Bitch Magnet – Le Poisson Rouge 2012 [uncut#9]
New York City, (le) Poisson Rouge 25 October 2012
Set List ~ Dragoon > Valmead > Navajo Ace > Ducks and Drakes > Motor > Goat-Legged Country God > Big Pining > Joan of Arc > Americruiser > Seap of Pearls > Filler [Minor Threat]
Geek Specs
A/V ~ Sony HVR-Z5U with Sennheiser MKH418S M/S Stereo Shotgun Microphone > 1080i/60 HDV on Panasonic AY-DVM63PQUS > Sony GV-HD700 > Firewire > Final Cut Pro 7 > H.264, 1280×720, 24fps, 8000kbps, AAC, 44kHz, 320kbps
Many moons before Temporary Residence’s 2011 3LP discography, Bitch Magnet was a band I admired with an infant-like naïveté. In the 80′s and early 90′s I used to make VHS mixtapes for myself, recording all the good stuff that aired on MTV’s 120 Minutes and Headbangers Ball. Bitch Magnet’s video for Mesentery made it onto one of those compilations. However, there was simply no info to be found on them in my neck of the woods. They were a total mystery band. Needless to say, in a pre-internet world it made the little ‘undiscovered’ gem stone feel all the more special. Seeing Bitch Magnet play at (le) Poisson Rouge in 2012 brought back many memories of those days in which music wasn’t instantly accessible all the time. It felt good and exciting to be part of this time traveling nostalgia ride. Because as great as today’s transparent data highway is in theory, love is lost when universal availability is just a mouse click away.
Deafheaven – Saint Vitus 2013 [uncut#8]
Brooklyn, Saint Vitus 22 February 2013
Set List ~ Violet > Language Games > Unrequited > Punk Rock/Cody [Mogwai] > Dream House
A collaborative A/V presentation by NYCTaper and (((unartig)))
Video ~ Sony HVR-Z5U > 1080i/60 HDV on Panasonic AY-DVM63PQUS > Sony GV-HD700 > Firewire > Final Cut Pro 7 > H.264, 1280×720, 24fps, 8000kbps, AAC, 44kHz, 320kbps
Audio ~ Soundboard + Sennheiser 8040 Cardioids > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > uncut 24bit 48kHz wav file – Download the full FLAC audio directly from NYCTaper.
“All my prophets were singers of sad songs” [Waxwing, 2000]
Codeine – Bell House 2012 [uncut#7]
Brooklyn, Bell House 29 June 2012
Set List: D > Cigarette Machine > Median > Tom > Sea > Pickup Song > Jr > Loss Leader > Barely Real > Washed Up > Cave-In > Pea > Promise of Love > Broken-Hearted Wine
Words by Brandon Stosuy
The N.Y. slowcore trio Codeine were one of my favorite live acts in the early 90s because of the emotional and musical weight of their sets, a heaviness intensified by the glacial pace of the music. (Their drummers, first Chris Brokaw and then Doug Scharin, looked like they were playing in slow motion underwater.) The band also possessed a cleanness and clarity, something echoed in the icy, spare covers of their two Sub Pop full lengths, 1990′s Frigid Stars and 1994s White Birch, and reflected in the eyes of sad-sack vocalist and bassist Stephen Immerwahr (at the time, those eyes reminded me of pools of slush). But there was power and strength in the sadness: Masters of an intense concision, Codeine made some of the heaviest music I’ve ever heard.
And it’s aged well. Their output– the aforementioned LPs plus 1992′s Barely Real EP — was reissued last year, and Immerwahr and guitarist John Engle got back together to play shows with Brokaw. They didn’t get “fancy” or add anything to the originals, and the shows were as powerful as the ones they did 20 years ago. In an age of excess, Codeine remain a band that knows each element has its place and that there needs to be space for these things to breath.
Cave-in
Tools: Sony HVR-Z5U, Sennheiser MKH418S – M/S Stereo Shotgun Microphone
Xiu Xiu / Deerhoof – Unknown Pleasures 2010 [uncut#6]
Brooklyn, Williamsburg Waterfront at East River State Park 11 July 2010
Set List: Disorder > Day of the lords > Candidate > Insight > New dawn fades > She’s lost control > Shadowplay > Wilderness > Interzone > I remember nothing
It was the day that The Netherlands lost yet another World Cup final when Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu played “Unknown Pleasure” in its entirety. The show had all the potential in the world to be as big a failure as the Dutch soccer squad. Only, it was nothing but a triumph. A glorious tribute to the single most amazing band to come out of the late 70′s punk aftermath.
Tools: Sony HVR-A1U, Sony ECMHST1
She’s lost control
Alcest – Public Assembly 2012 [uncut#5]
Brooklyn, Public Assembly 31 March 2012
Set List: Autre temps > Les Iris > Là où naissent les couleurs nouvelles > Les Voyages De L’Âme > Printemps émeraude > Écailles de lune – Part 1 > Sur l’océan couleur de fer > Percées de lumière > Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde > Summer’s Glory
Words by Lauren Jackson
Artwork by Karlynn Holland
Tools: Sony HVR-Z5U, Sennheiser MKH418S – M/S Stereo Shotgun Microphone
As a self-described hardcore fan, people are often confused when they find out I listen to black metal, especially black metal in the vein of Alcest.
How, they question, can someone who identifies so strongly with hardcore—typified by raw emotion and simplistically fast chord progressions—also identify with the complexity of a band like Alcest, a band whose influences and songwriting are as convoluted as the muddle of syllables in each French song title?
The answer is simple: For all its stylization, Alcest is at its core telling a simple story, just like any hardcore band.
Neige, who founded Alcest in 2000, isn’t crafting songs; he’s crafting portals into new worlds; worlds that the esotericists would call the invisible cosmos—places where all beings (both human and non-human) converge. Alcest’s music is spiritual, but without dogma. It is, as the title of their 2012 album suggests, les voyages de l’ame—travels of the soul.
Alcest transcends the bounds of black metal, shoegaze, post-metal or whatever other arbitrary terms one might apply to its sound because Alcest isn’t about genre—it’s about storytelling. And the story it tells (unlike most other extreme bands) is innocent and hopeful…hopeful in the way a crewman on a ship is hopeful that, after a long journey, he will one day wake up to land.
Les Iris
Blondie – CBGB 2006 [uncut#4]
New York City, CBGB’s 14 October 2006
Set List: Hanging on the telephone > Call me > The tide is high > The dream’s lost on me > I wanna be your boyfriend > Mother of earth > Rip her to shreds > One way or another > Poison heart > Please please
I’ve never seen so many camera flashes go off at a show. It was bizarre. It was Blondie ‘opening’ for the Dictators. It was the second-to-last night before CBGB’s closed down for good… When asked about my most memorable shows in New York City, I always have a hard time deciding between Erykah Badu in a Tribeca basement and this one. As a matter of fact, I still get the chills listening to Blondie’s acoustic version of “Hanging on the telephone”.
Please excuse the not so pristine recording quality. There was a lot of pushing and shoving, let alone this being a hand held shot to begin with. .
Tools: Sony HDR-HC1, Sony ECMHST1
Hanging on the telephone
Agalloch – Le Poisson Rouge 2011 [uncut#3]
New York City, (le) Poisson Rouge 22 March 2011
Set List: Into the painted grey > Falling Snow > The Watcher’s Monolith > Of Stone, Wind and Pillar > Limbs > Ghosts of the Midwinter Fires > Our Fortress is burning… II: Bloodbirds > Dead Winter Days> In the Shadow of our Pale Companion
~Across five albums, multiple EPs and and a career praised from its very inception, Agalloch have maintained their own brand of distinct dark metal. Whether manifested as sorrow (Pale Folklore), a windswept Pacific Northwestern journey (The Mantle) or philosophical exchange with Lucifer himself (Faustian Echoes), the Portland, Oregon quartet have melded a slew of musical, environmental and cinematic influences together into a well-honed, multifaceted feel as much as they have a tremendous body of work.~ (Asa E – Seattle, WA – January 2012)
NPR had the show recorded with “Pro Tools” by the club’s sound engineers. You can listen to the whole thing here.
Tools: Sony HVR-Z5U
Into the painted grey
