On the final night of the Hopscotch Music Festival, our buds at Kings curated an eclectic show that featured two recordings we have already shared (Moon Duo and Boogarins), a superb set from “house” band Birds of Avalon, Kid Millions, and another very special international guest, Mdou Moctar. Hailing from a small village in Niger, Moctar has received international acclaim as one of the best-known Tuareg guitarists. If you’re not familiar with the Saharan brand of rock music, or you have no idea what that means, let me put it more simply: this guy shreds like Jimi Hendrix. His latest LP, Ilana, the Creator was recorded in Detroit, and is already making its way onto early “best of 2019” lists for obvious reasons. Moctar’s work is special not only for its technical virtuosity but for his willingness to expand upon the genre’s conventions, as well as focus on original music over standards and covers. These four songs will give you a taste of what Moctar is about, but really, do yourself a favor and head to Sahel Sounds to get educated not only about his work, but the variety of 21st century African artists they represent. (Jesse Jarnow wrote an excellent piece about the label here). And keep your eye on those “best of 2019” lists — I know Mdou Moctar is making mine.
I recorded this set with onstage Schoeps MK5 microphones, MBHO microphones back at the soundboard, and a soundboard feed. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!
Thanks to Mdou Moctar and his management team for letting us share the recording.
The Luna tour that just completed was a big one. The band played seventeen shows in twenty days, and played a complete album every night, alternating between Lunapark, Bewitched, and Penthouse. The added bonus was the appearance of original bassist Justin Harwood, who shared duties with Britta Phillips throughout the shows and also allowed Britta to provide some vocal harmonies when Justin performed.
Now five years into their reunion, we’ve already noted that Luna seems poised to stick around as a working band and their performances have been revelations of consistency and excellence. And the fans seem to agree — both Bowery shows were sold out and it was actually a bit of a chore to score a ticket (thanks generous friend!). We did get one at the last minute for Sunday night’s show, and were fortunate to have captured this show.
Sunday night at Bowery was a Penthouse night and the band’s first set was a meticulous performance of the album, with personal favorite “23 Minutes in Brussels” as my highlight. After a brief intermission, the band returned to play the bonus or hidden track of “Bonnie and Clyde”, followed by a neat set of favorites, oddities, and a couple of covers. The final encore was “IHOP”, the lead track from the Pup Tent album that is virtually never played live — it was a personal request from a band superfan who despite travelling all over the country and indeed internationally to see Luna had never experienced this song live. This tour was like that — tricks and treats for the superfans and just plain great music for the rest of us.
Luna returns to performance in February, with two West coast shows announced thus far. We’d expect some New York dates to be added.
I recorded this set from our usual spot with the Neumann hypers this time, and mixed with a feed mixed expertly by the band’s sound man Paul. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!
Setlist: [Total Time 1:44:43] First Set (Penthouse) 01 [intro] 02 Chinatown 03 Sideshow by the Seashore 04 Moon Palace 05 Double Feature 06 Twenty-Three Minutes in Brussels 07 Lost In Space 08 Rhythm King 09 Kalamazoo 10 [banter – Tolstoy] 11 Hedgehog 12 Freakin’ and Peakin’ Second Set 13 Bonnie and Clyde [Serge Gainsbourg] 14 California Blue [Roy Orbison] 15 Still at Home 16 Inside Your Heart [The Monochrome Set] 17 Eggnog 18 Slide 19 Superfreaky Memories 20 [encore break] 21 Pup Tent 22 Season of the Witch [Donovan] 23 IHOP
After watching three experimental/improvprojects at the Three Lobed / WXDU Annual Ritual of Summoning, this spectacular day pivoted with a return to some straight-ahead punk. Cold Cream is a project from Triangle punk lifers from bands such as Flesh Wounds, Pipe, and Tegucigalpan, so despite their first record’s arrival in 2018, they own a room like the vets they are.
Here at Kings, Cold Cream energized the room with their erudite, politically-charged songs (not sure how many punk bands work “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori” into their lyrics, but they do). Given the political climate in North Carolina, “Rat Fucker” (about gerrymandering and other forms of voter disenfranchisement) particularly resonated. But really, none of that would matter if the band didn’t, you know, rock, and that they most assuredly do. Tune in and turn this up loud.
I recorded this set in the same manner as the other sets of the day, with Schoeps mics onstage, MBHO mics at the board, and a soundboard feed. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!
Tracks 01 [intro] 02 Anti-Fi 03 Eichmann In Jerusalem 04 First They Came> 05 Angie 06 Wage Theft 07 Decorate 08 Rat Fucker 09 In Carrz 10 Objects In Mirror 11 See You On the Somme 12 Cactus Wife 13 Shit Bird 14 Fasting
Cold Cream is:
Mara Thomas – Vocals Clarq Blomquist – Drums Laura King – Bass Ron Liberti – Guitar
These days, Diane Cluck performs in NYC about once every eighteen months or so. Her last appearance in NY was in May of 2018 where she was backed into a late show and as a result her set that night was somewhat truncated. When we booked Diane for this year’s show at Trans-Pecos, there were no such limitations and this performance was undoubtedly the longest Diane Cluck show we’ve ever seen.
At Pecos last month, Diane was relaxed, playful, in good spirits, and thoroughly engaging. The set clocks in well over 90 minutes and the show contains plenty of banter, accepted requests, give and take with the engaged crowd, and two encores. Early in the set, Diane played tribute to her friend David Berman with a heartfelt cover of The Silver Jews “People”.
The exciting news is that Diane Cluck has fully recorded a new album due for release soon, which will be her first proper l.p. release since 2014’s Boneset. This night saw the performance of several of the new songs, the quality of which bodes well for this much anticipated album. The balance of the show was a nice sampling of the best material of Diane’s distinguished career and ultimately there really wasn’t much more that we could have asked for. Diane’s Northeast tour is complete, but we eagerly await her return perhaps for an album release show!
This set was recorded directly from the soundboard at a fairly low volume. The boosting and balance of the levels introduced some background noise into the sound (minor hiss mostly) but the mix and the sound quality is still quite excellent. Enjoy!
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:35:42]
01 [hello]
02 The Smile
03 [banter – new york]
04 People [Silver Jews]
05 [banter – that’s a club]
06 The Power of Allowing and Receiving
07 Heartloose
08 [banter – new album]
09 Jenny
10 Love You This Much
11 Maybe a Bird
12 Content to Reform
13 [Brian Festa set]
14 We Love You
15 Grandma Say
16 Draw Me Out
17 Pull Out the Bad Bone
18 [banter – thanks]
19 How Long
20 Sara
21 Telepathic Desert
22 Learn to Lose
23 Not Afraid to Be Kind
24 [banter – mellow Friday]
25 Peace I Leave
26 [banter – request]
27 Sandy Ree
28 [banter – merch]
29 Wild Deer at Dawn
30 [encore break]
31 Reveler
32 The Turnaround Road
PLEASE SUPPORT Diane Cluck, visit her website, and purchase her official releases from her Store [HERE].
The tenth annual Woodsist Festival not only found Kevin Morby reprising his role as bassist in Woods during their set, but it highlighted Morby’s continued growth as an artist (and in popularity) since those days.
This stripped down set, featuring Morby with saxophonist Cheme Gastelum, focused on material from this year’s Oh My God, a record that, as its name suggests, focuses more heavily on spiritual and religious issues than Morby has in the past. Those songs were joined by “Harlem River” (of course), featuring Jarvis Taveniere, Meg Duffy and Jeremy Earl (on drums) to make it a full-band effort. But Morby saved his most impactful number for last: “Beautiful Strangers,” Morby’s 2016 tribute to the Pulse Nightclub shooting victims in Orlando, joined by Katie Crutchfield on vocals. It felt like a fitting tribute to people whose lives had ended at an event and a place not so dissimilar from this: one of community, positivity, and love.
I recorded this set with Evan’s soundboard feed, combined with a little bit of Schoeps MK5 microphones back at the board for ambiance. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!
Thanks to Kevin Morby for granting permission to post the set, and Woodsist for letting us record the festival.
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.
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
Ty Segall is really good at music. I mean seriously, this guy has the most prolific catalog in recent memory, but is also a master at a litany of genres, and consistently releases high quality material. There’s an argument that Ty Segall is the most accomplished rock musician of this century. No, really, just take a look at his enormous body of work and its hard to argue against its superior quality.
We have been there for many of his NYC performances, going all the way back to the early years in the tiny DIY rooms but also conversely for two of his Webster Hall appearances. I’m not sure exactly why its been a few years since we last saw Ty, but within about 10 minutes of experiencing this magical night at Bowery Ballroom we immediately remembered why we’ve sought out this artist’s shows for many years. He’s simply a kinetic bundle of talent and energy, and now he’s surrounded himself with an all-star team of virtuoso friends that has become the “Freedom Band” for the last three albums.
Ty Segall’s most recent album, First Take, features the Freedom Band but reportedly has no guitars. The newest band member Shannon Lay plays a bouzouki, a Greek stringed instrument that resembles a guitar, so the idea that one of the world’s most prominent garage rock icons would forsake the guitar is a good cover story, but the reality is that the album doesn’t need guitars. The variety of instruments played by the Freedom Band more than fills the gaps on an album of great imagination and songcraft. As with Ty’s 2018 release Freedom’s Goblin, the artist’s moving away from restrictive genres is in its way his own statement about the evolution of his career — his freedom from labels if you will.
At Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday night, First Tastewas played start to finish as the first half of the show. Spoiler alert, Ty did play guitar during quite a few of the tracks, but stepped behind a front-of-stage drum kit for about half the numbers. Often accompanied by two bass guitars and two keyboardists, the new songs feature heavy rhythms, dense melodies, and often harmonized vocals. Sure, there’s some good old punk rock in the mix, but by the time the final number “Lone Cowboys” was performed, it was clear that 2019 Ty Segall is a very different and far more diverse artist than a decade before.
So, what did he do with the rest of the show — surprise! The band stepped back almost a decade for a straight-through performance of 2010’s Melted, Ty’s third album and the first of his many many releases to really stretch its wings beyond straightforward garage punk. But other than not sitting behind the drum kit again, Ty’s approach to this music was not so radically different from the “first set”. The Freedom Band put its stamp on this music and in a way proved that even 2010 Ty Segall was ahead of his time.
Its not often when a musician can play a two-hour show with literally no gaps of energy or interest, but that is exactly what Ty Segall is doing these days. By compiling a band of maestros to compliment his newest and most ambitious material, this artist is maturing into a true composer. As the show both looks forward and nods with respect to the past, its is clear that Ty Segall is an all-timer and we are fortunate that an artist of this caliber is sharing these moments. The Bowery show was very clearly the best concert I’ve seen this year, and one of the best I’ve seen this decade and yes, I was lucky to be there and to capture it.
This set was recorded as we always do at this venue, with Schoeps mounted at the front of the balcony and mixed with a very fine board feed. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:46:27]
01 Taste
02 Whatever
03 Ice Plant
04 The Fall
05 I Worship the Dog
06 The Arms
07 When I Met My Parents Part 1
08 I Sing Them
09 When I Met My Parents Part 2
10 Radio
11 When I Met My Parents Part 3
12 Self Esteem
13 Lone Cowboys
14 Finger
15 Caesar
16 Girlfriend
17 Sad Fuzz
18 Melted
19 Mike D’s Coke
20 Imaginary Person
21 My Sunshine
22 Bees
23 Mrs.
24 Alone
25 [encore break]
26 Fanny Dog
27 The Hand
28 She
Freedom Band: Mikal Cronin, Shannon Lay, Charles Moothart, Emmett Kelly, and Ben Boye
Planting Moon, of Asheville, NC, didn’t quite debut at this year’s Three Lobed / WXDU Annual Ritual of Summoning, but it’s fair to say this was a key performance by a new band — one that landed the right way on these ears. This combo of guitarists Sarah Louise and Nathan Olson, together with drummer Thom Nguyen, takes full of advantage of these players’ improvisational talents, with Louise adding occasional vocals to her heady guitar interplay with Olson.
This was one of my favorite sets of this year’s Hopscotch — not only are Planting Moon excellent, but their gigs to date have been largely local affairs. Along with the marquee national and international acts (who all play New York eventually), this festival is a chance to see the best acts coming out of North Carolina, particularly the vibrant scenes in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill and Asheville. Trust me, Planting Moon check that box in a big way.
I recorded this set with the same three-source setup I used throughout the day, with onstage Schoeps MK5s carrying the load, together with a soundboard feed and MBHO mics back at the soundboard to capture the room feel. This one sounds great, folks. Enjoy!
Sarah Louise (guitar/vox) Nathan Olson (guitar) Thom Nguyen (drums)
It’s too early for Planting Moon to have any recorded output, but you ought to support them by visiting their Facebook page.Don’t skip the members’ otherwork as well.
Not so long after catching an infrequent Wooden Shjips sighting at Brooklyn Bowl a few months back, we were lucky enough to see Ripley Johnson with his other (no less important) project Moon Duo close out the Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, NC at our fave spot there, Kings.
Most exciting about this set was the fact that it comes just before the release of the band’s latest album, Stars Are the Light, a record that finds Sanae Yamada and Ripley wading further into the dance music arena. While you won’t find Moon Duo headlining a big EDM festival anytime soon, the vibe and texture of the new material has an airier lean to it. Yamada has cited disco as an inspiration for these songs, and you can hear it from the album’s title song as well as many of the new numbers that made their way into this night. If you’ve heard the second volume of Occult Architecture – billed the “light” side of that double album – then think of Stars Are the Light as the next logical evolution of that material. It’s a heck of a lot of fun to anytime, but it proved an especially fine coda to a multi-night music festival for me. Rounding out the new material, and the set, was a curveball cover, in this case Alan Vega’s “Jukebox Babe,” which the band released as a single last year.
Tracks
01 Flying
02 The World and the Sun
03 Cold Fear
04 I Been Gone
05 Eternal Shore
06 Fever Night
07 Night Beat
08 White Rose
09 Jukebox Babe [Alan Vega]
Lubelski and Nace both have extensive musical histories as solo artists, improvisers and collaborators, including with members of Sonic Youth (Lubelski with Thurston Moore in, among other formats, Chelsea Light Moving; Nace most recently in Body/Head with Kim Gordon, but also with Moore and Lubelski). This format — in which the duo have released a self-titled album and recently toured the U.S. — finds Lubelski on violin and Nace on guitar/effects. It’s clear from the cohesiveness of this 28-minute piece that the pair have a natural interplay with each other, as they weave together a piece that you’ll find thought provoking no matter how you choose to interpret it.
I recorded this set primarily with a feed from the soundboard, with the Schoeps MK5 onstage mics providing additional atmosphere. Enjoy!
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