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[photo by acidjack]
Some people can’t stand music that isn’t ironic, or witty, or whatever quality it is that keeps half of the 90s indie canon coming back for reunions these days. Odd, then, the pairing of Nashville up-and-comers Wild Cub with 90s stalwarts The Dismemberment Plan, playing the overlarge room at Terminal 5. If a clearer delineation between musical generations could be made in one lineup, I can’t think of one. The D-Plan are a great band — they’re ironic and often witty, sure, and they have some killer tunes. Listening to them makes you feel like an insider — like some people just don’t get it.
Wild Cub make straight up synth pop, relentlessly upbeat and big-tent inclusive. This show was during CMJ, where almost everyone is networking and ignoring the bands anyway, and worse yet, most of them are playing for free. But nobody seemed to have bummed out Wild Cub; they thanked us over and over for our generosity. Even a not-yet-full Terminal 5 couldn’t contain their enthusiasm. It made me feel like a jerk, to be so blown away that these guys were so nice, to wonder, really, what they had to be so effing happy about.
Many of their songs are good, too, full of big hooks and exuding big-hearted earnestness like middle period U2. Just listen to “Thunder Clatter” or the new “Blacktide” — you’ll get the picture. You might even smile, or at least, feel a feeling other than self-indulgent disdain for your fellow man. The band just re-released their debut album, Youth, to the world with two new tracks, and it’s a well-crafted dose of sunshine and songcraft that, in the manner popular these days, drags the guitars onto the dance floor. Up front, they even got some of these D-Plan veterans moving.
Wild Cub aren’t a band for cynics, and maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe your music ought to be happy, no matter how much the real world sucks. Isn’t that what inspires the future to happen, after all?
I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 microphones and a Sound Devices preamp. The sound quality is limited by being at the back of the floor of Terminal 5, with there being additional echo as the room filled up during the set. Nonetheless, it is a quality capture. Enjoy!
Thanks to Wild Cub’s team for inviting us to record their set.
Stream “Thunder Clatter”
Download the complete show [MP3] | [FLAC]
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Wild Cub
2013-10-18
Terminal 5
New York, NY USA
Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack
Schoeps MK41 (BOB, DFC, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2>Sony PCM-D50>24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter)>Audacity 2.0.3 (fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )
Tracks
01 Shapeless
02 Colour
03 Jonti
04 Wild Light
05 Hidden In the Night
06 Blacktide
07 Wishing Well
08 Thunder Clatter
09 Summer Fires / Hidden Spells
If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Wild Cub, visit their website, and buy signed LPs and digital versions of Youth there.
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