Posts Tagged ‘ Tall Firs ’

Mary Lattimore and Dave Mies: February 7, 2016 Trans-Pecos

February 24, 2016
By

Mary Lattimore and Dave Mies

I might’ve had one of the quietest ever Super Bowl Sundays this year, having spent the afternoon at Trans-Pecos for a bill featuring a Matt Valentine solo set, another solo set from Samara Lubelski, and a duo set from experimental harpist Mary Lattimore and Dave Mies, one-half of Tall Firs. For a self-described “depressy guy,” Mies’s songs aren’t nearly the downers the lyrics might suggest. Instead, his overpowering-yet-delicate vocals and quietly strummed guitar produce songs that you feel you could wrap yourself in like blankets. Paired with Lattimore’s harp, the two instruments form a dialog that belies the isolation of the lyrics. Besides a cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothin'” and the Tall Firs tune “Winter Wind” (off last year’s excellent Ghostlight Ensemble), the set is a batch of entirely new songs that will nonetheless sound pretty familiar if you’ve been following along with Tall Firs. One can only hope they’ll see release soon in some form, whether as a Tall Firs record or something else entirely. In the meantime, there’s still some winter left for you to get warm and depressy with this recording.

I recorded this set from the stage lip at Trans-Pecos, with the mics also picking up the vocals from the monitors. As usual for a quiet set like this there’s some ambient noise, but nothing too distracting. Overall the sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Mary Lattimore will be back at Trans-Pecos on March 4 for a record release show. All upcoming dates are here.

Stream and Download via Bandcamp:

Mary Lattimore and Dave Mies
2016-02-07
Trans-Pecos
Queens, NY

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

AKG C480B/CK61 (stage lip) > Roland R-26 > WAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (limiter, compression, normalize, fades) > Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [26:09]
01. [Intro]
02. Not My Friend
03. 69
04. Nothin’ [Townes Van Zandt]
05. 55 Watts
06. Winter Wind
07. [banter]
08. Scratch
09. [banter/tuning]
10. I Give Up

Support Tall Firs: Facebook | Website | Buy Ghostlight Ensemble via Amazon

Support Mary Lattimore: Website | Buy Luciferin Light via Bandcamp | Buy Slant of Light (with Jeff Zeigler) via Thrill Jockey

Tall Firs: March 15, 2015 Trans-Pecos – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 7, 2015
By

Tall Firs

The last time we had a Tall Firs set here on NYCTaper was way back in May of 2008. At the time, the band were playing songs off their first self-titled record and its followup Too Old to Die Young. As an electric trio, Dave Mies and Aaron Mullan were augmented by drummer Ryan Sawyer. Nearly seven years later, we caught up with Tall Firs again, this time with Mies and Mullan performing acoustically as a duo. In the intervening years, the band released their third record, Out of It and Into It, and could often be found performing at the latest iteration of the All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival.

For their afternoon matinee set at Trans-Pecos, the band’s quieter side is on display, setting the tone with a cover of Vic Chesnutt’s “Bakersfield,” from his first album Little. It’s no simple feat to do Chesnutt’s vocals justice, but Mies pulls it off with astounding grace, managing to sound like himself while still channelling Chesnutt’s emotive delivery. Tall Firs originals “Crooked Smiles” and “Suffer So Long” are off their most recent record, Out of It and Into It, while “So Messed Up”—which I always think of as the quintessential Firs track—is off Too Old to Die Young. “Ghost Light” and “Winter Wind” appear to be new songs, so perhaps we can expect some more new material on the way soon—and we certainly won’t wait another seven years to catch Tall Firs.

I recorded this set from the stage lip in the same manner as the Spectre Folk set from the same day, though this recording relies more heavily on the board feed. Despite some ambient noise from a few of the younger Tall Firs fans in attendance, the sound is quite enjoyable!

Tall Firs will be back at Trans-Pecos on April 25 for the intimate concert series, Heartworn Subways, along with Sue Garner, Lee Ranaldo, and Alan Licht. Advance tickets are still available.

Stream and Download via Bandcamp

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.

Tall Firs
2015-03-15
Trans-Pecos
Queens, NY

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

Soundboard (engineer: Max) + AKG C480B/CK61 (stage lip, DFC, 90 degrees) > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, mixdown, compression, limiter) > Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter, imaging) > Audacity 2.0.5 (amplify, fades, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [23:04]
01. Bakersfield [Vic Chesnutt]
02. So Messed Up
03. [banter/tuning]
04. Ghost Light
05. [banter/tuning]
06. Crooked Smiles
07. [banter/tuning]
08. Winter Wind
09. Suffer So Long

If you enjoyed this recording, please support Tall Firs. Like them on Facebook, visit their website, and buy Out of It and Into It via ATP Recordings.

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