Rob's Pages

Tuesday, March 7

We 💙 NYC Taper

Love Note to NYC Taper
💜

Dear NYC Taper,

How the heck do you do it?

How do you and your team get to so many NYC-area concerts by amazing musical artists, record the shows with the permission of the bands/artists, capture great soundboard-matrix or ambient recordings, give them away at your site — only to turn around and do it again a week later? You are indeed New York's live music archivist.

As someone who merely dabbles part-time in the whole music-web-fandom nexus, it's clear to me you're the real deal. Please allow a brief moment of immodest gushing:

I'm amazed.

I'm in awe.

I'm your fan.

If anyone's reading this and not familiar with NYC Taper, they really should check out this listing of the hundreds of recordings available at your site — in lossless as well as lossy formats. Looks like there's about 100 of 'em in 2016 alone. My awe grows when I realize the recordings now reach back at least a decade.

Just a few months ago, I learned from you the Long Ryders (a band I love) had reunited to play some live shows. You created and shared a 21-song soundboard-audience matrix recording of the band's gig at the Bowery Ballroom. Of course I snagged it, and loved it. While at your site, I noted you also have live recordings by Wilco, Teenage Fanclub, Sloan, Yo La Tengo and so many others — and those were the ones that caught my eye on your 2016 list. In the past two days, you posted two Robyn Hitchcock solo shows. So much good music; so little time.
The Long Ryders' reunion show, Bowery Ballroom, NYC, Nov. 2016
photo from NYC Taper, shot by PSquared

May I just say, NYC Taper: what you're doing is stunning. It's a lovely, labor-intensive, exquisite thing. Musically speaking, your project is a reflection of your extraordinary city. New York and what you're doing there: both make me glad to be alive in this cruel, crazy, beautiful world.

Please carry on, NYCTaper — as long as you find satisfaction & fulfillment. As a fan, I hope that's for a good, long while. May you and your team prosper, and discover that all you're giving to music and music fans returns to you a hundredfold.

With awe & admiration,


Rob-in-Brevard

6 comments:

  1. Hey Rob, Thanks for directing me to NYCTaper! The Long Ryders show is a treat!!!! - Glenn Steinkamp

    ReplyDelete
  2. NYCT is pretty awesome. Your site is pretty cool too. Thought I'd mention unartig as well. Unartig skews towards the heavier end of things, and is video, not audio. But he/they are also doing a great job of documenting live shows:

    https://www.youtube.com/user/unARTigNYC

    and

    https://unartignyc.com/

    Among the gems in here is a great set by the google-difficult, now defunct, punk band Sex Vid:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4_O4ZenoGc

    Plenty of other stuff there too... U2, New Order, et al.

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unartig looks very cool indeed! Thanks for the hot tip...

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  3. Wow, thanks for such amazing words for us. Sometimes it feels like we're shouting into the void and then something like this reminds me of why we do what we do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, man -- it was the least I could do out of gratitude for what you're doing. Please carry on.

      Delete

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