening to see The New York Times give such prominent billing to this Bardo Pond show, held at Maspeth’s somewhat-remote but welcoming Knockdown Center this past weekend. If the use of the phrase “noise rock” to describe the band was reductive in extremis, it at least got at the notion that Bardo Pond shows are loud, distortion-drenched, hallucinatory affairs. But give a listen to Under the Pines, which the band played in full at this show to celebrate its release, and vocalist Isobel Sollenberger features more prominently for much of this journey, at least compared to past pairing with the Gibbons brothers and Clint Takeda’s guitar attack. A vocalist is almost always a critical component of a band’s sound, of course, but it feels like Sollenberger is a more confident and featured presence than she’s been at any time in their long career.

We first saw many of these songs at the Three Lobed Sweet Sixteen show we recorded last year, and again at Union Pool in November, and they’ve only gotten sharper and better since. This full-album run through told the album’s story well, demonstrating both its cohesive flow and the diversity of sounds. “My Eyes Out” continues to be one of the more “pretty” songs in the catalog, while “Moment to Moment” continues to establish itself as one of the band’s most vital new long-form songs. In a rare treat (at least, not seen by us since the 2011 Death By Audio show), this set wrapped with the vital combo of “Don’t Know About You” directly into “The Stars Behind.” There’s no new tour information for the band yet, but expect a fun one once they return to the road.

I recorded this set about 10 feet from the left PA stack with Schoeps MK41V microphones and a soundboard feed. The characteristics of the room and the sound being amplified through the stacks (mostly vocals) mean the vocals are a bit more prominent in this recording than would be optimal. Nonetheless, it is an enjoyable listen!

Download this show from the Live Music Archive: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Bardo Pond
2017-04-01
Knockdown Center
Maspeth, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK41V (FOB, LOC)>KCY>Z-PFA + Soundboard>>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CC (align, mix down, hard limiter)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.03. (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:14:54]
01 Crossover
02 Out of Reach
03 My Eyes Out
04 [banter1]
05 Moment to Moment
06 Under the Pines
07 Effigy
08 [banter2]
09 Don’t Know About You>
10 The Stars Behind

SUPPORT Bardo Pond: Website | Three Lobed Recordings | Fire Records

A Place to Bury Strangers: March 3, 2017 Villain

March 16, 2017
By

Two years on from their tour de force performance at Music Hall of Williamsburg and the release of their last album, Transfixiation, A Place to Bury Strangers found themselves at the faux-DIY venue Villain doing what they’ve done best in years past, while looking also to the future. If the controlled chaos of set opener “We’ve Come So Far” took on a different meaning in 2017, it also felt like it took on a greater one. APTBS vets know what to expect from their shows at this point — a blanket of noise anchored by Oliver Ackermann’s guitars (his expertise in pedals comes in handy), almost always at maximum intensity, a delightfully disorienting light show — and their Brooklyn shows reflect the communal vibe among those people.

As it has been a couple years since their last record (though they did just release a new song), I was unfamiliar with several of the (what I think were new) songs played, but the distinction for most of us was minimal. An APTBS show is less about this or that song than the overall experience, the subtle shifts in texture and tempo, the often-dark lyrics that you at-times strain to hear, the relentlessness of Ackermann (in particular) onstage, as he smashes the hell out of his guitar long before the end of the set. Where the last APTBS show found the band playing on the Music Hall floor, this time the band took advantage of Villain’s layout and performed a more electronic-driven closing sequence of four songs from the balcony. When the beats finally stopped, you couldn’t help but feel a little bit lighter, a bit freer. At some point “cathartic” might start to feel like an overused term in these times, but in these first months, it’s still a very accurate one.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed combined with Schoeps MK41V microphones from the audience. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete show: 

A Place to Bury Strangers
2017-03-03
Villain
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard + Schoeps MK41V (FOB, ROC, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, fades, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Setlist help greatly appreciated]
01 We’ve Come So Far
02 [unknown1] “Never coming back”
03 So Far Away
04 Deadbeat
05 Fill the Void
06 [unknown2] “Sucking on the trigger of a gun”
07 Drill It Up
08 [unknown3] “I don’t care / I don’t mind”
09 I’ve Lived My Life to Stand In the Shadow of Your Heart

[Performed from the balcony — audience mics only]
10 [unknown4]
11 [unknown5]
12 [unknown6]
13 [unknown7]

PLEASE SUPPORT A Place to Bury Strangers, visit their website, and buy Transfixiation from Dead Oceans here. Also check out their latest song, a contribution to “Our First 100 Days,” here.

Steve Gunn: December 9, 2016 Bell House

December 11, 2016
By



Watching Steve Gunn and his latest band play this performance at The Bell House reminded me of the below Gunn performance with Alex Bleeker & the Freaks at the “Play Dead” show that we captured in 2015. Gunn’s music at the time — consisting of solo guitar records, his duo work in Gunn-Truscinski Duo, and his two Paradise of Bachelors LPs, Time Off and Way Out Weather — wasn’t necessarily the work of someone who revered the Dead. But as he and Bleeker’s band played “Wharf Rat” that night, it all clicked. Part of what continues to make the Grateful Dead so special is that there are multiple entry points to the band, a whole universe of styles and vibes contained within individual tours and individual shows and, even, individual songs. Gunn wasn’t a person who mimicked the band’s style(s), at all, but he had absorbed many of their lessons. And this show, more than most of his I have seen, proved it.

This show, the band’s final of the year after a long slog of touring and greatly increased exposure thanks to Gunn’s Matador Records debut, Eyes On the Lines, was my first time seeing most of Eyes On the Lines in the live setting, despite having seen Gunn several times this year. Maybe it was the hometown crowd, whose love is unconditional and the opposite of the “play the hits” mentality of the festival crowds, maybe it was the finely honed interplay among the musicians, maybe it was just them saying “fuck it” and doing things the way they wanted — whatever it was, Gunn and Co. came out and turned even some of the relatively concise material of Eyes On the Lines into life-affirming jams that both challenged and enlightened. What’s most gratifying about watching an artist that you’ve followed for a while keep doing this after achieving his greatest commercial popularity to date is to know how unafraid of it he is, how resolutely true to himself.

Gunn bookended the show with stripped-down songs, starting things off with a fourteen-minute solo acoustic “Old Strange” that was a classic mix of Gunn’s earnest lyrics and desert blues guitar, with the “Wildwood” encore with James Elkington on the electric and Steve on the acoustic. While hearing the new songs — especially a personal favorite, “Ancient Jules” — was a blast, what also stuck me was once again how the music cut through the heaviness of the political moment without flinching from it. Gunn’s impassioned intro to “Park Bench Smile” about inclusion and “fighting what the fuck’s happening” hit its mark, but the song, as rendered, spoke for itself. A noisy, messy, emphatic rendition of the song, it felt like so much of this moment, chaotic but, ultimately, resolved into something hopeful, defiant, and right. What a way to end a year.

I recorded this set with engineer David Hurtgen’s house mix combined with Schoeps MK41V hypercardiod microphones. David’s regular work with the venue shows here, as the sound is dialed in and excellent. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete show:

Steve Gunn
2016-12-09
The Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: David Hurtgen) + Schoeps MK41V (at SBD, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CC (align, mix down, compression, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, image)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:26:57]
01 [intro]
02 Old Strange [solo acoustic]
03 Way Out Weather
04 Conditions Wild
05 [banter]
06 Ancient Jules
07 Night Wander
08 Full Moon Tide
09 [banter2]
10 Ark
11 [banter3]
12 Park Bench Smile
13 [encore break]
14 Wildwood [duo w/ Elkington]

Band:
Steve Gunn
James Elkington – Guitar
Jason Meagher – Bass
John Truscinski – Drums

PLEASE SUPPORT STEVE GUNN: Go to matadorrecords.com or your local record store and buy Eyes On the Lines. 

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.

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