nyctaper Recordings

concert discussion and free flac downloads

Ty Segall & the Muggers: February 27, 2016 Webster Hall

March 3, 2016
By

Ty at Webster 2016 Will Oliver
[photo courtesy of Will Oliver at We All Want Someone]

Ty Segall has been all over this site for years, and the reason we keep coming back to his shows is the same reason that he sold out these two nights at Webster Hall last weekend: He’s one of the most exciting live acts around. Here with his latest band, the Muggers, Ty delivered a powerhouse 90-minute set that covered the entirety of the new Emotional Mugger album before delving into some of his best-loved jams from the past few years.

Compared to some of the more intimate Ty shows we’ve covered in the past, this first of the two Webster performances had all the ridiculousness and bombast of a Big Rock Show, with Segall hitting the stage in a mask to the tune of a baby crying. The first few songs felt both true to his garage roots and ridiculously over the top, with Segall barking his lyrics into the microphone, hurling himself into the crowd, and working overtime to try to turn the big room into some kind of facsimile of, say, Death By Audio circa 2012. As time went on though — particular into the lengthy jamming on “Feel” — what stood out most was the quality of the Muggers, who managed to undergird the shambolic moments with accomplished playing. That’s part of the great paradox and joy of Ty Segall, too — you’ve got a prolific performer with a great voice and pop sensibility, but who isn’t afraid to go wild, to get dirty, and to have fun. If you saw any of the New York acoustic shows in 2015 (almost all of which we covered), then you know what I mean. Most garage-rock singers would be lost playing acoustically on a stool — not only would their uneven skills be exposed, but the songs wouldn’t work without the fuzz. Segall doesn’t have that problem. His songs move crowds in any context. The show closed out with a stretched-out, saxophoned-up “The Singer,” both a tribute to the man himself, and his ability to capture a crowd no matter how big the tent.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed and Schoeps MK41V supercardiod microphones. Even though we weren’t in a DIY venue, the sound bears many of those hallmarks: loud, in your face, and raw. The recording is true to that. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [FLAC/MP3]

Stream the complete show:

Ty Segall & the Muggers
2016-02-27
Webster Hall
New York, NY USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Ty’s FOH) + Schoeps MK41V (at SBD, DFC, PAS)>>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, image)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Squealer
02 Californian Hills
03 Emotional Mugger/Leopard Priestess
04 Breakfast Eggs
05 Diversion
06 Baby Big Man (I Want A Mommy)
07 [jamming]
08 Mandy Cream
09 Candy Sam
10 Squealer Two
11 The Magazine
12 Thank God For Sinners
13 They Told Me Too
14 You’re the Doctor
15 [banter1]
16 Spiders
17 Manipulator
18 Feel
19 [encore break]
20 Finger
21 The Feels
22 The Singer

Visit Ty Segall on the web, and buy Emotional Mugger from Drag City here.

Bambara: February 25, 2016 Palisades

March 2, 2016
By

IMG_1654

The Brooklyn post-punk band Bambara knows how to make noise. This show at Palisades, to celebrate the forthcoming release of their album, Swarm, this Friday (March 4), proved what those who’ve been paying attention already knew — that this band has the charisma, and the delivery, to take them beyond Bushwick DIY stages. They’ve already had a taste of that, of course, having toured with site favorites METZ and A Place to Bury Strangers, among others. But Swarm, the band’s first professionally-recorded effort, shows this band’s possibilities. It’s a gloomy, late-night sort of effort, sustained by its rhythmic appeal and the band’s dead-on delivery. In the live setting, they don’t hold back, with frontman Reid Bateh anchoring the effort with his considerable onstage charisma while his brother Blaze hammers the drums along to William Brookshire’s bass. This show covered some of the standout tracks on Swarm, as well as favorites from the band’s debut, Dreamviolence. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to see the band around NYC in the near future, with upcoming gigs at Berlin and Saint Vitus.

I made this recording with Schoeps MK22 open cardiod microphones at the stage lip plus a soundboard feed from Palisades FOH Leeor. While the sound is a little off balance (a tad heavy on bass guitar) it is overall a high quality listen. Stream the full show (minus banter) plus the available tracks from Swarm below as well. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC/ALAC]

Bambara
2016-02-25
Palisades
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK22 (ORTF, stage lip)>NBob cables>PFA + Soundboard (engineer: Leeor)>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, narrow onstage image)>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Her Sister, Touya
02 Filled Up With Night
03 All the Same
04 [banter1]
05 An Ill Son
06 [banter2]
07 Stop
08 All the Ugly Things
09 I Don’t Mind

Check out Bambara on Facebook, and pre-order Swarm from Arrowhawk Records here.

Animal Collective: February 24, 2016 Irving Plaza

February 28, 2016
By

Animal Collective3
[photos courtesy of Will and We All Want Someone blog]

In the early years of the last decade when the speed of the web aligned with the availability of high quality audio files, I went on a binge downloading all of the available Animal Collective live recordings from their page at the Live Music Archive and from various torrent sites. In 2007 I was finally able to see the band live. For the shows I recorded at Webster Hall shows that year, I had expected the band to play the live songs for which I was quite familiar, but those two historic Webster shows were heavy on new songs — my introduction to the material that would eventually become the band’s brilliant breakthrough album Merriweather Post Pavilion. I’m not so sure I was prepared for what would come next. When Animal Collective released MPP to overwhelmingly positive reviews, I recorded the first two shows in New York and the attention we received literally crashed the site. I learned a lot about the potential for this site to reach a large audience but also the mixed bag nature of viral material, and NYCTaper was forever inextricably intertwined with the music of Animal Collective. To this day, the recording for Animal Collective at Manhattan Center has been downloaded over 50,000 times and remains the most circulated of all of our recordings.

In the intervening years, we’ve had intermittent opportunities to capture the band live including some memorable solo shows. There was the secret Glasslands show with Avey Tare and Deakin that introduced us to that amazing venue (RIP) and to the material that would eventually become Oddsac. Our recording of Panda Bear at Governor’s Island in 2010 was so successful that the artist actually released a limited version of the recording as a free bonus download with the album Tomboy. There was a pair of Deakin shows in 2010, a terrific solo show by Avey Tare at Knitting Factory in 2011, and then a full band show at Terminal 5 in 2012. But we’ve never quite captured the magic of the MPP shows and the rabid interest those 2009 recordings generated.

Its now more than decade since my first obsession with Animal Collective and fortunately 2016 finds us both in very good places. The band’s new album is called Painting With and its quite an excellent piece of work and undoubtedly their strongest material since Merriweather Post Pavilion. The tour in support of the album is being played in smaller venues than anything since the small MPP shows and the feel of this tour is similar. There’s an excitement surrounding the band, the album and the shows that harkens back to 2009 and its a great feeling to have back. At Irving Plaza on Wednesday night, Animal Collective played a virtually flawless ninety-minute show that featured most of the new album, one bizarro cover, and several deep cuts from some of the earliest releases. Indeed, the final song of the night “Alvin Row” goes all the way back to the band’s first album, Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished. The venue was absolutely packed — I was pushed up against the soundboard cage for the entire night — but the crowd was entirely involved in the show. There is literally no yapping at all recognizable on this recording. And the band played off the energy coming from the crowd as this performance was top notch from start to finish. Indeed, the band only took two song breaks as they segued most of the songs from the main set, and the three encore songs flow as one.

The current Animal Collective tour continues throughout the Spring, moving West and then spending much of April in Europe before the band returns to the US in May. There is a show on May 14 in Sayreville NJ that we are going to try to record, but our attendance is not yet confirmed.

I recorded this set with my old Neumann KM-150 hypercardioids (the same mics as Bowery in 2009) from a prime position directly in front of the soundboard on the floor. The sound in the venue was phenomenal and this recording is quite superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show in FLAC or MP3 format at Archive.org [HERE]

Stream the Complete Show:

Animal Collective
2016-02-24
Irving Plaza
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Front of Board Audience

Neumann KM-150s > Sound Devices 744t > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:31:07]
01 Natural Selection
02 Gnip Gnop
03 Hocus Pocus
04 The Burglars
05 Jimmy Mack [Vandellas]
06 Daily Routine
07 Golden Gal
08 Summing the Wretch
09 On Delay
10 Loch Raven
11 FloriDada
12 [encore break]
13 Bees
14 Lying in the Grass
15 Alvin Row

SUPPORT ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: Website | Buy Painting With | Facebook

Mary Lattimore and Dave Mies: February 7, 2016 Trans-Pecos

February 24, 2016
By

Mary Lattimore and Dave Mies

I might’ve had one of the quietest ever Super Bowl Sundays this year, having spent the afternoon at Trans-Pecos for a bill featuring a Matt Valentine solo set, another solo set from Samara Lubelski, and a duo set from experimental harpist Mary Lattimore and Dave Mies, one-half of Tall Firs. For a self-described “depressy guy,” Mies’s songs aren’t nearly the downers the lyrics might suggest. Instead, his overpowering-yet-delicate vocals and quietly strummed guitar produce songs that you feel you could wrap yourself in like blankets. Paired with Lattimore’s harp, the two instruments form a dialog that belies the isolation of the lyrics. Besides a cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Nothin'” and the Tall Firs tune “Winter Wind” (off last year’s excellent Ghostlight Ensemble), the set is a batch of entirely new songs that will nonetheless sound pretty familiar if you’ve been following along with Tall Firs. One can only hope they’ll see release soon in some form, whether as a Tall Firs record or something else entirely. In the meantime, there’s still some winter left for you to get warm and depressy with this recording.

I recorded this set from the stage lip at Trans-Pecos, with the mics also picking up the vocals from the monitors. As usual for a quiet set like this there’s some ambient noise, but nothing too distracting. Overall the sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Mary Lattimore will be back at Trans-Pecos on March 4 for a record release show. All upcoming dates are here.

Stream and Download via Bandcamp:

Mary Lattimore and Dave Mies
2016-02-07
Trans-Pecos
Queens, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

AKG C480B/CK61 (stage lip) > Roland R-26 > WAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (limiter, compression, normalize, fades) > Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [26:09]
01. [Intro]
02. Not My Friend
03. 69
04. Nothin’ [Townes Van Zandt]
05. 55 Watts
06. Winter Wind
07. [banter]
08. Scratch
09. [banter/tuning]
10. I Give Up

Support Tall Firs: Facebook | Website | Buy Ghostlight Ensemble via Amazon

Support Mary Lattimore: Website | Buy Luciferin Light via Bandcamp | Buy Slant of Light (with Jeff Zeigler) via Thrill Jockey

Jon Langford and Jean Cook: February 13, 2016 Brooklyn House Party

February 24, 2016
By

langford

Correspondent Neil D writes:

Jon Langford is invariably described as a “renaissance man”: painter, author, radio show host, bathroom-sink sea captain, and performer in more bands than any one person has a right to be in (Mekons, Waco Brothers, Three Johns, Killer Shrews, Bad Luck Jonathan, to name a handful). I consider myself very lucky to live in New York, because though Langford was born in Wales and has lived in Chicago the past two decades, New York is the home of one of his best bands, the Ship and Pilot, consisting of Mekons drummer Steve Goulding, Pere Ubu bassist Tony Maimone, and violinist/singer Jean Cook.

Goulding and Maimone were absent for this show (actually, Goulding was there, but only as an audience member), a house party in someone’s tiny living room in Brooklyn with every available surface covered with Langford prints for sale, leaving Langford and Cook as an acoustic (and entirely unamplified) duo. It was more than enough, because Cook is Langford’s secret weapon: To his country-folk-punk tales of Welsh undertakers and Joseph Stalin penning country-and-western answer songs, she adds harmonies and violin playing that is by turns ethereal and eccentrically creative — one of her other gigs is with the new-music collective Anti-Social Music. On a song like “Youghal,” about the tiny Irish town where Gregory Peck filmed “Moby Dick,” Langford and Cook combine to make you wonder why they would ever need anyone else. (Speaking of renaissance people, Cook is also on the board of the Future of Music Coalition, and the mother of a one-year-old who provides some audience commentary between a couple of songs here.)

Given the stripped-down conditions, this was recorded with a pair of CA-14 cardioid mics placed at the performers’ feet, and pointed straight up at them. The result is, as NYCtaper himself remarked on hearing it, “raw and real and you’re right there.”

Thanks to Jon and Jean, and to Jon Raaen for hosting us all at his lovely home.

Download the complete show: [FLAC] | [MP3]

Jon Langford and Jean Cook
2016-02-13
Private Residence
Brooklyn, NY

CA-14 cardioid mics > Church Audio ugly battery box > Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) > Sound Studio (mild EQ) > FLAC (16/44.1) > Tag > FLAC

Recorded and mastered by neil d

Tracks
01 [set one]
02 Summer Stars
03 Pill Sailor
04 Tubby Brothers
05 Streets of Your Town [Go-Betweens]
06 Tom Jones Story
07 Youghai
08 The Country Is Young
09 Hank Williams Must Die
10 Sentimental Marching Song
11 [set two]
12 Walking on Hell’s Roof
13 Drone Operator
14 1234ever
15 Diana Story
16 Haunted
17 Homburg
18 Nashville Radio
19 Luxury
20 Tom Jones Levitation

Check out more on Langford’s many forms of art at the terrific site maintained by Nobby Knape, or just wait around long enough, and he’ll probably show up in some guise or another.

 

Freakwater: February 16, 2016 Bell House

February 23, 2016
By

freakwater
[photo by Neil deMause]

Correspondent Neil D writes:

If you Google around a bit, you’ll find a typically snotty Pitchfork review of Freakwater‘s 2005 album “Thinking of You” that says, in essence, “Sure, Catherine Irwin and Janet Bean may be brilliant lyricists and sing incredible harmonies, but when are they going to show us something new in their bag of tricks?”

Ten years and change later, Pitchfork can officially STFU. “Scheherazade,” the first Freakwater album since “Thinking of You,” maintains the singular harmonies and mind-bending lyrical twists that have come to typify Freakwater — there are even plenty of the band’s patented dead-baby references, though if I’m doing my textual analysis right, the “baby” thrown down the well in the leadoff track may not be what it at first seems. But musically it strikes out in unexpected directions, with one track (“Down Will Come Baby”) pairing Irwin’s banjo with a psychedelic guitar rave-up, while others seem to owe a debt to the carefully calibrated dissonance of Bean’s other band, Eleventh Dream Day.

The current Freakwater tour takes that spirit of experimentation out on the road, bringing along slide guitarist Morgan Geer (Drunken Prayer, The Unholy Trio), fiddle player Anna Krippenstapel, and drummer Neal Argabright(Jaye Jayle) to augment the core trio of Bean (guitar, vocals), Irwin (guitar, banjo, vocals), and David Wayne Gay (bass). Their set at Bell House — where they last previously appeared in 2013 performing their classic LP “Feels Like The Third Time” for its 20th anniversary — featured nine of the eleven tracks from “Scheherezade” (Geer performed another, his own “Missionfield,” during his opening set), including subtle gems like “Skinny Knee Bone” and “Velveteen Matador” (speaking of songs in need of deeper textual analysis); plus several Freakwater classics (highlighted by the chill-inducing “Cloak of Frogs”) and a Fairport Convention cover to close out the show. They still have a couple of weeks left on the road, so if they’re coming through your town, be sure to catch them before they disappear again — hopefully not for ten years this time.

This recording was mixed from a soundboard feed provided by the Bell House soundfolk (Nick and, um, I really need to start writing these names down), along with AT-853 cardioid mics mounted at the front of the soundboard. Feel free to re-edit the tracking to separate out several long sections of banter into your own Freakwater comedy album.

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Freakwater
2016-02-16
Bell House
Brooklyn, NY

Soundboard > Sony PCM-M10 (line in)> WAV (24/48) + AT853 cardioid mics > SP-SPSB-1 battery box > Sony PCM-M10 (mic in) > WAV (24/48) > Sound Studio > FLAC (16/44.1) > Tag > FLAC

Recorded and mastered by neil d

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 What the People Want
03 The Asp and the Albatross
04 Buckets of Oil
05 Wound Up
06 Bolshevik and Bollweevil
07 Binding Twine
08 Velveteen Matador
09 Number One With A Bullet
10 Skinny Knee Bone
11 Falls of Sleep
12 Good For Nothing
13 Cloak of Frogs
14 Hero_Heroine
15 Down Will Come Baby
16 Take Me With You
17 My Old Drunk Friend
18 Come All Ye Rolling Minstrels [Fairport Convention]

More Freakwater news, tour dates, and other stuff at: http://www.freakwater.net/  Like Freakwater on Facebook.

Disappears: February 20, 2016 Baby’s All Right (incl. complete set of David Bowie’s “Low”)

February 21, 2016
By

IMG_1624

Let’s get this out of the way: this is not some thrown-together “tribute”; Disappears had this idea long before Bowie’s recent passing. You can hear the evidence on their 2015 live LP, in fact (which you can still find if you look), which captures their full performances at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art as part of a “Bowie Changes” series of events. Given what’s happened since, this Brooklyn redux of that memorable night took on new meaning, and showed us so much of what to appreciate about live rock music, and Bowie, who was one of the best.

Baby’s All Right was its typical self on Saturday night, a convivial hub for Williamsburg partiers and people of good musical taste. Disappears’ crowd was one of the better ones, composed mainly of the band’s regulars, scenesters and Bowie diehards interested in hearing the band’s take. Disappears’ material usually draws more comparisons to Joy Division and the Fall than the Thin White Duke, but only if you forget that Bowie had his own krautrock streak, evidenced on Station to Station as well as Low itself, a dissonant, dark piece of work that added to Bowie’s mystique as a musical chameleon whose taste rarely missed.

Before any Bowie, of course, Disappears had a full set for us of their own material, kicking off with the propulsive “Joa” followed by “Another Thought” and “I/O,” also from last year’s excellent Irreal, they decided to play some new material. Of these, my favorite might be “Silencing,” a mid-tempo meditation that continues in Irreal’s more subdued, textured vein but goes further down that path. Brian Case and bandmates Damon Carruesco, Jonathan van Herik, and Noah Leger (I’ve said this before, but damn can this guy drum) not only form one of the tightest units in music today, but they carry themselves with an understated poise that you wish you saw more often. Disappears is a band best seen from the front row, where you can watch both Case’s kinetic vocal delivery and get the full effect of the hammering of the drums and slink of the bass, urging on the dual guitars. This recording was made from onstage, making it about the closest thing to that experience.

Of course, everyone wants to know about the Bowie set. There are umpteen “tributes” going on these days, many of them hastily arranged for a quick buck and/or nostalgia jolt, and some of the highest-profile events to date have either reeked of gimmickry or have simply fallen flat. Disappears’ move was not only refreshing because it actually wasn’t a “response” to the artist’s passing, but because it took the most direct route: playing a Bowie album with an obvious relationship to Disappears’ vision. It’s the best kind of tribute, one that honored Bowie by letting his music, alongside Disappears’ own, speak for itself.

Most striking about Low as a live set is how distinct the album is to the LP format, with a clear side A of somewhat more conventional rock tracks followed by the dramatic shift of the Eno-driven side B, a languid, ambient affair that felt much farther afield than the rest of the set. That Disappears not only held our attention, but managed to recreate this album live without many of the electronics that defined the album, testifies to their skill as a band. Similarly, side B isn’t exactly a party-rock record, but for this crowd, “Warszawa” and “Art Decade” weren’t going to clear the room; the crowd tightened in, holding on for the surge of “Weeping Wall,” whose operatic sweep might’ve made you think, had you closed your eyes, that it was Godspeed You! Black Emperor up there making noise with its gaggle of musicians, not four guys. “Subterraneans” made for a subdued ending after that obvious climax, but once again, Disappears gave it the attention it deserved, straight through to the end.

While this Low performance won’t be the only one of the tour, there are only a few others scheduled, interspersed among the band’s regular tour schedule. You can catch the band Monday in Philly, and Tuesday in Pittsburgh (where they’ll do Low again).

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK22 open cardiod microphones onstage for an expansive, up front sound, combined with a soundboard feed of Disappears’ FOH Jason Balla’s mix, with assistance from Harrison Fore of Baby’s in setting it up. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/Apple Lossless/FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Disappears
2016-02-20
Baby’s All Right
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Disappears FOH Jason Balla) + Schoeps MK22 (onstage, ORTF)>>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (adjust stereo image on audience, align, mix down)>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, EQ)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

[Total Time: 1:37:05]
Set One (Disappears songs)
01 JOA
02 Another Thought
03 I/O
04 11 Mile House
05 Ultra
06 Alarm
07 Silencing
08 Elite Typical
09 Halcyon Days

Set Two (David Bowie’s “Low”)
10 [intro]
11 Speed of Life
12 Breaking Glass
13 What In the World
14 Sound and Vision
15 Always Crashing In the Same Car
16 Be My Wife
17 A New Career In A New Town
18 Warszawa
19 Art Decade
20 Weeping Wall
21 Subterraneans

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Disappears, visit their website, and buy Irreal and their other releases here.

Antietam: January 30, 2016 Union Hall

February 19, 2016
By

antietam-768x576

Correspondent Neil D writes: 

I’ve seen Antietam so many times you’d think I’d be jaded, but it turns out their music has had the opposite effect on me: The more I see them, the more I appreciate them. The punkiest of all the bands in Yo La Tengo’s social circle (though technically YLT is in Antietam’s circle, as Ira and Georgia’s first-ever show was the Louisville-via-New York trio’s third-ever), Tara Key, Tim Harris, and Josh Madell keep on putting out record after record of music that’s at times raucously cathartic, at times achingly pretty, and often both at once.

Recent Antietam shows have been augmented with Sue Garner (ex-more bands than can fit in this parenthetical) on backing vocals and occasional tambourine, and this was no exception. The most recent Antietam album was 2011’s “Tenth Life,” but none of those songs appear here: Instead, this set featured seven songs from their in-the-works untitled new album, most notably the unbeatable “I’m So Tired,” which kicks in at 11 and then cranks up the dial even further until the thrashing, yowling climax.

As befits a band led by a professional librarian, Antietam has also become a wonderful curator of other bands, playing in recent years alongside such indie rock luminaries as Sleepyhead, Thalia Zedek, The Scene Is Now, Dump, Two Mule Team, and Escape by Ostrich. For this show at Bell House, Antietam followed their fellow Kentuckian Victory Over Sound (not recorded, unfortunately, due to technical problems), and preceded sets by Feelies extended family members Speed the Plough and post-punk semi-super group Heroes of Toolik, recordings of which will follow.

Thanks to Tara Key for helping set up recording permissions, and to the excellent Union Hall soundman whose name I instantly forgot. The show was recorded with Core Sound binaural mics strung from the club’s ceiling at acidjack’s suggestion, mixed with a soundboard feed that was slightly wonky thanks to the aforementioned technical problems on my end. In any event, the result is a very enjoyable recording, which is all that matters.

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Stream the complete show: 

Antietam
2016-01-30
Union Hall
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Neil D

Soundboard (engineer: David Fine)> Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) + Core Sound Low-Cost Binaural mics > Church Audio ugly battery box > Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) > Sound Studio (light EQ and mixing) > FLAC (16/44.1) > Tag > FLAC

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 Right Between Your Eyes
03 Sunshine
04 Automatic
05 Is It Time
06 I Swear
07 Birdwatching
08 I’m So Tired
09 Glide

Check out more Antietam news and music at: https://antietamtheband.wordpress.com/  https://soundcloud.com/antietamlabs  https://carrottoprecords.com/artists/antietam/

The Rooks: December 5, 2015 Mercury Lounge

February 18, 2016
By

The Rooks Mercury
[screen shot from this video]

The indie-soul crossover movement of the last decade that included the likes of Sharon Jones and Raphael Saadiq was admirable but would only be truly meaningful if it led to young bands taking up the mantle. This is where The Rooks come in. The band was formed at Wesleyan College in Connecticut. The Rooks moved to NYC in 2013 and began to play gigs that were immediately lauded — their residency at Pianos in January of 2014 is on record as one of the most highly-attended runs that venue has produced. We caught the band during those shows and acidjack noted the band’s obvious talent, appeal and predicted future success. We’re still sticking with that story. In December, I captured The Rooks in a double bill with their friends Lawrence, and the packed sold-out Mercury Lounge confirmed that we’d been right. The band is bigger than ever and with the crowds bursting at the seams, they are poised to move up the ladder to bigger venues and more high profile gigs. The band’s set included tracks from their 2015 EP Wires, a couple of unreleased songs, and three neat covers, including the closing song from an unmentionable artist that tore down the house. Catch The Rooks on tour this Spring including a show at Rough Trade BK on February 27.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps mounted next to the soundboard and mixed with an excellent feed from Mercury’s FOH Alex. Other than a boisterous crowd somewhat noticeable during quieter moments, the sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show:

The Rooks
2015-12-05
Mercury Lounge
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [engineer Alex] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 45:47]
01 Intermission (Wires)
02 Doubt
03 Nothing Wrong
04 [Lawrence intro]
05 Gin and Juice [Snoop Dogg]
06 Secrets
07 You’re the One
08 Kiss From a Rose [Seal]
09 May Care
10 Bury Me Deep
11 Purple Reign [Prints]

SUPPORT THE ROOKS: Website | Bandcamp | Facebook

SAVAK: January 22, 2016 Union Pool

February 17, 2016
By

SAVAK

It was sad news last year when Obits announced their dissolution. Fortunately we were there for their second-to-last NYC performance, at Brooklyn Night Bazaar back in November 2014. It goes without saying that Obits will be missed. However, Obits alums Sohrab Habibion (also ex-Edsel) and Greg Simpson weren’t quiet for very long. Only a month after that announcement, Habibion and Simpson debuted their new band, SAVAK, having recruited a veritable who’s-who of nineties and aughts indie rock: Michael Jaworski (The Cops, Virgin Islands); James Canty (The Make-Up, Nation of Ulysses); and Matt Schulz (Enon, Holy Fuck); plus Greg Vegas (Hat City Intuitive, Monsterland) guesting on saxophone. SAVAK recently completed the recording of Best of Luck in Future Endeavors, which will be released on Comedy Minus One in late May. I conned my way into a sneak preview of the mastered album—why else tape shows if not for the graft?—and I assure you, this one’s a keeper.

In anticipation of the upcoming record, we made it out for a snowy evening with SAVAK at Union Pool where we were treated to a performance of much of the Best of Luck in Future Endeavors, plus a cover of MDC’s “I Remember.” If I were to make comparisons I’d feel pretty confident making the obvious one to Sohrab Habibion’s classic nineties band Edsel. Additionally, SAVAK channels I.R.S.-era R.E.M., especially on the standout track “Reaction.” The rest of the set will have you shaking in your desk chair in no time, so let this tide you over until the album release.

SAVAK’s next scheduled show is at the Bell House on May 11, with Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkeybirds. Tickets are on sale.

I recorded this set from our usual location at Union Pool, the room mics combined with a board feed from FOH Robert. I mixed those down and then Sohrab provided some additional mastering. The results are excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

SAVAK
2016-01-22
Union Pool
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH
Mastered by Sohrab Habibion

Soundboard (engineer: Robert) + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, balance, compression, mixdown, normalize, fades) > Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Mastering > Audacity 2.0.5 (downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [37:27]
01. Split Decision
02. Alive in Shadows
03. They Are Bones
04. Reaction
05. This Currency Exchanged
06. Elapsed Remaining
07. Drop the Pieces
08. Sick of War
09. Early Western Traders
10. Call It a Night
11. I Remember [MDC]

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