Its heartwarming when great things happen to nice people. Its also incredibly reassuring when an artist like Kimya Dawson, whose thoroughly unique and engaging singing and songwriting have entranced small audiences for more than a decade, reaches a wider audience. The sold-out Southpaw gig was a triumphant return “home” for Kimya, and she seemed genuinely touched and perhaps a little “freaked” (her word) by the overwhelmingly positive reception.
In a nice lesson in you reap what you sow, Kimya’s fans also happen to be a diverse crowd of genuinely nice people. This kind of feeling came to fruition when Kimya organized a post-show massive hand-circle and hug which included much of the crowd. If this sounds a bit too hokey for the average Brooklyn anti-folk fan, bear in mind that Kimya’s songs deal with a wide variety of serious issues, or “tough shit” as she said during some concert banter this afternoon. This concert featured a nice run through the strength of her catalog along with some new numbers from an upcoming “children’s album”.
Prior to this concert, Kimya responded promptly and positively to an email from nyctaper regarding recording the performance. We set up at the rail in the front, at the center of the venue above the crowd. Thanks to co-taper Brian, our microphones were positioned in the perfect location. Kimya’s “low-fi” audio perhaps prevents a perfect recording, but this one captures the true natural atmosphere of the venue and the performance and the magic we all experienced. Enjoy!
This recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].
Kimya Dawson
2008-01-13
Southpaw
Brooklyn, NY USA
Digital Audience Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Board Dead Center
30 Feet from PA Stacks at Railing
DPA 4021s (9 ft Stand) > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 16bit 44.1kHz wav > Soundforge (level adjustments, modify close clapping, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries)> flac
Many thanks to Kimya for permission to record, Southpaw for being
a excellent friendly venue, and Brian for the mic stand clamp.
Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-01-13
Setlist:
[total time 58:55]
01 Tire Swing
02 Being Cool
03 Eleventeen
04 Underground
05 Chemistry
06 Fire
07 Henry Kelly
08 Little Monster Babies
09 Bobbio
10 Seven Hungry Tigers
11 The Smoothie Song
12 Little Panda Bear
13 Alpha Butt
14 Weatherman
15 Beer
16 Viva La Persistence
17 Singing Machine
18 I Like Giants
19 Loose Lips
If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Kimya Dawson and visit her website. Kimya works with the independent record label K-Records. You can purchase her wonderful official releases by following the links to K-Records (here).
Thanks for the comment on my blog; I’m new here and don’t understand what kind of files these are :) I don’t see an FAQ so a little info would be appreciated. thanks.
Flac is a type of high-end audio file.
Click the “More About Flac” link in the middle of the main post for a description and all the free software downloads.
A couple of title corrections, as per the setlist I got from Kimya at Europa.
Bobbio => Bobby-O
Alpha Butt ==> Alphabutt
Actually I take it back on Alphabutt.
I see that at the WNYU session on Thursday, she titled it as two words. Alpha Butt it is.
Thanks for your input. I actually pulled the Alpha Butt title from the 3-song sampler she sent out for the new album. “Bobbio” was titled that way because of the line about it rhyming with “Fabio”, but I’m sure you’re right about that so I changed it.
Kimya’s performance in Richmond VA is available as a bit torrent download here:
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=52664
It was recorded by an excellent taper using virtually the same DPA microphones as this recording.
Great recording, as always! Thanks! :D
Another great recording. Simple songs can be very tricky to write, and everytime Kimya makes me crack up and breaks my heart at the same time. Thank you both, Ms. Dawson and nyctaper