[The Rest at Monster Island – photo courtesy of frankd – many more here]

Our consistent readers may have noticed over the last couple of years that we do not often criticize the artists we record — that often our reviews are quite positive. We feel this is the result of our research and show selection — we are not going to record a band that we do not believe is worth the time and effort. What follows is undoubtedly our most positive review, but one earned with much work and many hours of research.

For the NYCTaper Presents show this past Friday at Monster Island Basement, we spent months in careful selection of the artists who would perform that night. We literally began working on this show in March, which coincidentally was the first time we heard new material from the Ontario band The Rest and their new CD Everyone All At Once. We were familiar with the band and their first CD, which we liked quite a bit. But this new CD, as we reported back in March was an whole different ballgame — this material had the x-factor, the kind of release that would change the careers and lives of the artists that produced it. We were fortunate enough to have recognized this early, and had enough foresight to ask The Rest to play our early-stages-of-planning next show. They accepted and the details were worked out.

In the meantime, Everyone All At Once began to gather a heap of praise far and wide. The Rest received positive words and “song of the day” status at NPR, and glowing reviews from Herohill Blog, MP3 Hugger, Indiecater, Quick Before It Melts, Baby Stew, Rawkblog, AW Music, Music Under Fire, Whale in a Cubicle, Indie Music Database, Pop Wreckoning, I Am The Crime, Tympanogram, Swear I’m Not Paul, Mojophenia, Stereo Cupcake, Laughing Evergreens, Eldur Og Is, Eaten By Monsters, Captain Obvious, Pirates of the Bargain Bin, The Needle Drop, Hypeful, The Blah Blah, The Overcast, Leonard’s Lair, Indie Rock Cafe, Sound Proof Magazine, and The Musicologists. There isn’t a single negative review to be found about this album.

So it was with much anticipation that we geared up to see The Rest live at Monster Island Basement on Friday. And now we are prepared to go out on a limb. The Rest are absolutely destined to become a huge band. The one and only time I’ve made a prediction of this magnitude was in February of 2008 when I saw the Antlers and wrote about their “can’t miss” talent. In that post, I predicted the Antlers would sign to a major indie label (they did — Frenchkiss signed them in May), and would play mid-major venues (the have played Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall of Williamsburg twice). In another parallel with The Antlers (and Hospice), The Rest have also produced an album of such magnitude, that although is not currently distributed by a label in the US, is destined to be picked up by a major indie on its superior quality alone.

On Friday in the intimate downstairs venue, The Rest performed a stunning 35 minute set of seven numbers, with six from Everyone All At Once and one from the first CD Atlantis Oh Our Saviour. The septet were each proficient at their instruments and despite the small sound system, all fit well within the mix. However, it was the breadth of creative energy at the apex of each song that was truly stunning — seven talented musicians in a perfect unison performing expertly crafted and complex songs. It was truly breathtaking experience to witness this set from ten feet in front of the stage.

Of course we recorded audio of this set. And sadly, among the nearly three hundred concerts we’ve recorded for this site, it is perhaps the one recording that least captures the experience of the moment. We are not disappointed in the sound quality, as its quite good. We used the fine DPA cardioids from close range and captured a clear and faithful audio recording of this set, audio system limitations and all. However, even the highest quality audio rig can not grab the magic from the air — we’ll leave it to our readers to listen and imagine the joy in the basement that night. Enjoy

Download and stream the complete show [HERE].

https://archive.org/details/TheRest2009-06-19.nyctaper

The Rest
2009-06-19
Monster Island Basement
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded 10 Feet from Main PA

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

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2009-06-21

Setlist:
[Total Time 33:28]
01 Coughing Blood
02 Modern Time Travel
03 Sheep In Wolves’ Clothing
04 The Close Western
05 The Lady Vanishes
06 Blossom Babies Part Two
07 Walk on Water

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Rest, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase Everyone All At Once directly from the Auteur Records website [HERE] or digitally from Amie Street [HERE].

El Jezel are one of the five excellent bands on tonight’s bill at Monster Island Basement. After their breakout set at last year’s CMJ, they have been on our radar and we were pleased when they accepted our invitation to play this NYCTaper event.

In April, we recorded El Jezel on Tartan Day at the Bowery Poetry Club. Their final number was a cover of the Teenage Fanclub song “The Concept”. Its a pretty fun cover, with a lot of energy and they are joined by Zig from Two Seconds To Midnight on guitar and harmonies.

Sample El Jezel:
The Concept FLAC [here]
The Concept MP3 [here]

[thanks Greg for photo]

Its been almost two years since we last saw Regina Spektor live, at Hammerstein Ballroom in 2007. We had a ticket to the McCarren Pool show last summer, but torrential rains kept us away. It was with that level of excitement that we entered the new Beacon Theatre to hear the first-ever live performances of much of Regina’s new CD, Far, due for release next week. As anticipated, the new material is more mature and elaborate — she played with a string section and drums — but still very much maintains the charming attraction of older Regina material. Of the new songs, the pre-released single “Laughing With” shined the brightest. The second half of the set was dedicated to many of Regina’s older and more familiar material — but also included three chestnuts, the infrequently played “Consequence of Sounds”, the b-side “Riot Gear”, and a new song preliminarily called “The Holocaust Deniers”. The latter song sounds like a straightforward rebuke of the title characters “who accuse the dying of lying”.

We recorded this set from a nearly perfect location, a direct line about 30 feet in front of the huge PA stacks on the left side. Our best mobile rig captured a recording of stunning clarity, with two caveats — the volume of the obviously excited crowd had to be reduced significantly in post-production, and during the quiet moments there is an apparent hum/buzz in the left channel which I believe was caused by the air-conditioning duct directly above my head. Under the circumstances, we nevertheless feel this is an excellent capture. Enjoy!

Download and stream the complete show  [HERE]

https://archive.org/details/RreginaSpektor2009-06-17.nyctaper

Regina Spektor
2009-06-17
Beacon Theatre
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Row K, Far Left
30 Feet directly in Front of Left PA Stacks

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

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2009-06-18

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:29:24]
01 Folding Chair
02 Lucky Penny
03 Time Is All Around
04 Eet
05 The Calculation
06 Machine
07 One More Time with Feeling
08 On the Radio
09 Blue Lips
10 Riot Gear
11 Laughing With
12 Bobbing for Apples
13 That Time
14 Apres Moi
15 Human of the Year
16 Poor Little Rich Boy
17 The Holocaust Deniers
18 Consequence of Sounds
19 Man of a Thousand Faces
20 [encore break]
21 Samson
22 Us
23 Fidelity

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Regina Spektor, visit her website, visit her MySpace page, and purchase/pre-order her new release Far directly from her website [HERE].

We’ll admit to being a little worried about the Meat Puppets when we last saw them — an energetic but sloppy performance at Terminal 5 in September. We feared that the sharp and inspired comeback of a band that had been given up for dead a decade earlier had the potential to become derailed again. Thankfully, our fears were not realized. Shortly after their Fall dates, the Meat Puppets returned to the studio and delivered Sewn Together, their most inspired album in fifteen years. They are currently on tour and reviews of the shows have been universally positive.

At Mercury Lounge on Thursday night, the Meat Puppets delivered an outstanding ninety-minute set of old and new material. The highlights included again an extended “Up On the Sun”, a well-played “Rotten Shame” from the new CD, and the raging three-song finale of “Lake of Fire”, “Lost” and “Backwater”.

Acidjack recorded this show from upfront at the Merc with a fine set of cardioid microphones and the sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the MP3 and FLAC files and stream the entire show on the Live Music Archive [HERE]

Meat Puppets
2009-06-11
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY USA

FOB Digital Master Recording

SP-CMC-8 (AT U-853 Cardiods w/ low sensitivity mod and adapter) > SPSB-8 > Edirol R-09-HR > 24bit 48kHz wav > Audacity (set fades, level boost, downsample) > CD Wave (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced by Acidjack
Some post work by nyctaper
2009-06-15

Setlist
[Total Time 1:28:06]
01 Sewn Together
02 Touchdown King
03 Blanket of Weeds
04 The Monkey And The Snake
05 Comin’ Down
06 Oh, Me
07 Plateau
08 I’m A Mindless Idiot
09 Up On The Sun
10 Rotten Shame
11 Station
12 I’m Not You
13 Look At The Rain
14 Smoke
15 Lake of Fire
16 Lost
17 Backwater
18 [feedback/crowd]

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Meat Puppets, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their new release Sewn Together directly from their page [HERE].