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[Photos courtesy of Walter Wlodarczyk]

Slothrust have been kicking around Brooklyn for a while now, and the time they’ve spent gigging has paid off big-time with their latest release, Of Course You Do, a well-crafted slab that belongs on the shelf of any fan of aggressive guitars and soft/loud dynamics and instant-classic melodies. Vocalist/guitarist Leah Wellbaum, bassist Kyle Bann and drummer Will Gorin aren’t just your average rock n’ roll power trio, either — the members come from the jazz and blues scenes, which you might not have picked up on amid the pandemonium of this burner of a record release show at Shea Stadium. Because Slothrust, my friends, can play fucking heavy, and they brought it end-to-end during this fifty minutes at one of New York’s finest DIY venues.

Those nostalgic for a past golden age of guitar sounds, particularly the early 1990s, can be forgiven, I guess, for labeling Slothrust a “grunge band” and leaving it at that. The problem is, that term was fraught from its inception — none of the bands playing the “style” embraced it, and many of those bands didn’t sound much alike. What would be fair to say is that Slothrust’s set gave off the vibe of the best acts of that era (one site even compared them to early Nirvana). They can create community through noise, though their music is more than just that. Wellbaum can be deceptively thoughtful in her lyrics, and after a few listens, you pick up some of the blues streak that you might not have noticed on first go. Seeing this crowd, this band, gave me hope. Label it whatever you want, but there’s a type of heart in this music that you can’t replace with machines and samples. Lots of music can move bodies. I’m not sure all of it can move souls.

We are very pleased to announce that we’ll be covering Slothrust and a hose of other worthy acts at the Northern Spy / Ba Da Bing Records SXSW Showcase in Austin next month. Tiny Mix Tapes will be streaming live, and we will be hosting the recordings for download here. Here’s the press release.

This set was recorded in full digital multitrack in combined with a pair of my audience mics. One unique element of Shea Stadium is that the venue is (officially) a recording studio, so all of the shows there are recorded for streaming on their site. Because the layout of the venue makes our normal recording methods kind of impossible, the Shea team was gracious enough to let us use their digital multitrack files. That made for a recording of outstanding, almost album quality. We’d encourage you to check out their site for their own version of this show (coming soon) as well as previous Slothrust shows and those of hundreds of other bands.

Recordings of the rest of the bill — Big Ups, Low Fat Getting High, and Boytoy — will be available here soon.

Stream “Juice”

Download the complete show [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.

Slothrust
2014-02-21
Shea Stadium
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com courtesy of liveatsheastadium.com
Recorded by R.J. Gordon and acidjack
Produced by acidjack

10-track soundboard multitrack + Naiant X-X>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>>Adobe Audition CS5.5 (mixdown and effects)>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, compression, limiting)>Audacity 2.0.3 (tracking, fades, additional EQ, dither, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 Cubicle
03 Juice
04 7:30 AM
05 [banter]
06 The Couch Incident
07 Magnets Pt. 1>
08 Magnets Pt. 2
09 [banter2]
10 For Marshall
11 Misnomer
12 [banter3]
13 Crockpot
14 Homewreck Wifey
15 [banter4]
16 Beowulf

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Slothrust, visit their website, like them on Facebook, and buy Of Course You Do from Ba Da Bing Records.