nyctaper posts

We have been listening Ponytail non-stop since we experienced their energy at the After the Jump Festival on June 21. Our recording was in the queue for about 5 days straight! Now we all have the chance to jump back into the saddle for two more Ponytail shows this weekend.

The first one is the Saturday afternoon ToddP party at The Yard (July 12) with the incredible lineup that we posted about a few weeks ago. This is the “Mid Summer Party” where Ponytail will appear with Oneida, High Places, and others. This event will be covered by a nyctaper correspondent (we’re away again!).

Ponytail will also perform on Sunday night at Mercury Lounge at 9 p.m. We have received permission to record this show as we will be back on town.

The quirky British alt-pop band Bearsuit has announced its Fall US tour. After posting an informal survey of US fans asking for choice locations, Bearsuit has announced a series of East coast and Midwest dates in October. More details on the tour list on their MySpace page.

The tour includes a handful of dates in NYC, including October 13 at Cake Shop. nyctaper has already received advance permission to record that gig. Also planned are a series of TBA gigs for the October week of CMJ Marathon in NYC.

Today nyctaper was the subject of an article in The Washington Post Express Reader, specifically about the Feelies and Sigur Ros recordings offered here in the last month.

We also learned this weekend that we will also be part of an upcoming Billboard.com article, and we have also received two recent mentions in the top independent online music blog largheartedboy (here) and (here).

In recent weeks, we have also received download location requests from the soundboard technician of a major band featured here, the webmaster of another band, several band members, and the CEO of a major record label.

While we wait for nyctaper to get home to the studio and upload all the July 4th goodies, here is an outstanding pro-quality on-stage video from our friend unARTigNYC of some of the Sonic Youth set.

We were pointed to the WFMU website by our intrepid correspondent for the news that WFMU will broadcast the Sonic Youth July 4th set from Battery Park.

We missed the Antlers set at the main street stage of the After the Jump Fest (pictured above), but we caught up with Peter, Darby and Michael at Sharon Van Etten’s Zebulon show last Wednesday (recording coming soon!).

Today it was formally announced what we had learned during that conversation — that bassist Justin Stivers is leaving the Antlers to dedicate full time to his solo endeavor Pet Ghost Project. Justin’s final performance with the Antlers will be at Union Pool on July 17th at a Jezebel Showcase. Also appearing at the July 17 show are our friends The Loom and old friends Spanish Prisoners.

Peter is currently working on replacing Justin in the Antlers, and based upon our information, there should be some interesting new developments in the personnel of the Antlers.

When Chris Difford played Maxwell’s last month, he promised that Squeeze would return to NYC in the Fall. Today it was announced that Squeeze will perform at Radio City Music Hall on Friday September 19. When we last saw Squeeze last August at Nokia Theatre, the performance was quite excellent.

The presale begins tomorrow (June 27) at the Radio City site [HERE]. There is no general on-sale date listed yet.

[photo credit]

We are old enough to remember when “Whip It” was a hit, and certainly remember the sheer joy hearing “Genius of Love” for the first time. We first witnessed the Tom Tom Club live during their mini-set in the middle of the Talking Heads 1983 show at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium.  So it was a real exciting surprise to see the listing for Devo and Tom Tom Club performing together at the McCarren Pool. The concert is this Thursday June 26, and we will be there, having purchased a ticket months ago.

Devo has permitted the free share of unofficial live recordings at their site for quite some time. The excellent Booji Boy site organizes the free trading among the fans, and provides a wealth of information about Devo live recordings. However, today we were doubly excited to receive an email directly from Chris Frantz that will permit our recording of the Tom Tom Club set. Thanks, Chris!

There are still tickets available for this show, which can be purchased through the Devo site [HERE].

As we decided to stay for the evening session of the After The Jump Fest, we missed Sharon Van Etten‘s performance at the Rooftop Films Concert on Saturday night. The good news is that we learned that Sharon has added two more NYC dates, including a Summer Party show at “42 Jefferson”. Google maps tells us that this location is about a block away from the Market Hotel.

The two more accessible dates to see Sharon Van Etten live are:
June 25 Zebulon 9pm
Aug 3 Cake Shop

Next weekend, Sharon begins a July tour of the East Coast with Noa Babayof, and then an August tour in the Midwest. See the MySpace page for tour details.

And finally, Sharon’s new CD will be entitled “Because I Was in Love” and will be released in the next couple of months. Today she is streaming a new song (“Strong”) on her MySpace music player.

The Marco Benevento Trio will perform at the newly opened venue Le Poisson Rouge on Tuesday June 24th as part of the JVC Jazz Fest. When we saw the final night of Marco’s residency at Sullivan Hall in January, the trio that performed eventually went on the road for several dates. That group included Andrew Barr on drums, and the amazing Reed Mathis on Bass. Unfortunately, this version of the group will not include Reed, as he will be on tour with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (in Cleveland that night).

Le Poisson Rouge is the new venue on the same location (Sullivan & Bleeker) as the legendary Village Gate, and which has received the blessing of Gate owner Art D’Lugoff. One of the proprietors of LPR is Ronen Givony, whose work with the brilliant Wordless Music Series has been renowned.

While we will miss Reed Mathis on Tuesday, we will in fact see Jacob Fred tonight at Sullivan Hall for the midnight show!