[photo courtesy of Charles Chawalko]
2011 has been a tremendous year for Kurt Vile, and the kicker was that his last show of the year was an opportunity to open one of the legendary Yo La Tengo Hanukkah shows on Monday. Smoke Ring For My Halo has been on every end of the year best-of list for 2011 — I’m not exaggerating, its literally been on every list I’ve seen. And for good reason. Smoke Ring is an album that seems to finally realize the full potential of Vile’s rich talents. The 2011 release is well-produced, but still captures the artist’s underground qualities and esoteric lyrics while also featuring fully formed melodies. At Maxwell’s, Kurt performed with what is most likely the final gig of this version of the Violators. Adam Granduciel was on lead guitar for this show, but has growing commitments as the War On Drugs continues its ascent in stature. On Monday, the band opened with a cover of the Feelies, one of Maxwell’s “house bands”, and then continued with much of Smoke Ring. We are streaming “Ghost Town”, the albums’s final climactic track.
I recorded this set in the same manner at the Yo La Tengo recording from this night and the sound quality is superb.
Stream “Ghost Town”:
[audio:http://www.nyctaper.com/K1016KurtVile1001/05.%20Ghost%20Town.mp3]
Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)
Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].
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.
Kurt Vile
2011-12-26
Hanukkah Night 7
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, set fades, downsample) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and Tagging via Foobar)
Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2011-12-30
Setlist:
[Total Time 52:14]
01 For Awhile [Feelies]
02 Puppet to the Man
03 Runner Ups
04 Jesus Fever
05 Ghost Town
06 Hunchback
07 Freak Train
08 Peeping Tomboy
09 [banter – tuning]
10 Society is My Friend
If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Kurt Vile, visit his website, and purchase Smoke Ring For My Halo from Matador Records [HERE].
Thanks so much for all of the great shows you capture around NYC for all of us in the hinterlands. Always look forward to these Yo La Tengo shows. Have a phenomenal 2012!!
hey, thanks for this, what a show! i also want to thank you for all the work you’ve done the past few years, i have enjoyed listening to numerous shows you’ve taped and i’m very grateful that you put the time and effort to spread the music. folks like you make the web go round…