[Woods at Music Hall on March 12, 2010.  Photos courtesy of Frank Siringo]

Each time we see Woods (and it’s been quite a few lately) we are struck by the evolution of the band.  Despite not being a particularly longstanding act (though I suppose they are by the scene’s current standards), they already feel, in a sense, like godfathers of the scene.  Part of that is that comes from their status as the foundation of Woodsist Records, a label that has spawned groundbreaking acts coast to coast (the West Coast feel of many of their offerings is undeniable).  But it also comes from their music itself, which evolved from the typical 3-4 minute rock format into sprawling, layered psychedelic compositions. I cannot call what they are doing “jamming”, for one because it is so anathema to the local aesthetic, and also because it feels pejorative and limiting.  What Woods are doing is gradually expanding their sound and sharing their virtuosity on their instruments with us – not aimlessly noodling for a bunch of wookies.  Being part of the Woodsist showcase at the 2010 Northside Festival, this performance at Music Hall of Williamsburg did not boast anything as massive as the 16-minute “Bend Beyond” we witnessed at the Abrons Arts Center performance, but it did feature a stretched out “I Was Gone,” “Blood Dries Darker,” “The Hold” and a still-respectable 9-minute “Bend Beyond.”  The show was packed, and the audience was treated to another can’t miss performance that cued up another fantastic set from Real Estate to close out the night.

The NYCTaper team recorded this show from our usual spot at the soundboard booth using two separate recorders and a combination of six mics.  The results are exceptional and even better than the Real Estate recording.  Enjoy!

Stream “To Clean”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/W2206Woods2990/Woods2010-06-25_nyctacid_t03.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Woods
2010-06-25
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY  USA

Six-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Soundboard Booth

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s + Schoeps CMC641s > 2xEdirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 3 x 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
2010-07-02

Setlist:
[Total Time 48:02]
01  I Was Gone
02  Blood Dries Darker
03  To Clean
04  [banter]
05  Suffering Season
06  Down This Road
07  The Hold
08  Rain On
09  Bend Beyond

If you email nyctaper for access to these recordings, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Woods, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases, including their latest, At Echo Lake, from Woodsist Records.

[Photo courtesy of Janice Chou for FREEwilliamsburg]

I had absolutely no idea who Oh Land was when I saw her on the bill for FREEwilliamsburg’s Northside Festival showcase at Brooklyn Bowl.  And initially, I didn’t care.  It was Sunday night, there were five acts on the bill, and Hooray for Earth was up next.  All I needed was another 35 minute set in my life.

Then I saw her.

A tall, stunningly gorgeous Danish woman takes center stage, looking like a hipster Heidi Klum, with a DJ/beat specialist off to the left.  Oh, and she’s wearing a wolf hat, which she takes off for the first song.  And high heeled boots.  And short shorts.  In front of her, a keyboard.  To her right, a giant black box contraption with electronic drums stuck to one side, balloons tied to the top.  Suffice it to say, Oh Land didn’t look a bit like any of the other 16 or so bands I saw last weekend.

Then, I heard her.

From note one, former ballerina Nanna Øland Fabricius (Oh Land, get it?) proves that she has the voice and music to match her striking looks.  Her initial approach is simple.  “Hey, I’m Oh Land.  I’m going to play a song called ‘Perfection’.”  Huge beats drop, drowning out the bowling.  She starts to sing.  The song sounds like flying, a simple but beautiful love song, Fabricius’ voice strong and clear over the beat.  It is perfection; perfect, dreamy pop.  Although Oh Land is known in her native Denmark, and has an EP and a record (Fauna) out, her profile in the U.S. has been relatively minimal, with an SXSW gig earlier this year being the first big exposure.  Fabricius tells the audience it is her first time playing these songs live, yet the rest of the performance is spot-on.  My favorite song was the quietest, “Lean,” which you can stream here.  Throughout Oh Land’s short but extremely well-received set, I’m running the simple math: voice + songs + looks = rock star.

It turns out I am not the only one who thinks so.

Oh Land has already been snapped up in the U.S. by Epic Records, a “major label” that is home to a few other artists you may have heard of, like Michael Jackson, Ozzy Osbourne, Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand and Shakira.  Good for Epic, and for Oh Land – I think they’ve got a winner here.  Epic plans to release Oh Land’s record later this year, with her first single, “Sun of a Gun” set to drop in early September, album to follow.  Epic was gracious enough to grant NYCTaper permission to release this recording prior to the album’s release date, provided that we edited out a few numbers and a bit of tuning.  While it is our normal policy to only release complete shows, we felt that our readers deserved to hear anything we could give them by this incredible artist.  Please check out Oh Land’s record and “Sun of a Gun” (available for download with the complete set below) when Epic releases it.  Also, Fabricius just moved to Williamsburg – so if you see her in the neighborhood, please say hi.

I recorded this set in the same way as the Keepaway recording.  This set is particularly strong sound-wise, as my “stack tape” method works well for Oh Land’s relatively simple keys/beats/vox setup.  Thanks to FREEwilliamsburg and Epic Records for making this happen.

Read an interview with Oh Land on FREEwilliamsburg here.

Stream “Lean”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/O0627OhLand0210/ohland_lean_2010-06-27nyctaper.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]

Download the show in FLAC [HERE].

Oh Land
2010-06-27
Brooklyn Bowl
Brooklyn, NY  USA

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

Equipment: Schoeps CMC641>Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) (24/44.1)
Position: ~12ft from right stack, mics A/B, pointed at stack, 12ft up
Mastering: 24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (set fades, EQ, tracking, amplify channels)>FLAC Level 8

01 Perfection
03 Wolf and I
06 Break the Chain
07 Lean
08 Sun of a Gun

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Oh Land, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their forthcoming Epic Records release as well as Fauna, which is most easily purchased in the U.S. on iTunes.

[photo by acidjack]

As a band led by the multi-instrumentalist and multi-talented Kelly Pratt, Team B is more than just the sum of its members’ many other groups (Beirut, Arcade Fire, Antibalas, etc). The collective group is a means by which performers who are supporting players in their “big” bands can stretch out and take a step to the front of the stage. Last Saturday at the Backyard Brunch concert series, their brief set highlighted Pratt’s vocals along with his trumpet work which has been a mainstay of Beirut sets. The interplay between horns, accordian and dual ukeleles showcased the many talents of Team B while the song selections, which include lyrics adapted from the poems of Theodore Roethke, also showed a literary side.

We recorded this set with eight high-end microphones placed strategically around the band. While the mix is not perfect, it does accurately describe the sound in the backyard that day. Enjoy!

Stream “Mystery Man”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/T5062TeamB0210/02%20TeamB2010-06-26_8mics_t02.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Team B
2010-06-19
Private Backyard Brunch
Brooklyn, NY USA

Eight-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Onstage

Neumann KM-150s + DPA 4021’s + Schoeps MK-41s + DPA 4021’s > 2 Edirol R-44s (Oade Concert Mod) > 4 x 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
2010-07-01

Setlist:
[Total Time 25:55]
01 [introduction]
02 Mystery Man
03 [tuning/banter]
04
05 [tuning/banter]
06
07 My Papa’s Waltz
08 [tuning/banter]
09
10 [outro]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Team B, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their releases from their main page.

[photo by nyctaper]

The best sign for the continued viability of a band that has moved beyond its initial “buzz” is their ability to write quality material and mature in their live act. Real Estate has accomplished both and proved it as the headliner of the Woodist showcase at the Northside Festival. The band continues to play tighter and more focused sets. On Friday, Real Estate opened with a new-ish song “All Out of Tune”, and played two other new numbers, including perhaps the strongest song of the set — an untitled number (“Nothing to Lose”? — sampled as Track 09 below) that premiered at Monster Island in April and for which we mixed the audio of this video of that performance. The song’s guitar line recalls “Fake Blues” but with a stronger melody and representative Real Estate style lyrics — perhaps a perfect new single for the band.

Real Estate perform again in NYC on July 9 at Le Poisson Rouge, at the outset of their extensive tour with Kurt Vile. They return again to NYC in mid-August to open for Deerhunter at Pier 54.

I recorded this set with the four microphone rig from the left front corner of the soundboard. The house mix was quite excellent and the sound quality of this recording is outstanding. Enjoy!

Sample “Fake Blues”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/R2410RealEstate9229/05%20RealEstate2010-06-25_nyctaper_t05.mp3]

Sample “New Song” (Track 09):
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/R2410RealEstate9229/09%20RealEstate2010-06-25_nyctaper_t09.mp3]

Direct download of complete show in MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Real Estate
2010-06-25
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Four-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Front of Soundboard Booth

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
2010-06-28

Setlist:
[Total Time 53:51]
01 All Out of Tune
02 Green River [false start]
03 Green River
04 Suburban Beverage
05 Fake Blues
06 Pool Swimmers
07 [banter]
08 Basement
09 [new song]
10 Suburban Dogs
11 [new song]
12 Atlantic City
13 Beach Comber
14 [encore break]
15 Black Lake
16 Younger Than Yesterday

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Real Estate, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their releases from Woodist Records, Half Machine Records, and Underwater Peoples (currently sold out).

[Photo by Janice Chou for FREEwilliamsburg.  Used by permission.]

Brooklyn’s Keepaway are having quite a year.  Having just released their debut EP, Baby Style, they already scored an opening slot for Yeasayer at their recent Governor’s Island show.  That must have made for a logical pairing, as Keepaway serve up tribal, live dance music with beats and keys served up live along with drums and guitar – this is not “press play” dance music.  The closer dance music and rock music get, the tougher they are to tell apart, though it is fair to say that compared to, say, Yeasayer, these guys fall a bit further toward the dance side of things.  Drummer Frank Lyon anchors the trio with an unusual drum setup that abandons the kick drum (since the deep bass is coming from Mike Burakoff’s beats), while Nick Nauman rounds things out on guitar, with all three participating on the vocal end of things.  This show saw the band anchoring FREEwilliamsburg’s awesome Sunday night Northside Festival lineup at Brooklyn Bowl.  The venue’s massive sound system did Keepaway justice, with a bass-heavy, aggressive house mix that shook the entire place.  If you aren’t a fan yet, check out Keepaway and the other offerings from the well-curated Lefse Records, which is home to several excellent like-minded bands.

Thanks to FREEwilliamsburg for putting on this excellent showcase, and thanks to Lefse Records for their support of NYCTaper.  More recordings from this night and other Northside Festival showcases will be appearing on this site throughout the week.

I recorded this set in a somewhat unorthodox manner (for us, anyway), in that the layout of the room dictated placing my two Schoeps hypercardiod mics about 12ft from the right stack on a mic stand extended 11ft above the crowd.  While the sound is different than our normal offerings – which give a better sense of the room – it is an excellent capture.  You can stream the band’s first single, “Yellow Wings” below, and the entire show is properly tagged for importing into iTunes.  Enjoy!

Stream “Yellow Wings”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/K2706Keepaway0021/keepaway-yellowwings.mp3]

Download the entire show [HERE]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Keepaway
2010-06-27
Brooklyn Bowl
Brooklyn, NY  USA

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

Equipment: Schoeps CMC641>Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) (24/44.1)
Position: ~12ft from right stack, mics A/B, pointed at stack, 12ft up
Mastering: 24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (set fades, EQ, tracking, amplify channels)>FLAC Level 8

Tracks [Total Time 36:47]
01 5 Rings
02 Royal Jelly
03 Family of the son
04 Head
05 Sideways Smile
06 Yellow Wings
07 100

If you download this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Keepaway, visit their MySpace page, and purchase Baby Style (available on vinyl direct from Lefse Records, or on iTunes and other retailers for download).