nyctaper posts

Hurray for the Riff Raff at the Secret Garden #2 from hoovesontheturf on Vimeo.

In December, we got a tip to go see Hurray For The Riff Raff at Pianos — and we were so glad we did. This quartet performed absolutely authentic appalachian-style folk led by the powerful voice and singular talents of banjoist Alynda Lee. Our friends from Hooves on the Turf blog captured an intimate “secret garden” performance during the same December week (embedded above).

Hurray For The Riff Raff return to NYC this week and here is their MySpace bulletin. We are excited that they have been added at the special guest at the NYCTaper Presents show at Monster Island Basement on June 19:

WEDNESDAY 06/17/2009 08:00 PM –
The Mercury Lounge w/ Lightspeed Champion
217 East Houston St
New York, New York 10002
Cost:$12

THURSDAY
06/18/2009 09:00 PM – 1087 BROADWAY (Above GOODBYE BLUE MONDAY)
More acts TBA, take the J train to Kosciousko
Brooklyn, New York
3$ ya’ll.

FRIDAY TWO SHOWS!
Earlier
06/19/2009 08:00 PM – Monster Island Basement
128 River St @ Metropolitan
Brooklyn, New York
US
Cost:$10
Description:w/ El Jezel, Coyote Eyes, Thunder Power, & The Rest

LATER!
06/19/2009 11:00 PM – Rooftop Show
With ROOTS AND RUCKUS folks:
Feral Foster, Willy Gantrim
100 S 4th
Brooklyn (WIlliamsburg), New York

Sample an MP3 from Hurray For The Riff Raff
Daniella.mp3

Its no news that we have incredibly similar musical tastes as our friends at the Ear Farm music blog, so its no surprise that they booked the excellent Coyote Eyes for the Ear Farm showcase at Spike Hill on Friday night.

This coming Friday, June 19 at Monster Island Basement, Coyote Eyes will perform again, this time as part of the NYCTaper Presents show, also featuring Hurray For The Riff Raff, El Jezel, Thunder Power and The Rest.

Sample some Coyote Eyes:

“Take a Hike” Thunder Power from Lindsay Trapnell on Vimeo.

We have had our eye on the excellent indie-pop band Thunder Power for a while. The Omaha Nebraska sextet create compellingly unique music that has elements of early 10,000 Maniacs and Belle and Sebastian, but ultimately sounds original. We were pleased to learn that Thunder Power planned their first extensive tour for this Summer, and more delighted when they accepted our invitation to perform at our June 19 NYCTaper Presents show at Monster Island Basement.

Thunder Power begins the tour this week in the midwest and travel east throughout the month:
Jun 12 2009 8:00P Eclipse Records St. Paul MI
Jun 13 2009 9:00P Stonefly Brewery Milwaukee WI
Jun 14 2009 9:00P Ronny’s Chicago IL
Jun 16 2009 8:00P Frankie’s Toledo OH
Jun 18 2009 9:00P Sugar City Buffalo, NY
Jun 19 2009 8:00P NYC Taper Presents @ Monster Island
Jun 21 2009 9:00P Slumberland New Brunswick NJ
Jun 22 2009 9:00P Monkey Town Brooklyn NY
Jun 23 2009 7:00P The Camel Richmond VA
Jun 24 2009 9:00P Circus Columbus OH
Jun 25 2009 8:00P Blue Rock Tavern Cincinnati OH
Jun 26 2009 9:00P Booby’s Carbondale IL
Jun 27 2009 8:00P Czar Bar Kansas City MO
(more August dates at Thunder Power MySpace page)

Legendary British post-punkers The Mekons return to NYC this Summer for two dates, their first local shows in almost two years. In the Fall of 2007, we captured The Mekons at the Gramercy Theatre in an over two-hour tour de force performance.

On July 31, The Mekons will play the Bell House in Gowarnus in a show that is being billed as “semi-acoustic”. Tickets are on sale from the Bell House website.

The Mekons will also perform at the Mercury Lounge on August 1, although that show is yet to be listed on the Bowery Presents website. The Mercury show is now listed on the Bowery site here.

We are really excited to present another great evening of music, featuring five outstanding bands from various locations and genres.

Here is the ToddP listing:

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Friday, June 19th @ MONSTER ISLAND BASEMENT

|| NYCTAPER PRESENTS

|| El Jezel
|||| Coyote Eyes
|||||| Thunder Power – from Omaha, 1st NYC show
|||||||| the Rest – from Ontario, 1st US show

| MONSTER ISLAND BASEMENT |
128 River St @ Metropolitan Ave | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L-Bedford, G-Metropolitan, JM-Marcy | 8:30pm | all ages | $8

| EL JEZEL |
Queens-based intelligent post-gaze trio, El Jezel broke out at the StereoActive CMJ show last October.

| COYOTE EYES |
Deli Magazine’s band on the rise in February, this angular indie-pop trio draws comparisons from Deerhoof to early 80s Brit-goth.

| THUNDER POWER |
An Omaha-based indie-pop band that draws references as classic as early 10,000 Maniacs and Belle & Sebastian, their extensive Summer tour (Midwest and East Coast) brings them to Brooklyn for their first-ever NYC show.”

| THE REST |
This Ontario-based brilliant chamber-pop band has just released one of the early contenders for album of the year, Everyone All At Once. Chosen as NPR song/artist of the day last month. Their CD Release Tour will bring The Rest to the U.S. for the first time.

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The show begins at 8:30 pm (doors).
We have added a special guest to begin the night. The New Orleans band Hurray For The Riff Raff will begin promptly at 9:00pm (they have another show later that night). NYCTaper readers are familiar with Hurray For The Riff Raff from our wonderful experience with them last December at Pianos.

We will be posting often about this show over the next few weeks, including mp3s, live links and potentially some interviews.

Last year we were fortunate to capture Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3 perform Steve’s old band The Dream Syndicate album The Days of Wine and Roses in its entirety. That show, performed in July at Maxwell’s, exceeded all of our expectations and breathed new life into that classic 1982 album.

This year Steve and the Miracle 3 will tackle the next album in the Dream Syndicate’s catalog, 1984’s The Medicine Show. This show takes place on June 27, 2009 at the Bell House in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn.

A little about Medicine Show:

“Despite charting on the Billboard list of top LPs and topping the CMJ singles chart for 2 months, the album is met with mixed reviews in the US where the band’s debut album “The Days of Wine and Roses” had been a critical sensation. Overseas it was a different story. “Medicine Show” received the highest accolades across Europe and the UK (the album made the London Guardian’s “Top 40 Albums of the First 40 Years of Rock” list in the mid-90s), sowing the seeds for a career that has been strong for bandleader Steve Wynn to the present day.”

“Medicine Show is the weirdest, most idiosyncratic, nastiest, funniest and most revealing record the Dream Syndicate ever made,” said Wynn in the liner notes from the record’s 1991 reissue. “It’s also my favorite.”

Last year’s performance of Days of Wine and Roses is still available on nyctaper [here].

[photo courtesy of Philip Pissas – more here]

Today Iron and Wine release the new 2-CD/3-LP collection of rare tracks entitled Around the Well. Last night at Abrons Arts Center, Sam Beam performed a primarily solo set for the final show of the tour in support of the new release. In a classic old intimate theatre, Sam’s homey charm and realistic songwriting thoroughly entranced the small crowd of diehards. As setlist was comprised of requests/votes taken from fans via the Iron and Wine website, there were several moments during the set when the performer was unsure of a lyric or chord change. Rather than allowing these interludes to devolve into awkwardenss, Sam used the intimacy of the setting to show his humor and humanity. While virtually the entire set consisted of highlights, we were especially moved by the cover of the Flaming Lips “Waiting for Superman” and Sam’s own “Upward Over the Mountain”. Along with the rarities and treats, also performed was a new song called “Mary Anne”.

Iron and Wine perform an In-Store at Other Music Tonight.

Download a Recording soon of this show at Played Last Night.

Download a vintage Iron and Wine show from 2003 at nyctaper [here]

Last Night’s Setlist:
Iron and Wine
2009-05-18
Abrons Arts Center
New York, NY USA

[Total Time 1:13]
01 [introduction]
02 History of Lovers
03 Woman King
04 Resurrection Fern
05 [banter – mangos]
06 Cinder And Smoke
07 God Made The Automobile
08 [banter – voting]
09 Waiting for Superman (Flaming Lips)
10 Upward Over The Mountain
11 [banter – Orson Welles]
12 Lion’s Mane
13 Gray Stables
14 Kingdom Of The Animals
15 Flightless Bird, American Mouth
16 In Your Own Time
17 Mary Anne [new song]
18 Fever Dream
19 A Boy With A Coin
20 The Trapeze Swinger
21 [encore break]
22 He Lays In The Reins

The new web broadcast station at Radio23.org will stream live tonight the No Fun Fest featuring sets by Sonic Youth and Bardo Pond at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Tune in to Radio23.org [here], at 1:00 am EST.

We had a show for a brief period on this excellent site (“NYCTaper Live”), but could not maintain the commitment of producing a two-hour show each week. However, when Radio23.org introduces a streaming live station in the Fall, we do anticipate an nyctaper feature.

So, two years ago today I started this taper’s blog. I have to say that looking back its been two pretty amazing years of music enjoyment and discovery. I would like to think that we’ve helped the artists along the way, assisted our readers in discovering new music and enjoying live recordings of their favorite bands, and that we have contributed to the general good of the music community.

Thanks to all the people who have contributed support, motivation, links, assistance, goodwill and thanks especially to all the amazing artists (too many to mention) who have permitted us to record their music for the fans. I have renewed our subscription to the server for two more years, so we are going to keep chugging along.

[photo lifted shamelessly from The Gothamist]

If I had read that headline a couple of years ago, I would have laughed out loud. The Stuy Town Summer concerts used to be a series of local cover bands playing through their amps in the middle of the Oval. The big highlight of the season was the appearance of a “real” U2 cover band.

All of this changed last year, when the series changed its name, brought in professional sound and stage crews and booked actual artists. We recorded the performance by High Places last July in the Oval.

This year, Music on the Oval returns with an excellent line-up of free concerts. The highlights include:

June 10: Budos Band
June 17: Phenomenal Handclap Band
July 1: Jay Reatard
July 15: Kaki King

Stuyvesant Town is the huge apartment complex between First Avenue and Avenue C, from 14th Street to 20th Street. Enter at the 16th Street and First Avenue Loop and walk directly East towards the center of the complex (“The Oval”) for the concerts. DJ’s starts spinning at 6 pm and the concerts begin at 7 pm.