Posts Tagged ‘ yo la tengo ’

Lee Ranaldo: January 22, 2017 Park Church Co-op

January 26, 2017
By

For all the reasons I need not repeat here, protest music is perhaps more vital now than at any other time in my lifetime if not everyone’s. Lee Ranaldo’s engagement with Occupy Wall Street has been well documented; and it was around that time that he started performing Neil Young’s classic “Revolution Blues” regularly at shows. Coming off inauguration weekend, I think we can safely call all of the songs Ranaldo performed last Sunday protest music, each song imploring us in its own language to “resist, resist, resist, resist.”

Wrapping up his two-week tour with Meg Baird and Steve Gunn (Steve’s set here, Meg’s set here), Ranaldo showed up at Park Church Co-op with a slew of new material (some of which we’ve heard before), plus covers of The Velvet Underground’s “Ocean” and the aforementioned Neil Young tune. Will the help of a few friends—left to right in the above photo that’s Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan, Lee, and Steve—the glorious crescendo of “Ocean” is as overwhelming as the lyrics’ crashing waves suggest. These days, we need art not only for protest but also to uplift, and this performance is nothing if not uplifting. Closing with “Revolution Blues,” Lee is joined by Steve Gunn and Meg Baird, both on guitar and vocals, Alan Licht on guitar, and Georgia Hubley on drums. We’ve heard Lee do this song a few times now, but trading verses with Meg the forty-year-old song and its lyrics feel refreshing as we listen with new ears.

I recorded this set from my improvised tapers section in front of board, combined with a feed from Park Church’s engineer Jasno Swarez. The sound is excellent. Enjoy—and resist!

Download: MP3/FLAC

Stream:

Lee Ranaldo
2017-01-22
Park Church Co-op
Brooklyn, NY

Recorded and produced by Eric PH for NYCTaper.com

Soundboard [engineer: Jasno Swarez] + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, compression, mixdown, normalize, fades) + Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [1:03:44]
01. Moroccan Mountains
02. Let’s Start Again
03. Circular
04. Electric Trim
05. [Uncle Skeleton intro]
06. Uncle Skeleton
07. Thrown Over the Wall (w/Alan Licht)
08. Last Looks (w/Meg Baird)
09. [Ocean intro]
10. Ocean [The Velvet Underground] (w/Alan, Steve Gunn, Georgia Hubley, and Ira Kaplan)
11. [Revolution Blues intro]
12. Revolution Blues [Neil Young] (w/Meg, Alan, Steve, and Georgia)

• Website
• • Facebook
• • • Buy Lee Ranaldo and the Dust records from Matador

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.

Yo La Tengo: April 9, 2016 Landmark Loew’s New Jersey Theatre (Jersey City, NJ)

April 10, 2016
By

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[photo via Bork Lord‘s twitter feed]

Yo La Tengo ended their most recent tour last Saturday at the shabby-chic Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre, a cavernous space made intimate by the positive vibes headed from the stage and to it. The usual contingent of longtime fans were out in force for this weekend show, and the band rewarded us with a setlist that reflected their Fade-era habit of dividing the show into acoustic and electric portions. As this tour wasn’t, strictly speaking, to promote last year’s Stuff Like That There, the band jumped around their catalog a good bit more, with the electric set a particularly sweet offering for the more improvisational-minded among us. The extended outro jam on “Before We Run” that led into the slow version of “Big Day Coming” was a strong moment there, as was the segue of “Sudden Organ,” “Autumn Sweater,” “Decora,” and “Ohm” that made up the bulk of the set. But that’s not to slight the acoustic set, either, where the acoustic treatment of “Deeper Into Movies” was particularly affecting, along with new favorites like “Rickety.” By the time the encore came around there were the usual calls for hyper-obscure covers (which the band has served up in abundance on multiple WFMU marathons), most of which were ignored, though we did get Wire’s “Too Late.” The band sent us off, as they often like to do, on a quiet note, with the noisy Electr-O-Pura classic “Tom Courtenay” rendered as a solemn coda with Georgia leading the way on vocals. Now it’s time for the band to enjoy a little downtime and recharge the batteries, as they await a handful of summer festival dates. Meanwhile, we’ll be excited for what they come up with next.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed from Yo La Tengo engineer Mark Luecke, together with Schoeps MK41V microphones. Given the challenges of the venue acoustics, this relies heavily on Mark’s soundboard feed. The sound quality is, overall, excellent. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete set:

Yo La Tengo
2016-04-09
Landmark Loews Jersey Theatre
Jersey City, NJ USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Mark Luecke) + Schoeps MK41V (at SBD, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, re-image SBD, adjust levels, mix down, compression, limiter, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, image)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 2:13:34]
Set One – Acoustic
01 My Heart’s Not In It [Darlene McCrea]
02 Periodically Double or Triple
03 Rickety
04 Automatic Doom [Special Pillow]
05 Did I Tell You
06 Black Flowers
07 Somebody’s In Love
08 I’ll Be Around
09 Deeper Into Movies
10 I Feel Like Going Home

Set Two – Electric
11 [intro jam]
12 Sugarcube
13 Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House>
14 Shaker
15 Before We Run>
16 Big Day Coming
17 Sudden Organ>
18 Autumn Sweater>
19 Decora>
20 Ohm
21 Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind
22 [encore break]
23 Drug Test
24 Too Late [Wire]
25 Tom Courtenay (acoustic)

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, and buy Stuff Like That There and their many other fine releases from Matador Records.

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Antietam: January 30, 2016 Union Hall

February 19, 2016
By

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Correspondent Neil D writes: 

I’ve seen Antietam so many times you’d think I’d be jaded, but it turns out their music has had the opposite effect on me: The more I see them, the more I appreciate them. The punkiest of all the bands in Yo La Tengo’s social circle (though technically YLT is in Antietam’s circle, as Ira and Georgia’s first-ever show was the Louisville-via-New York trio’s third-ever), Tara Key, Tim Harris, and Josh Madell keep on putting out record after record of music that’s at times raucously cathartic, at times achingly pretty, and often both at once.

Recent Antietam shows have been augmented with Sue Garner (ex-more bands than can fit in this parenthetical) on backing vocals and occasional tambourine, and this was no exception. The most recent Antietam album was 2011’s “Tenth Life,” but none of those songs appear here: Instead, this set featured seven songs from their in-the-works untitled new album, most notably the unbeatable “I’m So Tired,” which kicks in at 11 and then cranks up the dial even further until the thrashing, yowling climax.

As befits a band led by a professional librarian, Antietam has also become a wonderful curator of other bands, playing in recent years alongside such indie rock luminaries as Sleepyhead, Thalia Zedek, The Scene Is Now, Dump, Two Mule Team, and Escape by Ostrich. For this show at Bell House, Antietam followed their fellow Kentuckian Victory Over Sound (not recorded, unfortunately, due to technical problems), and preceded sets by Feelies extended family members Speed the Plough and post-punk semi-super group Heroes of Toolik, recordings of which will follow.

Thanks to Tara Key for helping set up recording permissions, and to the excellent Union Hall soundman whose name I instantly forgot. The show was recorded with Core Sound binaural mics strung from the club’s ceiling at acidjack’s suggestion, mixed with a soundboard feed that was slightly wonky thanks to the aforementioned technical problems on my end. In any event, the result is a very enjoyable recording, which is all that matters.

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Stream the complete show: 

Antietam
2016-01-30
Union Hall
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Neil D

Soundboard (engineer: David Fine)> Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) + Core Sound Low-Cost Binaural mics > Church Audio ugly battery box > Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) > Sound Studio (light EQ and mixing) > FLAC (16/44.1) > Tag > FLAC

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 Right Between Your Eyes
03 Sunshine
04 Automatic
05 Is It Time
06 I Swear
07 Birdwatching
08 I’m So Tired
09 Glide

Check out more Antietam news and music athttps://antietamtheband.wordpress.com/  https://soundcloud.com/antietamlabs  https://carrottoprecords.com/artists/antietam/

Yo La Tengo: October 10, 2015 Kings Theatre

October 18, 2015
By

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[Photos courtesy of P Squared Photography]

A Yo La Tengo show in New York always feels like a family affair, even if held in the sprawling, gorgeous new Kings Theatre in Flatbush, Brooklyn. (If you haven’t seen this space, it’s so spectacular that it might make the Beacon Theater blush). This tour’s format — an all-acoustic performance that highlights the band’s recent partial-covers album, Stuff Like That There — also lent it that air, as the band clustered together with ample space to spare, surrounded by artwork made by friends and family, plus the friends and family staring back at them from the audience. With this band, you can always count on the unexpected, so while of course they played their new “single,” a cover of The Cure’s “Friday, I’m In Love,” along with other highlights of the record like their covers of Darlene McCrea’s “My Heart’s Not In It” and Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Butchie’s Tune,” and the brand-new songs “Rickety” and “Awhileaway,” their set was more surprises than sure things.

I’d assume the band’s longtime friends in Antietam were floating around in the audience somewhere, so Yo La Tengo rewarded us with a cover of that band’s “Naples.” Okay, fine, maybe one would have anticipated that — but who would have thought the band would follow the ultra-quiet new number “Awhileaway” with a cover of the Minutemen’s “Corona”? And later, as if in a nod to us noiseniks who can’t live without the band’s extended improvisational songs, they gave us an acoustic version of “Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind.” Of course, Stuff Like That There isn’t the band’s first covers-based album, so they of course had to take us back to the Fakebook days, including an excellent rendition of “Yellow Sarong” by The Scene Is Now. “Our Way To Fall” was as lovely as always, ending the main set on a subtle note. Of course the band came back, and of course it was with another excellent cover, this time Devo’s “Bottled Up,” with James taking his first vocal turn of the night. But the show’s final two numbers that will probably go down as its key moments, as the night’s opener, the famed English musician and songwriter Nick Lowe, joined the band for “Walk Away Renee” and his own song, “Rollers Show.”

As Georgia Hubley handles the vocals on many of the band’s quiet numbers, this format gave her a more prominent role. Added to the band’s arsenal for this tour is longtime partner Dave Schramm on second guitar, while James McNew ably tackled the stand-up bass. The soft/loud dynamic has traditionally been as essential to this band’s sound as their encyclopedic music knowledge, so the choice of an all-acoustic show — following a 2014 tour that had one full acoustic set before the “loud” second set — is a bit of a detour, but I can’t say I’m surprised that it worked. We’ll call this journey to the mellower side of YLT an unqualified success.

I recorded this set with the invaluable assistance of the band’s engineer Mark Luecke and the Kings Theatre staff. The recording is Mark’s mix combined with Schoeps MK41V microphones, and the sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete set:

Yo La Tengo
2015-10-10
Kings Theatre
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Mark Luecke) + Schoeps MK41V>KCY>Z-PFA>>Edirol R-44>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (patch first song, align, mix down, amplify, balance)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, image)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Special thanks to Mark Luecke for his assistance and the patched audience portion of the first song.

Tracks
01 Tried So Hard [Gene Clark]*
02 Automatic Doom [Special Pillow]
03 Rickety
04 My Heart’s Not In It [Darlene McCrea]
05 Double Dare
06 Naples [Antietam]
07 Deeper Into Movies
08 Butchie’s Tune [Lovin’ Spoonful]
09 Awhileaway
10 Corona [Minutemen]
11 Today Is the Day
12 Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind
13 Can’t Forget
14 [banter]
15 Here Comes My Baby [Cat Stevens]
16 Friday I’m In Love [The Cure]
17 Yellow Sarong [The Scene Is Now]
18 Ohm
19 Our Way To Fall
20 [encore break/artwork intro]
21 Bottled Up [Devo]
22 [Nick Lowe intro]
23 Walk Away Renee [The Left Banke]&
24 Rollers Show [Nick Lowe]&

* no soundboard for first 1:20; audience mics are patched from the band’s source
& with Nick Lowe

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, and buy Stuff Like That There and their many other fine releases from Matador Records.

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Condo Fucks: May 22, 2015 Cake Shop – Flac/MP3/Streaming

May 26, 2015
By

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[photos by PSquared Photography]

The Lower East Side venue Cake Shop has lived in many ways a parallel existence to we here at NYCTaper. We’ve recorded and posted shows from Cake Shop somewhere in the range of one hundred occasions. We’ve hosted our annual CMJ day parties at Cake Shop for seven consecutive years. This year the venue is celebrating its 10th year (we just had our 8th anniversary), and the next few months will see some very special events. On Friday night it was an event that was literally a perfect match for NYCTaper. The show featured Yo La Tengo — a band very familiar to our readers — in their alter-ego guise as garage-rock band Condo Fucks. We’ve also captured the most recent Condo Fucks shows in the area, including the band’s last-ever show in venue at Maxwell’s in 2013, which I believe is the last time Condo Fucks actually played a show.

I’ll admit that it was somewhat surreal to see the three members of Yo La Tengo enter tiny basement stage at Cake Shop. We’ve seen hundreds of bands on this stage, but perhaps never one of the kind of legendary status that YLT possesses. The set began as all of the Condo Fucks shows we’ve seen have begun, with the instrumental Booker T track “Outrage” before the band personalized the Harmonics song “On the Warpath”. The remaining set-proper was a high-energy run through the band’s usual garage covers — Rascals, Flamin Groovies, The Exciters and the like. At the mid-set mark, the Condo Fucks were joined by long-time friend Gaylord Fields (“The Great Gaylord”) on vocals for a four-pack of songs that we’ve never seen the band perform before. The clear highlight was the extended version of the Swamp Dogg cult classic “Total Destruction To Your Mind” which we’re streaming below. A Condo Fucks show is a rare event and it was a very classy move that Yo La Tengo celebrated Cake Shop’s 10th Anniversary by treating the venue to this special show.

I recorded this set with the Sennheiser cards mounted in a thread above the stage and mixed with a board feed. The on-stage mics captured the instruments with great clarity and the board feed was used to fortify the vocals. The result of the mix is a very well-balanced recording with superb sound. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “Dog Meat” (Flamin Groovies cover):

Stream “Total Destruction To Your Mind” (Swamp Dogg cover – featuring the Great Gaylord on vocals):

Condo Fucks
2015-05-22
Cake Shop
New York, NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + On Stage Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Sennheiser MKH-8040s > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3
and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 57:31]
01 Outrage [Booker T and The MGs]
02 Condo Fucks on the Warpath [Harmonics]
03 So Easy Baby [The Zantees]
04 I Want You To Be My Boy [The Exciters]
05 Accident [Electric Eels]
06 Right Side of My Mind [Angry Samoans]
07 Tiger In Your Tank [Muddy Waters]
08 Get Down [Half Life]
09 Look Back In Anger [Television Personalities]
10 Dog Meat [Flamin Groovies]
11 Come On Up [Young Rascals]
12 Re-Make Re-Model [Roxy Music]
13 [Great Gaylord intro]
14 TV Eye [The Stooges]
15 Falling in Love Again
16 It Hurts To Be In Love [Toombs/Dixon]
17 Total Destruction To Your Mind [Swamp Dogg]
18 [encore break]
19 Whatcha Gonna Do [Small Faces]

Thanks to Jesse for setlist!

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If you download this recording from NYCTaper we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, and purchase their official releases (including Condo Fucks) from Matador Records [HERE].

NYCTaper Top 25 Moments of 2014

December 31, 2014
By

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Here is our annual compilation of the 25 best “moments” of the entire year from our site to you. Its been another banner year at NYCTaper. We’ve managed to record and post nearly one show per day for the entire year and sometimes even more than one. Its a level of consistency for which we’ve striven for years and as the NYCTaper “team” has grown so has our ability to reach our goals. All of this would not be possible were it not for the bands — hundreds of amazingly talented artists who not only perform superb concerts but allow us to bring recordings of them to you, their fans. Thanks also of course to the venues who allow us to come into their locations and do what we do, the labels, managers, PR persons, photographers, fellow bloggers and countless other people whose assistance and cooperation help make this “NYCTaper” thing happen. Here’s to many more great years!

1. Jason Molina Tribute (mems. of Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. w/ special guests) – January 11, 2014, Hideout, Chicago, IL

acidjack: For me, the most thrilling, moving concert moment came early in the year, and in another city, no less. Mike Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger guested with Magnolia Electric Co. on four special tribute shows around the country, including this one, but it was in Chicago that the majority of Molina’s former bands and supporters coalesced into an evolving unit that traded and vocalists and instrumentalists by the song. As I put it then:

The crowd’s largest response came to perhaps Molina’s best-known song (and inarguably one of his best), “Farewell Transmission”. In that song, Molina sings that the real truth about it is that no one gets it right, but we’re all supposed to try. Well, if Jason could have heard his former bandmates and friends on this night, I think he would agree that they got it right. And they proved another piece of truth from that great song, that he will be gone, but not forever. Because the real truth about it is, a great artist like Jason Molina doesn’t die, he just changes shape. In our hearts and minds, he is forever.

2. Wussy: October 11, 2014 Private House Larchmont NY

nyctaper: Lisa Walker’s voice is one of the most compelling in all of contemporary americana music in large part because as a person she’s real and unpretentious. Its a voice that can capture the longing and heartache of a beautifully sad song such as Lisa’s penned “Motorcycle”. The experience of watching the performance of that song from about ten feet away in a private house concert was moving and is undoubtedly my single “moment” of this year.

3. Hiss Golden Messenger – March 2, 2014 Mercury Lounge and September 18, 2014 Rough Trade

acidjack: Mike Taylor, aka Hiss Golden Messenger, broke in a big way in 2014, one of the most deserving artists in all the land to do so. In early 2014 Mike still toured alone, able to afford to do little more than sling a guitar over his back. By the time he hit Rough Trade in September, he had a record out on Durham, NC stalwart Merge, and a backing band replete with new and old collaborators. Not long after that, he and his new band were on Letterman. These two shows pretty much tell the story in miniature, of a band transformed, but an artist whose honesty and craft remain steadfast.

4. The War On Drugs – March 19 and March 20, 2014 Bowery Ballroom.

acidjack: We’ll probably have similar takes on this show, so I won’t waste words, but suffice it to say that Lost In the Dream was the album of the year, and this show, complete with a cover of John Lennon’s “Mind Games”, showed any doubters that the album’s greatness wasn’t just in the painstaking production.

nyctaper: At the time it was released, I called “Eyes To The Wind” a perfect song and I still believe that nearly a year later. It was the highlight of this show for me and will be a track to which I return for years.

5. Woods: November 6, 2014 Death By Audio

nyctaper: 2014 was also a year to say goodbye to some places that meant a lot to NYCTaper over the years. Death By Audio was one of those venues and our last show at the venue was a special one. We’ve attended many Woods shows, and invariably the song that is often the centerpiece of the night is “Bend Beyond” — a terrific song that also offers the band a chance to stretch out and improvise. At this DBA show, Woods was reunited for one night with former member G. Lucas Crane whose preceding set transitioned into a Woods jam that evolved into this song. It was a fairly dramatic moment and was musically right there. A definitely highlight of the year.

6. Ryley Walker – September 6, 2014 Hopscotch Music Festival, Raleigh, NC and October 24, 2014 Rough Trade

acidjack: Ryley Walker seems poised for a similar trajectory to Hiss Golden Messenger — he’s an incinerating songwriter whose ability to make an emotional connection should bring him to many larger places. In a bit of a reverse of this year’s HGM experience, I saw Walker for the first time at Hopscotch Music Festival, backed by a full band on the broad stage of the Fletcher Opera Theater. A little over a month later, he was back on the road in his natural state, a man with his guitar (with upright bassist in tow for a few songs before he left for another gig). In my book, this “Summer Dress” from Rough Trade during CMJ blows away the full-band version — and that’s saying something.

7. Nicole Atkins: June 18, 2014 Madison Square Park

nyctaper: She put out one of the best records of the year, Slow Phaser, and by the time she and her new band returned to NYC, Nicole Atkins had found her live groove. This show at Madison Square Park was a strange one, with families on blankets, roaming kids, and what seemed like a never ending parade of police sirens. But for this one magical song, “Its Only Chemistry”, Nicole Atkins was the brightest light in this huge city park.

8. The Coup – March 13, 2014 South By Southwest

acidjack: Despite that SXSW has outstayed both its literal and cultural welcome, this day show, put on by our friend Steve, hearkened back to what it ought to be about. The bill had huge range, free tacos and beer were to be had, and people were there for music, not scenemaking. Boots Riley and his crew of left-leaning, hard-swinging, hip-shaking funk geniuses stormed the joint and never looked back.

9. Smashing Pumpkins: December 8, 2014 Webster Hall

nyctaper: A Smashing Pumpkins concert at a venue the size of Webster Hall is a special event in and of itself. But this year has been a productive one for Billy Corgan and his band. Their new album is Monuments to an Elegy is really quite excellent and the new touring band is a superb collection of pros. But the most memorable moment from this show for me was the finale — “Burnt Orange-Black” a powerful dirge that will appear on next year’s album. Its already a stunner and one of the best new songs we heard all year.

10. The Growlers: September 18, 2014 Bowery Ballroom

nyctaper: This show was fairly epic at two hours and it included nearly thirty distinct songs. But the highlight was the truly surreal mid-show appearance of two huge Chinese New Year’s styled dragons and a drum parade that entered through the back of the Bowery and worked through the packed crowd to the stage. The parade drumming transitioned into the titled track from The Growlers excellent new album Chinese Fountain, in what was an odd but very memorable moment.

11. Marah: July 12, 2014 Bowery Electric

nyctaper: A band with a ten year old prodigy that plays fiddle like a man five times his age would have to be a yearly highlight, but really Marah is much more than that. This show at Bowery Electric was a revelation and this performance of an old Marah song (when it was a completely different band) was one of the best things we saw all year particularly the sweet fiddle solo by Gus Tritsch and that moment when band leader David Bielanko realized in his mid-song monologue just exactly how special this band has become.

12. Yellow Ostrich – December 8, 2014 Glasslands

acidjack: This was one of those end-of-an-era shows in two ways — both the last by a beloved band, and in the final month of a venue where I spent a lot of time, Glasslands. We were sorry to see Yellow Ostrich go, but we’re glad they didn’t overstay their welcome. Alex Schaaf and his band exited at the top of their game, and we were honored to be part of it.

13. Dream Syndicate: November 16, 2014 Rough Trade

nyctaper: We’ve chronicled the solo career of Steve Wynn pretty regularly on this site, but I had personally not seen The Dream Syndicate in more than thirty years. The band’s reunion finally made it to NYC this Fall and it was certainly worth the wait. The last time I saw them, Dream Syndicate opened with “Tell Me When Its Over” and this past month it was the second song of the set and just as sweet.

14. Tweedy – June 7, 2014 Mountain Jam, Hunter, NY

acidjack: I had minimal hopes for this father-son band; nothing about nepotism tends to go well. But the Tweedy team proved doubters totally wrong, with a record that, if anything, exceeded Wilco’s recent output. The “band” debuted their entire new album for us on the Mountain Jam stage. Even if everyone wasn’t paying attention during that mid-afternoon set, the ones that mattered were.

15. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: October 13, 2014 Baby’s All Right

nyctaper: When I hear music scene veterans claim that there’s just nothing new that exciting, I happily point to bands like King Gizzard. The band came all the way from Australia to perform some shows this Summer, and we caught one of those shows, but it wasn’t until this night at Baby’s All Right that the lure of the Gizz fully clicked for us. A youthful and energetic take on neo-psych, this band’s new album is extraordinarily good and for this night at Baby’s they opened the show with the five-song segue that opens the album — after which there was a lot of affirmative head-shaking in the crowd. The Gizz had arrived and we can’t wait until they grace our shores again.

16. Three Lobed / WXDU Day Show – September 5, 2014 Hopscotch Music Festival

acidjack: I might as well just put this on my list for every year — this showcase, jointly produced by Three Lobed Recordings and the Durham, NC radio station WXDU, produces the most consistently incredible lineup of challenging music that I see. This year’s lineup boasted The Little Black Egg Big Band (featuring Steve Gunn, William Tyler and members of Yo La Tengo), MV & EE, Rose Cross North Carolina, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Thurston Moore/Mary Lattimore/Ryan Sawyer, and Daniel Bachman/Nathaniel Bowles. Beyond the quality of the music, the show always brings its own special crowd, the die-hards and the heads whose lack of strength is numbers is more than made up for in passion.

17. Yo La Tengo: December 6, 2014 Trocadero Philly

nyctaper: I traveled to Philly to catch my only Yo La Tengo show this year, and of course it was infinitely worth it. But what separated this show from the “standard” YLT show was the ferocious and simply awe-inspiring version of “Story” that closed the set. The guitar-crushing noise jam that concludes the song stretched the entire number to twenty-two minutes and elevated this to epic proportions. The was the band’s last show of their 30th anniversary tour and they ended it in very appropriate fashion.

18. Steve Gunn – October 12, 2014 Rough Trade

acidjack: Steve Gunn’s name always comes up among the biggest names in current American guitar music. What he accomplished with this year’s “Wildwood” took him beyond those confines, as the wider world began to view him as equal in his songwriting to what he had been recognized for on the guitar. This show at Rough Trade put that all on display, as Gunn and his band didn’t let a grueling slog up the East Coast keep them from giving a signature performance.

19. The Kickback: June 10, 2014 Pianos

nyctaper: There are very few times when I can confess to literally gasping at a live performance. The Kickback came to town for the New Music Festival and Jeff from the Syndicate recommended that I check them out. The band was quite good but it was the last number of their set that took this show to entire other level. Billy Yost’s intensity during “Rob Our House” was as breathtaking as it was simply pure rock excellence. Based on this show we invited the band to play our CMJ show where they again played one of the best sets we saw all year.

20. Strand of Oaks – December 4, 2014 Bowery Ballroom

acidjack: Tim Showalter is one of those almost comically earnest musicians, a man whose heart is as big as his sound. Strand of Oaks isn’t a new band, but it might as well be, given how meteoric Showalter’s rise has been this year. He started the year at Mercury Lounge and ended it at Bowery Ballroom, and the ceiling is far from there. Strand of Oaks has that mainstream approachability and big tent emotion that serves rock colossuses like U2 so well, but Showalter actually believes what’s coming out of his mouth.

21. PUP: February 21, 2014 Cameo Gallery

nyctaper: A long time ago, I was suspended for a week from the college radio station where I worked for playing the Dead Kennedys’ “Too Drunk To Fuck” on the air. Given the times and my position, it was a fair cop. I’m happy to still be around when the song is now a quaint old punk novelty and can be played by a band with a sense of humor and a sense of history with no repercussions whatsoever. PUP’s performance gave me a big smile to cap off an excellent night.

22. Spacin’/Purling Hiss – September 5, 2014 Hopscotch Music Festival

acidjack: Two of our favorite Philly bands formed an impromptu whole to replace someone I’ve already forgotten about on the end of this bill. While Mark Kozelek was being a dick over in the Lincoln Theatre on this night, those in the know caught this juggernaut (joined, just for good measure, by Steve Gunn and Mary Lattimore on the last song) playing real rock n’ roll that no crowd noise could keep down.

23. Hurray For The Riff Raff: July 26, 2014 XPonential Fest

nyctaper: acidjack and I went down to Camden for the Saturday of XPonential Fest and it was one of the best days we had all year. Its a great event and we’re hoping to do multiple days of XPN’s Fest in 2015. One of the reasons we made the trip was to see NYCTaper faves Hurray For The Riff Raff. The band continues to grow in stature and its fun to follow their ascent. “The Body Electric” is a song Alynda wrote as an “anti” murder ballad — the shaming of the idea that in traditional folk songs the protagonist is always the man killing a woman. The song was particularly poignant in a year when domestic violence was in the forefront of the news. The song’s powerful message earned it significant media attention including year end awards from the likes of NPR.

24. Herbcraft – January 24, 2014 Mercury Lounge

acidjack: I had no idea who Herbcraft even were when I arrived at this show, and barely got my recording equipment set up in time. They weren’t even the headliner. But what came next was no afterthought — this Woodsist band owned the stage, proving the real power of live music to expose you to new music in a way that clicking around on Spotify will never be able to top. Perhaps most notably, this post got several comments from people who felt the same way — that they couldn’t believe this band had slipped underneath their radar.

25. Dva – January 9, 2014 Trans Pecos

nyctaper: I attended this concert on the recommendation of Adam from Northern Spy and I’ll admit that I had no idea what to expect. At the end of the event, I was thanking Adam for inviting me because Dva is an amazing act and their live show has to be seen to be truly experienced. “Mulatu” was the first single from this Czech duo’s first US release and it encapsulates everything that’s great and interesting about Dva.

Antietam: December 6, 2014 Trocadero Philly – Flac/MP3/Streaming

December 16, 2014
By

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[photos by Max Sall]

As are their friends, Antietam is also celebrating a 30th anniversary of sorts this year. As bassist Tim Harris noted, Yo La Tengo’s first ever show was also Antietam’s third show and the two have lived virtually parallel lines ever since. Each are a trio anchored by a married couple. But in the case of Antietam, they are clearly not as prolific as YLT (including a hiatus of several years) and as a result the band members lead regular lives. Tara Key is by day a librarian at Columbia University and when not playing in the band she’s a world class pinball wizard by night. But when Tara straps on the Gibson and takes the stage with Antietam, she, Tim and drummer Josh Madell are a well-oiled machine led by the incendiary guitarist. At the Trocadero, Antietam opened for YLT and played a superb forty-five minute set of material new and old. They were joined at times by vocalist Sue Garner and on “Hands Down” by YLT’s Ira Kaplan (streaming below). Ira has performed on the original recording of the song, and when these two bands play on the same bill there is always appropriate collaboration — Tara later joined YLT for a song on which she has played on the original recording. Antietam’s set began when the venue was not entirely full but as the set gained momentum the crowd filled and reacted with increasing enjoyment. In particular, the last four songs beginning with “Sunshine” were absolutely ripping and Tara’s guitar play dominated the room much to the delight of the crowd.

I recorded this set in the same manner as the Yo La Tengo set — Schoeps and a fine board feed provided by the Troc’s excellent house FOH. The empty spaces in the room early in the set created a little echo that was easily removed with some gentle EQ, and ultimately the sound quality of this recording is superb. Enjoy!

Stream “Hands Down”:

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

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, and feel free to repost the Soundcloud links.

Antietam
2014-12-06
Trocadero Theatre
Philadelphia PA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer Mark Luecke] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wavs > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 44:54]
01 Time Creeps
02 1-2-1
03 Breathe
04 Satisfied
05 Right Between Your Eyes
06 Bird Watching
07 Sunshine
08 [banter – Ira intro]
09 Hands Down
10 Clarion
11 Stowaway

If you download this recording from NYCTaper we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Antietam, visit their website, and their blog, and their Facebook page, and purchase their official releases from Carrot Top Records [HERE].

Yo La Tengo: December 6, 2014 Trocadero Philly – Flac/MP3/Streaming

December 10, 2014
By

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[photos by Max Sall]

This show represents the only time this year that I saw Yo La Tengo live. You have to go back nearly a decade to find a calendar year when I saw the band only once. The band went out on a little mini-tour in celebration of their official 30th anniversary as a band and also in support of a new release called Extra Painful — a reissue of their classic 1993 album Painful packed with a bunch of bonus material. So since the two Town Hall shows were not conducive to recording, I made a roadtrip in the pouring rain to Philadelphia and back. The Trocadero is a converted old theatre right in the heart of Philly’s Chinatown District and its just a few blocks from the Franklin Bridge — an easy in and out of the City. Although the Troc has two balconies and an official capacity of 1200, it definitely has an intimate vibe perhaps since the actual floor is fairly small. But intimate or not, we’re used to seeing Yo La Tengo amongst “friends” at some fairly small-ish places, so there was a definite “road” feel to this show. As YLT shows go, this one had pretty much everything you could ask for including some rare nuggets (“Empty Pool”, “Demons”), special guests (Tara Key early, and full Antietam later), plenty of noisy stuff, and an absolutely ear-crushing “Story”. We are streaming a standout version of “Drug Test” that began with a (separately tracked) false start but like in so many of those situations with a “start over”, the band totally nailed it on the re-do. Yo La Tengo currently has no scheduled dates, but we’re hoping that we get more than one chance to see them live in 2015.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps mounted in the front of the soundboard booth and mixed with a superb feed provide by the band’s longtime and legendary FOH Mark Luecke. As with most YLT recordings, there are level issues — the quiet songs are whispers and the noisey songs are loud as heck — so there are some minor artifacts from my editing to create a more consistent level throughout. Ultimately the sound quality is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “Drug Test”:

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

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, and feel free to repost the Soundcloud links.

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Yo La Tengo
2014-12-06
Trocadero Theatre
Philadelphia PA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer Mark Luecke] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wavs > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:57:56]
01 Cherry Chapstick
02 Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House
03 Super Kiwi
04 [banter – Tara intro]
05 Demons
06 Mr. Tough
07 [dedication to Richard Evans]
08 If It’s True
09 [banter – 30 years]
10 The Empty Pool [Yung Wu]
11 The Whole of the Law [The Only Ones]
12 The Summer
13 [banter – XPN]
14 I’ll Be Around
15 Big Day Coming
16 We’re An American Band
17 [false start]
18 Drug Test
19 Sugarcube
20 Ohm
21 The Story of Yo La Tango
22 [encore break]
23 Today Is The Day
24 [banter – Antietam intro]
25 Orange Song [Antietam]
26 [thanks]
27 What Can I Say [NRBQ]

If you download this recording from NYCTaper we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, and purchase the Extra Painful reissue from Matador Records [HERE].

nyctaper Top Ten Concerts of 2013 + Live Mix Tape

December 29, 2013
By

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Another banner year at the site and seeing shows in NYC (and sometimes beyond). This “best of” only encompasses the shows that I, nyctaper, saw. Remember that the site has had nine contributing tapers this year, and I did not even record and post the most shows — that honor goes to the indefagitable acidjack, who we hope will come along soon with his own list.

I’ve also attached an mp3 compilation to this post. Its mostly of a mix of “honorable mentions”, just really cool songs I recall from this year, some new songs, some older songs, but all performed and recorded in 2013. Enjoy!

nyctaper Top 10 Concerts of 2013:

1. Wilco – June 21, 2013 Solid Sound Festival North Adams MA
PSquared and I drove a long way in a short time to see this show, and then drove all the way back almost as soon as it was over. And it was infinitely worth it. Wilco playing an entire two and a half hour show of covers, some popular classics and some fairly obscure, but all in their own style and all requested by fans. This one-off is very unlikely to happen again and we’re so fortunate to not only have been there to but have captured an “event” of this kind. Our recording got us mentioned in Spin Magazine, Paste Magazine, Fuse TV, WXRT radio, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Consequence of Sound, The Examiner, Prefix Magazine, Gothamist, and a hundred other smaller sites. 20,000 people have downloaded this recording from our site. There are 24,000 plays on the “Marquee Moon” soundcloud sample (posted below). Its my own personal highlight of the year, and one of the best moments in the history of the site.

2. Yo La Tengo – December 16, 2013 Bell House Brooklyn
Sure, they appeared on the site six times this year, including the final four shows of the year at Bell House and of course the historical final YLT show at Maxwell’s (RIP) in June. But I believe this show was the most fully formed, most inspirationally played, and including some absolute classic selections. I’ve seen this band live about fifty times, and this may be the most completely realized performance of all of them.

3. Thee Oh Sees – October 27, 2013 285 Kent
In a cruel bit of synchronous irony, on the same day this month that word spread that the venue 285 Kent would soon close, Thee Oh Sees announced an “indefinite hiatus”. It was only about six weeks previous that this band played this venue on the day that Lou Reed died and it was a moment in time that anyone in attendance will not soon forget. One of the best live bands around played with an enormous amount of energy and inspiration and the packed crowd responded with equal energy.

4. Deervana (Deer Tick) – September 13, 2013 Brooklyn Bowl
This is another show selected because of its historical signifance. If perhaps the performance wasn’t technically perfect, the spirit and energy that Deer Tick brings to its “Deervana” performances is clear. On the 20th anniversary of the release of In Utero, the album was played from start to finish. It was a celebration, not some mournful exercise, and the love of the music was obvious from both the band and the crowd. In terms of the importance to the site, this recording also saw us get mentioned all over the web, including Spin, Consequence of Sound, The Examiner, MTV, Stereogum and a bunch of other places.

5. Superchunk – September 28, 2013 Bowery Ballroom NYC
They are indie vets both as a band and as a label, but Superchunk continues to produce excellent material. And this year’s new album I Hate Music was one of their best. This show at Bowery, the first of two sold-out shows in NYC was like most Superchunk shows a kinetic and crazy run through material old and new and their was a celebratory and special air in the room. Perhaps the most fun show we saw all year.

6. The Complete Last Waltz – November 27, 2013 Capitol Theatre, Portchester NY
The original Last Waltz was perhaps the greatest concert in the history of rock music, so a complete performance nearly forty years later would have to be a pale comparison, right? Only it wasn’t. We were absolutely stunned at the quality of the performances and the reverence with which the entire ensemble treated the material.

7. Deafheaven – February 22, 2013 Saint Vitus Brooklyn
Yes, I realize that Deafheaven has appeared on virtually every best of 2013 list compiled on the web in the last month or so, but this is different (aren’t we always), this is a concert that we recorded early in the year before their game-changing album Sunbather had even been released. We saw them again in July, which was also a phenomenal show but we’re sticking with the first experience of this “take your breath away” band who are destined for bigger places than the great Saint Vitus in 2014. But we were there then. As it ever was.

8. Kevin Devine – November 22, 2013 Webster Hall NYC
He released two of the best records of the year, and unless you read Paste Magazine every day or saw our post about Kevin in November, you wouldn’t even know it. He is perhaps the best current purveyor of power pop and his prolific songwriting ability is a thing to behold. This concert was the home show after a lengthy US tour and Kevin and band were in a fine form from start to finish.

9. Ty Segall – August 30, 2013 Bowery Ballroom NYC
Ty Segall released a true departure album this year, the somewhat-quiet and contemplative Sleeper. This Bowery show was a seated affair, with the new album performed almost entirely to start the show. Ty is a performer of great proficiency and this show highlighted his maturity and versatility.

10. Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – January 26, 2013 Brooklyn Bowl
Easily the best single performance of Grateful Dead material since the demise of the original band nearly twenty years ago. My review was pretty harsh regarding “post-Jerry” projects and that generated a bit of a comment war, but thankfully most people agreed with me — and nearly everyone agreed that this show was immense.

Honorable Mention:
This is a 16-track MP3 mix of songs from other excellent concerts I attended this year. Its by no means a comprehensive list of musical highlights, but consists of tracks that caught our ear this year. We included three tracks from the Top Ten because fit they thematically, but 13 songs are from shows that were certainly important enough to deserve mention. Download [HERE].

Yo La Tengo: December 16, 2013 Bell House – Flac/MP3/Streaming

December 24, 2013
By

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[photos by PSquared Photography]

The final night of these long runs of shows by Yo La Tengo are always the most bittersweet nights. Throughout the week of the shows, we fall into a kind of change of lifestyle during these periods — get through the work day, get to the venue, and then inside the little cocoon of the show. Its a bit of a fantasy world, and by the time of the last show we’re tired, happy for the experiences and perhaps a little nostalgic for what’s soon to end. The band generally saves some special treats for the closer and on the fourth and final night of the Bell House it was no different. From our perch adjacent to the VIP area, we could see that the Kaplan and Hubley extended families were out in full and this added a bit of “old home” to the performance. We felt that the more personal lyrics were especially heartfelt — “Our Way To Fall” and “The Point of It” were particularly solid versions of those songs. But for those of us who’d weathered the snow and the travel and put off whatever we had going on in our lives for four consecutive nights, Ira dedicated the infrequently-performed older number “Satellite”. The song had been requested earlier in the week by one of those every-show guys (our friend from the “Laz Archives“) and we were happy to see him get mention from stage. We’re streaming that song below. For the electric set, once again the band held back nothing and marched full energy through ninety minutes of noisy goodness. This show the set closer was “Blue Line Swinger”, which at fourteen minutes was not the longest version we’ve seen but it was certainly one of the tightest. My own personal highlight of the evening and of perhaps the entire run of shows came as the encore set began — a raging cover of Neil Young’s “Time Fades Away” which featured the shared riffs of Antietam’s Tara Key on guitar. And as she has often, Marilyn Kaplan closed the set and the week with her annual appearance with her son’s band to sing “My Little Corner of the World”. While the Bell House isn’t Maxwell’s, the venue certainly offers a number of charms that we hope make it become the “corner of the world” that hosts future Yo La Tengo shows, perhaps even next year’s Hanukkah celebration. We shall see.

I recorded this set in the same manner as the recording posted for December 14 and the sound quality is equally superb. Enjoy!

Stream “Satellite”:

Stream “Time Fades Away”:

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC] or [FLAC]

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.

yo-la-tengo60

Yo La Tengo
2013-12-16
Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard (engineer Mark Luecke) + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (level adjustments, set fades, downsample) > CDWave 1.95 > (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and Tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper

Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 50:17]
01 Ohm
02 Our Way to Fall
03 When It’s Dark
04 Is That Enough
05 [banter – trends]
06 Butchie’s Tune [Lovin Spoonful]
07 The Point of It
08 Cornelia and Jane
09 I’ll Be Around
10 Satellite
11 Big Day Coming

Set 2
[Total Time 1:33:28]
12 Stupid Things
13 Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House
14 Outsmartener
15 Super Kiwi
16 Autumn Sweater
17 Before We Run
18 Deeper Into Movies
19 From a Motel 6
20 Ohm (electric)
21 Blue Line Swinger
22 [encore break]
23 Time Fades Away [Neil Young]
24 [banter]
25 By the Time It Gets Dark [Sandy Denny]
26 My Little Corner of the World [Pockriss – Hilliard]

If you download this recording from NYCTaper we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, and purchase their latest album Fade and its related special releases from Matador Records [HERE].

SUPPORT NYCTaper




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