nyctaper Recordings

[photos taken for nyctaper by Kate Ehle – many more here]

As expected, John Darnielle pulled out all the stops for the final night of the Mountain Goats tour. At Bell House on Wednesday, obscure songs were plentiful, encores were many, and John even whipped out a first third-time-played cover song (Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town”). As the set opened with “Handball” from 1999’s Protein Source, the setlist went as far back as John’s second 7″ (“Alphabetizing”). The packed house was treated to a bunch of rare treats that also included four songs from personal favorite 2004’s We Shall All Be Healed. As opposed the the previous night’s show at Webster Hall, this setlist relied less on the material from the new album The Life Of The World To Come. John accepted the crowd’s adulation and returned three times for encores, assisted by both members of Final Fantasy, and concluded with “The Sign”, much of which was performed in the front row off-microphone.

We recorded this set from our standard location in this venue, in the elevated area next to the soundboard booth. We captured a four-track soundboard/audience mix of exceptional quality. Enjoy!

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

The Mountain Goats
2009-12-02
Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 16bit 44.1kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2009-12-04

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:43:04]
01 [introduction]
02 Hand Ball
03 Old College Try
04 Cotton
05 Isaiah 45:23
06 [banter]
07 Letter from Belgium
08 Deuteronomy 2:10
09 [banter]
10 Enoch 18:14
11 1 John 4:16
12 Alphabetizing
13 Woke Up New
14 Quetzalcoatl Eats Plums
15 The Boys Are Back In Town (Thin Lizzy)
16 There Will Be No Divorce
17 Hebrews 11:40
18 Quito
19 Romans 10:9
20 Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod
21 Song for Dennis Brown
22 This Year
23 [encore break]
24 Psalms 40:2
25 No Children
26 [second encore break]
27 The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton
28 Against Pollution
29 [third encore break]
30 The Sign (Ace of Base)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Mountain Goats, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase Mountain Goats official releases from their website.

[photos taken for nyctaper by Kate Ehle – many more here]

Last November, the Mountain Goats at Webster Hall was a tour-ending night and one of the best shows we saw all year. On Tuesday at a packed Webster, the Mountain Goats returned with a new album, a new band member (guitarist Perry Wright), but the same intensity. On tour in support of The Life Of The World To Come, the band performed nine of the twelve tracks from that album. But as with all Mountain Goats shows, there were rare tracks performed — this night’s treats included “Going to Bristol”, “Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?” and “Going to Port Washington”.

Our recording of this set would not have been possible without the work of Mountain Goats’ sound engineer Brandon. We set up inside the soundboard area with the R-44 and captured an excellent balanced feed from the board and also a recording with the Neumann microphones. The distance from the stage (200 feet) created a delay (4 milliseconds) between the two recordings which was remedied in post-production. The result is a recording of tremendous pro-quality sound. Enjoy!

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

The Mountain Goats
2009-12-01
Webster Hall
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 16bit 44.1kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2009-12-03

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:38:56]
01 [introduction]
02 1 Samuel 15:23
03 Old College Try
04 Psalms 40:2
05 Love Love Love
06 [banter]
07 Romans 10:9
08 [banter]
09 Genesis 3:23
10 Deuteronomy 2:10
11 [banter]
12 Enoch 18:14
13 Genesis 30:3
14 Going to Port Washington
15 Song for Dana Plato
16 From TG&Y
17 Going to Bristol
18 Hebrews 11:14
19 Song for Dennis Brown
20 Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?
21 Quito
22 See America Right
23 Against Pollution
24 [encore break]
25 Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace
26 This Year
27 No Children
28 [second encore break]
29 Going to Georgia

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Mountain Goats, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase Mountain Goats official releases from their website.

[photo courtesy of Jessica Amaya and Stereogum]

As a recent signing, Cambridge’s Pants Yell represents the “new blood” that has continued to drive the success of Slumberland Records. At the anniversary show, the band performed a tight ten-song set of intelligent twee-pop that matched well with the more veteran acts on the label. The set featured six songs from their debut SLR release Received Pronunciation. While the slightly off-kilter vocals and lyrics of Andrew Churchman are the focus, the deceptively simple guitar/bass/drums melodies are the ear-worms that make a lasting impression of Pants Yell upon the listener.

This set was recorded in the same location as the other sets from this show. However, we lost our soundboard feed for the last two songs of this set so the audience recording is the only source for those tracks. Nevertheless, this is another excellent capture. Enjoy!

Pants Yell return to NYC to play Bruar Falls in Brooklyn this coming Saturday, December 5.

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Pants Yell
2009-11-14
Slumberland Records 20th Anniversary Concert
Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 16bit 44.1kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2009-11-29

Setlist: [scan of band’s written list Thanks Mike!]
[Total Time 29:12]
01 Berlin
02 Cold Hands
03 Rue de la Paix
04 [broken string]
05 Stop Music
06 Someone Loves You
07 Not Wrong
08 Shoreham Kent
09 Marble Staircase
10 To Take
11 Two French Sisters

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Pants Yell, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their new album Received Pronunciation from the Slumberland Records website [here].

[photo courtesy of Jessica Amaya and Stereogum]

Frankie Rose‘s set for the Slumberland Anniversary show at Bell House two weeks ago was short and to the point. Frankie solo music continues along the same vein as her two prior bands, Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts — that is to say its influenced by the 60’s garage sound. However, the all-female Frankie and the Outs present a more uniformed stage presence and have a decidedly Ronnie Spector sound. This was most evident in the re-arranged “Where Do You Run To”, a song Frankie wrote and originally recorded with the Vivian Girls, and in the new Slumberland single “Thee Only One”. At five songs and seventeen minutes, the set was a tease but certainly a nice taste of good things to come from this compelling artist.

We recorded this set from the same spot as previous sets from this concert. The sound quality on this recording has a somewhat better mix than the others and we tweaked a little EQ to maximize the sound quality, which is now superb. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Frankie Rose and the Outs
2009-11-14
Slumberland Records 20th Anniversary Concert
Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 16bit 44.1kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2009-11-28

Setlist:
[Total Time 17:10]
01 Save Me
02 Little Brown Hair
03 Where Do You Run To?
04 Thee Only One
05 Don’t Tread

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Frankie Rose, visit her MySpace page, and purchase her new single “Thee Only One” from the Slumberland Records website [here].

[photo by Andrzej Pilarczyk for Nippertown]

The chronicles of the Meat Puppets took another twist this September when reunion-era drummer Ted Marcus was replaced by 2000-era (first reunion) drummer Shandon Sahm. We spoke briefly with Ted up on the balcony at Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday and learned of the amicable split — so friendly that Ted actually came on stage and drummed for the first two encores. If Ted’s meticulous percussion work kept the band focused and precise during the first three years of the current reunion, Sahm’s work on Wednesday was looser and opened up the band for more improvisation. In fact, Curt Kirkwood’s impressive guitar was on display all night — he took extended solos on virtually every song. Kris joined in the fun, booming and slapping his bass with abandon. The setlist was quite well spaced among the entire Meat Puppets catalog old and new. Three songs from the latest release Sewn Together blended well with the earliest songs from 1984’s Meat Puppets II. The surprise of the night was a faithful cover of the late Freddy Fender’s “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights”, a song Freddy last performed in NYC on this very stage with Los Super Seven in 1998 (I was there).

This set was recorded from our usual location at Bowery on the balcony rail next to the soundboard. The sound in the venue was outstanding and this capture is quite excellent. Enjoy!

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

Meat Puppets
2009-11-25
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Four-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Balcony Rail
Next to the Soundboard Booth

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2009-11-26

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:24:47]
01 Plateau
02 Comin’ Down
03 Touchdown King
04 Station
05 Go To Your Head
06 Oh, Me
07 Up On The Sun
08 Sam
09 The Monkey And The Snake
10 Light
11 Wasted Days and Wasted Nights (Freddy Fender)
12 I’m A Mindless Idiot
13 Backwater
14 Lake Of Fire
15 [encore break]
16 Rotten Shame*
17 Lost*
18 Attacked by Monsters
*Ted Marcus on Drums

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Meat Puppets, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their new release Sewn Together directly from their page [HERE].

[photo by thekittykat]

NYCTaper readers who have followed this site since the beginning may recall the difficulties that I had two and half years ago at a Sonic Youth concert in Brooklyn, my subsequent ill-conceived rant, the blow up that followed, and finally my apology. The end result was that I learned a very valuable lesson about misdirected blame. As I was very recently again mistreated by LiveNation security (Yo La Tengo at Roseland), its clear to me that some things will never change. Ultimately, I feel the site has been enriched by my vow to disregard the distractions and difficulties of the peripheral issues like concert security and venue politics, and to focus all the positive energy on the artists and their music.

This year for their brief NYC “tour”, Sonic Youth chose to book the shows with the excellent Bowery Presents. The end result was better venues, a better “vibe” at the shows, and ultimately a significantly superior concert experience for the fans. If Terminal 5 was the “big” show, the two nights at Music Hall were clearly the “intimate” shows. As it had been more that ten years since we had seen Sonic Youth at a venue of this small size (three nights at Irving Plaza in 1998), when we entered Music Hall on Tuesday night there was a feeling of walking back in time. The set consisted primarily of material from the latest album The Eternal, as the band performed again eleven of the album’s thirteen tracks. The highlights of the new material included Thurston’s relaxed and melodic seven minute “Anti-Orgasm” and the lengthy set-closing “Massage the History” which featured excellent vocal work from Kim. The acknowledgement of the band’s great history were contained in the two sets of encores and included two classic EVOL tracks and a wild “Silver Rocket” closer.

We recorded this set from the perfect location in this venue, the front left corner of the soundboard booth. As the concert was mixed to perfection by Sonic Youth soundman Aaron Mullen, this capture is perhaps one of the best recordings we have ever offered on this site. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Sonic Youth
2009-11-24
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Four-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Soundboard Booth

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2009-11-25

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:33:42]
01 Sacred Trickster
02 No Way
03 Calming the Snake
04 Hey Joni
05 Malibu Gas Station
06 Anti-Orgasm
07 Poison Arrow
08 Walkin Blue
09 Catholic Block
10 Antenna
11 Leaky Lifeboat
12 Massage the History
13 [encore break]
14 Tom Violence
15 Schizophrenia
16 What We Know
17 [second encore break]
18 Shadow of a Doubt
19 Silver Rocket

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Sonic Youth, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the Store at their website [here].

[photo courtesy of Ryan Muir]

Two nights after seeing the Feelies perform one of the early 80’s legendary albums start to finish, we saw Pixies perform one of the late 80’s greatest albums in similar fashion. While the Pixies have been accused in some circles of coasting on reputation, it was clear from our upfront position at Monday night’s packed show that the band had a ton of fun performing Doolittle in its entirety. Opening the set with a four “b-sides”, as Kim narrated, the band then worked its way through the album the old-fashioned way — side one and side two. While the performance was quite faithful to the record, the live version is more animated and fast-paced. Indeed, the set proper ended in less than hour. Pixies returned however for two sets of encores, including more b-sides and finished the night with two of their best known “non-Doolittle” songs.

This show is available as a “DOOLITTLE LIVE” recording through the Pixies website [HERE].

There is an alternative audience recording available HERE for those who have already purchased the “Doolittle Live” recording from the Pixies

Pixies
2009-11-23
Hammerstein Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:23:13]
01 [introduction]
02 Dancing The Manta Ray
03 Weird At My School
04 Bailey’s Walk
05 Manta Ray
06 Debaser
07 Tame
08 Wave of Mutilation
09 I Bleed
10 Here Comes Your Man
11 Dead
12 Monkey Gone to Heaven
13 Mr. Grieves
14 Crackity Jones
15 La La Love You
16 No. 13 Baby
17 There Goes My Gun
18 Hey
19 Silver
20 Gouge Away
21 [encore break]
22 Slow Wave of Mutilation
23 Into the White
24 [second encore break]
25 Isla De Encanta
26 Nimrod’s Son
27 Where is My Mind
28 Gigantic

PLEASE SUPPORT Pixies, visit their website, and purchase the Minotaur box set directly from AINR website [here] or follow the Stuff link at I Love Pixies [here].

[photo courtesy of Emily Norton]

As the band and venue perhaps most interrelated in rock music annals, the Feelies returned to Maxwell’s last night to perform a complete start to finish set of the album for which they are best known — 1980’s seminal Crazy Rhythms. The night brought out the old fans, and few local luminaries — we spotted Glenn Morrow, owner of Bar/None Records, the label that reissued Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth this Fall. Before proceeding through the album the Feelies performed an intense twelve-song first set which featured expert musicianship and quite a bit of animated play from Glenn Mercer. Opening with a letter-perfect VU’s “Sunday Morning”, the set was notable for some new songs, including “Bluer Skies” which debuted at the Whitney this Summer and “Time is Right” which debuted at Maxwell’s last Summer. Following the Crazy Rhythms set, the band returned for five encores including a rare “Last Roundup” and another run through the REM classic “Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)”.

I recorded this set from the perfect location in this venue and utilized the four microphone rig. The sound quality in the venue, mixed by long-time Feelies FOH Andy, was quite excellent and the four microphones captured a recording of incredible depth. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

The Feelies
2009-11-21
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Front and Center of Soundboard

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2009-11-22

Setlist:
Set 1:
[Total Time 45:44]
01 Sunday Morning (Velvet Underground)
02 Undertow
03 Bluer Skies
04 Nobody Knows
05 High Road
06 Invitation
07 On the Roof
08 Let’s Go
09 For Now
10 Deep Fascination
11 Higher Ground
12 Time is Right

Set 2:
[Total Time 58:42]
01 The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness
02 Fa Ce-La
03 Loveless Love
04 Forces at Work
05 Original Love
06 Everybody’s Got Something To Hide (Except Me and My Monkey) (Beatles)
07 Moscow Nights
08 Raised Eyebrows
09 Crazy Rhythms
10 [encore break]
11 Away
12 The Last Roundup
13 Doin’ It Again
14 [second encore break]
15 Carnival of Sorts (R.E.M.)
16 I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms (Modern Lovers)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Feelies, visit their MySpace page, and purchase the reissues of Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth directly from the Bar None website [HERE].

[photo courtesy of l_c_m_tt_]

Acidjack reports:
“The cliche about Sonic Youth as New York’s modern rock “elder statesmen” is hard to avoid. Almost no band remains vital for 30 years – not only continuing to perform music (which many do), but making new music, and new good music. These days a pretty good buzz band can consider themselves lucky if somebody cares 9 months later. But Sonic Youth have defied all logic. They may be the only band that can, in a year in which they appeared on the show “Gossip Girl” and played venues around the country that were as big or bigger than Terminal 5, retain their unquestionable status as the kings of underground cool.

In the end Sonic Youth’s continued dominance is no mystery at all. The music, quite simply, is just that good, and this show drove that home again and again, as the band played almost the entirety of this year’s The Eternal (11 out of the 13 songs) plus several big numbers from their 80s albums (though oddly, almost none of the next-most-recent albums or their 1990s material).

This was my debut outing with my new DPA 4021 microphones, and it was a pretty stressful day thanks to my recorder dying the day before, and Terminal 5 being a usual Saturday “amateur night” environment of drunk people and people who didn’t seem to care much about the band. Thanks to Dan for the loaner deck and Johnny for blocking for me. And of course, to Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. and their management for putting on a top-notch performance and allowing us to record. Enjoy!”

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Sonic Youth
2009-11-21
Terminal 5
New York, NY USA

An ACIDJACK master recording

Recorded and produced by acidjack
Hosted at nyctaper.com

Equipment: DPA 4021>Marantz PMD660 (Oade Concert Mod) (16/44.1)
Position: 12′ up, on stand, right side of SBD cage, DIN
Mastering: WAV>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify channels)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Intro
02 No Way
03 Sacred Trickster
04 Calming the Snake
05 Stereo Sanctity
06 Anti-Orgasm
07 Walkin Blue
08 Shadow of A Doubt
09 Antenna
10 crowd
11 Malibu Gas Station
12 crowd
13 Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)
14 Poison Arrow
15 crowd
16 Silver Rocket
17 crowd
18 Massage the History
19 crowd
20 The Sprawl
21 Cross the Breeze
22 encore break
23 What We Know
24 White Cross

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Sonic Youth, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the Store at their website [here].