Heartless Bastards: July 23, 2011 Mercury Lounge – FLAC / MP3 Downloads + Streaming Samples

July 29, 2011
By


[Photo by Johnny]

Having become a fan of Heartless Bastards only in the past few years, I’ve been treated better by them in that short time than any devotee could ask for.  After catching several of their brilliant concerts, including the MHoW and Bowery gigs last year, we were graced by a pair of acoustic performances at the intimate Mercury Lounge this time around.  Sans a drummer, Erika, Jesse and Mark gave us captivating, pared down renditions of their work including several new songs, a Bob Dylan cover (one of my personal favorites of his) and brought out singer Heidi Johnson for the majority of the set to harmonize on the vocals.  And once again, when the night ended, I found myself already expectant for their next set of shows.  If the new material is an indication of what’s to come on the next Heartless Bastards album, I’m sure to find myself even more impatient in the interim.

As a compliment to our microphones, the most excellent and gracious house engineer, Kevin, gave us a patch out of the soundboard.  Combined with the dead-center location of our mics, the result is a superb recording and indicative of the outstanding sound in this venue.  Enjoy!

Night two was also recorded and will be posted soon.

Stream “Sway”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/H6602HB9922/Heartless Bastards – Sway.mp3]
Stream “Could Be So Happy“:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/H6602HB9922/Heartless Bastards – Could Be So Happy.mp3]

Direct download of the complete show in MP3 [HERE]
Direct download of the complete show in FLAC [HERE]

If either of the links are no longer working, email nyctaper with a request for the download location of the files.

Heartless Bastards
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY, USA

Source: SBD + AKG C 414 B-XLS’s > Edirol R-44 (WAV @ 24-bit/48kHz)
Lineage: R-44 > USB > PC > Adobe Audition (mixdown, adjust levels, downsample, dither, tracking) > WAV (16-bit/44.1kHz) > Trader’s Little Helper (check/fix SBE’s, FLAC) > FLAC ( level 8 )
Mercury Lounge house engineer: Kevin
Recorded and produced by: Johnny Fried Chicken Boy

SETLIST:
[Total time: 1:11:10]
01. Marathon  [new song]
02. Sway
03. Hold Your Head High
04. The Will Song
05. Skin and Bone  [new song]
06. The Arrow Killed the Beast  [new song]
07. Searching for the Ghost
08. [new song]
09. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere  [Bob Dylan]
10. Runnin
11. Could Be So Happy
12. [encore break]
13. The Mountain

If you download this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Heartless Bastards, visit their website, visit their MySpace and Facebook pages, and purchase their official releases and merchandise [HERE].

Family Band: July 23, 2011 Backyard Brunch Sessions – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

July 29, 2011
By


[photo by Dominic Mastrangelo]

Family Band are a salve to a nerve-frayed city where everybody climbs their steps two at a time. Indeed, the Brooklyn back yard where the latest Backyard Brunch Sessions was held could as well have been miles from the city; in the presence of Family Band, we were transfixed, and transported. The components of the band’s sound are vocalist/guitarist Kim Krans, whose dusky, haunting vocals give the songs their emotional core; her husband, guitarist/pedal bassist Jonny Ollsin, and Scott Hirsch, on pedal steel. If you noticed that there was no drummer in that mix, that’s right – the band relies on minimal percussion beyond a tambourine tapped lightly by Krans’ feet, or Krans’ handheld “golden eggs”. The result gives their songs a hushed, intense and slightly mournful quality; Ollsin only half-jokingly called it “death prom”. But maybe that’s because New Yorkers associate a slowed pace with sadness; Krans and Ollsin write most of their songs up in the Catskills, where they met, and if you look at it that way, there is a pastoral quality to these songs as well. Given how scorching hot and humid it was outside in Brooklyn on this otherwise gorgeous day, many of us wished we were in those mountains, too (even if the show did come with brunch courtesy of Ollsin, bloody marys courtesy of McClure’s Pickles, and Adirondack Creamery ice cream).
The band, who have toured recently with both Phosphorescent and Warpaint, are working on a new record that they hope to release later this year. Several of these songs are new ones that will appear on it, and if the rest of the record is as outstanding as songs like “Again” and “Forgive the Rest”, it will be a great one. This show was also a first for Backyard Brunch shows in that it was the first fully electric performance that has been hosted, and that fit Family Band’s sound perfectly, as it relies much more heavily on the electric pedal bass to carry the songs. If Krans, Ollsin and Hirsch were suffering from heat (which they had to be) it didn’t show in a spot-on performance of these soothing, thought-provoking songs. For this half hour, at least, we could forget the rush, live in the moment, and enjoy.

I recorded this set with AKG large-diaphragm microphones miking the band’s amplifiers, using Schoeps supercardiods as very high-end vocal mics. The results are outstanding. Enjoy!

Stream “Forgive the Rest”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/F0723FamilyBand0211/04%20Forgive%20the%20Rest.mp3]

Stream “Hatred”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/F0723FamilyBand0211/07%20Hatred.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Follow acidjack on Twitter

Family Band
2011-07-23
Backyard Brunch Sessions
Brooklyn, NY USA

An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced for nyctaper.com by acidjack

Equipment: AKG C414 B-XLS (wide cardiod)>Sound Devices USBpre2 + Schoeps Mk41>CMC6 >> Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod] (24/48)
Mastering: 4×24bit/48kHz WAV>Audition (effects, mixdown)>Audacity (set fades, EQ, tracking, amplify and balance)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 [Intro]
02 The Field
03 [banter]
04 Forgive the Rest
05 [tuning]
06 Fantasy
07 Hatred
08 [banter]
09 Again

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Family Band, visit their website, and purchase their current LP, Miller Path, directly from their bandcamp page.

Weird Owl: July 14, 2011 Union Pool – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Song

July 27, 2011
By

weird owl
[Photo Credit]

Weird Owl make bad-ass stoner rock for the modern era, and this show at Union Pool found them rocking the living hell out of an expectant crowd that was about to see headliner White Hills. It is hard to hear a songs like the reverb-heavy monster “Stral Proj” or the space rock of “Mind Mountain” and not imagine them being played to a crowd of feathered haircuts, bell bottoms and tie-dye rather than modern-day BK hipsters. Weird Owl’s music has a deep, satisfying heaviness to it, with the rich roar of classic analog amps and wah-wah pedals. Their new record, Build Your Beast A Fire, just released on Tee Pee Records, is a fifteen-song monster that finds the band tightening up their songwriting a bit, crafting slightly more approachable songs that deliver on the promise suggested by their 2009 debut, Ever the Silver Cord Be Loosed. Though short, this set gave expectant fans a dose of the new songs’ greatness. Make Weird Owl and Build Your Beast A Fire part of your summer, now. Because we told you so.

hi and lo and I recorded this set with four microphones and a soundboard feed. The split wide cardiod microphones, in particular, give the recording a huge, detailed sound. Enjoy!

Stream “Straj Proj”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/W1407WeirdOwl1120/04 Straj Proj.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Follow acidjack on Twitter

Weird Owl
2011-07-14
Union Pool
Brooklyn, NY USA

Recorded by acidjack and hi and lo for nyctaper.com
Produced by acidjack

Equipment: AKG C414 B-XLS (wide cardiod mode)>Oade M248 + Schoeps mk41>CMR>tinybox + Soundboard >> Tascam DR-680 (24/48)
Position: AKGs split 6′ on balcony, Schoeps DINa on balcony, DFC
Mastering: 24bit/48kHz WAV>Audacity (mixdown, set fades, amplify and balance)>FLAC ( level 8 )

01 Saucer-Shaped Shadow>
02 Skin the Dawn
03 Up From the Root
04 Stral Proj
05 Parallax Eyes
06 Mind Mountain
07 Mountains On Top of Buried Stars

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Weird Owl, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their records from Tee Pee Records [HERE]

Oneida: June 19, 2011 Secret Project Robot (Absolute II Set) – Flac and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Song

July 26, 2011
By


[photo by martin glenn & julie ruiz from A Horse With No Name Photography]

The third piece of Oneida’s Thank Your Parents trilogy was released in June, and the band performed each of the three albums of the project on the same weekend. We previously posted recordings of the Preteen Weaponry set, and the Rated O set. The final piece was performed at the very unique hour of daybreak, which in June amounted to 4:45 a.m on a Sunday. While some of the participants (namely the band) stayed up all night from the Saturday full-day jam session, I decided to make a fresh day of the event, went to bed early on Saturday night and set the alarm for 4 a.m. When I arrived at Monster Island pre-dawn, I expected a virtually empty room, sans band and diehards. Quite to the contrary, the main space at Secret Project Robot was loaded with all-nighters and a few early risers and was essentially a filled room. As the sun rose and reflected off the Brooklyn side of the East River, Absolute II was played in its entirety. This is difficult music to comprehend on a first listen, but as the sunlight seeped in through the open door on River Street, it was an appropriate sublime soundtrack to accompany the brain haze of an early Sunday daybreak seen through the eyes of the sleep deprived. The entire Thank Your Parents trilogy is a unique musical accomplishment from a band that has spent the last decade and a half inventing new ways to express its infinite musical potential.

I recorded this same in the same manner as the previous two sets, with the Neumanns mounted at the soundboard and mixed with a modest soundboard feed. The sound quality is representative of the performance. Enjoy!

Stream “Gray Area”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/O8020Oneida3329/03.%20Gray%20Area.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Oneida
2011-06-19
Secret Project Robot
Brooklyn, NY USA

The Absolute II Set

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 16bit 44.1kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
2010-07-26

Setlist:
[Total Time 55:00]
01 Pre Human
02 Horizons
03 Gray Area
04 Absolute II

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Oneida, visit their website, visit their page at Jagjaguwar Records, and purchase all of the CDs in the Thank Your Parents trilogy at the Jagjaguwar site [HERE], [HERE] and [HERE] .

David Bazan: June 22, 2011 Bowery Ballroom – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Song

July 26, 2011
By

Bazan
[Photos courtesy of Vicki Boardman. Visit her website]

Seattle singer-songwriter David Bazan first made his name recording under the moniker Pedro the Lion, a project that yielded some excellent records such as 1998’s It’s Hard to Find a Friend, and gave Bazan a fuzzed-out forum to air his beliefs – most notably among them his belief in Christianity (Christian publications even referred to his records as “crossover” records, i.e., to the secular mainstream), a relatively rare thing to find in a critically-acclaimed indie songwriter. Since then, Bazan has “broken up” in a sense with Christianity, as well as his former cast of bandmates and continued performing under his own name, making what some have called the best music of his career. His first solo effort, 2009’s Curse Your Branches, laid bare his spiritual conflict with cleanly constructed songs built around his mournful voice.

That voice took center stage at this Bowery Ballroom show, sure, but what was striking about this performance was the quality of everything around that voice – catchy, strong rock riffs evident from the opening notes of “Wolves at the Door,” and a crack backing band. While it may have been a “singer-songwriter” show in a sense, this was also a rock show through and through. Unsurprisingly, Bazan played 80% of his latest, 2011’s Strange Negotiations, but he also delved into the early Pedro the Lion catalog, including “Big Trucks” and “Of Up and Coming Monarchs” from It’s Hard to Find a Friend. Those who say Bazan’s current period is his brightest could have a point – the newer material not only held its own, but might have surpassed the Pedro material.

hi and lo recorded this set with a combination of Schoeps supercardiod microphones and Schoeps omnidirectional microphones, which given the extremely respectful crowd and the outstanding acoustics of the venue, gives the perfect sound balance. Enjoy!

Stream “Virginia”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/D2106DavidBazan0211/davidbazan2011-06-22.virginia.mp3]

Stream “Wolves at the Door”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/D2106DavidBazan0211/davidbazan2011-06-22.wolves.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

David Bazan
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY, US
2011-06-22

Recordist : hi and lo
Location : Left Balcony, on stand @ 8ft
Source : Schoeps MK5 (omni) > Nbox+ + Schoeps MK41/CMR > Naint PFA > E.A.A. PSP-2 >> Tascam DR-680 @ 24 bit / 96 kHz
Edit : WaveLab v5 (fades/dither/+11dB gain), Izotope SRC/Dither
Final Format : 16 bit, 44.1 kHz
Tracking : CD-Wave v1.98
Encoding : FLAC v1.2.1 ( Level 8 ) with TLH v2.6.0 (Build 168)

Tracks [Total Time 1:17:15]
01. Wolves at the Door
02. How I Remember
03. Level with Yourself
04. Bless This Mess
05. Of Up and Coming Monarchs
(Q&A #1)
06. Virginia
07. Big Trucks
08. Don’t Change
09. Eating Paper
10. Bearing Witness
11. Magazine
12. Won’t Let Go
13. People
14. Transcontinental
15. Cold Beer and Cigarettes
16. When They Really Get to Know You, They Will Run
(Q&A #2)
17. Strange Negotiations
18. (Encore Call)
19. April the 14th, Part 1 (Gillian Welch)
(Q&A #3)
20. Hard to Be
[Note: All banter and Q&A tracks have been removed at artist request]

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT David Bazan, visit his website, and purchase Strange Negotiations from Barsuk Records [HERE]

Anamanaguchi: July 22, 2011 Music Hall of Williamsburg – Flac and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Song

July 24, 2011
By

anamana mhow
[photo by Thomas Dougherty]

I’d like to claim to have predicted the kind of huge success that Anamanaguchi has achieved since we saw them last at the Knitting Factory in January, but really I was somewhat late to the game. The band sold out the Knit that cold night, but six months later Music Hall of Williamsburg was packed to the walls on the hottest night in memory. By the time Anamanaguchi took the stage at 11 pm after two energetic openers, the crowd was absolutely manic. The quartet entered to a throbbing programmed beat and worked the crowd for a couple of minutes before breaking into a frenzied “Mess”. Immediately, massive crowd surfing began and a stream of stage jumpers continued unabated throughout the seventy-minute set. Although they are labeled as a 8-bit chiptune band, the energy in Music Hall was clearly right out of the punk manual. The first half of the set continued without break, as each song combined the four lively musicians with the band’s layered synthesizers. By the time the band stopped to catch their wind and switch some guitars, it seemed as if everyone in the pit needed a time out. After a breather, the set continued with four “space” themed songs, including the excellent “Aurora” (streaming below). Following two encores, band and crowd were overtaken by exhaustion and exited the venue tired but satisfied with a show of immense entertainment value from both artist and fan.

I recorded this set from the center of the balcony with the four microphone rig. The sound quality is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “Aurora”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/A6001Aguchi1120/15.%20Aurora.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Anamanaguchi
2011-07-22
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Four-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Center Balcony Rail

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2011-07-24

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:04:12]
01 Mess
02 Densmore
03 My Skateboard Will Go On
04 [banter]
05 Penpal
06 Snow
07 UNME
08 Stolen Car Babe Highway Tokyo Drift
09 Airbrushed
10 Blackout City
11 [banter2]
12 Space Wax America
13 Helix Nebula
14 [banter2]
15 Aurora
16 [encore break]
17 Don’t Save Us From The Flames [M83]
18 Mermaid

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Anamanaguchi, visit their website, and purchase their official releases at the Store at their website [HERE].

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