Posts Tagged ‘ neild ’

Chuck Prophet: March 29, 2017 Bowery Ballroom

April 19, 2017
By


[screen shot from this video]

neild reports:
Chuck Prophet is one of those musicians who went from barely-known to me to a perennial favorite in the course of a single song — or really a single riff, as all it took was hearing the opening guitar line from “Sonny Liston’s Blues,” off his terrific 2009 album Let Freedom Ring. Prophet gets described frequently as the “indie rock Tom Petty,” and it certainly fits his vocal style and commitment to old-school rock ’n’ roll, but if anything it sells him short: He combines a heart worn boldly on his sleeve with character observations that are by turns astute and hilarious, sometimes in the course of the same phrase.

This show at the Bowery Ballroom came toward the end of the tour for Prophet’s excellent new album Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins. Live, not only is Prophet’s dry wit given free rein, but the Mission Express, consisting of guitar wizard James DePrato (here playing even more slide than usual), the superb rhythm section of bassist Kevin White and drummer Vicente Rodriguez, and the unbeatable keyboardist/vocalist (and Prophet’s wife) Stephanie Finch, can spread out songs like “Summertime Thing” and “You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)” into loping jams that would be rock radio staples in an alternate universe. I’ve never seen a bad Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express show, and this was among their best, charging along without letup for nearly two hours.

This recording was made with Church Audio CA-14 cardioid mics from lip of the Bowery Ballroom balcony, mixed with a soundboard feed provided by the Bowery’s supremely talented and helpful new soundperson Danielle.

Please pay what you wish for the download (all proceeds other than Paypal and Bandcamp fees go to the artist), and visit chuckprophet.com for all your merch and info needs — I highly recommend subscribing to his email newsletter, which is always a terrific read even if you’re not interested in finding out when he’s coming to your town (though if you’re not, I don’t know what’s wrong with you).

Download and Stream the Complete Show from our Bandcamp Page [HERE]

Chuck Prophet
2017-03-29
Bowery Ballroom
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

CA=14 Cards + Soundboard [engineer Danielle] > Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) > Sound Studio (light dynamic compression and mixing) > FLAC (16/44.1) > Tag > FLAC

Recorded and Produced by
neild

Setlist:
01 Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins
02 Ramona Say Yes [Chuck Berry]
03 Lonely Desolation
04 Bad Year for Rock and Roll
05 Temple Beautiful
06 Who Shot John
07 Barely Exist
08 Jesus Was a Social Drinker
09 You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)
10 In The Mausoleum
11 Ford Econoline
12 We Got Up and Played
13 Iodine [Leonard Cohen]
14 Summertime Thing
15 Countrified Inner City Technological Man
16 Wish Me Luck
17 Willie Mays Is Up At Bat
18 Let Her Dance [Bobby Fuller Four]
19 You And Me Baby (Holding On)

PLEASE SUPPORT Chuck Prophet: Website | Purchase Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins from Yep Roc Records

Jon Langford, Jean Cook and Walter Salas-Humara: December 17, 2016 – Private Residence in Brooklyn

January 14, 2017
By

neild reports:
In a bookend to his February 2016 acoustic gig/art show at a private apartment in Brooklyn, Jon Langford closed out the year with another performance at the same venue. This time he brought along not just his guitar and violnist/vocalist extraordinaire Jean Cook (plus lots of his inimitable paintings and prints, which did a brisk business), but also Silos cofounder Walter Salas-Humara. The pair of country-punk pioneers swapped songs while adding guitar and improvised percussion to each other’s songs — on one track Langford started out drumming with brushes on his guitar back, before breaking for a drum solo played on his own butt — perfectly melding Langford’s sardonic tales of blasé drone operators and Irish fishing villages still reliving the decades-only filming of Moby Dick with Salas-Humara’s ballads of pot smuggling and doomed romance. It was as stripped down as punk rock, or music in general, can be, and further cemented Langford’s role as one of the world’s most seriously funny, and comically serious, artists, while providing a welcome reminder that really all that’s needed for great music are a couple of instruments and an appreciative crowd willing to join in on the choruses.

As with the February show, there was no amplification, so this was recorded with the same CA-14 cardioid mics (mounted on a stand this time instead of sitting on the floor, as the space was slightly less cheek to jowl); when it sounds like the performers have wandered off into another part of the room at one point, that’s exactly what’s happened. Thanks to Jon and Walter and Jean, and to Jon Raaen for hosting us all again at his apartment. Next time, with less snow on the ground for once!

Download the Complete Show in MP3 or FLAC format at Archive.org [HERE]

Stream the Complete Show (via Archive.org):

Jon Langford and Jean Cook
2016-12-17
Private Residence
Brooklyn, NY

CA-14 cardioid mics > Church Audio ugly battery box > Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) > Sound Studio (light dynamic compression to reduce loud claps and percussion) > FLAC (16/44.1) > Tag > FLAC

Recorded and mastered by neil d

Early Set:
01 Over the Cliff
02 Millionaire
03 The Country Is Young
04 Tubby Brothers
05 Counting on You
06 The Sunshine and the Moon
07 Shitload of Cash
08 The Sounds Next Door
09 Sentimental Marching Song
10 Hank Williams Must Die
11 Youghal
12 Streets of Your Town (Go-Betweens cover)

Late Set:
13 second set
14 Summer Stars
15 Drone Operator
16 Walking on Hell’s Roof
17 Satellite
18 Diner by the Train
19 Nashville Radio
20 Homburg
21 Commodore Peter

Check out more on Langford’s many forms of art at the terrific site maintained by Nobby Knape, or just wait around long enough, and he’ll probably show up in some guise or another.

Barbara Manning: July 3, 2016 Union Hall

October 12, 2016
By

barbara-manning-union-hall
[photo by neild]

neild reports:

Though I’d been a fan of her music for years before, my first time seeing Barbara Manning live was in 2001, when she put on a blistering performance with her then-band the Go-Luckys at the late, lamented Tonic. She was going to be playing again a couple of nights later at the (even more lamented) Maxwell’s, but I figured I’d skip it and catch her the next time around.

Bad planning: Manning more or less dropped off the touring map after that, disappearing into schoolwork and eventually a career as a high-school science teacher in Southern California. Though she continued to write and record music (available on Bandcamp as the outstanding album Chico Daze), her live appearances became few and far between: a one-off in Philadelphia one year, Boston the next, Oregon the year after. Though she showed up in 2012 at one of the final Yo La Tengo Hanukkah shows at Maxwell’s (performing a cover of “Christmas Is Lonely (When You’re A Jew)”) and in 2014 at a Chickfactor show in Brooklyn, until this summer Manning hadn’t played a headlining set in New York since that Tonic show way back when.

Fortunately, her latest jaunt took her on a two-stop tour of the east: a record store show in Philly, and a couple of nights before that, an appearance at Brooklyn’s Union Hall, with Hamish Kilgour opening. Manning was sans band this time, just her amazing voice and her guitar, but that was all she needed, transfixing the crowd with a set that ran from her earliest songs (“Breathe Lies”) to her most recent (“Tape You to a Star”), as well as with her relentlessly hilarious stage banter, including a story about performing with the krautrock band Faust that ended up leading to the audience mooing at her for much of the show (It’ll make sense once you hear it). By the final audience singalong on her trademark song “Scissors,” everyone within earshot was hoping that Barbara Manning appearances become less of a rarity in coming years.

This show was recorded with AT-853 cardioid mics suspended from the Union Hall ceiling, mixed with a multitrack soundboard recording provided via the kind help of Union Hall’s booking agent Shannon Manning and soundfolk Gary and Alex. And much thanks of course to Barbara Manning as well — you can thank her, and reward yourself, by picking up her music either at her Bandcamp site or wherever finer indie rock is sold.

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “Life/Luck”:

Barbara Manning
2016-07-03
Union Hall
Brooklyn NY

Soundboard + Audience Matrix

AT-853 Cardioid + Soundboard > Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) + AT853 cardioid mics > SP-SPSB-1 battery box > Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) > Sound Studio (light dynamic compression and mixing) > FLAC (16/44.1) > Tag > FLAC

Recorded and mastered by neil d

Setlist:
01 Intro
02 Breathe Lies
03 B4 We Go Under
04 Buds Won’t Bud
05 I Insist
06 Coy Tongue
07 Dreaming
08 Haze is Free
09 Sympathy Wreath
10 Life Luck
11 Never Park
12 Bold Letters
13 Better By Bounds
14 Tape You to a Star
15 Deep Sea Diver
16 Someone Wants You Dead
17 Scissors

SUPPORT Barbara Manning: Facebook | Bandcamp | Discogs

Waco Brothers: April 13, 2016 Union Hall

April 25, 2016
By

waco

Correspondent NeilD writes:

The Waco Brothers may be credited as the godfathers of “insurgent country” — they were set to release the first single on Chicago’s Bloodshot Records back in 1995 until it turned out some members were out of town, leaving Waco co-frontman Jon Langford to go it alone — but their influences have always been far broader than just taking classic country and infusing it with punk energy. A quick perusal of their nine-album oeuvre turns up covers of songs by Johnny Cash and Roy Acuff, sure, but also Neil Young, Gram Parsons, T. Rex, and even Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd; their latest and first full album in more than ten years, “Going Down in History,” matches a strong set of typically astringent originals with covers of both Texas cowpunk pioneer Jon Dee Graham (“Orphan Song”) and the Small Faces (“All or Nothing”), with the album dedicated to the latter’s keyboard player Ian McLagan, who died a little over a year ago.

The Wacos were born and raised in tiny Chicago bars (the original genesis of the band was as a way for Jon and fellow guitarist/vocalist Dean Schlabowske to earn free drinks), which made the Brooklyn stop on this tour altogether appropriate: With its stated 100-person capacity stretched to the breaking point and the volume cranked up way past 11, Union Hall was sweaty and ear-shattering throughout this hour-and-a-half set. Highlights included an outstanding “Walking on Hell’s Roof” from 2000’s Electric Waco Chair — with a blistering violin solo courtesy of guest Waco and frequent Langford collaborator Jean Cook — plus a healthy sampling of songs from the new album, including Schlabowske’s hauntingly catchy “Receiver,” Tracey Dear channeling the Clash’s Mick Jones more than ever on “Had Enough,” and Langford’s “Building Our Own Prison,” with its takedowns of big-box-store culture and Malvina Reynolds-inspired “tick-tack, clackity-clack” refrain. For the encore, drummer Joe Camarillo ceded the drum throne to founding Waco (and longtime Mekon) Steve Goulding, as the band kicked into a song that started out as a mashup of “Pinball Wizard” and “Folsom Prison Blues,” before veering off into those covers of “Interstellar Overdrive” and “20th Century Boy” that were staples of the Wacos live playbook long before showing up on last year’s covers album “Cabaret Showtime.”

The set was recorded with AT-853 mics suspended from the Union Hall ceiling, mixed with a board feed. Huge thanks to Union Hall soundman Alex, to venue booker Shannon Manning (not just for bringing the Wacos to Brooklyn and for her support of NYCTaper but for the timely supply of a chair so I could reach the aforementioned ceiling), and to Langford, Schlabowske, Dear, Camarillo, Cook, and Alan Doughty for reinvigorating the band after a long semi-hiatus.

Download the complete show from its page on the Live Music Archive: [MP3] [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Waco Brothers

Union Hall
Brooklyn, NY
April 13, 2016

Soundboard > Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) + AT853 cardioid mics > SP-SPSB-1 battery box > Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) > Sound Studio (light dynamic compression and mixing) > FLAC (16/44.1) > Tag > FLAC
Recorded and mastered by neil d

01 intro
02 See Willy Fly By
03 Red Brick Wall
04 Had Enough
05 Receiver
06 Going Down in History
07 Harm’s Way
08 Pigsville
09 Devil’s Day
10 Too Sweet to Die
11 Walking on Hell’s Roof
12 All or Nothing
13 Plenty Tough and Union Made
14 Fox River
15 Building Our Own Prison
16 I Fought the Law
17 Revolution Blues
18 Do You Think About Me
19 Orphan Song
20 White Lightning
21 Big River
22 Pinball Wizard/Folsom Prison Blues/Interstellar Overdrive/20th Century Boy

You can learn more about the Wacos and purchase their albums at:

http://wacobrothers.com/wb/
https://www.bloodshotrecords.com/artist/waco-brothers
https://wacobrothers.bandcamp.com/

Antietam: January 30, 2016 Union Hall

February 19, 2016
By

antietam-768x576

Correspondent Neil D writes: 

I’ve seen Antietam so many times you’d think I’d be jaded, but it turns out their music has had the opposite effect on me: The more I see them, the more I appreciate them. The punkiest of all the bands in Yo La Tengo’s social circle (though technically YLT is in Antietam’s circle, as Ira and Georgia’s first-ever show was the Louisville-via-New York trio’s third-ever), Tara Key, Tim Harris, and Josh Madell keep on putting out record after record of music that’s at times raucously cathartic, at times achingly pretty, and often both at once.

Recent Antietam shows have been augmented with Sue Garner (ex-more bands than can fit in this parenthetical) on backing vocals and occasional tambourine, and this was no exception. The most recent Antietam album was 2011’s “Tenth Life,” but none of those songs appear here: Instead, this set featured seven songs from their in-the-works untitled new album, most notably the unbeatable “I’m So Tired,” which kicks in at 11 and then cranks up the dial even further until the thrashing, yowling climax.

As befits a band led by a professional librarian, Antietam has also become a wonderful curator of other bands, playing in recent years alongside such indie rock luminaries as Sleepyhead, Thalia Zedek, The Scene Is Now, Dump, Two Mule Team, and Escape by Ostrich. For this show at Bell House, Antietam followed their fellow Kentuckian Victory Over Sound (not recorded, unfortunately, due to technical problems), and preceded sets by Feelies extended family members Speed the Plough and post-punk semi-super group Heroes of Toolik, recordings of which will follow.

Thanks to Tara Key for helping set up recording permissions, and to the excellent Union Hall soundman whose name I instantly forgot. The show was recorded with Core Sound binaural mics strung from the club’s ceiling at acidjack’s suggestion, mixed with a soundboard feed that was slightly wonky thanks to the aforementioned technical problems on my end. In any event, the result is a very enjoyable recording, which is all that matters.

Download the complete show: [MP3/FLAC]

Stream the complete show: 

Antietam
2016-01-30
Union Hall
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Neil D

Soundboard (engineer: David Fine)> Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) + Core Sound Low-Cost Binaural mics > Church Audio ugly battery box > Sony PCM-M10 > WAV (24/48) > Sound Studio (light EQ and mixing) > FLAC (16/44.1) > Tag > FLAC

Tracks
01 [intro]
02 Right Between Your Eyes
03 Sunshine
04 Automatic
05 Is It Time
06 I Swear
07 Birdwatching
08 I’m So Tired
09 Glide

Check out more Antietam news and music at: https://antietamtheband.wordpress.com/  https://soundcloud.com/antietamlabs  https://carrottoprecords.com/artists/antietam/

Amy Rigby: May 28, 2015 HiFi Bar – Flac/MP3/Streaming

July 2, 2015
By

hifi
[photo from Amy]

neild reports:

Amy Rigby has been busy musically of late, recording three albums with her husband of seven years, Wreckless Eric, and touring semi-regularly as a duo from their home base in upstate New York. One thing she hasn’t done in a while, though, is play solo shows of her own — which is why when she announced a weekly residency at the HiFi Bar on Avenue A (the old Brownie’s space, still run by former Brownie’s booker Mike Stuto), I immediately canceled my Thursday plans for the month.

The shows did not disappoint in the slightest. HiFi is a cozy space, with a small stage, a pair of booths, and a handful of small tables wedged into what was the Brownie’s stage and standing room area — just about perfect for singer-songwritery performances. And as we were quickly reminded, Rigby is an unbeatable singer-songwriter. Whether on her own with acoustic guitar and organ (week one), accompanied by Wreckless Eric on bass and Jon Graboff on pedal steel (week two), or in full-on rock formation with Eric and drummer Jeremy Grites plus special guests Syd Straw and Lenny Kaye (week three, which I sadly missed), she was by turns poignant and hilarious, drawing on songs from her five solo albums (most famously her 1996 solo debut Diary of a Mod Housewife), rarities from her early days with ’80s bands Last Roundup and The Shams, and a handful of covers and new songs destined for her in-the-works solo album. (You can read her own recap of all four shows on her must-read Diary of Amy Rigby blog; be sure to scroll back to the ones guest-written by The Bag.)

Week four was possibly the most special of all, if only for the special guest: Amy’s daughter Hazel Rigby, who plays bass and sings in the Brooklyn-based indie rock group Outside World. With Hazel on bass and shared vocals, mother and daughter tackled the Last Roundup song “At The Well” (“I was about Hazel’s age when I wrote this”) plus an outstanding cover of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ “Wheels.” A few songs later, following a hilariously botched comedy bit involving a cell phone call from backstage, Wreckless Eric joined in for several songs, including “Genovese Bag,” Amy’s touching love letter to Hazel (“You were Mutt to my Jeff, I was Jack to your Jill”) that is possibly the greatest song ever about the joys and pains of parenting.

If the word “hilarious” comes up a lot in this writeup, it will become apparent why once you’ve heard “Keep It To Yourself,” one of the all-time great post-breakup songs. But this was largely a night for gentler emotions, as marked by the song Rigby chose for the closer (before being called back onstage for one final encore): “Don’t Ever Change,” an achingly sweet but never saccharine ode to the things worth cherishing in life, even if you may not always notice them at the time. Which is a pretty good summary of Amy Rigby’s own three-decade-long music career, for that matter — though on these four nights, she definitely got noticed.

This was recorded with Church Audio CA-14 cardioid mics, powered by Church’s Ugly battery box, to a Sony PCM-M10 recorder. There is a small fraction of a board feed mixed in for fortification of the vocals and also to lessen the enthusiastic crowd response. Thanks to Amy for permission to record, and to HiFi’s Mike Stuto and his soundman whose name I’ve forgotten for their attentive help and for great room sound. You can buy most of Amy Rigby’s records at amyrigby.com, and you will not be sorry if you do.

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “Summer of My Wasted Youth”:

Amy Rigby
2015-05-28
HiFi Bar
New York, NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Upfront Audience

Soundboard + Church Audio CA-14 cardioid mics > Church Ugly battery box > Sony PCM-M10 > Soundforge (post-production) > CD Wave > TLH > Foobar (tagging and conversion)

Recorded by neild
Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:24:15]
01 Rode Hard
02 Playing Pittsburgh
03 Dark Angel
04 How When Where
05 Summer of My Wasted Youth
06 [Hazel Rigby intro]
07 At The Well
08 Wheels [Flying Burrito Brothers]
09 As Is
10 Keep It To Yourself
11 Down Side of Love
12 Needy Men
13 [phone call gag]
14 Til The Wheels Fall Off
15 Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again
16 [banter – Eric new album]
17 Property Shows
18 Slow Burner
19 Genovese Bag
20 We’re Stronger Than That
21 [encore break]
22 Do You Remember That
23 Don’t Ever Change
24 [second encore break]
25 Beer and Kisses

If you download this recording from NYCTaper PLEASE SUPPORT Amy Rigby, visit her website, and purchase her official releases from the Shop at her website [HERE].

Jon Langford: April 4, 2014 Bell House – Flac/MP3/Streaming

April 28, 2014
By

Langford

neild reports:

Jon Langford is a man of many bands. In addition to his long tenure as a founding member of the Mekons, the Three Johns, and the Waco Brothers, he’s had a busy solo career since his first album under his own name, 1998’s Skull Orchard, which was recorded with the aid of fellow Wacos Steve Goulding, Alan Doughty, and Mark Durante. He’s since performed regularly with his New York-based band the Ship & Pilot, consisting of Goulding, Pere Ubu bassist Tony Maimone, and violinist Jean Cook.

This show was part of a mini-tour in support of Langford’s new album Here Be Monsters, recorded as Jon Langford and the Skull Orchard, this time consisting of Cook, Doughty, vocalist Tawny Newsome, Zincs guitarist Jim Elkington, and part-time Wacos drummer Joe Caramillo. (For good measure, the album also includes reproductions of paintings that Langford did for each song; his day job is as a fine artist, painting mostly music-related works, prints of many of which are for sale at the merch table at his shows.) The band that showed up at Bell House, though, was yet another iteration: Langford, Cook (filling in more than capably on Newsome’s backing vocals), Camarillo, Meat Purveyors guitarist Bill Anderson, and occasional Langford touring bassist Ryan Hembrey.

Any Jon Langford show, regardless, is first and foremost a Jon Langford show: hard-rocking, political, as likely to drop a reference to Joe Strummer’s time spent as a grave digger in Wales as to take time out for a terrible joke. (This is a man who once worked the line “Zen buddhist hot dog man/Make me one with everything” into a Mekons song.) The hour-and-a-half set included a mix of songs from Here Be Monsters (including the standout “Drone Operator,” featured in a haunting new video with Moroccan filmmaker Hassan Amejal), his previous solo release Old Devils, Skull Orchard, and a handful of other tracks, culminating in the Mekons anthem “Memphis, Egypt,” for which Goulding emerged from the audience to play drums and Camarillo strapped on a guitar, which he later described as “the most fun I’ve ever had standing up.”

This was recorded with a mix of the Bell House soundboard feed and Church Audio CA-14 cardioid mics mounted on the wall behind the board. Enjoy!

Stream the Complete Show:

This Recording is Available to Download in FLAC and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE]

Jon Langford
2014-04-04
Bell House
Brooklyn, NY

Source: SBD > iRiver H320 + AUD > CA-14 cardioids > MM-EBM-1 battery box (bass rolloff off) > iRiver H320
Transfer: iRiver H320 > WAV > SoundStudio > FLAC
Recorded by neil d

01. intro
02. Summerstars
03. Drone Operator
04. Mars
05. 1234ever
06. Haunted
07. Tubby Brothers
08. Pill Sailor
09. Sugar On Your Tongue
10. Little Ray of Light
11. What Did You Do In The War?
12. Streets of Your Town (Go-Betweens)
13. I Am The Law
14. Are You An Entertainer?
15. X-Ray Style (Joe Strummer)
16. Deep Sea Diver
17. Sentimental Marching Song
18. Homburg
19. Luxury
20. Getting Used to Uselessness
21. Memphis, Egypt

If you download this recording, please support Jon Langford. You can buy Here Be Monsters at jonlangford.de, and the rest of his many, many albums scattered across the Internet, though Bloodshot Records’ Langford page isn’t a bad place to start.

Mission of Burma: February 7, 2014 Bell House – Flac/MP3/Streaming

February 20, 2014
By

mission-of-burma-29
[photos by PSquared Photography]

Since we covered three shows on this particular night, it fell to neild to record this show. He reports:
The longer Mission of Burma’s career goes on, the stranger it gets. It’s not just that they disbanded at the peak of their popularity and reformed years later — there are plenty of other bands that have done the same, though only MoB can lay claim to having broken up thanks to their guitarist’s self-induced ringing in his ears. (As Roger Miller memorably described it in Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life, “In September a middle E appeared in my left ear. And in December a C-sharp below E formed. … They’re forming fairly interesting chords that never leave.”) The greater oddity is that the “reunion” now feels more like a seamless continuation after the band’s two-decade break: Before their hiatus in 1982, MoB issued one full-length CD, one EP, and a handful of singles; since then, they’ve released four new albums that easily compare with, if not surpass, their early material. And their live shows likewise haven’t missed a beat, with the only concessions to Miller’s once-career-ending tinnitus remaining a plexiglass screen in front of half of Peter Prescott’s drum kit and Miller’s guitar amp being pushed to the front of the stage to create something of a sonic bubble amid the earsplitting volume.

For this show at Brooklyn’s Bell House during a quick three-city trip down the East Coast, the band opened with a trio of songs from 2012’s inventive Unsound, then veered into some vintage material from Forget, a new compilation CD of early rarities. The remainder of the set was a nice mix of more recent material with some older anthems (“That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate,” “This Is Not A Photograph,” “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”), plus one surprise during the first of two encores: a cover of the Beatles’ “Paperback Writer” that segued seamlessly into the B-side “Rain.” It was unexpected in precisely the way that has come to be expected at Mission of Burma shows.

Stream the Complete show from Archive.org:

Download the Complete Show in Flac or MP3 at Archive.org [HERE]

mission-of-burma-23

Mission of Burma
2014-02-07
Bell House
Brooklyn NY

Source: AUD > CA-14 cardioids > Church Audio battery box > Line In > iRiver H320 (Rockboxed) > AIFF > Sound Studio > FLAC

Roger Miller: guitars, vocals
Clint Conley: bass, vocals
Peter Prescott: drums, vocals
Bob Weston: tape loops

Recorded by neild

Setlist:
01 Fell Into The Water
02 Sevens
03 Sectionals In Mourning
04 He Is She Is
05 Eyes of Men
06 Thirteen
07 Man In Decline
08 Period
09 Secrets
10 That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate
11 Feed
12 Forget
13 Mica
14 This Is Not A Photograph
15 Red
16 [encore break/loops]
17 Dirt
18 Spider’s Web
19 Paperback Writer [Beatles]
20 Rain [The Beatles]
21 [second encore break]
22 1001 Pleasant Dreams
23 That’s When I Reach For My Revolver

mission-of-burma-40

All of Mission of Burma’s recordings are worth buying (you can get some via their website store), and, needless to say, go see them live whenever you can. Prescott warned in 2008 that he didn’t think the band could physically handle playing more than “a couple more years”; while they’ve already handily outlived that prediction, as we learned back in 1982, you never want to take anything for granted.

Superchunk: September 27, 2013 Bowery Ballroom – Flac/MP3/Streaming

October 2, 2013
By

superchunk-71
[photos by PSquared Photography]

I couldn’t make the Friday night Superchunk show, as I was attending The Suburbs at Mercury (recording very soon). But fortunately, intrepid correspondent neild was there for the capture. Neil reports:

“First things first: Not to contradict our fearless leader, but Superchunk didn’t technically go on hiatus after 2001’s Here’s to Shutting Up. There were occasional shows and EPs here and there, whenever Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance could take time away from their main gig running Merge Records. But the band’s masterful 2010 CD Majesty Shredding still deserves to be ranked with the most impressive comeback albums of all time, featuring instant classics like “Digging For Something” and “Learned to Surf” that melded the band’s guitar crunch with McCaughan’s pop hookery more deftly than ever before. And this year’s I Hate Music (spoiler alert: they don’t actually) is more of the same – or rather, another step forward in the same direction, stretching the band’s boundaries while still staying true to its strengths in rocking out.

This show was the first of two nights at the Bowery Ballroom (the second is available here), and the sold-out crowd was not disappointed: From the opening clap-along bars of “This Summer” (a throwaway single release from last year that might just be their catchiest tune ever), the band was in fine form, with McCaughan bouncing around the stage for almost the entire hour and a half of music. (As my spouse, a Superchunk first-timer, remarked with understatement, “Mac sure has a lot of energy.”) With Ballance sidelined by ear problems, drummer Jon Wurster’s Bob Mould band mate Jason Narducy subbed in as a replacement, and was an excellent fit both on bass and on backing vocals. The setlist featured a spate of songs from I Hate Music, plus a selection from the band’s catalog that managed to be almost entirely different from the next night’s set; “Skip Steps 1 and 3,” “Hyper Enough,” “Rope Light,” and “Driveway to Driveway” (streaming below) were among the highlights here that didn’t reappear on Saturday.

I recorded this from the Bowery’s left balcony, which made for reduced crowd noise and a nice direct sound from the left speaker stack. It was recorded with two sets of mics, Core Sound Binaurals and Church Audio CA-14 cardioids, which were later mixed to provide optimum depth and presence.

Do not sell this under any circumstances, buy all of Superchunk’s records if you don’t have them already (did you get their 2008 EP Leaves In The Gutter? you probably believed that “hiatus” thing and missed it, didn’t you?), and by all means, do yourself a favor and go see them live when they come to your town.

(Special thanks to nitcomb for the setlist.)

Stream “Driveway to Driveway”:

Download the Complete Show [MP3] or [MP3] (off site) / [FLAC] or [FLAC] (off site)

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.

Superchunk
Bowery Ballroom, NYC
September 27, 2013

Source 1: AUD > CoreSound Binaurals > MM-EBM-1 battery box (with bass roll-off) > Line In > iRiver H320 (Rockboxed) > AIFF
Source 2: AUD > Church Audio CA-14 Cardioids > Line In > iRiver H320 (Rockboxed) > AIFF
Mixing: AIFF > Sound Studio > FLAC > XAct (for SBE and tags) > FLAC
Recorded and mastered by neil d
Extremely light dynamic compression in Sound Studio

01 intro
02 This Summer
03 FOH
04 Me and You and Jackie Mittoo
05 Learned to Surf
06 Skip Steps 1 and 3
07 Staying Home
08 Void
09 Out Of The Sun
10 Kicked In
11 Nu Bruises
12 Low F
13 Animated Airplanes Over Germany
14 Rope Light
15 Digging For Something
16 Slack Motherfucker
17 encore break
18 Tiny Bombs
19 What Do I
20 Brand New Love (Sebadoh)
21 Hyper Enough
22 encore break 2
23 Driveway To Driveway
24 The First Part

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Superchunk, visit their website, and purchase I Hate Music directly from Merge Records [HERE].

Jon Langford: July 9, 2013 Maxwell’s – Flac/MP3/Streaming

July 23, 2013
By

langford
[iphone photo by neild]

Longtime NYCTaper correspondent neild made his last trip to Maxwells:
“The very first time I went to a show at Maxwell’s in Hoboken was to see the Mekons, for a show in July 1991 when the Leeds-bred country-art-punk combo was touring in support of Curse of the Mekons, the album that got them kicked off A&M for being “commercially unsatisfactory.” This was at a time when the Mekons played in the New York area every few months (usually at Tramps or the Marquee), and I don’t remember much in particular about the show, except that Jon Langford and Sally Timms, then recently split as a couple, bickered both terribly and hilariously, and that the show ended with Jon and several other Mekons thrashing atop each other, and their guitars, on the floor. And that the whole thing was wonderful and anarchic and both so rock and roll and so anti-rock and roll in a way that only the Mekons have quite ever been able to pull off.

Almost 22 years later to the day, I made what will be my final visit to Maxwell’s to see Langford and his usual New York cohort (bassist Tony Maimone and drummer Steve Goulding, with only longtime violinist Jean Cook absent) play their farewell gig at the club, which as everyone reading this no doubt knows by now will close forever at the end of July. I was on vacation on the West Coast when I got an email about the show, which was due to take place just one day after I was to arrive back east on a red eye; of course, I immediately ordered tickets, because one more chance to see Jonboy at the greatest rock club in the world was something I couldn’t pass up, jet lag or no.

It didn’t disappoint. After taking the stage solo to play “Luxury” from his recent album Old Devils while waiting for Maimone and Goulding to make their way through the Maxwell’s crowd to the stage, Langford launched into full-band renditions of several songs from his 1998 solo debut Skull Orchard, a still-unparalleled masterpiece focused on his hometown of Newport, Wales (“Tubby Brothers” is about a real-life undertaking firm of that name); the rest of the set highlighted both Waco Brothers classics like “Walking on Hell’s Roof” and other solo material, including his recent, haunting Bloodshot single “Drone Operator.” After a break for drinks, the band returned to do a string of Mekons songs, more Jon solo material, and a set of covers before closing things out with the ur-Mekons track “Where Were You?”

It all amounted to both a eulogy for and a celebration of Maxwell’s, which was only fitting for an artist who’s spent the last several years selling paintings based on faded publicity photos of dead country music stars. For a fuller review, including a nice sampling of the jokes that peppered the evening (only some of which were about Sally Timms farting), see Will You Miss Me’s report on the evening.

This recording was made from two sources: a pair of cap-mounted Core Sound Binaural mics about ten feet from the stage, plus a soundboard feed. (Huge thanks for Maxwell’s soundman Mitch for his both his help in this area and his terrific mix for the night – NYC-area clubs, this man is a free agent come August 1, so get your dialing fingers working!) Despite some minor mishaps with a balky cable and some errant breezes from the Maxwell’s a/c system – one of the few things that’s changed there in the last 22 years – I was able to finesse it all in mixing into a recording I think you’ll all be happy with. Especially if you’re a fan of fart jokes.”

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

Stream the Entire Show:

Jon Langford
2013-07-09
Maxwell’s
Hoboken, NJ

Recorded and mastered by neil d

CoreSound Binaurals + soundboard > MM-EBM-1 battery box (with bass roll-off) > Line In > iRiver H320 (Rockboxed) > AIFF > Sound Studio > FLAC > XAct (for SBE and tags) > FLAC

Tracks:
First set:
01 Luxury
02 [banter – Billy Bragg]
03 Tubby Brothers
04 Youghal
05 Butter Song
06 Trapdoor
07 Death of Country Music
08 [banter – did the Waco Brothers ever play here]
09 Walking on Hell’s Roof
10 Drone Operator
11 [banter – some of my friends’ fathers]
12 Pill Sailor
13 [banter – I went to the doctor]
14 X-Ray Style (Joe Strummer)
15 [banter – the Three Johns broke up in this room]
16 Death of the European
17 Deep Sea Diver

Second set:
18 Memphis, Egypt
19 Lonely and Wet
20 [banter – Rico’s accordion is dead]
21 Slightly South of the Border
22 Dickie, Chalkie and Nobby
23 [banter – smells and tastes]
24 Millionaire
25 [banter – ooh, doggie]
26 Are You an Entertainer
27 Good Year for the Roses (George Jones)
28 Before I Grow Too Old (Fats Domino)
29 Sentimental Marching Song
30 [banter – a funny joke in Chicago]
31 Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You (Dolly Parton)
32 It’s Not Enough
33 [banter – guitar solo]
34 Big River (Johnny Cash)
35 Nashville Radio
36 Big Spender (Shirley Bassey)
37 Wild and Blue (John Anderson)
38 Wreck on the Highway (Dorsey Dixon)
39 Where Were You

If you download this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Jon Langford, visit his website, and purchase his official releases from the Bloodshot Records Website [HERE].

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