[photo courtesy of Natasha Ryan]

The last time we saw Deerhunter, it was two years ago (at Music Hall) and the band was riding the success of Microcastle and performing as a five-piece band. Bradford and the band were relaxed and playing with more confidence than ever. In the intervening two years, Deerhunter has not been particularly active as a touring band, as Bradford has released an Atlas Sound album (and tour) and the band got busy recording the next album — Halcyon Digest due for release on September 28 on 4AD Records. Last night in the rain at Pier 54, Deerhunter returned to NYC as a four-piece and played a blistering guitar-heavy set that featured four new songs and several re-worked older numbers. Of note were the upbeat “Rainwater Cassette Exchange”, a long (eight minute) shimmering “Fluorescent Grey” (streaming below) and the completely rabid twenty-minute “Nothing Ever Happened” that devolved into a lengthy multilayered and looped guitar jam. Deerhunter means business with this more muscled approach and we expect that Halcyon Digest will be a superb new release.

This set was recorded with our mobile DPA rig from the first row on the rail, directly in front of the left PA stack at about 15 feet. The recording has an in-your-face directness and clarity, but the sound mix in the outdoor venue was spotty at times, and often over-modulated Bradford’s guitar. With those caveats, enjoy!

Download and stream the complete show [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/deerhunter-2010-08-12.nyctaper

Deerhunter
2010-08-12
Pier 54
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front Row
15 Feet From Left Stack

DPA 4021’s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM) > 16bit 44.1 wav > Soundforge (set fades, level adjustment, slight eq) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper 2010-08-13

Setlist:
[total time 1:19:53]
01 Desire Lines
02 Hazel Street
03 Revival
04 Rainwater Cassette Exchange
05 Never Stops
06 Spring Hall Convert
07 Fountain Stairs
08 Wash Off
09 Fluorescent Grey
10 Helicopter
11 [encore break – loops]
12 Cover Me (Slowly)
13 Agoraphobia
14 Nothing Ever Happened / Jam

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Deerhunter, visit their MySpace page, visit the band blog, visit the Halcyon Digest page, and purchase Halcyon Digest when it is released by 4AD Records [here].

[Photos courtesy of Sarah Dinkz Lu]

Shark? closed out the Gaza Benefit Show this past Saturday on a strong note, the perfect prelude to another few hours of drinking.  If you had not been enjoying too many of “The Stoop” cocktails proffered at the bar, you would have noticed that despite the inevitable “lo-fi” tag earned by their Fear! (they love punctuation), Noise Maker and School Night! EPs, their live show is more straight-ahead rock, with frontman Kevin Diamond’s vocals out in front and not buried behind distortion.  More like The Feelies, less like Blank Dogs or The Black Lips, if you will.  The band covered surefire favorites from all of the aforementioned EPs, plus at least one song, “Slap Dash” that will hopefully appear on their fully Kickstarter-funded forthcoming full length album.   Gifted with a healthy sense of humor and an ability to distill songs to their tuneful, head-bobbing essence, Shark? should be fixtures on the scene (and maybe beyond) for awhile.  Just listen to the call and response of the main set’s closer, “Shark?” and the instantly catchy final number, “Tiny Violins”.   Imagine that music, a dark club (or maybe a backyard), a few beers, and a weekend ahead of you.  That, friends, is the simple pleasure of Shark?

I recorded this set in the same manner as the Soft Black recording, with a board feed for vocals and the mics right in front of the band, and the sound is excellent.  All songs are properly tagged for easy importing into iTunes.  Enjoy!

Download and stream the complete show  [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/shark2010-08-07.acidjack

Shark?
2010-08-07
Gaza Benefit Show
A Backyard in Bushwick
Brooklyn, NY  USA

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

Equipment: DPA 4021 + stereo soundboard feed>Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) (24/44.1)
Position: Mics “onstage”, ORTF
Mastering: 2×24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (compress board track, mixdown, set fades, amplify and balance channels, light EQ, tracking, downsample to 16bit)>FLAC (level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 31:04]
01 I’m An Animal
02 [tuning]
03 Oh My!
04 You Don’t Love Me Anymore
05 Pipeline
06 Fear!
07 Slap Dash
08 Hey Grrl
09 I’ve Got Friends
10 Shark?
11 [encore break]
12 Tiny Violins

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Shark?, visit their MySpace page, and download their official EPs directly from Bandcamp (here).  And please, support the band when their forthcoming album is released as well!

Please also consider supporting the causes that were the reason for this show: UNRWA and the Free Gaza Movement.

[photo courtesy of Kyle Dean Reinford Photography]

This Sunday was the third installment of the Vivo in Vino concert series, which matches artists with winemakers for a night of music and vino. This week featured one of our favorites Holly Miranda, along with the superb boutique California winery Bear Flag. This was our first experience with the Vivo in Vino series, and without question we will not miss another one — this was simply the best time I’ve had at a concert in several years. Perhaps fueled by the excellent wine or the welcoming urban-rustic surroundings of the fine wine bar In Vino, it just seemed that everyone in the packed room was there for merriment and music. Holly in particular was a joy to behold, as she performed a series of eclectic covers in her powerful voice and inimitable style with a feeling like she was both enjoying the songs and having fun with the audience.

I recorded this set with the DPA’s mounted to a pole about 15 feet from the stage and mixed with an RCA out from the small PA box. The vocals are dominant in the mix in large part because the system did not pick up much of the guitar in the speakers. With that caveat, enjoy!

Download and stream the complete show [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/holly-miranda-2010-08-08.nyctaper

Holly Miranda
2010-08-08
Vino In Vino
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
2010-08-10

Setlist:
[Total Time 48:12]
01 [introduction/wine discussion]
02 Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want (Smiths)
03 Waves
04 I’m Your Man (Leonard Cohen)
05 Secret Identity
06 Glass, Concrete & Stone (David Byrne)
07 [set break + introduction]
08 I’d Rather Go Blind (Etta James)
09 I’m On Fire (Springsteen)
10 God Damn the Sun (Swans)
11 Lover, You Should Have Come Over (Jeff Buckley)
12 [banter/audience participation practice]
13 Ex-Factor (Lauren Hill)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Holly Miranda, visit her website, visit her blog, and purchase The Magician’s Private Library directly from the Beggars Group website [HERE].

[Photos courtesy of Sarah Dinkz Lu]

During what turned out to be a bit of crazy event thrown to benefit the people of Gaza and two charitable organizations working to assist them, Brooklyn’s Motel Motel saved the day (and night).  After the NYPD ejected the bands and concergoers from the 210 Cook St. rooftop where the show was scheduled to occur, the show ended up in their drummer’s backyard.  Naturally, being the night’s heroes, Motel Motel went on first at the new location, and they gave us a hell of a show, playing us five new songs from their forthcoming LP, The Big Island, a bunch of which was previewed at the last Motel Motel show we covered back at Union Pool this January.  As The Big Island is clearly keyed around Hawaii-related themes (guitarist/bassist Timo Sullivan is from Hawaii), these songs fit the warm-but-not-too-balmy night perfectly.  Sure, we were surrounded on all sides by concrete, glass and grass rather than warm sand and ocean, but outdoor summer city revelry tends to require some extra imagination.

Motel Motel are amazingly consistent, led by vocalist Eric Engel’s distinctive, timeless vocals, and their garage-Americana remains one of the more unique sounds on the NYC scene right now.  The Big Island doesn’t promise a radical departure from their previous album, New Denver, but the songs are more memorable, continuing their tradition of evoking a strong sense of place.  We are looking forward to their album release party on August 24 at Union Pool, and they also have several other NYC dates between now and then.  I hate to keep using the word, but they are one of the most consistently enjoyable bands to see in this city, and there has never been a better time to see them while the new record is about to drop.

I recorded this set in the same manner as the Soft Black recording, with a board feed for vocals and the mics right in front of the band, and the sound is, I believe, the finest recording we have made of this band to date.  All songs are properly tagged for easy importing into iTunes.  Enjoy!

Download and stream the complete show [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/mm2010-08-07.acidjack

Motel Motel
2010-08-07
Gaza Benefit Show
A Backyard in Bushwick
Brooklyn, NY  USA

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

Equipment: DPA 4021 + stereo soundboard feed>Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) (24/44.1)
Position: Mics “onstage”, ORTF
Mastering: 2×24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (compress board track, mixdown, set fades, amplify and balance channels, light EQ, tracking, downsample to 16bit)>FLAC Level 8

Tracks [Total Time 30:19]
01 Intro
02 Kaimanu
03 [tuning]
04 Thunderhead
05 Keauhou
06 [tuning]
07 Wolf Road
08 Cowboy

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Motel Motel, visit their website, and purchase The Big Island when it is released later this month from the band’s store here.

Please also consider supporting the causes that were the reason for this show: UNRWA and the Free Gaza Movement.

[Photo by acidjack]

Some of the best nights in New York are the ones that seem to have gone completely off the rails that right themselves in the most inspiring of ways.  Organizer Blake Luley had the idea to put on a DIY show on a Bushwick rooftop to support the people of the Gaza Strip, with all of the proceeds going to UNRWA and Free Gaza.  The event seemed poised for success; the stifling heat and humidity of this brutal summer had broken, the skies were clear, and fans were being treated to some excellent music on a sprawling (if somewhat notorious) rooftop at 210 Cook St., with panoramic views of Brooklyn and Manhattan complemented by a graceful summer breeze.  But before the sun had even gone down, the cops had other ideas, cutting the set of Charles Burst off mid-song (that set to be posted soon), arresting one concertgoer, and sending the party, and the musicians, literally into the street.

But the bands, the organizers and the fans decided that the cause was too important – and the music too important – to leave it at that.  With bands and fans alike all pitching in to help load gear, food and of course, alcohol into vans, the show went on, moving to a nearby backyard provided by one of the members of Motel Motel.  In but a few hours, extension cords were run to the yard, the PAs and gear were set up, the food and drinks were being sold again, and text messages, Facebook posts, Twitter feeds and the rest beamed the news to those who cared.  And the people came.

After a solid set by the ever-consistent Motel Motel (that set to be posted soon as well), Soft Black, who I had not seen before, came out and blew me away.  As I sat mere feet from frontman Vincent Cacchione, the band gave an 8-song ripper of a performance that included several of the best numbers from the band’s latest The Earth is Black as well as some new songs that should hopefully see the light of day this year or early next.  The band’s name is spot-on, as they offer up a sound that draws from classic rock, folk, Americana and a hint of punk contrasted with lyrics that are uncharacteristically dark.  The Earth is Black, in fact, a narrative song cycle inspired by some of Cacchione’s nightmares.   Fittingly, the band dedicated “Ashtray Christ,” the strongest number of the night, to the show’s organizer.  Like the rest of us, by then he was smiling.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed providing primarily vocals, with the DPA mics directly in front of the band to record the instruments.  The sound quality is outstanding.

Download and stream the complete show [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/softblack2010-08-07.acidjack

Soft Black
2010-08-07
Gaza Benefit Show
A Backyard in Bushwick
Brooklyn, NY  USA

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

Equipment: DPA 4021 + stereo soundboard feed>Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) (24/44.1)
Position: Mics “onstage”, ORTF
Mastering: 2×24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (compress board track, mixdown, set fades, amplify and balance channels, light EQ, tracking, downsample to 16bit)>FLAC Level 8

Tracks [Total Time 27:59]
01 I’m Not Afraid of You
02 Aiming For Your Head
03 I Am An Animal
04 Fists in the Dark
05 Ashtray Christ
06 The Lions
07 The Girl Who Ate Her Own Heart
08 Heaven is a Place

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Soft Black, visit their website, and purchase their records and merchandise directly from their online store here.

Please also consider supporting the causes that were the reason for this show: UNRWA and the Free Gaza Movement.