nyctaper Recordings

concert discussion and free flac downloads

The Brooklyn What: April 21, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – Flac/MP3/Streaming

May 5, 2013

If you’re the opening act and at the end of your set the crowd is literally chanting the name of your band, you’re doing something right. A couple of weeks back, the Brooklyn What opened for Dead Milkmen at Bowery Ballroom and their set was so damned entertaining that there was a mosh pit, stage diving and yes indeed, as you can hear at the end of the recording, the crowd chanting their name. The Brooklyn What are an amalgam of styles, with influences as wide at the New York Dolls, the Minutemen, and 1960s Brooklyn do-wop — performed with an uninhibited and indefatigable style. Lead singer and frontman Jamie Frey is a ball of energy who from the outset of the show engaged the crowd. As a result, the band got the attention they deserved throughout the set, built the momentum and finished with perhaps the best response we’ve ever seen from an opening set. The Brooklyn What played much of their new album Hot Wine, some older material and a couple of well-received covers. The band will play again later this month in a show at Shea Stadium on May 16.

We recorded this show in the same manner at the Dead Milkmen set and the sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Stream “The Basement”:

Download the Complete show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Brooklyn What
2013-04-21
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Sennheiser MKH-8040s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper 2013-05-02

Setlist:
[Total Time 35:35]
01 Catastrophe Kids
02 Come To Me
03 Punk Rock Loneliness
04 She Gives Me Spasms
05 Game Of Pricks [Guided By Voices]
06 Sledgehammer Night
07 Hot Wine
08 [banter]
09 The Basement
10 I Want You On A Saturday Night
11 I Wanna Be Your Dog [Stooges]

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Brooklyn What, visit their Bandcamp page, visit their Facebook page, and purchase the new album Hot Wine from their Bandcamp page [HERE].

Paul Damian Hogan the Third: April 5, 2013 The Bushwick Starr – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

May 1, 2013

By acidjack

[Photos by Jill Harrison at For the Love of Brooklyn]

Paul Damian Hogan The Third (if you wonder why the full name, Google “Paul Hogan” — he’s Crocodile Dundee, in case you’re wondering) is one of those artists that doesn’t slow down. Visit his website and you’ll find links to no less than eight albums, film scores, compositions, production (Friend Roulette’s EP, strings on Passion Pit’s Manners), and a few TV commercials — oh, and he’s also in the bands Frances and Ta Da, in his spare time. I was lucky enough to be invited to this special event at The Bushwick Starr, a comfortable DIY theater and event space on Starr Street near the Jefferson L, which Paul had rented out for the night to debut his latest record, The House, which appropriately enough is the successor to The Hut from 2009. Surrounded by friends and joined by a number of special guests, Hogan played The House for us straight through, with several songs transitioning seamlessly into the others. Hearing him live, it’s no surprise that he spends significant time as an arranger and producer — or that he has a Ph.D. in music — as his compositions and arrangements are dense, varied and surprising, never going quite where you expect. This debut of the new record in this unique and intimate space was the perfect way to introduce us to Hogan’s latest effort.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK5 microphones in the center of the room with a wide pattern to capture the way it sounded live. Other than some PA hiss and occasional distortion, the sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “Fooled”

Download the complete show [MP3] | [FLAC]

Paul Damian Hogan the Third
2013-04-05
The Bushwick Starr
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK5 (cardiod, ORTF, DFC, FOB)>KCY>Z-PFA>Roland R-26>24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 3.0 (fades, tracking, amplify, balance, parallel compression, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 [intro] (Matt Meade of Friend Roulette)
02 California Sands
03 Golden Cactus
04 Constellation
05 The Heat Stroke Song
06 The Really Really Long Road
07 Evil Wheel
08 Fooled
09 Cosmic Walkabout
10 The Fort

Players:
Paul Damian Hogan the Third (keys, vocals)
Matt Meade (guitar)
Kyle Olson (drums)

Guest appearances by:
John Stanesco (sax, bass clarinet)
Julia Tepper (violin, vox)
Stephanie Skaff (vox)

Live slide show by Brighid Greene and Stephanie Gould

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Paul Damian Hogan, visit his website, and purchase The House directly from him [HERE], including the limited vinyl edition.

Swearin: April 20, 2013 Maxwell’s – Flac/MP3/Streaming

May 1, 2013

By nyctaper

[photo by Chris Casciano of PlaceNameHere blog]

We’re big fans of Crutchfields here at NYCTaper. First, there was Katie’s band Waxahatchee, from the Don Giovanni showcase earlier this year. Today its Swearin, the Brooklyn/Philly quartet co-fronted by Allison Crutchfield with Kyle Gilbride. Swearin were the third of the five band bill assembled at Maxwell’s to celebrate the new CD release by Shellshag on Saturday last. I was initially unfamiliar with the band, but immediately perked up my ears as their set contained instant catchy hooks and an energy that was hard to miss. As with their self-titled debut album, all of the songs in their set were 2-3 minute bursts of pop-punk goodness. We’re streaming “Movie Star” below which features Allison belting out her most heartfelt vocals of their short show. Swearin will play Death By Audio on May 10, also sharing a bill with Shellshag.

I recorded this set in the same manner as the Screaming Females set, and except for some noticeable crowd chatter in between songs, the sound is superb. Enjoy!

Stream “Movie Star”:

Download the Complete show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Swearin
2013-04-20
Maxwells
Hoboken NJ

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann TLM-102s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper 2013-04-30

Setlist:
[Total Time 28:22]
01 Here to Hear
02 What a Dump
03 Mermaid
04 [new song]
05 Just
06 Crashing
07 Dusted
08 Kenosha
09 Movie Star
10 Kill em With Kindness

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Swearin, visit their Bandcamp page, and purchase their debut album and EP from the Bandcamp page [HERE].

Akron/Family: April 24, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – Flac/MP3/Streaming

April 30, 2013

By nyctaper

[Photos by PSquared Photography]

To paraphrase the Beatles, I thought I knew Akron/Family, what did I know. A band that I had returned to see live ten or so times were “must-see” because their shows have always been immensely enjoyable — celebratory and tribal, the material has alternated between melodic and hypnotic jamming and sweet (and sometimes very quiet) ballads. The current tour for the new album Sub Verses (officially released today April 30) is a very different affair indeed. As I tweeted during the Bowery Ballroom show on Wednesday, this current incarnation of Akron/Family is dense and very heavy. There wasn’t much banter or crowd participation, as we’ve experienced at older A/F shows, but the music was equally moving in a profoundly different way. The band has added electronics wiz M Geddes Gengras for this tour and his contribution of throbbing electronic bass and crunch/noise fits perfectly with the thematic nature of Sub Verses, which has been described by the band as having a “SciFi aesthetic” and “propulsive and driven by it’s physicality”, which are both very much accurate. At Bowery, the band played all but one of the new album’s 10 tracks, and just two songs of older material. We are streaming “Sand Time” below. The current tour swings South this week before finishing in LA on May 8.

I recorded this set from our standard balcony rail location in this venue and mixed with an excellent board feed provided by Akron Family’s FOH Tom Tierney. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Stream “Sand Time”:

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

Akron Family
2013-04-24
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper 2013-04-28

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:36:21]
01 [intro]
02 No Room
03 Way Up
04 Until The Morning
05 Sand Talk
06 Light Emerges
07 Sometimes I
08 Holy Bourbon
09 Drums
10 Sand Time
11 Samurai
12 [encore break]
13 When I Was Young
14 Ed Is a Portal

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Akron/Family, visit their website, and purchase Sub Verses from the Dead Oceans Records website [HERE].

Goat: April 23, 2013 Music Hall of Williamsburg – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 28, 2013

By acidjack

Tweet Follow @acidjacknyc

[Photos courtesy of P Squared Photography]

The impenetrable Swedish collective Goat became a lot better known in the gap between when PopGun Booking announced their U.S. debut at Glasslands and when the show finally happened — by then at a sold-out Music Hall of Williamsburg. Their first proper release World Music is exactly that — European psych-rock mated to the sounds of the Western Sahara. Shocking Blue meets Group Doueh. Made up of a rotating cast of villagers from the Swedish town of Korpilombolo who have been playing together for several decades (or so the story goes), the current players in Goat would seem to manage the rare feat of being a holy trifecta of mysterious, entertaining and authentic. Even if the Swedish psych rock tag is the easiest, Goat is hardly mystical stoner music, with a heavy, danceable backbeat. Their stage presence is geared to that, as well as maintaining their mystique. All of the players appear in masks and tribal costumes, and two dancer/singers perform up front. The result is a swirling, colorful fantasia of sound and positive rock and roll unlike anything else I’ve seen. Even if the band’s shadowy origins turn out to be less fanciful than they originally appear, this will still be a band to have on your list for the festival circuit this summer and beyond.

I recorded this set with MBHO KA200N cardiod microphones and a custom made analog preamp for a warm, natural sound. The result is excellent. Enjoy!

Thanks to Danato and the rest of the Music Hall team for their hospitality and assistance, and to Goat’s team for permitting the recording.

Stream “Disco Fever”

Direct download of the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Goat
2013-04-23
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

MBHO KA200N>MBP603>Aerco MP-2>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (light EQ and effects)>Audacity 3.0 (fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks Tracks [Total Time 1:04:54]
01 Diarabi
02 Golden Dawn
03 [tuning]
04 Disco Fever
05 Stone Goat
06 Let It Bleed
07 Dream Building
08 Run To Your Mama
09 Goathead
10 [tuning2]
11 Goatman
12 Goatlord
13 Det Som Aldrig Förändras / Diarabi
14 [encore break]
15 ~~[unknown]~~ The Sun the Moon

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Goat, visit their website, and buy World Music wherever you can find it on vinyl, or digitally from Amazon or iTunes.

The Men: March 7, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – Streaming Full Set

April 25, 2013

By acidjack

[Photos courtesy of David Andrako]

The Men are one of those bands that have earned their critical darling status, not only by being a great live act, but by never standing still. Their 2012 effort on Sacred Bones Records, Open Your Heart, deservedly earned “Best New Music” status, softening some of the hard edges of the previous year’s dirge-y (if solid) effort Leave Home. With 2013’s New Moon, the band didn’t abandon their original sound, but they certainly took it in a rootsier direction, willing to indulge their Neil Young and Americana influences to a greater degree than ever before.

This show at Bowery Ballroom not only found the Brooklyn band delivering on the promise of New Moon live, but it also represented a further expansion of The Men’s horizons. Showing up armed with a horn section, they played a 17-song set that featured three new songs, plus some incredible versions of material from their three current releases. The beginning of the set was a three-song summary of the band’s output to date: A lengthy guitar intro turned into “( )” from Leave Home was followed by a searing Without A Face from Open Your Heart, and then the rootsier “The Seeds” from New Moon. The new material suggested that the band won’t stop expanding their horizons; those horns, which particularly complemented the new numbers, might have looked out of place at a 285 Kent show, but totally worked with the evolution of their sound. As if to drive home the point that they have no intention of staying within genre confines, the band played an extra-long nearly 90 minutes, each of them worth it. The Men are going to keep taking chances, and I’m looking forward to seeing where they head next.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 supercardiod microphones and a soundboard feed from the Bowery house engineer, Kenny. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Thanks to Sacred Bones Records and The Men for permitting this recording. At the band’s request, this is being offered streaming-only and will not be available for download.

The Men
2013-03-07
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com

Schoeps MK41 (DINa)>KCY>Z-PFA + Soundboard (engineer: Kenny)>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, tape exciter, imaging)>Audacity 3.0 (fades, tracking, amplify, balance, parallel compression, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 ( )
03 Electric
04 Without A Face
05 The Seeds
06 I Saw Her Face
07 Open Your Heart
08 [new song 1]
09 Candy
10 Turn It Around
11 [new song 2]
12 [new song 3]
13 The Brass
14 Night Landing
15 [encore break]
16 Bird Song
17 Freaky

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT The Men, visit their website, and buy New Moon and their other records from Sacred Bones Records.

Dead Milkmen: April 21, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – Flac/MP3/Streaming

April 24, 2013

By nyctaper

[photos by PSquared Photography]

The old corporate music industry used to do this band-kill all the time — label a legitimate band the “next big thing”, turn their career upside down and ultimately cause them to crash and burn. The most extreme example is the Bangles, who went from LA paisley-folkies to glamor girls to defunct in about two years. After several excellent albums and a few breakthrough songs, in 1991 the Dead Milkmen went through the music industry meat grinder, and did not survive. The band broke up in the mid-90s and it stayed apart for over a decade. It took the death of original bassist Dave Schulthise to bring the band together for a tribute concert, and fortunately for their fans it sparked a permanent reunion. Unburdened by industry pressures and aided by decades of life experience, the Dead Milkmen are back as live performers to where they were in the late 80s, a relaxed humorous group of regular guys who also happen to be an extremely entertaining band. At Bowery Ballroom on Sunday night, a packed crowd saw the band work through an excellent selection of choice older material mixed in with some new songs, in a 85-minute set that was everything we’d hoped for, energetic, well-played and an absolute hoot. Rodney Anonymous wasn’t feeling that well, but rather than letting his health to negatively effect his performance, he turned it into a positive as he allowed a revolving group of rabid fans to sing selected lines from songs they all knew by heart. He even used it as a joke — “how do you get sick on a 3-show tour”. Ultimately, the band used the theme of the night — that “Dream On” should be the State song of Massachusetts — as motivation for an unexpected (not on the written setlist) tongue-in-cheek full-on cover of the Aerosmith classic to end the show. After an extended encore segment, the crowd departed with what this band has always given their fans, a big smile.

I recorded this set with the Sennheiser Cards mounted in our usual balcony position and supplemented with a board feed. Since the room sounded excellent on this night, the mix is predominantly room mics, with a 20% feed used to clarify the vocals and keys. The result is a superb recording which captures the crazy energy of the show. Enjoy!

Stream “Punk Rock Girl”:

Stream “Surfin Cow”:

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Dead Milkmen
2013-04-21
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper 2013-04-23

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:22:00]
01 Beige Sunshine
02 Tiny Town
03 Tacoland
04 She’s Affected
05 Punk Rock Girl
06 Methodist Coloring Book
07 Serrated Edge
08 Meaningless Upbeat Happy Song
09 Dean’s Dream
10 If You Love Somebody Set Them on Fire
11 Now I Wanna Hold Your Dog
12 Stuart
13 Nutrition
14 Bitchin Camaro
15 Beach Party Vietnam
16 Fauxhemia
17 VFW
18 Hangman
19 Smokin Banana Peels
20 Right Wing Pigeons
21 Undertown
22 Ronald Reagan Killed The Black Dahlia
23 Big Lizard in My Backyard
24 Life is Shit
25 Dream On [Aerosmith]
26 [encore break]
27 The Guitar Song
28 In Praise Of Sha Na Na
29 Life is Shit (Reprise)
30 The Woman Who Was Also A Mongoose
31 Surfin Cow

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Dead Milkmen, visit their website, purchase their official releases from the Milkmen Shop! link at their website [HERE].

Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls: March 4, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 23, 2013

By acidjack

Tweet Follow @acidjacknyc

[Photos by acidjack]

It’s possible to forget the point of why people go to concerts. We have music at our fingertips at all times — studio releases, live stuff (sites like this don’t hurt), comps, outtakes — it’s all out there. We don’t really need to go to concerts to hear what a band sounds like live, anymore. YouTube and LiveStream and other streaming services promise to beam The Concert Experience right to your laptop.

Enter Frank Turner, and his band he calls the Sleeping Souls. What they do at a live show can’t be fully replicated by a download or a stream; it can’t even be replicated one night to the next. Every crowd is different, and so is every night’s vibe. Turner’s live show puts the fans first, and makes getting them involved a priority. He has that rare knack for creating instant community, the kind where even emo-ish numbers can churn up a mosh pit, where people don’t dance or clap along because they’re asked to, but because they want to.

Frank came to the Bowery Ballroom on a pre-release tour for his new record Tape Deck Heart, a more intimate performance to follow-up his sold-out show at Webster Hall that we covered last year. On this night, Frank previewed a number of new songs from the new record, which came out today. From the opening one-two punch of “I Am Disappeared” into “The Road” came one highlight after another; the first of the new songs, the Tape Deck Heart kickoff track, “Recovery” showed all the promise of the new record. Turner has earned his hard-core fan base the natural way: by being open and genuine, by remembering why he is here and where he came from. Frank sent us out into the night with a three-song medley of “If I Ever Stray”, “Photosynthesis” and “Dan’s Song”, each delivered with a youthful exuberance that can’t be imitated, or faked. But really, it was the speech in the middle of “Photosynthesis” that told it all:

“What we’re doing is, we’ve got a couple of hundred people who left their bullshit and their differences at the door this evening — myself included — and we came in here to be friends, and equals, just for a few hours. And to sing, to dance, and to have a good fucking time!”

So maybe you don’t need to go to concerts anymore. But you ought to.

I recorded this set from our usual spot in the Bowery Ballroom with Schoeps MK5 cardiod microphones and a soundboard feed provided by the band’s sound engineer and tour manager Casey. As agreed with the band, we have waited until the record’s release day to offer up this live set. If you don’t already have enough reasons, I hope this recording inspires you to buy Tape Deck Heart, go to Frank’s shows, and support what he’s doing. Enjoy!

Stream “Recovery”

Stream “Photosynthesis”

Direct download of the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

If the first FLAC link has expired, please use this alternate, permanent link: [FLAC]

Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls
2013-03-04
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Soundboard (engineer: Casey) + Schoeps MK5 (DIN, slightly LOC)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, adjust levels, mix down)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter)>Audacity 3.0 (set fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Setlist courtesy of Dry Paint Signs

Tracks [Total Time: 1:31:49]
01 I Am Disappeared
02 The Road>
03 Peggy Sang the Blues
04 [banter1]
05 Recovery>
06 Glory Hallelujah>
07 Reasons Not to Be an Idiot
08 [banter2]
09 Losing Days
10 [banter3]
11 Wessex Boy
12 Substitute
13 The Real Damage
14 Good & Gone
15 Chelsea Hotel #2 [Leonard Cohen]
16 [banter4]
17 I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous
18 One Foot Before the Other
19 Long Live the Queen
20 [banter5]
21 Four Simple Words>
22 Try This at Home>
23 I Still Believe
24 [encore break]
25 If Ever I Stray>
26 Photosynthesis>
27 Dan’s Song

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, visit their website and their Facebook page, and purchase their official releases and merchandise including Tape Deck Heart [HERE], at Amazon and at iTunes. And go see their shows!

Acid Mothers Temple: April 19, 2013 Mercury Lounge – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 21, 2013

By acidjack

Tweet Follow @acidjacknyc

[Photos by acidjack – sorry they aren’t very good]

Seeing Acid Mothers Temple has become a bit of a yearly tradition for me, and it’s one worth keeping. No two shows by the legendary Japanese psych-rock band are alike, and this one at the Mercury Lounge on Friday night was extra-special due to the introduction of two as-yet-untitled songs from the band’s forthcoming album. The rest of the set was the usual dazzling display of the band’s improvisational talent, with this tour’s version of “Pink Lady Lemonade” jamming into “Om Riff” and back into “Pink Lady Lemonade” anchoring the middle of the set, plus a killer rendition of “Cometary Orbital Drive”. As with the Knitting Factory show I captured last year, the band ended this 90-minute set with “Chinese Flying Saucer”, sending the exhausted late-night crowd home happy. Until next year, enjoy this dose of Acid Mothers Temple!

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 supercardiod microphones in our usual spot in the venue, plus a soundboard feed from a longtime Mercury house engineer. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

This NYCTaper recording is being hosted on the Live Music Archive. You can stream the entire show by clicking the song titles below.

Direct Download: [MP3] or [FLAC]

Acid Mothers Temple
2013-04-19
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41 (PAS, slightly ROC)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard)>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (adjust levels, mix down)>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, EQ)>Audacity 3.0 (tracking, fades, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time: 1:30:55] (Thanks to the band for the corrected song titles)
01 ~~[new song 1]~~ Space Speed Suicide
02 [banter1]
03 ~~Dark Stars In the Dazzling Sky~~ In Search of Lost Divine Ark
04 [banter2]
05 Pink Lady Lemonade>
06 Om Riff>
07 Pink Lady Lemonade
08 Cometary Orbital Drive
09 [encore break]
10 Chinese Flying Saucer

If you enjoyed this recording, please support Acid Mothers Temple, visit their website, and buy their records from your favorite retailer.

METZ: April 17, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 18, 2013

By acidjack

Tweet
Follow @acidjacknyc

[Photos by acidjack]

METZ lead singer/guitarist Alex Edkins introduced their new song “Can’t Understand” as being about “all the totally messed up people in the world”. They left the spoken statement at that and then let the music do the talking. Over and over, the screamed refrain of those two words over the incessant backbeat and howling guitars framed, in simplest terms, the way people may have been feeling about recent events. Sometimes the best way of expressing anger is the most direct.

Yes, METZ is one of those Canadian bands that gives the lie to the notion that our neighbors to the north are mild-mannered — there is nothing less than 100% full-bore intense about METZ or their delivery. When bassist Chris Slorach was bleeding badly enough that he needed a metal splint on his nose after three songs, then came out after a couple minutes to finish the set, you knew these guys weren’t fucking around.

But don’t let all the hardcore noise fool you. Underneath the brutal dynamics are well-crafted songs and strong musicianship; to quote Stuart Berman’s excellent review of their self-titled Sub Pop debut last year, “there is a fine to art to taking a music fueled by destructive impulses and building it to last.” Much of the front floor of the Bowery Ballroom — and the venue was basically sold out by showtime — may have been too busy moshing to notice, but many of METZ’s songs are seriously good, paying tribute to the punk/sludge golden age of the late 80s and early 1990s. Songs like “Sad Pricks” stand up to anything in this genre’s canon, and the massive show of support from the NYC crowd — a little less than half a year after a sold-out show at the Knitting Factory — underscored that METZ are the real deal.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK5 cardiod mics in our usual spot in the venue plus an excellent feed of the house sound from longtime Bowery engineer Kenny. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “Sad Pricks”

Stream “Can’t Understand”

Direct download of the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

METZ
2013-04-17
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK5 (cardiod, DIN, slightly LOC)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard (engineer: Kenny)>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (adjust levels, mix down)>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, EQ)>Audacity 3.0 (tracking, fades, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 44:51]
01 [new song1]
02 Knife In the Water
03 Negative Space
04 [banter – head injury repair]
05 Get Off
06 Wasted
07 [banter2]
08 Sad Pricks
09 [banter3]
10 Can’t Understand
11 Headache
12 Rats
13 The Mule
14 [banter4]
15 Wet Blanket

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT METZ, visit their website, and buy their self-titled debut directly from Sub Pop [HERE]

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The Brooklyn What: April 21, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – Flac/MP3/Streaming

Paul Damian Hogan the Third: April 5, 2013 The Bushwick Starr – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

Swearin: April 20, 2013 Maxwell’s – Flac/MP3/Streaming

Akron/Family: April 24, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – Flac/MP3/Streaming

Goat: April 23, 2013 Music Hall of Williamsburg – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

The Men: March 7, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – Streaming Full Set

Dead Milkmen: April 21, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – Flac/MP3/Streaming

Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls: March 4, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

Acid Mothers Temple: April 19, 2013 Mercury Lounge – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

METZ: April 17, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

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