nyctaper Recordings

concert discussion and free flac downloads

The Hum Residency: April 06, 2015 Manhattan Inn – Flac/MP3/Streaming

April 13, 2015
By

11130269_838233136248132_370385844786810427_n
[photos courtesy of David Andrako]

The Hum Residency is a collection of over 30 artists collaborating at Greenpoint’s Manhattan Inn every Monday night in April. In the evening, Manhattan Inn is a bar and restaurant featuring a baby grand piano and rotating pianist in a lovely candle lit room in the back. After 10pm, the space is transformed into a concert venue, tables on the floor quickly whisked away while dinner patrons sitting in custom-made wooden booths, dessert plates and the check in front of them, prepare to enjoy a special evening of music in what will be a standing-room only crowd.

Each Monday night features three sets of collaborating artists and for the first act of this night, Brooklyn’s Teletextile and Belle Mare huddled around the house piano. Teletextile is no stranger to intimate sets as we previously featured them for an indoor Backyard Brunch session in 2011 and both bands delivered an equally good performance.

For the second act, Renata Zeiguer of Cantina and Cassandra Jenkins shared the floor creating a seven piece ensemble complete with drum kit. The floor was impassable, cables and guitar peddles covering every last inch of available space on the floor, and the artists were literally surrounding my microphones.

The final act was the powerful duet of Shilpa Ray amd Deva Mahal. Shilpa is releasing a new album called Last Year’s Savage on May 19, 2015 (Northern Spy Records), and she’ll be playing a record release show at Rough Trade on May 23rd.

I recorded this unique set using a pair of Schoeps MK4 Cardioid microphones on-stage in the a classic ORTF setup which was re-positioned for each artist. The audience recording was mixed with a soundboard feed provided by Manhattan Inn’s Engineer John. The audience was incredibly respectful during this intimate set and the results are outstanding. We hope you enjoy!

11079589_838233176248128_1177542925926295269_o

Download the complete show – Teletextile and Belle Mare: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Download the complete show – Renata Zeiguer (Cantina) and Cassandra Jenkins: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Download the complete show – Shilpa Ray and Deva Mahal: [MP3] | [FLAC]

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

1 (1)

The Hum Residency
Manhattan Inn
Brooklyn, NY
2015-04-06

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and Produced by hi and lo

Source: Soundboard (Engineer: John) + Schoeps MK4 (ORTF) > KC5 > PFA > Naiant PFA > Sound Devices 744T @ 24 bit / 48 kHz

Teletextile and Belle Mare:

1. Gold Green
2. All the Time
3. Rehearsed Lines
4. The Boat of the Fragile Mind
5. Distant Places
6. Girl

Cassandra Jenkins and Cantina:

01. Basement Bug
02. Cartoon
03. Wayside
04. Follow Me Down
05. Disco Death Dance
06. Hotel Lullaby
07. Tennessee Waltz
08. Shame

Shilpa Ray and Deva Mahal:

1. Empire City (Deva Mahal)
2. I’d Rather Go Blind
3. Genie’s Drugs
4. Dedicated to the One I Love
5. Too Late
6. Shilpa Ray’s Got A Heart Full of Dirt

If you enjoyed this recording, please support The Hum Residency by visiting their Facebook page and attending any of their FREE Monday night shows at Manhattan Inn in April!.

The Mountain Goats: April 11, 2015 City Winery – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 12, 2015
By

IMG_8411

John Darnielle possesses the writer’s gift of universality. From his very specific songs come truths that touch the hearts of listeners who have never lived his life. You may never have felt the humiliation of being a burned out tweaker, sweating it out in a dingy hotel room, but you understand what it means to feel you’re at rock bottom. You know what it is to be dumb and wild and free. You know what it is to desperately, desperately, survive a year that hasn’t gone the way you hoped. In John’s quirky  new songs about wrestling from Beat the Champ there are classic themes about underdogs and alienation, themes that you don’t need to wear a mask to understand. The Mountain Goats built their fervent fan base not on the strength of riffs but on words. Listening to Darnielle’s stories, feeling the emotions he projects, his heart becomes your heart; his trials, yours.

The Mountain Goats played NYC shows on this tour both at Webster Hall and two nights at City Winery, in lieu of a single large show at Terminal 5 or a similar venue. For that, we can be grateful, as City Winery — where as John said, he could actually see the back of the venue from the stage — vibed perfectly with what he wanted. For this tour, the regular trio of Darnielle, Jon Wurster and Peter Hughes is joined by the NC-based journeyman and Swiss army knife of a musician Matt Douglas, who has now appeared on this site with three different bands, if you count his solo show. The addition of Douglas on sax, guitar, horns and keys adds welcome texture and complexity to the full-band numbers, and takes some pressure off of Darnielle, whose massive catalog is always a challenge on tour. The intimate room amplified the songs’ emotional heft; it was a joy to see the rather well-heeled crowd of (probably) former nerds, geeks and rejects sing along to one of Darnielle’s most approachable verses:

people were mean to you
but i always thought you were cool
clicking down the concrete hallways
in your spiked heels
back in high school

That’s Darnielle’s magic, distilled: A song about a single person that many of us could see in ourselves, even if what made us different had nothing to do with spiked heels. If proof were ever needed of the value of being yourself, Darnielle and his slow-burning but runaway success would be the best of it. That he has created an entire community of people who feel the same way is his gift to all of us. Happiness isn’t conformity, or cowing to others’ idea of who you ought to be. It’s doing every stupid thing that makes you feel alive, and the joy you feel at coming out on the other side, still breathing. Long live The Mountain Goats.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 supercardiod microphones in a position forward of the board, along with a stereo feed of The Mountain Goats’ engineer Brandon Eggleston’s excellent house mix. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

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

Stream the entire set:

The Mountain Goats
2015-04-11
City Winery
New York, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK41 (FOB, ROC, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard (engineer: Brandon Eggleston)>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, adjust levels, fades, downsample)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter, imaging)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:33:56]
01 [intro]
02 Get Lonely
03 The Ballad of Bull Ramos
04 Love Love Love
05 [banter1]
06 Palmcorder Yajna
07 Animal Mask
08 [banter2]
09 Luna
10 Deuteronomy 2:10
11 [banter3]
12 Beyond the Mysterious Beyond
13 Raja Vocative
14 Woke Up New
15 Steal Smoked Fish
16 Never Quite Free
17 Song for Dennis Brown
18 Stabbed to Death Outside of San Juan
19 Foreign Object
20 This Year
21 The Legend of Chavo Guerrero
22 [encore break]
23 You Were Cool
24 Southwestern Territory
25 Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1
26 [encore break 2]/piano jam
27 No Children

Band:
John Darnielle – Vocals, guitar, keys
Matt Douglas – saxophone, guitar, keys, horns
Peter Hughes – Bass
Jon Wurster – Drums

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT The Mountain Goats, visit their website, and buy their records from their online store.

Beech Creeps: April 4, 2015 Union Pool – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 10, 2015
By

Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk

[Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk]

If you see Beech Creeps creeping your way, don’t be alarmed. Despite the name, they share little in common with the other beach-themed bands out there. No, Beech Creeps are more akin to the Stooges’ seedy glam-rock and the Scientists’ swampy proto-grunge than any chillwave analog synth project. Veterans of some highly-regarded Brooklyn noise acts, these guys travel under the assumed identities of PP Coolata, formerly of Ex Models and Knyfe Hyts; Yuka Mofongo, formerly of Pterodactyl; and Ron Llave, formerly of People Get Ready and Yeasayer. Their debut self-titled record came out just last month on Monofonus Press, but they’ve been playing out consistently around Brooklyn since 2013. Their Union Pool set brings the heaviness with an air of confidence that belies the relatively short period the band has been together. Six out of the seven tracks off their record are represented here but it took only a couple to convert the packed crowd into true believers. If the eerie “Everybody Loves the Beach” giving way to the full-on guitar crunch of “Teenage Boogie” doesn’t do it, you’ll no doubt join the ranks of the converted after hearing standouts “Son of Sud” and “Arm of the T Rex,” both of which spotlight the full range of the ’Creeps. You may feel a little dirty afterwards—just rinse off the sand and you’ll be fine.

I recorded this set with the mics clamped to the balcony, along with a board feed from Union Pool FOH Leah. The sound is outstanding. Enjoy!

Beech Creeps will be playing a free show on April 24 at Brooklyn Night Bazaar with the legendary Moss Icon. Be sure not to miss it!

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

Stream the complete show:

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

Beech Creeps
2015-04-04
Union Pool
Brooklyn, NY

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

Soundboard (engineer: Leah) + AKG C480B/CK61 (FOB, LOC, PAS) > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, balance, mixdown) > Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, Tape Exciter) > Audacity 2.0.5 (amplify, fades, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [30:23]
01. Everybody Loves the Beach
02. Teenage Boogie
03. Times B Short
04. Son of Sud
05. Arm of the T Rex
06. Long Walk Home

Support Beech Creeps: Facebook | Bandcamp | Buy Beech Creeps from Monofonus Press

Alejandro Escovedo: March 21, 2015 Maria’s SXSW Party – Flac/MP3/Streaming

April 8, 2015
By

Alejandro at Marias
[photo from @alescovedo twitter]

Last month we had the opportunity to see Alejandro Escovedo under two very different but equally compelling circumstances. His acoustic duet show at the Capitol Theatre was a treasure in large part because the live arrangements allowed the songwriting to shine. As we discussed in that review, Escovedo is a legend and one of the few artists who has universal admiration from his peers. For this SXSW show, he played with a full band in his hometown in front of many friends (and celebrities) and the atmosphere was a true party vibe. Escovedo has been hosting these Saturday SXSW shows at Maria’s Taco XPress on South Lamar for almost two decades but sadly this year’s event is going to be the last one ever.

After curating a day’s worth of artists, Alejandro and his band closed the night. The set began straight enough with four Escovedo classics before he slowed it down and discussed the history of this show in a moving spoken word intro for “San Antonio Rain”. As the show progressed, the packed crowd became more engaged and this was quite evident during “Sally Was a Cop” when the fans carried the song to its completion with a sing-along chorus that can be heard clearly on the recording. We’re streaming that track below. The balance of the set was anchored by two classic rock covers, a scorching version of Neil Young’s “Like a Hurricane” that featured some outstanding guitar work and the night’s last song, an extended and loose version of the Stones’ “Beast of Burden” that once again featured much crowd participation and completed this extraordinary set with smiles all around.

Alejandro Escovedo will be touring and playing quite a few shows in April and May, dates here. He returns to NYC for a special show at the Rubin Museum of Art on West 17th Street on May 29.

I recorded this set with the Sennheisers mounted from the low ceiling next to the soundboard and mixed with a board feed. There was a lot of crowd chatter that necessitated reducing the levels of the audience source at certain points, but over the sound quality is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “Sally Was a Cop”:

Alejandro Escovedo
2015-03-21
Maria’s Taco Xpress – SXSW Party
Austin, TX

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [engineer Ben Richardson] + Sennheiser MKH-8040 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 1:18:18]
01 [introduction]
02 Castanets
03 I Was Drunk
04 Tender Heart
05 Anchor
06 San Antonio Rain
07 Sensitive Boys
08 Sally Was a Cop
09 [banter – Maria]
10 Arizona
11 Like a Hurricane [Neil Young]
12 [encore break]
13 Always a Friend
14 [band introductions]
15 Beast of Burden [Rolling Stones]

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Alejandro Escovedo, visit his website, and purchase his official releases from the Store at his website [HERE].

Makthaverskan: April 6, 2015 Saint Vitus – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 7, 2015
By

IMG_1167

As is all-too-common these days, Makthaverskan had a difficult journey to the U.S. from Sweden for this gig, having canceled at least two New York dates last month due to visa issues. By the time they rolled into Saint Vitus for this sold-out headlining gig, the band needed to be worth the wait. They’re a young band, in age and in feel, with frontwoman Maja Milner’s lyrics the stuff of youthful confusion, heartbreak, and rage. Compared to the twee, prettified sound more commonly associated with their hometown of Gothenburg, Makthaverskan have a harder edge, but while they may be heavier and more aggressive than, say, Always, they aren’t exactly Pharmakon, either. That’s to say, Makthaverskan’s music is angry without being ugly, a dose of dream-pop with Milner’s belted “fuck yous” on top.

The band whipped through this set, a mix of material from their latest record II and their debut. Milner proved more than able to push that voice of hers live, and the band had no problem filling what’s usually New York’s top metal venue with a wall of sound to go with it. The standouts included early-set favorite “Antabus”, as well as the band’s latest single “Witness”, both not coincidentally chances for Milner to let loose. I was equally impressed, though, with the straight-up dream-pop number “Asleep” that would have closed the set. The song gives a large nod to Talulah Gosh, Heavenly and their fellow late-80s English indie poppers (and thus, indirectly, to Makthaverskan’s hometown), and that’s not a bad thing. This crowd agreed, chanting for an encore until we got “Inside of Me” from their debut album. It’s about, in broad strokes, not wanting someone to leave, and that’s also how we felt about Makthaverskan. They’ve got plenty more to show us.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones inside the soundboard area, together with a board feed provided by Saint Vitus engineer Jeff. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete set: 

Makthaverskan
2015-04-06
Saint Vitus
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK4V (DFC, at SBD, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard (engineer: Jeff))>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, adjust levels, fades, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (harmonic exciter, EQ)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 38:44]
01 Outshine
02 Vi Var Manniskor Fran Borjan
03 Antabus
04 Slowly Sinking
05 It’s You And It’s I
06 Witness
07 No Mercy
08 Something More
09 Asleep
10 [encore break]
11 Inside of Me

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Makthaverskan, like them on facebook, and buy their records directly from the band here. 

IMG_1203

 

 

 

Tall Firs: March 15, 2015 Trans-Pecos – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 7, 2015
By

Tall Firs

The last time we had a Tall Firs set here on NYCTaper was way back in May of 2008. At the time, the band were playing songs off their first self-titled record and its followup Too Old to Die Young. As an electric trio, Dave Mies and Aaron Mullan were augmented by drummer Ryan Sawyer. Nearly seven years later, we caught up with Tall Firs again, this time with Mies and Mullan performing acoustically as a duo. In the intervening years, the band released their third record, Out of It and Into It, and could often be found performing at the latest iteration of the All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival.

For their afternoon matinee set at Trans-Pecos, the band’s quieter side is on display, setting the tone with a cover of Vic Chesnutt’s “Bakersfield,” from his first album Little. It’s no simple feat to do Chesnutt’s vocals justice, but Mies pulls it off with astounding grace, managing to sound like himself while still channelling Chesnutt’s emotive delivery. Tall Firs originals “Crooked Smiles” and “Suffer So Long” are off their most recent record, Out of It and Into It, while “So Messed Up”—which I always think of as the quintessential Firs track—is off Too Old to Die Young. “Ghost Light” and “Winter Wind” appear to be new songs, so perhaps we can expect some more new material on the way soon—and we certainly won’t wait another seven years to catch Tall Firs.

I recorded this set from the stage lip in the same manner as the Spectre Folk set from the same day, though this recording relies more heavily on the board feed. Despite some ambient noise from a few of the younger Tall Firs fans in attendance, the sound is quite enjoyable!

Tall Firs will be back at Trans-Pecos on April 25 for the intimate concert series, Heartworn Subways, along with Sue Garner, Lee Ranaldo, and Alan Licht. Advance tickets are still available.

Stream and Download via Bandcamp

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

Tall Firs
2015-03-15
Trans-Pecos
Queens, NY

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

Soundboard (engineer: Max) + AKG C480B/CK61 (stage lip, DFC, 90 degrees) > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, mixdown, compression, limiter) > Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, exciter, imaging) > Audacity 2.0.5 (amplify, fades, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [23:04]
01. Bakersfield [Vic Chesnutt]
02. So Messed Up
03. [banter/tuning]
04. Ghost Light
05. [banter/tuning]
06. Crooked Smiles
07. [banter/tuning]
08. Winter Wind
09. Suffer So Long

If you enjoyed this recording, please support Tall Firs. Like them on Facebook, visit their website, and buy Out of It and Into It via ATP Recordings.

Steve Gunn: April 1, 2015 Baby’s All Right – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

April 5, 2015
By

IMG_1102

Steve Gunn is having a blockbuster spring, having signed recently to Matador Records, and announcing that he’ll be joining Wilco on their spring tour. Gunn’s music has been one of building slowly but methodically as he nurtured different aspects of his talent, from his early solo work, to his partnership with John Truscinski on two outstanding records, to his second solo phase represented by Time Off and Way Out Weather, two fine records that have launched him onto the bigger stages he deserves. This show at Baby’s All Right represented the end of Steve’s recent tour with the “Way Out Band” comprised of site favorite Nathan Bowles on drums, Jason Meagher on bass, and Paul Sukeena on guitar, and it may be the last proper club show for Gunn for a while.

While Steve’s tours have been increasingly turning up newcomers, there to see what the buzz is about, this show was all about the hometown crowd, with the front rows lined with Steve’s personal friends and musical associates, alternating love and tipsy-but-gentle heckling. The set reflected the mood, with the band serving up long-form, loose versions of Time Off and Way Out Weather regulars. “Old Strange” set the tone, with its hypnotic opening riff, and the songs that joined it kept up its feel, with Gunn and Sukeena trading guitar lines while Bowles and Meagher kept the beat. If the slightly different band (trading Sukeena for Jim Elkington) at the 2014 Rough Trade show felt like a band growing into itself, this one was that almost-same group spreading its wings, even more road-confident than when they returned to the area back then. “Street Keeper” was a new addition I hadn’t heard at recent NY shows, making this a winner setlist- as as well as performance-wise.

You can catch Steve Gunn this spring with Wilco; please show up early and make him feel welcome in those large arenas!

Kevin Mazzarelli mixed this live set and recorded various tracks to Pro Tools; I mixed and mastered them. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete set and download individual tracks:

Steve Gunn
2015-04-01
Baby’s All Right
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and live engineered by Kevin Mazzarelli
Produced by acidjack

6 digital soundboard tracks + Audio Technica 4051>Pro Tools>8x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mix down, hard limiter, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total time: 57:14]
01 Old Strange
02 Water Wheel
03 [banter]
04 Wildwood
05 [banter2]
06 Milly’s Garden
07 [banter3]
08 Street Keeper
09 [banter4]
10 Way Out Weather
11 Tommy’s Congo

Band:
Steve Gunn – vocals, guitar
Paul Sukeena – guitar
Jason Meagher – bass
Nathan Bowles – drums

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Steve Gunn, visit his website, and buy his albums, all of which have “buy” links here.

IMG_1081

Sannhet: March 27, 2015 Saint Vitus – Flac/MP3/Streaming

April 3, 2015
By

Sannhet Vitus 15 unartig
[screen shot from unARTigNYC video]

Its fair to say that we generally have pretty similar tastes among the various members of the NYCTaper crew, but there are definite divergent viewpoints on different musical genres. So while its not uncommon that we’ll all agree to the excellence of a particular artist, there are generally degrees of interest among us. So its somewhat rare when we’re all in universal agreement that a band is simply awesome. When acidjack recorded Sannhet exactly a month earlier than this past Friday’s show at Saint Vitus it brought a smile to my face when I read his review where he referred to the band as “phenomenally good”, confirming my exact reaction from as long as two years ago.

This Saint Vitus show was the release party for Sannhet’s new album Revionist (Flenser Records) which has received the kind of universal acclaim that leads to best-of-year type album acknowledgement when the time comes. The trio’s ability to capture a level of intensity within four to five minute song bursts is really quite remarkable and the live show is accompanied by compelling screen projections that add to the mood — a silent crowd during the music that erupted at song breaks and at the end of the set. Sannhet has been grouped with metal, black metal and post-metal bands from its outset but the band is far more than a simple label these days. This is almost orchestral rock music that sets a theme and then proceeds to guide the listener trance-like through all of the emotional aspects of the song’s journey. Its truly an experience not to be missed and we expect that Saint Vitus will soon be too small a room for Sannhet as their influence grows. The band is currently on an East Coast and Midwest tour and the next scheduled NYC show is at Music Hall of Williamsburg opening for Viet Cong on June 14.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards mounted in front of the soundboard and mixed with an excellent board feed provided by house FOH Tim. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “False Pass”:

Sannhet
2015-03-27
Saint Vitus
Brooklyn NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

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

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 40:46]
01 [sample]
02 Revisionist
03 Lost Crown
04 Enemy Victorian
05 Death Testimony
06 Short Life
07 Absecon Isle
08 Empty Harbor Intro
09 You Thy
10 Empty Harbor
11 [sample 2]
12 False Pass

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Sannhet, visit their facebook page, and buy Revisionist from MidHeaven Mailorder or The Flenser.

Wand: Mercury Lounge 2015 + SXSW 2015 + Webster Hall 2014 – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

March 31, 2015
By

wand-jono1
[photo by Jono Bernstein]

Add Wand to the list of bands best realized as a live act. Not to disrespect their two most recent albums, this year’s Golem and last year’s Ganglion Reef, both fine efforts in the lazily-named “garage-psych” canon that add the band’s wizards-and-warlocks imagery to the mix of guitar pyrotechnics and punk urgency that characterize, to some degree, the efforts of regular tourmate Ty Segall and others. Heard in the vacuum of headphones or home speakers, alone, it’s too easy to lump them in with the other bands whose names you know and move on.

But live, there are clearer nods to the band’s actual influences: Rainbow, T. Rex, Bowie, early period Zeppelin — some of the bands that influenced the much-derided L.A. “glam” scene of the 1980s. Wand owe a very much larger debt to these bands than their contemporaries, and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, the glammy sensibility Wand brings to the table serves as a reminder that the wholesale death of the L.A. scene at the hands of grunge was a bit of a throwing out of the baby with the bathwater. If those seventies touchstones can be blamed for giving us Poison and Warrant, it’s worth remembering that the better attitudes they embodied were being unafraid to have style or show off how well you can play, and to make each performance a true performance. Wand may not wear makeup or tight clothing, but their show brings with it some of that theatrical feel that makes them stand out. That’s what made them darlings at South By Southwest, where one of us captured their burner of a set at the Panache Booking-sponsored Hotel Vegas show and deemed it the best thing he saw all festival.

We’ll let you judge for yourself, with a three-fer of Wand shows in a range of situations. There’s that SXSW show and a September 2014 show opening for Ty Segall at Webster Hall, together with the most recent appearance by the band in NYC, an hourlong headlining gig at Mercury Lounge. I caught the Mercury show, and was taken straight away by the band’s command of the stage. Songs from their two albums enjoyed a range of reinterpretations and rocked-out treatments, while frontman Cory Thomas Hanson gave us the kind of vocal performance we’re just not used to hearing anymore. I appreciated that amidst the pounding — and the band also comes across much heavier and less spacey live than on record — the band slowed things down from time to time, such as when they lead us into the cosmic swirl of “Melted Rope.” Each of these three shows ends on the same number, the band’s most reliable “jam” song “Generator Larping”, which is as sure a recipe for a great end to the night as anything I’ve heard this year.

These sets are all combinations of soundboard feeds with high-quality audience microphones, and each of them is of excellent quality. Enjoy!

Downloads: Mercury Lounge [MP3] | [FLAC] || SXSW [MP3] | [FLAC] || Webster Hall [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete Mercury Lounge show:

Stream “Generator Larping” from SXSW:

Wand
2015-03-29
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK41 (PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>Aerco MP-2 + Soundboard (engineer: Dave Lefcourt)>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mix down, fades, limiter)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, imaging)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time: 58:00]
01 The Unexplored Map
02 Self Hypnosis In 3 Days
03 [unknown1]
04 Floating Head
05 Melted Rope
06 Fire On the Mountain I-II-III
07 Flying Golem
08 Reaper Invert
09 Planet Golem
10 Generator Larping
_______________________________________
Wand
2015-03-20
Hotel Vegas – Panache SXSW
Austin, TX USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Sennheiser MKH-8040 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 40:07]
01 The Unexplored Map
02 Self Hypnosis in 3 Days
03 Floating Head
04 Fire On The Mountain
05 Flying Golem
06 Planet Golem
07 Generator Larping
_______________________________________
Wand
2014-09-17
Webster Hall
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [engineer: Rafael] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, EQ, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 37:41]
01 Send Receive (Mind)
02 [new song]
03 Fire On The Mountain
04 Broken Candle
05 Flying Golem
06 [new song 2]
07 [banter – last night]
08 Generator Larping

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Wand, visit their website, and buy Golem here and Ganglion Reef from Drag City here.

IMG_8396
[photo by acidjack]

Tigue: March 11, 2015 Secret Project Robot – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

March 31, 2015
By

Tigue

Tigue is the Brooklyn-based percussion trio composed of Ohio transplants Matt Evans, Amy Garapic, and Carson Moody. While the whole trio has participated in Kid Millions’ Man Forever project, each member also has some impressive extracurricular affiliations that include—among many others—Evans and Moody with Ensemble Signal, and Garapic with So Percussion and David Byrne. Tigue have recently completed their first LP, Peaks, which was funded via a successful Kickstarter campaign. That record is still forthcoming, but with Kid Millions producing and guest spots from Ira Kaplan and James McNew of Yo La Tengo, the impending release of Peaks is highly anticipated.

Opening for the duo of Kid Millions and Chris Brokaw at Secret Project Robot, Tigue gave us a preview of what to expect to hear on Peaks. For those new to Tigue, like I was, the songs are perhaps surprisingly pop-oriented—certainly not the classical or esoteric sounds that hearing the phrase “percussion ensemble” might conjure. Instead, it’s something like percussive drone-pop, highly accessible and engaging. Their set is performed entirely as a single piece with subtle divisions between the songs, best understood as part of a highly evolved whole rather than by its individual elements. And surely, you could say the same thing about the performers who are clearly highly tuned to each other’s frequencies. I can only expect and hope that once I hear the album proper, I’ll be let in on the full scope of Tigue’s craft. After the dramatic transition between “I Don’t Think You’re Listening” and closer “Ripped,” you’ll no doubt hear the yelp of a passionate audience member finally unable to contain his enthusiasm. In response to that guy: I couldn’t agree more.

I recorded this set with the AKGs set up approximately in the center of the room and pointed at the stacks. The sound and performance are both excellent. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete show:

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

Tigue
2015-03-11
Secret Project Robot
Brooklyn, NY

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

AKG C480B/CK61 (DFC, PAS) > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (balance) > Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, tape exciter) > Audacity 2.0.5 (amplify, fades, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [14:42]
01. It’s Not Hard to Dress Well
02. I Don’t Think You’re Listening
03. Ripped

If you enjoyed this recording, please support Tigue. Visit their website and Bandcamp, and like them on Facebook.

SUPPORT NYCTaper




Email

Email nyctaper

DISCLAIMER and LEGAL NOTICE

nyctaper.com is a live music blog that offers a new paradigm of music distribution on the web. The recordings are offered for free on this site as are the music posts, reviews and links to artist sites. All recordings are posted with artist permission or artists with an existing pro-taping policy.

All recordings and original content posted on this site are @nyctaper.com as live recordings pursuant to 17 U.S.C. Section 106, et. seq. Redistribution of nyctaper recordings without consent of nyctaper.com is strictly prohibited.

nyctaper.com hereby waives all copyright claims to any and all recordings posted on this site to THE PERFORMERS ONLY. If any artist posted on this site requests that recordings be removed, those recordings will be removed forthwith.