On the final night of the Hopscotch Music Festival, our buds at Kings curated an eclectic show that featured two recordings we have already shared (Moon Duo and Boogarins), a superb set from “house” band Birds of Avalon, Kid Millions, and another very special international guest, Mdou Moctar. Hailing from a small village in Niger, Moctar has received international acclaim as one of the best-known Tuareg guitarists. If you’re not familiar with the Saharan brand of rock music, or you have no idea what that means, let me put it more simply: this guy shreds like Jimi Hendrix. His latest LP, Ilana, the Creator was recorded in Detroit, and is already making its way onto early “best of 2019” lists for obvious reasons. Moctar’s work is special not only for its technical virtuosity but for his willingness to expand upon the genre’s conventions, as well as focus on original music over standards and covers. These four songs will give you a taste of what Moctar is about, but really, do yourself a favor and head to Sahel Sounds to get educated not only about his work, but the variety of 21st century African artists they represent. (Jesse Jarnow wrote an excellent piece about the label here). And keep your eye on those “best of 2019” lists — I know Mdou Moctar is making mine.
I recorded this set with onstage Schoeps MK5 microphones, MBHO microphones back at the soundboard, and a soundboard feed. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!
Thanks to Mdou Moctar and his management team for letting us share the recording.
The Luna tour that just completed was a big one. The band played seventeen shows in twenty days, and played a complete album every night, alternating between Lunapark, Bewitched, and Penthouse. The added bonus was the appearance of original bassist Justin Harwood, who shared duties with Britta Phillips throughout the shows and also allowed Britta to provide some vocal harmonies when Justin performed.
Now five years into their reunion, we’ve already noted that Luna seems poised to stick around as a working band and their performances have been revelations of consistency and excellence. And the fans seem to agree — both Bowery shows were sold out and it was actually a bit of a chore to score a ticket (thanks generous friend!). We did get one at the last minute for Sunday night’s show, and were fortunate to have captured this show.
Sunday night at Bowery was a Penthouse night and the band’s first set was a meticulous performance of the album, with personal favorite “23 Minutes in Brussels” as my highlight. After a brief intermission, the band returned to play the bonus or hidden track of “Bonnie and Clyde”, followed by a neat set of favorites, oddities, and a couple of covers. The final encore was “IHOP”, the lead track from the Pup Tent album that is virtually never played live — it was a personal request from a band superfan who despite travelling all over the country and indeed internationally to see Luna had never experienced this song live. This tour was like that — tricks and treats for the superfans and just plain great music for the rest of us.
Luna returns to performance in February, with two West coast shows announced thus far. We’d expect some New York dates to be added.
I recorded this set from our usual spot with the Neumann hypers this time, and mixed with a feed mixed expertly by the band’s sound man Paul. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!
Setlist: [Total Time 1:44:43] First Set (Penthouse) 01 [intro] 02 Chinatown 03 Sideshow by the Seashore 04 Moon Palace 05 Double Feature 06 Twenty-Three Minutes in Brussels 07 Lost In Space 08 Rhythm King 09 Kalamazoo 10 [banter – Tolstoy] 11 Hedgehog 12 Freakin’ and Peakin’ Second Set 13 Bonnie and Clyde [Serge Gainsbourg] 14 California Blue [Roy Orbison] 15 Still at Home 16 Inside Your Heart [The Monochrome Set] 17 Eggnog 18 Slide 19 Superfreaky Memories 20 [encore break] 21 Pup Tent 22 Season of the Witch [Donovan] 23 IHOP
After watching three experimental/improvprojects at the Three Lobed / WXDU Annual Ritual of Summoning, this spectacular day pivoted with a return to some straight-ahead punk. Cold Cream is a project from Triangle punk lifers from bands such as Flesh Wounds, Pipe, and Tegucigalpan, so despite their first record’s arrival in 2018, they own a room like the vets they are.
Here at Kings, Cold Cream energized the room with their erudite, politically-charged songs (not sure how many punk bands work “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori” into their lyrics, but they do). Given the political climate in North Carolina, “Rat Fucker” (about gerrymandering and other forms of voter disenfranchisement) particularly resonated. But really, none of that would matter if the band didn’t, you know, rock, and that they most assuredly do. Tune in and turn this up loud.
I recorded this set in the same manner as the other sets of the day, with Schoeps mics onstage, MBHO mics at the board, and a soundboard feed. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!
Tracks 01 [intro] 02 Anti-Fi 03 Eichmann In Jerusalem 04 First They Came> 05 Angie 06 Wage Theft 07 Decorate 08 Rat Fucker 09 In Carrz 10 Objects In Mirror 11 See You On the Somme 12 Cactus Wife 13 Shit Bird 14 Fasting
Cold Cream is:
Mara Thomas – Vocals Clarq Blomquist – Drums Laura King – Bass Ron Liberti – Guitar
These days, Diane Cluck performs in NYC about once every eighteen months or so. Her last appearance in NY was in May of 2018 where she was backed into a late show and as a result her set that night was somewhat truncated. When we booked Diane for this year’s show at Trans-Pecos, there were no such limitations and this performance was undoubtedly the longest Diane Cluck show we’ve ever seen.
At Pecos last month, Diane was relaxed, playful, in good spirits, and thoroughly engaging. The set clocks in well over 90 minutes and the show contains plenty of banter, accepted requests, give and take with the engaged crowd, and two encores. Early in the set, Diane played tribute to her friend David Berman with a heartfelt cover of The Silver Jews “People”.
The exciting news is that Diane Cluck has fully recorded a new album due for release soon, which will be her first proper l.p. release since 2014’s Boneset. This night saw the performance of several of the new songs, the quality of which bodes well for this much anticipated album. The balance of the show was a nice sampling of the best material of Diane’s distinguished career and ultimately there really wasn’t much more that we could have asked for. Diane’s Northeast tour is complete, but we eagerly await her return perhaps for an album release show!
This set was recorded directly from the soundboard at a fairly low volume. The boosting and balance of the levels introduced some background noise into the sound (minor hiss mostly) but the mix and the sound quality is still quite excellent. Enjoy!
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:35:42]
01 [hello]
02 The Smile
03 [banter – new york]
04 People [Silver Jews]
05 [banter – that’s a club]
06 The Power of Allowing and Receiving
07 Heartloose
08 [banter – new album]
09 Jenny
10 Love You This Much
11 Maybe a Bird
12 Content to Reform
13 [Brian Festa set]
14 We Love You
15 Grandma Say
16 Draw Me Out
17 Pull Out the Bad Bone
18 [banter – thanks]
19 How Long
20 Sara
21 Telepathic Desert
22 Learn to Lose
23 Not Afraid to Be Kind
24 [banter – mellow Friday]
25 Peace I Leave
26 [banter – request]
27 Sandy Ree
28 [banter – merch]
29 Wild Deer at Dawn
30 [encore break]
31 Reveler
32 The Turnaround Road
PLEASE SUPPORT Diane Cluck, visit her website, and purchase her official releases from her Store [HERE].
The tenth annual Woodsist Festival not only found Kevin Morby reprising his role as bassist in Woods during their set, but it highlighted Morby’s continued growth as an artist (and in popularity) since those days.
This stripped down set, featuring Morby with saxophonist Cheme Gastelum, focused on material from this year’s Oh My God, a record that, as its name suggests, focuses more heavily on spiritual and religious issues than Morby has in the past. Those songs were joined by “Harlem River” (of course), featuring Jarvis Taveniere, Meg Duffy and Jeremy Earl (on drums) to make it a full-band effort. But Morby saved his most impactful number for last: “Beautiful Strangers,” Morby’s 2016 tribute to the Pulse Nightclub shooting victims in Orlando, joined by Katie Crutchfield on vocals. It felt like a fitting tribute to people whose lives had ended at an event and a place not so dissimilar from this: one of community, positivity, and love.
I recorded this set with Evan’s soundboard feed, combined with a little bit of Schoeps MK5 microphones back at the board for ambiance. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!
Thanks to Kevin Morby for granting permission to post the set, and Woodsist for letting us record the festival.
I first saw Wilco 23 years ago, and first taped them live 22 years ago. Wilco was one of the first bands to be featured on NYCTaper in 2007 and have been consistently featured on this site over the years. By my count, we’ve featured Wilco 26 times on this site, from many local venues but also as far away at Virginia, Massachusetts, Cooperstown, and Connecticut. The simple reason for this consistent and voluminous documentation is that Wilco is perhaps the greatest American band of the last 25 years and their live performances are unfailingly superb. We’ve never had a bad time at a Wilco show, and very clearly have had some of our best live experiences thanks to them.
The release of any new Wilco album is a cause for excitement, but by all accounts (including ours) the latest release Ode To Joy is their strongest and most accomplished album in more than a decade. In times when the world is reeling out of control on a nearly daily basis, Wilco’s newest album is a thoughtful and measured approach to contemporary life. Given that Jeff Tweedy recently completed his autobiography and released two solo albums, this kind of contemplative Wilco release seems to have been the next step in this artist’s evolution.
After a newly two-year hiatus from touring, the entire Wilco band seems very much to have absorbed the energy at the center of the recent artistic output of its leader. The Wilco we saw on Sunday night, and by all accounts on every night of this tour, is a relaxed and confident band comfortable with themselves and each other. The result is that these shows have been not only celebrations of the return of the band to touring, but also kinetic performances of the new material mixed in with virtuoso versions of the classics. Of note at Brooklyn Steel was the absolutely stunning guitar solo by Nels Cline in “Impossible Germany”. Just check out the audience response at the close of the song and the extended ovation. What a moment. We were also quite pleased to see another spacey “Laminated Cat” and first album stand-out “Box Full of Letters”. But on this night, the showcase was on Ode To Joy and the setlist wisely spaced the songs throughout the set where we heard nine of the album’s eleven songs nearly in order of the album.
The Wilco tour continues with dates throughout the country for most of the rest of the year (dates here), culminating in the Wilco Sky Blue Sky Festival in Mexico in January.
I recorded this set with the Neumann hyper cards raised high directly centered behind the soundboard. The Stan Doty mix in this already-excellent sounding room was simply perfect and as a result we’re offering what I currently believe to be the best sounding Wilco recording I’ve ever captured. Enjoy!
Setlist: [Total Time 2:14:58] 01 Bright Leaves 02 Before Us 03 Company in My Back 04 War on War 05 One and a Half Stars 06 Handshake Drugs 07 You and I 08 Hummingbird 09 [banter – Radio City] 10 Someone to Lose 11 White Wooden Cross 12 Via Chicago 13 Laminated Cat 14 Random Name Generator 15 On and On and On 16 We Were Lucky 17 Love Is Everywhere (Beware) 18 [banter – Schmilco] 19 Impossible Germany 20 Box Full of Letters 21 [banter – Paul] 22 Everyone Hides 23 I’m Always in Love 24 Heavy Metal Drummer 25 I’m the Man Who Loves You 26 [non-encore break] 27 Hold Me Anyway 28 Misunderstood 29 [encore break] 30 An Empty Corner 31 Red-Eyed and Blue 32 I Got You 33 Outtasite 34 I’m a Wheel
PLEASE SUPPORT Wilco, visit their website, and purchase their Ode To Joy and their other releases from their website [HERE]
For the tenth annual Woodsist Festival, label founder and Woods vocalist/guitarist/founder Jeremy Earl brought the proceedings from the West Coast — where they enjoyed several successful years at Big Surprise — to upstate New York. Here in the tiny town of Accord, on the grounds of Arrowood Farm-Brewery, Woodsist showed what the purpose of a music festival ought to be.
It was: a cloudless day, not too warm; a gathering place where families with small kids, curious locals, and heads from near and far could converge to enjoy music, in an environment that welcomed all; sonically, a confluence of like-minded artists who knew each other well, who’ve cross-pollinated each other’s work in many cases and will do so again, and who shared many stages on this day. It was, in many ways, the perfect festival.
Woods has been one of the signature New York bands of this era since its inception, particularly so during this festival’s lifetime. They’re part of a rarified group whose shows are a virtual guarantee of something unique, that always leave you thinking about their music differently by the time you leave. It felt right, then, that this festival brought together the “2009 lineup,” including Kevin Morby and G Lucas Crane. Likewise, the setlist reflected the band’s best-known music from that time period, from “Rain On” and “Blood Dries Darker” to the classic one-two sequence of “jam songs,” “Bend Beyond” followed by “I Was Gone” (albeit, a short version this time).
Whatever its original intention, this ended up being more than a highlight set for this era of Woods. Several of these players were part of David Berman’s backing band for his final project, Purple Mountains, for which Jeremy Earl and Jarvis Taveniere were also producers. Berman’s suicide left a hole in music that can never be filled. For the many of us who had hoped to see him play music again (as was the plan with the Purple Mountains lineup), it was a generous and rare gift for the Woods crew to play two of his songs to close out the set. The first, “All My Happiness Is Gone” (with Little Wings‘ Kyle Field on vocals), was one of the darkest and most sobering songs on an LP full of them. Hearing it live for the first time in this context didn’t exactly change the song’s tone, but maybe it showed, in a small way, what could have been.
The set closed with Morby on vocals for “Random Rules,” from Silver Jews’ 1998 masterpiece American Water. It is, in my opinion, a perfect Berman song, a damaged plea to a former lover, whose series of brilliant couplets still make you crack a smile still on the thousandth listen, even with the melancholy at their core. For all the ache at its core, though, the song ends on a note of hope, however temporary: “Honey, we’ve got two lives to live tonight.” Despite the circumstances, it was a joy to hear Berman’s words sung from a stage again.
I recorded this set with a soundboard feed provided by Evan, and Schoeps MK5 microphones in the FOH tent. It’s an excellent capture of the day. I hope you enjoy it — and please support this festival in the coming years!
Thanks to Woods for allowing us to record and share the set. Other recordings from the festival will be made available for those artists who permit.
Tracks 01 Out of the Eye 02 Blood Dries Darker 03 Find Them Empty 04 Pushing Onlys 05 Rain On 06 To Clean 07 Bend Beyond 08 I Was Gone 09 Suffering Season> 10 Military Madness 11 [banter/break] 12 All My Happiness Is Gone [Purple Mountains]* 13 Random Rules [Silver Jews]$
Joined by Kevin Morby (bass) and G Lucas Crane (vox, other) all set
* w/ Kyle Field on vocals $ w/ Kevin Morby on vocals
Fresh off a longstanding stint as the bassist in Bardo Pond, Clint Takeda has emerged with a new solo project, Double Wig. This show at the annual Three Lobed / WXDU Annual Ritual of Summoning during Hopscotch was most folks’ first introduction to the project, and Clint made sure to keep us all enthralled with an improvisational piece powered by a number of effects that rendered the sound of Clint’s bass almost unrecognizable as one. These are still early days for Double Wig, with only a few performances or even mentions out there in the wild, so we are excited to see what Clint does with the project.
I recorded this set in the same manner as the other shows of the day, with Schoeps MK5c’s on stage, a soundboard feed, and MBHO mics and the Aerco preamp back at the board. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!
Ryan Jewell may just be the busiest man in rock and roll. Does he eat? Does he sleep? No one knows. Between drumming with Ryley Walker, Chris Forsyth, Olden Yolk, Elkhorn, and others he’s somehow found the time to play some guitar and sing in Mosses, a duo with Danette Bordenkircher on keys and “space machines.” They’ve got a new cassette out as part of Black Dirt Studio’s Microdose series. You can listen to one song on Bandcamp but you’ll need to track down a physical copy to hear the whole thing—totally a worthwhile effort.
I recorded this from our usual location at Nublu, which is fast becoming one of our favorite NYC venues. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!
May 2020 Update: Chris Forsyth has released a multitracked recording of “Techno Top” from this show on Bandcamp. Please do head over there to purchase!
For the final night of his Nublu residency, Chris Forsyth held nothing back. The Solar Motel Band (Peter Kerlin and Ryan Jewell) are joined by Daniel Carter, Brent Cordero, Tom Malach (set one), and Ryley Walker (set two) in what is most assuredly one of the greatest Forsyth shows I’ve ever seen. For the first set Forsyth and Malach share guitar lines over tracks from All Time Present and Dreaming in the Non-Dream while Carter trades off between saxophone and horns throughout and Cordero’s keyboard pulses. Kerlin and Jewell are ever-sturdy as the rhythm section. For the second set Walker joins in on second guitar for a forty-five minute jam that begins as “The First Ten Minutes of Cocksucker Blues” and ends in outer space.
I recorded this from our usual location at Nublu. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!
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