nyctaper posts

I guess now is as good a time as any to announce that in January NYCTaper was offered and accepted a membership in the After The Jump music blog cooperative.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to make the SXSW trip, but expect some great NYC stuff this summer.

Here is the official press announcement and the poster above is the final SXSW line-up:

“After the Jump is headed down to Austin for the second year in a row, bringing back our killer Official SXSW showcase, full of bands we think you’ll be reading about all this year, and our off the hook, out of control house party.

So for all those with a badge or wristband, come join us Thursday night, 9pm, at The Rusty Spurs.

And for those of you going rogue (or just looking to avoid the overpacked showcases of 6th St.), come out to the East Side of Austin, to an old school house party, FRIDAY, March 20th, Noon-???

Last year’s house party was a rager with 6 drained kegs in less than three hours and a bust up by the cops. But the law couldn’t bring that party down, we continued on into the wee hours of the night, and it certainly won’t again this year. We’ll be returning to the scene of the crime with headliners SUPERDRAG, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Cause Co-motion, US Royalty, Parenthetical Girls, Evangelicals, Howlies and more. And this time, Red Stripe and Vitamin Water will be making sure we don’t run out of drinks and Rugby (by Ralph Lauren) will be providing goodies.”

The long-anticipated new CD from The Antlers Hospice was officially released today. The album can be streamed in its entirety at BandCamp. If you are more interested in a social setting to hear Hospice, there is a FREE listening party tonight at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street) at 9 pm tonight (with an open bar!).

The album can be purchased from InSound [here] or downloaded through itunes [here].

On Thursday night, The Antlers will throw a CD release party at Union Hall in Brooklyn (see flyer above). This show promises to be a special event, as Hospice will be played from start to finish and special guests are expected.

Following the show on Thursday, The Antlers will then embark on a lengthy tour throughout the south, southeast, and midwest. The complete schedule is posted at their MySpace page.

For a brief time in the late 80’s, the upstairs back entrance of the Palladium opened as a small rock club known simply by its street address “123 East 13th Street”. I only attended one event at that club and it was memorable — the late 1988 return of Pylon to live performance. It had been somewhere in the range of about seven years since Pylon had last played NYC and this would unfortunately be the last time until their appearance at Mercury Lounge in 2007. The final Pylon show in NYC would be the December 2008 show at Knitting Factory.

In memory of the innovative guitar work of Randy Bewley, we dug deep into the archives for a recording of the 1988 show. Although I attended this show, this recording was not captured by nyctaper. It was mastered by an anonymous person and was ultimately offered as a bit torrent download on dimedozen in March of 2006. The source of the recording is a first generation cassette, and the quality is really quite excellent for the time and the equipment.

As this is not an nyctaper recording, we have decided not to offer it on the site, but rather as a bit torrent download at dimedozen where it originated. You must register for this site to access the download (there is a membership cap, but keep trying as they clear out dormant accounts every hour).

The dimeadozen bit torrent download is [HERE].

From Seequill’s MySpace page:
The Serpent Power Festival
Seequill set up a night of music at Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg for Sunday March 1st. The night will be an homage to badass nyc bands with female voices. There is an excellent eclectic lineup of musicians performing as well as DJ D Sterne and a series of special performances by the serpent himself…

Doors 7 pm, $7
Glasslands
289 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn NY

Sharon Van Etten
She Keeps Bees
Scrambler Seequill
Sea Sick
The Naked Hearts
PWRFL Power

Randy Bewley was a profoundly original guitarist and an incredibly nice man. The night after we recorded Pylon at the Knitting Factory in December, we ran into Randy, Michael and Vanessa at the Of Montreal show at Music Hall. The three were just so friendly and complimentary and seemed to just be having such fun with the new life of Pylon. Randy in particular was so buoyant that we were certain that Pylon would continue for however long they wished. Tragically, that will not be the case. Randy suffered a heart attack on Monday and this afternoon he passed away in Athens.

Pylon has posted the following message:

We love Randy
This past Monday evening, Randy Bewley had a heart attack while driving his van on Barber Street in Athens, GA. He was taken to Athens Regional Medical Center. Today, our bandmate and brother passed away at a little before 5 p.m. with his family and friends at his side. He will be missed, even as we celebrate his life and creativity. His guitar sound was as special as he was and always will be. Randy’s guitar work defined not only a generation of sound but Randy himself. His visual art, painting and photos, combined with his signature sound formed a loose set of boundaries that helps understand him. His quiet devotion to family and friends will become a benchmark for those he leaves behind.

nyctaper is now on Twitter [here]. We will be providing updates on the new recordings on the site in real time.

So follow nyctaper on twitter!

[photo by setoutrunning]

Thao With The Get Down Stay Down will tour extensively this Spring, through much of April and May. The tour includes a New York date at the Bowery Ballroom on May 14, 2009.

We struck up a nice conversation with a member of the band who emailed for access to an nyctaper recording. This conversation led to an invitation from management to record Blitzen Trapper at Bowery on February 27, and of course a NYC date on the Thao tour in the Spring (that had not yet been announced). We will be at the Bowery on May 14!

Here are the complete Spring dates:
Apr 17 2009 8:00 Black Cat Washington DC, Washington DC
Apr 18 2009 8:00 Duke Coffee House Durham, North Carolina
Apr 19 2009 8:00 Village Tavern Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
Apr 20 2009 8:00 EARL Atlanta, Georgia
Apr 21 2009 8:00 Club Downunder Tallahassee, Florida
Apr 23 2009 8:00 The Parish Austin, Texas
Apr 24 2009 8:00 Lola’s Ft. Worth, Texas
Apr 25 2009 8:00 The Foundation Lubbock, Texas
Apr 26 2009 8:00 The Sub-College of Santa Fe Santa Fe, NM
Apr 28 2009 8:00 The Loft-UCSD San Diego, California
Apr 29 2009 8:00 The Hotel Cafe Los Angeles, California
Apr 30 2009 8:00 Independent San Francisco, California
May 1 2009 8:00 Mississippi Studios Portland, Oregon
May 2 2009 8:00 Chop Suey Seattle, Washington
May 4 2009 8:00 Neurolux Boise, Idaho
May 5 2009 8:00 Kilby Court Salt Lake CIty, Utah
May 6 2009 8:00 Hi Dive Denver, Colorado
May 9 2009 8:00 Empty Bottle Chicago, Illinois
May 10 2009 8:00 Beachland Tavern Cleveland, Ohio
May 12 2009 8:00 Iron Horse Northampton, Massachusetts
May 14 2009 8:00 Bowery Ballroom New York, New York
May 15 2009 8:00 First Unitarian Church Philadelphia, PA
May 16 2009 8:00 The Boot Norfolk, Virginia

The National posted a tour date bulletin exactly thirty minutes ago. The dates do not yet appear on their website’s tour page. Note, there is no NYC date posted yet, but expect one. Here are the dates:

21 May: Kool Haus, Toronto (on-sale Feb 14th @ 10:00 AM)
22 May: Metropolis, Montreal (on-sale Feb 13th @ Noon)
23 May: House of Blues, Boston (on-sale Feb 20th @ 10AM)
24 May: 9:30 Club, DC (on-sale Feb 14th @ 10AM)
25 May: 9:30 Club, DC (on-sale Feb 14th @ 10AM)
27 May: Variety Playhouse, Atlanta (on-sale Feb 13th @ NOON)
28 May: Lincoln Theater, Raleigh (on-sale Feb 13th @ Noon)
29 May: Electric Factory, Philadelphia (on-sale Feb 20th @ 10AM)

nyctaper recorded The National twice in 2008, at BAM in February and again at Summerstage in August.

At the BAM show, The National performed the live debut of a new song now called “So Far Around the Bend”. The studio version of that song will appear on the Dark Was The Night charity compilation CD, which will be released on February 17.

Our readers will recall that we attended several performances from the NYC Popfest 2008 which was universally excellent. We posted recordings of Ladybug Transistor, Oh Custer, and Love Is All (nyctaper #4 concert of the year!). A few minutes ago, NYC Popfest posted a bulletin announcing the dates for the 2009 Festival, which will take place on May 15-17.

The bulletin promised “more details to follow”. However, we were able to surmise that the following four bands are on the preliminary list to appear at the Fest: My Teenage Stride (Brooklyn), Hands and Knees (Boston), Cats On Fire (Finland), and The Hermit Crabs (Glasgow Scotland).

There were preliminary discussion regarding NYCTaper becoming the “archivist” for this Festival. We do expect to attend and record multiple acts this year.

[click to play video]

The Black Keys are in town tonight and tomorrow at Terminal 5. We have an NYCTaper correspondent on hand to record the Friday night set.

Dan Auerbach, the lead guitarist and vocalist of the Black Keys will release a solo album called Keep it Hid. Dan will also embark on a tour at the end of this month and through March. NYCTaper will attend and record the Bowery show on March 3, pending expected approval.

The video embedded above is Dan Auerbach’s rehearsal performance with his uncle James Quine (brother of the late great Robert Quine) of “Trouble Weighs a Ton” from the new CD.

Here are the solo dates:
DAN AUERBACH ON TOUR
Feb 28 – 9:30 Club – Washington DC, Washington DC
Mar 1 – Paradise Club – Boston, Massachusetts
Mar 2 – Music Hall of Williamsburg – Brooklyn, New York
Mar 3 – Bowery Ballroom – New York, New York
Mar 5 – Beachland Ballroom – Cleveland, Ohio
Mar 6 – Metro – Chicago, Illinois
Mar 7 – First Avenue – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mar 10 – The Showbox – Seattle, Washington
Mar 11 – Wonder Ballroom – Portland, Oregon
Mar 13 – Bimbos – San Francisco, California
Mar 14 – El Rey Theatre – Los Angeles, California