Posts Tagged ‘ gowanus ’

Sebadoh: April 22, 2017 Bell House

April 30, 2017
By


[photo by nyctaper]

In the half-dozen times I’ve seen Sebadoh live, I had never experienced a performance as good as their set at the Bell House last week. The band seemed relaxed and focused and worked through an hour-long set of inspired music. Perhaps buoyed by the fact that in this “co-headline” show they were tasked with playing second of three bands, Sebadoh had a few moments of playful banter, but for the most part were all business.

The set was structured to allow each song protagonist to play a mini-set of their material before a changeover. The show began with five Lou Barlow songs before Jason Loewenstein took over on the guitar at centerstage and played six of his songs, before Lou finished the set with four songs. The band released an album (Defend Yourself) and an EP early this decade after an extended hiatus, but this show was a fair representation of all of their material, newer and classic. This show was the last night of a brief five-city tour after the band played just three dates in 2016. If the Bell House set indicates the high quality of the band’s current performances, we hope that 2017 sees more dates for Sebadoh, particularly locally.

I recorded this set with the Neumann hypers mounted at the soundboard rail and mixed with an excellent feed by veteran house FOH Dave. There is one moment of feedback in the first minute, but overall the sound quality of this recording is superb — possibly the best recording we’ve ever made in this venue. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Set:

Sebadoh
2017-04-22
Bell House
Brooklyn NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer: Dave] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 54:02]
01 Not a Friend
02 Homemade
03 State of Mine
04 Soul and Fire
05 Beauty of the Ride
06 [changeover]
07 Got It
08 It’s All You
09 Drag Down
10 Prince-s
11 Beat
12 [banter – pieces of meat]
13 My Drugs
14 [change back]
15 I Will
16 Rebound
17 Skull
18 Arbitrary High

PLEASE SUPPORT Sebadoh:  Facebook | Bandcamp

Steve Gunn: December 9, 2016 Bell House

December 11, 2016
By



Watching Steve Gunn and his latest band play this performance at The Bell House reminded me of the below Gunn performance with Alex Bleeker & the Freaks at the “Play Dead” show that we captured in 2015. Gunn’s music at the time — consisting of solo guitar records, his duo work in Gunn-Truscinski Duo, and his two Paradise of Bachelors LPs, Time Off and Way Out Weather — wasn’t necessarily the work of someone who revered the Dead. But as he and Bleeker’s band played “Wharf Rat” that night, it all clicked. Part of what continues to make the Grateful Dead so special is that there are multiple entry points to the band, a whole universe of styles and vibes contained within individual tours and individual shows and, even, individual songs. Gunn wasn’t a person who mimicked the band’s style(s), at all, but he had absorbed many of their lessons. And this show, more than most of his I have seen, proved it.

This show, the band’s final of the year after a long slog of touring and greatly increased exposure thanks to Gunn’s Matador Records debut, Eyes On the Lines, was my first time seeing most of Eyes On the Lines in the live setting, despite having seen Gunn several times this year. Maybe it was the hometown crowd, whose love is unconditional and the opposite of the “play the hits” mentality of the festival crowds, maybe it was the finely honed interplay among the musicians, maybe it was just them saying “fuck it” and doing things the way they wanted — whatever it was, Gunn and Co. came out and turned even some of the relatively concise material of Eyes On the Lines into life-affirming jams that both challenged and enlightened. What’s most gratifying about watching an artist that you’ve followed for a while keep doing this after achieving his greatest commercial popularity to date is to know how unafraid of it he is, how resolutely true to himself.

Gunn bookended the show with stripped-down songs, starting things off with a fourteen-minute solo acoustic “Old Strange” that was a classic mix of Gunn’s earnest lyrics and desert blues guitar, with the “Wildwood” encore with James Elkington on the electric and Steve on the acoustic. While hearing the new songs — especially a personal favorite, “Ancient Jules” — was a blast, what also stuck me was once again how the music cut through the heaviness of the political moment without flinching from it. Gunn’s impassioned intro to “Park Bench Smile” about inclusion and “fighting what the fuck’s happening” hit its mark, but the song, as rendered, spoke for itself. A noisy, messy, emphatic rendition of the song, it felt like so much of this moment, chaotic but, ultimately, resolved into something hopeful, defiant, and right. What a way to end a year.

I recorded this set with engineer David Hurtgen’s house mix combined with Schoeps MK41V hypercardiod microphones. David’s regular work with the venue shows here, as the sound is dialed in and excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [FLAC/ALAC/MP3]

Stream the complete show:

Steve Gunn
2016-12-09
The Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: David Hurtgen) + Schoeps MK41V (at SBD, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>>Zoom F8>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CC (align, mix down, compression, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects, image)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:26:57]
01 [intro]
02 Old Strange [solo acoustic]
03 Way Out Weather
04 Conditions Wild
05 [banter]
06 Ancient Jules
07 Night Wander
08 Full Moon Tide
09 [banter2]
10 Ark
11 [banter3]
12 Park Bench Smile
13 [encore break]
14 Wildwood [duo w/ Elkington]

Band:
Steve Gunn
James Elkington – Guitar
Jason Meagher – Bass
John Truscinski – Drums

PLEASE SUPPORT STEVE GUNN: Go to matadorrecords.com or your local record store and buy Eyes On the Lines. 

And then, please consider donating to local organizations that support freedom and fair treatment for all, such as the New York Civil Liberties Union and the New York Immigration Coalition.

Yo La Tengo: December 16, 2013 Bell House – Flac/MP3/Streaming

December 24, 2013
By

yo-la-tengo17
[photos by PSquared Photography]

The final night of these long runs of shows by Yo La Tengo are always the most bittersweet nights. Throughout the week of the shows, we fall into a kind of change of lifestyle during these periods — get through the work day, get to the venue, and then inside the little cocoon of the show. Its a bit of a fantasy world, and by the time of the last show we’re tired, happy for the experiences and perhaps a little nostalgic for what’s soon to end. The band generally saves some special treats for the closer and on the fourth and final night of the Bell House it was no different. From our perch adjacent to the VIP area, we could see that the Kaplan and Hubley extended families were out in full and this added a bit of “old home” to the performance. We felt that the more personal lyrics were especially heartfelt — “Our Way To Fall” and “The Point of It” were particularly solid versions of those songs. But for those of us who’d weathered the snow and the travel and put off whatever we had going on in our lives for four consecutive nights, Ira dedicated the infrequently-performed older number “Satellite”. The song had been requested earlier in the week by one of those every-show guys (our friend from the “Laz Archives“) and we were happy to see him get mention from stage. We’re streaming that song below. For the electric set, once again the band held back nothing and marched full energy through ninety minutes of noisy goodness. This show the set closer was “Blue Line Swinger”, which at fourteen minutes was not the longest version we’ve seen but it was certainly one of the tightest. My own personal highlight of the evening and of perhaps the entire run of shows came as the encore set began — a raging cover of Neil Young’s “Time Fades Away” which featured the shared riffs of Antietam’s Tara Key on guitar. And as she has often, Marilyn Kaplan closed the set and the week with her annual appearance with her son’s band to sing “My Little Corner of the World”. While the Bell House isn’t Maxwell’s, the venue certainly offers a number of charms that we hope make it become the “corner of the world” that hosts future Yo La Tengo shows, perhaps even next year’s Hanukkah celebration. We shall see.

I recorded this set in the same manner as the recording posted for December 14 and the sound quality is equally superb. Enjoy!

Stream “Satellite”:

Stream “Time Fades Away”:

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC] or [FLAC]

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.

yo-la-tengo60

Yo La Tengo
2013-12-16
Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard (engineer Mark Luecke) + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (level adjustments, set fades, downsample) > CDWave 1.95 > (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and Tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper

Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 50:17]
01 Ohm
02 Our Way to Fall
03 When It’s Dark
04 Is That Enough
05 [banter – trends]
06 Butchie’s Tune [Lovin Spoonful]
07 The Point of It
08 Cornelia and Jane
09 I’ll Be Around
10 Satellite
11 Big Day Coming

Set 2
[Total Time 1:33:28]
12 Stupid Things
13 Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House
14 Outsmartener
15 Super Kiwi
16 Autumn Sweater
17 Before We Run
18 Deeper Into Movies
19 From a Motel 6
20 Ohm (electric)
21 Blue Line Swinger
22 [encore break]
23 Time Fades Away [Neil Young]
24 [banter]
25 By the Time It Gets Dark [Sandy Denny]
26 My Little Corner of the World [Pockriss – Hilliard]

If you download this recording from NYCTaper we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, and purchase their latest album Fade and its related special releases from Matador Records [HERE].

Patterson Hood & the Downtown Rumblers: July 23, 2012 Bell House – FLAC/MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

July 25, 2012
By

Patterson
[still from this video]

Patterson Hood must be holding back his best material. Or, at least, the solo material on display at this appearance at The Bell House wowed both Johnny Fried Chicken Boy and me to a greater level than his most recent work with his main gig, the Drive-By Truckers, has. That’s not meant as a knock on the Truckers – that band is a collaborative effort, and Hood has never been the whole equation as far as songwriting for it goes. But he has always been, at least for me, the beating heart and mascot of that band, the friendly drunk with a wink in his eye, the one who reminds you of that reliably Southern buddy you wish you had.

Hood is also the band’s great storyteller. His honest, unvarnished tales manage to be universal, even if you don’t know jack shit about moonshine and pickup trucks. His new record is called Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance, and the title track is a tribute to Patterson’s recently deceased great uncle, who raised him for much of his childhood.  If you’ve seen actual heat lightning spread its electric fingers out over a black Southern sky, seemingly tousling the pines, you know what a majestic sight it is. And why it reminded Patterson of a loved one, about to be dearly departed. Because that image, like that person you love, will never leave you.

Many of his images don’t.  There’s Billy Ringo, the hapless stoner who nearly dies every day, nearly falling from a window but still keeping his hand on his bong. There are the liquor store fanboys of “12:01”, hanging outside the store on Sunday at midnight, fighting off the shakes until they can get their whiskey fix. There are the torn pages from the back of a Gideon Bible, scrawled with a love song of a moment’s inspiration.

Hood is a gifted songwriter, blessed with the common touch and an uncommon amount of insight. He’s a generous writer and performer, too; even by the standards of rock n’ roll, you can tell how much he loves doing both. Only somebody with that much love puts on a nearly two hour  performance of solo album material on a Monday night.  This show covered much of Heat Lightning, which will be released on September 11, but also offered some of his earlier favorites like “Pollyanna” was well as notable covers, including Big Star’s “September Gurls” and Todd Rundgren’s “The Range War”. Hood and this band, christened the Downtown Rumblers, were as free spirited and lively as ever, passing a bottle of Patron around as they dug deep into Hood’s catalog at a solid, but measured pace. Hood likes to take his time to cue up his songs, to put a frame around them, if you will, and that is one of the most rewarding aspects of his live show. By the time this one wrapped, it felt like we’d spent an evening with an old friend. The show ended, appropriately, with the Eddie Hinton song “Everybody Needs Love”, and we had felt plenty of it from Patterson tonight.

This set was recorded with Schoeps MK41 microphones, whose directionality helps to reduce some of the “boomy” nature of this room, and a soundboard feed. I think you will like the results. Enjoy!

Minor assistance with the setlist would be appreciated. Also, the tag for the first track should be changed to “Depression Era”. Thanks to Patterson, the Bell House and Dave for their hospitality.

Stream “Heat Lightning Rumbles In the Distance”
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/D8030DriveByTruckers3838/21 Heat Lightning Rumbles In the Distance.mp3]

Stream “September Gurls [Big Star]”
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/D8030DriveByTruckers3838/11 September Gurls.mp3]

Stream “12:01”
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/D8030DriveByTruckers3838/03 12_01.mp3]

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

Follow acidjack on twitter

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.

Patterson Hood and the Downtown Rumblers
2012-07-23
Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

Hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41>CMC6>Sound Devices USBPre2 + SBD >> Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ AUD)>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (light DR compression on SBD, mixdown)>Izotope Ozone 5 (additional EQ)>Audacity (set fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downsample)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:53:08]
01 Depression Era
02 Pride of the Yankees
03 12:01
04 [banter]
05 Leavin’ Time
06 Little Bonnie
07 [banter]
08 Billy Ringo
09 [banter]
10 Disappear
11 September Gurls [Big Star]
12 Old Timer’s Disease
13 (untold pretties)
14 The Range War [Todd Rundgren]
15 Betty Ford
16 Uncle Disney
17 Better Off Without
18 Pollyanna
19 After the Damage
20 Screwtopia
21 Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance
22 Come Back Little Star
23 15 Days
24 [encore break]
25 Back of a Bible
26 Everybody Needs Love [Eddie Hinton]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Patterson Hood, visit his website, and buy his official releases in the Drive By Truckers Online Store.

Real Estate: May 20, 2011 Bell House – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

June 14, 2011
By


[Photos courtesy of Jill of fortheloveofbrooklyn photoblog]

Our friends Real Estate have spent the past few years doing it “the right way” – garnering critical attention for the debut LP and building off of that with varied, exciting and packed live shows. Their hard work has paid off in the form of an exciting new deal that finds them leaving one of our absolute favorite boutique labels – Woodsist – for one of the best-curated international indie labels, Domino Records. Per Domino’s press release, a new record is expected in October of 2011. Giving a treat to a Friday night crowd that the band said was one of their best NYC crowds in years, the band played a bunch of new material, including a number of songs we had not heard before. The new songs do not deviate wildly from the old material – call them evolutionary rather than revolutionary – but demonstrate their continuing overall improvement as a band and as songwriters. Ridgewood’s finest will no doubt play some local shows before that new record comes out, and we expect to enjoy hearing more of the new material between now and then.

hi and lo recorded this set with the Schoeps microphones in our usual location in the venue. As with the Julian Lynch recording, these accurate microphones picked up a lot of natural reverberance of the wide room. However, the house mix was stronger, and the crowd a bit less chatty, so with additional mastering efforts, this recording is the much better of the two. Enjoy!

Stream “Easy” [new song]:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/R2410RealEstate9229/04 Easy.mp3]

Stream “Younger Than Yesterday”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/R2410RealEstate9229/07 Younger Than Yesterday.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [MP3]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE]

Follow acidjack on Twitter

Real Estate
2011-05-20
Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded by hi and lo for nyctaper.com
Produced by acidjack

Equipment: Schoeps Mk5 (cardiod)>NBox+>Sony PCM-M10 (24/44.1)
Position: Clamp to soundboard, mics DINa
Mastering: 24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (set fades, tracking, EQ, amplify and balance)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:15:54]
01 instrumental
02 Suburban Beverage
03 [banter/tuning]
04 Easy [new]
05 Pool Swimmers
06 [unknown]
07 Younger Than Yesterday
08 [unknown] – new
09 [banter]
10 Fake Blues
11 [banter]
12 [unknown-new]
13 [banter]
14 [unknown]
15 All The Same
16 [unknown]
17 Atlantic City
18 Beach Comber
19 [encore break]
20 Black Lake
21 Out of Tune

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, 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, plus check out their forthcoming release this October on Domino Records.

Julian Lynch: May 20, 2011 Bell House – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Song

June 12, 2011
By


[Photo by Jill of fortheloveofbrooklyn photoblog]

We last caught Julian Lynch at Music Hall on a freezing cold January night, where he showed off some new songs from his then-forthcoming record, Terra. Since then, Terra has been released and proven another unqualified success, and Julian has had more time to develop the material in the live setting. This show found him opening for fellow Ridgewood, NJ natives Real Estate at the Bell House, a somewhat more cavernous space than the tight-sounding Music Hall. The set followed that January set relatively closely, with a few twists (and without the full 16-minute presentation of this night’s closer, “Travelers”) and included what appeared to be a new song (correct me if I’m wrong) that showed a more rocking side of Lynch. His current plans include some summer tour dates, as well as a planned EP for early 2012. Until then, we hope this live recording will tide you over.

hi and lo recorded this set from our usual spot in the venue with Schoeps cardiod microphones. The wider pattern of these mics picked up more of the room reverberations of the venue, and the Friday night crowd, than are optimal, but after some fairly heavy editing, I think it sounds quite good. Enjoy!

Real Estate was also recorded and will be posted shortly.

Stream the new song:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/J7100JulianLynch0211/lynch.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [MP3]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Julian Lynch
2011-05-20
Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded by hi and lo for nyctaper.com
Produced by acidjack

Equipment: Schoeps Mk5 (cardiod)>NBox+>Sony PCM-M10 (24/44.1)
Position: Clamp to soundboard, mics DINa
Mastering: 24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (set fades, tracking, EQ, amplify and balance)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 37:48]
01 Terra
02 Just Enough
03 Nen Vole
04 Stomper
05 Rivers
06 [tuning]
07 [unknown]
08 Rancher
09 Back
10 Travelers

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Julian Lynch, visit his website and bandcamp page and purchase his official releases from Olde English Spelling Bee.

Cary Ann Hearst & Michael Trent (Shovels & Rope): May 18, 2011 The Bell House – FLAC & MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

June 7, 2011
By

shovels
[still shot from this video]

The Charleston, South Carolina musicians Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent recently teamed up to combine several disparate recording ideas into a collaboration they call “Shovels & Rope“, which resulted in a record by the same name and a nationwide tour that included a number of dates with The Felice Brothers. This show at the Bell House was one of such opening sets (you can get the Felice Brothers set here), but Shovels & Rope were given a headliner-length set, and deservedly so. The duo, with nothing but a couple of guitars and a junkyard drum kit (literally salvaged from the trash) played by Trent, gave the already-packed house an outstanding set that combined Shovels & Rope material with standout tracks from their latest releases, including Hearst’s new record Lions and Lambs. In an era where what passes on the Billboard charts as “country” is little more than bubblegum pop with a Southern accent, it’s not surprising that real country music has found an audience with the rock and indie rock sets. Hearst and Trent may not be household names for a lot of NYC fans, but they are both formidable songwriters and breathtakingly authentic musicians, whose songs offer up sharp lyrical narratives as well as memorable hooks and melodies. Songs like “Hollowpoint Blues” highlight the new project’s appeal, with its rock n’ roll churn punctuated by Hearst’s spine-tingling vocals. Hopefully this current record is only the beginning for Hearst and Trent’s collaborations – Shovels & Rope is truly greater than the sum of its parts.

I recorded this set in the same manner as the Felice Brothers recording, with more emphasis given to the soundboard portion of the recording. The sound quality is outstanding, and I think it is even better than the Felice Brothers recording. Enjoy!

Stream “Hollowpoint Blues”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/S1805ShovelsRope0211/11 Hollowpoint Blues.mp3]

Stream “The Winner [Michael Trent]”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/S1805ShovelsRope0211/09 The Winner.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Follow acidjack on Twitter

Shovels & Rope (Cary Ann Hearst & Michael Trent)
2011-05-18
The Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Equipment: Soundboard+Schoeps Mk41>CMC6>Sound Devices USBpre2>>Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod] (24/48)
Position: Clamp to soundboard, about 9ft up, PAS
Mastering: 2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audacity (mixdown, downsample to 44.1kHz, set fades, tracking, amplify and balance, smooth peaks, downsample to 16bit)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Gasoline
02 [unknown]
03 The Thread
04 Boxcar
05 [unknown]
06 [unknown]
07 [banter]
08 Complicated Type
09 The Winner
10 The Hardest Thing
11 Hollowpoint Blues
12 All or Nuthin’
13 Bad Luck

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Shovels & Rope, “like” them on Facebook, and purchase the record from your favorite retailer, such as [HERE]

The Felice Brothers: May 18, 2011 Bell House – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

May 24, 2011
By

Felice Bell
[Video screenshot courtesy of D.F. Yonkman of Dead Elm]

From busking in NYC subway stations six years ago to selling out the Bell House two nights in a row this week, life for The Felice Brothers keeps evolving in a positive direction. Although they effectively got their start here in New York City, their sound and their approach are more informed by their hometown of Palenville, in the Catskill Mountains upstate. Their country-inflected rock is full of grit, with primary vocalist Ian Felice drawling out his lines in whiskey-drenched full throat, reminiscent at times of early Dylan, and brother James Felice adding meat to their delivery with his brawny vocals (plus his accordion, and piano work). The third brother, Simon Felice, left the band several years ago and tours on his own, but rest assured, the non-related remaining members of the band do an excellent job here, too. Their music isn’t prettified or trendy or arch; these are songs born for the barroom, suitable to a night of melancholy or getting ripshit with your oldest friends. Their lyrics brim with casual violence and the desolation of America’s darkest corners; a guy running an upstate meth lab might or might not listen to this, but these songs are often perilously close to his story.

These Brooklyn shows heralded the release of the band’s pathbreaking new record, Celebration, Florida (even the name of this central Florida planned town evokes something twisted). The new record takes a dramatic push beyond the basic strictures of the country/rock genome, incorporating such varied instrumentation as synths, a horn section, and drum machines, as well as some found sounds. The show kicked off with the first track from the album, “Fire At the Pageant,” and it was immediately evident that the new direction, while maybe a bit jarring at first listen, works to broaden the band’s palette without detracting from the raw, elemental sound that made fans fall in love. The band’s first new single, “Ponzi”, also demonstrated the new approach well, with its synth beats and politically current subject matter (you can probably guess from the title). Several special guests came out to show their love for the band, including former tourmate Conor Oberst on “Wonderful Life” (streaming below) and the searing finale, the fan favorite “Frankie’s Gun”, which also featured Deer Tick‘s Ian O’Neill and the opening act for the evening, South Carolina’s Shovels and Rope. The song, with the stage packed with musicians and friends of the band, was a fitting end to this first of two evenings in Brooklyn. Clearly, the Felice Brothers have plenty of friends here.

I recorded this set with a soundboard feed from the Bell House engineer Jeff, together with the Schoeps microphones. The recording is outstanding, and this audio will be featured in upcoming video footage from Dead Elm.

Special thanks to the band’s management, Ravenhouse Ltd, for inviting us to the performance!

Stream “Wonderful Life”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/F1805FeliceBrothers0211/15 Wonderful Life.mp3]

Stream “Ponzi”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/F1805FeliceBrothers0211/06 Ponzi.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]

Direct download of FLAC files [HERE]

PLEASE DO NOT REPOST DIRECT LINKS TO EITHER THE MP3 OR FLAC FILES

Follow acidjack on Twitter

The Felice Brothers
2011-05-18
The Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Equipment: Soundboard + Schoeps Mk41>CMC6>Sound Devices USBpre2 >> Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod] (24/48)
Position: Clamp to soundboard booth, about 9ft up, PAS
Mastering: 2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audacity (mixdown, downsample to 44.1kHz, set fades, tracking, amplify and balance, smooth peaks, downsample to 16bit)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:21:46]
01 intro
02 Fire at the Pageant
03 Run Chicken Run
04 White Limousine
06 Hey Hey Revolver
06 Ponzi>
07 Take This Bread
08 Back In the Dancehalls
09 Got What I Need
10 Iron Mike
11 Honda Civic
12 Greatest Show On Earth
13 The Big Surprise
14 [banter]
15 Wonderful Life
16 Love Me Tenderly
17 Stepdad
18 River Jordan
19 [encore break]
20 Whiskey In My Whiskey
21 Frankie’s Gun

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Felice Brothers, visit their website, and purchase their official releases directly from their web store [HERE]

Yo La Tengo: May 11, 2011 Bell House – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

May 15, 2011
By


[Photo from the 5/10 show courtesy of Chris Gerbeck at fucking nostalgic]

After an epic Tuesday night “Spin the Wheel” show that found Yo La Tengo playing a special “Name Game” first set, the second night kicked off with “I’d Like To Buy A Vowel,” a new wheel item that requires the band to play only songs of theirs that begin in vowels. In other words, the fans got some great music, but compared to having to, say, perform a classic sitcom, it was a fairly lucky and safe choice for the band. The safe moves ended after that, though, as they kicked off with the punked-up “Artificial Heart” that transitioned seamlessly into their more mellow classic, “Autumn Sweater.” From there the band played through the low-key trio of “If It’s True,” “I’m On My Way” and “Alyda” before kicking the tempo back up with the explosive (and rarely played) “86-Second Blowout” from 1992’s May I Sing With Me. After an inspired, noise-drenched “Outsmartener”, the band launched into an insane 14-minute version of “I Heard You Looking” that left it all on the stage. It was hard to imagine a band not finishing an entire show, let alone a set, after such a monster performance, but this being Yo La Tengo, they let us come down easy, wrapping up set one with the subdued Lou Reed cover, “It’s Alright (The Way That You Live).”

In general, I felt like the sequencing of this show was a slight improvement over the previous night, though we have seen so many Yo La Tengo shows in the past 12 months, it is hard to play favorites. Still, the second set of this show felt incredibly cohesive, kicking off with “Walking Away From You,” a 12-minute “More Stars Than There Are In Heaven” and “False Alarm” all presented as a virtually seamless composition. The noisy side of Yo La Tengo has always been my favorite, so this trifecta pushed all the right buttons for me. Set 2 ended with another awesome 23-minute three-song series, of a monster “Big Day Coming” that found Ira in top form on guitar, jamming straight into “Tom Courtenay” and ending with the band’s reimagined version of Beach Boys’ “Little Honda”.

Perhaps feeling sheepish that they hadn’t been forced to play anything ridiculously out-of-the-box during their two Brooklyn shows, for the encore, the band decided to play a mini-set of three songs in their alter ego cover band mode, Condo Fucks. As with the first set, the encore ended on a quiet note, with another May I Sing With Me number, “Detouring America With Horns.” Few bands get the chance to do truly do whatever the want night after night in front of sell-out crowds, and Yo La Tengo have done everything possible to earn it. No matter how many shows you see, there are always new dimensions, new twists, new laughs, and new songs to be impressed and surprised by, and these two nights exemplified that perfectly.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps microphones running into an ultraquiet digital preamp, combined with an excellent soundboard feed. The results are outstanding. Enjoy!

Stream “86-Second Blowout”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/Y6644YLT9879/08 86 Second Blowout.mp3]

Stream “It’s Alright (The Way That You Live) [Lou Reed]”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/Y6644YLT9879/11 It’s Alright (The Way That You Live).mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]

Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].

Yo La Tengo
2011-05-11
The Bell House
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Equipment: SBD+Schoeps Mk41>CMC6>Sound Devices USBpre2>Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod] (24/48)
Position: At soundboard, DFC, mics pointed at stacks
Mastering: 2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audacity (mixdown, set fades, tracking, smooth peaks, amplify and balance, downsample to 16bit/44.1kHz)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
Set I: I’d Like To Buy A Vowel
01 Game Show Intro
02 Artificial Heart>
03 Autumn Sweater
04 If It’s True
05 I’m On My Way
06 [banter]
07 Alyda
08 86 Second Blowout
09 Outsmartener
10 I Heard You Looking
11 It’s Alright (The Way That You Live) [Lou Reed]

Set II
12 Walking Away From You>
13 More Stars Than There Are In Heaven>
14 False Alarm
15 [banter]
16 The Weakest Part
17 [banter]
18 Mr. Tough
19 Satellite>Big Day Coming>
20 Tom Courtenay
21 Little Honda [Beach Boys]
22 [encore break]

Encore: (Mostly) Condo Fucks Set
23 Whatcha Gonna Do [Small Faces]
24 Come On Baby [Young Rascals]
25 Dog Meat [Flamin’ Groovies]
26 Detouring America With Horns

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Yo La Tengo, visit their website, visit their MySpace page, and purchase their official releases from the store at their website [HERE].

Wakey Wakey!: May 4, 2011 Rock Shop – FLAC and MP3 Downloads + Streaming Songs

May 9, 2011
By


[Wakey Wakey! at SXSW 2011. Photos courtesy of James Buchan – check out his Flickr stream [HERE]]

A lot can be learned about Brooklyn’s Wakey Wakey! by considering the following anecdote from last Wednesday’s show at Rock Shop. It was the third song in their headlining set, following an outstanding set from tourmates Jukebox the Ghost. Keyboardist/vocalist/frontman Mike Grubbs dismisses the band from the stage and launches into a quiet solo number. As he sings the first line, peals of laughter erupt – he is covering Madonna’s Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” But what is more surprising and refreshing about this tour staple is the fact that Mike completely transforms the song, finding a sad, wistful undercurrent to what has to be one of the most bouncy, ridiculous songs of the 1980s. Plus, he just sings the hell out of it. With folk/pop music like this that can at times veer into melancholy territory, that very lack of self-seriousness, and the willingness to have fun, are essential ingredients. This set – a homecoming for the band after a long tour – was strong throughout, with Grubbs and his bandmates on-point musically and loose with the crowd, having fun with this intimate group before their big night at Bowery Ballroom the following evening. This show was so intimate, in fact, that one couple got a chance to talk to Mike about how they got engaged just before the show!

I recorded this set from our usual location in the venue with the DPA microphones and an outstanding soundboard feed from the house engineer, Shane. The quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Stream “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun [Cyndi Lauper]”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/W0504WakeyWakey2011/06 Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.mp3]

Stream “War Sweater”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/W0504WakeyWakey2011/03 War Sweater.mp3]

Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]

Direct download of FLAC files [HERE].

Follow acidjack on Twitter

Wakey Wakey!
2011-05-04
Rock Shop
Brooklyn, NY USA

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

Equipment: DPA 4021>Sound Devices USBpre2+Soundboard>>Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod] (24/44.1)
Position: LOC, mics at 7.5ft, pointed at stacks
Mastering: 2x24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Audacity (balance, mixdown, set fades, tracking, downsample)

Tracks [Total Time 51:58]
01 [intro]
02 Square Peg, Round Hole
03 War Sweater
04 Light Outside
05 [banter]
06 Girls Just Wanna Have Fun [Madonna] [Cyndi Lauper]
07 [banter]
08 Got It All Wrong
09 [banter]
10 Dance So Good
11 1876
12 Feral Love
13 Take It Like A Man
14 [banter]
15 Brooklyn
16 [banter]
17 Almost Everything
18 [banter]
19 Car Crash

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Wakey Wakey!, visit their website, and buy their latest releases from Family Records [HERE]

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