[photo from Ira’s Hanukkah Diary]

I hope I’m entitled to change my mind once in a while. I had previously declared the brilliant Night 5 of Yo La Tengo’s 2010 Hanukkah Maxwell’s shows as my favorite. That night was a stunning example of noisy YLT at its best. But after reviewing and editing the recording for Night 7, I think I’m changing my vote. Any show that features uber-guitarist Nels Cline is a sure winner, and this particular show was no exception. The band began quietly with a sweet version of “I Feel Like Going Home”, but shortly after, all hell broke loose. The twelve-minute electronic controlled mayhem of “All the Glitter Is Gone” gave Ira and Nels an early chance to blend their distinctive chops and it was pure noisy bliss. Later in the set, Georgia’s “Little Eyes” (streaming below) was a perfect spotlight for each member’s talents. The real meat of the set started with the fast “Big Day Coming” (fourth time of the week, but still not old) and ended with “Pass The Hatchet”, which was propelled for fourteen solid minutes by the hypnotic bass work of James with Ira and Nels again provided dueling axes. YLT kept up the energy with two Ramones covers, before Bonnie Prince Billy and his band joined for the finale.

I recorded this set with the Neumann microphones placed in their usual front corner of the booth mixed with a board feed. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “Little Eyes”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/Y6644YLT9879/Little%20Eyes.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Yo La Tengo
2010-12-07
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ USA

Digital Master Recording
Four Channel Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > 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 and acidjack
2010-12-23

[Thanks to Jesse for setlist help]
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:41:01]
01 I Feel Like Going Home
02 All the Glitter Is Gone
03 Swing For Life
04 [banter]
05 Wasn’t Born To Follow [Carole King]
06 Season of the Shark
07 The Last Days of Disco
08 [banter2]
09 Shadows
10 Little Eyes
11 [banter3]
12 Black Flowers
13 Satellite
14 Big Day Coming
15 Serpentine
16 Artificial Heart
17 Tom Courtenay
18 Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind
19 [encore break]
20 Pet Cemetery [Ramones]
21 Sheena Is A Punk Rocker [Ramones]
22 [banter4]
23 Heavenly Arms [Lou Reed]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases from the store at their website [HERE].

[photo by Tim Besa]

The shortcut description of Wormburner the band is a cross between The Hold Steady and Camper Van Beethoven. The most striking aspect of the band is the Finn/Lowery styled matter-of-fact talking vocals of band leader Steve “Hank” Henry. In fact, the band’s 2006 debut album (A Hero’s Welcome) was produced by Camper’s David Lowery. But where Hold Steady can be aloof, and Camper sarcastic, Wormburner is a more sincere band than either of the comparisons. Hank’s lyrics are frank and often poignant slices of life that capture the ordinary lives of their protagonists. At Mercury Lounge on Friday last, Wormburner celebrated the vinyl release of their new album Placed by the Gideons at an event that also served as a holiday party for the band and their friends. As a tribute to the superb quality of the new album, the Gideons material highlighted the set, particularly “Pike City Proper” (streaming below) and “The Interstate”. In the spirit of the evening, the band closed the set with two holiday numbers.

I recorded this set with the Neumann microphones placed in the soundboard area and mixed with a soundboard feed. Unfortunately, the festive nature of the event led to a very high volume of crowd chatter which required me to mix the board feed at about 75%. As a result, the mix is typical for a board feed — vocal and kick-drum heavy with the instruments too far in the background. With that caveat, enjoy!

Download and stream the complete show [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/wormburner-2010-12-10.nyctaper

Wormburner
2010-12-10
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > 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
2009-12-22

Setlist:
[Total Time 48:28]
01 Stolen Tags
02 Sleepy Jane
03 Peekskill
04 A Hero’s Welcome
05 Astronauts
06 Muscle Car
07 Little Things
08 [banter]
09 Two Kinds of People
10 Pike City Proper
11 [banter2]
12 The Interstate
13 [banter3]
14 (Christmas) Bells of St. Ignatius
15 Holiday Road [Lindsey Buckingham]

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

[photos by Ryan Muir courtesy of Stereogum]

There are an infinite number of established artists who for a variety of reasons avoid their earliest work. Perhaps for the same reason we cringe when we see photos of ourselves as teenagers, musicians see their earliest work as immature and underdeveloped. For instance, Paul Simon is said to be embarrassed by the songwriting of the earliest Simon and Garfunkel works. On the flip side of this equation are the artists who lose the creative force and rely too heavily on their early material — i.e. the nostalgia acts. At Housing Works in November, Stereogum presented a performer who has expertly straddled this artistic enigma. Twenty-five years into her fruitful career, Suzanne Vega continues as a viable creative writer and performer, and fortunately for the longtime fans she also continues to embrace her earliest material. In the packed Bookstore Cafe on a chilly November Sunday night, Suzanne opened her set with “Marlene On The Wall”. Accompanied by the multi-talented Gerry Leonard, Suzanne offered an intimate duet version of the song that catapulted her career. With her voice as the centerpiece, “Marlene” is a number that at once provides a rich melody with lyrics that offer a complex perspective on a difficult relationship. The song also proved nearly three decades ago that Suzanne Vega was a fully formed artist from the outset, capable of introspective and mature lyrics coupled with a warm voice and a strong sense of melody. As she has now established her own record label, this year Suzanne has revisited these songs and re-recorded them for her “Close-Up” series. The Housing Works set featured many of the songs from the two current volumes (“Love Songs” and “People & Places”), including classic songs “Small Blue Thing”, “The Queen And The Soldier” and the closing numbers “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner”. Suzanne’s contemporary material was also well represented as she performed her contribution to the posthumous Sparklehorse/Dangermouse album “The Man Who Played God”, a song from her upcoming musical about the writer Carson McCullers (“The Instant of The Hour After”) and several songs that will appear on the anticipated 2011 releases of Volumes 3 and 4 of the Close-Up releases. As our readers can witness on this recording, all of these songs, old and new, were expertly delivered with the same level of proficiency and commitment. It is rare that an artist can balance her material with such precision.

Suzanne Vega will again perform in NYC on January 8, 2011 when she plays Town Hall with Marc Cohn.

This show was engineered by Suzanne’s soundman Phil Sullivan, who mixed it to perfection. My recording is a blend of his soundboard feed along with the DPA microphones placed at the center of the room about 30 feet back from the stage. As a result, the superb quality of this recording is perhaps unmatched by anything we’ve ever offered on this site. Enjoy!

Many thanks to Suzanne Vega, Michael Hausman, Phil Sullivan, Scott Lapatine, and Rachel Fershleiser for making this event and this recording happen.

Download and stream the complete show [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/suzanne-vega-2010-11-14.nyctaper

Suzanne Vega
2010-11-14
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + DPA 4021s > 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
2010-11-16

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:20:00]
01 [introduction]
02 Marlene On the Wall
03 When Heroes Go Down
04 [banter1]
05 Caramel
06 Small Blue Thing
07 [banter2]
08 Bonnie and Clyde [Serge Gainsbourg]
09 [banter3]
10 Gypsy
11 [banter4]
12 Ironbound/Fancy Poultry
13 [banter5]
14 Tombstone
15 Blood Makes Noise
16 [banter6]
17 The Man Who Played God [Sparklehorse]
18 [banter7]
19 The Queen and The Soldier
20 Rock In This Pocket (Song Of David)
21 Some Journey
22 [banter8]
23 Luka
24 Tom’s Diner
25 [encore break]
26 The Instant of the Hour After
27 Rosemary

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Suzanne Vega, visit their website, and purchase her official releases from Fan Shop at her website [HERE].