[photo courtesy of dollabill and Thom – more here]

This is an exciting time for fans of John Vanderslice. He is currently on tour with one of his compatriots, John Darnielle, with whom he will soon release an EP (Moon Colony Bloodbath). On May 19, JV will release his first full-length album in two years, the much-anticipated Romanian Names, and in May, he will tour with a band in support of the new album.

On Friday last, the “Gone Primitive” tour with The Mountain Goats came to NYC and JV’s short but sweet opening set featured several songs from Romanian Names, a track the Moon Colony EP, and some of John’s classic numbers. John also chatted amiably with the crowd and told a few stories. Its always a pleasure to attend a Vanderslice show and this night was no exception.

We recorded this set from the same location as The Mountain Goats recording, and while the same volume fluctuation problems exist, the issues were not as drastic for this set. There was still quite a bit of post-production work necessary, but we feel the work has given our readers a quite enjoyable listen of this excellent artist. Enjoy!

This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC or MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

John Vanderslice
2009-03-27
The Music Hall at The Society for Ethical Culture
New York, NY USA

Four-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Balcony Rail Center

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

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-04-02

Setlist:
[Total Time 43:52]
01 My Old Flame
02 Sunken Union Boat
03 Too Much Time
04 Angela
05 Numbered Lithograph
06 Dead Slate Pacific
07 White Plains
08 [banter – mangos]
09 Oblivion
10 Lucifer Rising
11 [banter – drunk driver]
12 Nikki Oh Nikki
13 Trance Manual
14 Pale Horse

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT John Vanderslice, visit his website, visit his MySpace page, and purchase his official release, including Romanian Names in May, from the links at his website [HERE].

[photo courtesy of dollabill and Thom – more here]

The Mountain Goats show on Friday night was a fan’s dream but a taper’s nightmare. John Darnielle entertained the crowd with much banter, off-microphone songs, and accepted a series of obscure requests from the diehards. While the highlight of the show for many of those in attendance was the infrequently played “Ontario”, we were particularly moved by the story lead-in and the version of the beautiful “From TG&Y”, and John’s proclaimed first public piano performance (“1 John 4:16”) since childhood.

The Concert Hall at The Society for Ethical Culture is a beautiful and classic old theatre, but it sits in a residential neighborhood and the volume of the show is purposefully limited. Additionally, the high ceilings create reverberations that are particularly noticeable in an acoustic performance. The difficulties of the venue were magnified by a series of technical problems and John’s penchant to play several songs completely unamplified.

This was the maiden voyage of our new Edirol R-44, a high resolution four-track recorder (professionally upgraded for concert recording). We used our four best microphones in a configuration that decreased the echo in the venue. Due to the many issues in the capture of this show, the post-production for this recording was a major undertaking. We believe that we have maximized the sound quality of this difficult recording to create a fine listening experience for our readers. Enjoy!

The John Vanderslice [JV] recording was also recorded and will be posted in the next few days.

This Recording is now available for Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

The Mountain Goats
2009-03-27
The Music Hall at The Society for Ethical Culture
New York, NY USA

Four-Track Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Balcony Rail Center

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

Recorded and Produced by
nyctaper
2008-03-31

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:25:02]
01 [introduction]
02 1 John 4:16
03 Woke Up New
04 [technical problems]
05 Song For Tura Satana
06 Cobscook Bay
07 Going to Lebanon
08 Un Rêve Plus Long Que la Nuit
09 Going To Kansas
10 The Last Limit of Bhakti
11 You or Your Memory
12 Going to Queens
13 [banter]
14 From TG&Y
15 Dance Music
16 [banter]
17 The Day The Aliens Came (or: Hawaiian Feeling)
18 Ontario
19 So Desperate
20 Color in Your Cheeks
21 Sign of the Crow 2
22 Steps Columns Pillars [JV]
23 [banter]
24 Surrounded [JV]
25 See America Right [JV]
26 No Children
27 [encore break]
28 The Sign (Ace of Base)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Mountain Goats, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase Mountain Goats official releases from their website.

[photo courtesy of jen ballera]

Crystal Stilts released a new 7″ this week “Love Is A Wave” which caused on odd occurrence at nyctaper — a renewed interest in our December recording of Crystal Stilts at Bowery which contains the only recorded live version of the song. At Music Hall a couple of weeks ago, acidjack was there to capture the second live version of the song along with a complete Crystal Stilts headliner set. This concert was significantly longer than the December set and included two fairly obscure covers of The Gun Club and a standard Velvet Underground cover at the closer.

Our correspondent recorded from the same location as the Women and Blank Dogs recordings from this night. We can hear that the band had some issues with the mix, and perhaps because of the heavy use of reverb, the house mix is somewhat muddy. Overall, though this is a fine listen to the longest live recording of this excellent band to date. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Crystal Stilts
2009-03-14
The Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Front of Board Center
30 Feet from Stage

SP-CMC-8 (Audio Technica U853 Cardiod Capsules)> SP-SB-8 > Edirol R-09HR > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (set fades, slight level adjustments, downsample, slight EQ) > CD Wave 1.95 (tracking) > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded by acidjack
Produced by nyctaper
2009-03-25

Setlist:
[Total Time 50:48]
01 Through The Floor
02 The Dazzled
03 Mother Of Earth (Gun Club)
04 Crippled Croon
05 Prismatic Room
06 SinKing
07 [technical problems]
08 Seeds
09 Converging in the Quiet
10 Sugar Baby
11 For The Love Of Ivy (Gun Club)
12 Love is a Wave
13 [encore break]
14 The City in the Sea
15 Temptation Inside Your Heart (Velvets)

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Crystal Stilts, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their latest album Alight of Night from links at their MySpace page, including at Insound [here] and purchase their new single “Love Is a Wave” at InSound [here].

[vintage Plan photo courtesy of Chris]

Travis Morrison, the former leader of the Dismemberment Plan, played a show at Bell House last weekend and we were not there to record. However, in tribute we offer this vintage Plan show from 1999, which was about half-way through the legendary band’s existence, but about a year before they “hit”. Dismemberment Plan were actually the opening band on this triple bill. The other acts on the bill were the both-now-also-defunct Promise Ring and Burning Airlines. After the breakup of both bands, members of the D Plan and Promise Ring would go on to form the short-lived Maritime. This short set features primarily material from Emergency & I, released a couple of months before this show took place, and which is the album that ultimately propelled the band to larger gigs and increased popularity. Emergency & I was selected as number 16 of Pitchfork’s Top 100 albums of the 1990s. We have searched the archive and this may in fact be the earliest Dismemberment Plan recording in circulation.

The post of this recording was inspired one of our favorite music writers on the web, Soren deSelby-Bowen — formerly of the Well and currently of the excellent Parlando blog. After a lengthy serious illness, Soren returned to writing this week with a piece about the Dismemberment Plan.

The sound quality on this recording is really quite outstanding. This was recorded by xcrex with DPA 4061 miniature omnidirectional microphones and has an excellent soundstage. The volume of the band eliminates any crowd noise and provided a signal of great clarity. Enjoy!

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Dismemberment Plan
1999-11-23
Knitting Factory
New York, NY USA

Digital Audience Master Recording
Recorded from FOB

Recording: DPA 4061s > SBM-M1 > Sony D-8 DAT Master
Transfer: DAT Master > Panasonic SV-3800 > digital coaxial > Audigy 2 ZS Platinum > 16bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (slight level boost, downsample 44.1) > CD Wave (tracking) > Flac Frontend  (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded by xcxre9
DAT Extraction and Post-Production by nyctaper 2009-03-23

Setlist:
[total time 31:59]
01 Do The Standing Still
02 Onward, Fat Girl
03 Girl O’Clock
04 Gyroscope
05 The Dismemberment Plan Gets Rich
06 Spider in the Snow
07 A Life Of Possibilities
08 The City
09 What Do You Want Me To Say?

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT the members of The Dismemberment Plan. Although the band has been defunct for several years, visit the website and follow the members, and purchase the releases of Travis Morrison who has an active solo career [here].