nyctaper Recordings

[photo courtesy of Matt Bologna]

It has not been since our very first Bjorkestra experience at the late great Tonic club, that we’ve experienced this orchestra in a real jazz club. Monday night at Jazz Standard, Travis Sullivan and his superb band of musicians celebrated the release of their new CD Enjoy on Koch Records. We were invited to attend and record the late show. Bjorkestra delivered a stunning display of both orchestral interplay and individual improvisation within the structure of Travis’ unique arrangements of Bjork’s material.

Our close proximity to the stage gave us a special view of the interplay between the musicians and the pleasure that each player seemed to derive from the performance. Our recording reflects some of that joy, as the humor and banter is evident. Our belief in the strength of the performance we had just experienced was confirmed when Travis remarked to us after the show about the power of the set.

This is an outstanding clear recording, as our position gave us a direct line to the band. Much of the amplification of sound on the recording is directly from the instruments themselves. We mixed in a small amount of vocals from the soundboard feed to compensate for the volume of the instruments on stage. Minor quibbles exist for the clinking and clanking of food plates in this dinner club, and some balancing that was necessary in the first minute of the recording. Otherwise, its a tremendous listen. Enjoy, indeed!

There are three older Bjorkestra recordings archived on nyctaper (here) (here) and (here).

Download and stream the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/Bjorkestra2008-02-25.matrix

Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra
2008-02-25
Late Show
Jazz Standard
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Audience/Soundboard Matrix

Soundboard + Upfront Neumann KM-150s > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Many thanks to Travis for permission to record.

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2008-02-26

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:09:22]
01 Joga
02 Army of Me
03 Cocoon
04 Pluto
05 All is Full of Love
06 [band introductions/banter]
07 Human Behavior
08 Its Oh So Quiet

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra, visit their website, and purchase Enjoy directly from Bjorkestra or the Koch label.

For our California readers, Bjorkestra will be on tour in the following places next month:

Date City Venue
Wed 03/05/08 Santa Cruz, CA Moe’s Alley
Thu 03/06/08 San Francisco, CA Yerba Buena Center For The Arts
Fri 03/07/08 Sacramento, CA Harlow’s Night Club
Sun 03/09/08 Los Angeles, CA Safari Sam’s
Tue 03/11/08 Santa Barbara, CA Soho Restaurant & Music Club
Wed 03/12/08 San Diego, CA Anthology

[photo courtesy of Jason Bergman Photography]

There has been so much written about Justin Vernon’s outstanding Bon Iver project and the story behind For Emma, Forever Ago, that I have no intent to repeat. Last night, Justin provided a live glimpse into what makes these basic songs so compelling — his ability to capture the simple aspects of life with poignant humor and charm, and present it within a basic band structure.

This week, Emma was released on the Jagjaguwar label, and one would expect the beginning of the blogger backlash. This might be the fate of an artist whose hype exceeds the talent, but Bon Iver heartily deserves the last six months of praise. If a live performance is the ultimate expression of a musician’s artistic value, then Glasslands was the proof positive that Justin is the real deal. He handled the huge crowd, some technical problems, and the weight of expectations with grace and fortitude.

At nyctaper, we consider ourselves quite fortunate to see live performances of such quality. We are doubled blessed when the artist and the management afford us authorization and guest list access. Bon Iver gave us all three, and we offer much thanks for this courtesy, and as well we thank the staff of Glasslands.

We placed our microphones in the same location as our last Glasslands recordings (Avey Tare/Deakin/Kria [here] and Rings [here]), and in order to avoid the persistent crowd chatter and bar noise, we brought along hyper uni-directional microphones. We were also given access to the main mix of the soundboard to capture a “matrix” recording. Unfortunately, we didn’t trust our room equipment enough, and relied a bit too heavily on the board mix. As a result, the mix is not properly balanced, and there is quite a bit more kick-drum in the mix particularly during louder moments. We do believe this is still an excellent recording, but offer it to our readers with the knowledge that should have done better. Enjoy!

Black Mountain was also recorded and will be offered in the coming days.

Download and stream the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/BonIver2008-02-2.matrix

Bon Iver
2008-02-23
Glasslands Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard/Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Front of Board Neumann KM-150s > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, downsample) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-02-24

Setlist:
[total time 37:33]
01 [introduction]
02 Flume
03 Lump Sum
04 [banter]
05 The Wolves (Act I and II)
06 Blindsided
07 For Emma

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Bon Iver, visit his myspace page, and purchase Emma directly from the label.

[photo credit]

Calvin Johnson made a rare but very welcome NYC appearance on Sunday afternoon at the intimate Bowery Poetry Club. At a venue of this nature, Calvin’s sublime personality and dry humor were on intimate display and his songwriting gifts were evident. At the merch table before and after the show he greeted and charmed all comers, and offered a full array of his eclectic catalog. The one-hour performance contained highlights from his solo records, several new numbers, and one Beat Happening song.

The attempt to capture a recording of this event proved extremely difficult. We set up about 30 feet from the stage which was a mistake — we needed to be much closer.  Calvin performed with one microphone in the middle of the stage, and his frequent movements created fluctuations in volume.  Additionally, the quiet of the music was often interrupted by loud sounds from the bar, the audience, and a loud rotating fan. Fortunately, the fan was shut off at Calvin’s request twelve minutes into the show.

As a result, the raw audience recording of this concert was nearly unlistenable. We were extremely fortunate to have met with punkcast.com after the show, and arranged to combine punkcast’s mono soundboard feed with our audience recording. After many hours with the files in Soundforge, we mixed the audience and soundboard sources and edited many of the flaws of the recording. Ultimately, what is offered here is far from perfect, but is a significant improvement from the initial recording. We offer many thanks to punkcast for his generosity, and of course many thanks to Calvin and Chad from dubnarcotic.org for permission to record.

Download and stream the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/CalvinJohnson2008-02-17

Calvin Johnson
2008-02-17
Bowery Poetry Club
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard > mono feed > MD + Front of Board Audience Master (30 Feet from Stage)
DPA 4021s (6 ft Stand) > Apogee Mini-Me > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 24bit 48kHz wav files
Matrix Mix:
Soundforge (resample, level adjustments, sync + mix audio sources) > 16bit 44.1kHz wav file > CDWave > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Soundboard Recorded by punkcast
punkcast.com
Audience Recorded by nyctaper
Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[total time 1:02:05]
01 When You Are Mine
02 Moaning
03 [banter]
04 Rabbit Blood
05 Hurrying on to Something
06 Sitting Alone At The Movies
07 I’m Down
08 Your Eyes
09 Can I Ask You Something
10 Drive Me Good and Crazy
11 [banter]
12 Apple to the Core
13 Ride With Me
14 [banter]
15 Wrap Me in Cotton

If you email nyctaper to download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT this outstanding artist and visit Calvin’s website, visit the amazing K Records site, and purchase Calvin Johnson’s official releases (here).

You don’t have to be clairvoyant to predict the obvious. In two or three years I’m fairly certain that if we are still around recording and reviewing shows, I will write a review of The Antlers sold-out show at Music Hall or Irving Plaza or Roseland in support of their brilliant new album on Touch and Go or Thrill Jockey or Barsuk records. And in that review I’ll reminisce about last night’s show at Pianos where approximately 50 people were treated to incredible live renditions of the songs from In The Attic Of The Universe. The live Antlers are a quartet anchored by Peter Silberman’s guitar and vocals, with the powerful drums of Michael Lerner, thundering bass and harmonies by Justin Stivers, and mixed instrumental accompaniment (banjo, trumpet and assorted percussion) by Darby Cicci. When Darby began to play the banjo with a bow, I thought of Jonsi from Sigur Ros, and immediately the opening song (“In the Attic”) began in the vein of Takk, and built to a crescendo where the quartet sounded like an orchestra full of sound and melodic fury. The balance of the all-too-short set was a similar mix of harmonies, hooks and superb songcraft.

This was our second recording at Pianos (we recorded the Meat Puppets in October here), and each time was an excellent experience. We set up directly in front of the soundboard with a clear view towards both stacks of the PA speakers. The sound quality in this small room is outstanding, and we are extremely pleased with the results. Many thanks to Peter for permission to record!

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

The Antlers
2008-02-08
Pianos
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded with Microphone Stand 20 feet from Stage

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (set fades, level adjustment, resampling to 16/44.1) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2008-02-09

Setlist:
[total time 36:26]
01 In The Attic
02 On The Roof
03 East River Berlin Wall
04 Uprooted
05 When You Sleep
06 The Universe Is Going To Catch You
07 Stairs To The Attic

If you download this recording PLEASE SUPPORT this terrific band and visit their website. You can purchase In The Attic Of The Universe directly from Fall Records here.

[photo credit]

Thursday night was the fifth and final night of Marco Benevento’s January residency at Sullivan Hall, and it was a party in more ways than one. The night was a CD release party for Marco’s new CD Invisible Baby, and it featured the twice-performed “Real Morning Party” along with a premiere of the video for the song in between sets. Benevento was joined by the superb bassist Reed Mathis (whose band Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is featured on nyctaper here), and drummer Andrew Barr (from The Slip). The last half of the second set also featured guitarist Brad Barr (also from The Slip). The band performed two long sets of a superb mix of jazz, prog, jam, rock and pop, all anchored by the unique keyboard and effects of Marco.

The recently upgraded Sullivan Hall continues to be extremely friendly to tapers, and as a result we arrived early and secured a safe position in the upper seating area. While we were not centered, the unimpeded access to the left stack gave us a clear signal, although the crowd continued to be quite chatty. Overall, we are pleased with the results, and extremely happy to have captured this excellent show in its entirety. Enjoy!

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

Marco Benevento
2008-01-31
Sullivan Hall
New York NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Upfront Table Area
15 Feet from Left PA Stack

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge 8.0 (set fades, slight level boost, resample 16/44) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Band:
Marco Benevento: piano, keyboards, effects
Reed Mathis: bass guitar
Andrew Barr: drums
Brad Barr: guitar on Set 2 tracks 05 through 09

Recorded and Produced
nyctaper
nyctaper@nyctaper.com

Set 1
[total time 54:22]
01 Bus Ride
02 Record Book
03 The Real Morning Party
04 Twin Killers (Deerhoof)
05 Golden (My Morning Jacket)
06 Atari
07 Ruby
08 Are You The Favorite Person of Anybody?

Set 2
[total time 1:42:26]
01 Fearless (Pink Floyd)
02 If You Keep Asking Me
03 You Must Be A Lion
04 The Real Morning Party
05 Nobody Does It Better (Carly Simon)
06 Jam
07 Mephisto
08 She’s Not There (Zombies)

If you download this recording, Please SUPPORT Marco Benevento and visit his website, where you can pre-order his brand new CD Invisible Baby and purchase all of his official releases (here).

My first introduction to the music of Rings was at this very concert. The CD release party for their new disc Black Habit featured a performance by the Animal Collective members that brought a large crowd to this small space. Those people who came to see Rings and those wise enough to stay for their set were treated to a performance of truly inspired and original music by this trio of collaborative artists.

Rings were “First Nation” until Nina Mehta and Kate Rosko were joined by Abby Portner (sister of Animal Collective’s Dave Portner aka Avey Tare). The new album was recorded with Kria Brekkan, and certainly there are echoes of Kria influence in the music, along with a patchwork of pop, rock, ambient, and folk. As the recording offered below attests, the result is sublime and compelling music. Enjoy!

Many thanks to Nina and Rings for approval of this recording.

Download and stream the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/Rings2008-01-20

Rings
2008-01-20
Glasslands Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Audience Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Board
20 Feet from PA

DPA 4021s (7 ft Stand) > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 16bit 44.1kHz wav > Soundforge (level adjustments, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries)> flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-01-22

Setlist:
[Total time 35:41]
01 mom dance/animal mourning
02 is he handsome
03 you remind me/teepee
04 scape aside

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Rings, visit their mySpace page, and purchase their CD through the Paw Tracks website.

Rings tour visits the following venues in the next several weeks. See them live!
Jan 31 2008 8:00P Emos Jr. w/White Williams Austin, Texas
Feb 1 2008 8:00P Hailey’s w/ White Williams Denton, Texas
Feb 2 2008 8:00P Walters on Washington w/ White Williams Houston, Texas
Feb 4 2008 8:00P Club Downunder w/ White Williams Tallahassee, Florida
Feb 5 2008 8:00P Drunken Unicorn w/ White Williams Atlanta, Georgia
Feb 6 2008 10:00 Milestone w/ White Williams, Missing Children Charlotte, NC
Feb 7 2008 8:00P Local 506 w/ White Williams and Ecstatic Sunshine Chapel Hill, NC
Feb 8 2008 8:00P Ottobar w/ White Williams and Ecstatic Sunshine Baltimore, MD
Feb 9 2008 8:00P Johnny Brendas w/ White Williams and Ecstatic Sunshine Philly, PA
Feb 10 2008 8:00 Studio B w/ White Williams and Ecstatic Sunshine Brooklyn, NY

In an art and performance space in the still-industrial section of Williamsburg, half of Animal Collective joined by Kria Brekkan performed an as-yet-unnamed piece before an intimate crowd. The official announcement of this gig was within the last week, and the event was a celebration of the new CD release by Rings, a band who features Avey’s sister and whose album was recorded with Kria Brekkan.

Deakin posted about this piece on the Collected Animals forum this morning. The project is a 30 minute piece in four parts featuring Deakin on sampler and guitar, Avey on effects, vocals, and guitar and Kria on accordian and effects. The flac available for download has not been tracked, it remains one piece.

The Rings set was also recorded and will be posted pending artist approval (update: band approved — coming soon)

nyctaper recordings of Animal Collective are still available for download (here) and (here), as well as the recording of Kria Brekkan (here).

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

Avey Tare, Deakin & Kria Brekkan
2008-01-20
Glasslands Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Audience Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Board
20 Feet from PA

DPA 4021s (7 ft Stand) > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 16bit 44.1kHz wav > Soundforge (level adjustments, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries)> flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-01-21

Setlist:
01 Improvisation

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Animal Collective and their side projects. Visit their web page and the Paw Tracks web page and buy their official releases.

[photo credit]

One year ago to the day, we last saw Mission of Burma in New York at Irving Plaza. Our recording of that show is available at archive.org (here). It became clear at that show that Mission of Burma was not just another 80’s legend reforming to capture past magic. This is a working band whose recent output is as compelling as its classic material. Last night, the newer material dominated the setlist and powered an ear-shattering blast of sonic post-punk by its virtual inventors.

While the 2007 appearance featured bassist Clint Conley in a prominent role, this 2008 show was certainly Roger Miller’s show. His crunchy guitar playing was further compelled by the placement of his huge Marshall amp at the very front of the stage as a bonus sonic burst. In reality, the amp placement, a plexiglass buffer around the drums, and ear guards are used to protect Roger from further exacerbating his tinnitus. At the end of the standard set, the band returned for four encores, and were again called out for a fifth encore, which featured the tape-loop wizard Bob Weston on bass.

This recording is fortunately free of any distortion that might have occurred as a result of the extreme volume of this concert. I used the -20db pad in the Marantz (as I do for all loud concerts) and the DPA microphones were able to capture without overloading. In a way, the volume contributes to the quality of this recording by eliminating any ambient sounds (chatting, clapping, and other crowd noise) that normally might hamper a recording. We are quite pleased with the quality. Enjoy!

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

Mission Of Burma
2008-01-19
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Soundboard
Dead Center 30 Feet from PA

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level boost, slight eq) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-01-20

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:24:14]
01 1001 Pleasant Dreams
02 Let Yourself Go
03 2wice
04 Donna Sumeria
05 Buckets Of Flowers, Porno Mags
06 13
07 Man in Decline
08 So Fuck It
09 Forget Yourself
10 Dirt
11 Good Cheer
12 Careening With Conviction
13 Spider’s Web
14 Nancy Reagan’s Head
15 [encore break]
16 Trem Two
17 Max Ernst
18 Academy Fight Song
19 Looking at You
20 [second encore break]
21 Good, Not Great

If you download this recording PLEASE SUPPORT Mission of Burma and visit their website, and purchase their official releases (here) from Mission of Burma directly.

In March, their entire back catalog from Ace of Hearts will be available in re-issue from Matador Records.

[photo by Robert Loerzel]

In the spirit of the primary season, the Fiery Furnaces are accepting ballots from the fans attending their Winter tour. The songs with the most votes are performed in order at the end of the standard set. At Maxwell’s last night, the ballots were cast and the fans were the winners, as we were treated to rare numbers not performed in years. When I spoke to Matt after the show, he said that he and Eleanor had gone back and re-learned all of the old numbers in anticipation of any request.

So we braved the horrendous weather to see our favorite band at our favorite venue and we were not disappointed. Although it was the first night of the tour, the Furnaces were in fine form and worked flawlessly through a rearranged setlist before counting the ballots. Despite the surprise winners (Eleanor: “I told Matt, no one is going to request that”), the request numbers were performed in their entirety. We even got to hear Matt sing for the first time in a couple of years.

The recording offered here is another first for this site. We mixed our DPA microphones (positioned in the ideal location) with a feed from the soundboard in a “matrix” mix through the Edirol UA-5 which permits four channels of input. We believe that in the past our small club recordings of the Furnaces were perhaps too drum heavy, and the board feed permitted us to correctly mix the vocals and keyboards with the rhythm section. This is the best possible recording of this band, and we are extremely pleased with the results. Many thanks to Matt for his continued permission to record and his support of this site, and of course to Maxwell’s and its talented sound crew. Enjoy!

Download and Stream the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/FieryFurnaces2008-01-17

Fiery Furnaces
2008-01-17
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard/Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Front of Board DPA 4021 > Edirol UA-5 (Oade Digimod) > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 > 16bit 44.1kHz wav file > Soundforge (set fades, slight level boost, no EQ) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-01-18

Setlist:
[total time 1:12:02]
Democ-rock Set:
01 Navy Nurse
02 Japanese Slippers
03 The Garfield El
04 A Candymaker’s Knife in My Handbag
05 Forty-Eight Twenty-Three Twenty-Second Street
06 Seven Silver Curses
07 Slavin’ Away
08 Duplexes of the Dead
09 Automatic Husband
10 Ex-Guru
11 Blueberry Boat
12 Right By Conquest
13 Mandolin and Maracas
14 Waiting to Know You
15 Philadelphia Grand Jury
16 Clear Signal From Cairo
Roll the Dice Set:
17 Two Fat Feet
18 Chief Inspector Blancheflower
19 Benton Harbor Blues
20 Paw Paw Tree
21 Asthma Attack

If you download this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Fiery Furnaces visit their website, and purchase their official releases including their brilliant new album Widow City.

The Fiery Furnaces Winter Tour continues:
1/18 South Burlington, VT / Higher Ground / All Ages / $12
1/19 Portland, ME / Space Gallery / 18+ / $12
1/21 Rochester, NY / The Bug Jar / 18+ / $12
1/22 Buffalo, NY / The Tralf / All Ages / $12
1/23 State College, PA / Lulu’s / All Ages / $12
1/24 Columbus, OH / The Basement / All Ages / $12
1/25 Baltimore, MD / Ottobar / All Ages / $12
1/26 Charlottesville, VA / Satellite Ballroom / All Ages / $15
1/27 Washington, DC / 9:30 Club / All Ages / $15 w/ Super Furry Animals
1/29 Carrboro, NC / Cat’s Cradle / All Ages / $15 w/ Super Furry Animals
1/30 Atlanta, GA / Variety Playhouse / All Ages / $15 w/ Super Furry Animals
1/31 New Orleans, LA / The Republic / 18+ / $15 w/ Super Furry Animals
FEBRUARY
2/1 Dallas, TX / Granada Theater / All Ages / $15 w/ Super Furry Animals
2/2 Houston, TX / The Proletariat / All Ages / $12
2/4 Memphis, TN / Hi-Tone Cafe / 18+ / $10
2/5 Oxford, MS / Proud Larry’s / 18+ / $10
2/6 Nashville, TN / Exit/In / 18+ / $14
2/7 Birmingham, AL / Bottletree / 18+
2/8 Asheville, NC / Grey Eagle Tavern / $13
2/9 Knoxville, TN / Pilot Light / 18+