Greensky Bluegrass: July 13, 2012 Highline Ballroom – Flac and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

July 16, 2012
By


[photo by froboy]

Bluegrass is a musical genre that unfortunately gets short shrift at nyctaper. And it shouldn’t be that way. One of my favorite concerts of all time was a memorable collaboration between Steve Earle and the Del McCoury band at Town Hall in 1998, and I can also say that I saw the legendary Bill Monroe in concert at Damrosch Park in 1990. So in an effort to rectify that shortcoming, on Friday I made it to Highline Ballroom for a bluegrass double bill including one of the foremost “newgrass” bands Greensky Bluegrass, and local up and comers The Union Street Preservation Society (recording coming soon). Greensky is a quintet that’s been around for a dozen years and has accumulated a strong national following. On Friday night, they brought the goods — a two-set two-plus hour show that consisted of a healthy dose of original material, some traditional bluegrass numbers, and a series of eclectic rock covers all performed with stunning proficiency and with an authentic reperatory feel. We’re streaming “I’m Working on a Building”, an old negro spiritual made most famous by The Carter Family but also performed often by the aforementioned Mr. Monroe. Of the covers (Prince, Springsteen), the Talking Heads cover that was featured as the penultimate song of the night is also streaming below. At the end of the evening it was clear that if Greensky is the mantle carrier for the current generation of blue/newgrass music, then the genre is in very good hands indeed.

I recorded this set with the Neumann microphones set up directly in front of the soundboard and mixed with an excellent board feed. The mics picked up quite a bit of chatter during the first set, which relies more on the board feed, while the second set is heavier towards the mics. The sound quality on both is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “I’m Working on a Building”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/G1307GreenskyBluegrass1202/16.%20I%27m%20Workin%20on%20a%20Building%20%5bCarter%20Family%5d.mp3]

Stream “Road To Nowhere” [Talking Heads]:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/G1307GreenskyBluegrass1202/23.%20Road%20to%20Nowhere%20%5bTalking%20Heads%5d.mp3]

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

Greensky Bluegrass
2012-07-13
Highline Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper 2012-07-15

Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 1:04:17]
01 Kerosene
02 I Second That Emotion [Miracles]
03 [banter – feel good juice]
04 Worried About The Weather
05 Hit Parade of Love
06 [banter – dance battle]
07 Break Mountain Breakdown
08 Atlantic City [Springsteen]
09 [banter – Hartford intro]
10 Steam Powered Aereo Plane [John Hartford]
11 Bottle Dry
12 When Doves Cry [Prince]

Set 2
[Total Time 1:13:44]
13 Bring Out Your Dead
14 Train Junkie
15 Been This Way Before
16 I’m Workin on a Building [Carter Family]
17 Highline Breakdown
18 [banter – Highline]
19 Old Barns
20 Take Me Back
21 Jesus on the Mainline
22 Don’t Lie
23 Road to Nowhere [Talking Heads]
24 Doesn’t Make Sense
25 [encore break]*
26 Down The Road
27 You Ain’t Going Nowhere [Dylan]
*encores unamplified

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

Amen Dunes: June 17, 2012 Glasslands and June 24, 2012 Knitting Factory – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

July 13, 2012
By


[Photos by acidjack]

The Sacred Bones Records showcase was the last show I saw at the Northside Festival, and it was also one of the ones I anticipated the most. First, because I try to never miss a chance to see bands I like at Glasslands, and second, because it was a stellar lineup from beginning to end. Of the bands playing, Amen Dunes were one I had not seen before, but they won me over early with their hypnotic, dark sound that recalls Syd Barrett, the Velvet Underground, Suicide and 13th Floor Elevators, among others. Founder and frontman Damon McMahon has claimed that he gets nervous performing live, but you wouldn’t have known it during this confident, if too short, set. Of course, it’s unlikely that McMahon could see us any more clearly than we could see him given the huge clouds of man-made fog he played in. If nothing else, the fog gave the show even more of a narcotic vibe.

This set gave us a taste of some of McMahon’s best songs from his recent record, Through Donkey Jaw. McMahon’s songs, now produced by a three-man band, tend to be downtempo affairs, but they held this crowd rapt, especially on numbers like the opener to Donkey Jaw, “Baba Yaga”.  We were fortunate enough to catch a second, slightly longer Amen Dunes show on the following Sunday at the Knitting Factory when nyctaper saw Amen Dunes opened for another of our favorite bands, the Wooden Shjips (that recording [HERE]). McMahon is one of those artists whose integrity and brilliance you recognize instantly, and we both felt that way when we caught our respective sets.

I recorded the Glasslands set with a soundboard feed and Schoeps MK5 microphones; the Knitting Factory set was similarly recorded with Sennheiser MKH-8040 microphones and a soundboard feed. Both are outstanding, with excellent house mixes. The Glasslands recording favors the soundboard more, while the Knitting Factory recording favors the sound from the Sennheiser microphones.  Enjoy!

Stream “Lower Mind” from the Knitting Factory:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/A1706AmenDunes0212/02 Lower Mind.mp3]

Stream “Baba Yaga” from Glasslands:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/A1706AmenDunes0212/05 Baba Yaga.mp3]

Download the MP3s: [Glasslands] | [Knitting Factory]

Download the FLACs: [Glasslands] | [Knitting Factory]

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.

Amen Dunes
2012-06-24
Knitting Factory
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded by nyctaper
Produced by acidjack

Sennheiser MKH-8040 + Soundboard>Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audition CS 5.5 (mixdown)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ)>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Diane
02 Lower Mind
03 Swim Up Behind Me
04 Bedroom Drum
05 Not A Slave
06 Baba Yaga
07 [unknown]
_____________________________
Amen Dunes
2012-06-17
Glasslands Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard + Schoeps MK5 (cardiod, DFC, DIN, 8ft)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2>>Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audition (mixdown, balance)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, analog effects)>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify and balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Diane
02 Lower Mind
03 Swim Up Behind Me
04 Bedroom Drum
05 Baba Yaga

If you enjoyed these recordings, PLEASE SUPPORT Amen Dunes, like them on Facebook, and buy their records directly from Sacred Bones Records.

Crystal Stilts: June 17, 2012 Glasslands [Northside Festival] – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

July 11, 2012
By


[photos by acidjack]

As noted in our post back in May about the band, this site has followed Crystal Stilts from early on in their career. In my times seeing the band, I have watched them grow from at-times diffident live performers into a dialed-in act whose performances retain the ramshackle greatness of their earlier shows, but deliver a polish on their instruments and a solidity to their sound that was missing in some of those earlier shows. The band closed out the stellar Northside Festival showcase put on by Sacred Bones Records in real style, keeping Glasslands filled to capacity even though it was well after midnight on a Sunday. This set went everywhere in their catalog, from their latest LP In Love With Oblivion, to their current Radiant Door EP, and all the way back to their 2008 breakout LP Alight of Night.  They also served up a relatively rare track, “Love Is A Wave” from a 2009 7″, as well as a new number that I am calling “Delirium” for now. This set was completely different than the one we saw back in May

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK5 microphones and a soundboard feed from the Glasslands staff.  Like many of our Crystal Stilts recordings, this one is excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “Delirium [new song]”
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/C1207CrystalStilts2220/07 Delirium.mp3]

Stream “Love Is A Wave”
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/C1207CrystalStilts2220/11 Love Is A Wave.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE] | Direct Download of the FLAC files [HERE]

Follow acidjack on twitter

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.

 

Crystal Stilts
2012-06-17
Glasslands Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard + Schoeps MK5 (cardiod, DFC, DIN, 8ft)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2>>Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audition (mixdown, balance)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ)>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify and balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 Invisible City
03 Half A Moon
04 Shattered Shine
05 Sycamore Tree
06 Blood Barons
07 “Delirium” [new]
08 [interlude]
09 Shake the Shackles
10 Still As the Night
11 Love Is A Wave
12 Prometheus At Large

If you enjoyed these recordings, PLEASE SUPPORT Crystal Stilts, visit their website and purchase In Love With Oblivion from Slumberland Records [HERE] and the Radiant Door EP from Sacred Bones Records [HERE].

Starlight Girls: June 16, 2012 Spike Hill [Northside Festival] – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

July 9, 2012
By


[Photos by acidjack]

At this Northside Festival day show meant to showcase four of the “8 Bands You Need to Hear” (as determined by the L Magazine), Starlight Girls drew a crowd. As the first act on the bill, taking the stage during what most festivalgoers probably thought of as “recovery time” could have been a challenge. But by about the middle of  “Try”, the third song in their set, the Spike Hill show room was packed. The band serves up an addictive sound that references lounge music, 60s girl groups, soul and lo-fi indie rock – a perfect antidote to a hung over afternoon. The show began on a mellow note, but quickly ramped up the energy as the crowd (and the band’s confidence) grew. By the time the band tore into “Lion In A Cage,” my favorite number of the day, they had won over all doubters. I was also a big fan of one of the earlier, more lounge-y numbers, “$9,000,000” in particular.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK5 cardioid microphones and a soundboard feed from the Spike Hill engineer.  The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Thanks to Spike Hill and Starlight Girls.

Stream “$9,000,000”
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/S6016StarlightGirls2102/05 9M.mp3]

Stream “Lion In A Cage”
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/S6016StarlightGirls2102/08 Lion In A Cage.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE] | Direct Download of the FLAC files [HERE]

Follow acidjack on twitter

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.

Starlight Girls
2012-06-16
Spike Hill
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Schoeps MK5 (cardiod, slightly LOC, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard >> Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mixdown)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify and balance)>FLAC (level 8 )

Tracks
01 La La Lune
02 [tuning]
03 Gossip
04 Try
05 $9,000,000
06 Wasteland
07 Wallflower
08 Lion in a Cage
09 Nomad
10 Inhibitionist
11 Like a Movie
12 The Hunch

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Starlight Girls, visit their website, and download their EP FOR FREE on bandcamp.

Sam Prekop & Archer Prewitt: June 30, 2012 Mercury Lounge – FLAC/MP3/Streaming + Bonus Download of April 7, 1999 Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC

July 8, 2012
By

Sam Prekop
[still from this video]

A Sam Prekop show changed my life. I was nineteen years old, set up to record in the center of a tiny venue in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Halfway through the set, a guy came up to me who turned out to be my college newspapers music editor. Impressed that I was one of only two people from our school (not UNC) who bothered to come to see acts like this (Sam was touring behind his self-titled 1999 solo debut), he more or less offered me the job. My relationship with music, and with writing, was never the same hence.

Since then, Prekop has continued to make his own unique brand of jazz-and-lounge-inflected rock, both as a solo act and with the better-known Sea and Cake, still considered his primary gig. A recent Sea and Cake show at Bowery Ballroom confirmed the continuing vitality and appeal of that band, who have a new record coming out. But Prekop, who for years has incorporated African and Brazilian rhythms into his guitar work, has more ideas than one band can handle. So, while continuing to record with Sea and Cake, he has put out a diverse range of solo records, from his eponymous 1999 effort that was essentially Sea and Cake-style material, to his latest, Old Punch Card, which finds Prekop taking a radical, ambient turn with his sound. This show at Mercury Lounge, featuring Prekop and fellow Sea and Cake bandmate Archer Prewitt (also a great solo artist in his own right), gave fans a miniature retrospective of Prekop’s career. Kicking off with a new, untitled ambient jam reminiscent of Old Punch Card, the set then evolved into a mix of Prekop solo songs from the last twelve years, as well as Sea and Cake classics like “Do Now Fairly Well” and “The Staircase”. Prekop and Prewitt played with the easy rapport of long-time collaborators, and even without any particular stage adornments or a backing band, the pair held the attention of the packed house for the full hour.

Along with the Mercury Lounge recording, which is my usual mix of Schoeps MK41 microphones and a soundboard feed, I am offering the Sam Prekop show from North Carolina, which has not been distributed (at least by me) since the year 2000, as a bonus download.  The North Carolina recording, while made with a decent rig, is not comparable in quality to the Mercury Lounge show (in large part due to the jackasses talking in the audience), but features Sam playing with a full band, and is more focused on material from Sam Prekop.  Enjoy!

Stream “The Staircase [Sea and Cake]” from Mercury Lounge:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/S0811SeaandCake0211/03 The Staircase.mp3]

Stream “The Company” from Mercury Lounge:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/S0811SeaandCake0211/07 The Company.mp3]

Stream “The Shadow” from Local 506 in Chapel Hill, NC:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/S0811SeaandCake0211/05 The Shadow.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files: [Mercury Lounge] | [Local 506]

Download the Mercury Lounge FLAC files [HERE]

Download the Local 506 FLAC files [HERE]

Follow acidjack on twitter

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.

Sam Prekop & Archer Prewitt
2012-06-30
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

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

Soundboard + Schoeps MK41>CMC6>Aerco MP-2 >> Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audition (mixdown)>Izotope Ozone 5 (light EQ)>Audacity (set fades, mild DR compression and additional EQ, tracking, amplify and balance, downsample)>FLAC (level 8 )

Tracks
01 ambient jam
02 Something [Sam Prekop]
03 The Staircase [Sea and Cake]
04 On A Letter [Sea and Cake]
05 Between Outside [Sam Prekop]
06 [banter]
07 The Company [Sam Prekop]
08 Showrooms [Sam Prekop]
09 Don’t Bother [Sam Prekop]
10 On Such Favors [Sam Prekop]
11 Coconut [Sea and Cake]
12 Do Now Fairly Well [Sea and Cake]
__________________

Sam Prekop
1999-04-07
Local 506
Chapel Hill, NC USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack

Nakamichi CM300/cp1 (XY, DFC, 7ft)>Zefiro InBox>TCD-D8>DATM>CDRM>xAct>16bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (set fades, tracking, adjust levels)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 The Company
02 Practice Twice
03 Smaller Rivers
04 Don’t Bother
05 The Shadow
06 On Such Favors>Faces and People
07 Showrooms
08 So Shy
09 [encore break]
10 Do Now Fairly Well [Sea and Cake]
11 Parasol

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Sam Prekop, visit the Sea and Cake’s website, and purchase Sam’s records from Thrill Jockey [HERE]

Wymond Miles: June 17, 2012 Glasslands [Northside Festival] – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

July 6, 2012
By

wymond miles
[photo by Dale Eisinger – courtesy of Impose Magazine]

Fresh & Onlys guitarist Wymond Miles proved his chops as a frontman in his own right at this Glasslands show during the Northside Festival. With this particular show being showcase of some of the most promising acts from Sacred Bones Records, Miles easily put himself in that company with a performance that introduced (or re-introduced) the crowd to his solo material, including his most recent record (and second this year!), Under the Pale Moon.  A downbeat record that tackles some recent tragedies in Miles’ personal life, Miles’ delivery was anything but dour. Although he was technically the night’s resident ambassador of the San Francisco psych-rock scene, Miles’ set carried on the stripped-down immediacy of Under the Pale Moon; a rocker like “Run Like the Hunted” has no space for blissed-out psychedelia. That role was left to the tracks from Miles’ Earth Has Doors EP, “”Hidden Things Are Asking You To Find Them”, “Temples of Magick” and the set’s closer, “Earth Has Doors, Let Them Open”. Miles has obvious gifts as a frontman, both in his command of an audience and his look. With his prolific songwriting ability to go with it, it’s fair to say that Miles is in no danger of being “some dude from that other band” in the eyes of anyone.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK5 microphones in our usual spot in the venue, plus a soundboard feed.  The results are excellent.  Enjoy!

Stream “Pale Moon”
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/W7016WymondMiles2012/03 Pale Moon.mp3]

Stream “The Thirst”
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/W7016WymondMiles2012/07 The Thirst.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE] | Direct Download of the FLAC files [HERE]

Follow acidjack on twitter

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.

Wymond Miles
2012-06-17
Glasslands Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard + Schoeps MK5 (cardiod, DFC, DIN, 8ft)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2>>Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audition (mixdown, balance)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, invisible lift effect)>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify and balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Strange Desire
02 Hidden Things Are Asking You To Find Them
03 Pale Moon
04 Singing the Ending
05 Temples of Magick
06 Run Like the Hunted
07 The Thirst
08 Earth Has Doors, Let Them Open

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Wymond Miles, visit his bandcamp page, and purchase his official releases directly from Sacred Bones Records in their online store.

SUPPORT NYCTaper




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