Posts Tagged ‘ thrill jockey ’

Nathan Bowles: February 12, 2015 Union Pool and January 31, 2015 Silent Barn – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

February 22, 2015
By

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An canny, skilled and unpretentious kind of player, Nathan Bowles is nonetheless important not because of how he plays, but what he plays. There’s no shortage of banjo music circulating these days — the jam-band scene is filled with bands playing their own pabulum and covering the classic rock hits with the instrument, using it to deliver a little authenticity from the extra twang. Bowles’ career is the exact opposite of all of that — not only does he bring a new style and sound to Appalachian music, but he has an intrinsic knowledge of what a worthy song is, whatever its era.

First as a member of legendary Pelt, the multi-instrumentalist helped to make drone-based music that changed the conversation about what “folk” could be. With the Black Twig Pickers, he and his bandmates have gone deep into American history, both excavating and elevating lost and under-appreciated old-time music. Fitting, then, that his solo work, in particular 2014’s Nansemond, does some of both, giving us traditional Appalachian and Piedmont string music that’s infused with the sound and spirit of the modern avant-garde. Though “solo” in name, Nansemond is a full-band effort, allowing Bowles to produce tunes like the album’s bookends, “Sleepy Lake Bike Club” and “Sleepy Lake Tire Swing” that weave rich guitar textures around his virtuosic banjo work.

These sets at Union Pool and Silent Barn were true solo affairs, with Bowles the support act for Joan Shelley and Elisa Ambrogio, respectively. In front of two crowds that couldn’t have been more different, Bowles performed sets that delivered the full range of what’s meaningful about Nansemond. Both were all-Nansemond affairs that included the “Sleepy Lake” pieces and his straightforward medley of “Jonah and the Whale” and “Poor Liza Jane”. At Union Pool we got “Moonshine Is the Sunshine”, closer to the former numbers in tone, while at Silent Barn, Bowles added something more experimental to the reportoire, with “Chuckatuck”, a song in which Tom Carter’s guitar work figures prominently on the record. You could’ve heard a pin drop among the Union Pool crowd, who Nathan thanked, almost baffled, for how respectful they were. If playing for the younger crowd at Silent Barn — who’d already been treated to a couple of punk bands — represented an uphill climb, Bowles didn’t show it; if anything, the spare arrangement of “Chuckatuck”, extended by three minutes versus the album version, ought to go down as one of that song’s best takes.

The Union Pool set was recorded with a soundboard feed from the house engineer Rob together with my Schoeps MK41 supercardiod microphones, while Eric PH recorded the Silent Barn gig with a straight soundboard feed from the engineer Mike, with only a tiny amount of his AKG 480 cardiods mixed in.

Download the Union Pool show [FLAC] | [MP3]

Download the Silent Barn show [FLAC] | [MP3]

Stream the Union Pool show:

Stream the Silent Barn show:

Nathan Bowles
2015-02-12
Union Pool
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Rob) + Schoeps MK41 (PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2 >> Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (fades, compression, mix down)>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, exciter)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 Sleepy Lake Bike Club
03 [banter1]
04 Moonshine is the Sunshine [Jeffrey Cain]
05 [banter2]
06 Jonah and the Whale [traditional] / folk medley
07 [banter3]
08 Sleepy Lake Tire Swing
____________________________________________________

Nathan Bowles
2015-01-31
Silent Barn
Brooklyn, NY

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

Soundboard (engineer: Mike) + AKG C480B/CK61 (FOB, PAS) > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV(24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, mixdown) > Audacity 2.0.5 (amplify, fades, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

Tracks [45:13]
01. Sleepy Lake Bike Club
02. [banter/tuning]
03. Jonah/Poor Liza Jane
04. [banter/tuning]
05. Sleepy Lake Tire Swing
06. [banter/tuning]
07. Chuckatuck

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Nathan Bowles, visit his website, and buy Nansemond from Paradise of Bachelors.

nathanbowles2015-01-31silentbarn

Arbouretum: February 15, 2013 Cameo Gallery – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

February 21, 2013
By

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[Photos courtesy of P Squared Photography]

One of the first things you notice at an Arbouretum show is how clearly you can hear frontman and lyricist Dave Heumann’s vocals. He enunciates, he articulates each word carefully, in a way that suggests he wants you to actually hear what he’s singing. And if you don’t pay attention to that, you’re missing out. This is, after all, a band that wrote an entire album (The Gathering) inspired by Karl Jung’s The Red Book.  You could be forgiven, though, since along with those literary-inspired vocals, you’ll get a deep, Southern rock-inflected groove punctuated by Heumann’s own searing guitar solos. This show, which we helped to present, at Cameo Gallery proved a worthy sequel to their set at Glasslands back in 2011 when we last saw them. This set introduced us to new material from their excellent Thrill Jockey release, Coming Out of the Fog, plus some choice back catalog including one of my favorites, “St. Anthony’s Fire” from their split EP with Hush Arbors. Also not to be missed among the older material was the mighty set closer, “The Gathering”, while “World Split Open” was a highlight of the new material, which is some of the band’s most concise in years.  Helped by an outstanding mix from Josh of the Cameo Gallery, the band put out a flawless set before the packed house that surpassed the 2011 show in intensity, though not quite in length. The band is spending the rest of this month and March in the UK and Europe, so for our readers across the pond, now is your chance.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK5 microphones and a soundboard feed from house engineer Josh. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!


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

If the FLAC link is no longer working, email nyctaper for the FLAC files

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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Arbouretum
2013-02-15
Cameo Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK5 (cardiod, DFC, DINa)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard (engineer: Josh)>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (set fades, mix down)>Izotope Ozone 5 (light EQ, exciter)>Audacity 3.0 (tracking, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 46:03]
01 All At Once, the Turning Weather
02 World Split Open
03 [banter]
04 The Promise
05 Oceans Don’t Sing
06 [banter2]
07 St. Anthony’s Fire
08 The Gathering Song

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Arbouretum, visit their website, and buy Coming Out of the Fog and their other releases directly from Thrill Jockey [HERE]

Glenn Jones: September 7, 2012 Hopscotch Festival, Memorial Auditorium (Raleigh, NC) – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

October 5, 2012
By


[Photo copyright 2012 by Abby Nardo]

I saw more incredible solo guitarists during the course of the Hopscotch Music Festival than I’ve seen in the rest of my life combined. Each man’s style left an impression, from the psychedelic leanings of Ben Chasny to the Piedmont blues influences of Chuck Johnson. Of all of these distinct and excellent players, none had a style of purer beauty than Glenn Jones. A devoted fan of John Fahey, arguably the founder of the American Primitivism style of guitar, Jones spent decades playing self-made compositions in his bedroom before finally gaining the courage to begin playing solo shows in public back in the early 2000s. (Jones was no stranger to performing in public generally, though – he has served as guitarist in the Boston-area instrumental band Cul de Sac since 1989.)  Today, Jones’ style draws not only from the country and blues that sparked American Primitivism, but also from classical guitar, which often gives his songs a lilting, elegiac quality that sets him apart from his peers.

Raleigh’s Memorial Auditorium might have been a daunting venue for a solo guitarist who used to be afraid of performing in front of crowds; asking Jones to hold the attention of the massive hall completely unaccompanied was no small request. But Jones not only held his own, but shone, giving us an hour of his compositions interspersed with narratives that expanded on the songs’ themes. A good chunk of the set draws from Jones’ latest and best solo record, the 2011 Thrill Jockey release The Wanting.  One of the most striking aspects of Jones’ playing, for guitar aficionados, is his abandonment of standard tunings (which he did about 25 years ago, by his count).  Jones used a different tuning for every song on The Wanting, and that gives that record – and this set – another distinction.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 microphones and a North Carolina-made Naiant tinybox preamp. Recording relatively quiet music in a large hall presents challenges, and in this case, the overall recording level was lower than optimal for most of the set. This means that some hiss from the recorder’s internal components and the house PA can be heard in the recording. However, it remains a worthwhile document of Jones and what he has to offer.  Enjoy!

Thanks to Glenn Jones and his management for permitting us to offer this recording here, and to Terry Watts for the clamp space and running my rig.

Stream the entire set:

Please note that at the request of the artist, this set is available for streaming only.

Follow acidjack on twitter

Check out all of NYCTaper’s Hopscotch Festival recordings

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.

Glenn Jones
2012-09-07
Hopscotch Music Festival
Memorial Auditorium
Raleigh, NC USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41 (DINa, DFC, FOB)>KCY>tinybox v2>Sony PCM-M10>24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (set fades, tracking, reduce applause, amplify, balance, downsample to 16bit)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Redwood Ramble Misremembered
02 [banter]
03 Like A Sick Eagle Staring at the Sky
04 [banter]
05 The Great Pacific Northwest
06 [banter]
07 The Paddle Wheel Nathan Bowles
08 [banter]
09 Going Back To East Montgomery
10 [banter]
11 Of Its Own Kind
12 [banter]
13 The Orca Grande Cement Factory at Victorville [w/ Chris Corsano]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Glenn Jones, visit his website, and buy his records from Thrill Jockey [HERE]

Pontiak: June 14, 2012 NYCTaper Northside Festival Showcase at 285 Kent – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

June 25, 2012
By


[Photos by Jill Harrison at For the Love of Brooklyn]

The way that the brothers Jennings, Van and Lain Carney – aka Pontiak – are able to live their lives as musicians is about as far from the New York experience as you can get. Where our musicians live in cramped apartments, borrow or rent practice space, and live near the places where they play, the Carneys record and practice their music on their own farm/studio in rural Virginia, where they decamped to after a five year stint in the Baltimore scene, where they played with compatriots like Arbouretum. The brothers’ rural location has given them flexibility to record how and what they want that their urban counterparts would surely envy. But it does mean a very long drive when you want to do a one-off show for the Northside Festival.

Given the distance involved, and the fact that the band tours much more regularly in Europe, I was honored that Pontiak agreed to co-headline our second annual Northside Festival showcase at 285 Kent. For me, Pontiak was not just a band that I liked and hoped would play a showcase; to me, it is a band that distills to its essence what is right and good about live music. Their sets are unpredictable, drawing from a deep catalog of nine releases, and they take fearless and surprising turns stylistically, even from song to song. Yes, Pontiak are unquestionably a “heavy” band, but that simple tag belies a huge range of influences you can hear in their material. They can evoke Sabbath-style riff-driven metal, stoner rock, psych rock, indie rock, southern rock and math rock, and they can even showcase a quieter, more acoustic side. The band’s most recent EP, Comecrudos, which predated this year’s excellent full-length LP Echo Ono, was a five-part piece inspired by the drive from Marathon, Texas to Phoenix, and featured guest musicians on horns and deep, penetrating psychedelic guitar musings. Echo Ono, on the other hand, “cuts out all the bullshit” (as Van Carney put it to the A.V. Club) and is a much more straight-ahead psychedelic rock album than some of their earlier work.

As a live band, it’s also fair to say the Carneys cut out all the bullshit. Up on the stage with their stripped-down selection of vintage gear cranked to ear-blistering levels, the brothers tore through this 40-minute set with few pauses or breaks. As always, the interplay between the brothers was deft and natural, and their material showed the full range of their catalog.  Although several tracks from Echo Ono were played for the first time (for me), my personal highlight was when the band slowed things down a bit to play Part III of Comecrudos. We could not have been more honored to have them on stage on our behalf.

nyctaper and I recorded this set in the same manner as the other sets of the night, with Sennheiser MKH-8040 microphones, Audio Technica microphones split wide at the stage lip, and a soundboard feed. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Special thanks to Pontiak, White Hills, Rhyton and EULA for playing this show and to ToddP for helping to host the event.  You can download While Hills’ set [HERE], Rhyton [HERE] and EULA [HERE].

Stream “Part III [Comecrudos]”
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/P2011Pontiak2010/05 Part III.mp3]

Stream “Across the Steppe”
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/P2011Pontiak2010/01 Across the Steppe.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE] | Direct download of FLAC files [HERE]
email nyctaper for the location of the FLAC files

Follow acidjack on twitter

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.

Pontiak
2012-06-14
NYCTaper Northside Festival Showcase
285 Kent
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Sennheiser MKH-8040 (ROC, 8ft, PAS) + Soundboard + Audio Technica 3031 (stage lip, NOS)>Sound Devices USBPre2 >> Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod]>3x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audacity (mixdown)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, gentle tube)>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 40:03]
01 Across the Steppe
02 Laywayed
03 The North Coast
04 Left With Lights
05 Part III
06 Shell Skull
07 The Expanding Sky
08 Royal Colors
09 Panoptica [short version]
10 Lions of Least

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Pontiak, visit their website, and purchase their official releases, including Echo Ono from Thrill Jockey directly [here].

White Hills: June 14, 2012 NYCTaper Northside Showcase at 285 Kent – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

June 20, 2012
By


[Photos by Jill at For the Love of Brooklyn]

it seemed that the NYCTaper 2012 Northside Festival showcase provided an ideal time for bands to try out different sets and arrangements and be a bit more adventurous with their setlists and performance. White Hills, who I had seen more recently than the other bands who played, gave a set that focused on some of their classic, most exploration-friendly numbers, and duly impressed both first-timers and White Hills vets. We knew we were in for something special when “Song of Everything” from the band’s latest LP, Frying on this Rock, was the second song in the set, flowing straight into “You Dream You See” from that same record. But the track that followed, “Let the Right One In” from the band’s 2010 record, White Hills, was what sealed it for me as my favorite White Hills set yet, with its slow build to its cosmic climax. The closer, “Polvere  de Stelle”, also from White Hills, was equally a highlight. The Hills are the type of band that always keeps things interesting, and even in this festival-length format, they were able to give us that and more.

nyctaper and I recorded this set with Sennheiser MKH-8040 mics in our usual spot in the venue, plus Audio Technica 3031 mics at the stage lip and a soundboard feed.  The resulting wall of sound is an outstanding representation of the night. Enjoy!

Special thanks to Thrill Jockey Records and White Hills for playing the show. You can download other sets from the NYCTaper Showcase as well, including EULA and Rhyton.  

Stream “Let the Right One In”
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/W0049WhiteHills2012/04 Let the Right One In.mp3]

Stream “The Condition of Nothing”
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/W0049WhiteHills2012/05 The Condition of Nothing.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE] | Direct Download of the FLAC files [HERE]

Follow acidjack on twitter

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.

White Hills
2012-06-14
NYCTaper Northside Festival Showcase
285 Kent
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Audio Technica 3031 (stage lip, NOS)>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Sennheiser MKH-8040 (ROC, 8ft, PAS) + Soundboard >> Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod]>3x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mixdown, adjust levels, EQ and compression on SBD)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, tube effect)>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify and balance)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 32:35]
01 Pads of Light
02 Song of Everything
03 You Dream You See
04 Let the Right One In
05 The Condition of Nothing
06 Polvere de Stelle

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT White Hills, like them on Facebook, and purchase their records including Frying On This Rock directly from Thrill Jockey [HERE]

White Hills: April 9, 2012 Glasslands – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs [Plus Northside Festival Announcement]

April 18, 2012
By


[Photos by acidjack]

It is a distinct pleasure to finally present a recording of the stellar Brooklyn heavy psych rock act White Hills. We have been following the Hills for a few years now, and have recorded them a few times, but in the past things never quite worked out. This show at Glasslands – also filmed for future release by the professional video production team PanopticonNYC – exceeded everyone’s expectations.

White Hills are a prolific band – so much so that even though I’ve seen them in each of the past four years, they’ve never been promoting the same album twice. The last time I saw them, they were touring behind H-p1, a 72-minute opus of deep psychedelic riffage. Their new record, Frying On this Rock, mostly continues H-p1’s traditions, and like that record, its improvisation-baiting material is best experienced in the live setting, where frontman Dave W. and bassist Ego Sensation never hold back. This show was a veritable tour of the band’s last several records, kicking off with “Oceans of Sound” from their 2009 Thrill Jockey debut, Heads On Fire, and jamming straight into the monster “Three Quarters” off of the eponymous White Hills, arguably their best record to date. True to form, the set gave Dave and Ego Sensation plenty of room to delve into their deepest space rock, including the new number “Pads of Light” and this night’s take on another classic from White Hills, the set closer “Dead”.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed provided by the head Glasslands FOH Josh, and Schoeps MK22 microphones to capture the full force of the band.  The recording is excellent and we are pleased to finally have White Hills on the site!

White Hills will be co-headlining our 2012 Northside Festival showcase on Thursday, June 14 at 285 Kent.  Also on the bill will be NYCTaper favorites and co-headliners Pontiak along with Thrill Jockey bandmates Rhyton and one of our favorite new Brooklyn bands, EULA.

Stream “Pads of Light”
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/W0049WhiteHills2012/03 Pads of Light.mp3]

Stream “Dead”
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/W0049WhiteHills2012/08 Dead.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE] | Direct Download of the FLAC files [HERE]

Follow acidjack on twitter

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.

White Hills
2012-04-09
Glasslands
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK22 (DFC, PAS, 7.5ft)>CMC6 + Soundboard >> Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod]>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mixdown)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, tube warmth, boost and hard limit)>Audacity (set fades, tracking, slight additional EQ)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Oceans of Sound>
02 Three Quarters
03 Pads of Light>
04 Radiate
05 You Dream You See
06 I Write A Thousand Letters (Pulp On Bone)
07 Condition of Nothing
08 Dead

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT White Hills, like them on Facebook, and purchase their records including Frying On This Rock directly from Thrill Jockey [HERE]

Brokeback: November 8, 2011 Bowery Ballroom – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Song

November 22, 2011
By

brokeback
[iPhone photo by acidjack]

After I posted my recording of The Sea and Cake at Bowery Ballroom earlier this month, I received an unusual number of requests to also post my recording of the second opener, Brokeback. I can’t say I was surprised. This band, a side project of Tortoise bassist Doug McCombs, released several records on Thrill Jockey in the late 90s and early 2000s, but has been in hibernation since 2008. This reconstituted 2011 version of the band is rehearsing new songs for a record, and playing shows around the country to work out the new material. In short, McCombs’ guitar-based compositions are stunning stuff, at turns heavy and cinematic but also referencing some of Tortoise’s more restrained, jazzy qualities. As these were all-new songs, I’m afraid I don’t have a setlist at all, but I am deeply grateful to both Doug and Thrill Jockey giving the site permission to share this recording. This is an exciting preview of what is sure to be a great new release – keep an eye out for it! If you do happen to know any of these song titles, please help us fill them in.

I recorded this set from our usual location in the Bowery Ballroom with the DPA microphones and a very transparent Sound Devices preamp, just as I did with the Sea and Cake recording. This recording has a similarly crisp, dry quality and is an excellent listen. Enjoy!

Stream Track #2
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/B8011Brokeback0211/brokeback2011-11-08bowery_acidjack-02.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE] | Direct Download of the FLAC files [HERE]

Follow acidjack on twitter

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.

Brokeback
2011-11-08
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

DPA 4021 (Slightly LOC, balcony, POS)>Sound Devices USBPre2>Sony PCM-M10 (24/44.1)>24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify and balance)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Please help with the setlist if you know any of these songs]
01
02
03
04 [banter]
05
06 [banter]
07
08

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Brokeback by visiting their Thrill Jockey Records page, where you can find out more info about their forthcoming album and purchase their current releases, including their latest, Looks at the Bird.

The Sea and Cake: November 8, 2011 Bowery Ballroom – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

November 10, 2011
By


[Photos courtesy of Patrick Proctor at Hippies Are Dead]

“We feel like we’re in the Deep South,” said The Sea and Cake‘s Sam Prekop somewhere mid-set at the Bowery Ballroom this Tuesday. “And that’s a compliment.” No doubt Sam was referring to the level of enthusiasm from this weeknight crowd, including at least one audience member who seemed to think it was a Motley Crue concert. To hear a girl screaming “Bring the fuckin’ heat!” in between songs at an almost professorially mild-mannered, jazz-influenced Chicago indie act was certainly a new one for me in NYC. But that – and similar raging from others – added to the sense that, yes, after more than 20 years of delivering great music, a Sea and Cake show is still very much something to celebrate. With several of the members busy with other projects – Prekop and co-frontman Archer Prewitt with their solo careers, drummer John McEntire with NYCTaper favorite Tortoise – Sea and Cake shows aren’t as common as they otherwise could be.

Despite the band’s low-key approach, these guys turned the volume up loud. In a nearly 90-minute set, they covered the gamut of their career, from early-90s tunes like “Parasol” to offerings from their recent EP on Thrill Jockey, The Moonlight Butterfly. This show found the band in almost-perfect synch, playing the older songs like the classic “Afternoon Speaker” with the same enthusiasm shown for new work like “Inn Keeping.” “Leeora” gave a chance for some extended guitar meditation by Prewitt and Prekop, and a bit of a drum solo for McEntire, echoing some of his work in his other project.

Given the overwhelming reception they had received, The Sea and Cake seemed more than happy to play two encores – the highlight for me being “Parasol,” an older number, that also brought a huge audience roar. Who says you have to play the Deep South to be cheered like a champion?

I recorded this set with the DPA 4021 microphones from the optimal spot on the balcony. The sound is excellent, and thankfully the audience shenanigans are almost completely confined to in between songs. Enjoy!

Stream “Parasol”
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/S0811SeaandCake0211/20 Parasol.mp3]

Stream “Up On the North Shore”
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/S0811SeaandCake0211/07 Up On the North Shore.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE] | Direct download of the FLAC files [HERE]

If the FLAC link is not active, email nyctaper for the FLAC files

Follow acidjack on twitter

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 Sea and Cake
2011-11-08
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

DPA 4021 (balcony, slightly LOC, POS)>Sound Devices USBpre2>Sony PCM-M10 (24/44.1)>24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audition (light EQ, limit peaks)>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify and balance)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:24:19]
01 Weekend
02 On A Letter
03 The Staircase
04 Window Sills
05 Middlenight
06 Afternoon Speaker
07 Up On the North Shore
08 Midtown
09 [banter/tuning]
10 Exact to Me
11 Crossing Line
12 [crowd/false start]
13 A Fuller Moon
14 Inn Keeping
15 The Argument
16 Leeora
17 [encore break 1]
18 An Echo In
19 Lyric
20 Parasol
21 [encore break 2]
22 Escort [short version]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT The Sea and Cake, visit their website, and purchase The Moonlight Butterfly and their many other excellent releases from Thrill Jockey Records [HERE].

Arbouretum: October 14, 2011 Glasslands – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

October 28, 2011
By


[Photos by acidjack]

Thrill Jockey’s band page for Arbouretum describes them as a “taper’s dream”, and they could well be right about that.  With open song structures, a hard-rocking, Southern-informed psych-rock sound an solid dose of showmanship, the band comes off a bit like an updated, thinking man’s version of bands like CCR and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and they play a hell of a good show that doesn’t belie that comparison.  The band took the stage behind a veil of smoke, launching into a brief psychedelic intro before hitting full stride on “False Spring” the leadoff track to their 2009 record, Song of the Pearl.  That led into “White Bird”, the sole song played from their latest Thrill Jockey release, The Gathering.  The musical virtuosity only went up from there, with “Down By the Fall Line” leading directly into “Mohammed’s Hex and Bounty” in a combined 17-minute piece that found the band in top form.  Frontman Dave Heumann puts a lot of thought into his dense, literary lyrics, and (somewhat unusually for an indie artist) actually sings them so you can hear them.  As audience members called out various rarities and covers throughout the set, the band finally obliged with a ripping version of CCR’s “Long As I Can See the Light.”

I recorded this set with my usual mounted setup of DPAs on the center post plus a soundboard feed from Josh, the head FOH engineer at Glasslands. The sound is excellent.  Enjoy!

Stream “The White Bird”
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/A1014Arbouretum0211/03 The White Bird.mp3]

Stream “Long As I Can See the Light [Creedence Clearwater Revival]”
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/A1014Arbouretum0211/08 Long As I Can See the Light.mp3]

This recording is now available to download as FLAC or MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

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Arbouretum
2011-10-14
Glasslands
Brooklyn, NY USA

An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

DPA 4021 (DFC, ORTF)>Sound Devices USBpre2+Soundboard >> Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod] (24/48)>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audition (mixdown)>Audacity (tracking, set fades, amplify and balance)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 59:22]
01 [intro]
02 False Spring
03 The White Bird
04 Down By the Fall Line>
05 Mohammed’s Hex and Bounty
06 Ghosts of Here and There
07 Song of the Nile
08 Long As I Can See the Light [Creedence Clearwater Revival]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Arbouretum by visiting their MySpace page and purchasing their official releases directly from Thrill Jockey [HERE]

Pontiak: November 20, 2010 Bell House – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Song

December 13, 2010
By


[Photo by Johnny]

Before the mighty Bardo Pond headlined the recent incarnation of the Memory Burn Psych Festival, heavy-rocking southerners Pontiak made sure nobody in the vicinity of the Bell House missed their louder-than-hell set. The Virginian siblings (the band is comprised of the brothers Van, Lain and Jennings Carney) opened up with one of their more accessible new numbers, the 70s-inspired “Young,” and from there, surged through several more songs from their 2010 release This Is Living, as well as classics from the rest of their catalog, including an epic closer of “Sun On Sun” segueing into “Shell Skull.” Pontiak’s music can find a variety of musical company; loose and improvisational enough to satisfy the psych rock set, but churning, riff-driven and structurally cohesive such that it won’t be lost on your average metal or rock fan, either. This set eschewed some of the quieter, more acoustic songs demonstrated on Living and some of the band’s earlier records in favor of the crowd-pleasers for, well, the kind of people who attend an event called the “Memory Burn Psych Festival”, and to great effect. Compared to on record, Van Carney’s vocals were buried most of the night under layers of guitars and drums like a distant spectre, but all the better to accentuate the vortex of guitars, bass and drums. Indeed, I was particularly gratified to see the band properly mixed by the Bell House staff on a killer system that gave full voice to their style. This was probably the most head-banging set of the evening, and for those who hadn’t crossed paths with Pontiak before, a revelation.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps microphones and a stereo soundboard feed, in the same manner as the Bardo Pond recording, and the results are equally outstanding. Enjoy!

Stream “Young”:
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/P2011Pontiak2010/Pontiak-Young.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Pontiak
2010-11-20
Bell House
Brooklyn, NY  USA

An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

Equipment: Schoeps CMC6/mk41+Soundboard>Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod] (24/48)
Position: DFC, pole clamped to soundboard about 9ft from floor, pointed at stacks
Mastering: 2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audacity (set fades, mixdown, track, amplify and balance, downsample to 16/44.1)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
1. Young
2. This is Living
3. World Wide Prince
4. Lemon Lady
5. Maker
6. Sun on Sun>Shell Skull

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Pontiak, visit their website, and purchase their official releases, including Living from Thrill Jockey directly [here].

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