Posts Tagged ‘ Eric PH ’

Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band: October 24, 2014 Rough Trade & January 10, 2015 Palisades

January 19, 2015
By

IMG_8054

NPR pretty much nailed it when they described Chris Forsyth’s music as “the intersection of Television and The Grateful Dead.” Add to that casual mentions of Neil Young and Richard Thompson, both of whom Forsyth has recently covered, and you get a fairly accurate portrait of his music. But musicians—the good ones at least—are more than just vectors for their influences. Forsyth’s first album with his band, Solar Motel, made it clear that here was an original songwriter working within and pushing the boundaries of a musical tradition. Forsyth’s guitar playing comes off as effortless and his looseness is counterbalanced by the Solar Motel Band’s ability to jam as if a single consciousness.

Here we have two sets, one recorded just days before the release of Intensity Ghost and one a short few months later, though long enough to have let that album’s jams percolate. The sets are nearly identical in setlist; the Palisades set substitutes a cover of Richard & Linda Thompson’s “The Calvary Cross” in place of Intensity Ghost’s “Yellow Square” from Rough Trade. Each features the same as-yet-untitled new song, an impressive jam to rival “The Ballad of Freer Hollow” for dominance as the band’s signature tune. Forsyth does an admirable job on vocals with “The Calvary Cross,” managing to carefully convey the song’s significance without resorting to affectation. “Intensity Ghost” is an exercise in guitar soloing bookended by an urgent jam that highlights the band’s ability to craft more tightly-wound rock songs. Finally, each set closes with “I Ain’t Waiting,” a slowed-down jam that eases you out of the Solar Motel headspace you’ve just inhabited for a good three-quarters of an hour.

Acidjack recorded the Rough Trade NYC show with Shoeps MK41’s set up at the soundboard, with a board feed from FOH Cam. The Palisades show was recorded with the AKG’s set up in front of the board, with a board feed from FOH Ariel. Both sets sound outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the Rough Trade NYC show at the Live Music Archive

Download the Palisades show at the Live Music Archive

Stream the complete Rough Trade NYC show:

Stream the complete Palisades show:

Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band
2014-10-24
Rough Trade NYC
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Soundboard (engineer: Cam) + Schoeps MK41 (DFC, PAS, at SBD)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (exciter effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (tracking, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [44:27]
01. Intensity Ghost
02. [banter]
03. The Ballad of Freer Hollow
04. [banter]
05. Yellow Square
06. [banter]
07. High Castle Rock
08. [banter]
09. I Ain’t Waiting

Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band
2015-01-10
Palisades
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Soundboard (engineer: Ariel) + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV(24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, balance, mixdown, compression, fades) > Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (tracking, tagging) > FLAC (24/48, level 8)

Tracks [48:37]
01. The Ballad of Freer Hollow
02. High Castle Rock
03. The Calvary Cross [Richard & Linda Thompson]
04. Intensity Ghost
05. I Ain’t Waiting

Remastered August 2018

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Chris Forsyth. Visit his website, like him on Facebook, and buy Intensity Ghost from No Quarter.

Mark McGuire: January 7, 2015 Baby’s All Right – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

January 14, 2015
By

Mark McGuire

Formerly one-third of the neo-kosmische band, Emeralds, Mark McGuire has amassed an impressive discography not only with that band but also as a solo musician. Since 2007, I count nearly fifty solo releases, not even to mention ongoing or one-off collaborative projects such as Inner Tube (with Charles Berlitz) or Skyramps (with Daniel Lopatin). Yet as prolific as he is, live performances seem much less frequent. Beyond their scarcity, however, McGuire’s live performances are notable for being a new and unique experience each time you see him. For instance, at a performance during 2012’s Unsound Festival, he spent a good deal of the set playing bass guitar; and for last year’s Big Ears Festival a majority of the performance was made up of shorter songs paired with lyrics, compared with his usual long-form instrumental jams.

McGuire’s Baby’s All Right set features three lengthy pieces, two of which are new and one previously released. “Noctilucence”—named for the phenomenon of summer clouds shining at night (and yes, I had to look that up)—hails from a 2014 EP of the same name released on Dead Oceans. New song and set-opener “Entity” layers shimmering guitar lines over preprogrammed beats, illustrating the type of guitar work for which McGuire is best known. And finally, “2015 Jam” begins with a sound collage underpinned by some light atmospherics that eventually develops into a throbbing beat joined by overlapping guitar solos. By far the most intense song of the evening, the crowd’s sense of release at its conclusion is palpable even on the recording.

This set was recorded by Baby’s FOH Rubes Harman, who provided a stereo board feed as well as a recording of the house mics. I mixed these two sources in post-production and the sound is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Mark McGuire
2015-01-07
Baby’s All Right
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded by Rubes Harman
Produced by Eric PH

Multitrack Soundboard (engineered and recorded by Rubes Harman) > Rubes mix Wav files + Room mic wav files > Audacity 2.0.5 (mixdown, fades, amplify, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

Tracks [41:43]
01. Entity
02. Noctilucence
03. 2015 Jam

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Mark McGuire. Visit his Bandcamp page, like him on Facebook, and buy Noctilucence and Along the Way from Dead Oceans.

Rangda: January 9, 2015 Baby’s All Right – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

January 13, 2015
By

Rangda

Rangda is the dream team of psych, bringing together three titans, each with equally impressive credentials: Sir Richard Bishop, guitar (Sun City Girls, Brothers Unconnected); Ben Chasny, guitar (Six Organs of Admittance, Comets on Fire, 200 Years, New Bums); and Chris Corsano, drums (Flaherty-Corsano Duo, Flower-Corsano Duo, Thurston Moore, Sunburned Hand of the Man, and the list goes on indefinitely from there). Each is independently responsible for his own staggering discography and so their team-up conjures lofty expectations.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rangda is more than the sum of its parts. Performing live, each member inhabits his own third of the stage, hardly looking up from his instrument; and yet there is a communion among them that is unseen, intangible—it’s spooky action at a distance. These live renditions are largely faithful to their studio counterparts, oscillating between wild frenzy and repetitive motifs drawn from eastern psych ragas. Bishop’s and Chasny’s guitars rage and duel, Corsano’s drums provide context and setting for that drama to unfold.

We caught up with Rangda playing an early Friday evening set at Baby’s All Right as part of a two-date jaunt to coincide with recording a new album. Here, they play songs from both proper Rangda albums, False Flag and Formerly Extinct, and add a longer song that’s either brand new or a modified take on “Gracilaria,” which appeared on a split 12″ with The Dead C. From False Flag, they do “Bull Lore” and the longform set-closer “Plain of Jars,” which builds to a noisy catharsis before resolving into a rhythmic, repetitive guitar jam. “Majnun” and “Night Porter,” both off Formerly Extinct, come off as riffs on some of Sun City Girls’ more accessible, song-oriented material.

We unfortunately weren’t able to get a feed from the room mics, but luckily the stereo house feed from Baby’s FOH Rubes is more than adequate. The sound is outstanding and allows you to hear each guitar in its own channel (that’s Chasny left, Bishop right), just as it sounded in the room. This one sounds great on headphones. Enjoy!

While there are no further Rangda dates scheduled for now, each have upcoming solo dates and/or releases. Chasny’s new record as Six Organs of Admittance, Hexadic, is out February 27 on Drag City and a tour in support of it is scheduled. Bishop’s new record, Tangier Sessions, is also due out February 27, and is also on Drag City. Corsano has a host of upcoming dates, with Ava Mendoza, Joe McPhee, and others.

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Rangda
2015-01-09
Baby’s All Right
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded by Rubes Harman
Produced by Eric PH

Multitrack Soundboard (engineered and recorded by Rubes Harman) > 2 x Mono WAV(48/24) > Audacity 2.0.5 (fades, EQ, balance, amplify, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

Tracks [50:04]
01. Plugged Nickel
02. The Vault
03. Bull Lore
04. [New Song]
05. Majnun
06. Night Porter
07. Plain of Jars

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Rangda. Buy False Flag and Formerly Extinct from Drag City.

Baked: January 2, 2015 Palisades – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

January 7, 2015
By

Baked
[photo by Rocketman]

You would be only half right in assuming that a band called Baked trades in hazy jams suited more to the night’s comedown than its revving up. That’s not to say they don’t do hazy jams—nine-minute set-closer “Tolex” is proof enough of that. But they also deliver some rocking indiepop that takes unexpected turns.

Baked is a Brooklyn-based quintet composed of R.J. Gordon (vocals/guitar), Davey Jones (guitar), Jeremy Aquilino (bass/vocals), Yoni David (drums), and Isabella Mingione (keys/vocals). Their debut LP, Debt, is out on Exploding in Sound Records and they’re right at home among that label’s amazingly consistent roster. I caught Baked last Friday at Palisades, headlining a stacked bill that also included Brooklyn’s Washer (that set posted here) and Connecticut’s Furnsss. For this set, Baked pull mostly from last year’s Debt, adding “8er” from their self-released, self-titled cassette, and a couple newer tracks (“I Win” and “AA”). Highlights include “Hungry Ghosts,” the aforementioned longform jam of “Tolex,” and the upfront keyboards and reverbed vocals on the rocking “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”

I recorded this set with the AKG cardioids at the soundboard, plus a feed from Palisades FOH Ariel. The sound is slightly rough around the edges, but authentic to the night’s experience. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Baked
2015-01-02
Palisades
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Soundboard (engineer: Ariel) + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV(24/48) > Audacity 2.0.5 (mixdown, fades, EQ, amplify, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

Tracks [43:28]
01. Mick Jagger
02. Wet Blanket
03. Don’t Trip
04. Codec
05. Hungry Ghosts
06. 8er
07. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
09. AA
10. Cramsey
11. Tolex

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Baked. Like them on Facebook and buy Debt from their Bandcamp page.

Washer: January 2, 2015 Palisades – Flac/MP3/Streaming

January 5, 2015
By

Washer
[photo by Rocketman]

Washer is the Brooklyn-based duo of Mike Quigley (guitar, bass, vocals) and Kieran McShane (drums). This past Friday night at Palisades, these econo-jammers tore through an impressive ten song set in a staggering twenty-five minutes. Their longest songs of the night barely pass the three-minute mark while their shortest, “Safe Place,” clocks in at under a minute. But what’s consistent throughout is how refreshing the songs sound, lacking any hint of pretension, artifice, or embellishment. Nothing wasted, these songs plow right into you, sink their hooks in, and don’t outstay their welcome. Only three songs from their Palisades set have so far been released: “Rinse & Spit” and “Rot” are hot off their recent split single with Big Ups, out on Exploding in Sound Records, and “Bass 1” is off last year’s self-released cassette EP, Bighead. The rest of the songs remain to be released and show loads of promise. Personal highlights include the indie-rocker “Clid,” distorted punker “Porky,” and the chilled-out “This Land.”

I recorded this set with the AKG cardioids at the soundboard, plus a feed from Palisades FOH Ariel. The sound is slightly rough around the edges, but authentic to the night’s experience. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Washer
2015-01-02
Palisades
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Soundboard (engineer: Ariel) + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV(24/48) > Audacity 2.0.5 (mixdown, fades, EQ, amplify, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

Tracks [25:23]
01. Rinse & Spit
02. Rot
03. Clid
04. Bass 1
05. Eyelids
06. Porky
07. This Land
08. Figure Me Out
09. Safe Place
10. Joe

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Washer. Like them on Facebook and buy their split 7″ and the Bighead EP at their Bandcamp page.

Soulside: December 17 and 18, 2014 Saint Vitus – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

December 22, 2014
By

soulside[video still via (((unartig)))]

It came with nearly no warning that Soulside announced their first shows in twenty-five years. The reunion was initially prompted by the release of the highly anticipated DC hardcore documentary, Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980–90). Announced first as a single date at legendary DC club The Black Cat to coincide with a screening of the film, the reunion quickly expanded to include two nights at Brooklyn’s Saint Vitus and an additional night at The Black Cat. The four shows sold out almost immediately with a bare minimum of hype and promotion.

Of the 1980s DC hardcore scene, Soulside are hardly the most well-known. Fugazi is, of course, the most visible of all those bands. Soulside often get pegged as followers of Fugazi, but in fact they were active years before Fugazi and the relationship between the two bands is less of one band following another and more of a cross-pollination within a community. After disbanding in 1989, lead singer Bobby Sullivan would take a break from music, later forming the bands Rain Like the Sound of Trains and Sevens. The rest of Soulside—Scott McCloud (guitar), Johnny Temple (bass), and Alexis Fleisig (drums)—would go on to form seminal noise rock band Girls Against Boys.

Twenty-five years to the day since the band’s final gig, Soulside took the stage at Brooklyn’s Saint Vitus. Over two nights, from the rumbling opening bass riff of “God City” to the lean punk of “Under the Glare,”  the band draws from their entire body of work. Many of us relative newcomers too young to have experienced Soulside during their initial run encountered the band via the CD collection, Soon Come Happy, which gathers the better known Dischord albums Trigger and Hot Bodi-Gram. Each of those albums is well represented here. From Trigger, which was recently reissued by Dischord and expanded to include the Bass • 103 single, we get some of Soulside’s signature tracks: “Baby,” “Trigger,” and “Name in Mind.” They play almost all of their final record, Hot Bodi-Gram, the highlights of which are “God City,” “Pembroke,” and the duo of “New Slow Fucky” and “New Fast Fucky.”

For longtime devotees—or simply those old enough and hip enough to have been there—“Under the Glare,” and “Lookin’ Around” date back to 1984 when the band was called Lunchmeat. And from the band’s first album Less Deep Inside Keeps, originally released in 1987 as a joint venture between Dischord and Sammich (another essential DC Hardcore label), they play “Pearl to Stone,” “Fresh Air,” “Other Side,” and a cover of Wire’s “Ex-Lion Tamer.”

Soulside is a band I never thought I’d see play live. And looking around at Saint Vitus each night, it was clear I wasn’t the only one. Most of the crowd didn’t look old enough to have seen the band during their initial run. But whether people were drawn to the band like I was, through Girls Against Boys, or whether people discovered them through the punk rock education that is the Dischord catalog, it was clear the songs still resonate. It was an absolute pleasure to get to see these guys perform together and I’m extraordinarily proud to have taped these sets.

I recorded these shows with a pair of AKG C480/CK61 cardioids set up in front of the soundboard, combined with a feed from Saint Vitus FOH, Nick. The sound in the room for both nights was excellent and these recordings reflect that. Enjoy!

Download the complete December 17th show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Download the complete December 18th show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete December 17th show:

Stream the complete December 18th show:

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Soulside
2014-12-17
Saint Vitus
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Soundboard (engineer: Nick) + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV(24/48) > Audacity 2.0.5 (mixdown, fades, EQ, amplify, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

Tracks [1:05:15]
01. God City
02. What Do You Know About That?
03. Punch the Geek
04. Baby
05. Trigger
06. Name in Mind
07. New Slow Fucky
08. New Fast Fucky
09. Bass
10. Under the Glare
11. X-Lion Tamer [Wire]
12. Lookin’ Around
13. Clifton Wall
14. [Encore Break]
15. War
16. Pembroke
17. A Love Supreme
18. Pearl to Stone

Soulside
2014-12-18
Saint Vitus
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Soundboard (engineer: Nick) + AKG C480B/CK61 > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV(24/48) > Audacity 2.0.5 (mixdown, fades, EQ, amplify, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

Tracks [1:04:26]
01. War
02. Pembroke
03. Trigger
04. Baby
05. Punch the Geek
06. Bass
07. New Slow Fucky
08. New Fast Fucky
09. Fresh Air
10. I Find the Other Side
11. Bad Show
12. Clifton Wall
13. A Love Supreme
14. [Encore Break]
15. God City
16. Pearl to Stone
17. What Do You Know About That?
18. Under the Glare

If you enjoyed these recordings, PLEASE SUPPORT Soulside—like them on Facebook and buy the Trigger reissue from Dischord.

Pink Avalanche: November 22, 2014 Brooklyn Night Bazaar – FLAC/MP3/Full Set Streaming

December 13, 2014
By

Pink Avalanche - Live at Brooklyn Night Bazaar 2014
[photo by acidjack]

Hailing from Chicago, post-punkers Pink Avalanche would not be out of place among that city’s finest independent bands. Their songs straddle the line between shoegaze and more economical punk rock. Begun as the studio project of guitarist-singer Che Arthur and drummer Adam Reach, the pair add Kortland Chase on guitar and Pete Croke on bass for their second album, The Luminous Heart of Nowhere, and live show. Arthur is a live sound engineer by day and is no doubt responsible for The Luminous Heart of Nowhere’s careful production, which manages to sound lush while retaining the harsher edges of the punk rock tunes.

We caught up with Pink Avalanche rounding out their tour with Survival Knife and Hungry Ghost at Brooklyn Night Bazaar. Their set features cuts from their recently released second album, from their first album Wraiths, and a cover of semi-obscure Austin band Starfish’s “Warp Factor.” For their live set, interstitial soundscapes link the songs together much like the two short instrumental tracks “:” and “::” that bookend “In Empty Spaces” on the album. Though drawing from two albums and a cover, they manage to musically link the separate selections into a narrative that flows through their entire set.

Like the night’s other bands, acidjack recorded this set from inside the soundboard cage at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, with Schoeps MK41 microphones and a soundboard feed that included the engineer, Kenny’s, mics at either side of the stage. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Pink Avalanche
2014-11-22
Brooklyn Night Bazaar
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded by acidjack
Produced by Eric PH

Soundboard w/ onstage mics (engineer: Kenny) + Schoeps MK41 (LOC, PAS) > KCY > Z-PFA > Sound Devices USBPre2 >> Edirol R-44 [OCM] > 2x24bit/48kHz WAV > Audacity 2.0.5 (set fades, mixdown, EQ, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

01. Chalk and Crimson
02. Petals
03. Masks
04. Corpse
05. In Empty Spaces
06. Warp Factor [Starfish]
07. Silver Tongue
08. Breathe Deep
09. You Lost Me
10. Ten Kings

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Pink Avalanche, visit their website, like them on Facebook and buy The Luminous Heart of Nowhere here.

Big Ups: November 2, 2014 Mercury Lounge – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

December 12, 2014
By

BigUps-Graffiti-DannyKrug
[photo by Danny Krug for Canvas Media PR]

For budding music nerds, discovering the Touch & Go catalog is an eye-opening experience. I have to imagine Big Ups enjoyed a similarly formative exploration of that catalog. They pair the post-hardcore sound of bands like The Jesus Lizard and Shellac with strikingly direct lyrics that narrate the indignities of everyday life. Joe Galarraga’s frenetic vocals are tempered by the tightly wound trio of Brendan Finn, Amar Lal, and Carlos Salguero. As a unit, the band mines the tenuous territory that lies between frenzy and control, managing to teeter on the edge of chaos without retreating to the comfort of complacency—no small feat when you take a look around.

And so despite the Sunday evening opening slot, Big Ups wasted no time in challenging the crowd to shake off any post-Daylight Saving grogginess with an intense thirty-minute set at Mercury Lounge comprised of selections off their debut album Eighteen Hours of Static, the two tracks from their upcoming Exploding in Sound split 7”, and a handful of new songs. Set-opener “Justice” is a wakeup call in which Galarraga wails with conviction, “Everybody says it’s getting better all the time, but it’s bad, still bad.” It’s a convincing argument with the songs that follow as its supporting evidence. Yet the songs refuse to give in or give up, convinced that it should and can get better. While not a dramatic stylistic departure from the earlier material, the duo “Rash” and “Not Today” (both out now on a split 7” with Washer) represents their most realized songs yet. If these two tracks are any indication of Big Ups’ future direction, there may be hope after all.

I recorded this set from our usual location in the venue, with a soundboard feed from the Mercury Lounge FOH, Dave Lefcort. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show: 

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Big Ups
November 2, 2014
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Audio Technica 3031 + Soundboard (engineer: Dave Lefcort) > Roland R-26 > 2x24bit/48kHz WAV > Audacity 2.0.5 (set fades, mixdown, EQ, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

01. Justice
02. Hope For Someone
03. Meet Where We Are
04. T.M.I.
05. Rash
06. Not Today
07. Yawp
08. [Unknown]
09. Wool

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Big Ups, visit their website, like them on Facebook and buy Eighteen Hours of Static there.

Strand of Oaks: December 4, 2014 Bowery Ballroom – FLAC/MP3/Full Set Streaming

December 7, 2014
By

strandofoaks2014-12-04

Eric PH reports:

To chart Strand of Oaks’ meteoric success in 2014, you need only look at the New York City venues they’ve played this past year: Piano’s in May, Mercury Lounge in June, The Bowery Ballroom in December. That Mercury Lounge gig doubled as record release show and tour opener for HEAL, released a couple days before. At the time, it was Strand of Oaks’ biggest NYC show yet. So it’s a testament to the band’s growing popularity that they close out the tour and the year with an even bigger, packed show at The Bowery Ballroom.

HEAL is Tim Showalter’s fourth album as Strand of Oaks, and the appeal is multifaceted: a compelling backstory of musical hardship, a car crash, and a broken heart; the allure of Showalter’s heart-on-his-sleeve lyrics; a guest appearance by J. Mascis (“Goshen ‘97”); and a stirring tribute to Jason Molina (“JM”). The album recalls Bruce Springsteen’s better days—and aptly, the Strand of Oaks show begins with his “Born in the U.S.A.” blasting as the band members take the stage; that song relevant not only to Showalter’s music and lyrical themes, but also to the night’s protests happening only blocks away from the intersection of Bowery and Delancy. Showalter takes a moment to remind the crowd of the dangers of cynicism, and while you might be tempted to label Showalter as earnest or emotional, his graciousness and sincerity is disarming, no doubt an antidote to the you-must-be-this-hip-to-enter music scene that, admittedly, is my usual fare.

The Bowery set captures Strand of Oaks playing all of HEAL, “Diamond Drill” from 2012’s Dark Shores, and two covers. Here, the album centerpiece, “JM,” stretches past the nine-minute mark, building to a cathartic crescendo. The more succinct pop rock of the hits (or as Showalter puts it, “the Wayne’s World level headbangers”), “Goshen ‘97” and “Shut In” gave the audience no other option but to rock out. This year has also seen Strand of Oaks get no small amount of press from cover songs. For the A.V. Club’s Undercover Series, the band pulled off a surprising cover of Asia’s “Heat of the Moment.” Here we find Showalter doing a solo take on Ryan Adams’ “My Wrecking Ball” and a rousing full band performance of the ’Mats’ “Alex Chilton.” Strand of Oaks have set the bar high with a banner year in 2014 and I’m anticipating more from Showalter and crew in 2015.

I recorded this set from our usual location at Bowery, just left of the soundboard, with acidjack’s Schoeps MK4V cardiod mics and a soundboard feed from Bowery’s FOH, Kenny. The sound is terrific. Enjoy!

Download the complete set: [MP3] | [FLAC] 

Stream the complete set:

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request, and feel free to repost the Soundcloud links.

Strand of Oaks
2014-12-04
The Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Soundboard (engineer: Kenny) + Schoeps MK4V > KCY > Z-PFA >> Roland R-26 > 2xWAV(24/48) > Audacity 2.0.5 (fades, EQ, tracking, amplify, downsample, dither) > FLAC (level 8)

Tracks [81:57]
01. HEAL
02. Same Emotions
03. Last to Swim
04. [banter]
05. Goshen ’97
06. For Me
07. JM
08. [banter]
09. My Wrecking Ball [Ryan Adams]
10. Diamond Drill
11. [banter]
12. Woke Up to the Light
13. Shut In
14. [banter]
15. Plymouth
16. [banter]
17. Sterling
18. [banter]
19. Wait For Love
20. [encore break]
21. Alex Chilton [The Replacements]
22. Mirage Year

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Strand of Oaks, visit their website, and buy Heal and the band’s other records directly from the band here.

Hungry Ghost: November 22, 2014 Brooklyn Night Bazaar – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

December 4, 2014
By

hungry1
[photos by acidjack]

Eric PH reports

What do the drummers of veteran indie rock acts do when that band breaks up? They start new bands of course. But there’s a steep challenge to success for drummers, who are usually buried behind large kits, heard more often than seen. Since breaking up in 2002, Unwound has splintered into Survival Knife (featuring guitarist-vocalist Justin Trosper and original Unwound drummer Brandt Sandeno) and Hungry Ghost, the guitar and drums duo of Andrew Price, formerly of Irving Klaw Trio, and ex-Unwound drummer, Sara Lund. While Survival Knife soldiers on with a sound that bears forward Unwound’s post-hardcore, Hungry Ghost breaks that mold and tends more towards blues-rock territory. You wouldn’t be too far off in comparing Hungry Ghost to Quasi—another duo that features a veteran indie rock drummer, Janet Weiss. (And indeed, the other half of Quasi, Sam Coomes, produced Hungry Ghost’s first album.) Still, Sara Lund’s unmistakable drumming combined with great songwriting ensures that Unwound devotees will find a lot to love about Hungry Ghost.

Price and Lund have been playing together as Hungry Ghost since at least 2009, so we were psyched to finally catch them in Brooklyn at the last stop on their tour with Survival Knife and Pink Avalanche. For this set, the band performs mostly new material, drawing on only a few songs from their 2012 self-titled, self-released debut record. Price and Lund share vocal duties throughout and you can’t help but note the equality of the collaboration, the guitar and drums in conversation with each other and the vocal harmonies as the meeting ground between the two performers. After a particularly rollicking performance of “Get Up,” Lund comments that audience air-drummers are the highest form of praise a drummer can receive. Their entire set from Brooklyn Night Bazaar is proof that praise is well-deserved.

As with Acidjack’s recording of Survival Knife from the same night, I recorded this with the mics inside the soundboard cage and a feed of the soundboard, plus onstage mics, from the house engineer Kenny. Despite the non-traditional venue, the sound is excellent. Air-drum away!

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Hungry Ghost
2014-11-22
Brooklyn Night Bazaar
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Audio Technica 3031 + Soundboard (engineer: Kenny) > 2x24bit/48kHz WAV > Audacity 2.0.5 (set fades, mixdown, EQ, tracking, downsample, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

1. Brilliant One
2. Wicked Betsy
3. Get Up
4. Showed Up
5. Throw Out
6. River
7. Pretty Girls Make Intifada
8. Shame Thing [medley of Shame and Same Thing]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Hungry Ghost, visit their website, and buy their records here. 

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.