Posts Tagged ‘ Hopscotch ’

Nest Egg: September 7, 2017 Hopscotch Music Festival (Raleigh, NC)

October 6, 2017
By

Like any well-curated music festival, Hopscotch is very much an national and even global gathering, bringing in bands who otherwise might not make Raleigh, North Carolina one of their tour stops. But as much as Hopscotch should be celebrated for the riches it brings to the hometown crowd, it’s equally if not more responsible for giving a bigger platform to local and regional talent. To wit, on a stage that found Oh Sees and The Brian Jonestown Massacre headlining the night, the festival placed one of my favorite new bands of the festival, Asheville, North Carolina’s Nest Egg. With a dark, krautrock-inspired sound, Nest Egg went perfectly with the spooky light show and the “basement” (the giant bottom floor of the Raleigh Convention Center) setting. It’s hard to fully capture the effect of seeing this band live, but in person, the difference between them and the “merely OK” was evident; their sound is driving and delivered with precision, and that amplifies the already-considerable intensity of their music. In that respect, they remind me in a good way of the recently-disbanded Disappears, a longtime favorite of ours. Have a look at Nest Egg’s current material, and be on the lookout for future stuff from this outstanding band.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41V microphones inside the soundboard cage, coupled with a soundboard feed. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Nest Egg
2017-09-07
Hopscotch Music Festival
“The Basement”
Raleigh, NC USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack
Hosted at nyctaper.com

Schoeps MK4V (at SBD, DFC)>KCY>Z-PFA + Soundboard>Zoom F8 (24bit/48kHz WAV files)>Adobe Audition CC (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Eraser
02 Smgfx
03 Booze Your Illusion
04 Gore ’92
05 Nfo
06 Gocg
07 Dmtiv

SUPPORT NEST EGG: Pay to download this recording, and buy their records on bandcamp

Chuck Johnson: September 8, 2017 Three Lobed / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree (Raleigh, NC)

October 1, 2017
By

As a multitalented musician — a soundtrack composer, rock guitarist, and solo guitarist, among other things — it was nonetheless an exciting turn when the Bay Area (by way of NC) artist Chuck Johnson released Balsams, an album of pedal steel compositions that invented what Pitchfork rightly deemed a new genre unto itself: “country post-rock.” This being the annual Three Lobed Recordings / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree at King’s in Raleigh, NC, Johnson did the only-partly-expected, playing a Balsams track, “Riga Black,” but reworking the original into an extended ambient meditation. There’s an undeniable grace and peace to the work that melded perfectly with the afternoon’s inclusive, forward-looking vibe. We never miss a chance to see Chuck in action, and Balsams is yet another evolution the career of a gifted and visionary artist.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V microphones onstage plus a soundboard feed of Evan Lamb’s house mix. The sound quality is outstanding! Note: If you purchased an earlier version (before 10/1/2017) of this from bandcamp, go back and snag this version, as it has been re-mastered to remove some glitches from the original.

Chuck performs at the Ambient Church in Brooklyn this Friday with Windy & Carl. Check it out.

Chuck Johnson
2017-09-08
Three Lobed / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree
King’s
Raleigh, NC USA

Schoeps MK4V (onstage, DFC)>KCY>Z-PFA + Soundboard (engineer: Evan Lamb)>Zoom F8 (24bit/48kHz WAV files)>Adobe Audition CC

(align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Riga Black

PLEASE SUPPORT Chuck Johnson: Buy this recording via the bandcamp link above, and buy his other recordings on his bandcamp page | Buy Balsams via an independent retailer

Dorji-Toth Duo: September 8, 2017 Three Lobed / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree (Raleigh, NC)

September 27, 2017
By


Tashi Dorji and James “Wooden Wand” Toth are both favorites of ours, each having performed some spectacular sets of music that we’ve featured in the past (and more to come). Dorji is a modern day avant-guitar master, while Toth — best known for his Wooden Wand songwriting — can move fluidly through several genres, as comfortable in singer-songwriter mode as he is with the way out. This Three Lobed Recordings / WXDU Hopscotch day show set featured the two men doing more of the latter, as the two men wove together a one-of-a-kind ambient noise improvisation. The mysterious box you see Toth in front of in the picture is the Octatone, a rare, handmade instrument by Forrest Marquisee of Virginia-based Forest Floor Studios, which you can learn more about here (watch a YouTube demo here). You can’t have one of these legendary day shows without a spiritual out performance, and this collaboration was that highlight for us this year. The connection between these players was such that this creation didn’t even start with a roadmap; what you hear is the organic evolution of two music minds in the act of creation. It’s a special moment not to be repeated, and it’s part of why I never miss a Friday at King’s in the early weeks of September.

I recorded this set with Evan Lamb’s house mix plus Schoeps MK4V microphones onstage. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Tashi and James play at Black Iris in Richmond on October 21. Check it out if you’re in the area!

Tashi Dorji / James Jackson Toth
2017-09-08
Three Lobed / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree
King’s
Raleigh, NC USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack
Hosted at nyctaper.com

Schoeps MK4V (onstage, DFC)>KCY>Z-PFA + Soundboard (engineer: Evan Lamb)>Zoom F8 (24bit/48kHz WAV files)>Adobe Audition CC (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 improvisation

Tashi Dorji – Guitar
James Jackson Toth – Octatone

SUPPORT TASHI DORJI AND JAMES TOTH: Pay to download this recording (click the bandcamp link above), and buy stuff from them: Wooden Wand | Tashi Dorji

Purling Hiss: September 8, 2017 Three Lobed / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree (Raleigh, NC)

September 19, 2017
By


[photo by Paul Spanbauer]

As longtime members of the Purling Hiss bandwagon, we’re always excited to see this band play live, and even more excited by the big-time reception those live shows usually get. That was the story here at the Three Lobed Recordings / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree, where the Hiss set found the room at its most-packed point of the day, and for good reason. Mike Polizze and his current cast of co-conspirators (Ben Leaphart on drums, Pat Hickey on bass) brought the full amount of heat to the King’s stage on this sunny mid-afternoon, kicking off with the classic PH tune “Mercury Retrograde” before venturing into a long-haired rock version of Spacemen 3’s “Walking With Jesus.” It was the best kind of cover, abandoning the melodic, low-tempo Brit-psych of the original to boil the song to its rawest essence. After that, we headed into the deep Hiss catalog for “Run From the City” and “Almost Washed My Hair” (2009 and 2010 respectively) before the band sprung a final goodie, a song so new that it doesn’t yet have a name. What we do know about the song is, not-shockingly, it’s a fusillade of hard-charging guitars and ecstatic vibes. Like most things Purling Hiss, it rocks.

I recorded this set with Evan Lamb’s soundboard feed, together with Schoeps MK4V microphones onstage. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Purling Hiss
2017-09-08
Three Lobed / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree
King’s
Raleigh, NC USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack
Hosted at nyctaper.com

Soundboard (engineer: Evan Lamb)+Schoeps MK4V (onstage, DFC)>KCY>Z-PFA>Zoom F8 (24bit/48kHz WAV files)>Adobe Audition CC (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Mercury Retrograde
02 Walking with Jesus [Spacemen 3]
03 Run From the City
04 Almost Washed My Hair
05 [untitled]

Purling Hiss:
Mike Polizze – Vox/Guitar
Ben Leaphart – Drums
Pat Hickey – Bass

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Purling Hiss, like them on Facebook, and buy their latest records from Drag City.

Rosali: September 8, 2017 Three Lobed / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree (Raleigh, NC)

September 18, 2017
By


[courtesy of Three Lobed’s Instagram]

It just wouldn’t make sense to have a talent like Rosali Middleman, who performs as Rosali, show up for a Three Lobed Recordings / WXDU Hopscotch day show and NOT do double duty. So after tearing shit up with the Long Hots earlier in the day, Rosali took the stage again to play her own material, including songs from her forthcoming second LP. Her 2016 debut, Out of Love, arrived like a confident tailwind in a year that was a veritable sea of tumult, and it’s worth revisiting it if you missed it then. This full-band set (featuring Nathan Bowles on drums, Paul Sukeena on guitar, and Dan Provenzano on bass) beefed up certain songs like the key Out of Love opener, “Good Life” as well as making a first (for many of us, at least) showing off new songs like “If I Was Your Heart” and “Dead and Gone.”

These Three Lobed / WXDU day shows tend to have a way of revealing themselves, with the internal logic of the order of (often) wildly divergent styles of bands evident only once you’re standing in the room. Such is the case with Rosali’s position near the end of the day. “Rise To Fall” is a new song of hers, and while certainly the emotional and musical highlight of Rosali’s set, it may also have been that for the whole day, as Middleman’s voice soared over the thick zone of guitars. It felt like an affirmation of all that is right about this day, every year, as a band that had started their set with a measured country-folk number was suddenly blowing the doors off the place with a huge rock song. These shows also have a way of veering from the intellectual to the contemplative to the delightfully weird, but somewhere, there’s always the urgent, throbbing heart, and for me, that was this moment. Stay tuned to Rosali’s bandcamp to find out more about the forthcoming album version.

I recorded this set with fellow taper Randy’s ceiling mounted AKG 460s together with the house mix by Kings’ Evan Lamb. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Rosali
2017-09-08
Three Lobed Recordings / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree
King’s
Raleigh, NC USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack
Hosted at nyctaper.com

Soundboard (engineer: Evan Lamb)+AKG 460/CK61 (FOB, DFC)>Zoom F8 (24bit/48kHz WAV files)>Adobe Audition CC (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 If I Was Your Heart
02 Good Life
03 Hangin
04 Dead And Gone
05 Blind Bird
06 Rise to Fall

SUPPORT ROSALI: bandcamp | Facebook

Long Hots: September 8, 2017 Three Lobed Records/WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree (Raleigh, NC)

September 15, 2017
By

I can’t even give you a link to Long Hots on the Internet, because there ain’t one. But maybe you’ve heard of such bands as Rosali, Hothead, and Spacin‘. Ah, right, now you get the idea. So named for a kind of hot pepper, I assure that this band is prepared to bring the fire. My now-annual journey to the Three Lobed Recordings / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree is never complete without a total surprise, and seeing “Philadelphia’s most anticipated band” playing their third-ever show was certainly one of them. These women didn’t spend a long time onstage, but they used their fifteen minutes well, handing us two doses of feral guitar shredding and general disrespect for the integrity of our eardrums. This band played their fourth show, the following night, with Purling Hiss, so if you didn’t figure out the RIYL on this one, I can’t help you. Head over to bandcamp, throw these powerful women some love, and make sure some more Long Hots is in your future.

I recorded this set with a combination of onstage Schoeps MK4V microphones and several soundboard channels from house engineer Evan Lamb. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Long Hots
2017-09-08
Three Lobed / WXDU Hopscotch Afternoon Jamboree
King’s
Raleigh, NC USA

Recorded and produced by acidjack
Hosted at nyctaper.com

Soundboard (engineer: Evan Lamb)+Schoeps MK4V (onstage)>Z-PFA>>Zoom F8 (24bit/48kHz WAV files)>Adobe Audition CC (align, mix down, compression)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 They Do What We Want
02 One Chip Over the Line

SUPPORT THESE MUSICIANS: Rosali | Spacin‘ | Hothead

MAKE: September 9, 2016 Hopscotch Music Festival, Pour House (Raleigh, NC)

September 29, 2016
By

img_1526

MAKE represent another of my favorite recent finds from the Triangle in North Carolina. The three-piece, consisting of Scott Endres, Luke Herbst and Spencer Lee, make the kind of intense, loud-as-hell, but thoughtful metal that, with doom, black, and stoner elements, and a decent dose of flat-out classic rock, puts them in a category beyond a single niche scene. Like more than a few bands in the area, MAKE has been fighting hard against North Carolina’s bigoted HB2 law, including with their most on-the-nose contribution, the song “Human Garbage,” featuring Governor Pat McCrory’s face on the cover. That song made the rotation during this Hopscotch Music Festival show at the Pour House in Raleigh, which remains one of the best places in the area to see heavy music.

The band’s performance, kicking off the night in the venue, shook the rafters with Endres and Lee’s deep riffage, bringing the heaviest elements of the band’s sound to the fore. That’s in keeping with their latest album, Pilgrimage of Loathing, which (perhaps reflecting their view of the political situation) is a harder-edged and more rage-fueled affair than 2015’s The Golden Veil, which keeps company at many points with an entirely different group of bands (Sleep, Om, Arbouretum) than the references you might hear on Pilgrimage. The juxtaposition was thrilling live — experience the whip-turn from “The Somnabulist” and “Human Garbage” to “The Absurdist” and “The Architect” from The Golden Veil. It showed, in a relatively short set, how versatile, and how enjoyable, this band can be, and one would hope to see them around this part of the world (paging Saint Vitus) sooner rather than later.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK4V at the soundboard booth. The vocals are a bit quieter than I would like in the recording, but otherwise this is an excellent representation of this band. Check out Pilgrimage of Loathing on bandcamp, which is also streaming below, and the band’s other records. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Check out Pilgrimage of Loathing:

MAKE
2016-09-09
Hopscotch Music Festival
Pour House
Raleigh, NC USA

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

Schoeps MK4V (LOC, at SBD)>KC5>CMC6>Zoom F8>24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (hard limiter)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 The Somnambulist
02 Human Garbage
03 The Absurdist
04 [banter]
05 Birthed Into A Grave They Made For You>
06 The Architect

PLEASE SUPPORT MAKE: Facebook | Bandcamp

mccrory

Al Riggs: September 9, 2016 Hopscotch Music Festival, Deep South (Raleigh, NC)

September 28, 2016
By

riggsscreenshot
[Screen capture from this video]


As happens more and more frequently these days in North Carolina, Al Riggs dedicated one of his songs — “Carolina Peacemaker” — to the state’s governor Pat McCrory, whose brazenly incompetent and offensive campaign against LGBTQ people has lost the state several major concerts, the NCAA tournament, a major PayPal facility, and the NBA All-Star Game, among other things. As he detailed in an interview this summer, Riggs, who is gay, didn’t set out to make his music political, at least not about that topic. But he, like many of his fellow citizens, has found that if you live under this regime, you no longer have a choice.

If you leave out the political stuff, the most notable detail about Riggs is the volume of his output, made mostly by himself, mostly using his iPhone or laptop. His work (he was heading up to record a new album the following week in New York) finds its moment when he decides, rather than the practicalities of a “release schedule” or studio time or the various other trappings of most musicians’ lives. As a result, he’s able and willing to share his ideas at a furious pace, about whatever topic suits him — from state politics to the (very) unfortunately (since re-)  named Durham restaurant “Hattie Mae Williams Called Me Captain.”

Being a festival-length set, this Hopscotch Music Festival performance at Deep South the Bar could hardly do justice to Riggs’ entire body of work, but it gave those of us who hadn’t seen him live a flavor of what he’s capable of. Riggs, with a sing-speak delivery that purposefully doesn’t obscure his words, lives in both the rock and folk worlds, able to deliver a forceful choogler like “Afraid of Heaven” with the same degree of skill he brings to more subtle tunes like “All The Cells” — a song, he said, “for every queer kid’s parents who are trying to figure out what to do next.” Even if this set was billed simply as “Al Riggs,” one has to give  credit to his band, the Inconveniences,” who appear on his most recent album (though it’s hard to keep up) Night Freedom. While Riggs has been successful at recording on his own, there’s no denying the additional power of the live act, and his music and this modest-but-accommodating venue were a natural fit. It’s not really worth leaving New York to see the bands that play here all the time (which is most of them). It’s the shows like this, by the local gems that you’d hate to miss, that make the trip.

I recorded this set with a relatively modest setup, Audio Technica AT 853 cardiod microphones mounted in the center of the room. While there are some occasional spots of crowd noise here and there, the sound quality of this recording is overall quite strong. Enjoy!

Stream and download this show on our bandcamp page

Al Riggs
2016-09-09
Hopscotch Music Festival
Deep South
Raleigh, NC USA

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

Audio Technica 853c (2’ split, DFC)>CA-UBB>Sony PCM-10>24bit/44.1kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (compression, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 Don’t Smoke In Bed
02 [banter]
03 Young Hegelians
04 Afraid of Heaven
05 Reagan Slain By Hero Cop
06 All The Cells
07 [banter2]
08 Carolina Peacemaker
09 [banter3]
10 Tunnel of Gore
11 [banter4]
12 Hungry Months

PLEASE SUPPORT AL RIGGS: bandcamp | Facebook

Bachman-Toth Band: September 9, 2016 Three Lobed/WXDU Day Show, King’s, Raleigh, NC

September 15, 2016
By

bto-schwentker
[photo courtesy of David Schwentker]

If the Watery Love set was the volume plateau of the Three Lobed / WXDU Day Show at King’s during Hopscotch Music Festival, the joint appearance by longtime site faves James Toth aka Wooden Wand and Daniel Bachman was undoubtedly its whimsical peak. This day happened to not only be one of the consistent musical highlights of the year, but also it was Toth’s birthday, so he and Bachman were probably in a celebratory mood. Whatever the reason, reality was that this combination of players had never existed before — Bachman, Toth, Forrest Marquisee on guitar, and Ian McColm on drums — and they hadn’t even soundchecked. What would happen was a mystery to everyone, even to some degree the people on the stage.

However much the 20+-minute drone-ified version of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” that emerged was or wasn’t planned, the outcome felt like more than a mere lark. As with everything these players do, this was done with spirit, turning this into one of those off-the-cuff, daring improvisational moments that have come to define what is always the highlight of this music festival. There’s not much more to say about it than that — listen to it and you’ll understand.

I recorded this set with Brad Womack’s soundboard feed and Schoeps MK4V microphones onstage. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Download the complete set: [MP3/FLAC/ALAC] [Note: the files need to be re-tagged with the correct band name]

Stream the complete set:

Bachman-Toth Band 
2016-09-09
Three Lobed / WXDU Day Show
King’s
Raleigh, NC USA

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

Soundboard (engineer: Brad Womack) + Schoeps MK4V (stage lip, DFC, PAS)>KC5>CMC6>Zoom F8>3x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (compression, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.3 (track, amplify, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 War Pigs [Black Sabbath]

Support these artists: Daniel Bachman website / facebook | Wooden Wand website / bandcamp

Jake Xerxes Fussell: September 10, 2015 Hopscotch Music Festival (Raleigh, NC)

October 28, 2015
By

hopscotch-festival-2015-15-kennethbachor
[photos courtesy of Kenneth Bachor for BrooklynVegan]

Jake Xerxes Fussell occupies a slightly different niche among his contemporary folk counterparts. Rather than reinterpreting old traditions into new sounds,  Fussell is more of an archivist and explorer, one who gives listeners a window into the original experience of the tunes being played. The Durham, NC-based singer appeared on the very Durham-friendly bill on the first night of Hopscotch Music Festival at the Fletcher Opera Theater, one slot before Phil Cook took the stage (that recording here). Fussell isn’t some latecomer or dilettante to the Southern material that’s on his mind; much like Alan Lomax followed in the footsteps of his father John, Fussell grew up with Fred C. Fussell, a folklorist whose work took him, and often young Jake, across the South, bringing them into contact with many traditional musicians in the process.

Paradise of Bachelors just releases Fussell’s debut record this year, produced by William Tyler, and as you’d expect, this set paid some attention to it. But there was more than that, too, owing to Fussell’s encyclopedic knowledge of the pool from which he draws, which one album can hardly contain. So we got versions of “Man At the Mill” and “Push Boat” from the album, we we also heard some classic Pete Seeger, in the form of “The Bells of Rhymney” and Virginian folk singer Helen Cockram’s “Pinnacle Mountain Silver Mine.” Fussell didn’t need much in the way of flash to get his point across, as he sat along on the broad semicircular stage in front of Cook’s ample stage set. It felt more like a fireside sing-a-long, as given by the kind of music professor you always wished you could’ve had.

Our friend Larry Tucker recorded this set with a soundboard feed together with Peluso subcardiod microphones. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

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

Stream the complete set: 

Jake Xerxes Fussell
2015-09-10
Hopscotch Music Festival
Fletcher Opera Theater
Raleigh, NC USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded by Larry Tucker
Produced by acidjack

Soundboard>PCM-M10 + Peluso CEMC6-CK21 (subcardiod) (Room center hung from balcony rail)>Fostex FR2-LE>24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, effects)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks
01 If I Lose Let Me Loose [John Lee Ziegler] (cuts in)
02 The Bells of Rhymney [Pete Seeger]
03 Pinnacle Mountain Silver Mine [Helen Cockram]
04 Man At the Mill [traditional]
05 Push Boat [traditional]
06 Jump For Joy [Duke Ellington]
07 Raggy Levy [Georgia Sea Island Singers]
08 Copper Kettle [Albert Frank Beddoe]
09 Pork and Beans [Rosa Lee Hill]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Jake Xerxes Fussell, like him on Facebook, and buy his debut album from Paradise of Bachelors.

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