Celebrating their 8th year, the NYCTaper team have been archiving hundreds, if not thousands, of shows every year. This would also be the 8th year that NYCTaper has teamed up with Cake Shop for a very stacked unofficial showcase. The entire showcase was being recorded and they should be up soon on NYCTaper, and we’ll try our best to keep updating the post with the recordings.
Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, WOMPS recorded their latest material with the venerable Steve Albini. The duo, consisting of Ewan Grant (guitar/vocals) and Owen Wickstead (drums), taps into the gnawing punk of the 90’s, but with nice smattering of blissful pop to making for dulcet hooks that’ll have a hard time leaving your noggin. The duo only has a single out (did I mention Steve Albini engineered these songs?) but as any NYCTaper related event, the set was recorded with material the band hopes to have out soon.
https://soundcloud.com/acidjacknyc/sets/womps-live-at-nyctaper-unofficial-cmj-show-2015
Jersey City/Brooklyn-based Vomitface also wrapped up sessions with Steve Albini over the summer, The band’s core consists of Jared Micah on guitars and vocals with Preetma Singh on drums and a slew of friends filling in on bass. Their latest release, Another Bad Year, slaps together grimy sludge lines and Micah’s sardonic wit and makes for funky rowdiness.
Noisy locals, Dirty Dishes, released their sparkly moody LP, Guilty, early this year. The latest batch of songs has the band branching out with varying instrumentation, varied percussion patterns, and cinematic compositions. The band recently announced a fall tour with Stove and have a Halloween show at the Cake Shop.
By way of Louisiana, Brooklyn-based Zachary Cale makes ember-charred folk with layers of haze and lucid instrumentation while still maintaining simplicity. His latest Duskland is one of our favorite folk records of this year (so far), and Cale’s set was a nice intermission from all of the noise and swaying through the first three band.
Originally a solo project for Kristine Leschper, Mothers expanded to a full band and was definitely one of my favorites from this year’s CMJ. Mothers’ sound could be described as “post-punk” but it wouldn’t do their sound justice. Brimming with complex guitar acrobatics, Leschper said she has an appreciation for math rock groups like Hella and Terra Melos. Instead of reading what I have to say, see their Soundcloud page and fall in love with your new favorite band. Their debut record is due for sometime in 2016. NYCTaper set recording is up.
https://soundcloud.com/acidjacknyc/sets/mothers-live-at-nyctaper-unofficial-cmj-show-2015
When we spoke with Chicagoans NE-HI this past summer, they were hammering out new songs before their past tour. As we saw first hand, NE-HI shows are a rush from the set opener to the closer, and being confined to the tight space at the Cake Shop didn’t allow for the band’s usual stage shenanigans. But nonetheless, it was a fun set as usual. If you missed NE-HI during CMJ, they’ll be back in December with Car Seat Headrest at Baby’s All Right.
After stints with hardcore bands to fuzzy garage bands, Allyson Baker started Dirty Ghosts around 2010, with the help of Aesop Rock. They just released their sophomore LP Let It Pretend, keeping the scorching riffs and pummeling grooves that their well-received debut was known for.
This would be the 3rd of the eight showcase that Car Seat Headrest would play, and the Cake Shop quickly packed in for the 6 PM set. The band played many songs from the upcoming Teens of Style like “Oh! Starving” and “Times To Die,” while opening with a stirring rendition of “The Ending of Dramamine,” which had the the entire room and even the usually noisy upstairs hushed. If you somehow missed the many chances you had to catch them, they’ll be back with NE-HI at Baby’s All Right this December.
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