Bridges and Powerlines New Album Released – Special Surprise Announcement Coming Soon

April 23, 2008
By

Bridges-and-Powerlines3

Brooklyn’s alt-synth-pop masters Bridges and Powerlines released their first full length album on Tuesday April 22, 2008. The much-anticipated follow-up to the critically acclaimed 2006 debut self-titled EP, Ghost Types contains 11 songs of infectious alternative-flavored synth and guitar oriented pop. Within the catchy melodies and sweet harmonies are complex lyrics of angst and desperation which offer the listener an interesting juxtaposition and demand repeated returns to the play button.

Sample 3 Tracks at the Bridges and Powerlines MySpace Page.

Ghost Types is now available in multiple formats:
Purchase from Citybird Records (HERE)
Purchase from iTunes (HERE)
Purchase from InSound (HERE)

Bridges and Powerlines will be performing live at an as-yet-undisclosed gig. Exclusive details on this performance will be available at nyctaper in the next couple of days. Check back for details!

mum April 22, 2008 Gramercy Theatre – Flac and MP3 Downloads

April 23, 2008
By

mum returned to NYC last night for the first of two local shows. At the shows last November, it was clear that the “new” lineup had improved since their Icelandic debut at the Sugarcubes reunion. On Tuesday, the band proved that it has truly matured into a superb coordinated musical unit. The new members were more confident and quite comfortable on stage, and while the setlist was quite similar to the November performances, the execution was just simply stronger and more focused.

This recording was captured from the “sweet spot” of the Gramercy Theatre — a venue with an excellent sound system. Additionally, the house sound was mixed quite well so that all the multiple and unique instrumental arrangements were audible. We’re extremely pleased with the quality of this recording. Enjoy!

This recording will be the first to be offered on this site in two formats. 256kb MP3s are available as a direct download below (in a zip folder), as well as FLAC files.

Direct download of MP3 files (HERE)

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

mum
2008-04-22
Blender Theatre at Gramercy
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Center of Floor
30 Feet from Stage

DPA 4021s > Marantz PMD-660 (Oade BCM Mod) > 16bit 44.1kHz wav > Soundforge (level adjustments, modify close clapping, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries)> flac

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper
2008-04-23

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:22:06]
01 Winter (What We Never Were After All)
02 Moon Pulls
03 Oh, How the Boat Drifts
04 Sit Down
05 Marmalade Fires
06 We Have a Map of the Piano
07 Guilty Rocks
08 Blessed Brambles
09 A Little Bit, Sometimes
10 Kostrzyn
11 These Eyes are Berries
12 Dancing Behind My Eyelids
13 They Made Frogs Smoke ‘Til They Exploded
14 [encore break]
15 Smell Memory

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT mum, visit their website, and purchase their official releases at the mum store.

Hot Buttered Rum April 18, 2008 Highline Ballroom – Flac Download

April 20, 2008
By


[photo credit]

Hot Buttered Rum are a 5-piece bluegrass (“newgrass”) band from the SF-Bay Area. They performed a 75-minute opening set for Tea Leaf Green at Highline Ballroom on Friday night. An opening set of such length could be seen as indulgent with some bands, but with Hot Buttered Rum the set was well-conceived, expertly performed and ultimately received full crowd support. The five musicians in this group are superb multi-talented craftsman whose approach to bluegrass is both faithful to the genre and also offers a new approach to traditional Americana music.

We were given the taper guest list spot for this show by Hot Buttered Rum, and offer our sincere gratitude to the band and Josh. We set up in the perfect location, clamped to the railing of the upper area (about 10 feet above the soundboard booth) at dead center. This location sits directly in between the main PA speakers and the auxiliary PA for the upper seating area. We arranged the microphones at 110 degrees, which captured output from all four speakers and gives this recording almost a “surround” feel. Please enjoy this excellent recording of an outstanding performance!

This recording is offered as a direct download as the files are hosted on the Internet Archive server. Right click and “save file as” or “save target as” to download individual tracks.

This recording is available on the Internet Archive (here)

Hot Buttered Rum
2008-04-18
Highline Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Dead Center
Balcony Railing

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Monster XLR cables > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge 8.0 (set fades, slight level boost, resample 16/44) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Recorded and Produced
nyctaper
nyctaper@nyctaper.com
2008-04-19

Setlist:
[total time 1:17:48]
01 Busted In Utah
02 Lighten Up Your Load
03 Firefly
04 Golden Days
05 Song In A Can
06 Beneath The Blossoms
07 Evolution > Molly Put The Kettle On > Evolution
08 Desert Rat
09 Angeline The Baker > Cindy
10 Queen Elizabeth
11 Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (Dylan)
12 Summertime Gal

**Tracks 11 and 12 with Trevor Garrod from
Tea Leaf Green on keyboards/vocals

If you download this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Hot Buttered Rum and visit their website, where you can purchase their official releases and merch (here).

Big Dipper returns! Concert Preview

April 17, 2008
By

So its early 1989, and I’m wearing through the vinyl copies of the first two Big Dipper albums Heavens and Craps, and putting “She’s Fetching” and “Ron Klaus” on all my mixtapes. I talked my friend Mary into seeing their gig at CBGB’s because she worked at A&R at A&M Records. To my surprise, she and the rest of the industry insiders were already following Big Dipper and the CB’s gig ended up being an event where half the crowd worked for a record company.

Big Dipper eventually signed with Epic and released an entirely forgettable album, and broke up without recording again. Mary moved to Nashville and opened a music store. My copies of Heavens, Craps, along with the ultra-rare single cover of McCartney’s “Jet” (pictured above) gathered dust along with the rest of my vinyl collection.

Now its nearly 20 years later and those memories came flooding back when I saw this post on brooklynvegan. Merge Records resurrected one of the great forgotten bands of the 1980s, compiled all their Homestead releases (minus “Jet”), and released a 48 track 3-CD set Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology in March.

In support of Supercluster, Big Dipper will do three very special live performances — their first together as a band in over 18 years. Here are the dates:

04/24 Maxwell’s (Hoboken, NJ)
04/25 Southpaw (Brooklyn, NY)
04/26 Middle East (Cambridge, MA)

And the bonus…thanks to the wonderful people at Merge Records, in agreement with the band, nyctaper will be recording the Southpaw concert! Its not CB’s and Mary won’t be there (I think), but the buzz will be the same. Big Dipper is back!

Sample the music:
Big Dipper: She’s Fetching MP3

Purchase the Anthology from Merge (here).
See you at the concerts.

Marco Benevento April 11, 2008 Sullivan Hall – Flac Download

April 16, 2008
By


[photo credit]

On Friday night, Marco Benevento led a cross-genre and cross-generational all-star quartet through two hours of thoroughly entrancing jazz improvisation. As downtown art-jazz drummer extraordinaire Bobby Previte provided the stop and start beats and Briggan Krauss squonked and bleated the alto sax, multi-keyboardist Marco and Curtis Fowlkes provided thematic structure and a plethora of melodic flourishes. The result was a breathtaking display of superb jazz excellence.

This recording was made from the exact same location at Marco Benevento’s final night of his January residency at Sullivan Hall. The sound quality is quite excellent, marred only by several points where the quiet music is disturbed by a handful of loud chattering audience members who carried on extensive conversations seemingly oblivious to the jazz brilliance unfolding in front of them. Ultimately each instrument was mixed to perfection, and the recording breathes life into this outstanding performance. Enjoy!

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

Marco Benevento
2008-04-11
Sullivan Hall
New York NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Recorded from Upfront Table Area
15 Feet from Left PA Stack

Neumann KM-150’s (AK-50 Hypercardiod Capsules) > Apogee Minime > digital coaxial > M-Audio Microtrack > 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge 8.0 (set fades, slight level boost, resample 16/44) > CD Wave 1.95 > Flac Frontend (level 7, align sector boundaries) > flac

Band:
Marco Benevento: piano, keyboards, effects
Bobby Previte: Drums
Briggan Krauss: alto sax
Curtis Fowlkes: trombone
[on last track:]
Sam Kininger: sax
Nikki Glaspie: drums

Recorded and Produced
nyctaper
nyctaper@nyctaper.com

Set 1
[total time 56:53]
01 Improvisation

Set 2
[total time 1:14:54]
01 Improvisation
02 Big Whopper

If you email nyctaper for access to this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Marco Benevento and visit his website, where you can purchase his new CD Invisible Baby and purchase all of his official releases (here).

nyctaper Upcoming Events

April 14, 2008
By


[image by songbirdnest]

As we prepare for the Summer festival season, there are still two solid months of indoor concerts, and we have added quite a few to our schedule. There are several dates that are still not certain for recording, and several artists where permission and/or policy has not been confirmed. These unconfirmed dates are indicated with asterisks (**).

Upcoming nyctaper Events:

Colin Meloy:
April 17, 2008, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY

Tea Leaf Green/Hot Buttered Rum:
April 18, 2008, Highline Ballroom, NYC

mum:
April 22, 2008, Gramercy Theatre, NYC
April 23, 2008, Masonic Temple, Brooklyn, NY

Big Dipper:
April 25, 2008, Southpaw, Brooklyn, NY (approved!)

Fiery Furnaces:
April 26, 2008, Southpaw, Brooklyn, NY

Was Not Was:
May 1, 2008, Blender Theatre, NYC

Awesome Color:
May 2, 2008, Glasslands Gallery, Brooklyn NY (CD Release Party)

British Sea Power:
May 10, 2008, Bowery Ballroom, NYC

nyctaper Anniversary Bash:
May 11, 2008, Piano’s, NYC (Artists TBA)

Chris Difford:
May 13, 2008, Maxwell’s, Hoboken NJ

X:**
May 24, 2008, Irving Plaza, NYC

The Raconteurs:**
June 1, 2008, Terminal 5, NYC

The Breeders:**
June 10, 2008, Webster Hall, NYC
-or-
Death Cab for Cutie:**
June 10, 2008, McCarren Pool, Brooklyn, NY

Oh! Custer:
June 13, 2008, NY Popfest (venue TBA)

Oneida:
June 13 or 14, 2008, The Kitchen, NYC

(The Oh! Custer performance may take play during another night of the NY Popfest and Oneida performs on June 13 and 14. nyctaper will record both artists on whichever nights apply)

moe.:
June 15, 2008, Governor’s Island, NYC

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey:
June 20, 2008, Sullivan Hall, NYC

Devo:
June 26, 2008, McCarren Pool, Brooklyn, NY

Mark Knopfler:
July 23, 2008, Central Park Summerstage, NYC

_______________________

We continue to receive offers of sponsorship (tickets/guest list) from artists and readers who would enjoy our work. Thank you to those artists and readers.

Feel free to email nyctaper if you’d like to make suggestion, ask a question, enter a complaint, introduce us to new music, encourage us, or even make a donation. We enjoy the interaction with our readers.

SUPPORT NYCTaper




Email

Email nyctaper

DISCLAIMER and LEGAL NOTICE

nyctaper.com is a live music blog that offers a new paradigm of music distribution on the web. The recordings are offered for free on this site as are the music posts, reviews and links to artist sites. All recordings are posted with artist permission or artists with an existing pro-taping policy.

All recordings and original content posted on this site are @nyctaper.com as live recordings pursuant to 17 U.S.C. Section 106, et. seq. Redistribution of nyctaper recordings without consent of nyctaper.com is strictly prohibited.

nyctaper.com hereby waives all copyright claims to any and all recordings posted on this site to THE PERFORMERS ONLY. If any artist posted on this site requests that recordings be removed, those recordings will be removed forthwith.