Secret Chiefs 3 March 16th, 2007 The Black Cat Washington, D.C. Source: Audio Technica AT943-SP (cardioid pattern) > Sound Professionals battery box (SP-UPS-1) > Roland Edirol R-09 (mic-in, low cut & AGC both off, saved as mono 16 bit 44.1khz .WAV) > GoldWave (pop/click filter @ 3000 tolerance to remove certain elements of distortion) > CD-WAV (.FLAC level 8) > foobar2000 (tags + ReplayGain written) Location: House front-right, resting against a very functional post. Taper: ZaPenguin (pjzyhfz02(AT)sneakemail.com or http://db.etree.org/ZappaPenguin) SOUND QUALITY: B=/B - ladies and gents, the first show I've ever taped where a low-cut filter may have actually done something positive to the resulting sound. I had previously only seen Secret Chiefs 3 at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, which, as any Santa Cruz native will tell you, tends to offer more "laid-back", less "metal" shows. I had no idea just how much sheer volume this show would entail. For what it's worth, I kept an eye or two on my level-meter for much of the show, and saw no outright "peak warnings" - however, the fact that it was holding steady at -12dB, with peaks up past -6dB, maybe should have clued me in. Anyway, long story short, the show exists, you can hear all the notes, but many of the dynamics are lost - Halloween, in particular, sounds like mud here, when live it was simply jaw droppingly ferocious. If you've listened to a lot of, say, Frank Zappa audience recordings, this recording shouldn't offend your sensibilities too much - but those expecting crystal clear sonic perfection might want to go get fucked elsewhere. THE BAND: Trey Spruance - guitar, scarf Timb Harris - electric violin, electric guitar, electric synthesizer, acoustic cloak Peijman Kouretchian - drums, spelling nightmare Anonymous 13 - viola, bad cold (did not play for this show) Jai Young Kim - synthesizer, keyboards, bandanna Rich Doucette - sarangi, esraj, keeping a low profile Jason Schimmel - electric bass guitar, vaguely erotic kinestetics MINI BIO: "...Secret Chiefs 3 have existed in various incarnations over the course of the past eight years, and have served as the funnel for Spruance's remarkably far-flung studies of the hermetic mysteries and musical traditions of unknown and underappreciated subgenres. Album titles like Grand Constitution and Bylaws and Book M hint at the music's vaguely metaphysical bent. Over three years in the making, Book of Horizons is Secret Chiefs' most expansive and coherent statement, an alchemical fusion of Morricone-esque cinematic grandeur, midnight surf guitar, traditional Middle Eastern rhythms and time signatures, demonic death metal, and electronic deviance that yields a work of undeniable force." -Jonathan Zwickel, Pitchfork "Cast the clear light of alchemical truth through the graphically enhanced occult fog, and you'll find an album fluffed full of magick, mystery, and densely orchestrated mosque-rocking beats." Richard Gehr, Village Voice BAND PAGES: http://www.secretchiefs3.com http://www.myspace.com/secretchiefs3 Setlist: unknown titles, most likely quite similar to previous shows Show Notes: Forgive the relative berevity of these notes - it feels like months since I last laid my head upon a pillow, and you know what they say - language skills are always the first to go. Anyway. You've got to have weather, whether or not. In the Maryland area, the natives take this pithy saying to heart - or, quite possibly, it takes -them- to heart. Anyone remember that episode of Fawlty Towers where the Americans come to visit? And how the American lady is telling Ms. Fawlty about California, and how you can "sunbathe at the beach, then drive up to the mountains and go skiing"? Well, forget that nonsense - here in Maryland (and likely a lot of other places along the eastern coast), we don't HAVE to drive in order to go from sunbathing to freezing our asses off. Take this past week, for instance. Within the span of a day, we moved from gorgeous proto-summer to sheets of rain, hail, and snow. It was in a mixture of rain and hail that I drove to the subway station, eagerly awaiting my arrivial at a venue of a road manager's choice, for the express purpose of witnessing two bands I had never quite seen in full regalia, as well as not one but TWO members of Estradasphere - truly a monumentous occasion. During the subway ride, apparently the fates had deemed it fit to remove the vast majority of rain from the concotion, leaving only hail blowing straight in my face as I trudged five city blocks to my ultimate destination. Arriving relatively early, I distinctly recall being outdoors - by which point the hail had given way to large - some might even say "gigantic" - flakes of snow - when I heard the news that the Secret Chiefs 3 were officially "cancelled", their van being stuck in weather-related traffic. As a compensation, however, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (the co-headliner) would be playing, and there were rumors that their set would be extended. It sure didn't seem that the crowd turnout was negatively influenced by this announcement - the line to get in was very respectable. The venue was nicely filled, but not so jam-packed that one couldn't swing about if one was so motivated. Due to the weather-related delays, the set was quite short - probably the shortest of the tour. This torrent contains a few snippets of the soundcheck and will still fit on one side of a C-90 cassette. Additionally, due to health-related circumstances beyond her control, Anonymous 13 sat this show out. Torrent notes: Track list: 01. soundcheck fragments [1:32] 02. Medieval (first note or two missing) [5:14] 03. The 4 [4:20] 04. Halloween [3:56] 05. Dolorous Stroke intro [0:28] 06. Dolorous Stroke [2:44] 07. Bereshith [4:22] 08. tuning [1:36] 09. Brazen Serpent [9:02] 10. applause & encore tuning [2:24] 11. Renunciation [4:48] Recording Notes: Secret Chiefs 3 are very very loud. Had I been sufficiently aware of this before setting forth to record, I may have done several things differently - including possibly pop open the Edirol and finally fix that loose soldering joint that prevents me from using line-in. As it stands, this recording is a bit less "sharp" than the recording from 3/11/07 - but quite comparable. Both have troubles with distortion and a "cluttered" feel to the instruments. I'm more harsh with my own recordings than I am with recordings of others, so with that in mind, this is most likely quite listenable, and serves to document a very interesting set. Requests: Do not sell this recording. Do not buy this recording. Do not sell this recording, then buy it from yourself. If you are approached by an eccentric but trustworthy rich man, who offers you a suitcase full of reputable currency in exchange for this recording, sell it to him only if you will share the rewards with myself and the band. Contact the taper before bartering with an eccentric rich woman or child. Include this source information when trading or selling to eccentric rich folk. ============== Feel ABSOLUTELY FREE to convert to MP3, OGG, or even, under particularly dire circumstances, WMA/AAC. There are people out there who are bandwidth or disk-space deprived, and there's absolutely no reason why a bunch of pretentious taper egos should cause these potential fans to miss out on a new experience. And hey, it's not like words in an info.txt file have ever prevented any misdeeds. ============== Those of you uneasy about ending up with MP3 sourced material in trade (thanks mostly to clueless idiot chucklefucks who don't know what they're doing and shouldn't be trading in the first place) should do yourselves a favor, and visit http://www.audiohub.org/get/fa/fa.htm - a webpage that explains, on pretty idiot-friendly level, how to detect lossy sourced audio, using free programs such as EAC and TAU. When setting up your trades, ask for a minute long .FLAC sample, if you're that utterly paranoid, and you can see just what kind of lineage you're getting. And, finally, to borrow a line from one of the classics of American TV: Keep circulating the tapes (/CDs/DVDs/Hard drives/Shows in general) I'm always looking to trade shows and share banter. Visit my etree.org page or drop me a line. Torrented by the taper: ZaPenguin email - pjzyhfz02(AT)sneakemail.com web - http://db.etree.org/zappapenguin (still woefully out of date) Band pages: http://www.secretchiefs3.com http://www.myspace.com/secretchiefs3