STREAM 71

STREAM 71

Shea Stadium, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY, October 27^th, 2010

(57m00s)

[Download Link Deleted Until Further Notice]

STREAM 70

STREAM 70

Silent Barn, Ridgewood, Queens, NY, September 11^th, 2010

(57m34s)

[Download Link Deleted Until Further Notice]

STREAM 69

STREAM 69

Viaduct Theater, Chicago, IL, August 21^st, 2010

Performance: Neon Marshmallow Festival

Atmospheres: Indiana (Pond) and Michigan (Lake)

(68m57s)

[Download Link Deleted Until Further Notice]

STREAM 68

STREAM 68

The Glass Lands, Williamsburg, NYC, March 20^th, 2010

EQUINOX SHOW

(76m20s)

[Download Link Deleted Until Further Notice]

CROSSING STREAMS

Today on the EQUINOX, we will return you to the current-day Excepter STREAMS already in progress, however delayed by one-half solar year. We will return to pick up the older STREAMS we missed along the way following the next EQUINOX. More STREAMS surprises coming up in 2011, including limited vinyl and cassette editions and a second volume of compact disc edits. Watch the skies for magic info ...

STREAM 3X

STREAM 3X

Syrup Room, Bushwick, NYC, December 2005

Excepter had already played two shows with The No-Neck Blues Band, one earlier in the year at the Eardrum Festival in Atlanta, GA, and another a few years before at the Hint House (as a JFR-Caitlin Cook duo performing “Forget Me” and playing one tape piece over the PA.) This one felt like a proper reunion with both bands playing full sets and both on the same label at the time (5RC). Kill Rock Stars boss Slim Moon can be heard greeting JFR as he plants the microphone pre-performance. Show promoter, a “pre-interns” Todd P, had hoisted up the speakers and hung the pepper lights only moments before. JFR, freshly initiated into the Secrets of Capitalism, would correctly intuit the way to get paid at the end of the night by staying up later and getting up earlier than everyone else.

NB: This would be the last STREAM to use the “X” decimal naming convention.

STREAM 29

STREAM 29

Webster Hall, NYC, Fall 2005

The one and only (?) time Excepter played a show with their eventual label patrons The Animal Collective. There were about a thousand teenagers in attendance. We asked the lighting engineer to turn on the “specials.” Even Dan Hougland stood up. Lala and Hira delivered a giant grey squash onstage which the band proceeded to run through with steak knives. For the final number, JFR changed into his camouflage “tiger” gear and dove into the audience, knocking heads with a young girl in the process. (There are no accidents: JFR would continually run in to her for years afterward as Excepter played her various attended educational institutions.) On the floor, with a bloodied lip, JFR would be refused re-entrance to the stage by security on account of his wristband removal prior to the set. Finally reaching the backstage area through a circuitous series of stairs and hallways lined with the masks of the Old Gods, JFR would be directed to the Manager's Office, where he would be revealed the Secrets of Capitalism and paid five times the promised fee.

Songs: Entrance / The Lock / Web Star / Auto Fuel / The Last Dance

(38m41s)

STREAM 28

STREAM 28

Cake Shop, LES, NYC, Fall 2005

Excepter arranged to play first instead of last so JFR's visiting family could catch the show. JFR performed not only in front of his own father, step-mother, brothers, but also two sets of aunts and uncles, plus associated cousins. To top it off, a two-person camera crew was there to capture the band. Self-conscious much? A paranoiac's dream! For its part, the band put on one of the slackest sets in its career, however centered by the miraculous appearance of an unrehearsed, but seemingly fully-formed pop song “If I Were You” which would become the lead track and video for the eventual Alternation album.

Songs: False Start (The Buzzing) / Sad Dancer (Slow Runner) / If I Were You / Come Clean / Give Up / Any and Every

(39m53s)

STREAM 27

STREAM 27

North Six, Williamsburg, Fall 2005.

How's the weather out there? I hear the wind is blowing all the barrettes from your hair. You don't need them up here. No one grows beards. They all stay the same shave as yesterday. Opening up for veteran Japanese psych band Yura Yura Teikoku at future home of the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Frank Macias on hand to capture the band on video (search 'lypse' on your tube.) Trickster-scribe Nick Sylvester thought insects had infested Excepter's merch table t-shirts. Parts of this recording ended up on Alternation, a track in the Tank Tapes, and valuable management contracts lost in the ether. Hey man, where'd you get that L.O.T.I.O.N. Anyway?

Songs: Stairwells / Lypse / The Bath Tub / Know Blues 2 / No Pilot / Still Blues

(34m40s)

STREAM 26

STREAM 26

Vox Populi, Philadelphia, Fall 2005

Called down to the sixth borough for a gallery show with Wolf Eyes, Prurient, Chris Corsano and a buncha others. Excepter was the only non-blaster on the bill and a bit out-of-place for it. Sound-dude sure was eager for us to cut our set short, calling off times from the monitors halfway through. I guess the Beavis n Butthead crew there for the fist-pumpers didn't really know what to make of our sloppy crystal lights and rainbow Polo get-up. The promoter didn't either and seemed annoyed when we asked to get paid what we were promised at the end of the night. Same promoter would drop us off a bill at the last minute when we would try to come through town again in the spring. JFR wasn't really aware of the size of chip Philly has on its shoulder about New Yorkers, but JWN was well-versed and treated the crowd with tales of his violent first visit to The City of Brotherly Love. Despite it all, our roadie was found the next morning with his arms wrapped around a cheesesteak (wit wiz).

Tracks: Ground Hum / Last Dance / Op Pop (Walking Through the Night) / The Tank / Brother Ph / Why'd You Call?

(33m29s)

STREAM 25

STREAM 25

Knitting Factory, Kill Rock Stars CMJ Showcase, Fall 2005

Songs: Sunrise / Stairwells / Savage Law / Turn Away / A Message From Outside / Old Time Cat 09.

Ten minutes after the completion of this set, JFR and Lala would be thrown out of the club and  “Banned from the Knitting Factory for life.” Asked to see the manager (up the stairs mister) and she said Lala of wore a wig, and so got beer poured on her shoes so ordered our Oldsmobile off the block, kicked out the rest of the band and anyone hanging out with us. Frying pan, fire ... proxies had to unload our equipment around the corner where we had to explain the mess to our new label boss. He humored us with tales of wild years hijinx. Meanwhile, back inside a band associate the bouncers had missed had grabbed a mic denouncing the club to one and all. In the fog, a justified, pre-emptive strike against us. Despite all, the club booking agent would be calling to hire Excepter again within a few weeks.

Excepter would publicly maintain the “ban” for occult purposes for years after the event.

(41m37s)

STREAM 24

STREAM 24

Sin-e, Lower East Side, NYC, Summer 2005.

If the levee breaks, you'll have no place to stay. Recorded directly after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans. Jon Nicholson pulling double-duty as pre-show DJ and featured vocal and electronics performer for Excepter. Fife and drum machine defeated by the S.W.A.M.P. gas or flying object? No concern for the F.R.O.G. men with self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Oblique conjectures of a new Hoo Doo Lemuria lying just beneath the surface? No one seems to know or notice.

(79m55s)

STREAM 23

STREAM 23

Rothko (Adult World), NYC, Summer 2005

Rothko was a Lower East Side club formerly known as Adult World, notable for the working showers lining the entrance hallway. In the grand Excepter tradition of the miss-matched bill, we were paired with a skate-punk band called S.T.R.E.E.T.S. which we understood to stand for “Snowboarding Totally Ruined Everything, Even The Snow.” This poor band of reverse-oakies earned JFR's ire for trying to blame the venue when they got busted by the NYPD for drinking on the sidewalk outside. Nightclub ethics are a rocky road to travel either way.

Oh yeah and Grizzly Bear opened for us, too.

(44m16s)

STREAM 23-3X

STREAM 23-3X

The second series in the Excepter Archive will focus on the rise of the “four man band” era, from July to December 2005. The new line-up of John Fell Ryan, Dan Hougland, Nathan Corbin and Jon Nicholson would record the Sunbomber EP on its first session together. Live shows would alternate with more session work for the eventual Alternation 2LP and still unreleased (and still un-leaked) OP 2X7”. The band's second cassette-only release Tank Tapes would also stem from a single studio session during this period.

STREAM 19

STREAM 19

Lit Lounge, NYC, November 2004

We give out beats for free. It's gonna be a blow-out in 5-D. (M.A.G.I.C.) Drums in the D.I.S.T.A.N.C.E. Do I have to spell it out for ye? All of our existence is an insult. A kick in the head, all the equipment knocked down. A run through The Sprinklers and then it's over.

Onstage violence was nothing new to the band, but it hadn't ended a performance before. (The booker loved it and invited us back immediately.) We would stumble on through a studio recording session, a trip to Atlanta and a European tour, but this would be the last NYC live show for this line-up.

(19m06s)

STREAM 18

STREAM 18

Knitting Factory, NYC, Fall 2004

On account of the College Music Journal Festival, at the invitation of The Social Registry. Showbiz samples and Songs: Street Lights / Knock Knock / Forget Me / Street Lights

(39m36s)

STREAM 17

STREAM 17

911 Florida Ave, Washington DC, Fall 2004

Treacherous treble trouble. The pull of carpet crawl. For our first time outside of NYC, Nathan drove 17 hours down from Norway just to make the show. Remember the trees outside smelled like dogshit. We played last on a long bill in the promoter's dining room. Afterwards, some slept in puddles of cat piss. Others stayed up late watching barbarian tapes. At first light, the roommates all did laundry. An edit of this STREAM would become “The Troglodytes” EP. Excepter as Witch House originators?

(51m18s)

STREAM 16

STREAM 16

Tonic, NYC, Fall 2004

Starting where we left off … facedown on the floor. Nathan lost to the fjords of Nova Scotia; Caitlin arriving last minute directly from bus to stage. Nowhere to go but up, the slow 808 kick replaced near the end with the beat from Knock Knock paired with the vocal from Alternation track Apartment Living. Those next-door neighbors ...

(36m33s)

STREAM 15

STREAM 15

Tonic, NYC, Fall 2004

It's not the fall that kills you. One of the problems with headlining the late show is the extra hours of drinking time it affords. Add heartbreak and subtract audience and there you have it. In fact, JFR was unconscious for much of the set, dragged around the stage by his ankles for effect. To his credit, he continued performing even under heavy suppression. Any other band would have stopped at 40 minutes, but these punishment fans …

(57m29s)

STREAM 14

STREAM 14

Sin-e, NYC, Summer 2004

Hey buzz buzz. Early in the evening and someone is already on her third drink. Lots of talk about 'house' maybe maybe too much talk. A turntable mounted on stage just to play that funky evil reggae. Direct Channel: Sick Theater. Lord Invader and the Old Time Cat 09. And for the grand finale: ZEBRABLOOD on the MPC.

(51m59s)

STREAM 13

STREAM 13

Tonic, NYC, Summer 2004

Murder was the case, murder most foul ...

"Stream 13 may document one of Excepter's most plainly violent performances, but it also showcases another side, a band approaching a new level of power and communication, at times building stretches of majestic, glimmering ambience, a new realm of exploration for the group. Reaching to the edge of meaning and nihilism, Excepter manage a rare feat: they return." -- Andrew Russeth, The Wood

(48m17s)

STREAM 12

STREAM 12

The Brooklyn Lyceum, NY, June 18^th 2004.

The show was a benefit for Downtown for Democracy, a political artists' organization raising funds to send troops into Ohio or something. We saw James Chance being handed a wad of bills at the end of the night, that's all we know. For our part we had Linda picket our set with a “PROTEST MUSIC!” sign while guest-man Jon Winfield Nicholson III played the African berimbau with a rock. Calder and Nathan brought rock and roll on guitar and drums (respectively.) JFR and Dan fiddled with samplers, but decided that “3” wasn't working. Didn't matter, cuz Caitlin was rolling sevens all the way. But still that slow clap magic mirror. Majority Rules? And all of it in only 22 minutes so we buttressed both sides with a: a rare dub remove ya DJ toaster takeover and b: the Jeff Street session recorded the day or two previous. (a double, you)

(57m46s)

STREAM 11

STREAM 11
Sin-E, LES, NYC, Spring 2004
Who Who? Contact Music. Sin-E was famous for hosting a series of after-hours Sinead O'Connor beat-box experiments back in the 90s. Other immigrant tales coincide with future 12” B-Side “Punjab” presented here in both live and "Edsel Mix" versions. HEYHEY “Cops actually dealing with a car horn?” (rim-shot) Calder Guitar Revolution Plus a vista from the Ice Cream Man (Spring Birds and the Williamsburg Bridge Mix)
Exit Tunes: ABFAB; EVR Bros (It's So Sad To Watch Good Love Go Bad)
(48m17s)

STREAM 0X

STREAM 0X

Pianos, NYC, Spring 2004

Occupying a former piano factory, Pianos was run by the former manager of a different LES bar that had hired JFR for a few years previous as a weekly happy hour DJ. Provided here as a contextual bonus is an audio tour of the ambience outside the venue's well soundproofed band room. You can hear Ivan Sunshine of the Ghost Exits (and now Hidden Fees) swapping tales with the boys on the street. Heads will recognize Tommy James and the Shondells in the mix, evidence of Dan Hougland's fascination with popular song loops. Heads will also recognize weaving in and out alternate mixes of "Jrone (Three)" from Throne, which was being edited around the time. Sounds like it rained that day. Video was shot by Punkcast master Joly Pinstand, but the footage seems to have been lost in the fog...

(52m50s)

STREAM 09

STREAM 09
The Coral Room, NYC, Winter 2004.
The place was famous for having real live mermaids in the giant aquarium behind the bar. We were there at the invitation of Gang Gang Dance, as we were both releasing records on Fusetron at the time. The In Crowd was there, but we were hiding out in the Green Room in the form of a trailer parked on the roof of the place. Paranoia up, the microphone was kept on the whole night and the results had to be edited down to fit the 80 minute limit, thus beginning the “cut up” phase of the STREAMS. For the next ten issues, live recordings would be spliced together with bits of practice sessions, urban field recordings, opening DJ sets, soundchecks, cable TV, toasting, dubs, etc.
(48m23s)

STREAM 09-19

For the first series in the Excepter Archive, we are going to look into the STREAMS posted in the year 2004. The band at the time consisted of John Fell Ryan, Dan Hougland, Caitlin Cook, Calder Martin and Nathan Corbin, with a guest spot or two from Jon Nicholson. Live shows were interspersed with work on Self Destruction and Throne. The Vacation EP would be published in the spring, having been recorded the spring previous. Vacation and our 2003 LP KA would be combined in a CD edition and published in the fall. The STREAMS published this year were notable for their heavier use of editing compared to more recent STREAMS.