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[photo from Ira’s Hanukkah Diary]

I hope I’m entitled to change my mind once in a while. I had previously declared the brilliant Night 5 of Yo La Tengo’s 2010 Hanukkah Maxwell’s shows as my favorite. That night was a stunning example of noisy YLT at its best. But after reviewing and editing the recording for Night 7, I think I’m changing my vote. Any show that features uber-guitarist Nels Cline is a sure winner, and this particular show was no exception. The band began quietly with a sweet version of “I Feel Like Going Home”, but shortly after, all hell broke loose. The twelve-minute electronic controlled mayhem of “All the Glitter Is Gone” gave Ira and Nels an early chance to blend their distinctive chops and it was pure noisy bliss. Later in the set, Georgia’s “Little Eyes” (streaming below) was a perfect spotlight for each member’s talents. The real meat of the set started with the fast “Big Day Coming” (fourth time of the week, but still not old) and ended with “Pass The Hatchet”, which was propelled for fourteen solid minutes by the hypnotic bass work of James with Ira and Nels again provided dueling axes. YLT kept up the energy with two Ramones covers, before Bonnie Prince Billy and his band joined for the finale.

I recorded this set with the Neumann microphones placed in their usual front corner of the booth mixed with a board feed. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “Little Eyes”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/Y6644YLT9879/Little%20Eyes.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Yo La Tengo
2010-12-07
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Master Recording
Four Channel Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper and acidjack
2010-12-23

[Thanks to Jesse for setlist help]
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:41:01]
01 I Feel Like Going Home
02 All the Glitter Is Gone
03 Swing For Life
04 [banter]
05 Wasn’t Born To Follow [Carole King]
06 Season of the Shark
07 The Last Days of Disco
08 [banter2]
09 Shadows
10 Little Eyes
11 [banter3]
12 Black Flowers
13 Satellite
14 Big Day Coming
15 Serpentine
16 Artificial Heart
17 Tom Courtenay
18 Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind
19 [encore break]
20 Pet Cemetery [Ramones]
21 Sheena Is A Punk Rocker [Ramones]
22 [banter4]
23 Heavenly Arms [Lou Reed]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases from the store at their website [HERE].

[photo by Tim Besa]

The shortcut description of Wormburner the band is a cross between The Hold Steady and Camper Van Beethoven. The most striking aspect of the band is the Finn/Lowery styled matter-of-fact talking vocals of band leader Steve “Hank” Henry. In fact, the band’s 2006 debut album (A Hero’s Welcome) was produced by Camper’s David Lowery. But where Hold Steady can be aloof, and Camper sarcastic, Wormburner is a more sincere band than either of the comparisons. Hank’s lyrics are frank and often poignant slices of life that capture the ordinary lives of their protagonists. At Mercury Lounge on Friday last, Wormburner celebrated the vinyl release of their new album Placed by the Gideons at an event that also served as a holiday party for the band and their friends. As a tribute to the superb quality of the new album, the Gideons material highlighted the set, particularly “Pike City Proper” (streaming below) and “The Interstate”. In the spirit of the evening, the band closed the set with two holiday numbers.

I recorded this set with the Neumann microphones placed in the soundboard area and mixed with a soundboard feed. Unfortunately, the festive nature of the event led to a very high volume of crowd chatter which required me to mix the board feed at about 75%. As a result, the mix is typical for a board feed — vocal and kick-drum heavy with the instruments too far in the background. With that caveat, enjoy!

Stream: “Pike City Proper”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/W1021Wormburner1020/Pike%20City%20Proper.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Wormburner
2010-12-10
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2009-12-22

Setlist:
[Total Time 48:28]
01 Stolen Tags
02 Sleepy Jane
03 Peekskill
04 A Hero’s Welcome
05 Astronauts
06 Muscle Car
07 Little Things
08 [banter]
09 Two Kinds of People
10 Pike City Proper
11 [banter2]
12 The Interstate
13 [banter3]
14 (Christmas) Bells of St. Ignatius
15 Holiday Road [Lindsey Buckingham]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Wormburner, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the Store at their website [HERE].

[photos by Ryan Muir courtesy of Stereogum]

There are an infinite number of established artists who for a variety of reasons avoid their earliest work. Perhaps for the same reason we cringe when we see photos of ourselves as teenagers, musicians see their earliest work as immature and underdeveloped. For instance, Paul Simon is said to be embarrassed by the songwriting of the earliest Simon and Garfunkel works. On the flip side of this equation are the artists who lose the creative force and rely too heavily on their early material — i.e. the nostalgia acts. At Housing Works in November, Stereogum presented a performer who has expertly straddled this artistic enigma. Twenty-five years into her fruitful career, Suzanne Vega continues as a viable creative writer and performer, and fortunately for the longtime fans she also continues to embrace her earliest material. In the packed Bookstore Cafe on a chilly November Sunday night, Suzanne opened her set with “Marlene On The Wall”. Accompanied by the multi-talented Gerry Leonard, Suzanne offered an intimate duet version of the song that catapulted her career. With her voice as the centerpiece, “Marlene” is a number that at once provides a rich melody with lyrics that offer a complex perspective on a difficult relationship. The song also proved nearly three decades ago that Suzanne Vega was a fully formed artist from the outset, capable of introspective and mature lyrics coupled with a warm voice and a strong sense of melody. As she has now established her own record label, this year Suzanne has revisited these songs and re-recorded them for her “Close-Up” series. The Housing Works set featured many of the songs from the two current volumes (“Love Songs” and “People & Places”), including classic songs “Small Blue Thing”, “The Queen And The Soldier” and the closing numbers “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner”. Suzanne’s contemporary material was also well represented as she performed her contribution to the posthumous Sparklehorse/Dangermouse album “The Man Who Played God”, a song from her upcoming musical about the writer Carson McCullers (“The Instant of The Hour After”) and several songs that will appear on the anticipated 2011 releases of Volumes 3 and 4 of the Close-Up releases. As our readers can witness on this recording, all of these songs, old and new, were expertly delivered with the same level of proficiency and commitment. It is rare that an artist can balance her material with such precision.

Suzanne Vega will again perform in NYC on January 8, 2011 when she plays Town Hall with Marc Cohn.

This show was engineered by Suzanne’s soundman Phil Sullivan, who mixed it to perfection. My recording is a blend of his soundboard feed along with the DPA microphones placed at the center of the room about 30 feet back from the stage. As a result, the superb quality of this recording is perhaps unmatched by anything we’ve ever offered on this site. Enjoy!

Many thanks to Suzanne Vega, Michael Hausman, Phil Sullivan, Scott Lapatine, and Rachel Fershleiser for making this event and this recording happen.

Stream “Marlene On The Wall”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/S1411SuzanneVega2110/Marlene%20On%20the%20Wall.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Suzanne Vega
2010-11-14
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + DPA 4021s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-11-16

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:20:00]
01 [introduction]
02 Marlene On the Wall
03 When Heroes Go Down
04 [banter1]
05 Caramel
06 Small Blue Thing
07 [banter2]
08 Bonnie and Clyde [Serge Gainsbourg]
09 [banter3]
10 Gypsy
11 [banter4]
12 Ironbound/Fancy Poultry
13 [banter5]
14 Tombstone
15 Blood Makes Noise
16 [banter6]
17 The Man Who Played God [Sparklehorse]
18 [banter7]
19 The Queen and The Soldier
20 Rock In This Pocket (Song Of David)
21 Some Journey
22 [banter8]
23 Luka
24 Tom’s Diner
25 [encore break]
26 The Instant of the Hour After
27 Rosemary

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Suzanne Vega, visit their website, and purchase her official releases from Fan Shop at her website [HERE].

[photo from Ira’s Hanukkah Diary]

The other aspect of Hanukkah Night 5 that made it my personal favorite was the gift of Mission of Burma. We have seen them several times since their 2002 reunion (sadly never in the early 80s), but never like this. MOB was truly in the giving spirit on this Sunday night, as they delivered a truly unique set of music. The show opened with one of their oldest and most obscure songs “Nu Disco” — a number written in 1979 which is said to have spurred Roger Miller to add tape loops to the band. MOB then followed with six new songs, including one (“Hi-Fi”) we had heard before (in January at Bowery), and at least two debut performances. The second half of the set consisted of five diverse and eclectic covers, from Cream to Eno to the Wipers. The most striking cover was Clint Conley dead-on channeling Pete Shelley on the Buzzcocks’ “I Don’t Mind” (streaming below), but the band also played the heck out of a seven-minute version of the Wipers “Youth of America”.

Mission of Burma returns to the area in January when they’ll play two local gigs, Maxwell’s on January 28 and Bell House in Brooklyn on January 29.

I recorded this set in the same manner as the Yo La Tengo set from this night, and the sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Stream “I Don’t Mind” (Buzzcocks cover):
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/M4509MissionofBurma2239/Mission%20Of%20Burma%20-%20I%20Don%27t%20Mind%20(Buzzcocks%20Cover%20Live)%202010-12-05.mp3]

This Recording is now available to Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Mission of Burma
2010-12-05
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Master Recording
Four Channel Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + DPA 4021s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper and acidjack
2010-12-13

Setlist:
[Total Time 45:37]
01 Nu Disco
02 Forget What You Know
03 Part the Sea (first time played)
04 Hi-Fi
05 7’s
06 Fell Into Water
07 Just Waves (first time played)
08 [banter]
09 N.S.U. [Cream]
10 Seven Deadly Finns [Brian Eno]
11 I Don’t Mind [Buzzcocks]
12 Youth of America [Wipers]
13 Class War [The Dils]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Mission of Burma, visit their website, and purchase their official releases directly from the Store at their website [HERE].

[photo from Ira’s Hanukkah Diary]

I’ll admit to being partial to the noisy and aggressive side of Yo La Tengo’s music. Perhaps due to the presence of Mission of Burma on the bill, or that MOB’s tech wiz Bob Weston participated in the YLT set, but this Sunday night of Hanukkah was the noisiest overall of the eight shows — and also my personal favorite. Early in the set, “Periodically Double or Triple” led directly into “The Room Got Heavy”, for the first energetic noisy segue of the night, but it was the show’s finale that set this night apart. Ira shed some blood (see photo) while switching guitars before the Richard Hell song, but as soon as the punk legend was covered the band ratcheted it up a notch. A ferocious “Drug Test” led into the punk version of “Double Dare” before giving way to the massive “Sugarcube” that finished with a cacophony of feedback, loops and guitar fuzz. “Mushroom Cloud of Hiss” rose out of the chaos and ended the set with more Weston-inspired sheets of sonic bliss. When the crowd caught its breath, the band returned with Mission of Burma and treated us to a mini-set of covers that closed with all six members of the two bands on stage together for an extended version of Dred Foole’s “So Tough” — a 1982 song that featured the three MOB members as “The Din”.

We recorded this set with the DPA 4021’s set up in the standard front right corner spot of the soundboard booth and mixed with an excellent board feed. Acidjack also ran a Schoeps pair, but the synchronization of the six-channel source will take more post-production time. We will work in another version of this recording in the future, but for now this four-track version is still quite superb. Enjoy!

The Mission of Burma set was also recorded and will be featured in the coming days.

Stream “Periodically Double or Triple”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/Y6644YLT9879/Yo%20La%20Tengo%20-%20Periodically%20Double%20or%20Triple%20(Live)%202010-12-05.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Yo La Tengo
2010-12-05
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Master Recording
Four Channel Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + DPA 4021s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper and acidjack
2010-12-10

[Thanks to Jesse for setlist help]
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:44:39]
01 Green Arrow
02 Evanescent Psychic Pez Drop
03 Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)
04 The Crying of Lot G
05 Periodically Double or Triple
06 The Room Got Heavy
07 [banter]
08 The Empty Pool [Yung Wu]
09 Pablo and Andrea
10 Paul Is Dead
11 Nowhere Is Near
12 [banter]
13 I’m Your Man [Richard Hell]
14 Drug Test
15 Double Dare
16 Sugarcube
17 Mushroom Cloud of Hiss
18 [encore break / loops]
19 Astral Plane [Modern Lovers]
20 [banter]
21 Cover [Volcano Sons]
22 [banter]
23 Ben Wa Baby [Phil Milstein]
24 Frenzy [The Fugs]
25 So Tough [Dredd Foole]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases from the store at their website [HERE].

[photo from YLT Hannukah Diary]

Yo La Tengo‘s set at the first night of Hannukah 2010 began as all Elvis Presley shows started in the 1970’s — with the theme music from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was only a slight surprise then, although still bizarre, that the music kicked off with the appearance of a local Elvis impersonator for the opening “One Night With You”, appropriately re-titled for “Eight Nights”. The horn section fortuitously stayed on stage for several more numbers which added a nice touch to familiar songs — including “Mr. Tough” streaming below. When the stage was cleared of guests, the trio worked through a set of YLT classics, both quiet and noisy, before ending the set with an epic fourteen minute “I Heard You Looking”. After a lengthy YLT set, the encore segment was somewhat truncated, but did feature the surprise appearance of Nash Kato (Urge Overkill) on the obligatory Neil Diamond cover. “Elvis” returned to close the show before leaving the building.

We recorded this set with four microphones spaced in front of the soundboard booth and mixed with a mono soundboard feed. The DPAs were used to add some “warmth” to the sound, while the Neumanns are especially strong with the instrumental clarity. We are extremely pleased with the superb sound quality of this recording. Enjoy!

Stream “Mr. Tough”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/Y6644YLT9879/Yo%20La%20Tengo%20-%20Mr.%20Tough%20(live%20with%20horns)%202010-12-01.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Yo La Tengo
2010-12-01
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Master Recording
Six Channel Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021s > 2x Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 3x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper and acidjack
2010-12-03

[Thanks to Jesse for setlist help]
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:45:56]
01 [Also Sprach Zarathustra introduction]
02 One Night With You (“Eight Nights With You”)
03 Carnival Time (“Hannukah Time”)
04 [banter]
05 Mr. Tough
06 Moby Octopad
07 [banter]
08 Magnet [NRBQ]
09 How To Make A Baby Elephant Float
10 Saturday
11 More Stars Than There Are In Heaven
12 Autumn Sweater
13 [banter]
14 When It’s Dark
15 Cherry Chapstick
16 Decora
17 The Story of Jazz
18 Nothing To Hide
19 I Heard You Looking
20 [encore break]
21 Angst In My Pants [Sparks]
22 [banter]
23 Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon [Neil Diamond]
24 [banter]
25 Wear My Ring Around Your Neck [Elvis]
26 Burning Love [Elvis]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases from the store at their website [HERE].

[photo by nyctaper]

Deakin (Josh Dibb) will release his debut solo album sometime in 2011. In a recent interview with Jarrod Dicker that we published on this site, Deakin discussed the idea that his new songs were “taking their time working themselves out”. These two recordings are evidence of that process. At the early part of his tour with Prince Rama, Deakin played a hour-long set at Glasslands, a gig which was essentially his first solo show in NYC. With working song titles, he performed all new material. While the songs maintained a loose melodic structure, the sound was heavy in vocal reverb and musical echo. As the tour progressed, the songs began to take shape, so that by the time Deakin returned to NYC to perform a set at Music Hall of Williamsburg in November, the material contained tighter melodies and relied significantly less on echo effects. The songs still are labeled with working titles, but are far closer to the anticipated finished versions than in September. Josh provided us with the titles and track breaks for both of these recordings and approved the post with the caveat that these performances represent stages or snapshots in the evolution of the material. We expect that the songs will continue to develop and the finished product may not even closely resemble what you hear on these recordings.

The Glasslands set was recorded with a soundboard feed mixed with the Neumann microphones placed in front of the soundboard booth. The sound quality is quite clear, if a bit lacking in room feel. The Music Hall recording was captured with the four microphone rig from directly in front of the board cage. The sound quality on each recording is distinctly different from the other, but the overall quality is excellent. Enjoy!

These Recordings are now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 and to Stream at Archive.org:
Music Hall [HERE]
Glasslands [HERE]

Deakin
2010-11-02
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Four-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Soundboard Booth

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2010-11-22

Setlist:
[Total Time 35:26]
01 Island Chase
02 II
03 2Friends
04 Footy
05 Own Mind
06 Good House
___________

Deakin
2010-09-13
Glasslands Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-11-22

Setlist:
[Total Time 56:46]
01 Good House
02 Island Chase
03 II
04 Footy
05 2Friends
06 Own Mind
07 Guggenheim Jam
08 Elastik

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Deakin, visit his MySpace page, and purchase his debut solo album when it is released by Paw Tracks Records in 2011.